WELL MET, UPPER VALLEY!
Hang on, sun's coming... Sorry, that was a tease. It probably won't be until tomorrow, though we may see a smidge of actual sky later today. There's low pressure hanging offshore, and it's keeping these clouds around; whenever it does eventually creep farther east it'll bring more wind into the mix across the region and clear things out. But not yet. Highs today in the low 30s, lows tonight in the mid-20s.By the way, the weather could get interesting in coming weeks. About 18 miles above the North Pole, writes Washington Post "Weather Gang" stalwart Andrew Freedman, temperatures are suddenly spiking, sending the polar vortex wobbling off its usual axis, which could send pieces spinning southward. The most likely impact will be on northern Europe, he says, but we could see blizzards in the northeast US as well. It's all conjecture at this point, but the atmospheric science is pretty cool.And just catching up on turn-of-the-year photography...
West Leb photographer Courtney Cania was headed over to photograph the sunrise over Mascoma Lake last week when the sky over City Hall in Lebanon pulled her up short. She captured that, then went on to the lake and the sun reflecting off the ice—and then, on the way home, spent a bit of time studying the water flowing under the Packard Hill Covered Bridge. "I'm holding out for a fresh snowfall to photograph the bridge itself," she writes.
Meanwhile, Etna photographer Jim Block spent the days around the turn of the year looking at iridescent clouds, white birches in the snow, a mourning dove, a brown creeper, a variety of songbirds, and one scary-looking crow—made that way by its nictitating membrane, which, as Jim writes, both protects birds' corneas and "is used by crows to project spooky images when photographers try to take their photos, much like young children do when making a face for the camera."
Outbreak at senior housing complex in Claremont. Remember how, in yesterday's news, NH officials said the case spike in Claremont didn't seem to be due to any single facility? It turns out, reports the Valley News's Nora Doyle-Burr, that as of Jan. 1 there were at least 21 cases at the Earl Bourdon Center, a subsidized apartment complex for seniors in the city. As of yesterday, the state was reporting 68 cases citywide. Doyle-Burr reports that officials at Valley Regional Hospital say that Covid transmission in Sullivan County is “substantial” and that it is “poised for a brisk rise in cases.”Former Dartmouth softball player makes history as first Black female coach in professional baseball. The Red Sox announced Monday night that they've hired Bianca Smith to coach position players on the team's affiliate in Ft. Myers, FL. Smith, who graduated from Dartmouth in 2012, began her softball career there as a walk-on player her junior year; she was used mostly as a pinch runner. After graduating, she went on to coach baseball teams at the University of Dallas, and, most recently, Carroll University in WI.SPONSORED: New families, take 15% off your first Music Together Online class. From babyhood through the early elementary years, Music Together nurtures each child’s natural musicality in a playful, musically rich learning environment. With cold weather and social distancing upon us, now is a great time to try a class. Upper Valley Music Center’s flexible online program supports home music-making without overloading screen time. Contact us to schedule a free trial or register now for winter classes starting this week. Sponsored by the Upper Valley Music Center.NH hospitals adapt as ICUs see rising Covid cases. Though hospitalization numbers have dropped a bit since the weekend's peak, reports NHPR's Jordyn Haime, Covid cases in the state's ICUs have doubled since last month. That, along with staffing shortages, has forced some hospitals to cancel elective surgeries, add ICU beds, and scramble to find room for patients at other regional hospitals. "We spend a lot of time, and when I mean a lot of time, literally half of our days, seven days a week, just planning to stay ahead of what the capacity needs are,” says Concord Hospital's chief quality officer.Up next for vaccine in NH: people 75 and older. The state yesterday laid out an expected timeline for vaccinations into the summer. Over the next couple of months, reports NHPR's Todd Bookman, it plans to vaccinate older residents as well as the medically vulnerable, staff and residents of facilities for the developmentally disabled, and corrections staff. From March-May, it'll be people 65-74 and preschool and K-12 staff, followed by people aged 50-65. After that will come people under 50 with "moderate" risk conditions, then healthy people under 50. No word for a few more weeks on how to make appointments. NH GOP legislators narrow net metering expansion to avoid Sununu veto. Net metering lets renewable energy generators sell their electricity into the grid at market rates, and in NH it's been capped to generators of 1 megawatt. Municipal leaders for years have argued this hampers their towns' development of solar and other alternatives. The last two years running, Gov. Chris Sununu has vetoed Democratic attempts to expand net metering to municipalities, consumers, and businesses. Now, reports the Monitor's Ethan DeWitt, Republicans are hoping a bill focused on municipalities will make it through.Hmm... Maybe meeting in cars isn't such a bad idea: VT legislature online practice session doesn't go well. While their counterparts in NH prepare to convene in a parking lot, members of the VT House yesterday logged onto a practice session for remote voting "got a refresher course" in the frustrations of legislating online, reports Seven Days' Kevin McCallum. Members "forgot to mute themselves, talked over one another, struggled to use voting software and endured a dull humming sound from someone’s faulty microphone. 'I don’t even know what I’m doing here!'" one rep fumed. VT fiscal committee approves $2 million for Town Meeting mail-in balloting. Legislators haven't actually approved mail-in balloting itself, or postponed voting, but it's expected to do so soon and the Joint Fiscal Committee agreed unanimously to use CARES Act funding to help towns with postage and other expenses. Even $2 million might not be enough, writes VTDigger's Anne Wallace Allen, if school districts, sewer districts, and the like don't coordinate their voting with balloting by member towns or cities. “It’s not lost on me that I’m kind of underestimated because I’m 5 foot tall and 98 pounds." On the other hand, Becca Balint is also VT's new Senate president. While coverage has focused on the fact that she's the first woman and openly gay legislator in the post, it's her interest in listening carefully to and working with her colleagues that has most impressed them, writes VTDigger's Kit Norton. Balint, he writes, "is open and warm, almost to a fault. She hurries through the corridors between committee rooms, but is never too busy to stop to talk—whether it be with a constituent, lawmaker, lobbyist or reporter."Looking for stuff to do now that winter's truly here? Pretty much since the pandemic began, Seven Days has been running a "Staytripper" series with ideas for VT-based pastimes. They've got a new package focused on winter, including Ken Picard's guide to sledding runs (and some suggestions for VT-made rides), Margaret Grayson's description of the now-venerable Lake Morey skating loop, Sally Pollak and Carolyn Fox's recommendation of King Arthur's online baking classes, and more.ARANEATA. It's Latin, and is the feminine nominative singular of the perfect participle of the verb "araneo," which means "be full of cobwebs.” It's on the word list wielded by Eric Tentarelli, who grew up in Atkinson NH and has become the first person to publish a 10×10 and an 11×11 word square using only unhyphenated words from a single language. In a word square, words written horizontally are stacked up so they also read the same vertically. And as David Brooks notes on his Granite Geek blog, this feat is next to, but obviously not quite, impossible—the previous 9X9 record held for a century.There may be Greenland sharks out in the ocean that have been around since Shakespeare's day. Dave Pollard is a Canadian writer on sustainability and related subjects, and over the years he's posted a handful of "several short sentences about..." articles on his how to save the world blog. The latest is on the mostly unstudied Greenland shark, the longest-living vertebrate on the planet. They can grow to 20 feet, suck up whole seals and sea lions, and think nothing of eating the occasional drowned polar bear. Pollard writes more than a few short sentences, and every one is interesting.Can you turn a dog into a travel influencer? Audrey Bellot is a French photographer who specializes in what are most definitely not your usual pet pic. She works with dogs in natural settings and makes both look nothing short of spectacular. “I often choose combinations of places and dogs that perfectly match both the colors and the atmosphere,” she tells My Modern Met's Emma Taggart. It probably doesn't hurt to live in the Auvergne, where, among other things, there are fields of lavender.
Now then...
NH added 667 new cases yesterdayand now stands at 47,992 total. There were 11 new deaths, bringing the total to 792, and 305 people are hospitalized (down 14). The current active caseload stands at 6,480 (up 280); 85 percent of all cases have recovered. Grafton County is at 172 active cases (up 10), Sullivan has 127 (up 10), and Merrimack has 718 (up 25). Town by town, the state says that Claremont has 68 active cases (up 6), Lebanon has 24 (up 1), Hanover has 24 (up 4), Enfield and Charlestown each remain at 19, New London has 15 (down 1), Canaan has 13 (up 2), Newport has 12 (up 2), Sunapee has 9 (no change), Wentworth has 7 (no change), Grantham has 5 (up at least 1). Haverhill, Piermont, Warren, Rumney, Orford, Dorchester, Lyme, Grafton, Plainfield, Cornish, Croydon, Unity, Goshen, and Newbury all have 1-4 each.
VT reported 165 new cases yesterday, bringing its total case count to 8,038. It now has 2,426 active cases (up 58), with 68 percent of all cases recovered. There were 5 new deaths, bringing the total count to 149, and 38 people with confirmed cases are hospitalized (up 2). Windsor County gained 17 cases (second in the state after Chittenden County) to stand at 463 for the pandemic (with 115 over the past 14 days). Orange County had no new cases, remaining at 324 cumulatively (with 27 cases over the past 14 days).
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How Yiddish changed America, how Americans have changed the family home, how communities are working toward a pesticide-free future, how China's trying to restructure the world economy, how Erica Heilman makes Rumble Strip in her closet... It's the first Wednesday of the year, and VT Humanities' "First Wednesdays" series remains virtual, which means you get all sorts of choices tonight. They all start at 7 pm and are free, but you'll need to register for the Zoom info.
And while Pomfret-based ArtisTree's new "Mystery in a Box" Zoom-based "theatrical experience" doesn't start until next week, you need to sign up to get the box at least six days in advance. Though as they write, "As the plot unfolds into a night of twists and turns—along with virtual live performances that plunge you deeper into a world of noir and intrigue—you realize this is about much more than the items in the box." Runs Jan. 12-16 and 19-23 and is $60 per household. "This show is family-friendly but will be difficult for young children to participate in due to the difficulty of the clues/puzzles," they note.
Back in 1995, two legends from entirely different worlds–Senegalese guitarist and actor Ismaël Lô and '60s British Invasion star Marianne Faithfull—
for Lô's breakout album,
Jammu Africa
. Critics from their respective home music worlds didn't quite seem to know what to make of the collaboration... but who cares? Lyrics (at least, the English version) by Pink Floyd's Roger Waters.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music? Check out the Spotify playlist generously maintained by Sarah and Nelson Rooker!
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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