GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Dry and sunny today, storm approaching tonight. We've got one more day of high pressure, with sunny skies, highs in the low or mid 50s, and light winds from the north. The big drama will be tomorrow, as low pressure moves in from the west and a secondary low approaches from the south. Tonight's impact is mostly just clouds, giving us lows in the upper 30s, though there's a slight chance of rain toward dawn. As for what follows, we'll just wait and see.Even on a dead tree, birch bark flexes its artistry. Case in point: This fine set of ringlets Sally Duston found along the west branch of the Ompompanoosuc in Thetford, near an old ford.Nearly 80 Vermont Castings employees to be furloughed starting next week. In all, reports Shaun Robinson in VTDigger, the venerable stove manufacturer's Minnesota-based parent company plans to furlough 78 employees at its Bethel and Randolph plants, while another 11 will stay on to maintain machinery. “Orders for our products have been lower than anticipated,” Hearth & Home Technologies VP Sarah Wellcome tells Robinson, leading to a glut of inventory. Wellcome says the furlough is expected to last "a couple of months." Furloughed employees will retain their benefits.Enfield details cyberscam. Following on last week's report that a town employee had been duped into sending money to a fraudulent account, town manager Ed Morris yesterday announced that the total came to $742,297.23—but that Bank of America has frozen $450,000 of it and the town is working both to get that money back and "to explore every avenue for reclaiming additional funds." The funds, Morris says, were tied to a public safety building project, not the general fund. The town and the employee, he writes, have agreed that "continued employment with the Town would not be beneficial to either party."Dartmouth student smashes Alaska-to-Tierra-del-Fuego cycling record. It's called the Pan Am, and 20-year-old Bond Almand just completed the 13,595-mile route (with 541,735 feet of elevation gain) in 75 days, 17 hours, and 55 minutes, unsupported—besting the supported world record by nine days. Almand, a government and climate science student who took the semester off, finished up in Ushuaia, Argentina last Thursday, after starting in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on Aug. 31 and passing through ice fields, mountains, prairies, rainforest, desert, "and along dangerously chaotic highways," as Nicola Smith writes for Dartmouth News. Here's Almand's blog. Thanks, DH!SPONSORED: There’s still time to give to your Upper Valley neighbors! Donate to Willing Hands and keep plates filled with fresh food this holiday season. Your donation reduces food waste, expands reliable, equitable access to fresh food, and strengthens our communities. Hit the burgundy link or here to help us keep larders and fridges stocked. Sponsored by Willing Hands."We all have stories." And sometimes, writes the Norman Williams Public Library's Liza Bernard, they explain behavior that to other people might seem unreasonable. So it is with Ian, the protagonist of Ken Cadow's award-winning novel, Gather. As Liza writes in this week's Enthusiasms, the book is an excursion into the thinking—and confusion—that underlies Ian's trek through life as a rural Vermont teen. "I recommend this insightful novel—written for young adults—to readers of all ages who want to understand rural life, teenagers, insecurity, addiction, and their own biases," Liza writes.Co-creator of BASIC, Dartmouth "computing legend" Thomas Kurtz dies at 96. If you happen to be near campus and notice the college flag lowered today and tomorrow, it's in honor of Kurtz, who along with then-math dept. chair John Kemeny developed the keystone computer language. In a remembrance posted by Arts and Sciences, Kurtz recalls the early days of computing at the college—which required taking a steel box of punch cards on the 6:20 am train out of WRJ to MIT and running them on their computer. At the link, a mini-history on how computing developed, and Kurtz's role. He died Nov. 12.SPONSORED: Upper Valley Symphony Orchestra concert on Sunday, Nov. 24 at 3 pm at the Lebanon Opera House. Under the direction of conductor Mark Nelson, this community ensemble showcases the talents of more than 50 musicians from around the Upper Valley and shares a rich symphonic repertoire, including classical and 20th century masterpieces. If you’ve never experienced live orchestra before, this program—featuring piano soloist Chenyu Wang performing Mozart—will delight you. Tickets: $20. Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.Larderhoarders, meet scatterhoarders. They're all squirrels, but there's a difference between how red squirrels and gray squirrels prep for winter, writes Mary Holland on her Naturally Curious blog. Red squirrels store conifer cones in piles called middens, which provide an ideal environment that keeps them from opening so that other mammals can eat them, she writes. Gray squirrels? They scatter nuts, fruits, and fungi hither and yon—which makes sense, since a cache would be hard to defend and could easily disappear. Psst: Think I can get away with telling my wife, "Hey, give me a break, I'm a scatterhoarder!"?Carrot recall. Both NH's health department and the Co-op Food Stores yesterday sent out alerts about a recall of organic whole and baby carrots from Grimmway Farms, a global produce company in Bakersfield, CA that packages vegetables for retailers all over the world—including 365, Bunny Luv, Cal-Organic, Nature’s Promise, Trader Joe’s, Wegmans, and others. The carrots, DHHS says, have been linked to a multistate outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing E. coli. "While it’s unlikely that the recalled carrots are still on store shelves, consumers may have them in their refrigerators or freezers," DHHS notes.And while we're talking warnings, NHDOT is alerting E-ZPass users about a "smishing" scam. "Smishing" uses deceptive text messages to trick recipients into revealing sensitive content. In this case, the text seems to come from “NH- Pass” and relays an urgent request to settle your account or face a late fee. "NH E-ZPass will never send text messages requesting payment for tolls with late fees," NHDOT says in a press release. If you get one, delete it (or forward it to 7726 (SPAM)), and definitely do not click on the link it contains.In NH, average child care expenses hit $32K a year. In a new report from UNH's Carsey School of Public Policy, researchers Tyrus Parker and Jess Carson note this amounts to 28 percent of median family income for households in the state with kids under 5 and is four times the 7 percent threshold the feds consider affordable. "At current prices," they write, "a New Hampshire family with two young children would need to earn $455,257 a year for the average price of early care and education to remain 'affordable.'” They found that rates are highest in the southern and eastern parts of the state.Just in case you like using the "blue highways" border crossings... US Customs and Border Patrol has announced it's cutting hours at some less-traveled ports of entry, reports NBC5's Molly Ormsbee. The changes take effect in January and include 8 am-8 pm hours in Canaan, North Troy, and W. Berkshire, VT, as well as at the Route 5 entry in Derby Line, and in Pittsburg, NH. Highway crossings, including I-89 and I-91, remain open 24 hours a day.That's one hip-looking penguin! It's all-black, and was caught on camera by Belgian wildlife photographer Yves Adams earlier this month at St. Andrews Bay on South Georgia Island. It actually puts the penguin at a disadvantage, writes Michael Zhang in PetaPixel, since the usual white belly helps camouflage penguins: "when a penguin is swimming, the dark back helps it blend in from above with the dark waters below, and the white belly helps it blend in from below with the bright sky above."
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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!
Directed by producing artistic director Carol Dunne, the musical follows a bookish young Belle and her "unlikely captor" the Beast—actually a prince under a spell. Featuring Riley Noland and Peter Neureuther, a cast of Broadway and NS veterans, and a student ensemble that includes Pavla and Dash Ballou, Anna Jacobson, Devi Belisle, Lila Bucci, and others. Pay-what-you-can previews tonight and tomorrow at 7:30 pm, previews Friday, opening Saturday. Runs through Jan. 1
. Sawtooth writes, "Bryan's sense of humor derives from a blend of being awkwardly tall and just plain awkward. In 2023, Bryan won the Coney Island Comedy Festival's One Liner Competition." 8 pm.
Today, from the sublime to the... well, you decide.
For several years, Czech engineer Pavel Jirásek had an intriguing sideline going—he'd stitch together footage of train horns into classical tunes: Gounod's "Ave Maria", Beethoven's "Für Elise", "Comptine d'un autre été" from Amélie. Here's Pachelbel's Canon, which took two years to make using a compilation of trains both in Prague and in the UK; if you want to check them all out, you'll find them here.
(Thanks HHC!)
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 Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
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