GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Sunny and a bit cooler. Briefly. Those winds yesterday and last night were a cold front coming through, and in its wake we'll see temps get into the low or mid 60s today under mostly sunny skies—though winds may continue through the morning. Then, tonight, warmer and more humid air (this is a good thing right now, given fire concerns) starts flowing in from the west, which will show up in a big way in tomorrow's temps. Lows tonight in the lower-40s.Hey! It's spring! In...
Downtown Hanover, thanks to the Hanover Garden Club, by Alex Torpey;
And West Fairlee, by John Pietkiewicz.
April 25.
That, a reader reports, is when the Lyme-Thetford bridge is scheduled to close for 18 months according to signs that went up yesterday. You may also have noticed that signs have gone up by the Ledyard Bridge
as
that
construction project approaches. Should be fun. More when NHDOT weighs in.
It began shortly after 10 am yesterday in the kitchen of an apartment in the Lebanon Housing Authority's senior housing facility, reports Eric Francis for Daybreak. Crews from the fire station just across Colburn Park responded quickly, as did departments from eight other towns—though as Leb Fire Chief Jim Wheatley tells Francis, "When we got here the sprinkler system had already activated in the apartment," keeping the fire in check. The apartment's resident is in stable condition at DHMC; most other residents were able to return, but nine are temporarily displaced. Details and pics at the link.
As Dartmouth grad students vote on union, college contends only half are eligible to join if one is approved. The two-day vote on whether to join the United Electrical Workers winds up today. And though the college has 800 grad students, last week it announced that the 54 percent who are on fellowships aren't employees, and therefore not potential union members. In the Valley News, Jim Kenyon writes that, among other things, this would allow the college to keep union numbers down and give it the ability to challenge individual votes. Here's grad student Genevieve Goebel on what's at stake.Mt. Ascutney: Think of it as the gooey inside part. As she tackles the widespread belief that Mt. Ascutney was once a volcano, Vermont Public's Elodie Reed pulls out a baking metaphor: a chocolate lava cake, to be exact. As Weathersfield's Cheryl Cox tells her, Ascutney originally formed as a molten mass below the earth's surface, and its magma—which, obviously, eventually cooled—fed a volcano above it. Whose base was possibly more than a mile above what is now the earth's surface, VT geologist Jon Kim tells Reed. In other words, Ascutney itself wasn't a volcano, but it helped create one.SPONSORED: The Upper Valley Chamber Orchestra presents an evening of stirring and spirited 20th century music. Upper Valley Music Center’s longest-running adult ensemble features more than 40 musicians from throughout the region, led by conductor Mark Nelson. Soprano Chiho Kaneko joins the orchestra for Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs; pianist William Ögmundson and harpist Sorana Scarlat join the ensemble for Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring. Join us April 19 at the Lebanon Opera House. Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.Dartmouth drops Covid vaccine requirement. In a schoolwide email, reports The Dartmouth, Provost David Kotz and Executive Vice President Rick Mills said that as of yesterday, students, faculty, and staff will no longer have to show proof of vaccination, though the college continues to advise it—and will continue to provide free antigen tests. The move came the same day that the US national emergency ended, as President Joe Biden quietly signed a congressional resolution bringing it to a close.This Is Not A Book About Benedict Cumberbatch. Though it sure starts that way, writes Emma Nichols in this week's Enthusiasm about Tabitha Carvan's 2022 part-memoir. Carvan, a happily married mother of two, was obsessed with the British actor and embarrassed about it. Until she began to ask herself why—in particular since she got so much pleasure from it. The result of that question is this book, Emma writes, which "transforms from a memoir about a Cumberfan into an exploration of passion and joy and an excavation of why, historically, women have not been encouraged to pursue either."Northern Stage lays out its 2023-24 season. Four plays on the theater company's main stage—including an Afghanistan-based thriller, A Christmas Carol, and The Play That Goes Wrong—plus, outdoors this summer, the Vermont Farm Project, a new indie folk musical built from interviews with farmers in the Upper Valley and beyond, with music and lyrics by Tommy Crawford; an inaugural Jazz at the Junction featuring Chilean-born vocalist Natalia Bernal and her quartet; the return of Here in the Valley's Riverfolk; and Twelfth Night, the Musical (with music by VT songwriter Shaina Taub).West Leb's Taylor Soule drafted into WNBA. Soule—who grew up in West Leb—went to Kimball Union Academy and played basketball for Boston College before joining up as a grad student with Virginia Tech, where she started all 36 games this season and helped the team reach the Final Four last month. Monday night, she was one of two Hokie players drafted by WNBA teams, chosen by the Minnesota Lynx. “She’s clearly the best athlete we’ve had that has come out of the Upper Valley, probably forever,” KUA coach Liz McNamara told the VN's Benjamin Rosenberg for a profile last week. (Thanks, RF!)Animating Richard Blanco. Actually, the famed poet, who visited the Upper Valley last week, is animated all in his own right. But in a two-week project, second graders at the Elm Hill School in Springfield, VT, have created a cut-paper animation of "One Today," the poem Blanco read at Barack Obama's second inaugural. The new film comes as the result of a residency at Elm Hill led by retired Springfield teachers Melissa Post and Diane Kemble, who are also board members of Springfield's Gallery at the VAULT arts center. Blanco only learned about the project after it was finished.DH lands $2.5 million gift to create endowed fund for "Inclusive Excellence Faculty Fellowships." The money comes from Barbara and Dick Couch, whose family foundation is based at Hypertherm, and will be paired with an equal sum from philanthropist Dorothy Byrne. The fund, says a Geisel Communications press release, "will support the recruitment and retention of up-and-coming cancer clinician-scientists from under-represented groups in medicine – particularly those exploring health disparities and healthcare inequities."NH to place more than 700 overdose reversal kits around the state. The initiative, writes David Brooks in the Monitor, is the first of its kind in the country. NaloxBoxes will go up on exterior walls, and contain 4-milligram nasal sprays of naloxone, which can be used to reverse an opioid overdose. “The data is clear: Administering naloxone at the first sign of an overdose can save lives,” the state health department's chief medical officer said in a press release yesterday. Businesses and organizations hoping to install a NaloxBox should email Jennifer Sabin at [email protected].“It's hard to correct a plan if they don't tell you what you're doing incorrectly." Thanks to a public records request, it turns out that nearly three-quarters of VT's school districts are facing state scrutiny on special ed practices, reports VTDigger's Peter D'Auria. One of them is SAU 70, the Norwich-Hanover district, where superintendent Jay Badams tells D'Auria they're on the list because administrators filed paperwork a few days after a deadline. In fact, D'Auria reports, small mistakes like that—even a wrongly used phrase—can land a district on the list for intensive state monitoring.Not so much as a flicker. The increase in extreme weather—wind, heavy rain, and ice—caused by climate change is taking a toll on power lines that weren’t built to withstand this level of stress. Now, though, a downed line doesn’t have to mean a dark house. In certain areas, a microgrid steps in to separate the affected area from the main grid and instantly send an alternate source of electricity its way. In this video, Vermont Public's Abagael Giles focuses in on Panton, VT, where GMP's pilot microgrid is powered by solar and batteries.Hey Thetford and Cornish, here's an idea! It's hard to make a steel beam look scenic, true, but officials in Lyndon, VT have gotten tired of box trucks ignoring height signs and flashing lights and trying to careen through the Miller's Run covered bridge. So they're putting up a steel structure about 50 feet from either entrance—designed to take out trucks before they hit the bridge, but still give sightseers room to take pics. "Unfortunately, that’s kind of what we’ve come to for an alternative because the hits just keep coming,” Town Manager Justin Smith tells WCAX's Melissa Cooney.“I’d say 25 years is the point when you’ve kept the candy too long." In 2002, Darlene Lacey opened what has to be the world's least pretentious museum—the Candy Wrapper Museum—to share her collection (virtually) with the world. In Smithsonian, she writes about how she got started—candy is cheap and cheerful—and the impact such an everyday object has on people. Even, or especially, decades later. Citing one 90-year-old who was transported back to her childhood when she saw one of the wrappers, Lacey notes, “We think of collections as ‘things,’ but we also collect special moments that may not stay front of mind, but never fade from our hearts.”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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The good folks at Strong Rabbit Designs are offering sweatshirts, hats, and hoodies at cost: $16 for a cuffed hat, sweatshirts from $25, hoodies from $31. It's all there at the link this week, then it disappears from the lineup. Check out what's available and wear it (or drink from it) proudly! Email me ([email protected]) if you've got questions.
Today at 2 pm, online only, the Howe Library in Hanover presents novelist and book talk host Rachel Barenbaum, sitting down with actor and writer Priya Guns to talk about Guns' debut novel, Your Driver is Waiting. At its center is Damani Krishanthan, a Tamil driving for an Uber-like company who announces her attitude in the book's first line: "If you’re going to be a driver, you’d better hide at least one weapon in your car.” Which she does: a switchblade, a tire iron, pepper spray, scissors... Amid roiling protests, she and a wealthy white passenger become a thing—until they clash over what kinds of activism achieve results in a divided society.
At 7 this evening, the Hartford Historical Society hosts WRJ's David Briggs for "Ol’ 494 Comes to White River Junction"—a talk about how Boston & Maine steam engine No. 494 got to town, the efforts to restore it, and its prominent place at the train station. You'll never ignore it again. At the Greater Hartford United Church of Christ in Hartford Village.
This evening at 7:30, the Apple Hill String Quartet closes out its year-long residency at Dartmouth with a concert at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College. On the program: two pieces by Mexican composers—Sonoralia by Emmanuel Arias y Luna and Silvestre Revueltas' String Quartet No. 1, which also incorporates Mexican folk tunes and rhythms—then Thomas Oboe Lee's Morango... Almost a Tango and Japanese composer Sato Matsui's Amaterasu. They finish up with Haydn's String Quartet in E major, Op. 17/1.
And something you should know about for next week: Artful blogger and frequent Daybreak contributor Susan Apel will be giving a "Hot Plates, Hot Topics" OSHER talk at Salt Hill Pub a week from today, "Mining for Gold Right Where You Are: Working on Life's 'Third Act.'" She'll be talking about how she became a writer for her third act, spend some time on arts and culture in the Upper Valley—and then talk about what to do when carefully laid plans, as she puts it, "get blown to smithereens." You don't have to be an OSHER member, but these things tend to sell out, so here's your chance: use the link or call 603-646-0154 to reserve.
And to start us off for the day...
It's pretty much got to be the Apple Hill String Quartet, don't you think?
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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