GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Partly sunny, still warm. Winds from the south today will get us back into the 60s today, but there's also a warm front moving into the region, and with it clouds and, toward evening, a chance of rain. Which will last through the night and into tomorrow. Down into the low 50s tonight.Sounds of spring. Yeah, frogs. Gotta love 'em. Jed Williamson sends along this vernal pool video from near Kendal, in Hanover. "Lyme police officer Elliott watched a truck straddle this large snapper. He put on flashers & I googled “How to move a snapping turtle out if the road?” His long handled with loop gizmo only angered her (?). Google prevailed, “hold rear of shell and pull.How did the snapper cross the road? We'll just let Barbara Woodard tell it. "Lyme police Sgt. Camden Elliott watched a truck straddle this large snapper. He put on flashers and I googled, “How to move a snapping turtle out of the road?” His long-handled gizmo with a loop only angered her(?). So Google prevailed: 'Hold rear of shell and pull.'"D-H becomes, well, DH. In a rebranding announced yesterday, the hospital system has dropped the "Hitchcock" from its name and become Dartmouth Health. "The new brand," DH writes in its press release, "is part of Dartmouth Health’s strategic plan to strengthen its relationships with the patients it serves in communities throughout northern New England"—read NH south of Concord—and to build awareness of the academic health system. It goes on to say that it will phase the new brand identity in over the next two to three years.Valley News sells building but will stay put. The 76,000-square-foot building and two acres on Interchange Drive in W. Leb were bought last month for $2.4 million by Lebanon-based LockNLube, which makes grease guns and couplers. The two companies will share the building. Asked yesterday to talk about specifics, VN publisher Dan McClory hesitated. "I want to get something in our publication first," he said. "We’ve been so swamped with all the details of the sale, [writing about it] hasn’t been a priority because it really doesn’t mean much in terms of our operations." So hang on for more down the road...Watson's Automotive in E. Thetford shuts its doors. After 27 years in business, writes Li Shen in Sidenote, the almost-family auto shop on Route 5 has hung up its wrenches. With founder Bob Watson retiring, his son Mike gone to work for Ford, longtime employee Jim Ward working for a solar installer, and "a surge in staff turnover that left the repair shop short-handed," she writes, "this was probably as good a time as any to call it quits." Bob's brother Kevin—who along with Bob's son Jason was also a longtime mechanic—confirms that the move is permanent.SPONSORED: The hilarious musical Monty Python’s Spamalot opens at Northern Stage tonight! Experience the legend of King Arthur as you’ve never seen it before through the lens of the Monty Python team. Based on the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail, this uproarious show pokes fun at anything and everything. From show-stopping song-and-dance numbers to a battle of baguettes to a flying cow, this Best Musical Tony winner will delight audiences and inspire you to “always look on the bright side of life.” Now through May 15. Find tickets here or at the maroon link above. Sponsored by Northern Stage.Carpenter and Main says it's on more stable ground. You may remember that last month, Bruce McLeod, the chef/owner of the Norwich restaurant, took to a GoFundMe page seeking donations to help pay down debt accrued over the past couple of years. Yesterday, McLeod posted again. "Thanks to the kindness of all of you, Carpenter and Main is back on solid financial ground moving forward," he wrote, adding that as a thank-you, the restaurant is holding an open house on Sunday. It exceeded its $10K goal, raising $12,285.Leb planning board delays discussion of proposed downtown apartment complex. The 152-unit development on the site of the former Village Market near Colburn Park has drawn some concern from neighborhood residents, writes Darren Marcy in the Valley News. At the moment, plans call for two apartment buildings, with the potential for a third that includes ground-floor commercial and retail space. At its meeting Monday, the board approved a property adjustment to provide space for a setback, but moved the bulk of the public discussion to next month, Marcy writes."If I have to personally sell enough copies to ensure Claudia Lin rides again, I'll do it." Claudia Lin is the protagonist in Jane Pek's new tech-era take on a hard-boiled detective novel, The Verifiers, about a secretive startup that investigates the claims in online dating profiles. It's fair to say that the Norwich Bookstore's Sam Kaas really likes it. "This is a fun book, and a funny one. But like all the best funny books, it probes serious questions: about consent, truth, and privacy in the digital age," he writes in this week's Enthusiasms. "I found myself tearing through [it], an experience I had not had in some time."A couple of ghost towns in Grafton County and some graveyards you might want to visit. It's a little hard to tell why a Halloween-themed guide to spooky spots in NH is appearing in New Hampshire mag in April, but if you like to plan way ahead, JW Ocker has you covered. "The state has a few 18th- and 19th-century ghost towns that you don’t need to hack your way through unexplored forest" to find, he writes, plus bogs and, of course, cemeteries, including the one in New Ipswich with a gravestone that reads, “Mr. Gilman Spaulding was kill’d with an ax by an Insane Brother." Plus candy stores.Wildfire season's here. Following several smaller fires and a 4.6-acre fire in Strafford last month, NH's Forest Protection Bureau is urging vigilance both in the woods and when burning brush. "Spring is an active wildfire season," writes Amanda Gokee in NH Bulletin, "when some of the largest fires can burn across the state, and the season is just getting underway." Officials are especially worried about the northern third of the state, which faces "abnormally dry" conditions (as does the Northeast Kingdom in VT). Here's the US Drought Monitor map for NH and its companion for VT.Major tech upgrades coming to Vermont. They include an overhaul of the DMV's computer system and a $30 million migration to cloud-based computing for the held-together-with-chewing-gum-and-baling-wire Department of Labor's system, chief information officer John Quinn tells StateScoop's Benjamin Fried. Altogether, there's $66 million coming for tech modernization initiatives, which include a concerted effort to rid agencies of their ancient mainframes and a bid to boost cybersecurity.Vermont print journalism had a heyday, and one of its standard-bearers was Bill Porter. Porter, who died Saturday at 81, ran the Rutland Herald in the '60s and early '70s, then became legendary as the managing editor of the Times Argus. He was fiercely competitive, writes his former staffer and longtime neighbor Andrew Nemethy in VTDigger, but also kind, approachable, and connected. "Somehow he knew whom to call, whom to ask for comments, the backstory, the future story, the possible fallout, all the leads a reporter needed," Nemethy writes. "He never wanted credit; he just wanted the story."A new pizza spot in Barre sounds every bit worth the drive. Your first clue is that Seven Days’ Jordan Barry "needed" two visits to write her 1,500-word review of Pearl Street Pizza. The other clues are every mouthwatering detail baked into Barry’s review. Opened inside Barre’s AR Market in January by two former NECI students and their colleague, the pizza shop has quickly gained a local following for its Neapolitan-style and thicker, square-cut “grandma-style” pies, salads, and unique cocktails. And the pièce de résistance: a gorgeous, handmade Stefano Ferrara Forni brick oven that greets you at the door.Ready, set…pop? The Olympics should add this balloon-popping event. Or if not that, can we at least turn it into the new summer craze? You don’t need much: just some balloons, a few chairs…okay, I guess not everyone has that many trampolines. So instead, maybe one big trampoline with lots of balloons? Anyway, the point is, these guys—and their color commentary—make it look like ridiculous fun, and if we know the internet, every other TikToker looking for viral gold is building their own balloon course as we speak. Also, how satisfying is it to watch that last, giant balloon dissolve into fumes?
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If you're in the Randolph area and need food, Gifford Health Care has just become a distribution point for Upper Valley Everyone Eats. They'll be handing out meals prepped by Randolph's Tacocat Cantina on the fourth Tuesday of every month, 5-5:30 pm. Details in their press release.
Also, this isn't for quite some time, but on May 23, Martin Luther King III will be speaking in Spaulding, on the 60th anniversary of his father's address to a crowd at Dartmouth Hall. Dr. King’s 1962 lecture, “Towards Freedom,” was part of a renowned Great Issues course. His son will be delivering the keynote for the annual Social Justice Awards ceremony—free and open to the public but you'll need tix.
Today at noon, Audubon Vermont and VT Fish & Wildlife co-host a webinar on how to attract birds to your yard with native plants, rather than birdfeeders—which, of course, also might attract bears, with unfortunate consequences not least for the bears themselves. The webinar will feature Audubon Vermont’s Gwendolyn Causer and Fish & Wildlife biologists Doug Morin and Jaclyn Comeau. No charge, but you'll need to register.
Today at 5 pm, Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center hosts former NH Secretary of State Bill Gardner for a lecture on "The Administration of Elections and their Impact on American Democracy." Gardner, who served in his post for nearly five decades and became the longest-serving secretary of state in the US, has been a key player in a host of issues now in the spotlight, including the status of NH's first-in-the-nation presidential primary and the nuts and bolts of keeping elections fair and above-board. In-person in Filene Auditorium.
Also at 5 pm, both in-person and livestreamed, Dartmouth's Dickey Center hosts a celebration of the work of Dr. Paul Farmer, the global health pioneer and co-founder of Partners in Health who died in February. The event will touch on his work and legacy, and his impact on people at Dartmouth and around the Upper Valley who worked with him, especially following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. The event features speakers both here and abroad with connections both to Farmer and to Dartmouth.
This evening at 7, it's the Hartland Poetry Fest online, with a slew of readings by local poets: Laura Foley, Robert Foote, Michael Metivier, Scudder Parker, Jim Schley, Rebecca Starks, and Carol Westberg. Register for info.
Also at 7, PoemTown Randolph hosts a reading at the White River Craft Center featuring VT poets Pamela Ahlen, Anne Bower, and Danny Dover.
And, as you no doubt noticed above, tonight at 7:30, previews open for Northern Stage's production of Monty Python's Spamalot, the musical based on Monty Python and the Holy Grail. How many chances do you get in this life to watch a baguette battle onstage?
Back in 2018, the Burkinabe (Burkina Faso) balafon master Mamadou Diabaté did a residency at Dartmouth with linguistics prof Laura McPherson and music prof Theodore Levin focused on Seenku, a tonal language so musical it can be expressed by the balafon—a west African type of xylophone. Diabaté is back this spring for a few months to continue that work—only this time, with his Austrian-African ensemble Percussion Mania along for part of the ride. They'll be doing a couple of Hop Stop family shows the weekend after next, but for a little taste in advance,
If you're curious about the music/language connection,
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 and writers who want you to 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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