GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Ah, well. That low pressure system's moved in from Ontario, and it's bringing us clouds and a likelihood of rain and thunderstorms, especially after noon. Dewpoints are higher, too, so even though temps shouldn't reach beyond the mid-80s, it could get uncomfortable. Storms could be packing hail, winds, and heavy rain. Things will linger into tonight before clearing out. Overnight low barely dropping below 70.So, what do we have here?
NH added 19 new positive test results yesterday and an official total of 5,932. There are 4,758 (80%) recovered cases and 384 deaths (up 2), yielding a total current caseload of 790 (down 36). Grafton County remains at 88 cumulatively, Sullivan at 35. Merrimack County gained 1 and stands at 420. Claremont remains at 5 active cases; Canaan, Lebanon, Plainfield, Grantham, Charlestown, Sunapee, and Newbury have between 1 and 4 each.
VT reported 3 new cases yesterday, bringing its official statewide total to 1,254. Two people are hospitalized and 1,039 (up 17) have recovered. Deaths remain at 56, while Windsor and Orange counties remain at 59 and 10 cumulative cases, respectively. The state added 760 tests and has now done 71,113 overall.
Is NH headed for a coronavirus uptick? The NYT last week ran a story on an algorithm that assesses Google search results, Covid-related Twitter posts, doctors’ searches on a physicians' platform, smartphone mobility data, and readings from the Kinsa connected thermometer. In tests, it anticipated outbreaks by about three weeks. The article includes this throwaway line: "Looking ahead, it predicts that Nebraska and New Hampshire are likely to see cases increase in the coming weeks if no further measures are taken, despite case counts being currently flat." Guess we'll find out.The “most unusual Town Meeting you will ever go to.” At least, that was Hanover town moderator Eggleton's hope at the start of yesterday's official gathering in the Dewey Field parking lot. Aerial photos showed at least 115 cars in the lot, the VN's Tim Camerato reports. By a show of hands, voters approved the town budget and the purchase of land along Greensboro Road to turn into a town forest. A machine malfunction caused by pine tar on a ballot means that ballot results—including the contested selectboard races—won't be reported until today.ArtisTree has transformed S. Pomfret "into something of a cultural center." That's the Christian Science Monitor's Gareth Henderson in a new profile of Kathleen Dolan and the multi-pronged arts organization she built starting in 2003, with a small music and arts space for kids and parents in Woodstock. Its move to South Pomfret—and opening of the Grange Theater, along with its arts center and gallery, "boosted visitor traffic and gave the village a new dose of vitality it hadn’t seen in decades," Henderson writes. Who got what in the Upper Valley. The VN has created a spreadsheet of PPP loan amounts for those businesses and organizations that received over $150,000, with tabs for the Upper Valley as well as Vermont and New Hampshire. There was one area employer in the top, $5-10 million range (GW Plastics), and 15 in the $2-$5 million range, including the Hanover Co-op, the owner of the Dartmouth Coach, Kendal at Hanover, Geokon, Colby-Sawyer, VLS, the Resource Systems Group in WRJ, the Woodstock Inn, and Newspapers of New England, which owns the VN.“As long as you hid when the people came to plow, nobody would even know you were there.” Now, this is more like it. The Boston Globe takes a look at Bradford, NH, where Ghislaine Maxwell hid out, and nets mostly surprise from locals. Nothing ever happens there, they say. Though people do keep to themselves. “I have spent 21 years here and I know about nobody,” says one. Which, come to think of it, makes it pretty perfect for an international fugitive. Hmm. “How many other people are here?” asks a local business owner, her voiced lowered.Local swimmer does the 20 bridges. And no, these aren't bridges around here. Vera Rivard, the 16-year-old open-water-swimming phenom who lives in Springfield, NH and Derby, VT and trains at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center, last Sunday swam around Manhattan via the East River, Harlem River, and Hudson River, UVAC says in a press release. That was 28.5 miles, and it took her 7 hours, 53 minutes. She was the first person this year to do the swim, part of the triple crown of open water swimming, along with the English Channel and California's Catalina Channel. You know those new "milepoint" exit signs you see on I-91? The small additions to the existing signs are the state's answer to the 2009 federal mandate requiring all states to base exit signs on mileage, not sequence. They're supposed to buy Vermont time to come up with a permanent solution—only the state has no actual plan to do so, reports VTDigger's Sawyer Loftus. In fact, says VTrans' leader on the project, "This allows us to postpone replacing our signs on a wholesale basis until the signs are at the end of their useful life.” And when will that be? A decade or more from now. Oh, yeah, remember the climate? Next week, NHPR is launching "By Degrees," a project led by Seacoast/environment reporter Annie Ropeik to bring together reporting on how climate change is affecting the state and its communities, economy, and natural resources. It's promising a lot, including a look at how, in the midst of the pandemic and the racial justice movement, the state can "tackle so many problems at once." Maroon link takes you to their landing page, but you can also share your ideas here.Meanwhile, VPR discontinues comments. Like a lot of other news organizations, it's decided they're not worth the effort and that there are better ways to engage with listeners and VPR.org readers. "We can't realistically fact-check each comment, or catch every violation of our comment policy. Misinformation or abusive behavior diminishes the public service we are striving to provide," they write. The move's effective today."Like your dog understands your tone of voice, a bear does as well." VT is seeing a jump in bear sightings: There were 353 reports in June of last year, and 496 this year. State naturalists think the late spring, drought, more people working from home (and so there to see bears when they show up), and the state's new food-scrap law have combined to boost backyard sightings. They advise putting off backyard composting if bears are a particular issue where you live. And if you do see one and it's safe to "let the bear know it's not welcome," says Fish & Wildlife's Forrest Hammond, make some noise.VT task force sets out rules for returning college students. The new guidelines, announced yesterday, come from a group chaired by retired Norwich University president Rich Schneider. "None of us want to send our students back home again as we did in March,” he said at a press conference yesterday. So in addition to mask mandates, staggered dining times, quarantining, regular testing, and limited gathering sizes, students will be required to sign contracts "in which they pledge to follow the rules or face discipline, including potential expulsion," Seven Days reports.VT opens applications for arts grants. Amidst the $96 million in emergency grant monies signed into law last week by Gov. Phil Scott was $5 million for nonprofit arts and culture organizations. They're eligible for up to $50,000, and the application window opened on Monday. The Vermont Arts Council, which had initially wanted to see $50 million go to arts orgs, has a FAQ page for interested organizations, covering qualifications and the application process, including NAICS codes, in case you don't happen to have it memorized.Frozen bliss. Okay, none of these places is remotely close to here, but reading this made me really happy anyway. Seven Days just put out a guide to "Seven Spots for Frosty Treats on Really Hot Days." There are, for instance, the cantaloupe/mint/raspberry popsicles at Adam's Berry Farm in Charlotte; the chocolate-covered frozen bananas that Christie and Matt Farkas sell from the stand at the end of their driveway on Grand Isle; the sheep's-milk gelato at Fairy Tale Farm in Bridport; the tahini ice cream kinda-Klondike bar from Honey Road's window onto Main Street in Burlington... Feeling cooler yet?Also just in time for this week's heat wave... On Sunday, beaches near Plymouth, MA were closed after someone spotted the fin of what they thought was a great white shark. State officials checking it out decided it was a porpoise. Not every dorsal fin needs to send you sprinting for shore, the Boston Globe sagely notes, and it's here to show you the difference between a great white, a basking shark (their preferred food: plankton), a dolphin, a mola mola, and the fierce-looking but fish- and squid-loving porbeagle (and no, they don't eat beagles, either).Seriously, that's a lot of legs. This is a couple of months old, but it's impressive whenever you see it: the Amish way to move a shed. Not one of those little sheds you've got in your yard. A shed the size of a barn. You just need a bunch of people, someone who's really good at giving clear directions... and to know exactly where that thing's going first time around. (Thanks, PG!)
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The Montshire reopens to the general public at 10 am today, after opening for members only last week. Outdoors only, but that gets you its nature trails, a forest-inspired play area, and bubbles al fresco. Reservations required.
So just what is it about school photos? At 12:30 pm, Hood guest curators Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer and staff curator Amelia Kahl talk about their recent exhibition of school photos from across time and geography. They'll be joined by Argentine artist Marcelo Brodsky, whose image The Class was featured in the exhibition, discussing his work with school photos "in the pursuit of solidarity and social justice."
At 6:30, it's Hartford's concert in the park—live and in person—with blues musician John Lackard.Physical-distancing pod protocols remain in place.
At 7 this evening, you can catch two Vermont mystery writers in a conversation hosted by a New Hampshire bookstore. Sarah Stewart Taylor and Archer Mayor will be talking about their craft and about Taylor's latest novel, The Mountains Wild, which introduces a new series about Maggie D'arcy, an American homicide detective in Ireland. Hosted by Gibson's Bookstore in Concord, Zoom registration at the link.
And at 7:30, NYC's Public Theater premieres The Line, a play it commissioned from documentary-theater creators Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, based on interviews with medical first-responders during the Covid-19 crisis. "Created from quarantine in ‘rapid response’ to this national emergency, THE LINE presents a fundamental redefinition of what it means to protect and serve, examining the fault lines in our system through the words of the brave people who show up every day to care for us all,” Blank and Jensen write.
Reading Deeper
Over the 6 months of the coronavirus crisis, researchers have learned a lot—about the virus itself, how it attacks the body, and how to care for the people it affects. But, as Nature notes, "for every insight into COVID-19, more questions emerge and others linger. That is how science works." So to mark this moment, they run down the things we still don't know. Why do people respond so differently? What's the nature of immunity and how long does it last? Has the virus mutated in worrisome ways? How well will a vaccine work? How'd the virus evolve, anyway? The state of play on the scientific front lines.
Back in 2009, REM released "It's the End of the World As We Know It," which was... well, not an upbeat song. Last month, undoubtedly not by coincidence,
from quarantine as something made wry and, somehow, both brassier and sweeter by British singer-songwriter dodie and former American Idol winner Maddie Poppe.
Eye of a hurricane, listen to yourself churnWorld serves its own needsDon't mis-serve your own needs...
See you tomorrow.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Banner by Tom Haushalter Poetry editor: Michael Lipson About Rob About Tom About Michael
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