GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Today? A lot like yesterday. Partly sunny, temps reaching the low 40s, and a chance of showers this afternoon as a low pressure system moves through overhead—with a bit of snow possible at higher elevations. Slight chance of snow showers overnight, depending on where you are, lows in the mid 20s.Bobcat at ease. It was exploring Rendy Strawbridge's back yard in Hartland a few days ago. "It was stunning to watch," Rendy writes. "The help of a telephoto lens allowed me to admire it from afar."New London faces town meeting do-over. At the March 12 gathering, reports Clare Shanahan in the Valley News, voters agreed to reconsider two votes they had just taken, including a vote aimed at building a new police station that failed to get a 60 percent supermajority. As a result of that reconsideration move, Shanahan writes, "the New London Town Meeting is still technically 'open,' so nothing that was voted on at the meeting is in effect, including the town’s budget." It's unclear when the reconsideration will occur; but whenever it does, townspeople will then need a third meeting to "ratify" the result.Coming to the Hood Museum on Saturday: two Monets. Actually, they're already here—but Saturday's opening day for a new exhibition, Monet: Reimagining the French Landscape. At its center are the two paintings, Pommiers en fleurs (Apple Trees in Bloom) (1872) and Route près de Giverny (Road near Giverny) (1885), both on loan to the Hood. "Each work marks an important moment in the development of the artist: as a younger pioneer breaking with academic tradition, then as a mature painter honing his style on the landscapes around his home," the Hood writes in its press release.Whaleback chairlift repair: "It’s quite a project.” You may remember the announcement last week that the nonprofit Enfield mountain needs to raise $250,000 to fix the lift, which needs a new gearbox. So far, reports Christina Dolan in the VN, they've raised $80,000—and have "quietly" launched a campaign to raise the money for an entirely new lift, given that the current one was manufactured in 1970. Whaleback shut down the chair—the only one that gives it bottom-to-top access—at the end of February. Executive director Jon Hunt estimates the mountain lost as much as $200K in revenue as a result.SPONSORED: Calling all word nerds! See the new docu-comedy Rebel with a Clause at Lebanon Opera House on Thursday, June 5. Author Ellen Jovin took her pop-up “Grammar Table” on the road, visiting all 50 states as passersby asked questions, told stories, and filed comma complaints. In a deeply divided country, the Grammar Table became a place of unity and connection. The evening includes a Q&A with Jovin and filmmaker Brandt Johnson and a book signing. Sponsored by Lebanon Opera House.Finding inspiration in a memoir whose author dies halfway through it. But then, it's not just any guy; it's Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Patriot, writes Carin Pratt in this week's Enthusiasms, "begins like any normal bio: parents, schooling, career (he was a lawyer), his gradual leaning into politics, and his eventual metamorphosis into the energetic and charismatic leader of the anti-corruption movement in Russia." A role he assumed so successfully, Carin adds, that "Putin had no choice but eventually to kill him." "All the best things in the world," Navalny wrote, "have been created by brave nerds."SPONSORED: Is the lack of affordable childcare hurting your employees—and your business? Upper Valley employers of all sizes are invited to a free, two-part workshop offering immediate steps they can take to find childcare solutions that will work for their workplace and their employees. They'll also collaborate with fellow employers on community-wide strategies and learn about the returns for workplaces that invest in childcare. Sessions are April 9 and May 13, 8:30-10 am. Presented by Executives Partnering to Invest in Children in collaboration with local sponsors. Sponsored by Vital Communities. Concord police didn't seek warrant for cellphone location data in Logan Clegg case. And it was that data that helped them find the man later convicted in the 2022 murders of Stephen and Djeswende “Wendy” Reid, reports Damien Fisher for InDepthNH.org. As a result, Fisher writes, Clegg is appealing his conviction and 50-year-to-life sentence, arguing that "since police never got a warrant for the location data, all of the other evidence obtained during his arrest, like the gun and ammunition, ought to have been suppressed at trial." Fisher details the case and other questions Clegg is raising.John Formella faces uncertain future as NH AG. Formella's term ends this coming Monday, and this past Monday Gov. Kelly Ayotte's office announced he would continue in “holdover” status so that Ayotte can "work with him and evaluate the operations at the department.” As Steven Porter writes in the Globe's Morning Report newsletter, this a different approach from the one she took with Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, who won't be reappointed. Formella, who went to Hanover High, was appointed as attorney general in 2021 by then-Gov. Chris Sununu after serving as Sununu's private attorney.A sigh of relief at the NH state library. On Monday, GOP Rep. Joe Sweeney proposed closing it as a cost-saving measure, as the committee he sits on considered a sweeping array of budget cuts. “There’s no constitutional need to fund the state library," he said at the time. But yesterday—following an outcry after Monday's news broke—Sweeney walked his idea back, proposing a more "surgical" approach. Even so, the committee Monday did vote to recommend axing the entire $1.7 million budget for the NH State Council on the Arts, and followed up yesterday proposing a $600K cut to natural and cultural resources.NH legislators take aim at PFAS in ski, snowboard waxes. A bill headed for the full House today, reports NH Bulletin's Claire Sullivan, would ban sales in the state of ski, boat, and board waxes containing per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which have become a notorious environmental pollutant in the state. The measure—which would "tack the waxes onto a list of products prohibited from sale that includes cosmetics, food packaging and containers, feminine hygiene products, and more"— was recommended unanimously by the committee that vetted it. VT already bans PFAS from waxes (and more). In the mood for Mexican (and a drive)? There's "a new crop of sit-down Mexican restaurants in northern Vermont," write Jordan Barry and Melissa Pasanen in Seven Days, and they offer up a survey, from El Comal in Williston to three Casa restaurants in Chittenden and Washington counties—"Mexican food that pleases the American taste," says one of the owners—to Los Jefes in St. Albans. The closest to us is Chico's Tacos & Bar in Middlesex, across from Camp Meade, which holds "pretty true to California's take on Mexican cuisine," though it does add maple syrup to the flan and red enchilada sauce.There are lunar eclipse photos... and then there's this. Dan Zafra, the Nevada-based co-founder of the photography-tour company Capture the Atlas, headed to Alaska for the March 14 lunar eclipse in hopes of photographing it amidst an aurora. The gamble worked: the sky glowed green, the moon glowed red... and Zafra also captured a timelapse.This week's Throughlines. It's back!!! The game starts with a grid of 16 words. Your job is to link three different sets of four words, each set connected to a different item in today's Daybreak. But beware: those extra four words are decoys, so don't get faked out.The Wednesday Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday's Daybreak. If you're new to Daybreak, this is a puzzle along the lines of the NYT's Wordle—only different, because it's not just some random word snatched out of the ether, but a word that actually appeared here yesterday.
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Daybreak tote bags! Thanks to a helpful reader's suggestion. Plus, of course, the usual: sweatshirts, head-warming beanies, t-shirts, long-sleeved tees, the Daybreak jigsaw, those perfect hand-fitting coffee/tea mugs, and as always, "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Check it all out at the link!
Anderson, the award-winning author of
Feed
, the
Octavian Nothing
books,
Symphony for the City of the Dead
, and lots more, lived alone with his dog during the pandemic shutdown—which eventually led to his Newbery Honor-award winning fantasy
Elf Dog and Owl Head.
He'll be talking about human-animal bonds, geared toward readers 8-12. In the Mayer Room, 6 pm.
Steve Cowan's 2024 film searches for the sources of the plastic that litters our planet while also asking whether it's possible to retain its benefits while mitigating its impact—and
delves into why plastic pollution continues to grow despite widespread efforts to reduce it. Runs online through Friday night.
The massively popular bi-annual exhibit starts with drawings of imaginary animals submitted by schoolkids from as far away as Alaska. Then, the museum asks glass artists to bring them to vibrant and whimsical 3D life. Runs to November.
Today, let's tap...
To Mozart. The Gardiner Brothers,
Riverdance
cast members and professional Irish dancers,
.
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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Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
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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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