GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Light snow. It's from a fast-moving system, which will limit how much we actually get—anywhere from 1-3 inches, the weather folks predict, depending on where you are. Cloudy all day, temps getting up to about 30 around noon and sticking there for a while before dropping into the low 20s overnight. Calm winds from the southeast then east today.As for those snow totals...
Thetford Selectboard passes indoor mask mandate. The vote came after Cam Gregory, who owns two general stores in town, argued that it would be unfair to put his employees in the position of enforcing a mandate. But, reports Nick Clark (a member of the selectboard himself) in Sidenote, other residents—both at the meeting and by email beforehand—"expressed concerns about shopping locally when there wasn't a mask mandate, saying that, recently, they've preferred to travel to larger stores that have mandates." The Norwich Selectboard takes up the issue tonight.The Dan & Whit's story is nice—and we need more like it, says former US labor secretary. Robert Reich, who filled the post in the Obama administration, went to Dartmouth and has a soft spot for the store, he writes in his Substack newsletter. So the stories of townspeople stepping up to counter its labor shortage struck a chord. Businesses like it make it possible for communities to be communities, he argues. "I think people owe something to businesses that are the hearts of our communities," he writes. "Maybe we should donate some of our own time and labor to account for their importance..." Thanks, LM!SPONSORED: Exclusive Offer for Daybreak Readers! Let Blake Hill Preserves take your holiday charcuterie game to the next level... Just add jam! Be inspired by super-simple and elegant cheese boards perfect for the holidays, like the timeless Luxury Fruit Mince Pie Filling paired with Jasper Hill Cabot Clothbound Cheddar & the perfect accompaniments. Your order earns you $10 for every $50 spent: Today only, add a $10 Jam E-Card to your cart for every $50 spent, enter promo code DAYBREAK at checkout, and the discount will magically apply. Sponsored by Blake Hill Preserves.“People from the St. Paul’s Church helped found the Haven 40 years ago.... This is going to draw us even closer together.” That's Haven director Michael Redmond talking to WCAX's Adam Sullivan about the three-way plan taking shape around the current Haven site on Hartford Ave. The Haven is proposing an emergency overnight shelter for 20 with "laundry and showers and space for people to work on finding permanent housing during the day," says Redmond, and Twin Pines Housing hopes to build 18 units of affordable housing, all on land owned by St. Paul's Episcopal Church.Honoring the season "in a new and unexpected way." That was Susan Apel's experience of Opera North's production two years ago of All is Calm, Peter Rothstein's opera about the Christmas Truce of 2014. ON is reprising the production this weekend at the Lebanon Opera House for two days only. All is Calm, Susan writes on Artful, is "a good choice for opera lovers and an even better one for those for whom opera may seem difficult to approach": accessible, "sweet, but never treacly," and just over an hour."We go from an adventure to literally a battle of life and death — and it’s just thrilling.” Eric Love is Northern Stage's director of education and the director of his students' production of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which opens in previews tonight (see below) as the company's holiday show. He talks to the Rutland Herald's Jim Lowe about what it took to pull the production together. “We want the children watching the show to say that Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy could be me,” Love says. “And, as they discover the world of Narnia, they’re taken back in time into a world that feels timeless.""Half human, half bear." In 2015, while living among the Even people on Russia's remote Kamchatka Peninsula, French anthropologist Nastassja Martin had an encounter with a bear that left her grievously wounded. But her new book, In the Eye of the Wild, "is not an adventure story, nor a survivalist narrative," writes Howe librarian Jared Jenisch in this week's Enthusiasm. Martin's headed for much deeper terrain, weaving "anthropology, memoir, poetic musing, and animist reflection into a gripping narrative" that reflects on modern society as well as her experiences. More at the link."A vaccine-only strategy is really insufficient to control the Delta variant." Dartmouth public health specialist Anne Sosin spoke to NHPR's Rick Ganley yesterday about the steps she and some of her New England colleagues have been urging as NH and VT case numbers continue to explore record territory. Statewide mask mandates top the list, she argues: "They provide a tool for us to control community transmission and relieve some of the impacts on our community's health systems and schools.""We’re finding that there isn’t anybody at the other end of the line that says they can help us, because they’re overwhelmed themselves.” Michael Rousse is the chief medical officer at Northeastern VT Regional Hospital in St. J, and he—like his counterpart at Gifford in Randolph, Joshua White—spoke to VTDigger's Riley Robinson about the stress facing smaller rural hospitals as they seek to transfer patients who need immediate advanced care—a cardiac stent, say—to equally pressed larger hospitals. Some patients have gone as far away as CT or PA, Robinson reports; some have died.VT will require insurers to reimburse for at-home Covid test kits. The move was announced by Gov. Phil Scott at his press conference yesterday, and will cover tests bought Dec. 1 and later; he added that he hopes to expand reimbursements to people without private insurance as well, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko. Petenko also notes that VT state data is clearly showing that its current spike is being driven by people who are not fully vaccinated: They are now 5.1 times likelier to get sick than fully vaccinated Vermonters, and cases among them have grown 95 percent in the past seven days."Take a breath." Nope, not a yoga instructor. It's the heading on a sign at Red Hen Bakery's home café in Middlesex, VT that went up in October to help combat what co-owner Randy George calls "an epidemic of rudeness." Staff noticed the behavior during the summer, reports Sally Pollak in Seven Days: Customers flipping out over the smallest inconveniences. The notice—which continues, "the person on the other side of the counter is a human being with hopes and dreams and feelings, just like you”—seems to have had an impact: Instead of one in five customers mouthing off, it's now more like one in ten.Well hey, we can't all strap on boards and head downhill... So Pollak (she's been busy) takes a look at what else you can do at some of Vermont's ski ar... er, resorts. Jay, for instance, has 17 rock-climbing walls (plus a ropes course). Smuggler's Notch has "glow tubing" two evenings a week, Spruce Peak's got a heated (like, 84 degrees) outdoor pool, and Stratton's got snowshoeing. And if even that's too much physical movement, you can always go catch a sunrise or sundown ride to the top of the mountain in one of Sugarbush's snowcats.Every day, 1 million people upload pictures of their coffee grinds to a Turkish app—and get a personalized fortune back. And each year at this time, consultant and former journalist Tom Whitwell publishes his thoroughly diverting list, "52 Things I Learned." The 2021 version is out and—just sayin'—you could get lost in there. There's a new programming language that looks like a Jerry Seinfeld routine. A community of 100 Zimbabweans has been clearing land mines in the Falklands for the last decade. Weightlifting for dogs is an actual thing. So sorry about your morning...
As promised... Time to catch up on NH's county and town-by-town Covid numbers, which got posted yesterday. Increases or decreases are comparisons with the numbers as they stood last Thursday.
The state tallies 519 (-38) active cases in Grafton County, 399 (+5) in Sullivan, and 1,051 (+141) in Merrimack. In town-by-town numbers, the state says Claremont has 139 (-9); Newport 111 (+13); Lebanon 76 (-21); Hanover 51 (-17); Canaan 51 (+31); Charlestown 43 (-1); Haverhill 38 (-9); Sunapee 27 (+3); Warren 25 (no change); New London 21 (+12); Enfield 19 (no change); Cornish 18 (+at least 14); Grantham 14 (+4); Newbury 13 (+2); Plainfield 11 (+5); Wilmot 10 (-2); Rumney 9 (-6); Wentworth 8 (+2); Orford 6 (-1); Grafton 5 (-2); Croydon 5 (-9); and Piermont, Lyme, and Springfield 1-4 each.
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Today at noon, the Haven continues its 40th-anniversary series of lectures on topics important to those concerned about poverty. The speaker is Tuck School dean Matthew Slaughter, taking on "What has happened to the well-being of American families over the past 40 years?" Online, no cost, but you'll need to register.
And from 4-7 pm, Hanover's weekly holiday market continues at the Richard W. Black Center, with crafts, prepared foods, bagels, produce from Honey Field Farm, and more. Could be the closest experience to an indoor farmers market you're going to get this year.
At 6 pm, DHMC hosts an online webinar on "Supporting a Loved One in a Mental Health Crisis." John Broderick, former chief justice of the NH Supreme Court (and now an administrator at DHMC) and Bernie Seifert, who runs adult programs at NAMI New Hampshire, will offer the voice of experience and practical advice for family members or close friends of people who are struggling. No charge, but you'll need to register.
Finally, at 7:30 this evening, Northern Stage opens its holiday-season run of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe with three days of previews, then the official opening on Saturday. The production features 30 of NS's student actors (in two rotating casts) and CS Lewis's epic myth/adventure about four siblings who find themselves in a Narnia trapped in perpetual winter. Masks, proof of vaccination or negative Covid test required.
It's reassuring to know that Willie Nelson is 88: productive, deeply wise about music, his voice still lithe and vibrant. Earlier this year he released his second album of Sinatra covers, a tribute to a singer he admired—"I learned a lot about phrasing listening to Frank. He didn’t worry about behind the beat or in front of the beat, or whatever, he could sing it either way, and that’s the feel you have to have," he said a few years ago. The feeling was mutual. "That cat is a blues singer,” Sinatra said after Nelson released
Stardust
in 1978
.
“He can sing my stuff, but I don’t know if I can sing his.”
See you tomorrow.
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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