Daybreak Wednesday 9/8/21

GOOD MORNING, UPPER VALLEY!

Now things get a little more "active." There's low pressure arriving, and a cold front, and conditions to our east and north creating winds from the south. The upshot: mostly sunny today with highs closing in on 80, a chance of showers this afternoon and rain likely arriving this evening and tonight. Breezy for much of the day, gusts as high as 30 mph this afternoon. Low 60s tonight.Ducks on deck. John Pietkiewicz was passing by Lake Fairlee the other day when several ducks sunning on a deck caught his eye. "It was not until I turned around did I realize there were 14 of them spread around the entire deck, he writes. "They were mostly snoozing, but they eventually woke up."Hanover's property tax assessments come in for new round of flak. In case you missed this over the long weekend, John Lippmann writes in the Valley News that, according to a petition filed by a group of property owners in town, "more modest and more depreciated homes” saw assessments rise far more sharply than “larger, more updated and grand homes.” This is the second time in as many cycles that assessments have been challenged as out of whack, and the town has suspended meeting with property owners while it figures out what may be going on with its assessing formula.Despite two big losses, Post Mills Labor Day parade and barbecue goes on. Mike Pomeroy, the local general store owner who died in 2020, and Brian Boland, the Post Mills airport impresario, who died in July, were both key organizers of the annual event, a yearly mainstay for kids, their parents, and admirers of small-town parades from all over. On Monday, the parade was held in memory of Pomeroy and Boland—and in Sidenote, Li Shen has the pics.SPONSORED: The world’s leading travel risk management company is right in your backyard. Global Rescue, headquartered in Lebanon, NH, helps travelers when they experience a medical or security emergency while away from home. Our travel experts stand at the ready to provide exceptional service to members, sometimes on the worst day of their lives. Check us out at the maroon link if you’re traveling or in the market for a career that makes a difference—in your life and the lives of others. Sponsored by Global Rescue.“She loved her customers and coworkers. She did everything there. Waitress, bartender. Whatever they needed." Jillian Dearden, 36, was the assistant manager at the Salt Hill Pub in Newport, NH. Her body was discovered there on Saturday morning, the VN's John Lippman reports, after she apparently collapsed while closing up Friday night. Her husband, Gary Dearden, tells Lippman, "It was something to do with her heart." On Sunday, a crowd gathered outside the pub for a candlelight vigil in her honor.Following Hartland vehicle break-ins, police get camera footage of stolen debit card being used. The thefts occurred between 11 pm Monday night and 7 am yesterday, according to a VT state police report, with various items stolen from cars along Route 5, Martinsville Road, Regina's Way, and Evarts Road. In an updated notice later yesterday, the VSP released a video snapshot from a Mascoma Bank ATM in Hartland with a suspect using a debit card stolen from one of the cars. They're requesting the public's help with the investigation.One great Great egret. It's the first full week of September, and not in the woods but out in a wetland, Northern Woodlands' Elise Tillinghast spotted an egret—"a conservation success story"—stalking frogs. Also out there: goldenrod and asters are in bloom, least flycatchers are flying about, and if you look carefully you'll find locust borers and plenty of caterpillars.Two miles. That's how far a bear can be from a ripening raspberry patch and still smell it. And though bears mostly eat vegetation, nuts, seeds, and the like, they've got a lot of calories to put away, especially in the fall, when they're bulking up. Which means they'll also go for unsecured garbage, birdseed, and the occasional chicken coop. "Unwittingly, we train these intelligent animals to lose their fear of humans with a most powerful training tool — food," writes Li Shen in Sidenote. In response, she argues, they essentially need to be trained out of the habit."We don't get these opportunities as Black burlesque performers to all come together to do a show.” That's Maine Anders, who performs under the name the Maine Attraction, reflecting on "Life in Sepia," the burlesque show she and Randolph's Sharonna Henderson (who performs as Golden Mystique) helped put together for JAG Productions this past weekend. The show, reports VPR's Lexi Krupp, was in part an unusual chance to bring Black performers together, but it was also an effort to commemorate Black burlesque performers of the past, who in old photos were never identified, Anders tells Krupp.After three years, the Pellegrinos are hanging it up. Cheryl and Joey Pellegrino will be closing their Enfield fruit, vegetable, jams-and-jellies and Italian deli stand in October, reports John Lippman in the VN. The stand has been a food landmark along Route 4 between Lebanon and Grafton—but the Pellegrinos can't find workers to help keep it running. Instead, they've been putting in 100-hour weeks themselves. Now, Cheryl tells Lippman, they're "headed someplace warm to retire."Maybe theBox wants to head to Enfield? The food truck, originally a Dartmouth student project but now its own enterprise, has a new chef and he's got a Mexican menu going, reports Susan Apel in Artful. Fish tacos, elotes, lobster tostadas...prepared by Caleb Lara, who writes in his bio that the pandemic gave him a chance to "finally focus on the authentic Mexican recipes that I've always loved." The truck doesn't always signal where it's going to be...which, Susan writes, "means when you see it—big white truck with green logo—you might want to grab the opportunity."NH launches text-to-911. The service went into effect Monday, and it "can be a safer or more effective way to communicate with 9-1-1 in a number of situations, including a caller who is deaf, or in the case of a home invasion or domestic or sexual abuse," writes the Laconia Daily Sun's Michael Mortensen. The service provides dispatchers with the texter’s cell phone carrier and latitude and longitude, but officials say that people using it should still text their exact address.“We need to learn and be really humble in our approach." That's Dartmouth public health specialist Anne Sosin pointing out that other places with high vaccination rates—like Iceland, Israel, and Hawaii—are all seeing Delta surges. On the Vermont Conversation with David Goodman, she argues that VT has gotten away from the approach of "aligning what we’re doing with the best evidence, local epidemiology and the guidance coming out" that served the state well in the first pandemic go-round.VT State Police troopers face FBI investigation for allegedly creating fake Covid vaccination cards. Two of the troopers resigned in early August after a fellow trooper raised concerns; a third resigned last Friday. In a statement yesterday, Col. Matthew Birmingham, who heads the agency, wrote, “The accusations in this case involve an extraordinary level of misconduct—a criminal violation of the law—and I could not be more upset and disappointed.... I’m embarrassed that this situation has occurred and know that it has tarnished the reputation of the Vermont State Police.”Did pandemic migration inflate the VT census? From seasonal second-homers who stayed put to newcomers who settled in ski towns, 2020’s covid-driven influx may have had a foot-on-scale effect on VT’s official population count, writes VTDigger’s Erin Petenko. For example, pre-pandemic estimates in Killington were only half of the actual count. But it’s unclear whether some are merely riding out the delta variant or planning to stick around. Meantime, a hot housing market has made finding long-term rentals even harder. Says Stowe realtor KC Chambers, “The pandemic really just threw gas on the fire.” 

Oh, sure, just send him our way. Over the weekend, this Rhode Island guy got busted on Maui for violating Hawaii's Covid regs for tourists: He didn't have a negative pre-travel test, and had no place to spend the required ten days in quarantine. "He was transported to the Wailuku Police Station for processing without incident," Maui News reports, "and volunteered to leave Maui and fly to Vermont, according to police." Labor Day's over, so start dreaming about the next vacation. Wander Ao Nang beach’s crystal-blue waters in southern Thailand. Pan the immensity of Utah’s Bryce Canyon. Step outside and explore labyrinthine Yangjiaping, China. With VidEarth, go virtually anywhere—and never leave home. Strangely addictive, these cell-phone grabs may not match the sublime joy of world travel, but the app’s creators, who launched VidEarth from pandemic lockdown, hope we might still discover “new cultures, architecture, and a greater understanding of the world”—and ideas for where to go, IRL, when this thing is over.

Catching up...For the time being, Daybreak is reporting Covid numbers on Tuesdays (or, well, Wednesday this week) and Fridays.

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You could watch this whole clip of

(by Alison Krauss & Union Station) and figure you're in a club somewhere in the mid-South—the crowd pressing the stage, the jury-rigged background, the clear, (mostly) Southern-tinged vocals. But your typical bluegrass musicians don't have last names like Nilsson, Enggrav, and Marqvardsen. Because, in fact, you're in a club in Oslo, Norway, which is where Hayde makes its home. And still does the music justice.

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Written and published by Rob Gurwitt         Writer/editor: Tom Haushalter    Poetry editor: Michael Lipson  About Rob                                                    About Tom                                 About Michael

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