GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Just a reminder: No Daybreak tomorrow or Friday. Back in your inbox with CoffeeBreak on Monday.Partly sunny, definitely cooler. That's because a cold front is making its way through from the west (it brought last night's clouds). There's some rain likely to the west of us, but it probably won't even make it across the Greens. The result: Mix of clouds and sun today, highs maybe a little above 60. The clouds will clear overnight, low around 50.It's a water day! In photos, anyway, since fall skies and still water make for a very fine combination.
Here's the river just above the Wilder Dam, by Leslie LaCroix;
And Lake Pemigewasset in the sun, by Janice Fischel;
And Spoonwood Pond in Nelson, NH, with Peter Bloch's inimitable on-and-underwater video.
Dear Daybreak, a day early. Since there's no Daybreak tomorrow, today we get Bettyanne McGuire on a flock of turkeys that's taken up residence in her front meadow; Ken Davis on a pitched battle he and his daughter witnessed on WRJ's Lily Pond; Janet Watton with a local limerick; and Jonathan Frishtick on a sign at DHMC that could definitely use some work.In Bradford VT, Bliss Village Store and Deli to close. That was the news in a social media post over the weekend by owner Marilyn Rainville, who took over the store in 2022, reports Alex Nuti-de Biasi in the Journal Opinion newsletter. "Due to economic downturn, skyrocketing energy costs and exorbitant operating expenses," she wrote, the store will shut for business on Oct. 15. The closure "is a big blow to Bradford's downtown," Nuti-de Biasi writes, adding that earlier this year, Vittles Espresso and Eatery nearby closed, though it's still got its coffee trailer on the Lower Plain.Norwich Farm Foundation puts Norwich Farm up for sale. The farm's long saga took another turn last month when the foundation—formed in 2022 to buy the farmstead and a few acres of land on Turnpike Road in an effort to keep the creamery operated by Chris Gray and Laura Brown in operation—put it on the market. In the Valley News, Emma Roth-Wells reports that the foundation lists total liabilities of $905,000, and that it is "more than a year behind in its property tax payments to the town." Neither the town nor foundation board members would confirm details. Gray and Brown will close the creamery "if the farm’s buyer does not want [it] there," Roth-Wells reports.Animal remains found on CRREL property formerly owned by Dartmouth. The college on Monday announced the discovery of carcasses and black trash bags by workers digging a culvert at the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab, reports the VN's Clare Shanahan. Senior VP Josh Keniston tells her they've been unable to find documentation revealing what the site was used for when it was owned by the college, or why the remains are there. The discovery raises the specter of the contamination discovered at Rennie Farm over a decade ago; in a statement, CRREL says "there are no indications that the remains pose a health threat to the community.”SPONSORED: Help someone right now! At Hearts You Hold, the locally based nonprofit that supports immigrants, migrants, and refugees across the US by asking them what they need, we're flooded with requests as the weather cools. At the burgundy link or here, you'll find requests from people from all over the world who need clothing, work boots, and basics like diapers for their kids while they try to make a life here. Including Ukrainian and Haitian refugees in Leb and a farmworker in Orange County. Sponsored by Hearts You Hold.Babe's Bar in the spotlight. Over the last few months, VT Public's "Made Here" program has been running a series of short films by former Hartford selectboard member Rocket about small businesses in small Vermont towns. Yesterday, his final episode hit the air—or, in this case, YouTube: a visit with Jesse Plotsky and Owen Daniel-McCarter, the co-owners of Babes and presiding spirits in what has become a community hub whose reach extends far beyond Bethel. In VT, says Daniel-McCarter, "There's a culture of helping people. We're starting from that place."At the Hartland Diner, "folks will put aside their differences for classic diner fare." Owner Nicole Bartner's never made any secret of her values—the mission statement for her diner reads, in part, "Dignity and Respect for ALL humans"—but as Suzanne Podhaizer writes in Seven Days, that hasn't kept a varied crowd from piling in and checking out the nine-page menu. Which includes corned beef hash using local brisket that's brined and slow-cooked for a day before it gets mixed up with potatoes, onions, and peppers. Or a pancake order that, as Podhaizer writes,"goes for girth" rather than height.SPONSORED: Join us at Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center's Pumpkin Festival on Sunday, October 13! Enjoy delicious food and live music from local vendors and artists, pumpkin picking (of course!), horse-drawn wagon rides with Streeter Woods Farm, fun educational activities in our “Enchanted Forest”—including live raptor demonstrations with VINS—and so much more at this family-friendly celebration of fall. Get in for free by volunteering, pre-purchase tickets online for faster entry, or wait and buy them at the gate. Sponsored by Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center.NLRB lawyer wants board to order Dartmouth to bargain with men's basketball team. It's the latest step in the slow-moving legal drama surrounding the team's move to unionize—which, as Michael McCann notes in Sportico, happened seven months ago. Since then, the college has refused to bargain. Now, though, the counsel for the National Labor Relations Board's Boston region has asked the board to order Dartmouth to negotiate with the union at least once a month for a year. If the board agrees, McCann writes, that will likely land the matter in court. Don't expect the board to move soon.More on Celo, NC in the wake of the flooding. Remember yesterday's item about luminescent mushrooms? It centered around Celo and naturalist Tal Galton—who spent his teen years in Norwich, went to Hanover High, and tells his mom, Dori, that Celo got 26.5 inches of rain in 44 hours, still has no electricity or water, and remains isolated because roads and bridges were wiped out. Cell service is finally coming back, but it's sporadic. "The tiny intentional community of Celo is pulling together to clean up and repair," Dori writes. Burgundy link takes you to a photo from Tal of the bridge out of town."I murder the text, literally cut it into pieces..." So writes Trinidad-born Toronto poet M. NourbeSe Philip about her book-length poem Zong!, which is based on a legal document related to a 1781 incident in which a British slave-ship crew threw some 130 Africans overboard—so the ship's owners could claim the insurance money. In this week's Enthusiasms, Rena Mosteirin writes that Philip tells the story through characters she creates, in part by literally erasing letters from the court case that brought the story to light. It is, Rena writes, "a radical and brilliant poem."NH unveils dashboard to track progress on ER boarding. It's been a year since the state launched its bid to cut ER wait times for mental health patients in crisis, a persistent issue both in New Hampshire and elsewhere. The new dashboard tracks, among other things, the number of patients waiting in ERs for an acute psychiatric bed—as well as the blockages upstream that may be causing a delay. As the latest data shows (burgundy link), the general trend since a year ago has been downward. "Our work continues until there is a queue of none," says health commissioner Lori Weaver in a press release.In Concord, an experiment in thinking differently about EV charging. At a bit after noon today in the parking lot of a Bank of America branch, city and corporate officials will gather for a ribbon cutting on a slow charger. It's no faster than a wall outlet—and that's what's interesting about it, writes David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog. The idea is that cars often sit for hours at airports, at ski areas, and in downtown parking garages—so they don't need an expensive, hard-to-install Level 2 or 3 charger. That makes it possible to put chargers everywhere, making it much easier to top up over the course of a day.Union Leader seeks state loan to reduce "legacy debt." In InDepthNH, Damien Fisher reports that the state's largest paper has turned to the state Business Finance Authority to help kickstart a $4 million plan to fund executive pensions, employee severance payments, and payments to pension funds of unions that represented workers in disbanded departments; none of it will go toward reporter salaries, says the New Hampshire NewsGuild—Fisher's chief source, since neither the BFA nor Union Leader brass would comment.Clearer guidelines on legislative ethics set to take effect in NH. As Ethan DeWitt writes in NH Bulletin, "despite the large number of lawmakers who work for businesses or organizations, the state has had relatively lenient laws around conflicts of interest—until this year." In August, Gov. Chris Sununu signed a law that will take effect Jan. 1 requiring lawmakers to recuse themselves from votes on bills when they have a personal conflict of interest, when they or a household member could be affected financially by a bill, or when they or a household member works for a group lobbying on the bill. DeWitt explains.Hey, does this mean Stewart's ice cream is coming here? In a statement on Monday, reports Catherine Hurley in VTDigger, Stewart's Shops—the popular and widespread upstate NY convenience store (and ice cream manufacturer)—announced that it's buying the Jolley chain, which has stores in NY and VT (though none around here), along with two (Hanover and West Leb) in NH. As Hurley writes, "The purchase represents a major expansion of the presence of Stewart’s in New England." The company's founding family, the Dakes, also just announced they're selling their majority share to employees.Vermont towns cast about for ways to lower housing construction costs. The challenge, writes Anne Wallace Allen in Seven Days, is that because of high costs, "very little mid-priced housing is being built, despite the efforts of state lawmakers to create incentives and ease development restrictions." As a result, towns and cities are looking to take their own path—like subsidizing water, sewer, and other needed infrastructure, or making town-owned land available for development, or, as Woodstock has done, provide incentives to property owners to create rentals from existing stock or to build new units."When the course mandates steel-toed boots and protective eyewear, you know it's not an art history class." As Steve Goldstein writes in Seven Days, dry stone walling—using stone to build without mortar or cement—"is not just about, well, walls. Stone is used to build wells, steps, archways, pass-throughs, benches, pagodas and more." All of which you can see at the Stone Trust's center in Dummerston, VT, where Goldstein spent a happy—if tiring—day learning the art and craft. He describes the experience, and the people who've been captivated. "I have to do this," one told his wife after his first workshop.Celebrating the hilarity of our natural world. A contemplative chimpanzee, a rock-star lizard, and a let’s-play-hide-and-seek cheetah—there’s wildlife, there’s comedy, and then there are the Nikon Comedy Wildlife Awards. The Guardian has a selection of the finalists; the full gallery is here. A flat-throated lizard, aka “the rock star,” a bear hug (no, really), raccoon whisperers, a flying-squirrel don … and one that every parent will recognize: kids who just won’t walk on their own four feet. The winners will be announced in December.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
There's a lot of ground to cover for the next few days!
.
Opening reception begins at 5 pm today for Di Piazza's "hand-lettered literary quotes selected by Howe Library patrons, word-play signage, and other lettering and mixed media artwork."
Matthew Libby's Neukom Award-winning play traces the lives of two sisters over 90 years—one flesh and blood, the other AI. "We were all blown away by it," NS's Carol Dunne says of the first time the staff read it. Here's
.
Thursday
That's the scenario that underlies
War Game
, Jesse Moss and Tony Gerber's 2024 documentary about a six-hour Situation Room war game to test responses—with former Montana governor Steve Bullock as the incumbent president, and cabinet and intelligence appointees played by real military and government personnel. Discussion after with Gen. Linda Singh, one of the participants. 7 pm in Loew Auditorium.
Friday
Friday morning at 10 with a children's keynote by
Because of Winn-Dixie
author Kate DiCamillo, who also brings things to a close Saturday. In between, a Friday evening keynote by Jean Hanff Korelitz, and, Saturday from 9-5, author panels with Linda Sue Park, Sarah Stewart Taylor, Claire Messud, and many more, plus food and a huge book sale. S. Main Street in Concord.
Held in conjunction with the VT Sheep & Wool Festival (see Saturday), it's a two-part event with Friday afternoon tours of the mill and Friday night dinner at Peggy and Todd Allen's sheep farm in the Jericho quarter of Hartford, catered by Trail Break and with music by Still Hill.
It's First Friday, of course, and on top of the usual open stores and restaurants,
, also known as TWIST. It'll be filled with over three dozen local cartoonists and zinesters and their zines, comics, and art. Runs from 4 pm to 8 pm.
Norwich photographer Rich Cohen opens an exhibit at the Norwich Public Library.
, especially with flowers, on Daybreak from time to time, and this exhibit consists mostly of his flower photos. Opening reception begins at 5 pm Friday in the community room.
The dedication and unveiling of the new Teevens Stadium (at Memorial Field) sign will take place at the main entrance, at the corner of Lebanon and Crosby streets, beginning at 5:30 p.m. Friday. Speakers include Teevens' wife, Kirsten, college officials, and at least one football team member. Reception to follow.
Stanford U prof Tadashi Tokieda folds, crumples, stacks, and tears sheets of paper as he explores everything from magic to geometry to origami in this math department lecture. "Much of the lecture consists of table-top demonstrations, which you can try later with friends and family." 6 pm Friday, 008 Kemeny Hall.
Two-step, swing (East and West Coast), waltz, cha cha, tango, salsa... maybe even a line dance here and there. Come alone or with a partner. East Coast Swing lesson at 6:30, dance at 7.
In addition to founder Bow Thayer, the trio features percussionist Steve Ferraris and multi-instrumentalist Krishna Guthrie: "Using Thayer’s songs as a springboard for sonic exploration, TOA is tuned into playing whatever the situation may call for." 7 pm Friday.
The
CT-based trio "believes that music is meant for taking risks", says Sawtooth. They blend "rock, funk, blues, and jazz and infuse them with deep psychedelia and hard-hitting, no-rules improvisation... Also, they're the tallest band around." 9 pm Friday.
Saturday
Things get going at Hanover High at 8:30 Saturday morning with a walkers' welcome, the Promise Garden ceremony at 9:30, and the walk itself at 10.
With sheep, of course, but also lamas, alpacas, and even camels. Talks and demonstrations of all sorts by shepherds, vendors, artisans, and others. Runs 10-5 Saturday, 10-4 Sunday.
Sunapee Region Mycology Club president Jessica Whitaker will talk mushroom identification, history, and ecology and lead a mushroom-hunting walk on the museum's trails. Bring decent walking shoes or boots, a magnifying glass, a notebook, snack/lunch, and for sure, bug repellent. 1-4 pm Saturday.
Things get going at 11 am Saturday in Colburn Park with folk-pop entertainer, storyteller, and musician Mr. Aaron, followed at 1 pm by premier mandolinist Jacob Jolliff and his band. Plus lawn games, kettle corn, birthday cake, and hullabaloo. No charge.
The Strike Anywhere ensemble will use soundpainting—a technique "that allows a composer/conductor to create spontaneous compositions"—for its show of dance, music, monologues, and fables about life in Central VT. 7 pm.
The Quebec City acrobatic troupe brings in the US premiere of
Ghost Light: Between Fall and Flight
, which features among other things a spinning teeterboard that "propels the acrobats toward each other in the euphoria of flight, the levity of weightlessness, and the inevitability of the fall." 7:30 pm Saturday.
Sunday
The dark Stanley Kubrick classic stars Malcolm McDowell as a "proto-punk sadist with a passion for Beethoven" whose violent forays land him in rehab that, as the Hop puts it, is "as brutal and horrifying as any of his offenses." The difference with this screening: McDowell will be on hand afterward to talk about it (more on that below). 2 pm Sunday.
Their program, "The Art of Story Telling: Music for Flute & Piano", will feature works by German composer Carl Reinecke, American composer Jeremy Gill, and Bizet's
Carmen
retold for flute and piano by French composer François Borne. 3 pm Sunday.
Five guys (stars from the Broadway hits
Jersey Boys
,
Motown: The Musical
, and
A Bronx Tale)
singing harmony on a full concert's worth of American pop and rock classics. 4 pm.
Schwab, known for her accompaniment of over a dozen of Ken Burns’ documentaries, presents a program of vintage music from American, Celtic, Ukrainian, and Latin traditions. 4:30 pm Sunday.
From
If
to
Clockwork Orange
to
Star Trek: Generations
: He's "among the most dynamic and inventive of world-class actors, capable of profound intensity, humor and charm. With over 280 acting credits in film and television (and 11 more currently in the works)." Tribute reel, conversation, and screening of
Never Apologize
, McDowell's one-man show about his lifelong friendship with the British director Lindsay Anderson. All in the Loew starting at 6:30 pm Sunday.
Whew.
That was a lot, eh?
Just Justin Vernon lying around singing and on guitar, and Rob Moose on viola.
Have a fine few days. See you Monday for CoffeeBreak.
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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