Duck! Egg

means something different than when I used to drive a cab down North End's Commercial Street. Around Halloween kids would hurl stuff from the cemetery off Charter Street - up a steep hill and a perfect defense from egged motorists. Keep those windows closed to the perfect autumn air!

From one of Maggie & Chico's ducks in Thetford Ctr.

Dartmouth Baseball, Sunday Afternoon

We dressed warm, though it was the end of April.

The stands filled as the game played a double

header. When the Ivys play two, the first game 

is seven. It got colder. People ate hot dogs. 

I was surprised at the excitement of the boy

next to me. He looked about 7, but was as

intense as if  he was shortstop. Thick curls 

exploded under his cap, threatening to tip it.

E-cigarettes in the Upper Valley

Valley News photo by Sarah Priestap

Writer Chris Fleisher has a great story on e-cigarettes in the Valley News http://www.concordmonitor.com/news/11149566-95/smokers-turn-to-e-cigarettes-to-cut-costs-quit-smoking

From VT to NH

Here's the view:

Sugaring

A great video on sugaring - making maple syrup - from the (Lebanon, NH) Valley News's Will Parsons.

Upper Valley recycling list

This is a fantastic list posted by Patricia McGovern on the Upper Valley listserv:

*There was a request for reposting this recycling info - the post was
originally posted on the LEBANON LIST and does not include all Upper Valley
possibilities:THE FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE ACCEPTED FOR FREE at the Lebanon
Solid Waste Facility on RT 12-A in West Lebanon
http://dpw.lebnh.net/home/solid-waste/recycling
<http://dpw.lebnh.net/home/solid-waste/recycling>*
-----------------------------
*Glass *– All glass is acceptable. Mix cups, windows, mirrors, bottles,
ceramics, Pyrex, containers, and leaded glass.  Rinse clean, remove caps or
covers. Please, NO light bulbs or tubes (see instructions below).

*Plastic *– We accept three types of plastic. All plastic accepted for
recycling in a container with a neck. If the container does not have a
neck…we can not recycle it. Rinse clean and remove caps.

   - PET – Check for the #1 symbol
   - HDPE – Check for the #2 symbol
   - Colored – laundry detergent, shampoo
   - Natural – Milk jugs
   - All plastic (1-7) bottles are accepted for recycling.

*Aluminum *–  We accept aluminum cans (e.g. beverage cans, some cat food
cans), foil, and pie plates. Hint: aluminum will not hold a magnet but
steel will. Use a magnet to be sure it is aluminum. If the magnet doesn’t
stick, it is aluminum. Rinse clean. Can be crushed.

*Steel Cans* – Includes any bi-metal can that is empty, dry and clean such
as tuna fish cans, cat food cans, and other food cans.

*Cardboard *– Thick brown cardboard. This category will include cardboard
boxes, cereal and shoe boxes as well as brown paper bags.

*Mixed Paper* – If it rips…it is paper. Junk mail, magazines, soft cover
books, phone books, notebook paper, newspaper, inserts, computer print
outs, envelopes(with or without) windows laser printed paper, scratch paper
colored office papers, letterhead papers, folded brochures, carbonless
forms, fax paper, business forms, sorted direct mail, checks, xerographic
paper pamphlets, bond paper and NCR, CARBONLESS. Staples and small paper
clips are ok.

*Fluorescent Bulbs* – All sizes. See attendant for assistance.

*Used Books* – Hard and soft cover books are accepted for reuse. Please
place on the book shelf. Drop off or pick up.

*Rechargeable Batteries* – Rechargeable Only (Ni-Cd, Li-Ion, Ni-MH, Small
Sealed Pb-Acid and Mercury Button Cell). Regular household alkaline
batteries are considered solid waste. Please place these batteries in with
your regular trash.

*Automotive Batteries* - Car, truck and marine batteries are accepted for
recycling. See attendant for assistance.

*Used Motor Oil* - Home owner generated motor oil only. Do not mix with
gasoline or antifreeze. Limit 2 gallons per trip.

*Yard Waste*: grass clippings, leaves and garden waste only.

*Brush*: Brush smaller than 4 inches are excepted. Please see attendant for
clean wood waste larger than 4 inches.

*Cooking Oil*: used vegetable oil. Oils accepted for recycling include:
peanut, olive, corn, vegetable, soy and other cooking oils.

*Scrap Metal*: The City of Lebanon will take residential scrap metals only.
White goods, such as washing machines, dryers, stove, and water heaters are
accepted at no charge.

*Unwanted Medicines* and other hazardous waste are collected periodically -
look for notices in the Valley News.

-----------------------------
**THE FOLLOWING ITEMS ARE ACCEPTED FOR A FEE* *
-----------------------------
*FREON UNITS AND APPLIANCES*: Refrigerators, air conditioners and
dehumidfiers are accepted for a fee. Microwave ovens are also accepted for
a fee.

*TANKS*: 1 lb and 20 lbs propane tanks and fire extinguishers are also
accepted for a fee.

*ELECTRONICS*: Computer monitors, lap tops, televisions, flat screen TVs,
and CPUs are accepted for recycling. Monitors and TVs are accepted for a
fee. Please see the scale house attendant for specifics.

*TIRES ACCEPTED FOR A FEE*: Passenger car tires $2.00 Truck tires $6.00
Farm and construction tires, by weight $200.00 per ton.
____________________________________________________________

*Curbside recyclin*g through Casella's Zero Sort Recycling
http://www.casella.com/what-we-do/recycling/zerosort-recycling

*CORKS* can be recycled at the Lebanon Co-op (in a box in the wine
department) - the Co-op will also accept *#5 Plastic* at the Customer
Service desk (including Britta filters)

*Electronics*: Best Buy, W. Lebanon 603-298-7353
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Global-Promotions/Recycling-Electronics/pcmcat149900050025.c?id=pcmcat149900050025
Kiosks just inside the door for recycling ink and toner cartridges,
rechargeable batteries, and cables. They also recycle computers, TVs,
phones, chargers, cameras, etc

*Staples*, W. Leb, accepts printers, scanners, fax, computers, cell phones,
toner and ink cartridges, etc.
http://ecyclingcenter.com/Computer-recycling-Staples%20-%20West%20Lebanon-West%20Lebanon-NH-310-retailers.html

*#5 plastic containers*: The Lebanon Co-op Food Store recycles clean and
dry #5 plastic containers to be reused in Preserve products.  For more info
and a detailed list of #5 containers see:
http://www.coopfoodstore.coop/news/recycling-co-op

*Plastic Garden Pots*: Longacres Nursery has had monthly plastic garden pot
recycling during the summer months.

*DONATE FOR A GOOD CAUSE:*

*General Household Goods and Clothing*:  Listen Center, Lebanon and W.
Lebanon; Salvation Army Store, W. Lebanon;  Clothes and shoes for Planet
Aid http://www.planetaid.org/  Drop Boxes

*The ReCover Store* http://www.coverhomerepair.org/recover.html

   - Household goods (fairly new working appliances-large and small, pots,
   pans, dishes, etc)
   - Furniture
   - Remodeling/Renovation “leftovers”
   - Call before bringing any large appliances, furniture or renovation
   materials
   - Pickup of some items is possible with arrangements made in advance

*Automobiles*: donate vehicles for transfer to people in need at Bonnie
CLAC, 2 Whipple Place, Lebanon, (603) 443-9701.

*Valley News plastic delivery bags*:  When returned to the VN offices on
Interchange Drive in West Lebanon, plastic bags will be reused.

*Books*: Donate to the libraries for resale year-round. (No discards from
other libraries, Reader’s Digest abridged editions, encyclopedias or musty
or damaged books.) There are collection boxes at the Coop Food Store prior
to Five College Book Sale in April.

*Magazines*: The Lebanon Libraries accept current magazines (no more than 3
months old) for use at APD and DHMC hospitals.

For info on the town of Hartford Recycling Center which serves the 5
villages of the town of Hartford Vt and the 10 towns who are members of the
Greater Upper Valley Solid Waste Management District see:
http://www.hartford-vt.org/content/recycling/

The Upper Valley Lists are also good places to recycle!

Added info from EDM Landman:

SEVCA also takes worn-out textiles for recycling.
Just about anything is accepted as long as it is bagged separately and
labeled as "rags". If you are unsure, though, please give them a call
first. They have to pay for trash disposal, but they actually get paid
pennies on the pound for used textiles. Some items to consider putting in
the rag bag:
     * clothing with holes, tears, stains (anything they cannot sell -- our
knee-hole jeans and trimmings from making cut-offs always go in!)
     * stretched-out or full-of-holes socks, underwear, bras, etc.
     * luggage
     * worn-out shoes and sneakers
     * old, unsellable bedding

5 Colleges Booksale

The Five-Colleges Book Sale is this weekend Saturday 9 to 5 and
Sunday 10 to 4 at the Lebanon High School Gym.  Books are half on Sunday
Proceeds benefit scholarships for VT and NH students to Mt. Holyoke,
Simmons, Smith, Vassar, and Wellesley.  35,000-40,000 books in good
condition and sorted carefully. 

Birders take note

Howe Library and the Mascoma chapter of New Hampshire Audubon invite you to
"A Tale of 56,000 Observations: The Vermont Breeding Bird Atlas" 
on Monday, April 14 at 7 p.m.in the Mayer Room at Howe Library in Hanover.

Over 300 Vermonters armed with binoculars traversed fields and forests,
marshes and mountains for Vermont's second Breeding Bird Atlas. Dr. Rosalind
Renfrew, the Atlas' editor, will share results from the state's largest
inventory of bird life, discussing the changes documented during the last 30
years. Learn about the winners and losers in the bird community, the reasons
behind some of the changes, and the mysteries we have yet to solve.

 Rosalind Renfrew, PhD, is a conservation biologist 
and editor of the Breeding Bird Atlas. (Howe Library)

From the Amazon.com description:

One of the first second-generation atlases to be completed in North America, this edition documents changes in breeding bird distributions by comparing current figures to those in the 1985 atlas. This indispensable and visually stunning reference includes full-color photographs, maps, graphs, and descriptions of over 200 species. In addition, the contributors present a full accounting of data collection and methods; a guide to the biogeography of Vermont; and essays on changes in habitats, climate, land use, and their impact on Vermont’s bird communities over the past twenty-five years. A treasure trove of information for birders—and an invaluable reference for ornithologists, conservationists, and land use planners—this book will influence and guide our understanding and management of avian species in Vermont for decades to come.

(Posted on Valley Digest by the Howe's Heather Backman.)

Mud, mire, sludge, ooze, silt, clay, dirt, soil

From 2013: Brighton Lane in Croydon. (Valley News - Sarah Priestap)

In the second annual Valley News Muddy Awards, you can nominate a 'well-traveled rural road with suspension-jarring ruts, axle-sucking goo, and tire-spinning quagmires.'

Submit the name of the worst muddy road you know, along with a description of its worst features and the location of its most miserable mile, in one of the following ways:

∎ Comment on the post about the Muddys on the Valley News Facebook page.

∎ Tweet @VNewsUV.

∎ Send an email to muddy@vnews.com.

∎ Mail a note to Muddy Awards, c/o Valley News, P.O. Box 877, White River Junction, VT 05001.

Be sure to include your name and town so the News can follow up with any questions.

Move along

     We all have concepts of nothing. Nothing is one of those ideas that is so broad that when each of us thinks about what constitutes nothing, we’re right. Don’t let anybody tell you different. One of the ways that people, or more and more, corporations try to influence how we think about things, is by defining words. It’s not like these corporations are cartoon villains with evil CEOs rubbing their palms and ordering their minions to change the language so that it makes Corporation X look better than mom, apple pie, the flag; more loyal than our dogs, and always there for us when the chips are down.

But the sweep of the products and services that we use, or that we simply know about, is broader, more constant, and more constantly reinforced than any other knowledge we have. So when ideas or words catch on about business, they have better than the best cheerleaders backing them. They have the near-hypnotic power of constant, technologically savvy communication coming at us from every direction, and very little opposition. It makes everybody feel better if employees are laid off, reassigned or furloughed instead of fired. Even ‘losing your job’ puts the action on the employee rather than the employer.

Words get changed too by popular culture, by not being used anymore, or as substitutes for things other than what they used to mean. That’s a pretty long way around to say that if we think of nothing as a room that’s empty, or what we did this morning, or what’s right about the opposing political party, we’re correct.

     That doesn’t mean there can’t be other meanings. Like what came before the Big Bang. Now, you don’t have to believe in the Big Bang to know what the Big Bang is. It’s a theory generally agreed on after decades of rigorous study in the scientific community about how the universe started. There was nothing and then something happened.

This nothing wasn’t an empty room. It wasn’t a space to be filled. It was the absence of anything.

No air, no light, no dark, no smell – there wasn’t anything that words can accurately conceptualize. We could say there was totally nothing, but that’s kind of redundant. We can’t make a drawing of the lack of existence, or a recording, or a sculpture. There’s always going to be too much in our idea of nothing, because we’re used to having a world or universe to give nothing a context.

I probably shouldn’t go any further without mentioning God. Most people on Earth – and I’m guessing because I don’t know – believe in God. But just so we don’t get too sidetracked right now, if you’ll permit the discussion of God to wait until later, let’s hammer away at nothing.

No space, no void, no place for the chemical interactions to take place that led to the anomaly that caused the Big Bang. But these interactions occurred. It’s a job for numbers, not words, to explain how it happened.

I’m going to go off on a tangent now. Spend a little time around Cambridge, Massachusetts. I suppose it’s the same in Palo Alto and other places where there are thousands of brilliant people. You see an international mix of subcontinent Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Africans, Europeans, South and North Americans – students who may not speak a common verbal language. But they all have math. It’s like Latin during the Holy Roman Empire.

Winston Churchill, and probably a few other people, said, ‘History is written by the victors.’ Right now, the victors are scientists. And scientists determine whether an idea is correct or not by measurement, which involves numbers, our lingua franca (the language that people all over the world have in common), our victorious common tongue.

     So. We have the Big Bang. And we have nothing before it. And about 14 billion years later, here we are. There’s a lot to fill in between then and now. The unimaginable concept of a 14-billion year timeline becomes relatively concrete next to the idea of absolute nothing. It doesn’t mean either idea goes down easy, or more particularly, whether ‘nothing’ and the Big Bang, and billions of years have meaning in our lives.

And we haven’t even got into the idea of God, yet. In my imagining of God, a supreme being could create our memories, weave them together seamlessly, and change them constantly, so that we seem to have lives, when we are actually re-created each instant. I suppose there’s a scientific way to prove or disprove that, but that’s only if we accept the proposition that what we understand to be real, workable and correct is anything more than a constantly created illusion.

I don’t believe we are created anew each second. But in the face of either 14 billion years or a supreme being, we are puny. Or maybe not. Maybe we’re giants, or close to what we consider angels to be, or close to evolving beyond flesh into technological entities with comparatively unlimited understanding and power. But not nothing.

P.S. (From Wikipedia) Many philosophers criticize physical explanations of how the universe arose from nothing, claiming that they merely beg the question*.
* The conclusion is included in the premises of an argument.

48 Hour Film Slam

Chico sums it up at the end. http://bit.ly/1hCQKHc

Alison Bechdel at Datrmouth

Cartoonist Alison Bechdel at Dartmouth

• Phone: 802-295-3319
• Price: Free.
• Location: Room 100 of the Life Sciences Building at Dartmouth, at the corner of College Street and North Park Street, Hanover, NH.

The Center for Cartoon Studies is bringing the highly lauded and progressive cartoonist Alison Bechdel to Dartmouth as a part of its Will Eisner Spring Lecture series.

“Alison Bechdel is the creator of the long-running self-syndicated comic strip Dykes to Watch Out For.  She came to critical success with her graphic memoirs Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic and Are You My Mother?: A Comic Drama. Bechdel edited Best American Comics 2011, and has drawn comics for Slate, McSweeney’s, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times Book Review, and Granta. She is also a recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship.”

The lecture will be in Room 100 of the Dartmouth Life Sciences Building on Thursday, April 10, at 4:30 P.M.

Organic Maple Syrup?

from Real Simple magazine

10 Organic Foods That Aren’t Worth Buying

Maple Syrup

Shelling out a few extra bucks for a jug of organic maple syrup may make you feel as if you’re doing your family a favor, but your organic budget is best spent elsewhere. “Maple syrup is usually forest harvested and probably had no pesticides or fertilizers applied, regardless of whether the label says ‘organic,’” says Carolyn Dimitri, an associate professor of food studies at New York University, in New York City.

Sounds Great

Sunday, April 13, from 11to 3

FLAVORS OF THE VALLEY THIS SUNDAY
From: Emily Gardner 

Come to Vital Communities' Flavors of the
Valley<http://www.vitalcommunities.org/agriculture/flavors/index.cfm>
THIS Sunday at Hartford High School and sample from
over 50 vendors offering the best food our region has to offer.

TASTE - SAMPLE - EAT - ENJOY

Flavors is the Upper Valley's premier tasting event for local growers and
locally sourcing food purveyors.  Enjoy farm-fresh produce, artisan bread,
award-winning cheese, BBQ pulled chicken, savory jams, spicy sausage, as
well as gourmet chocolates, caramels and gelatos! CLICK
HERE<http://www.vitalcommunities.org/blog/index.php/our-wonderful-vendors-for-flavors-of-the-valley-2014/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=our-wonderful-vendors-for-flavors-of-the-valley-2014>
for
a full list of vendors.

Tons of samples to try! We encourage you to bring a cooler in your car for
any additional frozen or perishable purchases you may want to make after
you have sampled your heart out.
$8 at the door - $25 family max - Children under 6 are FREE

A wonderful day for the whole family.  We hope to see you this Sunday!

Sponsored by Co-op Food Stores and Mascoma Savings Bank
as well as NH. Dept of Agriculture, King Arthur Flour & Yankee Farm Credit

Long live a local Upper Valley

Wild Gourmet Food

     I came across Wild Gourmet Foods website on Sunday. What an unusual, dedicated couple Nova Kim and Les Hook are! Worth a look at this site to see how these two have carved an unusual place in the food business.

     It's worth a poke around the site to see when they'll be speaking in your area.

     Photo above accompanies this passage:

The Blue Jay
figures in the Osage peace rites
as the symbol
of a gray sky with blue spots here and there
which indicate
the coming of a peaceful day!

Blue Jay / Ki-ta-ni-ga
- To Look For the Coming of a Peaceful Day -

Mo'Combo, Little Town Horns, April 5, 9 p.m. in Lebanon

From: Scott Sanborn 
At Salt Hill Pub on the Green in Lebanon Saturday night April 5
Great food, spirits and a supremely danceable potpourri 
of R&B and funky-bluesy-jazzy-rockin' good-time tunes. 

Music starts at 9.

Video clips are available for a preview at www.mocomboband.com and you
can sign  up for our e-mailing list.

Mo'Combo is:
Percussion: Dana Flewelling
Keyboard, vocals: Scott Sanborn
Bass, vocals: Skip Truman
Guitar, vocals: Will Michaels

The Little Town Horns includes saxophonists Scott Savioli and Mike
Parker, with occasional special guests

Spring walk

The breeze at the top of Sykes Avenue, WRJ, carried manure and grass instead of ski slope.

hello?

addition on s. main street

downtown White River Junction

April 13 Concert to benefit Upper Valley Haven

From: "Meg and Ben" 

Dartmouth College Spaulding Auditorium
Sunday, April 13, 2 pm

The Music Department of Longmeadow High School (Longmeadow, MA) is traveling
to the Upper Valley next weekend! The program, one of the strongest in the
state of Massachusetts, will bring their 80-member orchestra and 40-voice
choir for coachings with Dartmouth faculty, and will then present a concert
on Sunday afternoon at 2p.m.

On the program with the Longmeadow High School Orchestra and Chorus will be
a saxophone quartet and Canta Chorale from Dartmouth College.

The program is free to the public, and free will donations will be accepted
following the performance.

Upper Valley Haven

Ashes and Snow in Hanover April 8

From: Steve Gordon - The Center for Integrative Health


The Center for Integrative Health at 45 Lyme Road in Hanover, NH, will show "Ashes and Snow" April 8  at 6:30 pm.

It's a slow, beautifully
photographed, dream-like, even ethereal film by Gregory Colbert that
presents a vision of the world in which boundaries between people and
nature are not what we normally experience them to be.

It has elephants. It
has whales. It has cheetahs. But this is definitely not a PBS wildlife
special. (More clips here and here.)
The film is about an hour long; there'll be time for discussion
afterward. 

The Center for Integrative Health is on the second floor of the large
commercial building at 45 Lyme Road, just above Mascoma bank. They are a group of practitioners offering mix holistic psychotherapy, trauma therapy,
massage therapy, yoga and meditation instruction, movement therapy, energy
work, life coaching and more. Check them out at
www.center4integrativeheath.org.

Daisy Rockwell at Main Street Museum April 4

From Upper Valley Listserv (author: RCB)

Friday night, April 4

Daisy Rockwell is a writer, painter and translator living in New England. Her previous publications include 'The Little Book of Terror' and 'Hats and Doctors', translations of Upendranath Ashk’s short stories. 'Taste' is her first novel.

Opening reception of 'Girls, Girls, Girls' a new painting exhibition by the mysterious Lapata Tastic @ 6pm

Daisy Rockwell will read selected excerpts from her new novel 'Taste' @ 7pm

Book Signing @ 8pm

Opening reception of 'Girls, Girls, Girls' is free!

Admission charge for excerpts and book signing.

Main Street Museum | 58 Bridge Street | White River Junction | (802) 356-2776
(Rt 4 to downtown, left at stop sign, under new fangled bridge, old fire house building on the left, street parking or in back)

Painting: http://bit.ly/1hJ70KZ

Taste, a novel: http://www.daisyrockwell.com/

Bears and ticks

From the Hartford Listserv

15. [Hartford Discussion] Bears and ticks
From: E D M Landman
Date: Fri, 4 Apr 2014 03:06:52 -0400

*Bears and Ticks*
From: Charles Scott
Date: Wed, 2 Apr 2014 10:15:04 -0400

It's that time folks, if you live near the woods and have a bird
feeder, bears awakening from their hibernation will thank you for
leaving them out as a snack.  There are ways of hanging bird feeders
so that you can raise them up out of reach from the hungry bears.

As to the ticks, despite the pretty cold winter, we also had a very
thick layer of snow on the ground which serves as a nice coat of
insulation for the ticks.  They are amazingly resilient anyway, but
they will likely have survived the cold temperatures.  As the snow
cover is melted off ticks will awaken and be active.  The best
techniques for dealing with ticks are: 1. Wear long light colored
pants. 2. tuck the pants into white socks. 3. Inspect yourself outside
before you come in, do it again inside and prior to going to bed.  If
you have a partner, enlist their aid in looking you over.  Simply
showering will not cause ticks to fall off, even if the water is hot.
Guess how I know?  Yes, tucking your pants into your socks is pretty
nerdy looking, but keeping ticks off your skin is your primary
defense.

I have read that it takes a deer tick 24 to 48 hours of being imbedded
in your skin to transmit the Lyme disease.  The problem is that you
may not know how long the tick has been imbedded when you see it.  A
deer tick may or may not be infected and not all deer tick bites leave
a bulls eye rash.  So be proactive and keep them off you to begin
with.

Dogs and cats will bring ticks in with them.  If you sit on the
ground, guess what?  The ticks are now that much closer to your head.