SERIOUSLY??!! SEPTEMBER ALREADY?
Warming up, getting sunny. Once the fog clears and this morning’s clouds part, we’re looking at a day and a night and another day of mostly clear skies. There’s high pressure in place down here on the surface, though some weak low pressure passing through way up could bring some high clouds and maybe some dampness in spots. Highs today in the upper 70s, maybe getting to 80; lows in the low 50s tonight.
Aaahhh… Well, who knows what a turtle actually feels when it sheds its shell—or in reality, the scales that make up the shell’s outer layer. Doing this helps the turtle get rid of algae, parasites, and whatever other unwanted burdens the shell’s accumulated. Jane Svetaka was at the N. Hartland dam last week, and caught a turtle in mid-shed.
”I unlocked myself and threw away the key.” In DB Johnson’s Lost Woods strip this week Henry explains how he can live in he middle of nowhere and never lock his door—and eventually answer Wally’s question, why have a door at all?
Reminder: I-89 southbound Exit 19 off-ramp closed this week. It’ll be shut down for paving “for the full duration of the five-day work period,” NHDOT says. If you’re headed south on I-89 hoping to get to the Miracle Mile or Mechanic Street, you’ll be directed down to Exit 18, then back north.
Woodstock’s Yankee Bookshop to expand. The 90-year-old retail mainstay will take over space next door on Central Street, where Vermont Eclectic, the t-shirt and gift shop, once stood. “It’s probably going to happen in at least two phases,” Kristian Preylowski tells the Standard’s Tom Ayres. Preylowski and Kari Meutsch (both Enthusiasms contributors) co-own the store. “We’ll be expanding on what we’ve got already—books—but the second part of the larger space will be more of non-book items, including stationery, greeting cards, art supplies,” and more shelf space for the vinyl records Preylowski curates.
Hanover’s Boloco to rebrand, bring “flavors from all over the world.” The soon-to-be renamed Boca Soca, owner Conicia “CJ” Jackson tells Emma Roth-Wells in the Valley News, will “introduce people to places they dream about traveling to, but may not be able to in this economy.” As Roth-Wells writes, “Boca means mouth in Spanish, while Soca is a music genre originating from Trinidad and Tobago,” and the rebranding is a key step in the popular eatery’s evolution from being part of the chain built by local businessman John Pepper—which Jackson bought last year—to standalone Main Street pillar. “Sales have never been stronger,” Pepper tells Roth-Wells.
SPONSORED: Strength over setback. After shoulder pain disrupted her active lifestyle, Donna Holdman turned to Cioffredi & Associates in Grantham for help — and found lasting relief, expert guidance, and a renewed sense of strength. Read how she reclaimed her mobility, returned to the things she loves, and gained the tools to keep moving forward. Sponsored by Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy.
“I woke up one day and I felt like my life force was, like, gone.” If you’ve wondered what happened to Jarvis Green, moving force behind JAG Productions, Myra Flynn’s got you covered. The host of VT Public’s Homegoings has a long and deeply personal interview with Green about his trailblazing Upper Valley theater company and his life, from growing up in South Carolina to JAG’s growth to its folding last year after it lost both funding and venues—”I thought that…people would, like, be in the streets,” he tells her; when they weren’t, he thought, “I don’t need to carry all this”—to his depression and the breakup of his engagement. He’s in Montreal these days.
With new 42-foot mobile dental clinic, White River Valley’s nonprofit health “hub” grows. HealthHUB started up in the mid-1990s as an effort to offer in-school medical care, mental health counseling, and a mobile dental program for students in South Royalton, Sharon, Tunbridge, and Strafford; these days, writes Maryellen Apelquist in The Herald, it serves both students and their families from 12 towns. And it’s got a new dental rig to show off, bought from the Morgantown, WV health department, complete with two dental chairs, x-ray equipment, and more—plus a full-time dentist hired two years ago. Apelquist details the group’s work.
SPONSORED: New Fall Programming at Open Door! Fall always carries a hint of possibility, a reminder of our school-age years when the season invited us to learn and explore. As we shift from summer’s lightness, there’s an enlivening of spirit—and we at Open Door are excited about our robust Fall programming. Alongside our evergreen classes and clinical services, we welcome new, inspiring teachers and collaborators. Our somatics and outreach programming continue to expand! Hope to see you soon. Sponsored by Open Door Integrative Wellness.
A video look at the rejuvenated Post Mills Labor Day parade. This year’s version of the annual tradition was supercharged by months of organizing by retired Thetford attorney Charlie Buttrey and a committee he pulled together, who arranged for fire trucks from all over, a rambunctious motorcade of Shriners, antique cars, baton twirlers, a majestic horse-drawn wagon, a post-parade drop-in to the Post Mills Airport by a DHART chopper, and lots more. VN photographer Jennifer Hauck was there filming for the paper’s reborn YouTube channel.
And a new mural for the Lebanon tunnel. On Friday, students from the nearby New England School of the Arts finished up a monarch butterfly mural in the art-adorned pedestrian tunnel. The monarch is the school’s mascot—”a powerful symbol of transformation and resilience,” NESA writes in a blog post, with photos of the mural taking shape.
In Claremont, students and Stevens High alumni take school fundraising into their own hands. With the school district deep in a financial crisis, reports WMUR’s Jon Schoenheider, alumni yesterday set out to raise money for the city’s schools with a drive-up for cash or checks, with donors choosing which discipline they wanted the money to go. Meanwhile, high school athletes used a car wash to raise funds for their season. "You come into every practice and you're like, 'Man, I could go 7-1 this year!’” football captain Carter Bastion tells Schoenheider. “Then we could go to the playoffs and hear, 'Hey, we ran out of money, too bad.'"
Windsor County sheriff responds to finances probe. Ryan Palmer tells WCAX’s Adam Sullivan that he found out through press inquiries about an anonymous complaint that’s led to a state police investigation into his department’s books. The VSP has confirmed the investigation, but provided no other details about what it entails. “It obviously bothers me that a complaint like this was made. I understand the seriousness of it, and I want it thoroughly investigated,” Palmer tells Sullivan. “I don’t want the negative effects that it probably has on my department in the short term. But, at the end of the day, there is nothing to hide here. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Being in the air high above the forest and looking out is just a wonderful feeling.” Which is why, the VT Department of Forests’ Luke O’Brien tells Erica Houskeeper, people love the “awkward-looking structures on top of a mountain” more commonly known as fire towers. There used to be 38 of them scattered around the state, Erica notes in her latest Happy Vermont podcast and blog post; 16 are left, including on Burke Mountain, Stratton Mountain, Okemo, Mount Elmore, Bear Hill at Allis State Park, Norwich’s Gile Mountain, and Spruce Peak in Plainfield. The state has launched a new initiative to restore the towers standing on state land.
Meanwhile, down here on the ground: Just how did Horn of the Moon Road get its name? Brave Little State is up with its popular annual look at what lies behind the names of a few select VT roads—chosen by listeners each year. Horn of the Moon, reporter Burgess Brown discovers, dates way back to a community called Horn of the Moon nestled in a crescent-shaped bowl in the hills above Montpelier. Scotch Hollow Road, meanwhile, is the longest road in Newbury, 13 miles end to end; the village store even has a pizza named for it, and as Lucia McCallum finds, it, too, refers to an old settlement. Then there’s Goodenough in Brattleboro—which, Sabine Poux explains, is a ubiquitous VT family name. As always, the pleasure is in the storytelling.
The Monday jigsaw on Tuesday. This week, it’s tailfins and rocket taillights on the cars parked in front of Dan & Whit’s in 1961. The original photo, plus a chance to identify the makes and models, is at The Curioustorian, the blog maintained by the Norwich Historical Society’s Cam Cross.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from Friday’s Daybreak.
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HEADS UP
Just a note that the first round of hunting season opened yesterday in both VT and NH. Right now it’s gray squirrels, Canada geese, and black bears in both states. Archery season for deer starts up Sept. 15 in NH, Oct. 1 in VT. Start looking in your closets for that blaze orange! Here are the season’s schedules:
Martha Molnar and Playing God in the Meadow at the Montshire. In a way, the subtitle says it all: “How I Learned to Admire My Weeds.” In 2008, the former NYT reporter and her husband moved to Castleton, VT and set out to transform a dying apple orchard with thousands of trees into a meadow atop their hilltop land. So began a struggle with non-native weeds that wound up mostly with acceptance (though they battled Canada thistle and poison parsnip to the death). Sponsored by the Hanover Garden Club and the Norwich Bookstore, Molnar will be at the Montshire at 1 pm.
The second half of Thetford Arthouse Cinema’s season starts up this evening with Clouds of Sils Maria. Olivier Assayas’ 2014 psychological drama stars Juliette Binoche, Kristen Stewart, and Chloë Grace Moretz, with Binoche playing a world-famous actress asked to appear in a revival of the play that made her famous two decades earlier. “The most sophisticated work of our 2025 season,” according to TAC. 7 pm in the Martha Jane Rich Theater at Thetford Academy.
And the Tuesday poem.
Even in Kyoto—
hearing the cuckoo's cry—
I long for Kyoto.
— Matsuo Bashō (1644-1694), trans. Robert Hass
See you tomorrow.
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