SO GOOD TO SEE YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
Hey, it's just snow out there! Glorious, eh? And it'll be sunny, to boot. But there's also this arctic front working its way in, so the high for the day will already have passed while you were asleep: Temps dropping from the low 30s this morning into the low 20s by dusk, and on down into the low single digits by tomorrow morning. Gusty west winds — not as serious as in the higher terrain, but we're still talking 25-30 mph — throughout the day. Dartmouth hires new director for Skiway. Mark Adamczyk, who's currently the director of outdoor adventure at Winter Park Resort in Colorado, will replace retiring director Doug Holler on April 1. He becomes only the fourth director in the Skiway's 63-year history. Adamczyk's ideas for the mountain include “creating a terrain park, new offseason programs, and training,” the VN reports, but then quickly adds that both Adamczyk and Dartmouth say any talk of specific changes is premature. And speaking of high-level winter sports... William Daugherty was out with his drone last Sunday during the UV Trail Alliance's annual Lake Morey Skate-a-thon. All those little figures gliding serenely (okay, there are one or two windmills) along a ribbon of ice through that hill-ringed expanse of snow.And speaking of ice... Remember the engineers who got engaged on a bridge in NH? Dartmouth just got its own version when Tuck student Gunnar Esiason, football legend Boomer Esiason's son, proposed to his girlfriend, Darcy Cunningham, on Occom Pond on Monday. The younger Esiason has cystic fibrosis, and Cunningham has become his primary caregiver. She's a therapist interested in chronic health issues and mental illness; he's headed toward health policy. "It’s important for patients living with chronic illness...to have a say in the way drug-makers and policymakers treat us,” he tells the VN.They're probably not going to call it "Trojan Horse Bread," though. The NYT is up with a story about the effort by bakers around the country, including King Arthur Flour, to create a whole-grain sandwich loaf with mass appeal. A collective of about 40 bakers, millers, teachers, and wheat-breeders are working with Washington State U's Bread Lab to create localized versions of "a way to sneak healthy ingredients onto the taste buds of a younger generation," as writer Amelia Nierenberg puts it. KAF sells about 350 loaves of its Just Bread each week.SPONSORED. Reduced Shakespeare. It only took a bucket of white-out for poet Matthea Harvey to cut enough of The Tempest to turn it into The Temp and Mr. Prosper, a tale of a hard-hearted corporate overlord. Dartmouth’s Taylor Ho Bynum set it to music, using the chops that landed him on NPR’s “best jazz albums of 2019” list. The Upper Valley gets to hear it first, Feb. 21 and 22, with Taylor’s Coast Jazz Orchestra, the Dartmouth Symphony Orchestra, and some amazing guest artists. Depending on the night, you’ll also hear Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet or Duke Ellington’s Such Sweet Thunder suite.Sorry, no landing on Lake Winnipesaukee this winter. The NH Pilots Association has announced that the ice runway on Alton Bay — believed to be the only one of its kind in the Lower 48 — will not be opening this year because the ice is too thin. They need a minimum of 12 inches of ice to get a plow truck safely onto it, but ice depth hasn't exceeded 9 inches so far, and they don't think the rest of the winter looks cold enough. “Mother Nature is not cooperating with us this year,” the group said in an email to members. So, Franklin Pierce had this graphite mine... Marshall Hudson has an intriguing piece in the most recent New Hampshire Magazine about the mine our 14th president inherited from his father over in Goshen, NH, this side of Mt. Sunapee. Pierce's younger brother, Henry, actually ran the mine, and in an 1844 report its product — used mostly in pencils — was judged "not equal in quality to that obtained at Ticonderoga and does not sell at top quality price but sells at a good second quality price.” Still, says Hudson, if you can find your way there and grab a rock, it'll write. Oh, and speaking of the area around Sunapee... If you've got the Newbury NH Smokey the Bear, would you return it, please? About a dozen years ago, a local Boy Scout named Michael Drew made a life-size version of Smokey for the Newbury Fire & Rescue "Fire Danger" sign. It's been securely bolted to the sign ever since. Until, that is, it suddenly went missing a couple of days ago. The fire department's not casting aspersions, it's just asking for the sign back on its Facebook page, "no questions asked." Vermont's first public poll of the political season is out. Unlike NH, voters' opinions in the state have pretty much been a black box, but VPR and Vermont PBS commissioned polling on the upcoming elections and other issues. The first results, on politics, are now out. Bernie Sanders polls above 50 percent support in the leadup to the March 3 presidential primary. And if the general election were held today, incumbent Gov. Phil Scott would handily beat both Lt. Gov. David Zuckerman and former Ed. Secy. Rebecca Holcombe, his two Democratic challengers.“The reason why it’s so stinging is because of the element of truth." That's VT's economic development commissioner, Joan Goldstein, talking to VTDigger's Anne Wallace Allen about a Jan. 30 Economist article asserting that Vermont had the lowest wage growth in the US over the past decade due largely to its vigorous regulations. Goldstein points at Act 250; business leaders say the whole climate makes businesses with high wages reluctant to locate in the state. But the legislature's economist takes issue. "Wage growth has been incredibly weak throughout the entire nation," he argues.Ah, but... For the last six Sundays, The Atlantic has been running photo essays of different states, part of a year-long project to bring each of the 50 states into focus. This past Sunday it was Vermont's turn. No surprise, it's the iconic Vermont that features in the 32 pics: a hot-air balloon over Quechee Gorge, Barnard during foliage season, kids 'n' heifers at the Tunbridge Fair, a farm in Barnet, a moose in Norton, a World Cup skier at Killington. Oh, and yeah: sap buckets. No word on when NH's turn will come. (Thanks for the tip, CF!)That'll be 802 with a little halo over the 8, please. Make of this what you will, but the personal finance site WalletHub has just declared Vermont the least sinful state in the US. They looked at 47 different metrics, from violent crime to bullying to fast-food establishments and beauty salons per capita. VT ranks dead last on the sins score, despite coming in 9th on the "Greed" index. NH is 46th overall, and a very chill 50th on the "Anger & Hatred" index. There's actually lots of intriguing findings, which you can play around with at the link. Oh, #1? You really need to ask? Nevada.
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SO... TONIGHT?
The upper reaches of the mountain (aside from the ski area) has what the state calls an "exemplary natural community" —that is, one of the best remaining examples of New Hampshire's original biodiversity. Tonight, the Friends of Mt. Sunapee that ecosystem and what makes it unique to the state. 6:30 pm at Claremont Makerspace.
In 2015, trying to figure out his life, Brakeley — a writer, adventurer, and trail-builder who lives in Sharon — decided to ski the Catamount Trail, the 330-mile backcountry ski trail that runs through Vermont from Massachusetts to Canada. He took along with him the narrative of Henry Knox's epic journey to Boston in the winter of 1775 with artillery pieces from the recently captured Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain. 6 pm at the Yankee Bookshop in Woodstock.
The Hanover Chamber and Meet Up Upper Valley are hosting a "Learn to Curl" evening in WRJ for members. If you happen to be one, you'll get the basics of delivery, sweeping, and strategy, taught by members of the UV Curling Club. You'll need warm clothing, shoes with clean, non-skid soles, and a hat and gloves wouldn't hurt. 6:40 pm at the Wendell A. Barwood Arena, and you'll need to register at the link.
Okay, the day awaits! See you tomorrow.
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