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NFL regular season wraps

It’s Jan. 7 and the Patriots are already on vacation. But that’s a problem to discuss another day. Instead we’ll concern ourselves today with some of the more interesting stats, questions and happenings of the regular season just concluded and a look into the NFL playoffs as they get underway this weekend. We’ll start with this: Can someone with an MIT degree in mathematics explain how a guy with league bests in TD passes (48), completion average (70.7 percent) and fewest interceptions thrown (a miniscule five) can be just the seventh-ranked NFL passer, as Aaron Rodgers was?

Stat of the Year: With strong competition from Tennessee freight train and my new favorite player Derrick Henry for having three 200-plus-yard rushing games and gaining 2,027 overall, it goes to Tom Brady. His second best in the NFL 40 TD passes were the second most in his career. How do you do that at 43? The only age-related thing that compares is 13-time 20-game winner Warren Spahn hitting his career high 23 at 42 in 1963.

NFL 101: This may be a little too easy, as if you’ve read about Henry’s exploits the other seven players to rush for 2,000 yards in a season were likely mentioned. But if not, name the other seven to do it.

Much has been made of Miami yanking veteran Ryan Fitzpatrick in favor of rookie Tua Tagovailoa at their bye week. But while Fitz did rescue them in relief vs. Oakland, er, Las Vegas two weeks ago he was 4-3 as the starting QB, while it was 6-3 with Tua. I’d call that a win for his experience going forward.

Not that I’ll be alone on this, but my vote for best game of the year was the one with the absolutely crazy fourth quarter on Monday Night Football a few weeks ago won by Baltimore 42-38 over Cleveland that saw TDs scored on the last three possessions.

But the absolute craziest final play in a major win was seeing Tennessee win the AFC South title with a 41-38 win over Houston as Covid-19-stricken Steve Gostkowski’s desperation replacement Sam Sloman’s about-to-choke 37-yard FG went doink off the upright and over the crossbar for the win. How the Texans allowed A.J. Brown to get the 52-yard reception to put them in position to win after tying the game with just 18 seconds left probably explains how they could finish 4-12 despite having a great QB in Deshaun Watson.

In case you’re wondering: Brown, who had 10 catches for 151 yards and a TD on Sunday, was still on the board when Coach B took N’Keal Harry 32^nd overall pick in the 2019 draft. He had 70 catches for 1,075 yards and 11 TDs in 2020 while for Harry it was 33, 309 and two TDs. Patriots Nation doesn’t want to know the two-year totals. Bill also took JoeJuan Williams, who barely played this year, before Brown went 51^st overall, and 30-catches-for-five-TDs-in-2020 Minnesota tight end Irv Smith Jr. went at 50.

Incidentally, if they expect to go anywhere, the Titans had better fix their D. It’s given up 38 or more points in three of its last five games and the other two were against Jacksonville (10) and Detroit (25).

The biggest blame-it-on-anyone-else crybaby outside of Washington, D.C., this fall was benched Philly QB Carson (wah) Wentz. Word is that he wants to be traded because the relationship between him and the coach who helped him get his mammoth contract is broken. Here’s a novel idea: If you want to play, stop being the worst player on the field.

Speaking of ingratitude, after he was cracking on the Pats’ loss to Miami a few weeks back someone should remind Kyle Van Noy that Bill and the defensive coaches saved his career after he was a second-round bust with Detroit, which directly led to last winter’s big payday.

Ditto for the ever barking Asante Samuel. I might listen to him if he hadn’t dropped that sure pick on the final drive to blow the 2007 SB vs. the Giants and the undefeated season. And they still give Bill Buckner grief.

The biggest nitwit was ex-Washington QB Dwayne Haskins, whose unmasked strip club jaunt got him cut to cost him about $2.5 million in guaranteed money. Hope the trip was worth it.

Tough call picking the MVP. My top three are Pat Mahomes, Josh Allen and Rodgers. But, in throwing for those 48 TDs, I pick the old guy because in leading the Pack to 13 wins he did more with less.

Easy call: Baker Mayfield repeatedly going through the Cleveland stadium metal detectors after leaving something in the locker room as the year’s best commercial. He also gets best player/actor in any NFL commercial since Peyton Manning.

NFL 101 Answer: Members of the 2,000 rushing yards in a season club, from when it was first accomplished to most recently, are OJ Simpson (2,003 in 1973), Eric Dickerson (2,105 in 1984), Barry Sanders (2,053 in 1997), Terrell Davis (2,008 in 1998), Jamal Lewis (2,066 in 2003), Chris Johnson (2,006 in 2009) and Adrian Peterson (2,097 in 2012). Simpson is the only one to do it in a 14-game season and it also should be noted that if Jim Brown had hit his 133 yards per game from his 1,863 in a 14-game season over 16 games, he’d have run for a best-ever 2,129.

Predictions for this Week: NFC – New Orleans over Chicago, Tampa Bay downs Washington, Seattle beats L.A. AFC – Buffalo over Indy, Browns beat Pittsburgh. Even though I’m rooting for Henry, Mike Vrabel and Malcolm Butler – Baltimore over Tennessee in the best game of Round 1.

Finally, nice job by the Dodger and the brass for beating the odds to pull the season off in a high-contact sport with nothing seriously bad happening. Well done.

New in town

Jessica Martin joins Intown Concord

Jessica Martin is the new executive director of Intown Concord, a nonprofit organization that promotes and celebrates small businesses, arts and culture and community events in downtown Concord. She talked about why she took the position, the challenges that come with it during a pandemic and what Intown is planning for 2021.

What is your background in this type of work?

I have a background in real estate. I was the executive director at the Greater Manchester/Nashua Board of Realtors for almost six years. I did all of their events — they had quite a few — and I really loved the event [planning] portion of that position. I ended up starting an event planning business on my own but kind of missed the normal 9-to-5, so I took a position at the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce as their events and marketing director for a year. … I’ve also been working on my master’s degree at UNH in community development and policy practice.

What interested you in the position at Intown Concord?

This is the most perfect job I could have ever imagined. I was looking for a position where I could use my event [planning] skills but also my background experience from the Board of Realtors. … [As] a community organization that’s advocating [for] and promoting small businesses and the community, [Intown Concord] fits within that. It’s a marriage of events and marketing as well as the nonprofit management piece that I had done before and liked, so it checked all of the boxes for me.

What does your job as director entail?

Day-to-day is always different. I’m overseeing all of the events we’re working on [including] Market Days … and Midnight Merriment. We have one other staff person, Haylie Stoddard, who is our event coordinator and does a lot of our social media, and I manage the finances and anything that comes up with the businesses. I’m kind of the liaison between the businesses and our board of directors, working with them to make sure that we’re fulfilling our mission. A lot of my job is also just getting our mission out there and making sure people understand it and how valuable it is.

What are some of the biggest challenges coming into this new position right now?

The finances, managing staff, marketing, events — that’s all stuff I’ve done before, but [with Covid], this [job] is completely different. … I wasn’t [involved] when Intown Concord applied for [and] received PPE and a grant, and there’s going to be a rollout of another stimulus package soon, so [the challenge is] wrapping my head around that process and making sure I understand all of that. And not only do I need to learn it for myself, but then I also need to share that information as quickly and accurately as possible with the businesses that could benefit from it.

How are you handling those challenges?

A lot of education, and making sure I’m getting information from accurate sources. I’m attending a lot of webinars. I have one next week called “The New Hampshire Nonprofit Emergency Relief Fund Webinar.” The Small Business Administration also has a wealth of knowledge about basically anything that you need assistance with related to Covid.

What is Intown planning for this year?

I’m optimistic that we’ll be doing all of our events [in 2021]. They might look a little different. They might feel a little different. In what way? I’m not sure yet. … We have to keep social distancing in mind. … We’re doing our winter festival at the end of January, since people can be outside for the majority of it and will be spread out. … We also have to be strategic with the timing of [the events with] the vaccine and the weather. Usually our biggest event [Market Days] is in June, but does it make sense to keep it in June, or should we be talking about possibly moving it to August to allow for a little additional time for people to get vaccinated and feel comfortable with being in large groups again? We have to be really thoughtful about everything, more than in previous years … and we have to be really clear about social distancing and masks and stuff whenever we’re promoting an event so that people know we aren’t just being reckless.

What are you most excited about?

I’m so excited about Concord in general. … As I go to these places downtown, I’m just blown away by how much Concord has to offer — great restaurants, art, culture, hotels, so much stuff going on. It feels almost like a little hidden secret, and I just want to scream it from the rooftops. It’s really easy to promote a city that has so many exciting things to promote.

News & Notes 21/01/07

Covid-19 update	As of December 28	As of January 4
Total cases statewide	41,670	47,328
Total current infections statewide	5,508	6,200
Total deaths statewide	715	781
New cases	4,282 (Dec. 22 to Dec. 28)	5,658 (Dec. 29 to Jan. 4)
Current infections: Hillsborough County	1,908	2,358
Current infections: Merrimack County	609	693
Current infections: Rockingham County	1,264	1,265

Information from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services

Covid-19 news

On Dec. 30, Gov. Chris Sununu issued Emergency Order No. 78, an order authorizing certain military service members and EMTs to obtain temporary statuses as licensed nursing assistants. The order comes less than three weeks after a similar order was issued allowing qualifying nursing students to obtain temporary licenses.

Also on Dec. 30, Sununu, along with the governors in each of the five other New England states and in New Jersey, issued a joint statement extending the suspension of all interstate youth hockey competitions for public and private schools through at least Jan. 31. A regional suspension had previously been in place through Dec. 31. The prohibition does not impact interstate collegiate, professional or national hockey team activities, according to the statement.

On Jan. 1, Sununu issued Executive Order 2020-25, extending the state of emergency in New Hampshire due to the pandemic for another three weeks through at least Jan. 22. It’s the 14th extension he has issued since originally declaring a state of emergency last March.

State health officials reported a record number of hospitalizations due to Covid-19 last weekend, with the number reaching 335 people on Jan. 2 before it fell to 325 people a day later. According to the state Department of Health & Human Services’ overall summary report, as of Jan. 4, a total of 916 people have been hospitalized for Covid-19, or roughly 2 percent of all of the overall cases, since the start of the pandemic in March.

Inauguration changes

Gov. Chris Sununu’s 2021 outdoor inaugural ceremony has been canceled due to public safety concerns, according to a press release from the Office of the Governor. Instead, Sununu and the Executive Council will be sworn in during a small ceremony that will include the leaders of both houses of the legislature, while all other members will attend virtually.

“My first responsibility is ensuring the safety of my family and our citizens,” Sununu said in the release. “For weeks, armed protesters have increasingly become more aggressive, targeting my family, protesting outside my private residence, and trespassing on my property — an outdoor public ceremony simply brings too much risk.” In response to Sununu’s announcement, Brennan Christen, one of the organizers of Absolute Defiance — the group leading the demonstrations at Sununu’s house — sent an email to the media saying that Sununu is being misleading in his statement about armed protesters trespassing on his property. Christen said that the group has a “consistent track record of peaceful, non-violent, law abiding demonstrators on a small park across the street from his house.” He wrote that there was one man who was lawfully carrying a concealed weapon and that he was on a public sidewalk at all times. “It is our belief that the Governor was concerned by a massive protest planned by COSNH, Reopen NH, and Absolute Defiance that sought to rally over a thousand people to protest his inauguration,” Christen wrote. “We believe these distortions are a tactic for the Governor to avoid the protest in Concord, and to evade it by holding it at a more private location not accessible to the public.” Sununu’s inaugural address will be delivered live at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 7.

License renewal

The New Hampshire Division of Motor Vehicles has released a new online driver license renewal portal, according to a press release. Customers who have received a renewal identification number in the mail are encouraged to renew their license online at dmv.nh.gov for increased convenience and safety. Other DMV online services that customers can take advantage of include appointment scheduling, not guilty pleas, ticket pay and the REAL ID document checker.

Holiday food baskets were donated to 1,319 families in Concord and 17 surrounding communities through the Capital Region Food Program’s 47th annual Holiday Food Basket program. According to a press release, the baskets included holiday meal items as well as two or three days’ worth of additional food items.

Exhibits from the Mount Washington Observatory’s Weather Discovery Center in North Conway, which is now closed, are being moved to the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center in Concord, according to a post on the latter center’s website. From now through Feb. 12, the Concord center will be closed as the exhibits from the Weather Discovery Center are incorporated into their new home. The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center’s planetarium system will be getting a major upgrade during that time as well, according to the website.

A new local morning show is now airing on 96.5 The Mill, a Manchester-based rock station. The show is hosted by Jason “JR” Russell and Laura Stelchook and features music, news, weather and listener interaction, according to a press release. It airs every weekday from 5:30 to 9 a.m.

The Upper Room in Derry will kick off a new Sober Curious Group later this month. According to a press release, the three-week group is for young adults ages 18 to 25 who want to explore a lifestyle that focuses on health and positive activities. To register for the free program, call 437-8477.

We’re 20!

Twenty years ago Hippo published its first print issue — that’s about 1,040 issues ago. At the time, we had an idea of what we wanted to do — publish a weekly paper that covered Manchester’s food, arts, entertainment, culture and news. Central to that plan was to create a quality publication that we gave away.

Hippo started as a blog in the late winter of 2000 as a way for me, a reporter for the Union Leader at the time, to write those stories that didn’t fit a daily newspaper. As I recruited fellow reporters to write for it, it became more like a local Huffington Post of its day. It didn’t really have an editorial vision or focus. We just did it for fun.

That started to change in the spring of 2000 when Dan Szczesny, also a reporter at the Union Leader, joined me. He would edit the zine and I would try to figure out how to make it something that we could do for a living. Back then (and even now, locally) that meant publishing in print. Dan and I didn’t have much money between us so we needed a partner who could finance us. Former gubernatorial candidate and radio host at the time Arnie Arnesen suggested I speak with Jeff Rapsis, a former publisher of “Little” papers, a group of weekly newspapers outside Manchester owned by Nackey Loeb. He was also a former reporter for the Union Leader, Keene Sentinel and Claremont Eagle Times. It turned out Jeff and I had worked for the Keene Sentinel 10 years apart. Jeff took a chance on Dan and me and invested in our vision for an arts and entertainment weekly. The three of us formed a partnership that exists to this day.

In the fall of 2000 we began assembling a group of volunteers, many our friends, who would help write and deliver Hippo in our first year. As we started putting that first issue together in late December 2000, businesses, events and nonprofits stepped up to advertise. We would not have survived that first year without all of that support.

Twenty years later, in the midst of a pandemic, we’re still here, though we now cover all of central southern New Hampshire, and are still extremely lucky to get financial support from our readers and local nonprofits and businesses. That support enables us to continue to be New Hampshire’s largest publication, the state’s only arts and entertainment weekly and one the few remaining in New England. Thank you all. We’re very grateful to have your continued support.

This week, I want to offer an inside look at Hippo’s first year publishing, 2001, and at this past year, 2020 — our two most challenging years. What follows are my recollections, with excerpts from recollections of other people who were there for those two years.

Goodbye, 2020!

Goodbye, 2020! We take a look back at how the pandemic affected the arts, food and music scenes in New Hampshire, and we (attempt to) look ahead at what we can (maybe, possibly) expect in the early part of 2021 and beyond.

Also on the cover, find in-person fun for the whole family, p. 14, or make your own beef stew with beer, p. 21. And flex your mind with all kinds of puzzles, starting on p. 31.

Predictions for 2021

Now that 2020 is heading into the history books it seems appropriate to look forward to 2021 and predict with ...

News & Notes 20/12/31

Covid-19 updateAs of December 21As of December 28Total cases statewide37,38841,670Total current infections statewide6,6885,508Total deaths statewide656715New cases5,513 (Dec. 15 to Dec ...

‘We can’t relax yet’

Where we’re headed with Covid-19 Beth Daly, chief of New Hampshire’s Bureau of Infectious Disease Control and director of Public ...

End of the year 2020 awards

With the year coming to a close, it’s time for the Hippo Sports unorthodox awards that annually focus on things ...

Quality of Life 20/12/31

Tons of toys Hundreds of kids in Manchester and Nashua got to open presents this Christmas thanks to two very ...

Art adapts

2020 became a year of unexpected innovation for arts organizations In 2020, we saw art galleries and performance venues closed, ...

The Art Roundup 20/12/31

The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities • A gift from the harp: Salem resident Dr. Diana Kolben ...

Pops of color

How to make cut flowers last Snow is finally here in Cornish Flat. The cardinals and blue jays are providing ...

Kiddie Pool 20/12/31

Family fun for the weekend Fun at the museum The iBOT wheelchair is SEE’s newest demonstration. Photo courtesy of SEE ...

Treasure Hunt 20/12/31

Dear Donna, This cast iron plaque was mounted on our shed door. We removed it when the shed was replaced ...

The Weekly Dish 20/12/31

News from the local food scene • Free coffee for health care workers: Now through Jan. 31, participating Aroma Joe’s ...

A taste of what’s to come

A look at the food scene in 2020, plus a preview of 2021 In what has been a tough year ...

Jared DeBernardo

Jared DeBernardo’s family has been in the restaurant business for more than three decades, dating back to the mid-1980s, when ...

Hopes for a better vintage

A conversation with winemaker Mark Neal On several Napa Valley winery tours, my wife and I were asked by the ...

Beef stew with beer

Let’s get cooking Usually, we make New Year’s resolutions that involve eating less food or at least less of the ...

Album Reviews 20/12/31

Real Numbers, Brighter Then (Slumberland Records) …Or at least the two advance singles from the third EP from this Minneapolis-based ...

The Office of Historical Corrections, by Danielle Evans

The Office of Historical Corrections, by Danielle Evans (Riverhead, 288 pages) The late science fiction writer Harlan Ellison once said ...

2020 ‘at’ the movies

It was a horrible and great year for movies What even is a 2020 movie? This year’s Oscar race will ...

Wonder Woman 1984

Wonder Woman 1984 Diana Prince suits up in her golden armor for an all-too-brief fight sequence in the otherwise extremely ...

The Music Roundup 20/12/31

Local music news & events • Junk out: Ever since America’s Got Talent made them a national sensation, Recycled Percussion ...

2020 hindsight

The good parts of a not great year, and what’s (maybe, possibly) ahead The year 2020 began well enough, as ...

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2020 hindsight

The good parts of a not great year, and what’s (maybe, possibly) ahead

The year 2020 began well enough, as the ball dropped on a retro-themed party at Bank of NH Stage in Concord and a barefoot Adam Ezra once again lit up Tupelo Music Hall, an annual tradition. Headliners Comedy Club offered laughter up and down the state.

The newly opened Rex Theatre in Manchester slated a wide range of shows in its upcoming calendar; the year’s first was E Street Band saxophone player Jake Clemons. Town Meeting, one of the brightest lights in the region’s Americana scene, debuted a new album at The Rex in early February.

March looked to be even better, with St. Patrick’s Day events scheduled at multiple venues throughout the month. Former Celtic Woman fiddler Máiréad Nesbitt’s appearance at Saint Anselm’s Dana Center on March 14 was among the most eagerly anticipated, but she was interrupted by a Friday the 13^th that confirmed every horror story concocted about the date — especially for live entertainment.

Tupelo CEO Scott Hayward put it succinctly from the empty stage of his venue that night.

“I boarded a plane to come home from vacation, and arrived to find my industry gone,” he said at the time.

The pandemic has consumed every aspect of life, beginning that weekend.

Through it all, however, there have been more than a few so-called Covid silver linings. Foremost among them was the rise of livestreaming. Concord native Dan Zanes launched a daily Social Isolation Song Series with his wife Claudia, a kid-centric effort. Lucas Gallo’s Local Music Quarantine Video Challenge invited musicians to record themselves at home.

There were many, many more, and the best part was hearing original songs from performers best known for playing covers in restaurants and bars. It was a gift that kept giving. When places began reopening in May, patrons were more receptive to local musicians, who were at that point the only game in town. It became a cultural renaissance, born from crisis.

Venues presenting national acts faced a bigger challenge. They responded ingeniously, with drive-in shows at Tupelo — the effort received national press — and at the Cheshire Fairgrounds in Swanzey, which kicked off its effort with rock tribute act Echoes of Floyd and offered a massive capacity of 750 cars.

Miraculously, the weather was mostly kind at these and other pop-up events throughout the region. Honking horns took the place of applause from early spring to late summer. The Music Hall booked shows into the streets of downtown Portsmouth, while Concord’s Capitol Center for the Arts took over Fletcher-Murphy Park, and Manchester’s Palace Theatre ran a series of summer events at Delta Dental Stadium, including one starring the Beatles-esque Weaklings.

Plenty of restaurants added tents and used live music as a lure for business. Local promoter Paul Costley saw his bookings spike as a result. “In normal times, I usually have 60 to 80 events a week,” Costley said in September. “I was up to 135.”

Indoor venues offered socially distanced shows, with comedians like Juston McKinney leading the charge by playing multiple sets to reduced crowds. Before returning to the stage, McKinney was playing to a crowd of family members and the ether. “I never thought I would look forward to having four people in an audience so much in my life,” McKinney told the Hippo in June for a Comedy After Covid story. “I would kill for four people right now.”

With new movie releases experiencing a drought, Chunky’s Cinema & Pub welcomed Rob Steen’s comedy acts.

Economically, it can’t sustain.

“Being open is one thing and being able to stay open is another thing,” Hayward said in mid-autumn. “If we don’t have the capacity to do the shows we normally do, it doesn’t work. A good show for us is 500 people. … A big show for a small club is 60 people … but I can’t live on 60 people.”

There’s hope on the horizon. Congress included $15 billion in recently passed legislation to help independent venues, theaters and talent agencies weather the crisis, prodded by the live music industry’s Save Our Stages effort. Though most regional venues are currently closed, live shows are scheduled to resume mid-winter at some of them. A few venues are sticking with more vague reopening plans. Tupelo, for example, sent out an update at the end of November saying that challenges with lower capacity shows in 2020 and shows scheduled for 2021 “are causing all sorts of problems for the artists, patrons and venue,” and it is “all but guaranteed that we will be closed through February of 2021 at least.”

Meanwhile, is still scheduled at Portsmouth’s Music Hall on Feb. 13, along with Vapors of Morphine Feb. 19 and Livingston Taylor Feb. 20. The Capitol Center for the Arts in Concord, which announced just before Christmas that it was extending its “pause” and canceling all live shows through the end of February, has comic Juston McKinney set for March 28, followed the next night by Celtic Woman Celebration.

Until then, January is Virtual Month at Manchester’s Palace Theatre, with three Thursday shows: a Carole King tribute on the 8th, local rocker Brooks Young on the 15th and Piano Men which offers classic songs from Stevie Wonder, Billy Joel, Elton John and others, on the 22nd. Actor and musician Jeff Daniels streams an acoustic concert on Jan. 12, with a Q&A following.

Featured photo: A teddy bear audience at Headliner’s Comedy Club helped facilitate social distancing. Courtesy photo.

NFL regular season wraps

New in town

News & Notes 21/01/07

We’re 20!

Goodbye, 2020!

2020 hindsight

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