Best Pizza

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Valley Girl (PG-13)

Sam Claflin must save his sister’s wedding while trying to win over a woman he’s been pining for in Love Wedding Repeat, a movie with a cute concept that it doesn’t quite see through.

A teenage girl from the heart of the San Fernando Valley expands her horizons in Valley Girl, a, like, totally fun high school-set rom-com musical.
I suppose I should stipulate that I haven’t seen the 1983 Nicholas Cage-fronted Valley Girl. This musical adaptation of that is so spot-on I don’t think I want to.
This tale of a sunbaked suburbia, the afternoons at the Galleria and the scary unknown that is “the other side of the hills” (downtown Hollywood) is actually told in flashback by a present-day mom (Alicia Silverstone in a brilliant bit of casting) telling her teenage daughter (Camila Morrone) about her big high school romance. Back in the 1980s day, Encino native Julie (Jessica Rothe, star of the Happy Death Day movies and once again giving out just the right energy) is dating the “perfect” guy, tennis star Mickey (Logan Paul), and spends her free time hanging out with her buddies at the mall. But she wants to find new adventure, maybe even go into Hollywood, that haven of vice that the Valley children have clearly been made to fear.
It takes a beach outing to bring the MTV-loving crowd of the Valley into the path of the punk crowd from Hollywood. Julie has a brief meeting with Randy (Josh Whitehouse), who, along with his rocker friends, later shows up at a Valley party. They hit it off and he brings her to Hollywood to hang out at a club where his band plays.
Julie quickly dumps Mickey and revels in this new relationship, one without the pressures of high school popularity and that even reawakens her interest in fashion design and following a different path than the one her parents (an excellent Judy Greer and Rob Huebel) set out for her. But Randy isn’t as interested in bending to experience her world as she is to experience his, so, like, friction.
Look, if I say “pastel plaids on characters singing the Go-Gos’ ‘We Got the Beat’ while dancing around a fountain at a thriving 1980s mall” and you say “blech, no thank you” then you already know where you stand on this movie. I, watching this by myself, clapped and said, out loud, “delightful!” at that early scene and my opinion did not change. There is a fight scene (featuring a character who feels like he’s doing “Johnny from The Karate Kid” cosplay for the whole movie) scored to Duran Duran’s “Rio” after a tension-filled scene scored to “Safety Dance.” “Kids in America” is used to underline a character’s ennui and “Girls Just Want to Have Fun” helps demonstrate her longing for Something More. I said “yay!” at more than one song cue and could not keep from occasionally singing along (which is a thing you don’t have to suppress watching movies on the couch). And having Alicia Silverstone, queen of a 1990s glossy California teenager movie, as the mom is just a chef’s kiss touch of perfection. This movie, this mix tape of 1980s music and visuals and vibe, knows what it is and delivers its tone and blend of high-school-drama romance, self-conscious nostalgia and genuine coming of age story beats (Judy Greer saying “au revoir” actually made me tear up) perfectly. A-
Rated PG-13 for teen partying, language, some suggestive material, and brief nudity, according to the MPA. Directed by Rachel Lee Goldberg with a screenplay by Amy Talkington, Valley Girl is an hour and 42 minutes long and distributed by MGM. Available for rent.

Ready for a bite?

Sam Claflin must save his sister’s wedding while trying to win over a woman he’s been pining for in Love Wedding Repeat, a movie with a cute concept that it doesn’t quite see through.

By Matt Ingersoll
mingersoll@hippopress.com

On May 18, New Hampshire eateries were permitted to reopen for limited outdoor dining only, as part of Phase 4 of Gov. Chris Sununu’s modified “Stay at Home 2.0” order.
It could be a much needed boost for many business owners, as the coronavirus continues to cripple the restaurant industry in the Granite State. Just last week, the New Hampshire Lodging & Restaurant Association reported that around 39,000 restaurant employees statewide were unemployed due to the virus-related shutdown — that’s more than half (roughly 56 percent) of all the food service jobs in New Hampshire that there were in the year 2019. Association president Mike Somers said it’s “easily north of 40,000” if you count seasonal jobs.
The number of restaurants operating in the Granite State fluctuates with the time of year, but according to Somers it’s roughly between 2,200 and 2,600.
“Every day that goes by, there are restaurants that are one step closer to a full closure,” he said. “Many of them are having to totally reinvent themselves.”
Under Sununu’s order, which was issued on May 1, all restaurants are allowed to open for dining “wherever an outdoor area can be set up safely,” including in parking lots, on sidewalks, patios and lawn areas. A number of guidelines and requirements were also released through his Economic Reopening Taskforce. To promote social distancing, tables must be spaced at least six feet apart from one another, with no table seating more than six people at a time. No self-serve buffets or condiments for use by multiple tables are allowed.
But is this going to be enough to help some businesses bounce back? Local restaurateurs talk about their decisions to either reopen or stay closed, the logistical challenges of moving their operations outdoors, and collaboration with other agencies to help jumpstart the industry.

From patios to picnic tables
Tom Boucher, CEO of the Bedford-based Great New Hampshire Restaurants, said outdoor dining has been implemented across all nine of the company’s locations — the two Copper Door restaurants in Bedford and Salem, the five T-Bones Great American Eatery restaurants in Bedford, Derry, Hudson, Laconia and Salem, Cactus Jack’s in Laconia and CJ’s Great West Grill in Manchester. All but one restaurant — the Salem T-Bones — already has an outdoor patio, but Boucher said tents have been rented and set up in each parking lot, with between 42 and 48 additional seats under each tent, depending on the location.
At each table, customers are given disposable paper menus, disposable salt and pepper packets and pre-portioned condiments inside plastic souffle cups, all in an effort to limit surface contact. The menus themselves are still limited, similar to the takeout menus each eatery has been offering since mid-March.
“We’re doing the best that we can [to] deliver what our customers expect from us, while still adhering to the state guidelines,” Boucher said.
Since Sununu’s March 16 order limiting restaurants to takeout, delivery and drive-thru only, Boucher said thousands of dollars in revenue have been lost. While not a long-term solution, Monday’s transition back to outdoor dining proved to be a step in the right direction.
“Being the first day and a Monday, we were very pleased across the board,” he said.
On April 3, Boucher applied for eight weeks of Paycheck Protection Program [PPP] loans through the federal CARES act and received the funds 10 days later. Business owners are required to use at least 75 percent of the funds for payroll and up to 25 percent for utilities in order for the loans to be forgiven.
“We … were able to bring back close to 200 full-time employees,” he said, “but those loans will be exhausted the week of June 7, unless we get more help from the federal government.”
When it comes to outdoor dining, Boucher pointed out that weather conditions can present potential challenges.
“We can’t just call our employees and say, ‘Hey, it’s nice out, come on in.’ It’s difficult to predict the weather when we have to schedule hours for our staff a week out,” he said. “Even if it’s raining just a little bit, we won’t be open, because it just isn’t fair to our staff.”
A sixth T-Bones restaurant in Concord that’s been under construction for the past year would have been ready to open in June, but Boucher said its opening will be delayed indefinitely.
Three of the Magic Foods Restaurant Group locations have also reopened for outdoor dining. Depending on the location, between 30 and 70 seats have been added at both O Steaks & Seafood restaurants in Concord and Laconia, as well as the Canoe Restaurant & Tavern in Center Harbor, according to Magic Foods owner Scott Ouellette.
“It’s been like opening up a brand new restaurant all over again,” Ouellette said of the logistics involved in preparing each eatery for outdoor dining. “I think it’s a great start, but nothing that’s going to be sustainable long-term for our industry.”
The Canoe Restaurant’s Bedford location, meanwhile, has closed permanently, Ouellette said.
“Our lease [at the Bedford restaurant] was already coming up with all this happening, so we decided to close that establishment,” he said. “We did tell all our employees there that they would be offered employment at any of our other restaurants.”
About 20 percent of the company’s staff was able to return. But with so many of them collecting federal unemployment benefits, Ouellette said staffing each restaurant has been an issue.
“They’re making upwards of 30 to 40 percent more per week if not more than that [on unemployment] than they would normally make on a weekly basis,” he said.
The Common Man, according to communications and community relations director Erica Auciello Murphy, has reopened all of its existing patios and outdoor dining areas, including the Town Docks Restaurant in Meredith, a seasonal eatery that opened about a month ahead of schedule. The company’s maintenance department has even built more than 50 picnic tables, most of which went to its locations that didn’t already have outdoor sections — the Tilt’n Diner in Tilton, the Airport Diner in Manchester, and The Common Man restaurants in Merrimack and Windham.
All five of the 110 Grill’s New Hampshire locations (Nashua, Manchester, Rochester, Stratham and West Lebanon) have reopened their outdoor patios, marketing director Alicia Puputti said.
LaBelle Winery in Amherst scheduled to reopen for outdoor dining on May 20, just in time for a new summer menu that’s being rolled out this week. Owner and winemaker Amy LaBelle said a large tent has been put up on the terrace to accommodate between 60 and 70 diners.
“We’ve completely transformed our outdoor space,” LaBelle said, adding that socially distant outdoor wine tastings are available for patrons first-come, first-served using high-top tables.
Highlights of this year’s summer menu include a full line of new cocktails, new offerings using The Winemaker’s Kitchen culinary products, and, for the first time, some smoked items using wine-soaked oak.
“I think my team really needed to do something creative that was hopeful and helped us to look forward,” LaBelle said.
George Sklavounos of Giorgio’s Ristorante & Bar said all three of its locations have reopened for outdoor dining — the Milford location already has a built-in patio, while in Manchester and Merrimack tents and picnic tables are being added on the grass and over part of the parking lots.
“We have our full menu available and some spring specials, and all of our restaurants are still doing takeout as well,” Sklavounos said. “We’ve been doing OK with takeout, but obviously we need to be open if we’re going to sustain our business.”
In Nashua, Martha’s Exchange Restaurant & Brewery now has 13 outdoor tables available that are spaced eight feet apart from each other, both right out in front and on a nearby patio, general manager Tanya Barry said. The eatery, which had been offering a limited takeout and delivery menu three nights a week, has expanded to include more entrees, appetizers and other items.
“All of our staff has to wear masks, and we’re only having one person [go outside] at a time so that multiple servers aren’t handling multiple customers’ dishes,” Barry said.
Downtown Cheers Grille & Bar in Concord has reopened its outdoor patio to 50 percent capacity, co-owner Wendy Roy said. While the patio is normally a popular spot for local live music acts, Roy said that has been temporarily suspended to allow for more dining space.
Also reopening Monday for outdoor dining was 900 Degrees Neapolitan Pizzeria in Manchester, which is offering reservations and walk-ins for seating on its deck.
The Crown Tavern on Hanover Street in Manchester scheduled to reopen its outdoor patio for dinner on May 20. General manager Kiel Carroccino said the front door to the patio is being utilized as an entrance, while its back door at the rear of the building is for when guests exit, all in an effort to limit the amount of contact people have with one another. Carroccino said The Crown has added umbrellas to each table.
In Londonderry, 603 Brewery also scheduled to reopen its outdoor patio on May 20, according to marketing and events manager Morgan Kyle. All seating is waitlist or reservation only — Kyle said an online app is currently in the works to be set up for adding patrons to a wait list.
All four Red Arrow Diner locations, in Manchester, Londonderry, Concord and Nashua, are offering first-come, first-served outdoor dining now via picnic tables.
Outdoor dining options are also available at all five Tucker’s locations, in Concord, Hooksett, Merrimack, Dover and New London. Dual-sided displays have been placed on each table — if a table has already been sanitized and ready to be used, the display will be green. If a staff member still needs to disinfect the table before you sit down, the display will be orange.
Fody’s Tavern has also begun offering outdoor dining at both of its locations, via its patio at the Nashua restaurant and both on its deck and under a tent at its Derry restaurant. All of its food and drink items are being served in disposable containers and its tables continually sanitized.

New concepts
Several local eateries aren’t just reopening outdoor seats to customers; they’re taking it in stride by pivoting operations in an effort to still offer something new.
Farm-to-table eatery Greenleaf in Milford, for example, scheduled to reopen its outside patio on May 19. Its staff is also working on launching a unique outdoor dining experience called “Greenleaf Grille” that will take place in a tent-covered space in the rear of the building, according to general manager Rick Naples. That’s expected to open this Friday, May 22.
“Greenleaf Grille is going to be a lot of barbecue and grilled-type items, like burgers, sausages [and] whatever our chef can come up with,” said Naples, who likened the setup to last year’s Milford Pumpkin Festival, when Greenleaf’s staff served up sliders, beer and wine in an outdoor beer garden on Middle Street. “We’re still getting everything … from local farms, so there will definitely be some recognizable dishes on there.”
Tuscan Kitchen and Market in Salem has also been creative with the amount of outdoor space at its disposal. Joe Faro Jr. of the company’s marketing team said patio seating is available outside both buildings, with additional areas for dining in the center piazza under an open-air tent, as well as in an upstairs outside patio that’s normally used as a private dining room. One-time menus are given out to all guests. The tent in the piazza even has a pop-up container bar that handcrafted martinis are served from.
“We’re trying to use as much space as we can,” Faro said. “We also recently launched an online grocery service … where we can ship Tuscan Market products all over the country. That’s been gaining a lot of traction lately.”
Reached by phone on the morning of May 19, Faro reported that Tuscan Kitchen’s first day open for outdoor dining the day before went very well.
“It was honestly one of the most amazing things, I think, that we’ve ever done here,” he said. “We had the pizza oven going, the bar was great, [and] the weather was beautiful. … We were going around to the tables talking to people, and they seemed really happy to see the steps we’ve taken.”
In Manchester, chef and owner Tom Puskarich of Restoration Cafe has launched what he calls a “virtual plant-based kitchen” by the name of Good & Planty; the venture was in the works even before the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
“Good & Planty kind of started out as a thought experiment over this past winter,” Puskarich said. “The original plan was to launch it in April, and then Covid came along. … So we were pivoting the core business of Restoration [Cafe] to accommodate the new reality, and then once we got a handle on that, we went ahead and launched Good & Planty. That was on May 1.”
The idea, he said, stemmed from his desire to incorporate a healthier, plant-based option on popular delivery apps like DoorDash, Uber Eats and GrubHub.
“I was intrigued by the idea of a ‘virtual restaurant’ and I was looking to bring really good, creative fresh food … that you don’t see when you open up these apps, so not just another wing place or pizza place,” he said.
Items from Good & Planty are available Tuesday through Sunday, from 8 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Puskarich said the menus at Restoration Cafe and its virtual counterpart are similar, but with a greater emphasis on plant-based ingredients for Good & Planty.
“There will always be … a crossover between the two concepts,” he said. “Restoration Cafe has always been very much about dietary flexibility, and Good & Planty is meant to further expand on that.”
Meanwhile, Puskarich said he’s been working with his staff to determine Restoration Cafe’s first day of offering outdoor dining on its courtyard.

A community effort
A restaurant that previously didn’t use its parking lot or sidewalk for outdoor dining can’t just put up a tent, add tables and chairs and start serving food. Depending on the city or town, many have to secure permits through their town or city health inspector.
Fifteen cities and towns in New Hampshire — Bedford, Berlin, Claremont, Concord, Derry, Dover, Exeter, Keene, Manchester, Merrimack, Nashua, Plaistow, Portsmouth, Rochester and Salem — are self-inspecting, meaning all food service licensing is regulated at the municipal level rather than through the state.
Fortunately for restaurant owners, many of these agencies have been actively working with them on the process of reopening. In Derry, for example, temporary outdoor dining applications were sent out to restaurants by the town’s Economic Development Committee. Once approved, the license is valid through June 30, but that date can be extended by the town administrator.
Bedford, another self-inspecting town, issued a similar temporary outdoor dining permit that is valid through Oct. 15. Health officer Wayne Richardson said the permit was specifically crafted for facilities that either didn’t already have approved outdoor dining via a designated area such a patio, or wished to temporarily expand their seating areas.
In a statement issued May 13, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig said city restaurants are allowed to expand outdoor dining services to sidewalks and privately owned parking lots, as long as they are in compliance with Gov. Sununu’s guidelines and they have written permission to use that space from the property owner.
“[Covid-19 has] required us to be creative and think differently to make sure we’re doing whatever we can to support our local economy,” Craig said in the statement.
Craig’s office, in conjunction with the City Clerk, Fire, Police, Health, Public Works and Planning and Community Development departments, issued a series of guidelines for those establishments that do expand dining into parking lots. Those that are must submit a diagram to the city that outlines where they plan to have the seats.
As of May 18, there haven’t been any road closures in the Queen City, but according to Lauren Smith, Mayor Craig’s Chief of Staff, it is an issue that’s being discussed.
No public streets have closed in Concord either, but health and licensing officer Gwen Williams said the Concord City Council is working with restaurant owners to help them reopen by issuing temporary permits and waiving fees associated with public parking spaces. She added that outside of downtown, the city is also working with restaurants to explore the use of their private parking lots and lawn areas.
For restaurants that already hold on-premise liquor licenses, the New Hampshire Liquor Commission issued a document outlining guidelines and frequently asked questions. Adding a mobile bar and serving station outside is permitted for licensees, and so is serving spirits outdoors, but if it’s in a shared parking lot, sidewalk or other shared space, then that requires city or town approval.

Staying closed
Despite being allowed to, a few restaurateurs are choosing not to reopen their establishments for outdoor dining. One of them is Cotton in Manchester, which has temporarily ceased all operations since March 16, including takeout, according to chef and owner Jeffrey Paige.
Cotton does have a small outdoor patio, but with social distancing requirements in place, Paige said that would have left room for just four tables.
“We decided to just hunker down and hold onto our resources,” he said. “We were fortunate to have some money saved up, and we’ve been taking advantage of the time doing a lot of maintenance at the restaurant.”
Across the Merrimack River, KC’s Rib Shack on Second Street is also remaining closed, even though the eatery reported tremendous success with takeout and curbside pickup.
“It was like Lucille Ball at the chocolate factory,” KC’s owner Kevin Cornish said. “The orders were coming in sometimes 10 at a time, and we ended up shutting the online app off because we just couldn’t keep up.”
Cornish said supply chain hiccups ended up prompting him to close about three weeks ago. Chicken was the hardest product to get consistently, followed by ribs and hamburger meat.
“It became increasingly more and more difficult to get really good-quality meat,” he said. “It was going up three times in price, and I saw the writing on the wall that it wasn’t going to be very long before I couldn’t get product at all.”
For now, Cornish said he’s not in any rush to reopen — he’s using the time to renovate some sections of the restaurant.
Even though it has an outdoor patio, Firefly American Bistro & Bar is using it only for customers to sit and have a drink while they wait for their takeout meals. Firefly’s staff is enforcing a maximum two drink rule per person.
In Merrimack, Able Ebenezer Brewing Co. normally has outdoor picnic tables but has opted to keep its bar closed. In an update posted to the brewery’s website on May 14, owner and head brewer Carl Soderberg said he and his staff will “monitor the state’s phases as we progress, and announce a reopening date once we’re ready.”
Schoodacs in Warner also remains temporarily closed due to economic challenges caused by Covid-19. In a May 13 post on the coffee shop’s Facebook page, owner Darryl Parker cited “greater liabilities in the public health, the health of our employees … and personal financial risks incurred in being in the food business during this crisis.” He went on to say that the space will be made available for lease in June, and that the space is already attracting interest from potential new operators. Holders of Schoodacs gift certificates can still redeem them through May 29 for packaged coffee, tea, mugs and other retail items.

Live at last

Sam Claflin must save his sister’s wedding while trying to win over a woman he’s been pining for in Love Wedding Repeat, a movie with a cute concept that it doesn’t quite see through.

Music returns to Penuche’s Music Hall

By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com

With limited reopening of businesses in New Hampshire, open air dining — with strict social distancing guidelines — returned to Penuche’s Music Hall on May 18, along with live music, with musicians playing acoustic on the corner of Elm and Lowell streets. Brad Bosse kicked off the return of live music in downtown Manchester at 1 p.m. on May 18, with a cover of Ben Harper’s “Steal My Kisses” as Penuche’s Music Hall served diners at every table. Amanda McCarthy preformed after Bosse at 6 p.m. In a recent phone interview, owner Chuck Kalantzis talked about the challenges of Covid-19 for businesses like his, and the return of entertainment to his Elm Street restaurant and bar.

What were you doing at Penuche’s Music Hall before the pandemic hit?
We had live music consistently here seven days of the week, either with live bands or some type of local artists [playing acoustic], every day something different in our establishment.

When it happened, what kind of adjustments did you make?
At that time nobody knew what was going on, and it was very difficult to understand which way to go. The first few days I fed families who couldn’t afford anything and delivered food to older people. But with our establishment [being part of the] music industry, I would really put my employees in jeopardy along with the customers if we did takeout, so I stayed away from that. … We did a lot of community things to help out from that end. … I have it on my Facebook every day that if there’s anybody in need, they call me and I make sure they get food in some form.

How do you envision reopening with social distancing rules working?
This is uncharted territory. … Nobody knows if people are gonna be scared to go out. I don’t think so. … I think people that are sick will stay in the house. If you’re not, we need to get out to build our immune systems a little bit more, you know? I’m gonna do everything in my power to continue, keep this industry going in some form. … What I did was set my seating to the left and right of Lowell Street. I’ve also applied with the city to do Sundays as I’ve been doing for the last four years [closing off the street and putting tables there]..

You must be glad you applied to do that before.
I’m the one who brought it to Hanover Street [Penuche’s original location] — outside seating with music I developed way, way back. … They’re not allowing live entertainment [indoors] for a little while, so I have to [have] a little imagination with what I do to develop something comfortable. Music really helps your day. … So I’m putting [acoustic music] out here every day unless it’s raining. … My first night [I had] Amanda McCarthy. When she was a younger girl, I was over at Penuche’s on Hanover Street. She came to my door one day and said, I’m young and I’m just starting to learn how to play music and can you give me a chance? … I kept her going weekly and we’ve had a great relationship all the way through and I give her as much as I can. Look at what she’s developed into — she won best New England songwriter.

Yes, she’s going places.
She wrote on her Facebook page thanking me for giving her a chance and it made me feel good that I could help somebody. That’s the story. … I’m gonna try to continue to have live music daily. Saturdays and Sundays from 1 o’clock on and weekdays from 6 o’clock on at night. During this time, the musicians, great local artists that I’ve had, were sitting in their house not doing something. I called Jonny Friday up, I said listen, I’m gonna help you guys out. Why don’t you come down and use the stage, we’ll put it on Facebook, and that’s what I did during the closure. I tried to make them some money, and I donated money to them while they were performing. Trying to keep it going.

Tipping will probably be Venmo and PayPal for live musicians?
I told Amanda she could do whatever she wants. My concern is to keep the local scene going. … I’m trying to involve everybody. I put a Facebook post on for all the local musicians that want to play. I’m getting a lot of local talent, and outside talent, who say they really want to play.

More than pottery

Sam Claflin must save his sister’s wedding while trying to win over a woman he’s been pining for in Love Wedding Repeat, a movie with a cute concept that it doesn’t quite see through.

By Angie Sykeny
asykeny@hippopress.com

Anyone who enjoys working with clay will find daily inspiration in The Voice of Clay: 365 Quotes About Clay, the latest book from Wendy Walter, owner of The Voice of Clay, a pottery studio, shop, clay-based spa and holistic therapy center based at her home in Brookline.
All 365 quotes in The Voice of Clay include the word “clay,” used in either a literal or a metaphorical sense. The book explores how clay is used in a diverse array of disciplines, including art, cooking, gardening, science and holistic health, and includes photographs of clay in various forms.
“Clay is so much more than what potters use to make pots,” Walter said. “It’s incredible how versatile and powerful this material is.”
The quotes are grouped in five chapters — “Earth,” “Air,” “Fire,” “Water” and “Ether” — named after the five primary elements of nature, all of which are essential to working with clay, Walter said.
“A piece of clay comes from the earth and is hydrated with water,” she said. “We make it dry from the air, then fire it in a kiln, and the ether [represents] the creative quality of the potter.”
Walter said “Water” quotes either reference water or are “more emotional and soul-connected;” “Earth” quotes reference the earth and are “sort of informative;” “Air” quotes are “science-based” and related to “thinking, processing and analyzing;” “Fire” quotes reference the kiln and firing process of pottery or other kinds of “transformation, magic, energy, spirit and the nature of change;” and “Ether” quotes express the qualities of space, which holds all of the other elements, and “creative potential and pure intelligence.”
“My favorite chapter is the ‘Ether’ chapter,” she said. “I love the [quotes] that talk about us as cosmic human beings and point towards our universal essence.”
For years Walter kept a binder full of her favorite quotes from her own collection of books about clay. The idea of publishing a compilation of the quotes had been “brewing for a long time,” she said.
When she finally decided to go through with the book, she started buying more books about clay, looking for books about clay at local libraries and researching clay online to find more quotes.
“I’ve always been interested in reading about the many different perspectives that people have on using clay,” she said.
Each chapter has a brief introduction in which Walter explains what the quotes in that chapter mean to her on a personal level and how readers can find meaning in the quotes and apply them to their own lives.
“The quotes don’t just provide information about clay,” Walter said. “There is a self-help element to them as well. They are meant to help people take a look at themselves and their own personal growth.”
Walter started making pottery in high school.
“I immediately got addicted to working with clay, and by the time I graduated I knew I would be a potter,” she said.
She went on to receive a bachelor’s degree in music and English, with a concentration in poetry. After getting married, having two children, and getting a divorce, she decided it was “time to commit to being a potter,” she said. She started making pottery at home and selling her work.
Later, she became interested in uses for clay outside of pottery. She enrolled in an esthetics program and studied the detoxifying, beautifying and healing properties of clay for the body. Additionally, she earned a master’s degree in transpersonal psychology — a subset of psychology that integrates altered states of consciousness, intuition, meditation, dreams, breathwork and hypnosis — and a certification in breathwork.
Through her business, The Voice of Clay, Walter creates and sells her own pottery and teaches a variety of pottery classes for kids and adults. She also offers holistic wellness coaching, classes and therapy sessions and provides a number of clay-based services and treatments in her licensed one-room spa, such as facials, skin masks and foot baths.
In 2018 Walter published her first book, Being Pickity, which tells the story of Pickity Place, the historic property in Mason where she grew up.
She has two more books in the works. One, which she hopes to publish by the end of the year, is a clay cookbook.
“There are a lot of different ways to cook with clay,” she said. “You can cook or bake in clay pots; you can wrap food in a layer of clay when you cook or bake it, which helps to keep [the food] moist and keep all of its flavor; and there’s even edible clay, which most people don’t realize is a thing.”
The other book, which will likely be released in 2022, is a children’s picture book about a gnome who discovers the magic of clay. The book will be illustrated with photographs of felted scenes created by a felt artist.
“It’s just an idea that came to me,” Walter said. “I’d like to teach the younger generation about all the possibilities of clay and different ways to think about clay through stories and myth.”

The Voice of Clay: 365 Quotes About Clay
Paperback available on Amazon. Order the book through Wendy Walter’s website to receive a signed copy. Visit voiceofclay.com/books-by-wendy-walter-1.

Education Funding

Stuff about things.

In 1999, the New Hampshire Supreme Court declared the state’s tax system to fund education ”unconstitutional” and gave the legislature a short window to come up with a plan to fix it. The legislature, reluctantly, picked a State Wide Education Property Tax (SWEPT) to address the Claremont Education Funding Lawsuit. The original formula passed by the legislature had a $6.60 SWEPT rate, which brought huge relief to about 80 percent of property owners while raising taxes on the property-richest communities who were/are paying the lowest tax rates in New Hampshire.
But the property-richest towns were not happy with the new formula and hired attorneys to come up with a plan. Their lawyers came up with a clever scheme called “donor towns” and many people bought into it, including many legislators.
So the formula was redone at a lower rate with a cap on how much money SWEPT could raise. Anyone with decent math/spatial reasoning skills could see that this new formula was wholly beneficial to the property-rich/lowest-tax-rate communities, designed to continuously reduce the tax rate and bring us back to the disparities that initially caused the Claremont lawsuit. Shame on New Hampshire for not having the intellectual horsepower and mathematical skills to see that this was a scam. The future was easy to see and is now here. Since the change was made, property-poorer cities and towns all over the state have been cheated out of hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue that had a Supreme Court decision to back it up.
Today, the lawsuits are coming back. The Conval district has already filed and is in the courts. More lawsuits are likely to come. We would not have been in this position had the legislature done the right thing and not kowtowed to the property-richest communities. You see, while they only represent about 20 to 25 percent of our citizens, they have a disproportionate percentage of the political clout among their residents.
So, with education funding once again in the courts, is there a case to be made that the monies lost by the property-poor communities over the years by the redone and unconstitutional formula be owed to the property-poorer communities? Manchester alone would likely be owed over $100 million. To be clear, if this were a lawsuit between two companies, those lost funds would be on the table.
Fred Bramante is a past chairman and member of the New Hampshire State Board of Education. He speaks and consults on education redesign to regional, state and national organizations.

Film reviews by Amy 1

Sam Claflin must save his sister’s wedding while trying to win over a woman he’s been pining for in Love Wedding Repeat, a movie with a cute concept that it doesn’t quite see through.

Love Wedding Repeat (TV-MA)
Sam Claflin must save his sister’s wedding while trying to win over a woman he’s been pining for in Love Wedding Repeat, a movie with a cute concept that it doesn’t quite see through.
British Hayley (Eleanor Tomlinson) is marrying Italian Roberto (Tiziano Caputo) in Italy in a wedding whose guests are mostly his friends and family. Thus, there is an “English table” featuring Hayley’s brother Jack (Claflin), her friend Dina (Olivia Munn), Jack’s mean ex Amanda (Frieda Pinto) for some reason, Amanda’s insecure boyfriend Chaz (Allan Mustafa), awkward Sidney (Tim Key), Hayley’s Man of Honor Bryan (Joel Fry), the pushy Rebecca (Aisling Bea) and, though not invited, Marc (Jack Farthing), a coked-up former boyfriend of Hayley’s.
Marc threatens to cause a scene so Hayley gives Jack a powerful sleeping drug to slip into his drink and knock him out. But Jack doesn’t realize until it’s too late that the place settings have been moved around and the drug meant for Marc has gone to Bryan, an actor looking to impress a director who is one of the guests. Jack meanwhile is busy trying to connect with Dina, a woman he spent a day with three years earlier but has never stopped thinking about. And when he’s not trying to win over Dina, he’s trying to stay out of the horrible relationship between Amanda and Chaz.
We see the ripple effects of the errant sleeping drug mistake play out in the fortunes of all the English guests and Hayley and Roberto, culminating in what might be Hayley’s impending widowhood. But, a narrator tells us, there are thousands of ways eight people can sit around a table, suggesting that there are endless alternate ways the story of Hayley’s wedding could play out.
That idea is a cute conceit to build a featherlight romantic comedy on. But Love Wedding Repeat really only gives us two iterations — the first disastrous one and then the final one (we see sped-up snippets of alternate iterations in a very quick montage). More variations, even short ones, might have given us more insight to the characters and thus more payoff in the final version of the wedding. Also, I think getting through some of those first-wedding scenes quicker would have just generally been better; the jokes often go on much longer than needed.
Love Wedding Repeat is occasionally funny, occasionally sweet and watchable largely because of the natural charm of its central cast, specifically Tomlinson (who I know from Poldark), Claflin, Munn and Fry (who I sort of remember from a small part in Yesterday). C+
Rated TV-MA for language, according to Netflix. Written and directed by Dean Craig (based on the screenplay of a movie called Plan de table), Love Wedding Repeat is an hour and 40 minutes long and is available via Netflix.

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