Tag: 230713

Quality of Life 23/07/13

Floods

The National Weather Service issued a Flood Watch for most of New Hampshire from Sunday, July 9, through the morning of Tuesday, July 11, warning that heavy rain could lead to flash flooding in parts of Hillsborough, Merrimack, Cheshire, Grafton, Coos, Carroll, Belknap and Sullivan counties, according to a press release. The New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management urges residents and visitors to be prepared to “take action and seek higher ground immediately” in the case that a Flood Warning — which means flooding is imminent — is issued.

QOL score: -1

Comment: Most flood deaths happen in vehicles, the release said; never drive through flooded roadways as just 6 inches of water can reach the bottom of most passenger cars, causing loss of control and possible stalling, and 1 foot of water can sweep a vehicle away. If there is moving water, remain in your vehicle, but if the floodwaters are not moving, abandon your vehicle and move to higher ground.

Light show

A solar storm on Thursday, July 13, could make the Northern Lights visible in 17 states, including New Hampshire, according to an AP story on NHPR.org. According to the article, the Northern Lights are caused by solar wind hitting Earth’s magnetic field, making atoms glow, and the storm is part of an 11-year solar cycle that is increasing the chances of seeing the colorful sky show in lower latitudes.

QOL score: +1

Comment: The lights are most likely to be seen between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., somewhere away from city lights. According to the travel guide website Rove.me, the best place in New Hampshire to see the lights is the region’s highest peak, Mount Washington, which offers a clear and dark view of the sky, intensifying the colors of the lights.

Baby loons!

You can now watch baby loons on LoonCam Live, a live broadcast of loon nests in the Lakes Region of New Hampshire, run by the Loon Preservation Committee, a nonprofit organization that works to preserve loons and their habitats in the state. According to the LPC’s website, the LoonCam is currently streaming 24/7 on a nest with two chicks that hatched on July 9 and July 10. The parent loons have left the nest and are guarding their chicks nearby. The broadcast will continue until mid-July, when the loon chicks are expected to fledge. Watch at loon.org/looncam.

QOL score: +1

Comment: Viewers can also find timelapse videos, updates from a loon blogger and information on how to support the LPC’s mission on the LPC’s website.

QOL score: 79

Net change: +1

QOL this week: 80

What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at [email protected].

Featured photo: Screenshot from last year’s LoomCam.

The week that was

The Big Story: With the All-Star Game history, the Red Sox are on the clock to decide whether they’ll be buyers or sellers at the trade deadline, which is 18 days away. Their task is made more complicated by their going into the break at 48-43 and on a five-game winning streak, though they’re still last in the AL East with several teams to climb past to get into the play-in game. The clock is ticking.

Sports 101: Which pitcher in All-Star Game history has (a) given up the most hits, (b) given up the most earned runs, (c) pitched the most total innings, and (d) pitched in the most games?

News Item – Shohei Ohtani: After having the best hitting month of June since Lou Gehrig’s 1.470 OPS in 1936, Ohtani is the top story in baseball. The resume will include being the first in 10 years to hit 30 homers before July 1 after a June when he hit 15 homers and 29 RBI while hitting .394 with a third best ever (behind only Babe Ruth’s 1920 and ’21) .952 slugging percentage. And, oh by the way, he’s also 7-4, with a 3.32 ERA, third in baseball 132 strikeouts and the lowest batting average against at .180.

Thumbs Up – LPGA Golfer Amy Olson: In going 79-77 on Thursday and Friday she didn’t make it into the weekend, but let’s give Olson a standing O for having the grit and toughness to compete in the women’s U.S. Open while seven months pregnant. Bravo.

Thumbs Down – ESPN: When the parent company is cutting 7,000 jobs, somebody has to go. But for ESPN to let go its single best analyst overall, Jeff Van Gundy, is nuts. Especially given the number of slugs who survived.

The Numbers:

1 – Red Sox players invited to play for the AL in the All Star game.

80 – age Greg Popovich will be at the end of the $80 million deal he signed last week to remain head coach of the San Antonio Spurs for the next five years.

Of the Week Awards:

Player –TheCincinnati rookie sensation Ely De La Cruz became the first Reds player since 1919 to steal second, third and home in the same plate appearance. It came vs. Milwaukee on Saturday right after he knocked in the lead run and then provided the insurance run with his antics in an 8-5 Reds win on Saturday.

Most Idiotic Idea (If Not in the History of Mankind) –From supposed CBS-NBA Insider Sam Quinn, who proposed (before Grant Williams was traded to Dallas) the Celtics do the following to give them a “true” Big Three with Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown: send Williams, Al Horford, Malcolm Brogdon, Peyton Pritchard and multiple first-round picks to the 76er’s for, no, not Joel Embiid, but (are you ready for this?) 33-year-old no-defense James Harden, last seen stinking up the joint in five of the seven games against the C’s in the 2023 playoffs.

Laugh Out Loud Moment: It was the hilarity of hearing Red Sox right fielder Alex Verdugo whining he’d been unfairly snubbed by the AL All-Star team while hitting a 17th best in the AL .284, with a 94th best six homers and 113th best 35 RBI totals.

Sports 101 Answer: Most hits and earned runs allowed: WhiteyFord(19 and 11). Don Drysdale’s 19.1 innings pitched is the most ever and Roger Clemens with 9 has pitched in the most ASG’s.

Final Thought: Sorry to see Mike Trout get injured ( broken wrist), but it brings to mind something I’ve been meaning to mention for a while. And this comment is aimed at the yackers, not Trout himself. I don’t get how anyone (besides stat geeks) can say he fits among the all-time baseball greats like Aaron, Mays and Ruth. Very good player, yes. But he’s in his 13th year, and while he’s got 368 homers, he’s got just three 100-RBI seasons, with a high of 111. By contrast Junior Griffey did it eight times, with highs of 147 and 146 before he turned 30. A–Rod (I know he has issues) did it 14 times with a high of 156 and for Albert Pujols it’s 13 and three 130-plus seasons.

Then there are his three MVP’s. I’m fine with 2014 when the Angels won the AL West. But being picked over Mookie Betts in 2016 was a joke. Mookie led the AL in total bases, was second in hits and doubles with 31 homers and 113 as his team won the AL East, while Trout’s Angels finished 21 games back and he wasn’t in the Top 10 in homers or RBI. And 2019, when three Red Sox players alone had more total bases, was an even bigger joke. How can a guy be the most valuable player in any league when his team finished dead last 35 games out in their division? It speaks to the ridiculous ways stats are looked at today, where the contrived WAR somehow trumps the only thing that matters, winning.

Trout an all-time all-timer? Sorry, but no.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

Poem to film

Local filmmaker brings a Frost poem to the screen

Local playwright and filmmaker Donald Tongue recently wrapped up filming his adaptation of Robert Frost’s poem “Home Burial” at Canterbury Shaker Village. Tongue discussed what drew him to Frost’s poetry and his approach to interpreting the poem on screen. Follow facebook.com/tonguemtproductions for updates on the film and how to view it.

What inspired you to adapt Robert Frost’s poem ‘Home Burial’ into a film?

A number of years ago, I wrote a play about Robert Frost titled My Neighbor, the Poet that was commissioned by Theater Kapow. I also staged ‘Home Burial’ a number of years ago at Southern New Hampshire University. … I did a lot of research and read a lot of his poetry and was very much taken with the sort of cinematic quality of his poetry; it has very clear actions that he’s describing … and he definitely seems to focus on characters. … Then, he has a lot of dialogue within his poetry between the characters, or, if there’s one character, there’s some sort of internal dialogue going on. I think, in many ways, he just kind of had this [ability to take] these scenes that he was living out himself and convey them through poetry.

You’ve written a number of pieces for the stage; had you ever written for film before this? How are the processes different for you?

I did a 13-part web series called Candid Candidate, which was sort of a mockumentary about two presidential primary candidates, so I had dabbled in [film] a little bit, but this is my first venture into a real full-length feature film. Film is definitely a totally different process. There are certainly things that are the same: You have to work out the acting, the character motivations, things like that, and we rehearse sort of similarly, [as far as] the line delivery and what’s behind it. But for stage, you’re creating something that is to be performed, and it’s going to be the same for each performance, [whereas] in film, you’ve got to think about the different camera angles and how you’re capturing the story through the lens. I had to do a lot of learning about the different types of shots that filmmakers use and what those convey.

How literal is your interpretation of the poem?

I’ve seen other [adaptations] that just use [the poem] as source material; my approach, though, was to use the poem verbatim. There is nothing in the film that’s not in the poem. In the moments where there’s dialogue [in the poem], there’s dialogue [in the film]. When [the poem has] description, [the film has] a voiceover, and the actors perform the descriptive verse [during] the voiceover. I feel that it works really well. … It’s just such a great, wonderfully written poem; I didn’t want to mess with it.

How did you interpret the poem’s more abstract themes and visuals on film?

A lot of the action is clear in the poem. It starts out, ‘He saw her from the bottom of the stairs.’ We had to find a staircase with a window at the top to be able to capture that visual from the poem. … The shot starts from the bottom of the staircase and moves up to her at the window. In some ways, it feels like you’re coming out of the grave, like you’re kind of unearthing this moment in time between these two characters; that was one vision I had as far as capturing the feel and emotion of the poem.

What was it like shooting at Canterbury Shaker Village, and why did you choose that location?

There was a schoolhouse building at Canterbury Shaker Village that had what we were looking for: the staircase in a rustic setting with a window at the top of the stairs. It worked well because, being a schoolhouse, the staircase is a little wider than [those in] some of the older-period farmhouses, where the staircases are kind of narrow. That certainly helped to both create the proper setting and accommodate the film crew in the space. … Canterbury Shaker Village was extremely accommodating for our film shoot; they gave us access to areas in the administrative building for our breaks, loaned us some set pieces and even moved the cows to another pasture and made sure the electric fence was turned off for our outdoor scenes.

News & Notes 23/07/13

DCYF head

The state’s Division for Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) has a new director, Jeff Fleischer, who will start his job on Aug. 1. According to a press release, Fleischer has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in social work from Rutgers University and has decades of experience partnering with child welfare and juvenile justice departments across the nation. He has been the CEO of Youth Advocate Programs for 20 years, overseeing 150 program sites in 33 states and several countries, and has served as the chair of the National Human Service Assembly. Fleischer is also a nationally recognized leader in the field of youth advocacy and community-based alternatives to incarceration and out-of-home placements. He will lead a division of about 700 staff serving 15,000 children and their families annually and will be responsible for strategic leadership, programmatic oversight, management and operational direction for child protection and juvenile justice services.

New development

North Branch Construction has successfully completed the construction of Red Oak at 409 Elm St. in downtown Manchester. According to a press release, the mixed-use development, spanning 96,250 square feet across six stories, consists of 90 apartment homes, ranging from studios to two-bedroom units, and serves as the corporate headquarters for Red Oak Apartment Homes; Additionally, the ground floor provides co-working office suites, a conference room and a fully equipped business center. The building is furnished with energy efficiency, LED lighting, Energy Star appliances, rooftop solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations, as well as resident amenities like package lockers, a resident-only entrance and lobby, in-unit washers and dryers, central heating and air conditioning, video security, pet-friendly accommodations, bike and extra storage areas, pet and bike washing facilities and a fitness area with a yoga studio.

Local eats

The Merrimack County Conservation District (MCCD) has released a local food guide for 2023, highlighting dairy, produce and specialty food farms in the county. According to a press release, the guide aims to promote the availability and accessibility of local agricultural products and provides a town-by-town list of farms, farmers markets and programs supporting food production in New Hampshire, making it easy for readers to connect with their local agricultural community. The guide also includes informative articles about local farms, emphasizing the importance of understanding where food comes from and supporting the local economy. Digital copies of the guide can be downloaded from the MCCD website, and physical copies are available upon request.

Local power

The Community Power Coalition of New Hampshire (CPCNH), a nonprofit that empowers local communities to choose their electricity sources while working with local utilities on energy governance and infrastructure, announced in a press release its new base rate of 10.9 cents per kilowatt-hour, which will save $5.5 million for their 75,000 customers and generate $1.7 million for community reserves. CPCNH also plans to offer renewable power options at competitive rates. The Coalition has grown to 35 members and represents 24 percent of the state’s population, according to the release.

Executive order

Gov. Chris Sununu has signed an executive order that prohibits the State of New Hampshire from doing business with any company that supports boycotts of Israel. According to a press release, the order aims to strengthen the ties between New Hampshire and Israel and to oppose anti-semitism and discrimination. The order was signed in the presence of Israel’s Ambassador to the UN and Consul General to New England, who thanked the state for its support. The order was also praised by the IAC for Action, a pro-Israel advocacy group. New Hampshire is the 37th state to adopt such a measure against the BDS movement, which seeks to isolate Israel economically and politically.

The University of New Hampshire’s NH Agricultural Experiment Station and Granite State Dairy Promotion host “Meet Your Milk” on Saturday, July 22, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the Fairchild Dairy Teaching and Research Center in Durham. According to a press release, the free event will educate people about the dairy industry and provide a firsthand experience of a working dairy farm. Visitors can tour the facility, interact with cows, enjoy free New Hampshire milk and take wagon rides. The Smokin’ Spank’s food truck will also be there, serving barbecue. Visit nhdairypromo.org to learn more.

The Working Dog Foundation/NH Police K-9 Academy has been selected as the beneficiary of Hannaford’s Community Bag Program for July, according to a press release. For every $2.50 Community Bag purchased at the Hannaford store in Raymond, $1 will be donated to the academy. The donation will support the care and training of municipal K-9 teams in New Hampshire and Maine.

The Upper Room Board congratulates the winner of its sixth annual Anna Willis Memorial Scholarship, Emerson Carrecedo of Windham High School. According to a press release, Carrecedo wants to pursue music and explore how musical performance can make a difference in the community. The scholarship honors the late Anna Willis, a founder of the Upper Room Board of Directors, who was dedicated to making the world a better place. The seventh annual Anna Willis Memorial Scholarship Award will be announced in early 2024 for eligible applicants.

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