Daybreak Wednesday, 7/15/26

Mostly sunny, a little cooler. Today’s still hot, mind you, with highs in the upper 80s. But we’re also entering a stretch of more normal mid-summer temps, as the next few days see highs drop to the low or mid 80s. We’re also looking at gusty winds today (and tomorrow) from the northwest, which may help some. Lows tonight will be cooler, too, either side of 60.

But let’s talk about the skies. At the link, what things looked like yesterday morning in W. Hartford, from Kim Morton. The smoke is from Canadian wildfires that are clustered in Ontario—184 of them, according to FireRadar. Dartmouth Earth Sciences Dept. Chair Erich Osterberg writes in to say that they will likely have an impact on US skies over the next few weeks—and that it’s worth paying attention to them, “as these closer Canadian fires (e.g. vs. California or western fires) tend to give us those unhealthy air days if they really grow, like in late June 2023.”

Meanwhile, in the water. Kim Morton also reports that the shad have been running in the Connecticut—they swim all way upstream from the Atlantic to spawn. She and the CT River Conservancy’s Ron Rhodes went out the other day and “we found a school of 10-12 of them at the Bellows Falls Dam and the fish ladder where Saxtons River meets the Connecticut,” she writes. What they look like at the link.

VT officials investigate after bear found shot, dumped by CT River boat ramp. The female bear was found by the Newbury, VT ramp into the river on Monday, reports Liz Sauchelli in the Valley News. St. J-based game warden Mike Scott tells Sauchelli that after a call alerted him, he found the bear around six feet from the ramp in a muddy area. “Because of the mud situation, I don’t believe it floated down the river,” he says; he believes someone backed a vehicle down the boat ramp to dump the bear in the water, Sauchelli writes. The bear was still lactating, though there’s no way of knowing how old her cubs are. Scott is seeking any witnesses’ help at 802-748-3111 or here.

In Quechee, Two is off to a roaring start. You may remember Corin Hirsch’s piece for Daybreak back in May, not long after Paula Fernandes and Adrian Abate opened the Brazilian/Argentinean bistro and café on the site of the former Chef Brad’s Crazy Side. Corin’s updated it for Seven Days—and notes that, “on a Tuesday night in July, when many restaurant dining rooms would be sleepy at best, all 26 or so seats were filled — a pattern that has recurred night after night.” Their idea—to blend ”the grilled meats of Argentina and the more complex, often seafood-based dishes of Brazil, backed by a supporting cast of pastries, chocolates and desserts”—clearly has legs.

SPONSORED: The Secret of a Rich Life. A full life is measured not only by what we accomplish, but by how we continue to find purpose, connection, and meaning as life changes. In this brief reflection, Cioffredi & Associates founder Billy Cioffredi shares a recent conversation with a patient whose perspective on family, loss, gratitude, and “showing up” offers a powerful reminder of what it means to live richly. Read “The Secret of a Rich Life,” at the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by Cioffredi & Associates Physical Therapy. 

A novel about “the casualties of art” and what’s acceptable in pursuing creativity. Though to be sure, Kate Oden writes in this week’s Enthusiasms, the sculptor who’s one of three characters at the center of Gayl Jones’s The Birdcatcher—the Kentucky-born writer’s seventh novel—doesn’t actually succeed in killing her husband, which she tries to do repeatedly, a fact revealed on the novel’s first page by its narrator, a travel writer who’s accompanied the pair to Ibiza. That early revelation, Kate writes, serves as “an upheaval of traditional suspense tactics that left me all the hungrier to read more.”

The Upper Valley’s fishing guides: “a community of anglers that works together.” Thetford guide Owen Ward’s take may be due to the fact, as the VN’s Patrick O’Grady writes, that “the fishing guide business is not super competitive—where guides have to advertise to win clients—because there is plenty of business.” He talks to Ward, Hanover’s Mike Blatt, Newport NH’s DJ Collise, and Reading’s Ed Reposa, most of them former recreational anglers who, as Reposa puts it, “got a lot of the stuff and kept getting more stuff” and turned it into a business. O’Grady outlines how they work—a couple also teach kids’ fishing camps—and the differences between VT and NH.

SPONSORED: Week Two of Osher’s Summer Lecture Series is today! Join nationally recognized speakers as they address different sides of the topic, “How is Artificial Intelligence Transforming America?” The series takes place on Wednesday mornings, today through August 12, at the Lebanon Opera House and YouTube Livestream. Today’s session: “Can AI Think Like a Doctor?” with Harvard’s Adam Rodman. Session Three on July 22: “AI: Too Artificial? Too Intelligent? Too Much Energy?” with Stanford’s Dan W. Reicher. Register per session or save with the full series. Sponsored by Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at Dartmouth.

VT Auditor’s office finds problems, lack of accountability in sheriff’s offices. Reading about what he called “one troubling story about a Vermont sheriff after another” in recent years, outgoing state auditor Doug Hoffer asked his staff to look into how VT holds sheriffs accountable—and how it compares to other states. Their report details six cases of “inappropriate or possibly inappropriate conduct” since 2022, problems with financial audits, and few ways to conduct oversight or rein in problematic sheriffs—versus other states where sheriffs can be impeached, removed by the governor or legislature, or otherwise held accountable.

VT to get a new state police commander. Col. Matthew Birmingham, who is retiring after 11 years in the role, will be replaced by 19-year veteran Shawn Loan, Gov. Phil Scott and Public Safety Commissioner Jennifer Morrison announced yesterday. Loan, reports Seven Days’ Colin Flanders, “began his VSP career as a trooper in the Derby barracks and spent years as a detective in the narcotics investigation unit before being named the director of the Vermont Intelligence Center.” He tells Flanders that he wants to focus on retention and recruitment, and “believes strongly in proactive policing and wants to mine data for better ways to deploy resources,” Flanders writes.

Looking down at the beauty of the world. This is just the second year of the International Aerial Photographer of the Year contest, writes Kate Mothes on Colossal, but it drew more than 1,600 entries. Photos from drones, planes, and rooftops qualify. From above, landscape, water, and architecture form shapes and patterns not seen from the ground. For the full glory of all 101 winners, click on the flipbook at the bottom of the competition website. You might pause at Marcin Zając’s drone’s eye view of the Golden Gate Bridge; Aleksandra Wilk’s stark black road, white church, and blanket of snow; or the saturated colors of Azim Khan Ronnie’s “Harvesting Red Chilies.”

Today's Wordbreak. With a word from yesterday’s Daybreak.

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HEADS UP
In Sunapee, “18th Century Cooking and Life.” The Abbott Library hosts M. Allyson Szabo for a talk on “the challenges and joys of colonial cooking, touching on open-hearth cooking and brick ovens, as well as the tools, techniques, and ingredients that shaped early Colonial meals”—and how they adapted to ingredients like corn, pumpkins, beans, and maple sugar. 4 pm.

Square dance workshop on the Dartmouth Green. It’s the Hop’s warmup for the Ida Mae Specker band (whose concert is later) with Sarah Gibson calling traditional American social dances, including contra dances from New England, square dances from the Southern Appalachians, and reels with roots in Ireland and Scotland. All dances taught. 4 pm, in the Top of the Hop if it’s raining.

Poetry reading with Dartmouth Frost Place Poet-in-Residence Adam Giannelli. The poet and translator is the author of Tremulous Hinge (University of Iowa Press, 2017), winner of the Iowa Poetry Prize, published in everything from The Atlantic to Kenyon Review, and, Dartmouth’s English Dept. notes, “a person who stutters.” 5 pm in Dartmouth Hall 105.

VINS and “Birds Are Dinosaurs” in Etna. The Etna Library hosts birds of prey and a talk about how, over millions of years, modern birds “became masters of the air.” In Trumbull Hall at 5 pm.

Late Night at AVA. As they write, it’s “a relaxed monthly happening where you can enjoy the art, make friends you haven't met, catch some live music, and kick back with non-alcoholic refreshments by our friends at Bitéro.” They’ll be every third Wednesday from 5-9 pm in the main galleries.

The Ida Mae Specker Band on the Dartmouth Green. The Hop presents the third-generation fiddler, who “draws on American folk tradition and drives it forward with her original work,” backed by a band made up of her legendary dad, John, on fiddle; Marc Edwards on guitar; Mowgli Giannitti on upright bass; and Hank Clark on mandolin. 5:30 pm, Top of the Hop if the weather turns bad.

Artistree’s Music on the Hill with Doug Perkins and Patrick Ross. The music-scene veterans offer up an evening of acoustic guitar and fiddle with bluegrass, jazz, folk, and traditional roots. 6:30 pm.

At the Norwich Bookstore, Roopika Risam talks about Data Empire with Jed Dobson. Risam teaches teaches digital humanities and social engagement at Dartmouth, and studies “how histories of race, empire, and technology shape the modern world.” Her new book looks at history through the lens of information: “With our earliest tools like ancient cave markings and knotted strings, to colonial record-keeping and the algorithmic state, Data Empire reveals how data has always been the seed of power.” She’ll be talking it over with fellow Dartmouth prof Dobson. 7 pm.

The Harlem Quartet in New London. Summer Music Associates hosts the Grammy-winning string foursome of Ilmar Gavilán, Melissa White, Jaime Amador, and Felix Umansky, who focus on classical, jazz, Latin music, and music by contemporary composers. Program includes Beethoven, Guido López-Gavilán, William Bolcom, and Fanny Hensel. 7 pm in First Baptist Church.

The Party Crashers at the Bethel Bandstand. The local six-piece Motown-to-modern-pop party/dance band works hard to keep you groovin’ on the lawn. 7-9 pm.

The New London Barn Playhouse opens its run of Young Frankenstein. The stage musical of the Mel Brooks film: “Bursting with slapstick humor, clever wordplay, and over-the-top spectacle,” the Barn writes, “the show celebrates love, laughter, and embracing your inner weirdo—proving that even monsters just want to sing, dance, and be understood.” 7:30 this evening, runs through Sunday, August 2.

“Double Dippin’” at Sawtooth. It’s a duo comedy night: standups and Valley Improv collaborate: First, the comedians perform, then Valley Improv creates a set based on the stand-ups' material. 8 pm.

And for today...

If you haven’t heard of Fabrizio yet, you probably will at some point. He’s got a story—a Peruvian migrant who grew up poor, made his way to the US, worked as a busboy in a Mexican restaurant and as a salesman, and eventually found himself in Nashville. All in the last eight years. With a resonant baritone and a habit of using country music to explore issues like recovery with straight-up honesty, he’s been catching attention. Here’s “Before the Soul Goes to Waste.”

See you tomorrow.

Written and published by Rob Gurwitt      Poetry editor: Michael Lipson    Associate Editors: Jonea Gurwitt, Sam Gurwitt