GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Clouds. Then some sun and a little heat. It's a mostly quiet day out there, with clouds that moved in overnight sticking around a bit this morning before they break up. Temps today will likely hit 50 or higher on continued southerly winds. A warm front moving in will bring clouds back later and showers starting maybe around daybreak tomorrow. Mid 30s tonight.Not your everyday dental-visit sight. But there it was when John Pietkiewicz came out of his dentist's office in Norwich yesterday morning: a hot air balloon that had just landed in the roundabout by the office building.In "seismic development," Shaker Bridge Theatre moving to WRJ's Briggs Opera House. The company, which will see out this season in Enfield’s Whitney Hall, has signed a three-year lease for its new space, reports the Valley News's Alex Hanson, occupying it 25 weeks of the year for five shows and smaller performances. Other performance groups that use the Briggs—We the People Theatre, Here in the Valley, JAG—will be able to sign up for stretches of time, though We the People's Perry Allison tells Hanson, "I think it’s going to make it much harder for us to do what we’ve done in the past.” Hanson delves into the impact, both for the Briggs and in Enfield.After objections to initial voting, recount in race for Mt. Ascutney School Board confirms winner. You probably remember that residents of the district had raised questions about Windsor town clerk Amy McMullen, one of the candidates and the winner on election day, being present inside the polling place for voting. McMullen later acknowledged using "poor judgment." Now, reports the VN's Nora Doyle-Burr, a recount has confirmed her win, boosting her tally by three votes. Meanwhile, the district will hold a special meeting next month to address various procedural problems surrounding the election.Where the water is more acidic than lemon juice. The stream flowing from Corinth's Pike Hill is filled with heavy metals like aluminum and manganese, all leftovers from the hill's days as a copper mine—and the water, report VT Public's Lexi Krupp and Abagael Giles, is deadly for insects and fish. The federal EPA is now gearing up to clean up both Pike Hill and the Ely mine in Vershire; Krupp and Giles take a close look—with plenty of photos—at what's involved, and talk to residents who wonder whether the cleanup is worth the cost, disruption to life, and wear on the roads after all this time.SPONSORED: How often do you get to attend an organ concert—for free? On Sunday, April 2 at 4 pm, The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College presents Polish concert organist Marek Kudlicki as part of its Ives Concert Series. One of the few organists to earn a living almost exclusively from appearing in concerts, Mr. Kudlicki has performed the world over, achieving great acclaim. His recital will include works by Bach, Brahms, Jan of Lublin, and Polish composers Felix Borowski, Feliks Nowowiejski, and Mieczysław Surzyński. Sponsored by The Church of Christ at Dartmouth College.Quick! Which classic American novel begins at a game of golf? That would be William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, and Peter Orner is as nonplussed as you are. "The whole sport seems like a land grab to me," he once remarked to his father. But that's an aside—in this week's Enthusiasms, he's here to talk about why, as he puts it, "the troubles of an imaginary family have such pull." And to explain Faulkner's remarkable feat in the opening chapter: "As you make your way, groping, you begin to perceive, gradually, that Benjy exists in the present and multiple pasts—at the same time."By the way... Daybreak poetry editor Michael Lipson just got the nicest shout-out in the NYT (gift link) from actress Lauren Ambrose. She stars in Servant and is joining the cast of Yellowjackets, and the paper's Rachel Sherman caught up with her to talk about her top ten picks for "what moves and comforts her." #1? Michael's book, Be: An Alphabet of Astonishment. "It’s sort of this miraculous little thing. It’ll fill you," Ambrose says.It’s the button with a picture of a speaker and the word “speaker.” A Maine woman is facing a host of charges after calling in false reports of a bomb and a gunman in the Seabrook, NH Walmart last week, the Portsmouth Herald's Patrick Cronin writes. She was trying to distract police from their task at hand—arresting her boyfriend a few stores over—by sending them on a fool’s errand to Walmart. It was the perfect plan, except that the Uber she was riding in was not the cone of silence she imagined. The driver sensed something was amiss when he overheard her call to the police… on speaker… and turned her in. For first time, Bow NH coal plant fails to win funding at power auction. The plant has justified its existence by being held in reserve for when electricity demand peaks. And has been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars a month, writes David Brooks on his Granite Geek blog, "in return for guaranteeing that it can produce certain amounts of electricity when needed." But the two coal-fired generators at the plant were just passed over at ISO-New England's "forward capacity" auction for 2026-27, though a couple of smaller oil turbines did succeed. It's not clear yet if this will affect the plant's future, he writes.Snowmobile crashes fall in NH. There were 69 and 61 reportable accidents over the previous two winters, Brooks writes in the Monitor, but as of Friday the state had tallied only 21 so far this year—though one, last week, was fatal. The overall drop may be because, until this month, there wasn't that much snow out there; and even now, while the western part of the state still has plenty of snow on the ground, trails are shutting down toward the east. NH Fish & Game Capt. Michael Eastman tells Brooks that with all the warming and freezing out there, “It can be treacherous this time of year.”You may not be able to pronounce it, but you can sure get it: Babesiosis is now endemic in NH, VT, and ME. That's according to a new study by the CDC, which found that cases of the tick-borne illness rose dramatically between 2011 and 2019 in the Northeast: over 1,600 percent in VT, 1,400 percent in ME, and 370 percent in NH. Though don't let those numbers mislead you: The VT jump was from 2 cases in 2011 to 34 in 2019, ME went from 9 to 138, and NH from 13 to 63. NH Bulletin's Hadley Barndollar looks at the CDC's findings and tick-borne illnesses in general.Overwhelmed border patrol agents are dropping immigrant families at the St. J Welcome Center. "We just became aware of it," St. Johnsbury Police Chief Timothy Page tells VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein. "They needed to do something with people because the resources up there were being overrun." At Gov. Phil Scott's press conference yesterday, public safety commissioner Jennifer Morrison said about a dozen people had sought asylum at the border and “appeared to have no plan... We will stay in constant contact with (border patrol) to address this issue in the most humane yet responsible manner."Overdose deaths continue to mount in VT. There were at least 237 in 2022 according to a Monday report from the state health department, 20 more than the previous year, which in turn saw 60 more than 2020. Colin Flanders writes in Seven Days that fatal overdoses were disproportionately high in Windsor, Windham, Bennington, and Rutland counties, and that while fentanyl continues to be implicated in plenty of them, the animal tranquilizer xylazine is increasingly showing up in postmortem tests, as is the medication gabapentin. A study committee is looking at emergency strategies."I never had an unhappy moment to do with maple syrup." April Lemay was a consultant when she bought 813 acres in Canaan, VT from her mom and aunts, who'd inherited the plot up where VT, NH, and Canada meet from their parents. She hired her parents to run a small sugaring operation and store, figuring that would be the extent of it. Then she met an old classmate, they got married, snowmobilers started showing up—hungry—and suddenly, April's Maple was a full-time job. In Seven Days, Jordan Barry visits the café where almost everything—from salad dressing to butter—has maple in it.If you’re dazzled by the James Webb Space Telescope (and who isn’t?), you’ll be blown away by the astrolabe. A 10th century astronomer determined that the device—described as “the universe in the palm of your hand”—could perform some 1,000 functions. On the website 1440, "A History of Astronomy Through 19 Objects" runs down astronomical devices, new and old, that brought the stars within reach and allowed humans to tell time, navigate, and calculate the circumference of the Earth… 4,000 years ago.“It’s the usual chaos and suffering. But the restaurant’s still standing.” Every so often, a piece of exceptional reporting and writing comes along to put in vivid, human terms a crisis that's otherwise hard to grasp. So you should know about Eli Saslow's article (with photos by Todd Heisler) in Sunday's NYT (gift link) about Joe and Debbie Faillace, some of the people in the homeless encampment that's engulfed their downtown Phoenix sandwich shop, their effort to remain compassionate in the face of relentless tribulation, and their struggle not just to keep the shop going, but to believe it worth trying.The Wednesday Vordle. If you're new to Daybreak, this is the Upper Valley version of Wordle, with a five-letter word chosen from an item in the previous day's Daybreak.
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At 7 this evening, Pages in the Pub crosses the river from its Norwich birthplace, with Hanover's Still North Books hosting an evening of book recommendations. Emceed by the Book Jam's Lisa Christie, the recommenders, all local writers, are New Yorker satirist Andy Borowitz; novelist and former NYT editor KJ Dell’Antonia; essayist, story writer, and Dartmouth prof Peter Orner; and mystery writer Sarah Stewart Taylor. They'll be talking about their current faves—which attendees can order at the event. Tix are $20, and a portion of ticket and book sales will go to support the Howe Library. Just a few spots left: Email [email protected] if you want one.
Meanwhile, also at 7, the Howe itself hosts debut novelist (and Alfred A. Knopf executive editor) Jenny Jackson, talking to fellow novelist Rachel Barenbaum about Pineapple Street. Jackson's novel is about a New York family with money. Lots of it. "This is an unabashedly old-fashioned story involving wills, trust funds, prenups and property — lots of property," Jean Hanff Korelitz wrote in the NYT earlier this month. "Not only does [Jackson] succeed in getting us not to loathe the Stocktons, the family at the center of her novel, but she even succeeds in persuading us to love them. A little bit."
Starting today and running through Friday, Sustainable Woodstock is streaming Eating Up Easter. The 2020 documentary by Rapa Nui (Easter Island)-born TV director Sergio Mata’u Rapu and his wife, Elena, an anthropologist, takes a hard look at the cultural and environmental costs of the island's tourism boom.
And just for kicks...
We'll start the day with a little tarmac bagpipe. Which is what greeted Snoop Dogg when he landed in Glasgow the other day, on his way to a show that night. Bagpiper Ross Ainslie, who met the plane,
“I only had one day to figure it out," Ainslie told an interviewer. "I was looking at tunes online and it was the first one I found, so that’s what I went with. I spent all day yesterday just trying to work out how to play it." He did just fine; Snoop danced along.
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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