GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!
How much nice weather can a body stand? Never mind, I know the answer. And fortunately for us, high pressure's in place through the weekend, so we're looking at days of warm, sunny weather. Today: Possible morning fog in spots, but mostly sunshine and temps getting into the mid 70s. Calm winds from the west, overnight lows around 50.A hovering WRJ hummingbird. "All the male ruby throats, from what I've seen, took off about a week ago," writes David Pelletier. But females are still around—at least, this one is. The birds, he adds, "never cease to amaze me!"Kelly Ayotte, Joyce Craig to face off for NH governor; Karen Liot Hill wins Democratic nod for Exec Council. Burgundy link goes to Ethan DeWitt's New Hampshire Bulletin rundown on the gubernatorial contests and last night's candidate events. For other contests, including Congress, Exec Council, state Senate, and state House, here are the AP vote counts, via NHPR, including town-by-town totals for governor and Congress.
With 93 percent of the votes counted in the GOP gubernatorial primary, former US Sen. Ayotte stands at 81,727 votes, or 63.3 percent, to former state Sen. Chuck Morse's 44,508 votes, or 34.5 percent, according to the AP's unofficial vote totals.
On the Democratic side the contest was much closer, with former Manchester Mayor Craig winning 55,600 votes, or 48 percent, to Exec Council member Cinde Warmington's 48,905 votes, or 42.3 percent.
With the AP showing 93 percent of the votes counted in the Exec Council's 2nd District, which Warmington is giving up, Lebanon City Council member Karen Liot Hill stands at 17,174 votes, or 56.1 percent, to New London businessman Mike Liberty's 13,451 votes, or 43.9 percent. On the GOP side, Kim Strathdee defeated Mary Deak, 8,447 to 6,590 (so far).
In one Oxbow playing field vandalism case, Woodsville man pleads guilty. Trevor Kingsbury, 24 and a 2018 Oxbow High graduate, pled guilty in August to a single misdemeanor count of unlawful mischief, the Valley News reports. That stems from a November incident in which Kingsbury spent four minutes in his pickup tearing up the school's soccer field. His jail time has been suspended in lieu of 50 hours of community service, restitution, and completion of a restorative justice program. The school also saw a second case of vandalism this July, in which a car tore up multiple playing fields.SPONSORED: Have you noticed the afternoon light this week?! Autumn air has a special clarity and glow. Your family will radiate in photographs that celebrate and document this moment in your lives. Book a family portrait session with Britton Mann and you'll come away joyful, with images perfect for holiday cards, mantelpieces, and albums. If you've never done a photo shoot like this, don't be intimidated—Britton has a knack for crafting carefree photo sessions for all involved. Sponsored by Britton Mann Photography.A new view of Lead Belly. As John and Alan Lomax tell it in their book about the man they met at the Louisiana State Penitentiary in 1933, Huddie Ledbetter was a "dangerous" killer as well as a talented singer and performer. But as Liza Bernard writes in this week's Enthusiasms, award-winning documentary filmmaker Sheila Curran Bernard (who also happens to be her sister) sets the record straight in her new book, Bring Judgment Day. Using a deep dive into trial and prison records and a series of oral histories, Bernard paints Ledbetter as "a pawn in the political game of the post-Reconstruction South," Liza writes.Flu clinics starting up. The VN has pulled together a roundup of chances for flu shots this fall. There are six walk-in clinics in a variety of NH towns starting Sept. 26 sponsored by the Public Health Council of the Upper Valley, working with DH and Geisel. DH has got its own clinics for adults and kids 12 and older starting soon (clinics for younger kids have already begun); you'll need to schedule through myDH.org or by phone (603-653-3731) for DHMC and Valley Regional. Mt. Ascutney Hospital and the Ottauquechee Health Center are also running clinics.SPONSORED: At DeLeon Day Spa in Lyme, book a session with our amazing massage therapist Stephanie! Hot stone, Thai, prenatal, cupping, deep tissue. Also, did you know DeLeon Spa & Boutique has the largest selection of organic baby and children’s apparel in the Upper Valley? And it’s 50 percent OFF through the end of September! Stock up! Call 603.443.1790 to find out our best shopping hours. Sponsored by DeLeon Spa & Boutique.Mountain medicine: Definitely not your usual medical training program. DHMC announced yesterday that it's joining up with Acadia Mountain Guides in Bar Harbor, ME, to create a new "Northeast Diploma in Mountain Medicine"—the first of its kind east of the Rockies. The 200-plus-hour program will use instructors from DHMC’s Wilderness and Austere Medicine fellowship program and Acadia to train physicians, providers, nurses, and paramedics in mountain rescue and survival.Federal judge grants preliminary injunction favoring transgender NH students on sports teams. In her ruling yesterday, reports Jeremy Margolis in the Concord Monitor (possible paywall), Judge Landya McCafferty allowed 15-year-old Parker Tirrell of Plymouth and 14-year-old Iris Turmelle of Pembroke—the students behind a legal challenge to a new NH law barring transgender girls from girls' sports teams—to play indefinitely for their teams. In what may be a foretaste of her eventual ruling in the case, McCafferty wrote that the law likely violates the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.Fact-checking Chris Sununu on cyanobacteria. At a recent Exec Council meeting, writes NH Bulletin's Claire Sullivan, NH's governor told the state's environmental commissioner that cyanobacteria are "not toxic" and that the agency's messaging on the subject is "terrible." So Sullivan checked in with cyanotoxin experts at Dartmouth, who beg to differ. “We know that some cyanobacteria produce toxins, that some of those toxins accumulate in our livers and cause cancers, that some of those toxins are neurotoxins that can impact our brains," says biology prof Kathryn L. Cottingham.Slate Ridge owner charged with violating conditions of release. Facing a felony charge of aggravated assault of a police officer stemming from his arrest in March, Daniel Banyai had been ordered to remain in VT except for legal obligations in New York. But on Monday, Pawlet constable Thomas Covino announced that Banyai had been observed at a Chinese restaurant and at Dunkin' in NY (it's unclear where), and has been cited to appear in court at a later date. VTDigger's Ethan Weinstein reports that in August, Banyai's attorney asked that he be allowed to move to Port Washington, NY."There's no dreaming, there's no thinking, there's no nothing. It's quiet. It's remarkably peaceful." In her powerful new Rumble Strip episode, Erica Heilman spends time with four addicts in recovery, talking about the world of active addiction. It's "a kind of world underneath the world, with its own rules, its own schedules," Heilman says. The four—in sometimes graphic terms—make it visible. "I can't think of a natural feeling that even compares," says one. The first time, "You will enjoy it, it will be exactly the way I describe, and if you continue it will bring you...to the darkest side street you can imagine where people are walking by wondering if you're dead or alive."In VT, gathering mosquitoes with a "bug-zooka" and traps that smell like a sweating ox. You may have wondered, in this summer/fall of EEE, West Nile, and other mosquito-born viruses, just how a state like Vermont knows with some precision where they're a particular threat. VT Public's Howard Weiss-Tisman did, too. The answer: The ag agency has about 105 mosquito-trapping spots around the state, and Patti Casey leads a team of six technicians who deploy their bug-zookas—a jury-rigged contraption—to suck up mosquitoes and take them to Randolph for testing. 100,000 of them so far this summer."Mostly, I’d like to come hang out in your bakery, drink coffee and watch you work.” Wouldn't we all? Only Jim Williams has a tad more experience in bakeries than the rest of us. He and wife, Lynn, opened Providence's Seven Stars Bakery in 2001, grew it into an icon throughout the city, then sold in 2018 and moved to Charlotte, VT, where Williams opened Backdoor Bread. “I just wanted somewhere I could supply bread to my community... It’s been perfect,” he tells the Globe's (paywall) Alexa Gagosz. But on Friday, Gagosz reports, he's closing up shop and moving back to Providence. “I don’t have any plans at the moment, but who knows,” he says.Simplicity at its most beautiful. Unlike other photography awards, which celebrate complexity, the Minimalist Photography Awards applaud contrast, shape, stillness. This year’s winners are mostly in black and white, though a few, like George Byrne’s “Innovations” (in "photomanipulation"), infuse subtle, saturated color. Hilda Champion’s “Delicate”—top prize in the fine art category—is simply ethereal. Scroll through Yevhen Samuchenko’s series “Winter Drawings”, taken by drone in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine, where, the photographer says, “nature creates simple but no less amazing sketches.”Marble run. No glitz, just clever use of low tech materials—and what's got to have been plenty of time to mess around and get things right...
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, UVM Prof. Pamela Nicole Walker on "Link by Link: A Vermont Woman’s Bold Acts for Peace and Civil Rights". Part of VT Humanities' "Snapshot" series of free talks, Walker will trace the life and activities of Jamaica, VT's Virginia Naeve, who in the early '60s launched what became known as “The Box Project”, sending letters, food, clothing, and other materials to Mississippi Delta families in need. The project spread throughout the state.
The Thetford Arthouse Cinema picks up again. Launching the second session of the 2024 season, the cinema tonight (ignore what it says at the link about last night) shows Out of the Past, the 1947 noir classic starring Robert Mitchum as a former private eye trying to escape his past. Which, of course, reaches right into the present to grab him by the scruff of the neck. 7 pm in Thetford Academy's Martha Rich Theater.
Valley Improv returns to Sawtooth Kitchen. They're back in the "comedy room" with a night of off-the-cuff hijinks starting at 8 pm.
And bringing us full circle...
off her forthcoming album
Acadia
, joined by Allison de Groot on banjo and Tatiana Hargreaves on fiddle. Williams has definitely come a long way since she learned guitar by playing the video game Guitar Hero—then beat it and asked her parents if they could get her a real one. She says that the mechanics of playing the game informed her style now. "Video games get a bad rap," she once said, "but I recommend it."
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.
Want to catch up on Daybreak music?
Want to catch up on Daybreak itself (or find that item you trashed by mistake the other day)? You can find everything on the Daybreak Facebook page
, or if you're a committed non-FB user,
.
Written and published by Rob Gurwitt Poetry editor: Michael Lipson Associate Editor: Jonea Gurwitt About Rob About Michael
And if you think one or more of your friends would like Daybreak, too, please forward this newsletter and tell them to hit the blue "Subscribe" button below. And thanks! And hey, if you're that friend? So nice to see you! Subscribe at no cost at:
Thank you!