GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Breezy, mostly sunny... and warm! As the high pressure that finally settled in yesterday afternoon slides away east, warmer air will be moving in from the south today. Fog to start again, but then skies will clear and temps will get into the low 70s by mid-afternoon—before starting to fall again as clouds move in late today ahead of some weather arriving tomorrow. Upper 40s overnight.Stopping to look carefully. Sometimes, nature holds little surprises that you just have to be lucky enough to notice.
Like this "bee artistry" that Barbara Cariello discovered as she looked up at a sunflower in Canaan;
And this sundog Cam Cross saw as he turned onto Route 132 in Pompanoosuc the other afternoon;
And these ripples Corlan Johnson noticed on the Connecticut—"Do water skaters plan these patterns?" she wonders.
Former Dartmouth president Jim Wright dies at 83. Wright, who was undergoing cancer treatment, died Monday at home in Hanover, writes Hannah Silverstein for Dartmouth News. Growing up in Galena, IL, he figured he'd work in the mines or the nearby Kraft plant after high school—but wound up with a long, remarkable career that began at age 17 with a stint in the Marines. A historian of the American West, he used his tenure as president to update and expand Dartmouth's campus and to make Dartmouth and other colleges more welcoming places for military veterans—work he continued after he retired.Haven hopes to restart hot meals on site. You may remember that in June, Hartford's zoning board ruled that the wording used by the organization for its operating permit didn't apply to using a stove or oven to prepare food. That forced volunteers to prep some meals at home, then bring them to the Haven's grab-and-go shelves for distribution. Now, writes Patrick Adrian in the Valley News, the zoning board will reconsider the issue. “We would really like to be able to cook warm items like soups and stews,” says Haven director Michael Redmond. “What is better on a cold winter’s day than a warm soup?”SPONSORED: Try The Sharon Academy on for size! TSA invites families considering middle and high schools to its Fall Information Session on Sunday, October 23, 4-5:30 pm, at the TSA High School, 205 Academy Drive in Sharon. Learn how TSA empowers creative and independent thinkers. The evening is an excellent opportunity to meet current TSA students and ask questions about our approach to providing a challenging, engaging, and nurturing education for adolescents. Students are encouraged to attend, and light refreshments will be served. Sponsored by The Sharon Academy.Is it too soon to relive the first year of the pandemic? That's what the Norman Williams Public Library's Liza Bernard wondered as she opened Elizabeth Strout's new novel, Lucy by the Sea. But in this week's Enthusiasms, Liza reports that "in the skillful hands" of the author of Olive Kitteridge, My Name is Lucy Barton, and other closely observed novels, she found "new perspectives on what our world experienced, in cities and rural areas, as individuals and as a society." As a result, she says, the reader "comes out wiser." Liza's full writeup at the link.Quietly, WCAX deletes Randolph volleyball-team story from its website. The piece about a transgender team member and dissension in the locker room set off a furor within national conservative media circles and drew condemnation from the player's mother as "inaccurate, one-sided, and just altogether ugly." Now the story has disappeared from the news station's site, reports Seven Days' Alison Novak. WCAX news director Roger Garrity tells her the station took it down "to prevent others from using our reporting to attack people in the transgender community."Dartmouth grad students set out to organize union. About 250 people gathered on the Green yesterday as organizers for Graduate Organized Laborers at Dartmouth, or GOLD, announced the effort, reports Liz Sauchelli in the VN. The roughly 800 grad students who receive an annual stipend currently make $35,196, college spokesperson Diana Lawrence tells Sauchelli, and the college covers their health insurance. Students contend they should be making closer to $50K a year, given Hanover rents and the region's cost of living. This spring, undergrad dining workers voted unanimously to unionize.SPONSORED: Upper Valley Baroque presents “Choral Masterworks of the Italian Baroque” Oct. 29-30. We are thrilled to present the North American premiere of the recently rediscovered Orlandini Mass in F major and Handel’s dramatic Dixit Dominus. Based on the traditional Latin mass and Psalm 110, these works express themes common to all humanity. Artistic Director Filippo Ciabatti and UV Baroque’s Chamber Choir & Orchestra will create an unforgettable experience for listeners. Concerts will be at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Hanover. Tickets here. Sponsored by Upper Valley Baroque.The NH housing market is cooling off, according to the numbers. After more than a year in which low interest rates drove a sizable spike in home sales, some properties are starting to sit on the market a little longer, Bob Sanders of NH Business Review reports. While trend lines aren’t drastically changed, they indicate a gradual slowing down. A look at some of the stats: Compared to this time last year, a house takes 9.5 days longer to sell, although condos continue to move at a rapid pace. Year over year, home prices are still higher, but just since August the going rate has dropped by $10K. In NH, national libertarian conservative group takes aim at GOP legislative candidates. Last year, writes Amanda Gokee in NH Bulletin, 21 Republican legislators voted against right-to-work legislation. This year, fewer than half of them have a chance of returning to the statehouse—in no small part because of the more than $1 million spent by Americans for Prosperity, the group founded by conservative billionaires David and Charles Koch, since 2020. AFP's recent determination to spend on candidates, not just policy, is paying dividends, Gokee writes: Of the 25 candidates it backed in the primary, 21 won.VT childcare providers were excited about the state's plans to help them pay bonuses to retain workers. Then they saw the details. Which, writes Alison Novak in Seven Days, left at least one childcare center director in tears. The problem? They have to front the money, then wait for the state to reimburse them. Most centers, Novak notes, run on paper-thin margins, with almost no room for unanticipated expenses. Teachers "are feeling really hoodwinked," a director tells her.The story behind those "forest fashion week" drone shots. "I think drones have provided us this wonderful way to see our planet from above in particularly challenging times," UVM Spatial Analysis Lab director Jarlath O'Neil-Dunne tells the Boston Globe's Shannon Larson (here via MSN, no paywall). O'Neil-Dunne and his team use drones for disaster response, agricultural assessment, archeological site mapping, forest surveys—and, as you've seen recently, foliage glam shots. Larson also talks to a drone photographer who's been busy in the Whites, and links to lots of footage.Ever wonder what goes into designing a good hike? Most trails look like they came about organically, based on how people decided to traverse the wooded terrain. And that’s the point. In this fascinating Vox video, US Geological Survey research scientist Jeff Marion explains the many detailed particulars that trail designers consider. These include creating routes that wend imperfectly, carefully avoiding private property and environmentally sensitive areas while leading toward waterfalls and scenic overlooks. As for trail durability and upkeep, people aren’t the biggest concern: water is.Say it ain't so, Holly! Yesterday was the culmination of Fat Bear Week at Katmai National Park in Alaska. What began in 2014 as a cute bid to get some public exposure for the park has gone viral in recent years—and brought skullduggery to its doorstep. Earlier this week, reports Michell Debczak for Mental Floss, someone electronically stuffed the daily ballot box for Holly, better known as Bear 435. Park officials immediately took to Twitter to post "FAT BEAR WEEK SCANDAL" and knocked Holly out of the running. The big—in the literal sense—reveal in the contest came last night: It's Bear 747.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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T-shirts, tank tops, 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 6 pm, Dartmouth's Russian Department and Jewish Studies program host folk-cabaret singer, songwriter, 2019 Grammy nominee, and scholar Psoy Korolenko (Pavel Lion), with "Octobernacle: Songs of Falling Leaves and Temporary Dwellings." His "own unique experimental one-person folk cabaret reflects (on) and integrates traditions of Russian urban folk song/guitar poetry, Yiddish folk and theater song, French chanson of the 20th century" and more. At the Top of the Hop.
This evening at 7, legendary VT mystery writer Archer Mayor sets up at the Norwich Bookstore to read from and talk about his latest Joe Gunther novel, Fall Guy. In which the trunk of a car filled with the haul from a two-state burglary spree also happens to contain the body of the burglar—and as Gunther and his team investigate, things get complicated quickly.
Or, also at 7, you could spend some time with crime in a different part of the country when the Howe Library hosts novelists Rachel Barenbaum and Kelly Ford for a conversation about Ford's new book, Real Bad Things. It's the second in Barenbaum's series of literary conversations with authors, and its focus is Ford's second Ozarks-based crime novel, about a skeleton that surfaces by an Arkansas River dam 25 years after the protagonist's violent stepfather disappeared—and not only the protagonist, but two friends cop to the crime. In-person or via Zoom.
And some music to give heft to the day...
You'd never want to say that we should be grateful for the pandemic, but it did produce an outpouring of online artistic creativity and togetherness that, sadly, is mostly gone now. But not entirely. Remarkably, the Covid Cello Project has just released its 17th installment,
(you may not know it by name, but you'll be humming along right quick). It's reassuring to know that the project, which began in 2020 with 12 friends of Austin, TX cellist Tony Rogers, can still draw 388 cellists from 35 countries. They include E. Thetford's Joel Teenyanoff and several others from VT and NH.
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 Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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