GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Quiet at first. Then our next winter storm arrives. And this one won't be all fluffy like the last two. There's high pressure overhead to start, but it'll head out soon. Snow's expected to begin overspreading the region sometime in the later afternoon. It will remain snow much of the night, and we could see 4-8 inches, but at some point warm air moving in aloft will shift things to—depending on where you are—a mix of snow, sleet, and maybe even rain toward daylight. It could also get gusty out there. High today in the upper 20s.Here are projected totals for snow and ice accumulation:
"Not my bicycle." So writes Annemieke McLane of the sight that greeted her on the Dartmouth campus during Monday evening's snowfall after she got out from teaching.Heads up if you take the Dartmouth Coach from Hanover... Ever since the plaza in front of the Hop got fenced off for the building's two-year renovation, the Coach has picked up and dropped off on North Main Street. But starting tomorrow, it's moving around the corner of the green: From now on the stop will be in front of the Rauner Library on Wentworth Street, where it will remain until the fall of 2024. The North Main stop will no longer be used.Also tomorrow... It's the public hearing by Hanover's Zoning Board on Dartmouth's request for a special exception to allow construction of its planned Lyme Road apartment complex. The three-building complex at the north end of the former golf course has drawn heavy oppositions from neighborhood residents for its potential traffic and other impacts, while the college's faculty contend it will "isolate students too far from the heart of campus," as the Valley News puts it. Tomorrow's hearing (Town Hall, 7 pm) is on the zoning request; Hanover's Planning Board has yet to take the issue up. SPONSORED: Join the Dartmouth Cancer Center’s study about health and cancer-related topics. You’ll read information, watch a video, and answer survey questions. You may receive a gift card for your time. You’ll find the survey at the burgundy link. Please email [email protected] for more information. Sponsored by the Dartmouth Cancer Center."A life in which the gods are not invited isn’t worth living. It will be quieter, but there won’t be any stories." So, the Italian writer and publisher Roberto Calasso invited them—into books that retold the great Egyptian, Greek, and other myths in all their ancient fury. For his part, Howe librarian Jared Jenisch finds himself returning time and again to Calasso's Greek retelling, The Marriage of Cadmus and Harmony. In Calasso's hands, he writes in this week's Enthusiasms, the myths are "terrifying and beautiful, dark and violent and luminous at the same time."A play in which "the past, present and future overlap and overlay, and are in constant conversation with each other." That's theater director abigail jean-baptiste (she prefers lower-case) talking to Jim Lowe for his Times Argus story on 'Bov Water, whose world premiere opens for previews tonight at Northern Stage (see below). The three-actress "choreopoem" explores four generations of a black family, Lowe writes: "everyday people, loosely moving through time, resulting in a portrait of a family as it faces a changing world for Black people. It’s touching, very funny and deeply moving."Rental car's emergency alert draws Hanover police's attention, leads to fentanyl stash, warrant. The alert to a possible crash in Etna came a couple of weeks ago, writes John Lippman in the VN, where police observed a car being driven erratically by 24-year-old Heaven Lee. She failed a field sobriety test, spent a couple of days at the Haverhill jail, and was released—before police got a search warrant for her rental car, which uncovered 2,200 tablets of fentanyl. On Monday, Hanover police issued a warrant for her arrest. Lippman details the story—and how car emergency systems are affecting policing.In the Whites, "an accident that would be minor almost anywhere else...can be catastrophic." Kevin Kocwara's story in the Boston Globe Magazine (here via MSN) has an arresting title: "Why do hikers keep dying in the White Mountains of New Hampshire?" He starts with the death last year of 20-year-old Emily Sotelo and several others, looks at what happens when wilderness rescue teams get the call, then delves into the weather and why it's so extreme—and how hikers can prepare themselves ahead of time. The toll of an unsuccessful rescue on rescuers, he writes, "is huge."In NH, wages, jobs, and unemployment all rising. The unemployment rate, writes Bob Sanders in NH Business Review, has been rising slowly since last summer, and stood at 2.7 percent last month. But the state Dept. of Employment Security also reports that there were nearly 17,000 more jobs than the previous year at the same time and that the total workforce grew by nearly 19,000, most notably in professional and business services and in the arts, entertainment, and recreation. Wages are also climbing, most steeply in business/professional services, least in manufacturing.When measuring snowfall, the answer is, "It depends." At least, so says David Brooks in the Monitor. "Snow has weight, and every flake that falls compacts the snow under it," he writes. "This means that total snow depth from a storm depends on how often you measure during the course of the storm." His point: Don't believe the townwide totals you see on the news. The only way to know for sure is to melt it and measure the water. But what's the fun of that?Looks like this might actually be it for Everyone Eats in Vermont. The federally funded pandemic-era food security program is due to end on March 31, reports VTDigger's Taylor Slonaker. It began in August, 2020, and by striving to use food grown in-state and prepared by local restaurants, generated more than $34 million in revenue for restaurants and $3.5 million for farmers and food producers in the state. Overall, it's distributed some 3.5 million meals. It's still averaging about 25,000 meals a week.VT towns "are going crazy" waiting for Gov. Phil Scott to make a decision about town meeting options. You may remember that the legislature last week extended pandemic-era flexibility for how to hold town meeting. Those planning to meet March 7 are required to alert the public about details in a window between tomorrow and Feb. 5. But Scott has yet to act on the bill, writes VTDigger's Kevin O'Connor, possibly because Ed Secy Dan French objects to a provision on how school boards word budget ballots. Scott's press secretary tells O'Connor "we have until Thursday to act."Count me! No, count me! And me! Someone has to count walruses, and you can help. If you’ve got 30 minutes to spare and a decent-sized monitor, you can join the Walrus from Space project, run by the World Wildlife Fund and the British Antarctic Survey. Walruses are “on the front line of the climate crisis” says WWF in this three-minute video, and monitoring populations is critical. They're shy, so the project uses satellites to capture images of herds; volunteers (that's you) count the individuals in each picture. Sign up here.The Wednesday Vordle. If you're new to Daybreak, this is the Upper Valley version of Wordle, with a five-letter word chosen from an item in the previous day's Daybreak.
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Sweatshirts, hats, and, of course, coffee/tea/cocoa mugs. It's all available thanks to Strong Rabbit Designs in Sharon. Check out what's available and wear it or drink from it proudly! Email me ([email protected]) if you've got questions.
At 4:45 today, visiting Ukrainian professor Lada Kolomiyets will give a talk sponsored by Dartmouth's Russian Department, "Ukrainian Folklore is Dismantling Russia's Newspeak." Kolomiyets, who specializes in the uses and misuses of translation, will explore the Ukrainians' "fatalistic optimism" and humor as a weapon against Russian propaganda in the information war. Followed by a Q&A. In Haldeman 041.
At 7, online only, it's the final installment of the Vermont Historical Society's four-week "Winter Trivia" series (with a championship round in February). Tonight it's Famous Vermonters. No cost to watch or participate in these initial rounds (though if you're playing, you'll need two screens).
And just a heads up that the Norwich Bookstore has postponed both tonight's reading with Lynn Steger Strong and tomorrow's with Wendy Willis Baldwin due to the weather.
At 7:30 this evening, Northern Stage's production of 'Bov Water opens for previews.The play, by Dartmouth alum Celeste Jennings (author of 2020’s Citrus at Northern Stage), traces four generations of Black women as they encounter American history from the Civil War to the present day. "We all are part of unimaginable rebellions and parties and celebrations. There’s just so much we will never know we’re connected to, but it doesn’t mean we can’t (celebrate it)," Jennings tells Times-Argus reviewer Jim Lowe (see above). Tonight and tomorrow only it's "Pay What You Can." Through Feb. 12.
And starting today, the Upper Valley Jewish Community hosts an online screening of the award-winning documentary Microplastic Madness, about a group of 5th graders and their teachers in Red Hook, Brooklyn, who ultimately spent two years learning about and then taking on microplastic pollution. Available through Feb. 8. On Feb. 5 there will be a zoomed Q&A with co-director/producer Debby Lee Cohen. Register to view at the link.
And music to start the day...
Apropos of... well, nothing, really. Here are Belgian rapper Scylla and French pianist Sofiane Pamart filming in Canada (hard to find piano-toting pickups in Europe),
("The world is at my feet").
, but really, you could just let the lyrics wash over you.
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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