Daybreak Wednesday 3/31/21

A PLEASURE, UPPER VALLEY!

Cold front headed our way. And with it, rain (at first), though not until later. The low pressure system bringing us the next few days' weather will reach the Ohio Valley today, these parts tomorrow, so for the moment, we just get a cloudy day with temps getting into the upper 50s and winds from the south. Rain comes in tonight ahead of tomorrow's main event, with temperatures dropping through the 40s overnight, maybe hitting the 30s by dawn tomorrow."The Beauty of Birds." That's the name of a virtual art exhibition hosted online by Matt Brown Fine Art in Lyme, and organized by the Lyme School and Community Care of Lyme. It's in two parts: work by students (that's the maroon link) and work by adult community members. Either way, it's an immensely colorful and uplifting start to the day. (Thanks, SH!)Bradford brush fire scrambles crews. The fire, off Route 25 near the Corinth line, broke out yesterday afternoon. Details are scant, but it took out a barn and burned some 20-25 acres. There were no reports of injuries, WCAX reports.UVM singles out local faculty critic for "unprofessional" use of email. English prof Nancy Welch, who's been living in Hanover since the start of the pandemic, has been active in protesting the university's proposed cuts to humanities and geology programs. In March she shared a link with colleagues to a petition declaring no confidence in President Suresh Garimella. That, reports Seven Days' Chelsea Edgar, has now drawn the university's sole reprimand aimed at a faculty member. The petition has drawn 3,000 signatures, mostly VT residents and people with UVM connections. Leb planning board trims West Leb development. The 22-unit rental project proposed by Great Eastern Radio owner Jeff Shapiro off Oak Ridge Road (behind the Wheeler Office Park along Route 10) is too "tightly packed," one planning board member said, as the board voted 5-3 to require Shapiro to keep the development to 19 units. The project's been in the works since 2018, reports the Valley News's Tim Camerato, and has drawn the opposition of neighbors worried about traffic and parking.Leb, Hartford police expand program to identify, help kids and adults with special needs. The effort, organized by WRJ's Special Needs Support Center, lets "special needs community members" or their family members sign up with the two police departments and give them information about triggers, special accommodations, and emergency contacts, as well as a photograph. The idea, which grew out of a program to help people with Alzheimer's or dementia, aims to help dispatchers and officers respond appropriately to calls for assistance involving people with disabilities. Voluntary signup info at the link."This community simply cannot take any additional risks by opening up public facilities too early." That's the Town of Hanover announcing that it's going to keep facilities like its libraries and town hall closed to the public, probably until late summer or early fall. "We cannot risk the health of our staff until they have been protected through vaccination," the announcement says, adding that there's concern about "young adults in the Hanover community who have recently returned to Dartmouth...a subset of whom have and continue to be less than diligent in following public health guidelines."Mourning cloaks are out and about. They're early butterflies in these parts because, as naturalist and writer Mary Holland explains, they overwinter as adults, "seeking shelter in protected spots such as under loose bark. When spring arrives, they slip out from their winter quarters and take to the air." They can also be hard to see when they're not in the air, because they bear an uncanny resemblance to dead leaves. They can live up to 10 months, "an impressive life span for a butterfly," Holland writes."I know folks who grow potatoes in an old automobile tire. There are ways to grow even if you don't have an acre." That's Willing Hands' Brian Wagner talking to Wilder writer Kat Mayerovitch for her piece in Junction mag on the nonprofit's Grow A Row program. Mayerovitch writes about Willing Hands' effort in the face of rising food insecurity to encourage gardeners of all sorts to grow something extra for others who need it. "So what happens when 'waste not' isn’t enough to get to 'want not?'" she asks. "We grow our own." Filled with practical advice on how to do it.That Piecemeal Pies expansion to Stowe? It's crowdfunded. That's because, after the pandemic shut down Justin Barrett and Josh Brown's plans to open a second location in Stowe, banks lost interest in financing it. So they turned to a Mass.-based site called Mainvest, writes Seven Days' Sally Pollak, and 78 people so far have invested $83,600. "This was just an amazing eye-opener to the impact we've had on people in the community," Barrett tells her. The money will mostly fund building renovations, though Barrett's also got his eye on a fryer to be used only for duck fat. "What more could a chef want?"Another NH cryptocurrency operation in feds' sights. You'll remember that two weeks ago the FBI filed criminal charges against five Granite Staters for allegedly using their cryptocurrency exchange to launder money. Now the SEC is getting in on the action, targeting a Manchester-based with ties to the Free State Project alleging that it failed to register its digital currency offerings as securities. The company calls the SEC's action a "tremendous threat to the entire cryptocurrency industry,” reports NHPR's Todd Bookman.Vermont Addendum. Yesterday's Daybreak had an item about two firms on the NH side of the river that just landed NASA small-business grants for space-related projects. Well, there's one on the Vermont side, too—in fact, the only Vermont company to receive one. WRJ's Concepts NREC got an award to work on a "cryocooler," which helps keep oxygen, hydrogen, and methane at temperatures low enough that they're in liquid form. Gwen Stanley, the contracts manager at Concepts, explains it in language you and I can understand—with a link to the more technical description, as well.Vermonters who identify as BIPOC can register for a vaccine tomorrow, regardless of age. State officials announced the move yesterday, citing both higher Covid case rates among Black, Latino, Asian, and Indigenous residents, as well as lower vaccination rates. In addition, parents of children with severe medical conditions will become eligible on Monday, along with Vermonters 40 and over. All prison inmates are set to get at least their first dose by April 19, reports VTDigger's Erin Petenko.Bill to regulate short-term rentals moves forward in VT legislature. The Senate yesterday passed the measure, S.79, which would extend enforcement of health and safety regs to short-term rentals like those found on Airbnb and VRBO; their owners would have to register with the state and be subject to inspection. Woodstock state Sen. Alison Clarkson tells Seven Days' Anne Wallace Allen that one reason for the measure is simply to get a handle on how many short-term lodgings are out there. "Nobody really knows," she says.The Ever Given vs. Dan & Whit's. It can be hard to gauge the size of a container ship like that one that got stuck in the Suez Canal, but fortunately, Garrett Dash Nelson, curator of maps at the Boston Public Library, has a sense of humor. He created an app that lets you plunk down the Ever Given anywhere, to scale if you want. So Norwich's Jonathan Teller-Ellsberg did just that. That white building just astern of the ship is Dan & Whit's. But man, Ledyard Bank and Bayada Hospice? They're just crushed underneath.Speedriding down chair-lift cables? Sure, do it every day. But through a snow tunnel? Let's just posit two things: He's nuts, and this is sponsored by Red Bull. But. Valentin Delluc is a French speedrider—he paraglides with skis—and recently cut a 3-minute video (for which he's been training since January) in Avoriaz, a French ski resort near the Swiss border, deserted because of the pandemic. You won't even need your coffee this morning. Includes footage of how it was made, which is almost as cool.

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I'm sure you know this already, but yesterday was the 54th anniversary of the day photographer Michael Casey took the pics of the Beatles that would come to adorn the album cover for Sgt. Pepper's. Later that night, writer and former Crawdaddy editor Greg Mitchell pointed out in his newsletter yesterday, they worked on "With a Little Help from my Friends." Here's a vocals-only version he somehow managed to excavate, which lets you hear just Ringo singing the lead and the others' complex and stirring background harmonies.See you tomorrow.

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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