GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
Showers again. Nothing serious, but we've got that cold front moving in, and we're likely to see showers at least through the morning with a chance it'll drizzle into the afternoon—along with maybe a thunderstorm—as low pressure arrives. We start out pretty warm, though the high today won't get above the mid 70s before temps drop into the mid 50s overnight.Hanover waives parking garage fees on Saturdays. As part of an effort to make downtown more visitor-friendly, Hanover's parking division yesterday announced that starting this weekend, it won't cost anything to park in the town parking garage on Saturdays. Sundays, of course, are already free townwide. Saturday's largesse extends only to the garage; you'll still see the parking enforcement folks with their little readers at other pay spots in town.At Phnom Penh Sandwich Station, a "colorful, crunchy sandwich bursting with flavor." So writes Georgiana De Rham in Seven Days about the restaurant's namesake sandwich, which she first tried on her way to a hike up Cardigan. "It was love at first bite. Ever since, I've made a point to pick one up every time I'm near White River Junction." She talks to owner Sarin Tin about his wife's twice-weekly drives to Boston for bánh mì rolls, the fact that they used to slice meat—and shred 50 to 100 pounds of pickled carrots a day—by hand (they've since bought some helpful kitchen devices), and more.In Norwich, failing Tracy Hall boilers stoke conflict over a replacement. The oil-fired boilers that heat the town building are nearly three decades old and “at the end of their useful life,” according to interim town manager Brennan Duffy. He's recommended a more energy-efficient upgrade. But, reports Patrick Adrian in the Valley News, that's run into opposition on the selectboard from members heeding a 2019 town meeting vote asking officials to phase out the use of fossil fuels. The board has authorized repairs—and asked Duffy to come up with plans in case there's no heat this winter—while debate over how to replace the boilers continues. Adrian outlines the continuing controversy.Police report on Jeep's hair-raising fall off I-91 overpass. On Aug. 14, while Daybreak was on vacation, a 21-year-old man from Connecticut and his sister were traveling north on I-91 in Bradford when their Wrangler left the roadway, drove along the median toward the embankment between the bridges over Route 25—and then dropped 30 feet to the pavement below. The VSP just released the result of their investigation: The driver, James Murphy, had fallen asleep. When emergency personnel arrived, the two had climbed out of the car and were lying in the road. Neither, the report says, had life-threatening injuries.SPONSORED: Get a musical start to your school year with Upper Valley Music Center! On Tuesday, Sept. 5 from 4-7 pm, join us for an Open House with free demo classes (Music Together, Rhythm Kids, and Arranging for Guitar), a Community Chorus open house with free voice assessments, a fiddle drop-in, and a chance to meet our newest faculty members. This Friday, UVMC and Lebanon Libraries kick off the school year with a Family Dance: traditional dances taught by David Millstone! Sponsored by Upper Valley Music Center.An orphan, butterfly hunter, and eccentric—who'd make fast friends with any modern woman. Only Veronica Speedwell lives in Victorian England and features in a mystery series by Deanna Raybourn that the Norwich Bookstore's Emma Kaas has been devouring. "I cannot get enough," she writes in this week's Enthusiasms, highlighting the first book in the series—named, appropriately, A Curious Beginning. "The series is pure fun," Emma adds, "and I've only guessed the ending once; in every chapter Raybourn and her characters manage to surprise, intrigue, and amuse me."In Bradford, police charge two in break-in. In a news release last night, the VT State Police reported that they and the Bradford PD took a 26-year-old homeless man and a 46-year-old Bradford resident, Eugene Kilchewski, into custody for the recent break-in at Vittles Espresso Drive-Thru. Kilchewski had actually been arrested the day before in connection with that break-in at the Bradford Golf Course and the burglary of a camp in Fairlee. The two men were lodged at Northeast Regional Correctional Complex in St. Johnsbury.Dartmouth's Sian Beilock on mental health on campus, Greek life, diversity, legacy admissions, and more. In an interview that went up this morning, The Dartmouth's Taylor Haber talks to the college's new president about her effort to build a strategic plan for approaching mental health and wellness campus-wide, her belief that "we have to stop talking about Greek Life versus not-Greek Life and start talking about how we’re building ecosystems of community," how to ensure "diversity of thought and experience" on campus, and the role of legacy admissions. Beilock points out that in the Class of 2027, 30 percent of legacies are students of color.SPONSORED: Work at the Hop! Interested in the arts? The Hop is hiring creative, collaborative individuals to fill the positions of Senior Development Manager, Multimedia Associate, Administrative Coordinator, and Senior Projectionist. Join a fun team with great benefits. Learn more and apply through the burgundy link or here. Sponsored by the Hopkins Center for the Arts.“It would like melt, melt, melt … and then it would pause for a little bit.” That’s Meredith Kelly, chair of Dartmouth’s earth sciences department, describing the disappearance of NH's last ice sheet more than 13,000 years ago. Olivia Richardson of NHPR reports on Kelly’s work with students to study melting glaciers from the last Ice Age—and on how you can still see evidence of the Ice Age in the Flume Gorge. Brenhin Keller, also at Dartmouth, says water that ran under ice sheets was probably the result of New Hampshire’s rock. “Granites tend to have, relatively speaking, a lot of uranium and thorium and potassium, which are all radioactive and emit heat as they decay.”In depositions, some hints about "divisive concepts" law's reach in NH schools. The depositions were given thanks to a lawsuit challenging the controversial 2021 law in federal court. There's been uncertainty about how it would work in practice, and in NH Bulletin, Ethan DeWitt plumbs the depositions for insights, detailing instances in which Education Commr. Frank Edelblut looked into complaints by parents about specific book assignments they found objectionable. But a teacher's use of a book is not itself a violation of the law, Edelblut argued—that depends on how the material's presented.In NH's North Country, carbon sequestration firm stokes concern among loggers, forest industry. For decades, reports NHPR's Adriana Martinez-Smiley, the 146,000 acres of the Connecticut Lakes Headwaters Working Forest in Pittsburg have been harvested for timber. But last fall, they were acquired by Bluesource Sustainable Forests Company, whose business model relies on using forestland for carbon offsets bought by companies emitting greenhouse gases elsewhere. Though its plans remain unclear, they'll involve less logging—and foresters, mills, and towns are jittery.After $16.5 million EB-5 fraud settlement, lawyers in line to get $5.5 million, investors from $1,000 to $75,000. That's according to a document filed by court-appointed receiver Michael Goldberg following a settlement by the State of VT on claims that it was at best negligent in the scandal that defrauded hundreds of investors hoping to land green cards. Goldberg's plan awards 63 investors represented by the Barr Law Group some portion of the money—based, Alan J. Keays reports in VTDigger, in part on whether or not they got green cards. The settlement is still contingent on court action.EG.5. That's the new Omicron variant that's rapidly becoming the dominant strain of Covid in the US and seems to be driving the rise in cases. Given its apparent ability to evade antibodies from previous exposure or vaccines, Vermont Public's Sophie Stephens set out to answer some of the questions reporters there have been fielding. No, the state's not contemplating a mask mandate short of a public health emergency; yes, its metrics are still limited to tracking hospitalizations (new numbers on Wednesdays); there's also still limited wastewater testing. Plus: how to check on those old tests lying around.“Opossums and gray squirrels are frequent thieves.” Nothing against our bushy- and bare-tailed friends, but those tasty packets falling from the sky are not meant for them. The target audience for 9 million rabies-vaccine-laced tidbits on the Eastern Seaboard, writes Emily Mullin in Wired, is raccoons, skunks, and foxes. The USDA spends months drawing up plane and helicopter drop maps based on where rabies occurred the previous year, then it’s bombs away from July to October. Through strategic targeting, the program can eliminate rabies by vaccinating 60 percent of the local raccoons. Thanks, JR!Okay, sure, Stowe's the most popular Airbnb spot for families headed to VT. But Bartlett, NH? Actually, to be more precise it's probably Glen, NH, the village within Bartlett that's home to StoryLand—but in its new listing of top spots in each state where families booked this summer, Airbnb doesn't discriminate. The company also doesn't hazard a guess as to what drew them. In some cases it's obvious: Niagara Falls, NY; Anaheim, CA; the central Cape Cod town of Dennis, MA. But Ruidoso, NM? Port Angeles, WA? Indian Point, MO? Oh, well. Out of room. You'll just have to figure it out yourself.The Wednesday Vordle. If you're new to Daybreak, this is the Upper Valley version of Wordle, with a five-letter word chosen from an item in the previous day's Daybreak.
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At 6:30 this evening, the Etna Library presents author Marina Kirsch, talking about her book, Flight of Remembrance: A World War II Memoir of Love and Survival. The book is about Kirsch's family's experience during WWII—when her father and his family fled Soviet Latvia to live in Germany, where he was drafted into the Luftwaffe, fled advancing Soviet troops, spent time in a POW camp...and fell in love. In Trumbull Hall.
Also at 6:30, the Choral Arts Foundation closes out its Summer Sings! series with Mark Nelson, director of Harmony Night and the Bach Study Group, leading all comers in two contemporary pieces: Paul Mealor’s “She Walks in Beauty” and Joan Szymko’s “River," the composer's "soulful 'celebration of empowered community'." "Even if you don’t know them," the CAF urges, "come be part of creating some luscious choral sounds." In the Batchelder Lounge at the Church of Christ at Dartmouth College.
At 7, the Center at Eastman presents two a cappella groups: the North Country Chordsmen and the mixed-voice VoxStars. In the Draper Room, no charge.
Also at 7, the Lake Morey Resort free summer concert series closes down the season with Della Mae, out on the resort's front lawn. The Grammy-nominated all-women bluegrass band started in Boston, but its members—founder and fiddle player Kimber Ludiker, lead vocalist/guitarist Celia Woodsmith, guitarist Avril Smith, bassist Vickie Vaughn, and mandolinist Maddie Witler—hail from all over. As the Guardian put it last year, "Their live shows are foot-stomping, crowd-pleasing riots, full of the kind of high-octane instrumental skills that the band...now in its third incarnation...was always intended to showcase." Rain or shine, but check their FB page for any time change.
And to get us going this morning...
Some years back, a young music teacher in Australia named Astrid Jorgensen got a gig teaching an entire secondary school to sing in a choir. "It was," she recalled later, "an incredible experience"—there were no grades, no concert at the end, just making music accessible to everyone there. The idea—and the rush—stayed with her, and six years ago at a pub in Brisbane she pulled in 70 people for the first-ever Pub Choir. It's fair to say that it's since become a thing Down Under, with thousands of people getting together to learn a song (though not all in the same pub). “Pub Choir is the sound of people agreeing," the novelist and journalist Trent Dalton wrote Jorgensen after one show. Well, this summer it got
really
big: Jorgensen toured the continent to 18 locations, pulling together a total of 18,812 people all singing one song: Toto's "Africa."
Oh, and
. Sadly, the closest it'll come to here is Brooklyn.
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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