RABBIT RABBIT, UPPER VALLEY!
Just a reminder: No Daybreak tomorrow. Back with CoffeeBreak on Friday.
Sunny, cooler. With high pressure in place and cooler air aloft, we’ve got two classic fall days ahead: clear skies, temps reaching the low 60s. After that, things warm up again—but not before we get a decent chance of overnight frost, especially in the hollows, both tonight and tomorrow night. Lows in the low to mid 30s.
Bobcats. Two of them, a mom and a kitten in Lyme, playing around. Or at least, the kitten is…
Bradford VT pair wanted in road rage shooting incident arrested in MA. It was an eventful search for Justin French, 36, and Kayla Cabey, 33, reports the Vermont Daily Chronicle. After the Sept. 20 incident in South Ryegate, state police got numerous tips about the pair, and by this Monday had narrowed their location down to Springfield, VT. An attempted stop led to French and Cabey speeding off, eluding a second stop attempt in Brattleboro, then disappearing around Putney—until a report of a home invasion and stolen truck put police on their trail again. Monday night, MA State Police spotted the stolen truck in W. Springfield and arrested the two suspects.
If you happen to notice more helicopter activity than usual at Lebanon Airport… The US Forest Service has stationed a a CH-54A Tahre helicopter there “to improve response times to potential wildfires in drought-stressed National Forest lands in New Hampshire and Vermont. The aircraft may launch on short notice when conditions warrant,” the city says in its public notice. “Nearby residents may notice intermittent flight activity, including low-level approaches and departures, as well as occasional trips to local water sources if bucket operations are employed.” The chopper will be there as long as the drought persists.
SPONSORED: A Special Tour at the Hood Museum: “Pigments: Making Color from Ancient Assyria to Renaissance Europe”. Have you ever wondered how pigments were made? Museum curators Ashley Offill and Elizabeth Rice Mattison will explore how artists have created a whole spectrum of colors from Antiquity through the Renaissance in this special gallery tour this Saturday, October 4, 2:00–3:00pm. No registration is required, but space is limited. Sponsored by the Hood Museum.
A first-time novel about the magic of books. Higher Magic is by a local author, Courtney Floyd, and as the Yankee Bookshop’s Kari Meutsch writes in this week’s Enthusiasms, Floyd is interested in literal magic: her protagonist is a grad student at a school for mages whose thesis tries to compare classic literature to textbooks of magic, “looking for patterns and ultimately proof that these beloved books really do contain literal, actual magic that over time has changed the world at large.” It’s part of a sub-genre known as “dark academia”—but, as Kari writes, “don’t let the “dark” scare you—the feelings are mostly warm.”
Fairlee’s Broken Hearts Burger reboots: “punk dive bar meets steakhouse meets tropical cocktail bar.” That’s owner Matt Walker talking to Corin Hirsch in Seven Days about his decision to shutter his overwhelmed smashburger/hot dog joint in January and reshape it into something more manageable. Now, Hirsch writes, though Walker’s signature Heartbreaker burger is on the menu, it’s “nonchalantly so, listed alongside a longer rota of a dozen or so ever-changing small and large plates, cocktails, beer, and wine.” Says Walker, “We really wanted the freedom to cook and serve the food and drink on a daily basis the way we wanted to.” Which means you’ll need reservations.
SPONSORED: 2025 TONY-winner EUREKA DAY by Jonathon Spector at Shaker Bridge Theatre. Emmy winner Gordon Clapp leads this wonderful cast. The Eureka Day School in Berkeley is a bastion of progressive ideals. In weekly meetings its five board members develop policy to preserve a culture of inclusivity, reaching decisions only by consensus. But when a mumps outbreak threatens the Eureka community, facts become subjective and every solution is divisive, leaving the school’s leadership to confront the central question of our time: How do you build consensus when no one can agree on truth? Opens tomorrow! Sponsored by Shaker Bridge Theatre.
Former Claremont cop, forced out for making threats, to try again for city council. You may remember Jon Stone, who was quietly fired from the Claremont police in 2006 after threatening, among other things, to murder the police chief and carry out a mass shooting inside the police station. After InDepthNH’s Damien Fisher won a long legal battle last year to make that record public, Stone lost seats on the Claremont City Council and in the state House; he remains Sullivan County GOP chair. Now, Fisher reports, he’s filed papers to run again for an open seat on the city council in November. He faces Chris Irish, also a former council member.
Former Hartford police officer loses certification after accusations. Earlier this month, reports VTDigger’s Alan J. Keays, the state’s Criminal Justice Council reached an agreement with former Lt. Karl Ebbighausen to revoke his law enforcement certification after investigating a complaint that he’d “sexually harassed a number of persons who worked closely with the Hartford Police Department,” as the agreement puts it. The council found that “the facts established by the investigation of the complaint supported a finding of unprofessional conduct” and that if the matter went to a hearing, the state could prove its case. Ebbighausen retired from the force in March.
“If some cat owners are more open and more neurotic than dog owners …” Pull in your claws—that’s not my “if.” It’s Dartmouth News’ Amy Olson explaining the results of new research about philanthropic giving. The study looked at millions of donors and donations over 10 years to learn who’s the most generous—cat owners, dog owners, cat and dog owners, or people without pets. And the winner is (drumroll, please) … people without pets, followed by cat owners. Study author and social science prof Herbert Chang says “pet ownership reflects complex personality differences, even when it comes to philanthropy.” Or maybe it’s just the whopping cost of kibble?
Real estate in the twin states: still a seller’s market in both, but things seem to be easing. Though more so in Vermont.
The numbers in Sruthi Gopalakrishnan’s piece in the Monitor (here via NHPR) tell part of the story: though August marked “the 67th consecutive month in which New Hampshire home prices were higher than in the same month a year earlier,” the median price for a single-family home was $550K that month, down from June’s $569K (though up a tad from July). As always, prices are highest in Rockingham County.
Meanwhile, in Seven Days, Anne Galloway writes that while sellers “still have the upper hand and, in many cases, are listing homes at premium prices,” the days of “waived house inspections, online purchases, bidding wars and escalation clauses…are done.” Houses are taking, on average, three months to sell, down from the mere hours a few years ago, and sellers are starting to cut asking prices if things take too long. “Buyers can wait, explore and negotiate. It’s a more fluid market,” says the CEO of the state realtors’ association.
Whew! Talk about a time-sink. “Have you ever finished a book set in feudal Japan and wondered what was happening in the Viking world at that exact moment? Or watched a film set in 1980s New York and wished you could explore other stories unfolding in that same decade?” The creator of StoryTerra did. And, unable to find a database of movies, books, games, tv shows, and even YouTube city tours mapped to location or timespan, decided to build one. Books and movies set in the Ottoman Empire from 1300 to 1922? Or Nigeria during any time? Real-life history alongside? Feel free to poke around. It’s not intuitive, but you’ll get there.
Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak. If you're new to Daybreak, this is a puzzle along the lines of the NYT's Wordle—only it's not just some random word, but a word that actually appeared here yesterday.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
HEADS UP
For starters, just a reminder that archery season for deer opens in VT today, which means hunting is getting started in earnest. You probably remember that archery season opened in NH a couple of weeks ago. If you’re out in the woods, you’ll want to wear blaze orange and keep your dog(s) leashed. Rifle season in NH starts Nov. 12, and in VT on Nov. 15.
Artistree kicks off its production of Urinetown. If you’ve always wondered how a hit musical can be spun out of a scenario in which the government bans private toilets and privatizes public restrooms—for which citizens have to pay—here’s your chance. Preview dress rehearsal tonight at 7, opens tomorrow at 7. In the Grange Theater, runs through Oct. 12.
Eli Burakian and 101 Classic Hikes of the Northeast at Still North Books & Bar. The longtime Dartmouth and nature photographer and accomplished hiker (here’s a Daybreak story about his Fastest Known Time hike across Iceland) has a new guide out, and he’ll be talking about it and some of his favorite hikes, and then in conversation with students from the Dartmouth Outing Club. 7 pm.
THURSDAY
The Appalachian Trail in the spotlight. Three events tomorrow feature the iconic (and local) national gem.
The Hanover Conservancy's Barry Matthews, the Appalachian Trail Conservancy's Hawk Metheny, and the Upper Valley Trails Alliance’s Russ Hirschler will lead a guided walk along the AT and its side trails to the southern summit of Moose Mountain in Hanover. 3 pm, meet at the Hanover Conservancy’s Headwaters Forest, parking along Wolfeboro Road at the intersections with Three Mile Road.
Hawk Metheny and Appalachian Trail Conservancy staff at the Howe Library with “The Appalachian Trail: A 100 Year Legacy with a Bright Future”. About the trail itself, what happens behind the scenes to maintain it, and what the future holds. 6:30 pm in the Mayer Room and online.
Then, at 8 pm, everything moves over to Dartmouth’s Rauner Special Collections Library for a reception for a new exhibit, “From Vision to Reality: The Appalachian Trail from Then to Now”, and an introduction by Rauner co-curator Morgan Swan.
COVER Home Repair presents “From Cataclysm to Hope: Readings and Reflections by Peter Heller”. The Dartmouth grad, Outside and NatGeo writer, and bestselling novelist (The Dog Stars, Burn, and more) will be talking about hope, community, and the sense of home. 6 pm at the Hotel Coolidge in WRJ (doors at 5:30). Heller will also be in Newport, NH on Saturday to receive the Richards Free Library’s Sarah Josepha Hale Award, but more on that then.
Shaker Bridge Theatre kicks off its season with Eureka Day. Emmy-winner Gordon Clapp leads the cast in Shaker Bridge’s production of Jonathan Spector’s Tony-winning play about the board and parents of a progressive Berkeley school a mumps outbreak, vaccines, and the slippery nature of facts and truth. 7 pm at the Briggs Opera House in WRJ, runs through Oct. 19.
Parish Players’ Ten Minute Play Festival returns. The fall version of the ever-popular festival features seven plays—written by Samantha Davidson Green, Risa Lewak, Alex Rushton, and others—each one ten minutes (-ish) long. 7 pm Thursday-Saturday this week and next, 2 pm both Sundays. At the Eclipse Grange Theater on Thetford Hill.
At the Norwich Bookstore, Tom Verde and Queens of Islam. The writer and journalist’s new book is a history of just what its title suggests: “the lives of fifteen of the most remarkable female leaders of Muslim dynasties, empires, and caliphates—from Islam’s earliest centuries through the end of the seventeenth century.” 7 pm.
Sierra Hull and John Craigie at the Lebanon Opera House. Amazingly, there are still some tickets left for tomorrow’s concert with the Grammy-winning mandolin Americana powerhouse and math-major-turned-singer/songwriter/storyteller Craigie. 7:30 pm.
John Pousette-Dart at New London’s Flying Goose Pub. If you were listening to music in the '70s, you heard the first go-round of the Pousette-Dart Band. The group broke up in the '80s, but Pousette-Dart kept performing and writing, and eventually teamed up with fellow left-handed guitarist Jim Chapdelaine. 7:30 pm, you’ll need to call to reserve.
And for today..
Well yes, of course. Sierra Hull and her band this summer in Maine, with Berklee songwriting prof Mark Simos’s “Nahatlach”.
See you Friday for CoffeeBreak.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael