GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Steamy. Sorry. And it's going to be worse tomorrow. Clouds to start, but those will disappear quickly this morning and the day will be mostly sunny and humid, highs into the mid-80s (but feeling hotter) and only cooling into the mid-60s tonight. Winds today from the west.Just in case you missed this in yesterday's CoffeeBreak: Daybreak will be off next week and the week after—for some time away from a computer and long-delayed back-office work ahead of the long runup to Thanksgiving. If you're a fervent Vordler and haven't yet signed up for the vacation version: We'll keep the Vordle going using a word that's in the local news, and you can sign up to get a reminder and link in your inbox each day. Do that here.Remember those loon chicks up near Newbury? They're in the water now. And so's a bull moose. At least, it was on Sunday morning when photographer Ian Clark went to check up on the loons. The chicks have learned to flatten themselves on the water's surface when danger's nearby. The moose? It couldn't if it tried. But it doesn't need to try.Hey, if you use NH Route 11 to cross the river near Charlestown... You might want to think about alternatives the next few days. NHDOT plans to inspect the bridge starting this morning at 8, and traffic will be down to a single alternating lane until 5 pm. The work's scheduled to last through Thursday."The Hop will not retreat. The Hop will expand and explode.” It's not like one of the region's centerpiece performing arts venues is under siege—but sometime late this year, construction's going to start on its renovation. Mary Lou Aleskie, who started in 2017, has just signed on for a second term as its director, writes Hannah Silverstein for Dartmouth News. And while all or parts of the Hop are closed until 2025, Aleskie tells her, it plans to bring performances out into NH. “It’s about the experience of being together—knowing that this particular live event, with these people, will not happen in this way ever again."Or maybe it's “all about walkability." That's Rayna Erlich, a principal at Beyer Blinder Belle, the architecture firm Dartmouth hired to help it come up with its 30-year "strategic framework" for campus. On his built-environment blog Architects + Artisans, architecture critic Michael Welton talks to Erlich about how Dartmouth fits into Hanover and about the plan, which envisions a mix of new uses for old buildings and new buildings that "support and grow with them." In the end, Erlich says, “It needs to be walkable in distance but also feel good—being comfortable in winter is an important part of that.” Here's the plan.SPONSORED: Northern Stage’s Summer Musical Theater Intensive returns with URINETOWN THE MUSICAL, July 20-31. A hilarious satire of capitalism, bureaucracy, and politics, all surrounding the privilege to pee, Urinetown will be performed by Northern Stage’s talented young education department students at the Barrette Center in White River Junction. Tickets are $19 for students of all ages and $25 regular. SPECIAL OFFER: $15 tickets for Wed. and Thurs., July 20 and 21 only, at 7:30 p.m. Hit the burgundy link or call 802-296-7000; use code 15PREVIEW. Sponsored by Northern Stage.Leb landfill hopes to move to pink trash bags, online payments. Under a proposal slated for tomorrow's city council meeting, residents of the landfill's 22 member towns on both sides of the river wouldn't use punch cards any longer, reports Darren Marcy in the Valley News. The idea, he writes, is that it can be tough for a user to know in advance how many punches a particular load will require: "With the pink bag system, much of that uncertainty will be eliminated." And a smartphone app will allow payment on the spot for bigger items. The system's due to be phased in through 2024.Speaking of pink, what color should you paint your catalytic converter? Thefts have never really gone away, but it looks like there's been a recent spate (they contain precious metals that have value on the market). NBC5's John Hawks reports that Leb's O'Reilly Auto Parts just had one cut out of a delivery vehicle—"It sounded like a tank, so I shut it off...Sure enough, the catalytic converter was gone,” Reginald Bragg tells him—and St. J Subaru recently lost a bunch. Leb Police Chief Philip Roberts says painting your converter a fluorescent color can help: “It kind of tips [people] off that they’re stolen.”NH education test scores recover some ground lost during the pandemic. There were, however, differences by age level, reports Kevin Landrigan in the Union Leader. Overall, students in elementary and middle school grades saw improvements in English and math. On the other hand, average reading and math scores for high schoolers taking the SAT slumped compared to 2021 and 2019. “We know that these students, who will be starting their senior year in a few weeks, have had a high school career filled with disruptions, remote classes and missed learning," Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut said.It's that time of year: What to look out for during cyanobacteria season. There aren't any advisories nearby in either state right now, but we've already had a couple and it's probably just a matter of time. NHPR's Bol Nakdimo offers some advice on how to avoid the problem: Don't go plunging into the water right after heavy rains (I know, I know, today would be a good day for a swim, but so will tomorrow); check for weird colors (green, blue, white or red hues) or bad smells; and check the state advisory maps. Here's NH's, and here's VT's.If you can print a boat, why not a house? Daybreakers with long memories may recall that the U of Maine has the world's largest polymer 3D printer—which can, among other things, produce a boat. Now, writes Claire Law in the Portland Press Herald, researchers are looking at using "wood flour"—no, not a new King Arthur product—strengthened with cellulose nanofibers to extrude housing modules. Eventually, the director of the Advanced Structures and Composites Center says, "it may be possible to 'print' a 600-square-foot house in as little as three days, including the walls, roofing and floors," writes Law.Oh yeah, you 4,000-footer record holders? Just try pushing a peanut up Pikes Peak with your nose! Or, in truth, a couple dozen peanuts, since they kept falling into cracks between rocks on the trail over the course of the week it took Bob Salem to set a new peanut-pushing record. Three other people have done it; this attempt was part of the 150th anniversary celebration for the town of Manitou Springs, which is at the base of the 14,000-footer. Salem subsisted on pop tarts, bananas, an old can of survival food from 1964, and, um, peanuts, reports Colorado Public Radio's Abigail Beckman.The Tuesday Vordle. Just in case you're the type of reader who skips the fluff above to go straight here, Daybreak won't be publishing next week or the week after. If you signed up for the vacation version in June, you're all set. If you didn't or are new to it, we'll keep it going using a word that's in the local news, and you can get a reminder and link in your inbox each day. Do that here.
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Grantham's weekly Tuesday-night Music in the Meadow series gets underway tonight at 6 pm at Grantham Rec Park with the John Lackard Blues Band (you remember from last week, right? Got his taste in music after his dad brought a honky-tonk piano and some records home—took up the harmonica at five, a 12-string acoustic guitar when he was nine, made his first professional stage appearance at 15). Food from Martha's On A Roll.
Fairlee's weekly Tuesday-night Concerts on the Common continue this evening starting at 6:30 with the Enfield-based bluegrass band, Cardigan Mountain Tradition. Despite the name, they do both traditional and original bluegrass—honed, among other places, over 15 years of performing at the Eastern States Exposition down in Springfield, MA. Dan Hazelton and Ellen Wilber on guitar, Ed Dauphinais on mandolin, Dale Barney on banjo, and Gary Hutchins on bass. Fairlee Town Hall if it's raining.
At 7 pm, the Norwich Bookstore brings in Australian-born New Hampshire poet and performance artist Niki Tulk, reading from and talking about her new collection, O, which takes as its subject the experience and aftermath of sexual violence and how survivors rebuild themselves and their worlds.
This evening at 7:30, Rhiannon Giddens and the Silkroad Ensemble bring their Phoenix Rising tour to the Hop, in Spaulding Auditorium. It's the first set of public performances by the multi-cultural ensemble since Giddens took over as artistic director from Yo-Yo Ma, and features an evening of new work, including by tabla master Sandeep Das, harpist Maeve Gilchrist and composer, flutist and taiko drummer Kaoru Watanabe—as well as Giddens herself. "We’ve all kind of seen what happens when you kind of slap one culture on top of another and make a thing because it sounds cool,” she told The Washington Post recently. “But what’s happening in Silkroad is a real honest conversation between people who are bringing authentic connections to different cultures. And the conversation is what happens onstage. That’s the magic.”
And the Tuesday poem...
We never know how high we are Till we are called to rise;And then, if we are true to plan, Our statures touch the skies—The Heroism we recite Would be a daily thing,Did not ourselves the Cubits warp For fear to be a King—
— "We never know how high we are" by Emily Dickinson
See you tomorrow.
The Hiking Close to Home Archives. A list of hikes around the Upper Valley, some easy, some more difficult, compiled by the Upper Valley Trails Alliance. It grows every week.
The Enthusiasms Archives. A list of book recommendations by Daybreak's rotating crew of local booksellers and writers who want you to read. this. book. now!
Daybreak Where You Are: The Album. Photos of daybreak around the Upper Valley, Vermont, New Hampshire, and the US, sent in by readers.
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