AND A FINE MORNING TO YOU, UPPER VALLEY!
If there's anything coming down out there it'll end, and the day will be mostly cloudy, high in the mid-40s. That seems pretty safe and straightforward, doesn't it? Because after the last two days, you've gotta think that whatever the forecast says, if there's a chance anything's going to fall from the sky we should just assume it'll be the whole nine yards: rain, sleet, hail, snow, freezing rain, ice chunks, cats, dogs.... But it says right here in print: "Dry and seasonably cool weather return by Wednesday afternoon into Thursday." 🤞Dartmouth's commencement speaker will be Yo-Yo Ma. Calling him "a cellist" seems laughably inadequate. He's an ambassador, experimenter, forger of wide and unexpected connections. So here's hoping everyone gets to hear both words and music when he shows up. The college will also be handing out some honorary degrees, including to Sandy Alderson (Class of '69), the Oakland A's former general manager.Community solar project touted for Norwich Farmers Market land. In a proposal going before the Norwich SB tonight, WRJ's Norwich Solar Technologies wants to place solar panels over the market's parking lot and vendors' booths. If the idea gets over a set of local and state hurdles, homeowners could buy into the electricity generated, which would also bring electricity to the market itself for the first time. “[It] would open up vending opportunities we’ve never had before,” says Hurricane Flats farmer Geo Honigford. (VN, subscription reqd)Conditions at trailer park off Sykes Mtn. Ave. in WRJ are dismal. Roads are going unplowed and unsanded at the Chambers trailer park, trash is spreading, cats are proliferating. A manhole cover is tipped sideways in the middle of the road. Oh, and those cats? It's not just that there are a lot of them. "[L]iterally there's just huge cat orgies going on I've witnessed it," writes one resident.Dartmouth students develop app to track texting. "Left on Read" lets users figure out when they text, how they text and whom they text. That data's been available to Apple and other texting services, of course, just never to users themselves. Now, says the prof advising the project, "You can look at your own text messages and learn something about your relationships.” The inspiration came when two computer science students were wondering which of them texted his girlfriend more often. Quechee Balloon Festival named one of top 5 in US. The US's official travel website, VisitTheUSA.com (no, I didn't know about it, either), is promoting "Five Spectacular Balloon Festivals." The Quechee version, which is hosted by the Hartford Area Chamber of Commerce, is now keeping company with the famed Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta and festivals in Sonoma County and Louisville. Springfield state Rep. Robert Forguites dies. VT House Speaker Mitzi Johnson told colleagues yesterday that Forguites, who'd been a longtime Springfield town manager before getting elected to the House in 2014, had died in his sleep over the weekend. “He did not speak often, but when he did, it was to bridge divides and people listened,” Johnson said in a written statement. Canaan's new Red Wagon Bakery getting its footing. Nellie Smith and her mom, Laura, split baking duties and turn out breakfasts and lunches for a growing clientele. A few weeks ago, the VN's Sarah Earle profiled Canaan's other new bakery/cafe, The 603. She got a bunch of emails pointing her to the Red Wagon as well -- "The community really wants both bakeries to succeed," she points out. (VN, sub still reqd)NH facing growing number of child abuse reports, DCYF worried it can't keep up. Caseworkers from the state's Division of Children, Youth, and Families told lawmakers yesterday they're juggling an average of 45 cases each, compared to a national standard of 12. "The current environment is pretty close to impossible to operate in, at least if you want to give the type of sustained attention to every family that they deserve," the agency's director testified.VT's outdoor-recreation businesses banding together to promote the Vermont outdoor brand. If the state can do it for its food and beer, the new Vermont Outdoor Business Alliance figures why not for the recreation sector? The alliance includes iconic manufacturers Orvis, Burton and Darn Tough, as well as Skida, Turtle Fur, Burlington's Outdoor Gear Exchange, and venues such as Trapp Family Lodge. You kinda wonder what took them all so long?Speaking of VT's food and beer, just how do you get rid of all that whey and spent brewer's yeast? The federal EPA has just given the state a $43,551 grant to expand its anaerobic digester capacity. The idea is to divert high-volume food waste from landfills and town treatment facilities. The process turns food waste into renewable energy, fertilizers and soil additives. I know, I'm wondering the same thing: Why not $43,552?"When you start with whole foods, you pay less and you get more." That's local writer and USA Today restaurant columnist Larry Olmsted giving a TedX talk out at the University of Nevada. Re-think how you shop, he says. The talk's just been posted. SO NOW... WHAT'CHA DOIN' TONIGHT?For one thing, Once is opening at Northern Stage. Downtrodden Dublin street performer meets complicated Czech immigrant. Music and a lot more ensue. Winner of eight Tonys, the play, based on the movie, features an ensemble of actors/musicians and a soaring folk-rock score. Starting Friday, local musicians and street performers will be setting the mood in the lobby ahead of time. Or maybe you want more traditional music. The English Concert, a London-based Baroque orchestra that uses period instruments, will be at the HOP tonight premiering (in the US) their semi-staged production of Handel's "sensuous and sparkling" English-language opera, Semele.Saul Lelchuk reads from and talks about his first novel, Save Me from Dangerous Men. Lelchuk grew up around here, teaches creative writing at Dartmouth, and now lives in Berkeley. He's created a used-bookstore owner and P.I. named Nikki Griffin, who has a protective streak toward women in danger and ruthless approach to the men who put them there. 7 pm at the Norwich Bookstore -- but there are only a few seats left, so if you want to go, call when they open at 9 am: 802.649.1114.Caitlin Birch moderates a panel on Dartmouth's SpeakOut oral history project. This is the last in Thetford Academy's Bicentennial Speaker Series. A librarian at Dartmouth, Birch has been overseeing an oral history project dedicated to documenting the history of Dartmouth’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex, and asexual (LGBTQIA+) community. Birch will introduce the project, then turn things over to a panel of students who've been conducting and recording the interviews. At 7 pm in the Academy's theater. Have a fine day out there! See you tomorrow.
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