Daybreak Tuesday, 9/15/26

Sunny, still a little cool. Yesterday’s high pressure is slowly moving east, and winds will shift to come from the south this afternoon, which will have a bigger impact on temps tomorrow; today, we get into the high 60s again under partly to mostly clear skies once this morning’s fog clears. Lows tonight around 50, slight chance of showers as a small disturbance moves through overnight.

Calm in the hayfields. This cutting in Strafford is done, anyway. From Annemieke McLane.

The flowers of Dorian Gray. Well, not really, but in DB Johnson’s Lost Woods this week, there’s something odd going on between the flowers Lydia collected for her still life and what appears on the canvas. Meanwhile, her boat studio is pretty cramped.

Salmonella cases traced to eggs from Reading farm. In all, VT’s ag agency said Friday, 14 cases of the illness stem from eggs from Leaping Bear Farm, which distributes throughout southern and central VT. Eggs dated between June 1 and Sept. 5 have been recalled, and the state says that consumers who have purchased Leaping Bear eggs “are urged not to consume them. Affected eggs should be discarded in the trash. Eggs should not be composted.” Upper Valley locations where they were sold include Woodstock’s Market on the Green, the Woodstock Farmers Market, the Woodstock Village Market, and Brownsville Butcher & Pantry. More at the link.

Fatal Orange County crash trial relocated to Chittenden County as both sides worry about potential jury. The case involves Kyle Hunt, who last fall turned his Subaru Crosstrek in front of a Kawasaki dirt bike ridden by 16-year-old Kaylee Bailey in Orange, killing her. At Hunt’s arraignment this spring, Bailey’s friends and family gathered outside the Chelsea courthouse. “Their presence was strong and visible,” Hunt’s lawyer wrote. Meanwhile, Bailey’s mom tells the Valley News’s Alex Ebrahimi that Hunt and his family “are very well known in the community.” Shifting to Chittenden County, an Orange County judge has decided, “will further the interests of justice.”

SPONSORED: LebFest is back on Saturday, Sept 19 for the ultimate family-friendly ce-LEB-ration of our community! Join the Upper Valley Business Alliance, Lebanon Recreation, Arts, & Parks, and a host of other sponsors at Colburn Park in downtown Lebanon from 11 AM–3 PM for 90+ booths, live music, a magician, farm animals, crafts, and a mac & cheese contest. Admission is 100% FREE—bring the whole crew for an unforgettable day of fun in the Upper Valley! Sponsored by the Upper Valley Business Alliance.

From Hiding in Plain Sight to plainspoken community pillar: Betty Lauer dies at 101. Though it wasn’t until her memorial service in July at the Roth Center in Hanover that her son, Allan, revealed he’d found papers indicating that was her age; she’d told everyone she was 100. In the VN, Liz Sauchelli recounts Betty Lauer’s extraordinary life, from her childhood in Germany to her white-knuckled survival in Poland during the Holocaust to, eventually, settling in Wilder. She was a much-loved mainstay of the Upper Valley Jewish Community, an endearing sage who never stopped learning, either from books or from the people she engaged with every day.

What’s coming up at LebFest. Mac and cheese, for starters. As Susan Apel writes in Artful, “As in past years, a handful of local chefs/restaurants will be handing out free samples of their best mac and cheese. You taste all of them, and cast your vote.” This Saturday, it’s Poor Thom’s Tavern, Salt Hill Pub, K&P Catering, and Black Magic Mexican—get there early! There’s a new Arts Corridor, Marko the Magician, and Leb High students will be showing off the airplane they built. Not part of LebFest, but Susan also points to a new handbells class this fall through Upper Valley Music Center, taught by Upper Valley Ringers members Jo Shute, Judy Csatari, and Jane Sachs.

SPONSORED: Get ready for a wild night out at VINS on 9/17! They're welcoming author and illustrator Perrin Roosevelt Ireland for a book talk based on her new graphic nonfiction book, Poking the Squid, a joyful, science-backed look at how the other 99.99% of species get it on. From pregnant seahorse dads to four-headed echidna penises, Ireland's watercolor comics bring decades of feminist and queer science to life. VINS Educators will bring out Ambassador animals to share their own stories, too, and Trail Break Tacos is serving dinner. Join VINS to raise a glass to biodiversity in all its forms. Sponsored by VINS.

Leaf-peeping road closures back on the docket. Cloudland Road between Woodstock and Pomfret, which commanded global headlines back in 2023 when the two towns closed it to all but residents, will shut down once again (to all but residents) starting Sept. 26. And tonight, Reading’s selectboard will take up closing Jenne Road, where, as Adam Sullivan notes on WCAX, “For years, tourists traveled…looking to snap shots of the Jenne Farm, which was made popular by cameos on the silver screen.” Board chair Bob Allen tells Sullivan it’s not a total done deal: “We just don’t want it to be assumed that it is always going to happen,” he says.

Crunching the numbers on immigration enforcement in NH: Local police depts accounted for half of May-July detentions. That’s just one of the findings contained in a federal database obtained by the Deportation Data Project, reports NHPR’s Lau Guzmán. Arrests have been concentrated in the southeastern corner of the state, the data show, especially through the ICE office in downtown Manchester and police agencies with 287(g) agreements with ICE. Most of those arrested don’t have a criminal charge, but may face other immigration charges. The bulk of those arrested, the data show, are either deported or leave the US voluntarily.

Who owns your veterinary practice? Increasingly, it’s private equity. That’s the case in both VT and NH, and it stands to reason, says Brave Little State’s Josh Crane: A 2024 Harris poll found that “more than 80% of those surveyed said they consider their pets to be like their own children. These are the customers of the veterinary industry, and big investors have taken notice.” Spurred by a listener’s question, the most recent BLS episode looks into the trend, talking to Mark Hardie, director of the Center for Private Equity and Venture Capital at Tuck, and to pet owners and local veterinarians about the impact on their practices. And in case you’re interested…

I’ll show you my space if you’ll show me yours.  Circling the Earth ever 98 minutes, today NASA’s PACE satellite will begin “measuring how clouds and particles in the atmosphere absorb and reflect sunlight,” writes Alix Martichoux in The Hill. But photos shot from above don’t give the full picture. For that, NASA needs all of us to take photos of clouds from below at—and this is critical—the exact same time that PACE is above you. To do this, you’ll need to download the Globe Observer app and follow precise instructions for timing and angles. The article has links to the app and more details.  

Drones to the rescue. Literally. Last week, a climber in British Columbia was stranded at night 250 feet above the ground, standing on the narrowest of ledges, after a mishap somehow left him without a rope. Squamish Search and Rescue sent two drones, one to illuminate the cliff face, the other carrying a jacket for the climber and a lightweight rope he used to haul up a stouter climbing rope to help him descend. Canada’s CTV News has the footage and the story.

The Tuesday Crossword. A chance to flex your brain, from puzzle maestro and Dartmouth librarian Laura Braunstein.

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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HEADS UP
The Thetford Arthouse Cinema screens Rushmore. “At once hilarious and poignant,” writes TAC organizer Art Kahn, Wes Anderson’s 1998 film, “features Jason Schwartzman as a hyper-precocious teenager whose emotional self runs beyond his means, with Bill Murray providing a morose counterweight to the student’s breathless flights.” 7 pm in the Martha Rich Theater at Thetford Academy.

Brian Stokes Mitchell at the Hop. The baritone singer has a long and celebrated Broadway pedigree, from his Tony for Kiss Me Kate to his appearances in Ragtime and Man of La Mancha—not to mention recurring roles in Glee and Frasier. He’ll be bringing Broadway, jazz, the American songbook, film music and more to the Spaulding stage at 7:30 this evening. Meanwhile, the Hop is kicking off its season at 5 pm at the Top of the Hop, with food, drinks, a look at what’s ahead, and an interactive installation by artist Toni Dove.

Wife and Death: The Glaucomfleckens Live at the Lebanon Opera House. By the time he was 35, Will Flanary had faced two cancer diagnoses and sudden cardiac arrest, saved by his wife Kristin, who performed ten minutes of CPR after finding him unresponsive in 2020. She became an advocate for survivors and their families; he channeled his journey into a satiric look at the US healthcare system as “Dr. Glaucomflecken”. Now the co-hosts of the podcast “Knock Knock, Hi!”, they’re on tour. 7:30 pm.

And just a reminder if you spend time out in the woods: Hunting season is ramping up with the opening of archery season for deer today in New Hampshire. Vermont deer archery season opens Oct. 1 in most of the state, including around here.

The Tuesday poem.

The dream of my life   
Is to lie down by a slow river    
And stare at the light in the trees–    
To learn something by being nothing    
A little while but the rich    
Lens of attention.

— From “Entering the Kingdom” by Mary Oliver.

See you tomorrow.

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