Category: Quality Of Life

Cookies for heroes

There is still time to buy Girl Scout cookies for “Hometown Heroes.” According to Ginger Kozlowski, spokesperson for the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains, the Gift of Caring program is a way for community members to thank active military members and other professionals who give of themselves to their communities: “Police, fire, hospitals, food banks — almost any charitable or nonprofit kind of [organization].” Gifts may be made online at https://bit.ly/4fquQeW for the rest of cookie season.

QOL score: +1

Comment: According to the website of the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains (1 Commerce Drive, Bedford, 888-471-9686,girlscoutsgwm.org), their most popular cookie is the Thin Mint. This year each box of cookies is $6, which helps support the Girl Scouts and their mission.

Concord man sets medical milestone

As reported in a March 7 online article by New Hampshire Public Radio, a Concord man has received a kidney transplanted from a pig. According to the story, 66-year-old Tim Andrews “is one of only four people in the world who have ever received pig kidneys. And he’s one of just two still living.” The two-and-a-half-hour operation took place on Feb. 7 at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. According to a press release from Mass General, the kidney was “a genetically edited pig kidney with 69 genomic edits.” According to the NHPR report, Andrews is on his feet and walking independently.

QOL score: +1

Comment: As reported by NHPR, “Mass General is planning two more pig-to-human kidney transplants this year, as part of a federally approved study.” To hear more from Tim Andrews and his doctors, visit YouTube and search for “Our Milestone Second Successful Xenotransplant.”

Big winners for tiny films

The Nashua Public Library has announced the winners of this year’s Tiny Film Festival. The Library showcased 20 local filmmakers on Friday, March 7, at this third annual event. According to a March 10 press release from the Library, “film submissions were open to everyone and featured only two criteria: the film had to be under 60 seconds and must be suitable for viewing by all ages.” The winner of the Kids 12 and Under category was Skunk Movie by Elizabeth Goemans, and the runner-up was Little Worm by Laurel Guarneri. In the Teen category, Lyriq Rivera, Vidhi Pawar and Chase Coffin won for The Other Side, with Yin vs. Yang by Gil and Roy Costa taking second-place honors. In the Adult category, Case of the Missing Pizza by Ronit Sinha and Dark by 3 by Andi Cass took first and second place.

QOL score: +1

Comment: View the films at nashualibrary.org/tinyfilmfestival.

QOL score last week: 57

Net change: +3

QOL this week: 60

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

Let us know at [email protected].

Pi Day

Friday, March 14, is National Pi Day — as in π, 3.14… . The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord is holding a Pi Day Lunar Eclipse celebration from 12:01 to 3 a.m. on Friday, an all ages event that includes Pi activities, watching the lunar eclipse and pizza, according to starhop.com (registration required). Sal’s Pizza in Manchester and Derry is tossing itself into the spirit of the day, by offering $3.14 off every extra-large pizza when you use the code “PIDAY” in store or online.

QOL score: +1 (.1415926….)

Comment: According to the Sal’s website, an extra-large pizza is 19 inches in diameter. Using the formula C=πd, that works out to a circumference of approximately 59.7 inches.

Potholes will get worse from now on

Between fluctuations in temperature and the hard wear we put our roads through, potholes are an unavoidable hazard of driving in New Hampshire. According to a Feb. 17 article in Discover magazine, we should expect them to only get worse. The article quoted Jennifer Jacobs, a civil engineer at the University of New Hampshire. “[Roads] are designed to operate under certain climate or weather conditions,” she said. Jacobs and her team have used climate change models to calculate the damage to roads under hotter weather and more extreme temperature shifts, and have determined that the calculations that are used to estimate how much maintenance our roads will need might be significantly inaccurate in coming decades.

QOL score: -1

Comment: The Discover magazine article went on: “To resist the forces of climate change, the team recommends making asphalt layers 7 to 32 percent thicker, with layers getting heftier as temperatures rise. ”

Winnie graduates

As reported by WMUR in a March 5 online article, Winnie, an emotional support dog with the state’s 911 call centers, has graduated from her training and is ready to start full-time work providing support to New Hampshire’s emergency dispatchers. According to WMUR, with the help of her trainer Abigail and the Hero Pups organization, Winnie “was recognized by the New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Division of Emergency Services and Communications for completing training.”

QOL score: +1

Comment: WMUR quoted Mark Doyle, the director of emergency services and communications: “Winni has been specifically trained to provide emotional support and mental health wellness for our team. Since Winni completed her training and joined the team full-time around the start of the new year, her impact has been immediate and overwhelmingly positive.”

Downward dog. And cat. And maybe bunny.

As reported by The Concord Monitor in a March 10 online story, a local program is pairing yoga practitioners with animal partners. “To encourage the adoption of animals in their shelter and foster connections between humans and their four-legged counterparts,” the article reads, “Pope Memorial SPCA holds yoga classes twice a month where participants can practice poses alongside shelter pets.”

QOL score: +1

Comment: Spending time with an animal has been shown to lower stress in humans, the SPCA said in the article, as does yoga.

QOL score last week: 57

Net change: +2

QOL this week: 59

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

Let us know at [email protected].

Not returning

In a Feb. 26 online article, WMUR reported that Spirit Airlines will not be returning to Manchester-Boston Regional Airport a year after announcing they would suspend service from the airport. For three years, beginning in 2021, Spirit offered flights from Manchester to four cities in Florida.

QOL score: -1

Comment: According to the airport’s website (flymanchester.com), Manchester is currently served by Avelo Airlines, Breeze Airways, JetBlue, Southwest, Sun Country, American Airlines and United.

Visitors we’re happy not to see

According to a Feb. 22 report by New Hampshire Public Radio, while invasive browntail moths were technically seen in New Hampshire last summer for the first time in 75 years, they had been blown to an isolated New Hampshire island from Maine, but it is unlikely that they will spread to the mainland. Once described as “poison ivy with wings,” the browntail’s caterpillars are armed with tiny barbed hairs that can sting and irritate people, even after detaching from the caterpillars. NHPR quoted Angela Mech, a forest entomologist with the University of Maine:“It is one of the absolute worst insects to have to work with…” The good news is that Maine experienced a massive die-off of the species in 2024.

QOL score: +1

Comment: According to the NHPR story, insect scientists 100 years ago identified a fungus that infects this species and spread sick caterpillars across Maine. The population has not recovered significantly since.

We’re wicked smaht

According to a recent study by online finance company WalletHub.com, New Hampshire is the 8th most highly educated state in the country. The state has the fourth highest percentage of high school graduates, the eighth highest percentage of residents holding bachelor’s degrees, the ninth greatest percentage of graduate degrees, and arguably the smallest gender gap in educational attainment, the press release said.

QOL score: +1

Comment: According to the study, Massachusetts is the most highly educated state and West Virginia is the lowest. Visit wallethub.com/latest-studies.

QOL score last week: 56

Net change: +1

QOL this week: 57

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

Let us know at [email protected].

A really big wedding

Intown Concord will pay for the wedding of one couple who agree to get married in public at Concord’s Market Days Celebration on Friday, June 27. “Intown Concord will handle everything,” the organization announced on an online registration from, “from the ceremony to the reception — so all you have to do is show up wedding ready!” The couple selected for the public wedding will receive a ceremony with licensed officiant, a live band for dancing, a free meal and drink provided by Market Days vendors (for the couple only), ceremony seating for 20 close friends/family in front of the New Hampshire Statehouse, an ice cream cake provided by Social Club Creamery, and an overnight stay in Concord. the website said.

QOL score: +1

Comment: Adventurous couples should register at marketdaysfestival.com by Friday, March 21.

Action Jack

Manchester chicken tenders booster and musician (and more) Nick Lavallee has, via his business Wicked Joyful (wickedjoyful.com),made multiple action figure works of art over the years, such as a Vermin Supreme complete with head boot and a Chicken Tender Capital of the World “Tendie” action figure. Recently he made a custom action figure of musician Jack White, which was presented to White by a show promoter after two sold-out shows in Boston, according to several social media posts by Jack White and Lavallee. “I love the orange toys r us price tag with the date of the shows encoded in it!” White said in a Feb. 20 Instagram post.

QOL score: +1 for some fame for a local artist

Comments: Lavallee crafted an action figure honoring the retiring Fritz Wetherbee, complete with “$6.03” fake price tag and “I’ll tell you the story” tagline; see the figure in a Feb. 8 post on the Wicked Joyful Facebook page.

Also a great band name

In a Feb.19 press release, the New Hampshire Fisher Cats announced the creation of a team alternate identity: theNew Hampshire Space Potatoes. “With rooted history beyond baseball in New Hampshire,” the press release read, “the Space Potatoes [will] take the field for three nights in 2025, beginning Saturday, April 19, at Delta Dental Stadium.” According to the Fisher Cats general manager Taylor Fisher, this alternate identity baseball team honors “two notable New Hampshire firsts into one brand,” New Hampshire’s official state vegetable, “first [planted in] American soil in Derry, New Hampshire, by early 18th century Scots Irish settlers” and “the infamous Barney & Betty Hill incident that occurred on Route 3 in New Hampshire’s White Mountains late in the summer of 1961, remarked as the first widely reported alien abduction in the United States.”

QOL score: +1

Comment: The New Hampshire Space Potatoes will take the field against the Harrisburg Senators on April 19 at 4:05 p.m. Space Potatoes tickets and merchandise are available at milb.com/new-hampshire/team/space-potatoes.

QOL score last week: 53

Net change: +3

QOL this week: 56

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

Let us know at [email protected].

Headed for the Big Show

Venomous snake on Aisle Four

As reported by WMUR in a Feb.16 online article, an employee at the Manchester Market Basket received a surprise on Friday, Feb.14, while unloading a box of bananas: a venomous snake. According to New Hampshire Fish and Game, the snake was a 2-foot-long Ornate Cat-eye, a mildly venomous snake species native to Central America. “The snake was not harmed and given to Rainforest Reptiles Shows,” the WMUR article reported, and went on to quote Mack Ralbovsky, Vice President of Rainforest Reptiles. “We get something like this maybe three or four times a year,” Ralbovsky said. “A lot of the invasive species we see come from situations like this where an animal might be shipped in produce.”

QOL score: -1 because SURPRISE!

Comment: According to Ralbovsky, while technically venomous, this species feeds mostly on lizards and amphibians, and poses little danger to humans.

NH Super Bowl bets

According to a Feb. 14 press release from the New Hampshire Lottery Commission, New Hampshire football enthusiasts wagered more than $7.5 million on last week’s Super Bowl game between the Philadelphia Eagles and the Kansas City Chiefs. “Of those who wagered on the outright winner, 89% of them were correct in their bet on the Eagles,” the Lottery Commission wrote, then went on to quote Charlie McIntyre, New Hampshire Lottery’s Executive Director. “Between the standard touchdown, yardage, or MVP and the Swiftie Special betting options, the Super Bowl certainly lived up to its reputation as New Hampshire’s largest sports betting event of the year.”

QOL score: +1

Comment: “Since the New Hampshire Lottery and DraftKings launched mobile sports betting in New Hampshire on December 30, 2019, bettors have wagered more than $3.5 billion,” the press release reported.

Joann Fabric holding on by a thread

In a Feb. 12 online article, WMUR reported that troubled fabric and craft chain Joann Fabric has announced it will close more than half of its 800 stores, including seven of eight stores in New Hampshire. “According to court filings, the Hooksett location is the only one of the state’s eight stores expected to stay open,” the story read.

QOL score: -1

Comment: “Joann has filed for bankruptcy twice in the past year and is looking for a buyer,” WMUR reported.

Do not disturb until August

In a Feb. 15 online article, New Hampshire Public Radio reported that “New Hampshire farmers can now apply for funding in exchange for leaving their hayfields alone in the early summer.” The conservation group the Bobolink Project hopes to preserve a strong breeding environment for bobolinks, small migratory birds that nest in New England in the spring. As reported by NHPR, the group will “compensate farmers for the income they might lose by not haying in early summer, paying them to keep their fields as habitat for the birds. Keeping that habitat also helps other birds, like meadowlarks and grasshopper sparrows.”

QOL score: +1

Comment: Farmers can apply to be part of the project at bobolinkproject.com/farmers.php. Applications are due by March 31.

QOL score: 53

Net change: 0

QOL this week: 53

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

Let us know at [email protected].

Headed for the Big Show

Brigid the Terrier has been tapped to compete at the most prestigious dog show in America. As reported in a Feb. 6 online article by Manchester Ink Link, Brigid, whose formal name is Kilkenny’s Smiling Face, was scheduled to compete at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden on Feb.11. The Manchester Glen of Imaal Terrier was judged on how well she conforms to breed standards, racing a 100-yard dash, and performing tricks to accumulate points toward winning the competition for Best in Breed, and — hopefully — Best in Show.

QOL score: +1

Comment: Brigid has been competing since she was 6 months old, and carries the distinction CGCA, which stands for the title of Good Ganine Citizen, Advanced, the article said.

You could be at home taking a nap

In a recent study of how workers use their available Personal Time Off, New Hampshire workers were rated eighth in the nation for not using all the time off they were entitled to last year. In a survey by internet gaming company Solitaried.com, New Hampshire workers left an average of 4.18 days unused in 2024, and 55 percent of them didn’t use all their personal time off.

QOL score: -1

Comment: Workers in Maryland, Massachusetts and Hawaii had the most unused vacation time in 2024, while Kansas, Missouri and Michigan workers had the least. See the complete survey results at solitaired.com/where-americans-left-the-most-pto-unused.

Too much lead

As reported by WMUR in a Feb. 4 online article, “A new report shows that the number of children in New Hampshire with elevated levels of lead in their blood is creeping up to the highest point since 2019.” The study examined lead exposure in children 5 years of age and under. It found more than 1,100 young children with lead levels high enough to meet the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s standards to recommend quick action to find and remove the source of any lead in the children’s environment.

QOL score: -2

Comment: According to the WMUR article, “Health experts said the numbers are higher because more children are being tested…. Nationwide, the biggest source of lead exposure is old paint. Health officials said New Hampshire homes are at an especially high risk because more than half the homes statewide were built before 1980, around the same time lead paint was banned in the United States.”

The end of an era

WMUR reported on Feb. 4 that the Portsmouth Police Department has retired its last Crown Victoria. For decades, the “Crown Vic” was the car of choice for police departments across North America, until production was slashed, beginning in 2006. Portsmouth’s last Crown Vic has been donated to the “Crown Victoria Museum, a nonprofit organization near San Francisco that showcases police cars from across the country,” according to WMUR.

QOL score: +1, for contributing to history

Comment: According to the WMUR story, “Portsmouth’s Cruiser 18 will be displayed with its original markings and emergency equipment.”

QOL score last week: 54

Net change: -1

QOL this week: 53

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

Let us know at [email protected].