February has finally arrived and with it comes Black History Month. Having lived in New Hampshire for a significant portion of my life, I have only recently become aware of all the wonderful events happening across the state during this commemorative month. For those who, like me, wish to address racial injustice and to work for a more integrated nation, here are some things I’ll be doing to expand my commitment.
Attend a Black Heritage Trail of NH Tea Talk. This year’s series is being offered virtually with an in-person option with limited capacity on the subject of “Courage Conversations: Leaning in for Change.” For the 2022 Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talks Series, BHTNH will work collectively to create a safe space for meaningful interchanges, grounded in history and lived experience between different segments of the Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) community. We will also investigate the current issues that continue to create tension in the community. All talks are on Sundays from 2 to 3:30 p.m. and are free of charge. More information can be found at blackheritagetrailnh.org.
Address legislation impacting racial justice in New Hampshire. There are several bills in this year’s legislative session that will have an impact on how our state’s public education systems are able to practice their right to teach our students. The most promising, SB304, counters the harmful HB2 “divisive concepts” bill that has sent a chill throughout our state’s public institutions, especially K-12, in their efforts to address inclusion and equality especially around race. Passage means removing provisions concerning freedom from discrimination in public workplaces and education, and would clarify the authority of public schools and public employers concerning discrimination.
There are two additional bills that are looking to limit free speech and free expression in the classroom. HB1313 expands HB2 to include public higher education and limit the essence of higher education learning by promoting the omission and silencing conversation on important parts of our nation’s history as it relates to race and other protected identities. HB1255 seeks to ban New Hampshire public school teachers from promoting any “negative account or representation of the founding and history of the U.S.”
Explore my own biases and assumptions This is, for me, the most critical piece of this work. What is my vision for our society and what role will I play in helping to create this? I need to know that I am not free of racial biases and healing myself of these comes from self-responsibility, patience, love and mindfulness.
This work, of course, doesn’t end in February. This is a years-long journey and it will continue to require collective community to bring about the change.
Fittingly, the first song A.J. Croce ever recorded from his late father Jim Croce’s catalog was “I Got A Name.” He’d done hits like “Time In A Bottle” and “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” during Croce Plays Croce concerts for a few years, and a bit reluctantly at that. The decision to truly embrace the tribute show after a long and successful solo career involved some divine intervention, A.J. said recently.
When Jim Croce died in a 1973 plane crash, his son was 2 years old. One way he got to know him was as an archivist, poring over reels of tape for clues about his artistic process.
A fourth-generation musician on both sides of his family, A.J. Croce was destined to perform, but his apple landed away from the tree. He grew up playing piano, not guitar like his dad, and his tastes leaned toward blues, jazz and R&B instead of lyric-driven folk rock. A.J. went on to make multiple acclaimed albums rooted in a style one writer described as “part New Orleans, part juke joint, part soul.”
One day a few years ago A.J. Croce stumbled upon a crossroads while listening to his father’s writing tapes. When he wasn’t touring, Jim Croce would record ideas into a Wollensak recorder, and one particular reel was filled with material his son recognized immediately — they were selections he’d been performing for years.
“It gave me chills,” Croce said. “It wasn’t just obscure old jazz and blues and early country artists, but the exact, very obscure songs. So it was Fats Waller, who’s not obscure; but it wasn’t ‘Ain’t Misbehavin’’ or ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ — it was “You’re Not The Only Oyster In The Stew,” which was one of the first songs that I played on a demo for Columbia way back in the late ’80s, early ’90s.”
Twelve of 15 were songs he’d done; Croce began to look at the connection to his father as more than biological.
“I’d probably been asked my whole career to perform his music, and as much as I love his songs, I was first and foremost a piano player,” he said, “and I was also more likely to play a song by Ray Charles or the Rolling Stones than something by my father. That really inspired me to look at the concert not just as a tribute to his music but to the connection that we have to music in general.”
Thus, the upcoming Croce Plays Croce concerts in New Hampshire and across the river in Vermont will blend selections from Jim Croce’s brief but prolific career — three albums made over 18 months in the early ’70s — and A.J.’s genre-crossing catalog, along with the music that inspired them both.
“The influences that we both share are so vast, it could be so many different things,” Croce said. “You can hear Jimmy Reed on songs like ‘You Don’t Mess Around With Jim,’ and Lieber & Stoller’s songwriting on many of the others, whether it’s ‘Leroy Brown’ or ‘Car Wash Blues’ — those sort of R&B influenced things.”
The show also celebrates Jim Croce’s innovative songwriting approach, which A.J. believes came into its own with his most enduring hit, “Time In a Bottle.” His dad wrote the song for him.
“It was sort of a musical epiphany that happened,” he said. “I think he felt like, ‘This is my last chance to do this for a living; I have a son now, I have a family,’ and he really went with it.”
Croce knows the foundational elements of his dad’s work, but believes it’s the relatability of hits such as “Operator (That’s Not the Way It Feels),” “Lover’s Cross” and character songs like “Bad, Bad Leroy Brown,” “Rapid Roy” and “Speedball Tucker” that ultimately set him apart.
“Being a record collector and sort of a musicologist, I think I can hear where those influences come from,” he said. “But what he does is so unique, different than almost anyone I’ve heard. He personalizes it from the perspective of not just him seeing these people, or being present around these people, but also making heroes out of sort of everyday folks.”
Croce Plays Croce
When: Thursday, Feb. 10, 7:30 p.m. Where: The Flying Monkey, 39 Main St., Plymouth Tickets: $39 and up at flyingmonkeynh.com (13+)
Featured photo: A.J. Croce. Photo by Joshua Black Wilkins.
Writer and director Pedro Almodóvar tells a story of mothers and daughters, secrets and reckoning with the past in the Spanish-language movie Parallel Mothers.
I mean, OK, he does that in most of the movies of his that I’ve seen — Pain and Glory felt like a striking departure because it was about a mother and son — but Almodóvar knows how to build fascinating relationships between imperfect women.
Here we see Janis (Penélope Cruz) and Ana (Milena Smit), sharing a hospital room, as they are about to give birth to their babies. Both are single. Janis is a settled professional woman nearing 40; Ana is a teenager (how old exactly I’m not sure — high school or young college). Janis is grateful for this unexpected pregnancy, the result of an enjoyable (but concluded, maybe) affair. Even before we hear the details, it’s clear that there is some trauma attached to Ana’s pregnancy. Both women have their babies — Janis’ daughter Cecilia and Ana’s daughter Anita — and both have some emotional support in their corner: Janis has her longtime friend Elena (Rossy de Palma) and Ana has Teresa (Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), the mother with whom she’s had a difficult relationship. At least, Ana has her mother’s financial support; a stage actress, Teresa lands a career-defining role and has to go on tour early in Ana’s new mom-hood.
Janis is managing with help from her housekeeper and, eventually, a good daycare, thanks to some photography work thrown her way by Elena. But she hits an unexpected emotional bump when Arturo (Israel Elejalde), baby Cecilia’s father, comes to see them. Though she ended their relationship — he’s married and wasn’t too keen on her keeping the baby — she is disappointed when he leaves moments after seeing Cecilia. Later he tells her he didn’t feel a kind of instant recognition for the baby, which sets Janis’ mind going in all sorts of directions, perhaps connected to the fact that she didn’t know her own father and was raised by her grandmother.
While Janis and Ana deal with their present-day motherhood, a story unfolds in the background connected to how Janis and Arturo first met. Arturo is an archaeologist whose work includes looking into the remains of those executed during the Spanish Civil War. Janis and the village she is from are looking to get help excavating an unmarked grave that they believe holds 10 men, including Janis’ great-grandfather. When Janis works a photo shoot for Arturo, she asks him if he will help the village work on the excavations — with the great-grandchildren and grandchildren and even at least one living child of the men eager to see them properly laid to rest.
It’s odd to have a melodramatic — to the point of soapiness — tale of Janis and Arturo and Ana layered over the top of this more searing historical tale of wrongs and the attempts to bring some sort of justice or at least recognition of what happened. There is a clear throughline — about having to acknowledge wrongs, despite the personal sacrifices, and make attempts to make amends. But it’s still jarring, at times.
That said, this is, as always, a well-crafted, thoroughly engrossing tale of women and their relationships to each other, of mothers and their difficult (but fiercely loving) relationships with their daughters, of coming to terms with sorrow and heartache and moving forward. Almodóvar does such a great job of getting to the raw emotion of these tangles — and of getting an emotionally raw performance from Cruz — that it overcomes what occasionally feel like dips into “too much”-ness, storywise. B+
Rated R for some sexuality, according to the MPA on filmratings.com. Written and directed by Pedro Almodóvar, Parallel Mothers is two hours and three minutes long and distributed by Sony in theaters.
Ira Street happened to be shopping in Bunny’s Superette in Manchester’s North End one day when a sign advertising a kitchen space for sale caught his attention.
“I started looking around and one of the cashiers told me it’s in the back of the store, and so I walked back there, met the prior owners and got to talking to them,” said Street, an Army veteran and Chicago native who came to the Queen City about five years ago. “I’ve been in the food industry for over 25 years. I’ve cooked basically everything, but I love barbecue and figured this would be something I’d be able to succeed at. … So we bought it and that’s how we started.”
Squaloo’s BBQ, now open for takeout and limited in-store seating, features a menu of fresh meats smoked daily — several items, like the rib tips and the hot links, are traditional barbecue staples of the Midwest. The eatery is named after Street’s childhood nickname.
Jerk chicken with rice and beans. Photo courtesy of Squaloo’s BBQ.
Starting at 1:30 p.m. six days a week, Squaloo’s BBQ accepts phone orders for pickup in addition to third-party deliveries through GrubHub and DoorDash. Meal plate options include a half slab of smoked ribs, a two-piece portion of fried chicken, and an open-faced pulled pork sandwich, each of which is served with french fries and a house-made coleslaw. One plate Street said he’s received positive feedback on out of the gate features smoked rib tips.
“They are a really big seller in a lot of the Midwestern cities,” he said. “The tip part of the rib comes from the top of the spare rib before they become St. Louis ribs.”
Hot links, or spicy smoked sausages, are also unique to Squaloo’s and very popular in and around Street’s home state — a hot link plate features two sausages per order, or, he said, you can get them on a combo plate with rib tips for a double dose of Midwestern barbecue.
For those with a sweet tooth, there’s also a fried apple pie that can come with a side of ice cream.
“It’s like an empanada, and I cook it to order,” Street said. “I deep fry it, take it out and add on a little bit of cinnamon sugar and caramel sauce.”
Other items include beef empanadas, a chicken tender plate, and a jerk chicken plate with rice and beans. Street said it’s possible that a few additional menu options may be making it onto the menu in the near future, like macaroni and cheese, collard greens and cornbread.
Squaloo’s BBQ
Where: 75 Webster St., Manchester (inside Bunny’s Superette) Hours: Monday through Thursday, 1:30 to 8 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 1:30 to 9 p.m. (closed on Sundays) More info: Visit squaloosbbq.com, find them on Facebook and Instagram @squaloosbbq or call 232-7288. Ordering through DoorDash and GrubHub is also available. Veterans and active military service members receive 10 percent off on their orders.
Featured photo: Wing dings and rib tip combo plate. Photo courtesy of Squaloo’s BBQ.
Ax throwing is one of those sports that gets you hooked the first time you try it — at least that’s how it started for Tracey McCormick, owner and founder of RelAxe Throwing in Manchester.
“I actually went down to Texas on a family vacation, went ax throwing on a fluke and fell in love with it immediately,” she said. “I couldn’t believe how good it felt and how much fun it was at the same time. … I remember looking around the room at all the different types of people that were there. People were cheering each other on, even when they didn’t know each other.”
When McCormick returned to New Hampshire and realized there were no indoor ax throwing venues in the state at the time, she began working on a business plan to bring one here. Today, RelAxe Throwing holds four ax throwing leagues per year and has even had throwers represented at three world ax throwing championship competitions.
But you don’t have to be a professional thrower to give it a go. McCormick’s team of “ax-perts” is always on hand to teach you the basics if you’ve never tried it before.
“Ax throwing is not about strength or trying to throw hard. It’s about finesse and technique,” she said. “We work with people of all varying abilities … and so we can adapt some of the things that are needed for their safety in order for them to be successful as well.”
It’s a similar operation at The Rugged Axe, which opened on South Willow Street in the Queen City last June. Co-owner and longtime Goffstown resident Charles Keith dreamed about opening his own ax throwing business after trying it out while visiting his son in Pensacola, Florida.
“Anybody can throw an ax. We’ve had a 90-year-old man throw one and be able to get a bull’s-eye. The skillset is really just hand-eye coordination,” Keith said. “We teach everybody how to do both a two-handed throw and a one-handed throw. … The ax will typically rotate one and a quarter to one and a half times depending on how hard you throw it, and it’s top heavy, so the weight of the ax is actually what makes it rotate. You don’t have to use your wrists at all.”
There are lots of different ax throwing games you can play. In a typical standard game, you would get 10 throws and the player with the most points wins. Each ring on the target is worth a different number of points that increases the closer you get to the bull’s-eye. There are also other ways to score, Keith said, including smaller blue dots that are awarded a higher number of points if the player announces before throwing that they’re aiming for it.
Two of The Rugged Axe’s 18 lanes have a projector that superimposes a target onto the boards, allowing throwers to play other games like Tic-Tac-Toe or Duck Hunt. The venue is open weekly for private parties and for leagues you can sign up for, either individually or as a group.
“It’s such a wonderful activity that’s competitive and a great way to get your aggression out, especially in Covid times,” Keith said. “You can always tell when somebody hits the bull’s-eye, because there’s some yelling and screaming going on from that lane. It’s very satisfying.”
Where to go ax throwing Closed-toe shoes are required and a safety waiver must be filled out. For groups, booking in advance online is recommended; reserve your own lanes by telling them how many people are coming and how long you’ll be throwing for.
Axe Play 142 Lowell Road, Unit 19, Hudson, 809-9081, axe-play.com Hours: Monday through Thursday, 4 to 9 p.m.; Friday, 1 to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 9 p.m. Cost: $25 per hour per person Axe Play, which opened in August 2020, features seven ax throwing lanes for a total of 14 targets. Ax throwers must be at least 18, with the exception of family hours on specific days and times, when the center is open to kids ages 10 and up.
Block Party Social 51 Zapora Drive, Hooksett, 621-5150, blockpartysocial.com Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., and Friday and Saturday, 10 a.m. to midnight Cost: $30 per hour per person (includes a $5 arcade game card) Formerly the Space Entertainment Center, Block Party Social features a newly renovated space that includes an eight-lane ax throwing lounge with multiple game formats to choose from using superimposed screens and a touch screen interface to keep track of players’ scores. Ax throwers must be at least 18.
RelAxe Throwing 157 Gay St., Manchester, 782-3061, relaxethrowing.com Hours: Monday and Thursday, 4 to 10 p.m.; Friday, 4 to 11 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m. to 11 p.m., and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays) Cost: $25 per hour per person Since opening in June 2019 as an indoor ax throwing venue, RelAxe has added seasonal outdoor throwing, including through an expansion at Candia Springs Adventure Park in Candia, and has had throwers represented at three world ax throwing championship competitions. The minimum age to throw is 10, and all throwers under the age of 16 must have a throwing adult with them.
The Rugged Axe 377 S. Willow St., Manchester, 232-7846, theruggedaxe.com Hours: Wednesday and Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday, 4 to 11 p.m.; Saturday, noon to 11 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 8 p.m. (the center is reserved for leagues on Mondays and private events on Tuesdays) Cost: $25 per hour per person One of the newer spots to join the local ax throwing scene, The Rugged Axe opened in June 2021. It’s also the largest indoor ax throwing venue in the Granite State, with a total of 18 lanes. Ax throwers as young as 12 years old are welcome. A small menu of hot dogs, snacks, beer and wine is available at the center’s onsite “Lumberjack Shack.”
Enjoying a meal inside a warm heated igloo keeps outdoor dining alive in the winter and gives you and your own party space. Here’s a list of local eateries offering outdoor igloos by reservation. Due to high demand, some may require you to book them out several days, weeks or more in advance. Be sure to contact each restaurant directly via phone or email for the most up-to-date availability.
• 603 Brewery (42 Main St., Londonderry, 404-6123, 603brewery.com) features heated igloos on its patio that accommodate seating for up to eight people. Igloos are available to rent for two-hour time slots for a $50 rental fee per party. Time slots are released online one month at a time.
Averill House Vineyard in Brookline. Courtesy photo.
• Averill House Vineyard (21 Averill Road, Brookline, 244-3165, averillhousevineyard.com) offers a “vine to wine” igloo and gazebo experience package, available for two to eight people per party. The cost is $100 for the first two people and $50 for each additional person and includes four wine tastings and a charcuterie board inside one of the vineyard’s heated igloos for a one-hour-and-45-minute visit.
• Bedford Village Inn (2 Olde Bedford Way, Bedford, 472-2001, bedfordvillageinn.com) offers luxury outdoor dining at its onsite igloo garden, accommodating up to six people per party and featuring heat and air filtration systems. Igloos can be reserved for up to two and a half hours, offering the BVI’s tavern and dining room menus, except on holidays, in addition to a special Simi wine and cocktail menu. The cost is $50 to reserve an igloo for lunch and $100 to reserve one for brunch or dinner (brunches are on Saturdays and Sundays only).
• Boston Billiard Club & Casino (55 Northeastern Blvd., Nashua, 943-5630, bostonbilliardclubcasino.com) has a few heated igloos on its patio that are available by reservation only. Igloos have a two-hour limit and can be reserved for parties of up to five.
• Downtown Cheers Grille & Bar (17 Depot St., No. 1, Concord, 228-0180, cheersnh.com) has four heated igloos on its patio that can be reserved for parties of four to eight people. Reservations are two hours per party and require a $50 deposit that’s applied to your bill.
• Tuscan Market (Tuscan Village, 9 Via Toscana, Salem, 912-5467, tuscanbrands.com) offers “al fresco igloo dining experience” packages that can accommodate two to six guests per party. The cost is a $150 spend minimum on weekdays and a $250 spend minimum on weekends.
Want a little healthy competition among your friend group? Paintball and laser tag give you the chance to fight in a fun way — or you can ramp up the mess factor with a private party in a paint splatter room.
Paintball
AG Paintball (158 Deering Center Road, Weare, 529-3524, agpaintball.com) opened in 1988 and today is one of the longest-running paintball parks in the Granite State. The park encompasses 30 acres with nine woodsball fields and one speedball field, and also offers an onsite pro shop with guns, masks and other accessories for sale. “[We have] many different themed paintball rooms that can pertain to any interests and likes,” said Rusty Glaze, Paintball Blogger at AG Paintball. Hours are Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Their average paintball experience package when you come self-equipped is $30 per person. They also have rental packages starting at $40 per person. Private group parties can include 10 players or more to experience your own game of paintball with your group of friends.
OSG Paintball (1053 N. Barnstead Road, Center Barnstead, 1-800-707-7529, osgpaintball.com) is the largest paintball park in the state, with 44 acres and 12 playing fields. Every field is themed, including Star Wars, Pirate Cove, Empire Castle, Hamburger Hill and more, and games can also have themes of their own, like Westerns, Call of Duty, The Simpsons, Family Guy and The Goonies. The park is closed for the winter but is scheduled to reopen March 5. Private parties are available seven days a week with a reservation required. Packages include a private group of 10 or more people for a full day for $49.99 or a half day for $39.99, with full-impact and low-impact options available.
Paint splatter
Rage Cage NH (10 W. Hollis St., Nashua, 402-4197, ragecagenh.com) features a paint splatter room that’s open to all ages. Have a glow paint party with ultraviolet black lights, bubble and fog machines and whatever music you want for $30 per person for an hour, with up to eight people per party. A regular paint splatter party without the glow is $20 per person, with up to 20 people allowed (contact Rage Cage if you have more than 20 people). When you book a paint party online, you pay for just one person to reserve the room for the full hour. For a regular paint splatter party, every participant can pick out 10 colors of washable paint, a 12×12’’ canvas and safety goggles, and additional upgrades are available, like throwable paintballs ($5 to $20), more colors ($2 per color), larger canvases ($5 to $10) and stencils ($10) to make your art. Paint parties do not come with jumpsuits, but white hooded jumpsuits are available for $10 each. For glow parties, participants can pick out 14 colors of UV-reactive washable paint, a 12×12’’ canvas and safety goggles, along with any preferred upgrades. Rage Cage NH hours are noon to 9 p.m. Thursdays and Fridays and 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturdays and Sundays.
Laser tag
Block Party Social (51 Zapora Drive, Hooksett, 621-5150, blockpartysocial.com) is open Sunday through Thursday from 10 a.m to 10 p.m and Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to midnight. The price for the laser tag arena is $22 per person for a 30-minute experience (this includes a $5 arcade game card).
Hilltop Fun Center (165 Route 108, Somersworth, 742-8068, hilltopfuncenter.com) is open Wednesday and Thursday from 3 to 8 p.m., Friday from 3 to 9 p.m., Saturday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Laser tag prices are $14 for a 30-minute session and $22 for two 30-minute sessions; each session includes three six-minute games. On Friday and Saturday, laser mania is $25 per person, with unlimited laser tag from 5 to 9 p.m. You can also rent out the entire arena for your own group for $300 for the first hour and $100 for additional hours.
Since New Hampshire’s first escape room, Granite State Escape, opened in 2015, escape rooms have been popular destinations in the state for group outings and private events like birthday parties, bachelor and bachelorette parties, school trips and corporate team-builders. Now, in pandemic times, escape rooms offer something even more valuable:
“I think that people are wanting to once again enjoy the company of others while participating in a fun, safe and interactive experience together,” said Pamela Provencher, owner of Granite State Escape in Manchester. “[Because] escape rooms allow groups to stay in their bubble, escape rooms [are a way] for some folks to begin to safely venture out again while also being … a fun night out for the more adventurous.”
Players do puzzles, solve riddles and crack codes by physically engaging with items in the room in a race against the clock to complete the room’s overall objective. A “gamemaster” explains the backstory, objective and rules to the players and monitors the room remotely during the game, maintaining audio communications with the players to ensure their safety and to provide hints, should they get stuck.
“Escape the Library,” an escape room at Escape Room Concord. Courtesy photo.
Escape rooms are unique in that they appeal to a wide range of people, Escape Room Concord owner Gregory Slossar said, making them a great outing for mixed groups.
“There are few activities out there that offer multi-generational entertainment,” he said. “Escape rooms are great for friends who want to do something fun before or after dinner, or families who are looking to do something with their children that makes everyone put down their phones for an hour, or a place where co-workers can come together as a team and bond on a personal level.”
Christopher McCarthy, who is the co-owner, operations manager and resident gamemaster at The Escape Room Experience in Laconia, said escape rooms are an opportunity for people to let go of whatever is on their mind and be transported to another world where their only focus is to complete the objective of the room.
“It gives you an active goal, with minimal distractions,” he said. “It’s an environment catered to challenging your brain while in a physical space designed to grab your attention and keep it there.”
McCarthy said he is especially excited about The Escape Room Experience’s new room, “Serial Killer Cabin,” which pays homage to classic 1980s slasher films.
“As the designer, I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished within the space,” he said. “I feel like, atmospherically, we knocked it out of the park.”
Policies for players vary per escape room. Some escape rooms accept walk-ins, but most require booking in advance. The number of players allowed typically ranges from couples to groups of up to 10 or 12 people, but certain rooms may have their own limit. Families and groups with children should check on the escape room’s age restrictions or recommendations before they go as some rooms may be frightening, atmospherically, or too challenging for young players.
Escape rooms have been taking various safety precautions to prevent the spread of Covid, such as allowing more time between groups to clean and sanitize the rooms and to ensure that the groups don’t run into each other in the lobby area; requiring their staff to be vaccinated; requiring or encouraging staff and players to wear masks; and installing air filter machines.
“We believe escape rooms truly are one of the safest things you can choose to participate in,” said Lara Barkley, creative director at Key to Escape in Nashua. “Not even the movie theater or bowling alley can keep you out of the same room with groups of people you don’t know.”
Play an escape room
• 102 Escape, 123 Nashua Road, Unit 34, Londonderry, 260-6198, 102escape.com • Break Free 603, 141 Route 101A, Amherst, 424-1758, breakfree603.com • Escape Room Concord, 240 Airport Road, Concord, 225-2271, escaperoomconcordnh.com • The Escape Room Experience, 555 Main St., Suite A, Laconia, 366-6296, theescaperoomexperience.live • Granite State Escape, 795 Elm St., Manchester, 935-7455, escapenh.com • Key To Escape, 3 Bud Way, Unit 21, Nashua, 809-4018, keytoescape.com • LOK’d! Room Escape, 1500 S Willow St., Manchester, 945-3113, lokdrocks.com • Monkey Mind Escape Rooms, 10 Vaughan Mall, Portsmouth, 498-8997, monkeymindescape.com • Portsmouth Escape Room, 95 Brewery Lane, No. 13, Portsmouth, 380-9160, portsmouthescaperoom.com
Featured photo: Photo courtesy of The Rugged Axe in Manchester.
Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.
Covid-19 news
During a Jan. 26 press conference, state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan reported that, while the test positivity rate of Covid-19 in New Hampshire dropped slightly from 22 percent to 17 percent over the previous week, hospitalization and death rates in the state remain high. “In the last week, we reported 59 new Covid-19 related deaths, averaging more than eight new deaths identified each day,” he said. As of Jan. 31 there were 10,436 active cases and 303 hospitalizations, and all 10 counties are still reporting substantial community transmission.
Gov. Chris Sununu also announced during the press conference the Executive Council’s approval earlier that day to sell 1 million at-home rapid tests across the state’s Liquor & Wine Outlet stores. “We will put them on the shelves and sell them … approximately in the $13 range,” Sununu said, adding that tests should be available at the stores “within the next two weeks.”
On Jan. 31, the New Hampshire Insurance Department released a Frequently Asked Questions sheet regarding the national mandate that private insurers will have to cover the cost of eight at-home coronavirus tests per person per month. According to a press release, those with private individual health insurance coverage or covered by an employer-sponsored health plan who purchase Covid-19 diagnostic tests that have been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration can get them covered by insurance, without a health care provider’s order or clinical assessment and without cost-sharing requirements such as deductibles, co-payments or prior authorization. The costs may be covered up front by their health plan or reimbursed after a claim is submitted. The Frequently Asked Questions document can be found at nh.gov.
Meanwhile, more state-run fixed vaccination sites continue to open for walk-ins, including in Belmont, Lincoln and Manchester as of this week. Go to covid19.nh.gov and click on the “vaccination fixed sites” button to view a complete list — no appointments are required.
U.S. attorney nomination
Last week Attorney General John M. Formella issued a statement after President Biden nominated Deputy Attorney General Jane E. Young to serve as the United States attorney for the District of New Hampshire. “We at the Department of Justice greet today’s news with mixed emotions. For almost thirty years, Jane has served this Office and the State of New Hampshire with distinction as an incredible prosecutor and public servant. She is one of a kind and irreplaceable,” Formella wrote. “That said, Jane is more than worthy of this recognition and honor, and … the District of New Hampshire will be well served with Jane Young as United States Attorney.”
Sununu in D.C.
Last weekend Gov. Chris Sununu attended the 2022 National Governors Association Winter Meeting in Washington, D.C., where he planned to meet with Canada’s Ambassador to the United States. According to a press release, he also attended NGA meetings with United States Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Infrastructure Coordinator for the White House Mitch Landrieu. The governors were scheduled to have dinner with President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden and attend a Governors meeting at the White House.
Reducing classroom stress
New Hampshire educators will soon have new resources to reduce stress and dysregulation in the classroom. According to a press release, the Executive Council recently approved an $815,400 contract between the state Department of Education and The Regulated Classroom, a Peterborough-based company that provides tools for educators to help de-escalate adverse and confrontational issues in the classroom and refocus students on academics. The program includes a somatosensory toolkit and four kinds of classroom practices to regulate stress for teachers and students, the release said, and about 2,500 toolkits will be made available to New Hampshire educators. “This new collaboration is aimed to support teachers who may be experiencing disruptions in their school environments, who today are struggling with dysregulated students that have had inconsistent and disrupted instructional schedules going on two years, as well as the high stress level among the teachers themselves,” Frank Edelblut, New Hampshire state education commissioner, said in the release.
The Manchester Fire Department was dispatched to 1 City Hall Plaza on Jan. 29 when a sprinkler pipe burst above the ceiling in a second-floor office. According to a press release, firefighters tried to salvage items by consolidating and covering them with tarps and removing some electronics from the area. Offices on all three levels below the sprinkler pipe sustained significant water damage, the release said.
A first edition novel published in 1859 by Harriet E. Wilson — the first Black woman to publish a novel in English — returned to New Hampshire recently, celebrated in part with a reading of selections from the book at First Congregational Church in Milford on Jan. 22. According to a press release, the book was hand delivered from California by a woman who had found it in a safe when settling her husband’s estate. Wilson was free when she published the novel, but she had been an indentured servant in Milford.
Greater Nashua Mental Health recently received a $60,000 grant from the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation, allowing it to expand capacity and offer mental health services to people of all ages, as well as substance use disorder services to ages 12 and older, and primary health care services to clients 16 and up. According to a press release, new clients can walk into the 440 Amherst St. facility Tuesday through Thursday from 8 to 11:30 a.m. and be seen the same day.
