WELL GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Thank goodness! Finally a day inside to catch up on...well, whatever you've been ignoring. What's left of tropical storm Barry is arriving from the south. A cold front is dipping down from the north. The result? A lot of moisture ready to drop from the sky. Rain this morning, could be heavy at times. After midday odds lessen, but it may rain off and on into the night. Highs around 80.Rebecca Holcombe running for VT governor. In her announcement yesterday, the Norwich resident and former state education secretary said, "My mission as governor will be to make sure that opportunity extends to all regions of our state, not just for the wealthy and prosperous ones....We’ll do it in a collaborative way, across party lines and regional divides." Holcombe left the education department after disagreeing with current Gov. Phil Scott over his spending priorities. She's the first declared candidate in the race.Developer pulls permit request for hemp processing facility in WRJ. Mike Davidson's Execusuite had joined with VT Salvage owner Jesse LaBombard and hemp processor Convert to propose the facility for a warehouse behind VT Salvage. The Hartford Planning Commission was set to hear about the application this week, but Davidson has rescinded the bid, with no explanation. “We are considering different possibilities for the space," his managing agent, Tim Sidore, tells the VN. (VN, sub reqd)The other day, Jessica Brown got some pics of a mother bear and her cub up in a tree. She sent them off to Demo Sofronas, who writes the blog "About Norwich." The bears were peering down at... Well, it's just three pics, but they tell a whole story. Just a head's up from Dartmouth on its proposed biomass plant: It'll be holding public forums on siting possibilities on July 31 and Aug. 13. As you'll remember, the college is proposing the facility, and its truck traffic, for the south end of the golf course; the hill behind the Dewey parking lot; or the former Trumbull-Nelson sit on 120. The forums are a chance for the public to talk over the sites before the college makes a choice in the fall.You don't get to linger over wine, but it's not a bad perk. The VN's Sarah Earle looks at local restaurants that feed staff before dinner patrons start flowing in the door. "In an industry known for high levels of burnout and turnover and few company perks, a free professionally made meal and the camaraderie that comes with it can serve multiple purposes," she writes. She focuses especially on Carpenter & Main, where chef/owner Bruce McLeod says, “I make what I want to eat for dinner." Which recently meant a mashed potato bar.Region to see more dangerously high heat levels in coming years. The Union of Concerned Scientists is out with a new report detailing expected extreme heat conditions around the US if nothing's done about heat-trapping emissions. NH, which historically has had only three days a year with a heat index above 90, will see 23 by mid-century. VT would increase to 19. Needless to say, places like TX and FL will be ferocious. National county-by-county interactive map here if you want to play.Speaking of which, the Weather Service in Burlington has a map of expected max temperatures on Friday and Saturday. It's alarmingly orange. It could get to 97 around here. At least we're not west of the Greens -- 101 in Middlebury.NH towns worry about new PFAS regs. State regulators have proposed strict limits on four types of the ubiquitous chemicals, which are used in Teflon, Gore Tex, and firefighting foam. The regs would be some of the tightest in the country, and would require towns to test public water supplies regularly and remove the chemicals if they exceed the limits. Towns are worried about the cost, since there's no additional state money to help out. VT wildlife officials are warning hikers never to feed bears, after they had to put down a male bear in Bennington Co. The bear, which had come to see Appalachian Trail hikers as a source of food, had entered tents, stolen a backpack, and charged a hiker. Reports of bear-human interactions are rising in the Green Mountain National Forest, and officials are trying to get thru-hikers to observe basic bear common sense.So what do you do with a box full of fortune-cookie fortunes? If you're Cecilia Ulibarri, an artist in Nashua, you launch a "spreading kindness" movement called Fortune Forward, and get people to give them to others. “I challenge you to give it to someone you don’t know, because making others smile is helping make the world a better place," she says. Some of the fortunes people drew at an event Sunday: "Actually, YOU CAN!" and the ever-helpful, "It's always too early to quit."It's not all peace, freedom, and craft beer, you know. There's a new podcast out called "These Dark Mountains," about historic Vermont crimes. Only two installments up so far: the 1882 McCaffrey Murders in Waterbury and the Chester robberies of 1886-1902. "Lillian Gallup heard movement upstairs and assumed it was her houseguest Tressa Dustin. It was just after 8 in the morning. Lillian waited but Tressa didn't come down...."transearth slow down is not slow. That's from the computer code that was used aboard Apollo 11 to guide the spacecraft to the moon. Now two Dartmouth lit profs, James Dobson and Rena Mosteirin, have turned Apollo Guidance Computer code into a book of poetry and commentary, called Moonbit. "They weren’t developing this technology to launch a missile or invade Vietnam," says Mosteirin. "That’s what makes this code so appealing to poets and to humanists.”
WHAT'CHA GOT FOR US, WEDNESDAY?Well for starters, Ranky Tanky's on the Hanover green, part of the HOP's "Free for All" series. They're a South Carolina-based quintet that playfully blends jazz and R&B with the African and gospel backbone of Gullah culture. They started hitting it big after a 2017 interview on NPR's "Fresh Air", and regularly sell out venues now. "This band can take tunes from yesterday and make them sound as lively and relevant as 21st-century electronic beats," Downbeat writes. Starts at 5:30, in Spaulding in case of rain.You know how deep inside you've always wanted to juggle, ride a unicycle, or walk a tightwire? Here's your chance. It's "Adult Night" at the Van Lodostov Family Circus camp, with those skills -- plus Chinese pole, trapeze, rope, and more -- taught by the crackerjack set of coaches at Van Lodostov this year (including former Smirkus troupers and about-to-be-circus-pros Liam Gundlach and Ripley Burns). Runs from 6 to 9 in the Marion Cross School gym in Norwich, call Ted Lawrence to register: 800-728-8207.Or if you're in the mood for a drive, Charles Fergus will be talking about his new mystery novel at the St. J Atheneum. Fergus is probably best known around VT for books like Common Edible & Poisonous Mushrooms of the Northeast and Bears: Wild Guide. His latest, though, is set in Andrew Jackson-era Pennsylvania, where a small-town sheriff investigates a judge's apparent suicide. He'll be using his talk to explore the question: “Can mystery fiction be thoughtful, literary, and profound?” Starts at 7.
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