GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Aaaannndd... even hotter. Today we get a sunny day (once the fog clears), with highs near 90. There's a slight chance of isolated thunderstorms late in the day, and though we don't get much respite overnight—lows tonight in the mid 60s—there's a chance of showers, and things start cooling down from here on out. NH's Department of Environmental Services, by the way, has issued an air quality warning for today in southern Grafton and Sullivan counties, as well as other parts of the state.Up close and personal with...
A female kestrel. A reader in Thetford writes, "Two summers ago we were instructed on how best to erect kestrel boxes and, lo and behold, we’ve had success luring (the same) pairs to them both years. The folks at VINS came out [last week] and tagged the female....Both boxes have five eggs each."
And the DHMC campus. Or, more specifically, this burst of spring exuberance there, from Kathy Stroffolino.
The debate ahead of Monday's 183-163 vote on President Sian Beilock—"the first of its kind in Dartmouth’s 254 years," writes Frances Mize in the
VN
—was pointed but civil, Mize reports. She covers the arguments: the "militarized response never before seen in Dartmouth’s history"; the notions that censure would "not bring anything good to Dartmouth" and that "administrators cannot afford themselves to become activists"; praise for the approach taken by Jewish and Middle East Studies faculty after Oct. 7 and the question, "where the hell was
that
on May 1?”
The AG's office and state police aren't saying much about yesterday's activities, carried out in conjunction with Claremont and Newport police, but WMUR's Hannah Cotter reports the search was for evidence tied to what are popularly known as the Connecticut River Valley murders—including cases from 1985 and 1986 in Newport, one of which was in a neighborhood police searched yesterday. Cotter speaks to Jane Boroski, who was attacked in Swanzey and survived: "This was out of the blue today," Boroski says.
The nearly two-acre Spencer St. parcel where the public works department once sat will go to Hollis, NH developers Stephen and Jake Tamposi, per an agreement approved last week by the city council. The pair, Patrick Adrian writes in the VN, are proposing an 80-unit building aimed at people earning at 60 percent or less than the area median income, including four live-work spaces for artists and street-level gallery space.
SPONSORED: Last month to see Gilded at the Hood Museum of Art! The much-lauded exhibition Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth closes June 22! Don’t miss one of our most popular shows of the season. Artists represented in this traveling exhibition turn to gilding as a means to weigh our value systems. If, as the saying goes, "all that glitters is not gold," the artists represented offer a different proposition: perhaps that which does not always shine is most worthy of our attention. Plan your visit today! Sponsored by the Hood Museum of Art.Rendering the surreal real. Which you kind of have to do if you're going to write a novella about a 6'3" sea creature named Larry who escapes from a lab and takes up with an unhappily married woman. You're thinking The Shape of Water, but this is Rachel Ingalls' Mrs. Caliban, published in 1982. In this week's Enthusiasms Carin Pratt writes that despite her aversion to literature containing sea monsters, Ingalls makes it all sound "perfectly reasonable"—in part because she writes about the daily challenges of hiding, feeding, and spending time with Larry in such "matter-of-fact, often very funny prose."Behind new Army ad on jobs for civilians, a pair of CRREL researchers. The commercial, focused on ice core research, is part of a campaign aimed at drawing the attention of civilians working in science and engineering fields. "Our job was to make it so someone familiar with our type of fieldwork wouldn't call them up and tell them they got it wrong," CRREL research scientist Zoe Courville tells Corps of Engineers writer Justin Campfield. Courville, along with Elias Deeb, worked with producers on the concept as well as details—like the fact that the camp they'd designed was too tidy. Here's the ad.A look at three Upper Valley eateries. In The Dartmouth, Yaniya Gilford heads to Stella's in Lyme, Lalo's Taqueria in Lebanon, and Ice Cream Fore-U in West Leb—three spots popular with students willing to venture beyond Hanover. She talks to Stella's owner Morgan Lory about the restaurant's efforts to stay alive and then revive after the pandemic—"We just want … simple stuff done relatively well, consistently," he says. At Lalo's, "We love everybody that comes to the door,” says shift manager Shonna Moulton. And at Fore-U, co-owner Jennifer Johnson says she and her sister, Meredith, have already put in 100 hours since it opened last week.It's not summer yet, but today's a reminder that rivers, lakes, and ponds will soon be swimmable. And that you probably want to check on what's known about water quality. There are the state sites (more on those sometime soon), but you might not know about the Connecticut River Conservancy's "Is It Clean?" site, which gathers reports from local organizations that send water samples to Endyne Labs in Leb for bacteria testing. Results for waterways in the river's watershed are at the link. Right now they're old, but testing gets underway this month and will last through October. (Thanks, JF!)Not far away in NH, "a surprisingly excellent museum built around telephones." David Brooks is talking about the New Hampshire Telephone Museum in Warner, and on his Granite Geek blog he writes that it looks at a key part of daily life in a way that "manages to be entertaining without being silly, insightful without being stuffy, surprising while still being familiar." While it's got plenty of old analog tech—including a working bank of switches and, of course, old telephones—it's also got a just-opened Sound Wave Lab that examines both the technology and the science behind phones and sound.In switch, NH cannabis legalization bill now threatened in the House. In the past, of course, it's been the House that's backed such measures, only to see them go down in the Senate. But after the Senate got done last week with the latest House effort, reports NH Bulletin's Ethan DeWitt, "lawmakers in both parties are voicing anger over the changes and indicating the House may kill the final bill entirely." The current Senate version (it's not done there yet) has drawn praise from the governor and public health advocates, but many House members believe it gives the state too much control over marketing and sales.Behind small-town projects, a Vermont "crowdgranting" program. That's the term VT Public's Corey Dockser uses to describe the state's Better Places program, which has helped fund everything from the new Hartford WWI/WWII monument and the COVER mural to flood recovery for the Ottauquechee River Trail in Woodstock and SoRo's underpass art. Plus dozens of projects elsewhere in VT. The idea, Dockser says, is to fund small, community-driven projects in towns that "often lack the resources to engage in grant writing." The program provides advice, resources, and 2:1 matching grants. More here.As more hikers and skiers in VT need rescuing, "A lot of people think we’re going to drop out of a helicopter and they won’t miss their dinner reservation." That's Drew Clymer, the state's search and rescue coordinator, talking to Lauryn Katz for a new UVM Community News Service piece on the state's rising number of rescues in recent years: from about 100 in 2015 to 141 last year. The numbers really started growing with the pandemic, and though many of those incidents are people needing guidance, they also include more serious rescues. Katz explores the numbers, the issues, and the rescues.In Montpelier, Phil Scott vetoes anti-pesticide bill, signs prior authorization measure.
The vetoed legislation, writes Seven Days' Kevin McCallum, would have banned the use over time of neonicotinoid pesticides, which are toxic to bees. In his veto message, Scott argued the bill "unfairly targets dairy farmers reliant on corn crops [which use pesticide-impregnated seed] and will harm farmers without achieving its goals for pollinators." "It’s hard to believe that the governor chose World Bee Day to veto this sensible legislation," responded VPIRG's director.
Meanwhile, Scott on Monday signed a bill setting time limits for insurers to respond to prior authorization requests from physicians and eliminating the practice for most primary care. It also, reports VTDigger's Peter D'Auria, requires insurers to cover some asthma medications. The measure is in part aimed at easing paperwork burdens for doctors and nurses. Insurance companies are warning that it will boost premiums.
Thinking of heading north this summer?
As you may have noticed,
Seven Days
has been paying more attention to Québec of late, and they've got a whole package out this week of summertime diversions. Including:
Publisher Paula Routly's guide to festivals and events in Montreal, Quebec City and other communities, and, closer by, the Eastern Townships. With dates and links for everything from Montreal's circus and baroque festivals to the Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu international balloon festival to Ayer's Cliff's rodeo and four-day neo-vaudeville festival, ShazamFest.
And, just a few hours away: dark skies. The Eastern Townships, writes Fiona Tapp, have earned something of a reputation for protecting our unlit view of the night sky, especially at Sutton's Au Diable Vert, not far from the border, and the 2,030-square-mile International Dark Sky Reserve around Mont-Mégantic. "I can't imagine growing up without seeing a real night sky," Mont-Mégantic's scientific coordinator tells Tapp. "To me, it's like growing up and never going into a forest or seeing flowers." Tapp describes how to take advantage of both sites.
Too close and personal with a bioluminescent squid. When a team of scientists dropped free-fall cameras in the central Pacific, they intended to study life in the ocean depths. What they caught on film was a rare treat: a Dana octopus squid that mistook the camera for, well, a rare treat. The elusive deep-sea squid is hardly ever seen, and scientists are anxious to study it. The creature’s large photophores produce dazzling flashes of light that disorient prey and light up their surroundings, explains Tom Hale on IFLScience. The close-up footage? Just be thankful it's not you.
Daybreak doesn't get to exist without your support. Help it stick around by hitting the maroon button:
We may be the middle of nowhere to everyone else in VT and NH, but
we
know what's good! Strong Rabbit's Morgan Brophy has come up with the perfect design for "We Make Our Own Fun" t-shirts and tote bags for proud Upper Valleyites. Plus you'll find the Daybreak jigsaw puzzle, as well as sweatshirts, tees, a fleece hoodie, and, as always, the fits-every-hand-perfectly Daybreak mug. Check it all out at the link!
At Woodstock's Norman Williams Public Library: "Environmental Humanities 101: Critical Studies for Feverish Times". At 4 pm today, the library hosts
Adrian Ivakhiv, who teaches environmental thought and culture at UVM and is founder of the UVM-based EcoCultureLab. He'll be talking about the new field of Environmental Humanities, "which is designed to address ecological crisis, climate crisis, dramatic global inequality, political polarization, media frenzy, future pandemics" and a host of other ills.
Starting at 5 pm today, Dartmouth's Rockefeller Center hosts a conversation with former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, Exec Council member Cinde Warmington, and Seacoast restaurateur Jonathan Kiper, the three candidates running for the Democratic nomination to replace outgoing Gov. Chris Sununu. The forum will run from 5-6 in Filene Auditorium, then will be followed from 6-7 by a meet-and-greet with the candidates. The center is planning to host a similar event with GOP candidates in the late summer or early fall.
A
In the third and final installment in their series of conversations about biodiversity in the Upper Valley, the Hanover Conservation Commission and the Howe host six panelists from around the region to talk about the invasion of non-native plants—caused in part by overbrowsing deer—and how to how to plan, budget, and recruit public support for efforts to remove them.
At 6:30 this evening, historian and former reporter Dan Billin will talk about the decision to put the famous motto on NH license plates beginning in 1969—a move seen as supporting the war in Vietnam, which in turn led people to protest by covering up the motto, which in turn led the state to crack down, leading to arrests, fines, and even jail time. One case wound up in the US Supreme Court, leading to a decision that the state could not compel "the dissemination of an ideological message." At Trumbull Hall in Etna.
At 7 this evening, the Center at Eastman hosts hiker, outdoors writer, and Sunapee resident Steve Priest for a talk on the
SRK Greenway: 75 miles over 14 hiking trails surrounding Lake Sunapee and crossing Sunapee, Ragged, and Kearsarge mountains. He'll be focusing in particular on the section that runs from Sunapee Town Hall to Springfield (NH). In the Draper Room. Also at 7, a talking cat in Mediterranean Africa. Hop Film screens the 2011 animated film, The Rabbi's Cat, by
Joann Sfar and Antoine Delesvaux and based on Sfar's comics series of the same title. In Algiers in the early 20th century, the titular cat eats the family parrot, gains the ability to speak—and to challenge the rabbi—and embarks on a meandering adventure across the Maghreb. At the Loew.
And today, a little Johnny Mercer.
, as sung and played by jazz vocalist and composer Martina DaSilva, singer-songwriter Allison Young, guitarist Josh Turner, and R&B multi-instrumentalist Sonny Step on sax—and channeling the tight four-part harmonies recorded by the Pied Pipers in 1945.
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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