GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly sunny, low 40s. There's a narrow ridge of high pressure making its way through today, and though we start and then end the day with clouds as a system approaches, we should also see some decent sun for much of it. Winds today from the northwest, down into the upper 20s tonight with a chance of snow by the time you wake up tomorrow.Umm... Hitchcock's The Birds didn't have an orchestral score. But if it had, there'd be a link to it right here. Because Saturday night, in the parking lot out behind the Lebanon Opera House, Barbara Sterling came across... well, photo's at the link.Wilder fire leaves 11 without homes. Shouts of "Call 911!" and frantic pounding on doors and windows roused people from their sleep early yesterday morning, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak, after a couple and their son woke to find flames and thick smoke rapidly spreading inside their apartment in Wilder's Oak Knoll condominiums on Colonial Drive. Though police and firefighters responded quickly, four apartments were left uninhabitable. Eric was on the scene and talked to residents about what happened: chaos, flames "20 to 30 feet above the roof"—and small moments of grace. Yesterday afternoon, a VT State Police detective said they were classifying the fire as accidental.Despite "vocal pleas" from West Leb residents in support of River Park, planning board delays decision on site plan extension. As John Lippman wrote in the Valley News last week, developers David and Chet Clem "have been tussling with Lebanon officials" over the fate of the mixed-use project that was first proposed 16 years ago. A court decision last year granting them a site plan extension for the project's first phase—a life sciences building—led them to ask the board for an extension for later phases. On Monday, the VN reports, the board demurred, asking for a new "timeline." It meets again March 17.Valley News to get a new publisher. Rich Wallace, the paper's former advertising director and current general manager, will take the reins March 31 from Dan McClory, who's led the paper since 2012. McClory, who's been serving as both the VN's publisher and as COO of its parent company, Newspapers of New England (NNE)—which owns the Concord Monitor and other newspapers in NH and MA—will shift his responsibilities to focus on his work for NNE, reports the VN's Marion Umpleby. Wallace, meanwhile, will be navigating a digital transition and an uncertain future for print. The paper currently has 2,400 digital and 4,400 print subscribers, Umpleby writes.SPONSORED: Think Spring and get extra perks with your Cedar Circle Farm CSA by March 1! That's your last chance for Early Bird CSA pricing and bonus savings. Early Bird perks include 20% off fresh, certified organic produce with our Produce Plus CSA Cards; a free guest pass with our PYO Bouquet share; and 30% off one purchase of plants with our Native Perennial share. Or choose a Prepared Food CSA and leave the cooking to us! Cedar Circle’s CSA Cards all offer flexibility to use your farm credit as you choose. Sign up today for exclusive savings! Sponsored by Cedar Circle Farm & Education Center.Out of "a work of scrawls and scribbles," how art gets made. To be sure, former New York mag editor-in-chief Adam Moss defines "art" broadly. As the Howe Library's Jared Jenisch writes in this week's Enthusiasms, his book The Work of Art: How Something Comes From Nothing ranges from chef Samin Nosrat on the birth of Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat to Will Shortz on the making of a crossword puzzle to David Mandel's blow-by-blow on the evolution of a joke for the TV series Veep. The writers, artists, and others who answered Moss's call, Jared writes, have built "an engrossing archaeology of the creative act."In Randolph, a menu that's "rich" with puns. Though Artful's Susan Apel may have been particularly attuned to them because what she was having at Wit & Grit was the Ruth Bader Gins-burger (steakhouse burger on a generous bun with cheese, bacon jam, roasted garlic aioli, lettuce and tomato). She "sort of stumbled" into it last weekend, had a conversation with co-owner Hannah Arias, and took in the "casual and neighborhood-ish" vibe. "I imagine that many of the diners are regulars and for good reason: good food," she writes.
SPONSORED: Upper Valley Baroque concert: “Great Baroque Duets” this weekend in Hanover and Woodstock. UVB’s chamber ensemble presents beautiful 17th century music for two voices, accompanied by a virtuosic trio on period instruments. Experience the musical riches and innovative styles of the era with these engaging musicians. Saturday, March 1 at 7 pm at St. Thomas Episcopal Church, 9 W. Wheelock in Hanover, and Sunday, March 2 at 2 pm at North Chapel, 7 Church St, Woodstock. Tickets at the burgundy link or here, as well as at the door. Sponsored by Upper Valley Baroque.The tables are turned: About Demo Sofronas, the man behind About Norwich. Demo's been a lot of things: postmaster and longtime postal service employee, crossing guard, CATV selectboard-meeting videographer, member of more community organizations than you can count. But as Rose Terami writes in the Norwich Times, these days he's best known both in Norwich and the Upper Valley for his Substack featuring town-focused updates, news, photo essays, and more—the sort of fine-grained dispatches that keep a community knit together. His most popular post? About a squirrel with a baguette.Helping "the local Vermonter not have to pay a lot of money to go to the grocery store." Up in Orange, VT, Brent Kidder owns and runs Kidder's Smoke & Cure, a butchery for people who hunt or raise their own food. In Seven Days, Thetford's Joseph Deffner writes about Kidder and his work butchering deer and farm animals—after his full-time job at a Barre granite shed. Along the way, he asks Kidder about the most unusual animal he's processed. The answer: a woman's ailing pet emu, which she didn't want to let go to waste. "We made it into smoked emu. She said it was delicious: It tasted like ham."Vershire's Eagle Ledge, Fairlee Palisades cliff top closed for peregrine nesting season. In a press release yesterday, VT Fish & Wildlife announced that 14 sites around the state, including the two in the Upper Valley, will be closed to hikers until August 1 "or until Fish and Wildlife determines the risk to nesting falcons has passed." "In many cases the lower portions of the trails remain open, and we encourage people to enjoy watching peregrine falcons from a distance that requires using binoculars or a spotting scope," says Audubon Vermont conservation biologist Margaret Fowle. NH officials warn of E-ZPass scam. The joint press release from the AG's office and NHDOT warns that consumers have been receiving text messages that "appear to be from 'E-ZPass' claiming that their vehicle has an unpaid toll invoice. The message provides a link and threatens severe consequences if the invoice is not paid promptly." It goes on to say, "Any unsolicited text message, email, or other message from NHE-ZPass or EZDriveMA seeking payment for outstanding toll fees is a scam. NH E-ZPass and EZDriveMA will never contact customers by text message to request payment."Vinegary-smelling water leads NH officials to illegal wastewater culprit; mustard maker pleads guilty. It's not actually the first time that Old Dutch Mustard Co. in Greenville, NH has faced fines for polluting NH waterways, writes the Globe's Amanda Gokee in the Morning Report newsletter (no paywall). This time around, a distinct vinegar smell in the Souhegan River—a tributary of the Merrimack—caught inspectors' noses. Owner Charles Santich told them it was a failed attempt to plant mustard seed. But court filings say Santich's employees were pumping acidic wastewater toward the river.For first time since 2020, NH holds World Championship Sled Dog Derby. The annual Laconia event was canceled for lack of snow in 2021, 2023, and last year, and curtailed in 2022. But this year "was perfect,” race manager Jim Lyman tells the Laconia Daily Sun's Daniel Sarch. “It was good weather for the dogs, good weather for the mushers, and it was great weather for the spectators.” Mushers came from as nearby as Franklin and as far as Utah. Sarch recounts the racing and the tributes to longtime announcer Tony Roux and Middlebury VT musher-dairy-farmer Doug Butler, who both died in 2023.VT farmers "are pulling out the stops" to protect against bird flu. So reports WCAX's Sophia Thomas: The illness hasn't affected any commercial flocks in the state yet, but it laid waste to two backyard flocks in December and January. “It’s very fast, and it’s very dramatic. So typically you will see between 50 percent to 100 percent of your birds, your domestic chickens, die within 24 to 48 hours,” says the Agency of Agriculture's Emily Buskey. Meanwhile, Dartmouth Health has tips for people, including avoiding contact with any sick or dead birds, and covering outdoor feeding areas for animals.VT wants more affordable housing. Standing in the way: lack of sewer systems—and the people who oppose them. As the chair of Montgomery's planning commission puts it to VT Public/VTDigger's Carly Berlin, “Nobody moved here for a more dense population. People came here to leave dense population, and all the associated issues that go along with it.” There's enough sentiment like that, Berlin reports, that a proposed wastewater system in town—which businesses want so they can grow—has run into strong headwinds. She looks at the lack of water/wastewater infrastructure statewide.On a snowshoe trek in the Adirondacks, "the stillness of deep winter is broken only by the drumming of a woodpecker." Brian Mann, an NPR correspondent based in the Adirondacks, occasionally takes breaks from covering the addiction crisis and breaking news to get into the backcountry. Which he did recently on a snowshoe hike—sometimes encountering snow that was waist deep, he reports—to Wolf Pond. His photos and observations are at the link. "I'm not alone out here," he writes. "Every half hour or so a flock of chickadees swirls around me."“Who knew butterflies were so high tech?” The team at PBS’s Be Smart YouTube channel, that’s who. Their short video, "The Weird Science That Lets Insects Fly", explains—with excellent closeups—how, when a mosquito is hit by a raindrop, “it’s the equivalent of a person getting hit by a Volkswagen Beetle.” They just go along for the ride and don't get hurt, but butterflies, dragonflies, birds, and some plants have “insanely cool nanotechnology” that makes them like a trampoline for water. All that bug research is helping humans develop waterproof surfaces for solar panels, airplane wings, and more.
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The debate features author, commentator, former Clinton White House aide (and Dartmouth grad) Keith Boykin and American Enterprise Institute senior fellow Ian Rowe, talking over the state of DEI initiatives and "the role of race and ethnicity in modern America more generally." 7 pm in Filene Auditorium and livestreamed, no registration needed.
In this VT Humanities online presentation, English prof (with a bent toward history) Field takes a look at the sign that since 1958 has informed motorists of the “calamitous” 1780 British-led Indian raid to “terrorize the valley from Tunbridge to Royalton.” Field will "consider the power a road sign can have to endorse a narrative that might warrant reexamination."
Laura Gabbert's 2023 film features former restaurant critic and
Gourmet
editor-in-chief Ruth Reichl as she dives into the impact of the Covid pandemic on farmers, ranchers, and restaurant owners as the dining scene across the country collapses—and seeks out producers who are pursuing innovative and diverse approaches that help them thrive, or who are forging a way forward in the face of Big Ag. Available online through Friday.
And today...
A moment's pause for Roberta Flack, who died of cardiac arrest en route to the hospital on Monday. She was 88, three years into a diagnosis of ALS. She's best known, of course, for "Killing Me Softly" and "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face"—the song that rocketed her to stardom after Clint Eastwood featured it in 1972's
Play Misty For Me.
She had an “amazing ability to get further inside a song than one thought humanly possible and to bring responses from places inside you that you never knew existed," the writer, civil rights activist, and musician Julius Lester once said. So today, let's not go obvious. Instead,
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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