Tag: 230105

What’s in store for 2023

Our 15th annual predictions for the year ahead.

January: A day after their disappointing season ends, Patriot Nation files a restraining order to prevent Matt Patricia from being within 200 yards of the Patriots offense or Mac Jones in 2023. Coach B hears the begging from all corners of New England and announces Patricia has been “re-assigned” to a front office role. Heavyweight boxing is heard from for the first time in decades when, during an appearance on the Hitman Hearns podcast to commemorate the 50th anniversary of George Foreman winning the Heavyweight crown in 1973, the two-time champ asks what ever happened to Heavyweight boxing. And no one knows the answer.

February: After digging themselves out from the 13th western New York blizzard in 30 days, Buffalo wins the Super Bowl over surprise NFC entry New York Giants. With the Bills a 16-point favorite, the G-Men consider bringing Tom Coughlin out of retirement to engineer another massive SB upset, but decide against it. They then lose by 17 to make the folks giving the points happy dudes. In a bid to break Michael Jordan’s record for most retirements by a GOAT, Tom Brady retires again.

March: John Henry acts like an owner and talks to the media for the first time in two years early in spring training. But he soon retreats to the bunker after being bombarded with questions about his team’s epically low 2023 expectations.

April: When the “I’m sorry, I’ll do it your way” bid fails to get Yoko back, Brady unretires again and is traded to the hometown 49ers. The Sox go into 2023 with an average age of 43 for its starting rotation. The good news is, it beats the Vegas over-under of 45 after ancient Rich Hill somehow gets another team to give him a contract leaving him to flee faster than a guy finding an open lifeboat seat as the Titanic was on the way down.

May:After 47 trade-down and trade-up moves in Rounds 1 and 2, Bill Belichick selects punter Ray Guy IV with his top pick. Tampa Bay uses an all-time record 32 pitchers in a rain-shortened six-inning dumpster fire game at Fenway that takes 6 hours and 31 minutes to play.

June: In a first ever for the gentle sport of golf, a massive on-course brawl breaks out between LIV players and old-guard PGAers to mar Day 1 of the U.S. Open. After going down early in the marquee “animal” match-up between a Tiger and a Shark, Time magazine’s “Sports Weasel of the Year” Greg Norman squeezes his way out of the bottom of the scrum to start throwing sucker punches from behind like he’s Mickey Rivers in 1976’s famed dust-up between the Sox and the Yanks. The Celtics return to the NBA Finals, but this time they win in a sweep of Golden State when Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown live up to the billing. In the NBA draft, 7’4” Frenchman Victor (the victor) Wembanyama falls one letter short of Michael Olowokandi’s all-time record for having the most letters in the full name of a first overall pick.

July: Not that anyone but puckheads notices, but the Bruins join the Celtics as world champs when the ice hockey season concludes in the calendar year’s hottest month. Raffy Devers is sent packing at the trading deadline to complete the destruction of the Red Sox franchise for a raft of young players ballyhooed by the Sox brass but described by most baseball insiders as “worse than the box of rocks Chaim got for Mookie Betts.” At the presser announcing the move, Boston’s sports answer to George Santos says Devers will be his top priority to re-sign in the off-season.

August: Patricia is detained by security at Pats pre-season camp when he breaches the 200-yard boundary he’s required to maintain. He then quits in protest after learning the restraining order was actually taken out by owner Bob Kraft.

September: Patricia quickly finds work as offensive coordinator at Memorial High and vows he’ll resurrect the dormant-for-decades Crusaders offense. Mayor Joyce Craig immediately tries to overturn the move by telling (shouting at, actually) the school board in front of an overflow open SB session crowd, “Didn’t you people watch the Patriots offense last year?” For her strongly worded commendation, Craig gets an immediate 15-point bump in the polls ahead of her mayoral campaign.

October: Betts and the newly acquired Devers hit six homers off Nathan Eovaldi in Game 7 as the Dodgers top Texas to win the World Series.

November: Xander Bogaerts wins the National League MVP Award in a unanimous vote.

Despite scoring only 21 points on offense all season, Memorial somehow wins the Division 1 Football crown for the first time since Dave Croasdale was a pup. After years of hibernation, UCLA comes out of nowhere to finish in the Top 4 ranked teams in college football to set up an all-Manchester opening-round match-up (in January) between Chip Kelly’s Bruins and fellow Central alum (and Chipper’s old QB at the U) Ryan Day and Ohio State. The Manchester PD begins planning for handling lines at Billy’s Sports Bar, expected to snake past the back entrance to Elliot Hospital.

December: Devers signs with the Yankees in free agency. Mac Jones throws his 40th TD pass to help the Pats clinch a playoff spot, but resists the temptation to flip off the now adoring crowd that was calling for his head just 60 days earlier. After accepting MLB’s new Harry Frazee Team Wrecker award at a lavish gathering at New York’s No No Nanette Theater for discarding Betts, Bogaerts and Devers with astonishing speed, John Henry announces on what’s left of Twitter that he has sold the team to Elon Musk. He’s then installed by Vegas odds-makers and DraftKings as the odds-on favorite to win MLB’s Be Careful What You Wish For award in 2023.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

Graphic history

Marek Bennett continues Freeman Colby’s story

Henniker comic artist and educator Marek Bennett discussed the third volume of his historical graphic novel series, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, due out on Jan. 25. The book is available to preorder now at marekbennett.com.

How did you start this series?

In December 2012 … I realized I knew very little about local history here in New Hampshire, where I grew up. I started poking around in the local historical society, just curious about the photographs and old documents and things there. I came across this diary written by a guy from Henniker, Freeman Colby. It covered his service in the Civil War. I thought it would be fun to doodle a little stick figure comic to see what this [story] looks like when it’s drawn out. … That’s how I got started. I said, ‘I’ll just draw a little eight-page mini comic using the story and then put it down and let people read the diary themselves.’ Instead, I got hooked on it and kept drawing it.

What is Volume 3 about?

In each book, I try to unfold the story and find a new dimension to the story. Volume 1 is basically Freeman Colby’s diary verbatim, but in a comics format … For Volume 2, I started finding other people’s stories and weaving them in to help flesh out the narrative and figure out what was really going on. … That’s when the series really started taking its shape. … The next level is orchestrating all of those stories; that’s Volume 3. I realized it’s not enough just to have a lot of these other people … pop in and tell a short story and then disappear. I need to bring them in and let them be in conversation with each other. It was really a fun challenge to … see how they can all fit together on the page in a way that I can draw it. … It’s pulling together all these little puzzle pieces that haven’t been put together in quite this way before.

So is Freeman Colby still the main character?

Freeman Colby is still the throughline — he’s in the background of the scenes — but 90 percent of the book [consists of] materials taken from other storytellers who can flesh out his story. … For example … Freeman Colby ends up teaching a literacy class for freed people who had been enslaved … and I realized I could have a couple of his students tell their stories, too, in a way that is culturally relevant.

How do you choose which stories to include?

I’ve realized that history, in some ways, has very little to do with the past and a whole lot to do with the present, because we’re finding this information in the present. We’re putting these pieces together and crafting this new narrative in the present. … As I worked on this book, I tried to … choose stories and weave them together in such a way that it casts more light on the things [of the present] that connect us to that time period. … I just couldn’t help but notice that as I’m drawing people debating and acting and struggling to confront armed rebellion in the United States, there’s an armed rebellion — people marching on the Capitol — happening on the news.

Was it always your plan to create multiple volumes?

When I did the first book, I thought that would be it. … Then it was selected as a great graphic novel for teens by the American Librarians Association. That got my attention and I thought maybe there’s an audience for this. … Right around that same time, I heard from some descendants of the Colby family, and they mailed me a packet of 80 pages of letters that Freeman Colby had written home that I hadn’t seen before. … I thought, well, that’s a sign, then, that people are interested in the book, and they want to see more.

Was your research or creative process for Volume 3 different in any way?

Yes, partly because of Covid. … The pandemic was so disorienting, it took me almost a year of false starts and multiple drafts of a short section. It just wasn’t working. Then, at a certain point, I realized I just needed to get this book done. … I gave myself a daily deadline: I have to draw two pages a day. Even if they’re not the finished version, it doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad, I just have to have those pages done. … That was really helpful.

What now?

I’m going to get right to work on the next volume, on the most important parts, and just see how it fills out. … I have a New Year’s resolution where I’m blocking out a couple of weeks a month to be focused on Volume 4. … [While] I bring Volume 3 around to people, I want to keep working on Volume 4 … and keep it moving forward.

Featured photo: The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby.

News & Notes 23/01/05

Opioid settlement

New Hampshire Attorney General John M. Formella has joined a national attorneys general settlement with pharmaceutical retailers CVS and Walgreens for a total of $10.7 billion in regard to the companies’ alleged contribution to the opioid crisis. According to a press release, the civil lawsuit alleges that the companies overly distributed and irresponsibly dispensed prescription opioids at their retail stores. The settlement has brought the national amount from investigations and litigation against the pharmaceutical industry for its role in the opioid crisis to more than $50 billion. New Hampshire stands to receive nearly $57 million from the CVS and Walgreens agreements, which will be dedicated to opioid treatment and prevention programs in the state. CVS has agreed to pay $5 billion over a period of 10 years while Walgreens has agreed to pay $5.7 billion over a period of 15 years, with payments expected to begin during the second half of 2023. “People trust their local pharmacies and these pharmacy chains failed to provide the people of New Hampshire with the pharmacy care and protection they had a right to expect,” Attorney General Formella said in the release. “This agreement mandates significant changes to these pharmacy chains’ business practices, including court-ordered monitoring to ensure checks that should have been in place will now be aggressively enforced.”

New director

The City of Manchester Board of Mayor and Aldermen unanimously approved the nomination of Michael Quigley for the position of Director of the Office of Youth Services. According to a press release, the city department provides youth programming designed to engage young people who are experiencing difficulties with academics, anger and aggression, bullying and fighting, changes in behavior, communication, changes in family structures, self-harm, death and loss, homelessness, isolation, tensions at home, substance abuse, trauma and more. Quigley, who holds a bachelor’s degree in secondary education and a master’s degree in adult education and leadership, has worked in youth services since 2007 and has extensive experience working with families, schools, nonprofit partners and government agencies to help better the lives of youth. “I am inspired by the young people in Manchester and believe in their endless potential,” Quigley said in the release. “I am eager to take part in the great work that OYS is currently doing in the community and will work to broaden our impact by strengthening our mission and vision. … The Office of Youth Services will do this by providing new opportunities, partnerships and programs that will allow youth to thrive, and provide spaces for them to use their voice to help this community continue to grow.” Quigley assumed the role on Dec. 27, according to the release.

New logo

Manchester School District has unveiled a new logo that incorporates visual elements from the city. According to a press release, students and school staff were presented with a number of potential logos and asked to vote for their favorite. The logo depicts a school clock tower, the Merrimack River and ornamental flourishes inspired by architecture and signs of Elm Street, in a color inspired by the red brick exteriors of the city’s schools and mill buildings. “We are excited to share this new logo with the community,” Jennifer Gillis, superintendent of the Manchester School District, said in the release. “It’s a significant change, but we feel this logo does a great job of capturing our community and history. In focus groups we held, the historical elements in this logo really resonated with people, particularly our students. We feel this logo does a great job of tying together our present and our past.” The new logo will be implemented as the District launches its new website this month.

New assistant commish

Gov. Chris Sununu and the Executive Council have approved the nomination of David Rodrigue for the position of New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) Assistant Commissioner, according to a press release. Rodrigue, who has a bachelor of science degree from the University of New Hampshire, has worked for NHDOT since 1991 in the Bureaus of Highway Design, Construction, Traffic and Highway Maintenance. He became the Department’s first Intelligent Transportation Management System Program Manager in 2005, where he worked to construct, outfit and open the Bureau of Transportation Systems Management Operations, also known as New Hampshire’s Transportation Management Center. He has served as the director of operations since 2016.

The Dairy Queen on Second Street in Manchester finished 2022 as the highest-earning Dairy Queen location out of 4,353 locations throughout the country, WMUR reported, with a $3,000 lead over the Dairy Queen in Gray, Georgia. The Manchester restaurant has come close in the past, finishing second last year to the Dairy Queen in Medford, Massachusetts, and it has held the No. 1 spot for total ice cream sales for three years running.

Jaffrey couple Chelsie and Jeffrey Thibault welcomed New Hampshire’s first baby born in 2023, WMUR reported. Cayson Thibault, who was originally due on Jan. 3, arrived early on Jan. 1 at 12:36 a.m., at Cheshire Medical Center in Keene, to ring in the new year. He is the couple’s second child, little brother to their 4-year-old son.

With the new year comes a new policy on overdue books at Nashua Public Library, WMUR reported. The library is no longer issuing fines, and all existing fines have been forgiven. Library director Jennifer McCormack said in the article that fining people for late books is largely ineffective at ensuring that books are returned on time and often deters people from using the library.

The litany

By the time you read this, December will have slipped into January and another year will have ended. A time of transition, this — new calendars, new dates on checks (if you still write them), a new tax year, and the passing of the shortest day of the year. As has been my custom for many years, I pull out my journal for the year just ending and read over the entries that range from a simple recounting of daily events to musings about family, work or national happenings. There are regular mentions of the books I am reading (or want to read), of conversations with friends and occasionally strangers met by chance. Some of the earliest entries record promises made to myself back in January that I’ll get more exercise, follow less news, FaceTime my children and grandchildren, meditate each morning and take walks with my wife.

In the back of the journal, however, there is a list of the names of relatives, friends and colleagues who have died that year. The list is much longer than a single year, however, as it is one to which names are added regularly and it stretches back five years to when I began so noting the deaths. Akin, I recognize, to the Litany of the Saints that was a liturgical practice in my Catholic youth, I read down that now very long list (more than 50) and softly speak the names. The very sound of a deceased’s name immediately brings to mind some memory of a time spent with them — an event, a snippet of conversation or an image of something they have done. While there is no “Ora pro nobis,” as in the liturgy of my past, there is my own silent expression of gratitude for the time I did have with them. Each name is a so very distinct person who entered my life and left an impression. At the end, the litany itself is a mosaic of vastly different individuals who, together, have enriched my life and to whom I owe great gratitude.

After the hustle and stress of preparations for Christmas, followed by the celebrations of the day itself, there comes each year a more quiet time. The daily emails are fewer, there are fewer appointments to be met, and even, on occasion, a day completely free and clear of obligations. These are truly sacred times in the sense that religions the world over built them into their calendars to give people time to reflect and resolve. They are like a “Sabbath” for the year, a time when we leave off ordinary responsibilities and pay attention to our inner selves as we reflect on the year passing, those we have lost, and begin to set a new course for the year ahead. Soon enough the routine will be reestablished and these treasured days will have passed. One solid resolution is to not lose them in the moment of their quietude and reflection.

Stay in the loop!

Get FREE weekly briefs on local food, music,

arts, and more across southern New Hampshire!