GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
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Reminder: No Daybreak tomorrow morning. The Weekend Heads Up will go out as usual tomorrow afternoon, and Daybreak will be in your inbox bright and early Friday morning.
Some fog to start, then sunny. High pressure’s firmly in place, and with mostly blue skies all day, temps will be getting up to 40 or above. Breezes from the northwest, down to around 20 tonight.
Look! Up in the sky! It was a good, several-second meteor that flashed over Killington as Rick Scully watched from Tunbridge, near the E. Bethel line. His “farmcam” caught it emerging from the darkness, flaring, and fading again.
And up in that tree! Quill, a cub at the Kilham Bear Center in Lyme, checks out the snow (via FB).
Amid headwinds for rural hospitals, Gifford Medical Center sees reason for hope. The small Randolph hospital was among those singled out in a dire and pessimistic 2024 consultant’s report—which landed just days before new CEO Michael Costa took over. But now? As Lexi Krupp reports in her first piece for Daybreak, “Gifford is still not breaking even, but it’s a lot closer, and is projected to be in the black within a year.” That’s due to a series of reforms: some cutbacks, but mostly a strategy aimed at making Gifford “a pressure release valve” for the health care system by taking overflow from bigger hospitals and boosting routine procedures and primary care patients. Lexi talks to Costa and others about how things have begun to turn around.
Fairlee ledge work getting close. The years-long effort to stabilize the cliff face looming over I-91 was supposed to be done this Friday, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News, but VTrans project manager Bruce Martin tells her it’s a couple of weeks behind schedule and should be done by mid-December. Right now, as you know, workers are attaching 700-pound wire mesh sheets, which have to be helicoptered in. Installing them “is intense and time consuming,” Sauchelli writes, requiring workers to drill deep holes in the rock ledge, then insert rebar posts at least 20 feet into the slope—all before the sheets themselves get delivered.
SPONSORED: Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital Express Care is now open. Our Express Care team treats adults and children over the age of one for non-life-threatening conditions. And with evening and weekend hours, you get the right level of care when you need it. Get immediate care for coughs, colds, rashes, and sprains right at APD Express Care, and all without an appointment. Alice Peck Day Memorial Hospital Express Care. Part of the best health system in the region, Dartmouth Health. Sponsored by Dartmouth Health.
Leb police look for help identifying counterfeiting suspects. On Monday, the LPD says in a press release, the department got a report from the West Leb Walmart that two people had allegedly used counterfeit currency to pay for goods they’d bought—which they later returned at the Walmart in Claremont. “The suspects are believed to be operating a dark colored Jeep Grand Cherokee,” the department writes, along with security stills of the pair in question. There’s some debate on the department’s FB page on whether it’s actually a Cherokee or a Compass.
Downtown WRJ to get paid parking; downtown Hanover to get its parking garage back. Prepare to scramble for the S. Main Street lot back of Northern Stage in WRJ; it’s going to remain free, reports Clare Shanahan in the VN, while elsewhere, 16 new kiosks (they’ll be installed in coming weeks) will “regulate 211 parking spaces, including on-street parking and spaces in the…parking lot across from the Hotel Coolidge.” Those spots will cost $1 an hour. The whole issue’s been contentious, and the kiosks won’t be turned on right away. Meanwhile, the Hanover garage partially reopens today, with an hour of free parking vs. the 15 minutes you used to get.
At WRJ’s Bugbee Senior Center, a retired pastry chef gives back—by baking. Cindy Cameron came to the Upper Valley to work with Alice Trent back in the days Trent ran Alice’s in Norwich; Cameron moved on to the Home Hill Inn and then the Lyme Inn. Now, writes baker and food writer Charlotte Rutledge in the latest issue of the VT Foodbank’s newsletter, Cameron volunteers as a Meals on Wheels driver and teaches baking classes at Bugbee. “I try to take a really fancy dessert…and show them how they can do it at home,” she tells Rutledge. “I break down techniques they can do themselves.” Includes her favorite pastry dough recipe. (Flip to pp. 4-5)
Coming to Northern Stage, a “more playful” Peter Pan story. In fact, writes Avery Lin in The Dartmouth, Eric Love’s adaptation for Peter & Wendy, which opens Dec. 5 (the first week’s already sold out) departs from the original in all sorts of ways, in no small part because it’s being shaped by a collaboration among actors—more than a dozen kids, three Dartmouth students, and six adults—and Love, who’s also directing. The play’s set in 1999 NYC; women, including Wendy, Tinker Bell, and Lily, have more prominent roles; and the staging includes hand-manipulated lights and projections. Lin offers a glimpse of what’s ahead. “Maybe the whole thing is about play,” says Love.
Confused about NH’s open enrollment debate? Here’s help. In NH Bulletin, Ethan DeWitt provides a helpful account of what’s going on. It began in 2009, with an obscure law to allow a public school to become an “open enrollment” school taking students—and their tuition—from other districts. That didn’t actually happen until three years ago, when the Lakes Region’s Prosper Mountain School took the state up on its offer, redesigned its curriculum, and began attracting students from elsewhere. Recently, the state Supreme Court upheld its right to charge their home districts. So far, Franklin has also dipped its toe in, and Concord’s considering it. DeWitt tells the story.
Mt. Washington could hit November snow record: “Every time I open a door, I have to shovel myself out.” As of yesterday, the observatory had recorded 60.1 inches, weather observer Alexandra Branton tells WMUR’s Arielle Mitropoulos; the record is 86.6 inches, set back in 1968—but, Branton says, more is on the way. “We haven't gotten any huge weather systems that have brought massive amounts of precipitation to New England,” she explains. “It's just persistent, moist, northwesterly flow that is giving us upslope snow showers.” Even if the summit doesn’t hit 1968’s total, “We will definitely be in the books as one of the snowiest Novembers on record.”
A pair of new Burlington eateries to put on your radar. There are definitely times I want Melissa Pasanen’s job at Seven Days.
For starters, there’s Topsham native Menachem Cone’s new food truck, Ruth (named for a family dog who in turn was named for the biblical matriarch). Cone is an Orthodox Jew, and his truck, which is fully kosher, is parked by the Chabad of Burlington community center, Pasanen writes. The menu varies, but there’ll always be housemade pastrami, falafel, and shoestring fries. And, with 90 students at Chabad’s preschool and day school, a built-in market.
Then there’s Elliot Sion’s Wise Fool in the Old North End, which was takeout-only until it opened for sit-down a month ago. “Sion describes his menu as Middle Eastern street food that pays homage to the global diaspora to which his Jewish-Egyptian-Syrian family belongs,” writes Pasanen. Says Sion, “The Wise Fool is as much influenced by the halal carts in New York as it is by a vendor in Beirut.” He describes it as a place you can “get a big plate of food to share and just have a good night without losing all your money.”
Twenty-five years into this century, the 25 most powerful ideas. BBC Science Focus tapped “the world’s top thinkers” to put together a wide-ranging list of the century’s biggest ideas so far. A small taste: an HPV vaccine that’s yielded a 90 percent drop in cervical cancer in young women; tissue engineering, which may soon use our own stem cells to grow replacement teeth; self-repairing materials (imagine a smartphone that can repair itself overnight); a folding mirror that let the James Webb Space Telescope discover the most distant and oldest galaxy; and using CT scans on dinosaur fossils to learn how their brains worked. Onward to the next 75 years!
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.
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HEADS UP
The Green Mountain Club presents an online “Introduction to Winter Hiking”. It’s a workshop with “hands-on winter-specific information where you will learn what to wear, what to bring and what gear you need for a safe and successful winter trip. We will discuss clothing, layering, socks, footwear, traction, sweat, handwarmers, navigation, trail-finding, hydration, Leave No Trace & more.” 6 pm by Zoom—no charge to register, though they wouldn’t turn down a donation for the Long Trail.
Shay Mirk and Making Nonfiction Comics at Still North Books & Bar. The graphic journalist, editor, teacher, and nonfiction comics publisher’s new book is subtitled, A Field Guide to Graphic Journalism, with skills and practices practitioners will need. Mirk will talk about it, then lead a zine-making workshop. 7 pm.
At the Center at Eastman, “The Arctic Climate System Is Changing and Why It Matters.” Polar scientist Martin Jeffries (who finished up his career at CRREL) will talk about changes to snow, ice, glaciers, and permafrost in the Arctic and their impact on ecological and social systems both in the Arctic and lower down, including in NH. 7 pm in the Draper Room.
Local standup stars at Sawtooth Kitchen in Hanover. Hosted by Kevin McTaggart, you get a chance to see Vicki Ferentinos, Mona Forgione, Will Berman and Aaron Richter. 8 pm.
THURSDAY (since there’s no Daybreak tomorrow)
Story JAM in WRJ. It’s JAM’s bi-monthly story circle where community members get to know each other through personal stories. You can share an unrehearsed 5-minute true story from your own life, or just go sit and listen. No competition, no judgment, no lecturing, no ranting… This week’s theme: “All in the Family”. 6 pm.
Fable Farm’s Rumney Sessions bring in Silas & Friends. The VT-based acoustic quartet plays music from old time and bluegrass, with “funky harmonies and lyrical instrumentals.” Led by Silas Hamilton, with fellow VT musicians Annie McDougall, Mowgli Giannitti, and Mark Burds. Doors and food at 5:30, music 6-ish.
Whaleback throws a kickoff party for Thursday Night Race League. “You don’t have to have a team or race to join in on the fun,” they write. 6 pm.
At Artistree’s open mic night, Krystofer Maison and a songwriting salon. Maison is a classically trained vocalist and performance artist, and he’s been at Artistree this week leading two songwriting workshops. Thursday, he and the participants show their work. 6:30 pm, pay what you wish.
Lebanon High School fall concert at Lebanon Opera House. It’ll feature the Concert Band, Chorus, Superlatives, and Jazz Band, starting with the Concert Band’s program, Inspired By, which features pieces influenced by nature, a painting, a holiday, and a book. The chorus will offer pieces based on folk songs and lullabies from around the world, the Superlatives with their newest program, and then the jazz band with both classics and a set of new pieces. 7 pm, no charge.
Pentangle Arts and the Hall Art Foundation screen Hairy Who & The Chicago Imagists. It’s the launch of a new “Art in Film” collaborative film series sponsored by the two organizations, with a documentary about the art scene that flourished in the Windy City at the end of the ‘60s and early ‘70s and whose iconoclastic work still inspires artists today. Narrated by Chicago theater legend Cheryl Lynn Bruce, with score by composer and cellist Tomeka Reid. 7 pm, Woodstock Town Hall Theater.
The VT Ski & Snowboard Museum with “Celebrating Vermont’s Olympians: Inspiring Journeys to the Winter Games” online. Thetford’s legendary sportscaster, Peter Graves, moderates a panel discussion with Olympic gold medalist Barbara Ann Cochran, cross-country skiing pioneer Trina Hosmer, snowboarding trailblazer Betsy Shaw, and freestyle skiing legend Donna Weinbrecht. Via Zoom, 7 pm. You’ll need to register, and though there’s no charge, the museum could use a small donation.
At the Flying Goose in New London, Freebo & Alice Howe. Freebo spent a decade playing bass with Bonnie Raitt, and has been out on his own for several more. He and rising star and singer-songwriter Alice Howe have been teamed up for the last eight years, blending her crystal voice and Americana chops and his rock & blues mastery. They’re fresh off a UK tour. 7:30 pm, you’ll need to call for reservations.
And for today...
Because Alice Howe and Freebo will be at the Flying Goose tomorrow night, you definitely want a preview.
See you tomorrow afternoon for the Weekend Heads Up, then again on Friday.
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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael