GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Mostly cloudy, more sun as the day goes on. Also, colder. There's still some snow due to fall along the spines of the mountains, but for much of this region, we're looking at clouds this morning, decreasing later in the afternoon, and with cold air continuing to filter in on winds from the northwest, temps reaching at best the lower 20s. Only partly cloudy tonight, which means we're going to see lows in the single digits.Busy as a... Well, yeah. By Mink Brook in Hanover. Nicola Felicetti writes in to reassure that "his tail is tucked" underneath, not missing.Lake Morey skating trail opens. With an okay yesterday from the town of Fairlee's insurance rep, the renowned trail is set to open officially today after a handoff from the Lake Morey Resort. "He was very impressed with the safety precautions we have set up and did not recommend any other safety items," Town Administrator Ryan Lockwood says in an email. "While we were meeting, there were three members of the public already out on the ice and having a great time, which was great for our case." The resort is renting skates, but now you access the trail from the town beach, not the inn. Ice updates at the link.All in the family. Eddie Moran's announcement that Lalo's Taqueria was closing came the day after his parents, Nick Yager and Maria Limon, owners of Gusanoz on Leb's Miracle Mile, filed for bankruptcy. In the Valley News, Marion Umpleby reports that Yager intends to keep the Miracle Mile location running while the company reorganizes, but its location in Enfield has closed, Lalo's—which depended on help from Gusanoz—has closed (Moran tells Umpleby he didn't want to have to raise prices), and SoRo's Moon & Stars, which depended heavily on Lalo's buying its masa, is now trying to find a way forward.At least three Upper Valley school districts swept up in national data breach. Remember last week's story about how California-based PowerSchool discovered that hackers had obtained databases of student and teacher information? Christina Dolan reports in the VN that the Claremont, Newport, and Rivendell districts were all affected, though to varying degrees: Newport's data breach could include social security numbers, medical information, and other personal data; Rivendell's and Claremont's appears to include just names and addresses. Many other local districts don't use PowerSchool.SPONSORED: It’s the UK’s biggest ever Van Gogh exhibition. And you can see it on the big screen at the Hop. Hosted by the National Gallery, Van Gogh: Poets & Lovers is a chance to reexamine and better understand one of the most beloved and iconic artists of all time. The exhibition focuses on his unique creative process and his years in the south of France. The Hop screens the once-in-a-century exhibition on film on February 1 at the Loew Auditorium. Get your tickets today. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.Truth in advertising. The Finnish publishing house Laine Publishing's first hardcover was called 52 Weeks of Socks, and as Still North Books' H Rooker writes in this week's Enthusiasms, that's exactly what you get: "52 absolutely stunning sock patterns. There are options for any level of knitter and a variety of weights, styles, and levels of detail." H discovered the book after college—and after deciding "it was time to level up my knitting." The patterns come from 46 different designers and are easy to follow. "If you too are looking to up your sock game," H writes, "this book is definitely the place to start!"Coming to the Chandler late next month: Our Town—with Vermont attitude and a live band. Safe to say that director Ben Rapson's take on Thornton Wilder's classic about small-town New Hampshire life sheds the dutiful bow to the 1930s and '40s of many productions. Among other things, writes Susan Apel in Artful, it weaves in roots music—including three Noah Kahan songs (with the musician's blessing). “Noah’s songwriting speaks to so many of us...in the same way that Thornton Wilder’s words perfectly capture something eternal about being a human with a northern attitude," Rapson says.SPONSORED: PoemTown Randolph is looking for poems! April is National Poetry Month, and PoemTown Randolph has opened this year's solicitation of original poetry from anyone of any age who resides in Vermont. Selected poems will be printed on broadsides and posted on windows of Randolph businesses and along the river trail during the month of April—and published in a bound anthology. Detailed submission instructions, in addition to more info about this year's live April events, can be found at the burgundy link. Submissions are due by February 15. Sponsored by PoemTown Randolph.Winnipesaukee ice-in declaration earliest in 7 years. The call by Dave Emerson of Emerson Aviation in Gilford means that the five ports visited by the M/S Mount Washington are covered with ice—not that the entire lake is, points out David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog. Still, Emerson's declaration on Monday is the first time since 2018 it's happened this early—notable especially because last year's was on Feb. 9 and that was a near thing. As Brooks also points out, now everyone's all agog about whether the Alton Bay ice runway will happen—after two winters during which the ice never got thick enough.With business-tax revenues lagging, NH is in for a tough budget year. In all, reports Ethan DeWitt in NH Bulletin, preliminary estimates show the state bringing in $83.3 million less since last July than it did the year before. In addition, the elimination of the interest and dividends tax has also taken a bite out of state revenues. Gov. Kelly Ayotte and her fellow Republicans in the legislature are calling for spending reductions—Ayotte introduces her budget proposal in February. DeWitt digs into possible causes, and into politicians' and advocates arguments about what it all might mean.Transcript of Sununu interview about meeting with NH Supreme Court justice: it was "quasi-inappropriate" but “I don’t think there was anything illegal about it." The transcript became public as part of a court filing as lawyers for Justice Anna Barbara Hantz Marconi try to get charges thrown out alleging that she tried to improperly influence then-Gov. Chris Sununu on an investigation into her husband, ports director Geno Marconi. As WMUR's Alanna Flood reports, Sununu told interviewers she made no requests of him: "It was more just expressing frustration with the process."Former VT Gov. Tom Salmon dies at 92. At the time of Salmon's 1972 victory over Republican businessman Luther “Fred” Hackett, writes VTDigger's Kevin O'Connor, the Burlington Free Press labeled the result “the biggest political upset in Vermont history”: Vermont had historically been Republican, and at the top of the ticket, of course, Richard Nixon was demolishing George McGovern. But Salmon campaigned on property tax reform and the environment, and emerged with 56 percent of the vote. He went on to serve two terms as governor, then as president of UVM. He died yesterday morning in Brattleboro.VT's virtual court hearings: “It’s a more Orwellian form of justice.” That's not a criminal justice advocate talking, it's the director of policy and strategic initiatives for the state Dept. of Corrections. And he's giving voice to a general feeling among lawyers, prison officials, and others that the state's post-pandemic reliance on remote proceedings is serving no one well. VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein chronicles screwups like mistaken identities, garbled court decisions, technical problems, and defendants getting lost in the system. “Makes you feel like you don’t matter at all,” says one.At 81, garden writer and designer Gordon Hayward could just have retired. Instead, he's profiling southern VT's workers. An employee at an elasticized thread factory in Brattleboro; a town highway department employee; a small-engine repairman... All have featured in Hayward's weekly series in the Brattleboro Reformer. "I wanted to help them tell those stories," he tells VT Public's Howard Weiss-Tisman. "And in the midst of all of the conflicts and complexities of the present political system in the country today and in the world, that these are important stories to be known.” You'll find them here.Come on, come on, do the locomotion with me. Or a frog. Your choice. Researchers have been wondering just how tiny cricket frogs propel themselves so fast across the water. Turns out they share a move with porpoises that allows them to travel both over and under water. Using high-speed videography, scientists filmed the frogs’ travels, and played them back in slow motion. (Read more about the research here.) The researchers identify four distinct phases to the locomotion, and while “belly flop” isn’t one of them, there’s no denying the not-so-elegant truth. The slo-mo video's pretty striking.
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Fleece vests, sweatshirts, head-warming beanies... Strong Rabbit has updated the Daybreak page to keep up with winter. Plus, of course, the usual: t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
Flights of poems, pints of beer. At Salt Hill Pub in Lebanon, "With Laughter In Between": poems read from the collections of local poets Phillip Mulligan and Clyde Watson. 7 pm this evening in the Galway Room. Email [email protected] for more information. (No link.)
Koh, artistic director of the Kennedy Center's chamber music series, has won the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, the Concert Artists Guild Competition, and a Grammy, and is known for exploring a broad and eclectic repertoire, much of it written specifically for her. She'll be playing works by JS Bach, Philip Glass, and Missy Mazzoli. Rollins Chapel, 8 pm.
Hosted and produced by Krista Patronick, assistant director of Dartmouth's South House, and featuring Aria McGowan, Alex St. Louis, and Sarah Adelman. 8 pm.
Today, a place nobody can find.
Soul great Sam Moore died last Friday in Florida, age 89. He was the tenor half of Sam & Dave (with Dave Prater), who lit up stages in the 1960s with their act (after he toured with them and other Stax/Volt artists in 1967, Otis Redding reportedly refused to join them again, saying he felt he'd been upstaged). The pair's first Stax release was a little quieter—1965's "A Place Nobody Can Find". It wasn't a hit, but it helped point Stax in a new direction, and the writer on that song, Dave Porter, began collaborating with a guy named Isaac Hayes on what became a string of hits for Sam & Dave—including "Soul Man" and "Hold On I'm Coming". So here's a double bill:
and, because you've really got to see Sam & Dave in performance,
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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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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