Daybreak Wednesday 2/23/22

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Clouds and warmth, then sun and cold. The remnant of last night's storm system are moving off and a cold front is on the way... but not before we hit the mid-50s this morning. We should start seeing sun in the late morning, then the winds pick up and temps start to drop not long after, hitting the mid-20s by dusk on their way to the low teens or even colder overnight.This seems like a good morning for some color, doesn't it? For the last few years, Norwich photographer Rich Cohen has been experimenting with flower portraits—orchids, alstromeria, gladioli, and the like—which he's just put online. "Each photo is a composite of 20-50 individual photos that are put together using a technique called focus stacking," he explains. "It’s what gives the photos their sharp quality." These are summer flowers; hit the "Rich Cohen Photography" link at the top to see other seasons.Dartmouth student workers will hold vote on whether to unionize. You may remember that early in January, student dining workers asked the college to recognize a union voluntarily; instead, administration officials said they would work with students on a vote under the auspices of the National Labor Relations Board. The NLRB has approved an agreement between the two sides, reports Frank Blackburn in The Dartmouth, and if more than 50 percent of the student workers eligible to take part vote Yes before March 30, they'll get a union. The college has pledged to remain neutral.Two seats, six candidates. Thetford voters have no lack of alternatives in next week's selectboard contests, notes Alex Hanson in the Valley News. Two incumbents—Nick Clark and Mary Bryant—are competing with former board chair Stuart Rogers for one seat, while former board member John Bacon, development review board member Orin Pacht, and justice of the peace David Goodrich run for another. Debate has been heated, most notably involving Clark's absences from meetings and Clark's assertion that he and at least one other member have been left out of discussions by other members.SPONSORED: Need your booster, or a first or second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine? Throughout the month of February, the old JC Penney site in the West Lebanon Plaza will be open every Tuesday and Friday for free, easy access to all vaccines (Pfizer, Moderna, and J&J) for everyone ages five and up. All residents welcome – New Hampshire, Vermont, and beyond. Drop by any Tuesday 9:30 AM to 2:00 PM or Friday 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM. Sponsored by Community Health, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Health.“In all my travels in this country and in Europe, I have seen no village more beautiful than this.” That was Washington Irving in 1832, writing about Orford. And, as Barbara Radcliffe Rogers writes in New Hampshire mag, its looks haven't changed much over the past 190 years. Those federal houses on The Ridge are a good pointer to its history, she says (as is the pamphlet available at the Orford Social Library), including Samuel Morey's at the center and Gen. John Wheeler's at the end (he's the guy who funded Daniel Webster's legal defense of Dartmouth College).Road salt and other sources are raising salt levels in local lakes, putting ecosystems at risk. As part of a larger international study, a Dartmouth team used water from Storrs Pond, Goose Pond, Mascoma Lake, and Boston Lot Lake to create tiny artificial ponds. Then, writes Harini Barath for Dartmouth News, they added salts over six weeks... and found that zooplankton, which under-gird lakes' food systems, started to decline at salt levels well below thresholds that the US and Canada consider safe. Those thresholds "aren’t adequately protecting aquatic life," says bio prof Kathryn Cottingham.Should trees' ability to capture carbon figure in VT's Current Use regs? At the moment, writes Li Shen in Sidenote, landowners with parcels in the Current Use program have to log periodically. But, Shen writes, "Forests are the only proven system that removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and, when left to their own devices, they store it long-term." About 12 acres of average forest, she calculates, are necessary to remove the CO2 emissions of the average Vermonter—which is why there's now a move to allow family forest owners to enroll permanently conserved forests into Current Use."I can't say I know exactly what the book is about but that's half the appeal." On the surface, Julie Otsuka's slender novel The Swimmers is about a dedicated group that frequents a community pool...and then about one of them as she slips into dementia and is moved to memory care. The two sections are connected only lightly, but in this week's Enthusiasms, the Norwich Bookstore's Carin Pratt says that doesn't matter. "Weeks after I read The Swimmers, thoughts and questions about the book popped up in my head at random moments like seal heads in the ocean," she writes. More at the link.Or hey, maybe you want to pick up City of Thieves or Station Eleven or In the Eye of the Wild or... Enthusiasms has been going on long enough that it's actually become a darn good reading list, and bless their souls, the Norwich Bookstore has just created an Enthusiasms section (photo at the link). You'll find past recommendations at the bottom of every writeup and after today, a link to the full list down at the bottom of each edition of Daybreak. So if you want one of them, just ask at the Norwich Bookstore, Still North Books, the Yankee Bookshop, Left Bank Books, or your local library.NH lands $25 million Monsanto settlement. The agreement resolves the state's 2020 lawsuit alleging that over nearly 50 years, from 1929 to "at least 1977," the chemical giant "marketed and sold numerous products containing PCBs knowing that PCBs caused harm to human health and the environment." As a result, Attorney General John Formella's office says in a press release, 104 water bodies suffered PCB contamination. The state will get $20 million of the settlement amount, after deductions for attornies fees and costs.Say it ain't so! Someone took a chainsaw to the Welcome to the White Mountain National Forest sign along the Kanc, reports WMUR (actually, it was first reported Sunday night by a user on the u local New Hampshire FB group). And that's not all. WMNF officials say saws have been used to cut other signs and restroom doors, and that panels and kiosk boards have been damaged by shotgun blasts.Dispute over Gunstock festers. It's not local, but it's pretty darn intriguing. For months, there's been active, even vitriolic, debate over the ski area over in Gilford, NH, which is owned by Belknap County, run by its own management, and overseen by a board appointed by the county's state legislative delegation. Several Republicans in the delegation believe that a publicly owned entity should not be operating as independently as it has been and are seeking more control; community members and others are leery of state legislators trying to run a ski mountain. NHPR's Josh Rogers parses the controversy.And in an update... The NH House committee weighing a bill to give the Belknap County delegation control over the Gunstock budget unanimously recommended yesterday that it be killed. The committee got 1,200 online notices from people urging the bill's defeat, reports the Laconia Daily Sun's Michael Mortenson. The measure could still be brought up on the House floor.Scott vetoes gun bill. VT's governor yesterday nixed a bill that would have kept prospective gun buyers from completing their purchase without a federal background check—even if it takes longer than three days, which is the current limit for a wait. The measure would also have banned guns from hospitals. In his veto message, Scott offered to work with the legislature, and proposed a seven-day waiting period for a background check to be completed. The bill's backers may have the votes to override Scott's veto in the Senate, but its fate in the House is uncertain, reports VPR's Peter Hirshfield.Looks like micro-bread is now a thing. Not the bread itself, of course, but how it's made and sold. "A new batch of micro-bakers is firing up home ovens; mixing dough by hand; and selling loaves via word of mouth, farmers markets and Instagram," write Jordan Barry and Melissa Pasanen in Seven Days. They profile four small-scale bakers around the state, including Calais's Anne Marie Shea, who makes gluten-free sourdoughs. Alas, no mention of Suzanne Lupien, who was a micro-baker in Norwich before the label even existed and is keeping the tradition going in Vershire.“We have a tradition that we should value. Most places in the country don’t have this opportunity.” Until a few years ago, former VT Gov. Jim Douglas was town moderator in Middlebury—he began when he was secretary of state and continued while he was governor. In the latest Happy Vermont post and podcast, Erica Housekeeper goes deep Douglas on town meeting history, declining participation, the Australian ballot—and how awkward it was to be moderator his first year as governor. The moderator, he says, "is a traffic cop."We've all been there. Well, maybe not there, exactly, out in a plowed driveway trying to shoot hoops mid-winter, but if you don't see yourself in this kid's travails (and reaction), you've led a charmed life.

And the numbers...

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“I’m just going to put it in the way that I know how to say it, because I don’t really talk in churchy language as much anymore. But I really did feel the Lord say, from my stomach, ‘I do want you to be a singer.’ And I had this moment where I just stopped running, and I sat down and prayed, just laying in the dirt.” The singer-songwriter Yebba grew up in W. Memphis, Arkansas, the daughter of a preacher. That moment as she was jogging in the fields by her home came her freshman year in college. She dropped out and moved to New York, determined to make the most of her gift of a voice. It took a while, in part because she was in no hurry, but her debut album came out last year, produced by Mark Ronson.

—which Mayer liked enough to invite her to join him on his current tour.

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.

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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt         Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter    Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                    About Tom                                 About Michael

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