Category: News

Quality of Life 24/04/18

And the winner is

Ruby Shabazz, a Nashua native, has won best R&B song in the 2024 New England Songwriting Competition. According to its website (newenglandsongwritingcompetition.com) the contest describes its mission as “to nurture, recognize, and elevate the diverse voices and melodies that make up the vibrant music scene of New England.” This is the 15th contest. Ruby Shabazz won the award with “Thank You,” an autobiographical song about the meaning of gratitude. According to an April 6 press release from Shabazz, her style has been described as “an updated version of neo-soul mixed with the throwback sounds of Lauryn Hill.” This year’s New England Songwriting Competition had more than 500 submissions.

QOL score: +1

Comments: See Shabazz on Saturday, April 27, at 9 p.m. at the Smokehouse Tavern in Lowell, Mass., according to her website.

Stepping Stones closes

According to an April 12 broadcast story on WMUR, Stepping Stones, a Nashua shelter that helps homeless young adults who have aged out of foster care or fled situations of abuse, closed its residential facility last Tuesday. According to WMUR’s story, residents were given three weeks to find other living arrangements. On its website (steppingstonesnh.org) Stepping Stones has posted a simple message: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, Stepping Stones will be closing permanently on April 9, 2024.”

QOL score: -1

Comments: According to another WMUR story from Oct. 18 of last year, there are more than 3,000 homeless youth in New Hampshire.

Another kind of eclipse-related phenomenon

According to an April 10 news release from the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (dot.nh.gov), more than 54,000 cars traveled north on New Hampshire highways to view the April 8 eclipse. According to an April 9 story on WMUR.com, southbound traffic was especially harrowing: “Backups on major roadways such as Interstate 93 north of the Notches lasted into the early hours of the morning, and the roads were still crowded by Tuesday morning rush hour.”

QOL score: -1 for the less-fun eclipse gathering

Comments: According to WMUR, some eclipse viewers reported it took them more than 12 hours to get back to the southern part of the state.

Boston Marathon runners

New Hampshire runners did well in Monday’s Boston Marathon. According to WMUR (wmur.com) and the Boston Athletic Association (baa.org) the state’s fastest participants were Sam Fazioli of Derry, who placed 38th among male runners with a time of 2:23:49; Emilee Risteen, also of Derry, who placed 29th among female runners with a time of 2:43:12, and Nashua’s Thomas Cantara, who won the T20 Para division in 2:35:23. As reported by WMUR, Risteen said of the race, “It was a tougher day out there, but still fun.”

QOL score: +1

Comments: Sisay Lemma of Ethiopia was the fastest male runner, with a time of 2:06:17. Hellen Obiri of Kenya won her second consecutive Boston Marathon, with a time of 2:22:37.

Last week’s QOL score: 63

Net change: 0

QOL this week: 63

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire?

Let us know at [email protected].

NBA’s second season begins

The Big Story – The NBA Playoffs: The do-or-die part of the Celtics’ season starts Saturday against an undetermined opponent as I write this Monday morning. It likely will be nemesis Miami or Philadelphia, who only finished this low because Joel Embiid missed major time with a knee injury, which means they’ll have an unusually difficult 8-seed opponent. And I say watch out for the Knicks because they (and Jalen Brunson) are better than most think. Then out west about five teams could win. Though I’ve got Denver behind the best player in the game. Buckle up. It should be fun.

Sports 101: Name the only MVP of an NBA Final from the losing team.

News Item – Women Top Men in TV Ratings: Since the Women’s Final was on a network (ABC) and the Men’s was on cable (TNT) it wasn’t exactly apples and apples. But who cares? The Women’s Final outranking the men 18 million to 14 million is monumental. It remains to be seen if it simply was the star power draw of Caitlin Clark’s dynamic senior season or not. Either way, it is a huge moment for women’s basketball and ESPN for investing in them.

News Item – Excellent Media Point: We’re a week away from the NFL draft and I’ll spend it hoping the Patriots heed the words of Mike Reiss in his ESPN.com column about the worst-to-first turn-around by the Houston Texans in 2023. He pointed out that while getting quarterback C.J. Stroud was the catalyst for their dramatic growth, it only came after two years of taking their lumps and building first under GM (and ex-Patriots Assistant GM) Nick Caserio.

That is exactly why if they get the right deal the Patriots should trade down from third overall for a boatload of high picks. That would accelerate the rebuilding process to where they have a more complete team before adding the QB in Year 2 or even 3 to give him a better chance to succeed.

The Numbers:

7 – AL-leading homer total by Sox newcomer Tyler O’Neill, which would be of greater value if all but one weren’t solo shots.

11 – shots under par carded by Scottie Scheffler on his way to becoming the fourth-youngest two-time Masters champion on Sunday.

… Of the Week Awards

Thumbs Up – Mike Gorman: To the retiring Celtics TV announcer. Picking the best announcer is a to-each-his-own world, but I’ve got Gorman as the greatest Boston broadcaster of all. I’m a New Yorker who grew up with Marv Albert as the gold standard, but I’ll take “Got it!” over Marv’s “Yes!” because it conveyed the utter excitement of the moment in a way the “Yes” never could. The irony of his most iconic call, “stolen by Bird, on the cut to DJ,” is that while I saw it I never heard it because the Burlington, Vermont, spot I was in was too loud. Michael, thanks for the memories over 43 years of excellence.

Quote of the Week – Dan Hurley: “I can’t afford a divorce right now” in response to questions about leaving UConn for the job left open at Kentucky by John Calipari’s departure.

Sports 101 Answer: Jerry West was the only Finals MVP from a losing team, which ironically happened the first year it was awarded, in 1969, when he averaged 37.8 points and 7.8 assists per as the Lakers lost to the Celtics in Bill Russell’s final season.

Final Thought – The Celtics Quest: After a specular 64-18 season, the Celtics are the NBA playoff favorite, which means they have giant expectations. After squandering opportunities the last two years they have to overcome two things to get to the promised land. The Jays need to be better at grinding when the bad times inevitably come in the playoffs, something they did not do in barely surviving a seven-game series vs. Miami before coughing up a 3-2 Finals lead to Golden State two years ago and again in being run out in seven by Miami last year. Joe Mazzulla also needs to be better this time around. I understand there was a learning curve in Year 1, which is fair. But the coach who I agree with almost nothing he does needs to show me I’m wrong and he’s right before I’ll believe he’s not a liability. At the top of my list is the way he babies the players, especially Kristaps Porzingis, a great majority of whose 25 DNP’s were unnecessary. Having said that, they still won 64 games and the Big Fella, along with everyone else, enters the playoffs healthy. So that’s a point for Joe.

Several potential interesting/scary match-ups may await, like maybe our first real Boston-New York playoff series since 1984. And after that Denver and Larry Bird clone Nikola Jokic could be in the Finals.

At stake is reclaiming the lead over the Lakers for most titles won by winning banner 18, something they can not do unless the Jays take that needed next step.

We’ll see.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

News & Notes 24/04/18

Parks and ponds

The Manchester Urban Ponds Restoration program kicks off the 25th year of cleanups with a cleanup of Nutts Pond and Precourt Park on Saturday, April 20, from 9 to 11 a.m., rain or shine. Volunteers can meet at the kiosk at Driving Park Road (off South Willow Street). The spring schedule then includes Stevens Pond/Stevens Park on Saturday, April 27; Black Brook/Blodget Park on May 4, and McQuesten Brook/Wolfe Park on May 11, with all cleanups to run from 9 to 11 a.m. “Trash bags, latex gloves, and a handful of trash pickers will be available. Please wear rubber boots if you have them,” said the group’s newsletter. See manchesternh.gov/urbanponds for details and for summaries of past cleanups, or call 624-6527.

Smokey Bear says

An April 10 press release from the New Hampshire Department of Natural & Cultural Resources announced that the New Hampshire Forest Protection Bureau has designated April 14 through April 20 “Wildfire Awareness Week,” citing rising temperatures, low relative humidity and gusty winds combined with over-wintered dry grasses and leaves, all of which contribute to elevate wildfire risk statewide. The bureau is joining U.S. and Canadian partners in the Northeast Forest Fire Protection Commission in a coordinated effort to educate the public about how people can lessen the occurrences of wildfire across the region, according to the same release.

Forest Ranger Nathan Blanchard said in a statement that “it’s important to recognize that, unlike other regions of the United States, wildfire season in New Hampshire can begin early in the spring.” Blanchard noted that “yard cleanup, spring cookouts and even things like the improper disposal of wood stove ash can create embers, sparks or other forms of heat that can easily ignite dry materials around them, causing a wildfire that can quickly run and turn into a big problem.”

In the last two decades the state has experienced an average of 285 wildfires per year impacting 221 acres annually on average, the release said. Wildfires pose a threat to forest-based recreational activities and forest product industries, which contribute around $4.6 billion dollars every year according to the New Hampshire Forest Action Plan from 2020, according to the same release.

Fire permits need to be obtained for any outdoor fires and can be acquired from your local fire department or nhfirepermit.com.

The Forest Protection Bureau has also announced it is planning to implement a prescribed burn at Blue Job State Forest in Farmington this year, depending on weather conditions, any time from April through October, according to an earlier press release, where approximately 20 acres will be burned by trained resource managers and wildfire personnel in order to improve blueberry habitat, improve conditions for birds and other wildlife that rely on blueberries for food and shelter, and reduce forest fuels like shrubs and grasses that could contribute to a wildfire.

For more information about the Division of Forests and Lands and the work of its Forest Protection Bureau, visit nhdfl.dncr.nh.gov or call 271-2214.

Relapse prevention

The New Hampshire Department of Corrections announced in an April 8 press release the launch of a new Relapse Prevention Program at the New Hampshire State Prison for Men in Concord designed for individuals returning to incarceration as the result of a parole violation.

The Relapse Prevention Program joins several other therapeutic communities within the department’s facilities, including its Wellness Units, the Residential Treatment Unit, the Pathways Program, and the Focus Program where New Hampshire Department of Corrections licensed mental health professionals use industry standard assessment tools to make recommendations for treatment including but not limited to the American Society of Addiction Medicine’s ASAM criteria, to determine placement, continued service, and transfer of patients with addiction and co-occurring conditions, according to the press release.

Repeat substance misuse is the second-highest contributor to parole violation, although the percentage of those who violate their parole is only 2 percent of the overall parole caseload, according to the release.

Commissioner Helen Hanks said in a statement that “the introduction of the Relapse Prevention Program underscores the department’s continued commitment to expanding our range of treatment offerings, recognizing that a one size fits all model is not the right approach.” Visit corrections.nh.gov for more information.

Helping the kids

The Queen City Rotary Club is accepting applications for grants for youth-centered nonprofit organizations — an “Impact Grant” for organizations that serve underprivileged youth in the greater Manchester area and “Youth Serves Grant” for organizations that have a youth-related focus, according to a press release. Grant applications are due by Friday, April 26. See queencityrotary.org.

On Monday, April 22, Concord Public Library (45 Green St.) is hosting a DIY button-making drop-in for all ages where participants can craft an Earth Day lapel button from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Materials and instruction will be provided, according to the library website. Visit concordnh.gov.

On Saturday, April 20, and Sunday April 21, Charmingfare Farm in Candia (774 High St.) will host their first “Barnyard Babies & Beyond” family-friendly adventure between 11 a.m. and 1 p.m., according to their website. Tickets are $29, free for children 23 months and younger. Visit visitthefarm.com.

Catch bands Jamdemic and The Mighty Colors on Saturday, April 20, from 6 to 9 p.m, at an Earth Day Benefit Concert at the welcome center of the Andres Institute of Art in Brookline. The concert benefits the institute and the Beaver Brook Association in Hollis. Tickets cost $25; see andresinstitute.org,

This Week 24/04/11

Friday April 12

The New Hampshire Fisher Cats (Northeast Delta Dental Stadium, 1 Line Drive, Manchester, milb.com/new-hampshire, 641-2005) will celebrate their mascot Fungo’s birthday during their home game against the Somerset Patriots at 6:30 p.m. See more about the Cats’ plans this season in the April 4 issue of the Hippo; see hippopress.com for the e-edition.

Saturday, April 13

Celebrate Earth Day early with Stonyfield Farm (10 Burton Drive, Londonderry, stonyfield.com, 437-4040) at the Stonyfield Earth Day 5K and Earth Day Fair on Saturday, April 13, beginning with a race at 9 a.m. In addition to the 5K race/walk, there will be a kids’ fun run, vendors, a beer garden for ages 21+, games and activities. The event takes place at Londonderry West Soccer Fields (90 West Road, Londonderry). Visit Millennium Running’s website at millenniumrunning.com/stonyfield5k.

Saturday, April 13

The Little “Giant” Comics Old School Comics Show (oldschoolcomicshow.com) is today at Everett Arena (15 Loudon Road in Concord) starting at 10 a.m.. Tickets cost $15 for general admission or $50 for VIP admission (an hour early at 9 a.m. plus a red carpet entrance and a goodie bag), according to the website. The show features comic book vendors and comic book artists, including what the show is billing as Venom-palooza, a line-up of artists who have worked on Marvel’s Venom comics.

Saturday, April 13

Barrel & Baskit (377 Main St., Hopkinton, barrelandbaskit.com, 746-1375) will host a seedling workshop with Black Forest Nursery from 10 to 11 a.m. Participants will learn the basics of how to start garden plants from seed.

Saturday, April 13

To Share Brewing Co. (720 Union St. in Manchester, tosharebrewing.com, 836-6947) hosts its second annual Thrift Shop Prom from 5 to 9 p.m. Participants are encouraged to put on their fanciest or silliest dress-up clothes and dance. There will be a DJ, the Terracotta Room and more. A suggested donation of $5 at the door benefits the Pink Boots Society.

Saturday, April 13

New Boston’s Friends of the Library hold their annual auction at the Whipple Free Library (67 Mont Vernon Road, New Boston, whipplefreelibrary.org, 487-3391). A silent auction will take place from 6 to 7 p.m., and a live auction will start at 7 p.m.

Wednesday, April 17

The Millyard Museum (200 Bedford St., Suite 103, Manchester, manchesterhistoric.org, 622-7531) hosts the annual meeting of the Manchester Historical Association and opens a new exhibition, “Who Wore It? The Forensics of a Dress,” from 5 to 7 p.m. The exhibition will focus on the clothing of women who worked in the mills in the 1800s and early 1900s. The public is invited to the meeting, a reception and the exhibition opening with an RSVP.

Wednesday, April 17

Rescued Treasures is a volunteer-managed program that benefits pets awaiting adoption at the Humane Society for Greater Nashua (24 Ferry Road in Nashua, hsfn.org, 889-2275) through the resale of donated items online and at seasonal in-person marketplaces. Today is Donation Day: Donations of new and gently used items will be accepted from 9 a.m. to noon. See the Humane Society’s wish list of items online at hsfn.org (click on Events).

Save the Date! Sunday, April 21
If you can’t make it to the Thursday, April 11, Golden Girls – The Laughs Continue live show at the Capitol Center for the Arts’ Chubb Theatre in Concord (ccanh.com) make a plan to catch it at the Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, nashuacenterforthearts.com, 800-657-8774) on Sunday, April 21, at 2 or 8:30 p.m. Due to adult content, this is an 18+ performance. Tickets for the Nashua show start at $52.

Quality of Life 24/04/11

Save it for next year, snow

Just in case we forgot where we lived, April started with a snowstorm. Last week’s nor’easter brought snow, ice, winds, a snow day for many and more than 140,000 New Hampshire customers without electricity, according to an April 4 press release from the New Hampshire Department of Safety.

QOL score: -1

Comments: Knock wood, fingers crossed, no whammies — can it be spring now?

And then, an earthquake

A 4.8 magnitude earthquake on April 5 was centered in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, but felt in New Hampshire, according to the U.S. Geological Survey in a report at earthquake.usgs.gov. On a map of the event, the government agency reported shocks felt throughout Vermont and New Hampshire. According to an April 5 report by the Washington Post, the geology of the Eastern Seaboard is extremely solid and rocky, which helped shockwaves travel an unusually long distance.

QOL score: -1 because the April 8 solar eclipse already had all of our “weird natural phenomenon” focus

Comments: WMUR reported that people in Concord, Manchester, Nashua and other communities across the state felt the quake. New Hampshire was home to a Gilford-centered 2.2-magnitude quake on March 27, the WMUR story said.

Notable chef

Milford chef and restaurant owner Chris Viaud is one of the finalists for a James Beard Award. In an April 3 press release, the James Beard Foundation announced that Viaud, the chef and owner of Greenleaf and Ansanm in Milford and Pavilion in Wolfeboro, is a finalist in the Outstanding Restaurateur category. The award criteria describe an outstanding restaurateur as one “who uses their establishment(s) as a vehicle for building community, demonstrates creativity in entrepreneurship, integrity in restaurant operations, and is making efforts to create a sustainable work culture, while contributing positively to their broader community.”

QOL score: +1

Comment: The winner of this award will be announced at the James Beard Award ceremony in Chicago in June.

Screens go dark

Chunky’s Cinema Pub’s locations in Nashua and Pelham will close on May 9, according to Facebook posts on those locations’ pages and as reported by multiple media organizations. The Chunky’s at 707 Huse Road in Manchester will thankfully remain open and gift cards can be used at that location (staff from Pelham and Nashua will also be offered positions in Manchester, the posts said). The Nashua location has been open for more than 17 years and the Pelham location has been open for 27 years, the posts said.

QOL score: -2

Comments: Nashua and Pelham locations will plan to go out in style with some screenings of modern classics — Labyrinth on April 29 at 7 p.m.; Dirty Dancing on April 30, at 7 p.m.; The Goonies on May 1 at 7 p.m.; The Big Lebowski on May 2 at 7:45 p.m., and Jaws on May 3 at 7 p.m.

Last week’s QOL score: 66

Net change: -3

QOL score this week: 63

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire?

Let us know at [email protected].

Sox win big on left coast

The Big Story News Item – Sox Jump Out Fast: We’re just 10 games in, so it’s too early to call the surprise of Baseball 2024. But raise your hand if you had the Red Sox winning 7 of those 10 games. Especially since all 10 came on the West Coast. Most surprising has been the starting pitching, which had a collective ERA of 1.53, with the best being Tanner Houck and Nick Pivetta giving up just one run in four starts.

The only down so far was shortstop Trevor Story dislocating his shoulder diving for the ball Friday, and there is talk as I write this on Monday he could be lost for the season.

The second 10 games come at home vs. Baltimore, Anaheim and Cleveland. We’ll know more after that.

Sports 101: Who holds the NBA record for playing the most consecutive games without fouling out?

News Item – Big Moment for Women’s Basketball: TV ratings often signal when a sport has arrived as a force in American sports. Last Monday may have been that day for women’s basketball as the grudge match between defending NCAA championship LSU and Iowa drew a largest-ever women’s college basketball audience of 12.3 million TV viewers. The return engagement went to Iowa 94-87 behind 41 points by Caitlin Clark. That was followed by similar ratings winners when Iowa got by UConn amid a controversial ending (it was the right call) in the semi-final before losing to South Carolina in the title game on Sunday. A great week for women’s basketball.

News Item – Keith Dickson: He’s one of those guys who’s been so good for so long it’s hard to remember what came before him. For the retiring Keith Dickson that would be taking over at Saint Anselm in 1986 and going on to win 719 games with a .687 winning percentage, make the NCAA Tournament 22 times and take one trip to the Final Four. All the while never having even one team I can remember that did not exceed the sum of its parts. Best of all was the rivalry between the Hawks and SNHU during the tenure of Dickson and Stan Spirou that was an on-going treat for local college basketball fans.

Well done, young fella.

The Numbers:

30 – stolen bases in 33 career attempts for Red Sox speedster Jarren Duran after going for 6 out of 7 so far in 2024, when he’s also batting .343.

400 – career goals scored by Bruins nudge Brad Marchand, a number that makes it hard to recall that the supposed to be Bruins star the year he was drafted was second overall pick Tyler Seguin. For the record: Seguin has lasted as long in Dallas but was 51 g’s behind Marchand when he reached his milepost.

10,000 – mark in career points reached by Jaylen Brown during his 26 effort in a 124-107 win over Portland.

… Of the Week Awards

Player of the Week: The Houston hurler Ronel Blanco gets it for the no-no he threw at Toronto last week in just his eighth MLB start, a 103-pitch, 7-strikeout gem.

Why Can’t We Get Guys Like That Award: In Dalano Banton’s first game since leaving Boston as part of the Xavier Tillman deal, the 6’9” point guard juiced the Celtics for 28 points and 9 assists Sunday. And it wasn’t a one-game thing. In 28 games he’s averaging 16 points, 3.3 assists and nearly 5 boards with Portland.

Sports 101 Answer: Most incorrectly believe that Wilt Chamberlain holds the record because he never fouled out even once. But he only played in 1,045 games in his career. And while Moses Malone had five early career foul-outs, he later played in 1,212 straight without fouling out.

A Little History – Wilt Chamberlain: While never fouling out is noteworthy, it’s not the most amazing of Wilt’s many records. It’s that in 1961-62 when he scored 100 in one game and 50.4 points per game, he actually averaged more minutes per game than there are in a game as thanks to a few OT contests he averaged 48.5 per and would have played every second all year if he hadn’t gotten tossed in one game after getting two T’s for arguing with the refs.

Final Thought – Thumbs Up to Larry Lucchino: The greatest Red Sox team president passed away last week at 78 after a career of sports triumphs that included putting baseball back on the path to embrace its intimate ballpark, urban roots origins with the creation of Camden Yards as President of the Orioles. Conversely he was also smart enough to understand that Fenway Park was a jewel that should be saved and revitalized, not replaced. As for on the field, in my not so humble opinion he, not John Henry or Theo Epstein or Terry Francona, was the straw that stirred the drink that turned the Red Sox from perpetually frustrated losers to four-time champions this century. And they haven’t been the same since he left after 2015. RIP.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

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