GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
And yikes, welcome to fall!
After a chilly, foggy start: sun and blue skies. High pressure's settling in, but it'll be crisp out there to start, with temps climbing through the 40s, 50, and 60s today maybe to 70, under an eventually cloudless sky. Winds from the northwest. Lows each night this week will be a few degrees warmer than the night before. Tonight: fog arriving at some point, lows in the low to mid 40s.And as summer turns to fall, a loooong stretch. Over at the Blue Moon housing co-op in Strafford, they've got a trail cam set up pointed at a fallen tree. Everything from bears to turkeys pass by. Including this apparently post-nap fox. The cam "is set to take 10-second clips because this log is so busy, I'd never get through the clips if they were longer," writes Kyle Jones.A day on the set. Last week, Hanover High grad and filmmaker Julia Coulter and her crew were set up at an old chapel in Walpole for Day 10 of work on her feature film, Road to L'Etape du Tour. Matt Golec, who wrote about it for Daybreak a few weeks back, was on hand to watch the action and send in this photo essay for Daybreak. Upper Valley actor Gordon Clapp, of NYPD Blue and Robert Frost fame, and Brian Muller, of Bridge & Tunnel, joined Coulter in front of (and alongside) the camera. Coulter plays a young woman with a heart defect who upends her life to train for a stage of the Tour de France.DH swings from loss to profit. In all, reports John Lippman in the Valley News, the hospital chain's operating gain in fiscal year 2024 was $41.9 million, compared to a $45.3 million loss in fiscal year 2023. That was despite a $418.7 million, or 13.3 percent, jump in operating expenses, which came due to DH’s 2023 takeover of Southwestern Vermont Health Care in Bennington, higher employee and benefits costs, and growth in the contract and specialty pharmacy business. The improved revenue picture, Lippman writes, was largely thanks to a $394 million increase in net patient revenue.Love, support, friends, and independence. By the end of this month, Spruce House in Hanover should be fully occupied with 12 residents and, in some cases, their cats. It will house people with developmental disabilities, writes Liz Sauchelli in the VN—in their own spaces and, with the help of staff support, leading independent lives. It’s run by Visions for Creative Housing, started by Sylvia and David Dow two decades ago as a way for their own two children to live independently. No one else will “build you a forever home for your children,” says Sylvia Dow. “It really is up to families to make it happen.”SPONSORED: Where in the Upper Valley do Madeline Albright, Easy Rider, and Captain Kangaroo intersect? The answer is Smith's, of course! Wm. Smith Auctioneers & Appraisers in Plainfield NH invites you to their 57th Annual Post-Labor Day Auction Weds., Sept. 4 at 10 am. Please join us at the preview today from 10-4 to learn more about the treasures and curiosities crossing the block in this diverse sale full of antiques, New England paintings, estate jewelry, a vintage BMW, two Indian Motorcycles, antique oriental rugs and too many other things to mention. Sponsored by Wm. Smith Auctioneers.In the New London area, Kearsarge school board allows transgender girls to play on girls' teams. Last Thursday's vote, writes Steven Porter in the Globe (paywall), cited both Title IX and state anti-discrimination law; it came after a federal judge ruled that two students in different districts have a case in their challenge to a new state law barring transgender girls from girls' teams. Kearsarge Supt. John Fortney tells Porter, "Quite honestly, I think this is a win for neither side." He argues the NH legislature has put school districts in an untenable position by telling them to enforce contradictory laws.
Upper Valley unions then and now. In the VN, Steve Taylor takes a really interesting look at organized labor history in the region. Unions still have a significant presence in the Upper Valley, mostly these days in public education; amond state and some local employees; and at Dartmouth, especially the college's support staff. By contrast, he writes, the ascendant unions in the 1950s were in manufacturing: machinists at the Joy Manufacturing Co. in Claremont; workers at the Goodyear plant in Windsor; textile workers in Enfield and Lebanon. Taylor pulls from the VN's records on labor struggles of old.Telluride at Dartmouth announces schedule. The Hop's annual film extravaganza starts up Sept. 20 (once again in the Loew with multiple showings of each film) with Conclave, Edward Berger's thriller about the choice of a new pope with a cast that includes Ralph Fiennes, Stanley Tucci, John Lithgow, and Isabella Rossellini. Also on tap: Nickel Boys, the film version of Colson Whitehead's novel about Black teenagers at a Jim Crow-era reform school in Florida; Saturday Night, about SNL's opening night; an Iranian family drama that doubles as an indictment of the regime; and plenty more.Also coming up, a zero-waste music festival's second go-round. The Imagine Zero festival, organized by Woodstock music guys Ben Kogan and Cliff Johnson, pulls into Fable Farm in Barnard this weekend. It's got a whole set of bands, including Lakou Mizik, Billy Wylder, The Wolff Sisters, Beecharmer, Kogan's band, and others. "The live music industry as we know it is a significant contributor to climate change, through its large carbon footprint, consumption, and waste," the organizers note in Mountain Times, and the festival has set out to change that.And also coming up: Act 39 in Woodstock. In the Standard, RJ Crowley goes behind the scenes as playwright Rob Mermin works with actors Donny Osman and J.T. Turner and two others on his highly personal reflection on VT's medical-aid-in-dying law. It grew out of his experience helping his close friend and neighbor in Montpelier, Bill Morancy, use the act after a terminal diagnosis. “There are a lot of discussions regarding the pros and cons," Mermin tells Crowley. "I mean, what do you do when your best friend, who is dying of cancer, asks you to assist him in dying?” It'll be at Town Hall Theater 9/12-14.Salem, NH man sentenced to 27 months in prison for vandalism, harassment of NHPR journalists. Tucker Cockerline, 33, pled guilty in federal court last December to being one of four NH men behind the brick-throwing and vulgar graffiti targeted at reporter Lauren Chooljian, her parents, and her editor. Chooljian had pursued a series of stories detailing allegations of sexual assault and harassment by Eric Spofford, the founder of Granite State Recovery Centers. It was Cockerline who spray-painted Chooljian's former home in Hanover, then threw a brick through the window. WBUR's Katie Cole reports.A week out from the primary, a chance to hear from each of NH's gubernatorial candidates. NHPR has been interviewing the three Democrats (Cinde Warmington, Joyce Craig, and Jon Kiper) and two Republicans (Kelly Ayotte and Chuck Morse) vying for their parties' nominations next Tuesday, and they're now all online at the link. Morning Edition host Rick Ganley talks to them about their priorities and the specifics of how they plan to address them. Also at the link: similar interviews with the candidates in both parties for the 1st and 2nd (that's the one around here) congressional districts.How to entice young people to stay in VT: a career in pot. When faculty at VT State U introduced "Cannabis, Culture and Consciousness" in 2017, the course filled up in two hours. They expanded it and still had students asking to sit in, writes Ken Picard in Seven Days. Now VSU-Castleton has a Cannabis Studies Certificate Program. Students can study cannabusiness, cultivation, and history, and must do an internship—options include law offices, marketing firms, farms, and VT’s Cannabis Control Board, whose head is so enthusiastic about the skills the board’s first intern brought that she’s hoping to host more.The Monday jigsaw on Tuesday. Norwich Historical Society board member Cam Cross writes, "In honor of the start of another school year, this shows the Norwich School sometime after its construction in 1898. Electricity had arrived, but paved roads and ubiquitous cars were still to come. Note the grassy strip running down Church Street!"
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Opening reception for painter Jocelyn Randles at the Norman Williams Public Library in Woodstock. Randles, who lives in North Pomfret, specializes in landscapes—often featuring a path or waterway leading to places unknown—and animal portraits. In the Mezzanine Gallery from 6-7:30 pm.
Mötley Crüe guitarist John 5 at the Lebanon Opera House. 5, who replaced original Mötley Crüe guitarist Mick Mars, is bringing his Strung Out tour to LOH, with LA rock band Turning Jane opening for him. "Expect an electrifying evening of instrumental music that shifts effortlessly from rock to country to bluegrass, highlighting his incredible virtuosity and speed," LOH writes. Definitely check out his picking on a Hello Kitty guitar at the link. 7:30 pm.
And the Tuesday poem.
On Tuesday, no less.
An agitation of the air,A perturbation of the lightAdmonished me the unloved yearWould turn on its hinge that night... Blue poured into summer blue,A hawk broke from his cloudless tower,The roof of the silo blazed, and I knewThat part of my life was over.Already the iron door of the northClangs open: birds, leaves, snowsOrder their populations forth,And a cruel wind blows.
— From
by
.
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, writers, and librarians who think you should 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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