Tag: 240606

Quality of Life 24/06/06

NH residents spend less on vacations

According to an online story in the Boston Globe on May 30, New Hampshire residents spend less on vacations than residents of other New England states. Citing a recent study by a Canadian online casino, the story reported that New Englanders budget between $1,900 and $2,600 for a holiday away. But not us. As the Globe story stated, “Granite State residents are the thriftiest, with an annual vacation budget of just $450.”

QOL score: -1, because …

Comment: According to the same article, we also take fewer vacations, with people in New Hampshire and Maine only taking one vacation per year, compared to two vacations for residents of other New England residents.

But our trees get around

There is a newly planted tree at Barnstead Elementary School that has gone around the moon. According to a May 25 online story from WMUR, a recently planted American Sycamore tree was grown from a seed that traveled aboard NASA’s Artemis 1 space mission. WMUR reports that “on that mission, the seeds traveled more than 275,000 miles and orbited the moon.” Fourth-grade teacher Brittany Sylvian’s application was chosen from more than 2,000 by NASA to adopt a tree grown from one of the Artemis mission’s seeds.

QOL score: +1

Comment: According to WMUR, it is currently the only “moon tree” in New Hampshire.

The secret was popcorn

Merrimack Fire Rescue and police responded to a call last week in the most adorable rescue of the week. According to a Nashua InkLink story from May 28, the rescue team responded to a report of several ducklings caught in a storm drain. The story reported that crews first “used buckets to try to scoop the duckling from the murky water in the drain,” but that ultimately the baby ducks were lured in with popcorn from the nearby Apple Cinemas.

QOL score: +1

Comment: The ducklings were returned to their mother after the hour-long rescue.

A soldier comes home

Northwood Army Sgt. Richard G. Hammond, who was killed in the Second World War, was finally returned to New Hampshire to be laid to rest last week, WMUR reported on May 23. According to the story, Sgt. Hammond “was 24 when he went missing in action on Feb. 17, 1943, after being struck by an enemy tank shell during a battle with German forces near Sbeitla, Tunisia. Officials said the explosion threw Hammond several yards from the blast site.” His remains were exhumed from a U.S. military cemetery in Algeria last September, after they were identified by the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency.

QOL score: +1

Comment: Hammond was reinterred in Northwood Ridge Cemetery.

Last week’s QOL score: 69

Net change: +2

QOL this week: 71

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

Let us know at [email protected].

C’s go for banner 18

The Big Story – Celtics in the NBA Finals: We’re at the point where pretty much everyone thought the Celtics would be: about to play in the NBA Finals. And as fate would have it the opposing Dallas Mavericks bring along Boston’s biggest sports villain of the day, Kyrie Irving, who has managed not to wreck his team for once.

At stake is the hugely important task of reclaiming their place as the most winning franchise in NBA history, something they’d been from the 1960s until 2020, when the Lakers tied them at 17 titles. Thus, winning number 18 would be the most significant title since Bird and company downed the Magic Johnson-, Kareem Jabbar-led Lakers in 1984.

To do that they’ll have to play better than they have so far, as despite being 12-2 in the playoffs they have yet to play their first start-to-finish solid game together. However, if they can hit on all cylinders, beating them is a tall order. Time will tell if that happens.

In the meantime it should be fun.

Sports 101: Name the only brother combination to ever play in a Super Bowl and the NBA Finals.

News Item – 5 Thoughts On Celtics-Mavs Series:

Tight Games Favor Dallas: First because Joe Mazzulla’s simplistic end-of-the-game strategy generally is isolating Jayson Tatum one on one, where he invariably wastes too much time and winds up taking a terrible shot, a Kobe-wannabe step-back 20-foot fall-away. Plus Luka Doncic is the best end-of-the-game shooter/scorer in the world. If he has the last shot Celts are in trouble.

Attack Kyrie Irving On D: He can’t cover my grandmother and the C’s need to make him pay for that from the first second of Game 1.

C’s Need Something from their Bench: Especially Sam Hauser, who’s been awful in the playoffs. Ditto for Payton Pritchard, who’s had some big moments but needs to be more consistent with his three-ball game.

Derek Lively is Mavs X Factor: Yes, I know he doesn’t start, Daniel Gafford does. But he’s still the best rookie center in the Finals since Alvin Adams in 1976. He hurt the Clippers, Oak City and Minnesota until he got hurt (when he was 16 for 16 in the series). The Celtics need to beware of him.

Time for Tatum and Brown: They’re no longer kids learning on the job. So no excuses. Time to show if they belong with great Celtics like Russell, Havlicek, Bird and Garnett.

Prediction: If they do, Celtics win in six. If not, fans will be screaming to trade one or both.

The Numbers:

13 & 16 –wins and losses for the Red Sox in their first 29 games at Fenway Park in what once was a great home field advantage.

142 – personal winning streak for the late Bill Walton, who died of cancer last week at 71. Dates back to his last two years in high school, his year on the freshman team at UCLA and his first 88 varsity games as a Bruin.

Random Thoughts:

I’m all for recognizing the great achievements of players in the Negro League. But commingling their stats with the major league baseball’s record book as announced by MLB last week is, well, dumb for a very simple reason. None of those players played in the major leagues. So putting Josh Gibson’s .372 lifetime average ahead of Ty Cobb’s .367 as the best ever average is like combining Pete Maravich’s phenomenal college scoring records with those of the NBA. The numbers were accumulated in different ways in different leagues. That doesn’t make sense to me.

Sports 101 Answer: The Walton brothers of San Diego, California, are the only brothers to play in a SB and NBA Finals. Bruce as an OL with Dallas in 1976 and Bill with Portland in 1977 and the Celtics 1986. Both played their college ball at UCLA.

Final Thought – Bill Walton: Certain people hit you a little more when they die. The Redhead was one of those people for me.

He was my favorite college player when I came of age as a young basketball player. Then there was his sheer fundamental artistry — he was always on his toes, never brought his arms or the ball down below his shoulders and was as “team first” as anyone I’ve seen. Third was he was a UCLA guy and I loved the Bruins during their dynasty years. Finally there was the 21 for 22 from the floor 44-point masterpiece to beat Memphis State in the 1973 NCAA Final, which was the best I ever saw anyone play.

Like Sandy Koufax, Gale Sayers and Bobby Orr his brilliance was snuffed out long before it should have been thanks to chronic foot injuries. But even with that it was a great ride. So thanks for the memories, big fella.

RIP.

Email Dave Long at [email protected].

Granite State stories

Mystery Stone and more at the NH Historical Society

Elizabeth Dubrulle is the Director of Education and Public Programs at the New Hampshire Historical Society as well as the editor of their publication, Historical New Hampshire. She talked about the importance of New Hampshire history and its mysteries that have yet to be uncracked. Visit nhhistory.org.

What does the Historical Society do?

We have a library and archive, which is probably one of the best, if not the best, collection of material related to the state of New Hampshire and its history. We have a museum with exhibits about different aspects of New Hampshire history, and we have a collection of over 35,000 objects related to New Hampshire and its past…. We are also the Presidential Library for Franklin Pierce. We hold manuscript collections for many well-known New Hampshire people, like David Souter and Daniel Webster. We offer field trips for kids — about 10,000 school kids a year come to the New Hampshire Historical Society in Concord. … We offer the statewide social studies curriculum called “Moose on the Loose,” … We support local historical societies and their work. We offer public programs, lectures, tours, workshops on how to do genealogy…. We do a lot of different things.

What is ‘Moose on the Loose’?

It’s an online resource and curriculum about state history, civics, geography and economics. It was created for kids, originally in grades 3 to 6, but we’re expanding it to encompass kindergarten all the way up through 8th grade. It’s a free resource and it’s an open access website. …. It has a lot of content and information but it also has all these images and videos and audio clips and activities and games and things that people can do to learn about New Hampshire history. It’s got lesson plans for educators, virtual field trips and projects…. The URL is moose.nhhistory.org.

What exactly is a presidential library?

We’re kind of the de facto presidential library. Franklin Pierce doesn’t have an official presidential library; modern presidents really have those. Essentially, we hold a huge collection of Franklin Pierce material documenting his political life, his personal life, his family life, his legal practice, all the activities he was involved in, so we have a lot of his possessions. He was a very active member here in the 19th century and he donated objects from his family like his father’s uniform from the American Revolution. We have Franklin Pierce’s sword from the Mexican American war, we have the pen with which he signed the Kansas-Nebraska Act…. His books from his personal library… .

Do you have a favorite historical fact about the Granite State?

Since we’re coming up on the anniversary of the American Revolution, I’ll throw this one out: New Hampshire, they wrote their own state constitution in January of 1776. … What was unique about their Constitution was that they didn’t mention any royal authority, so in a sense they were essentially the first state to declare independence six months before the rest of the colonies issued the Declaration of Independence.

Why is it important for people to learn the history of New Hampshire?

One is just there’s an awful lot to be interested in about New Hampshire and its history and to be proud of its history. It’s done a lot of great things … I also think in general people need to know history because it gives them a sense of perspective. .

What’s another fascinating or fun aspect of New Hampshire history?

One of the items we have in our collection is this thing called the Mystery Stone. It’s like an egg-shaped stone with carvings in it. It’s made out of a kind of rock that doesn’t exist in New Hampshire but it was found in New Hampshire. Nobody knows how it got here. The carvings look like they might be Native American, but they’re not, really. … It’s an out of place object that nobody can figure out how it got here and it was found in 1872 … We have it on display here. It’s been featured in documentaries and people come from all over the country to see the mystery stone. There are all sorts of wild theories about what it is, if it was made by aliens or if it got spewed out of a volcano somewhere else in the world and dropped here in New Hampshire or if it’s a hoax. … The Smithsonian tried to buy it and we refused. We kept it for ourselves. There’s just all sorts of fun and quirky things that you can always find in history. —Zachary Lewis

Featured image: Mystery Stone. Photo courtesy of the NH Historical Society.

News & Notes 24/06/06

Browntail moths

According to a press release, the New Hampshire Forest Health Bureau announced that Browntail moth caterpillar winter webs were located and removed at the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast in the first confirmed incident of the species in the Granite State in 75 years.

Browntail moth caterpillars have poisonous fine hairs that can produce skin rashes similar to poison ivy even when the exposure to them is airborne, and inhaling the hairs can also cause serious respiratory issues in some individuals, so people should not handle the caterpillars without wearing proper gloves and, if possible, a mask, according to the press release.

The species, which originated in Europe, is fuzzy with a dark brown coloration and has two conspicuous red-orange dots on the tail end. In New England, the moths’ caterpillar stage happens from August to late June, and from April through July is when the risk of exposure to the hairs is greatest, according to the press release.

Their winter webs are small, tight clumps on two or three leaves at the tip of a branch and tend to be completely enclosed in silk, formed in the fall and can be removed any time between November and mid-April; oak and apple trees are the primary hosts for browntail moth caterpillars, but winter webs can also be found in coastal shrubs like beach plum and cherry, as on the Isles of Shoals, according to the press release.

Browntail moth webs are different from the webs of the fall webworm, which are built into big nests in large areas of foliage in autumn, and they also differ from the webs of the eastern tent caterpillar, whose webs are also large but only occur in spring, according to the release.

The browntail moth was accidentally introduced to North America in the late 1800s and spread to all the states of New England, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, according to the release.

Massive federal work projects in the 1920s and 1930s, in cooperation with biocontrol research, reduced the infestation area to a small region along the Maine coast but in 2022 the browntail moth was found in more than 150,000 acres, although mostly in the southern half of the state, according to the same release. Visit nhbugs.org for more information about how to identify browntail moth caterpillars or to report any sightings.

Traditional art grant

The deadline for the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts’ Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant is Friday, June 14, according to their website.

This grant is offered to help communities preserve their cultural heritage and funds a master traditional artist to teach an experienced apprentice in one-to-one sessions for a minimum of 65 hours over six to 10 months, according to the website.

Traditional arts are passed down from one generation to the next within communities andcan evolve as people, communities and the environment interact and transform, according to the website. The State Council on the Arts through its Heritage and Traditional Arts Program seeks to grant a master artist and apprentice team a combined total of up to $4,000 per year with the maximum request for the master artist $3,000 and the maximum request for the apprentice $1,000, according to the same website.

Any traditional artists active in any artistic or cultural expression that can demonstrate there is a community context for the tradition within New Hampshire may apply for a Traditional Arts Apprenticeship grant. The grant period is Saturday, Nov. 1, 2024, through Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2025. For details on eligibility, types of art included, and how to apply, visit nh.gov/nharts/programservices/traditionalarts.html.

Clinic closures

According to a recent press release from the state’s Department of Health and Human Services, since the unexpected closure of all New England Medicine and Counseling Associates locations in New Hampshire and Vermont, NEMCA patients with prescriptions for controlled medications should try to re-establish care with another medical provider.

According to the release, Emergency Departments may see an increase in patients experiencing withdrawal symptoms or requesting buprenorphine, a medication for the treatment of opioid use disorder, until they can establish with another medical provider.

The New Hampshire locations impacted are at 120 Route 10 South in Grantham, 17 Coit View Drive in Newport, 376 S. Willow St. in Manchester, and 40 Winter St. in Rochester

In a statement, DHHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Jonathan Ballard said that “when patients who have been treated with medications like buprenorphine suddenly lose access to their medication, they are at increased risk of an opioid overdose and may have significant withdrawal symptoms if care is not reestablished quickly.”

The opioid overdose reversal agent naloxone can be obtained through all New Hampshire Doorway locations (thedoorway.nh.gov) or over the counter at pharmacies across the state.

Patients of New England Medicine and Counseling who need assistance with finding a new medical provider can reach out to 211 in New Hampshire.

Prescott Farm Environmental Education Center in Laconia (928 White Oaks Road, prescottfarm.org) will host a workshop on “Poisonous Plants and Natural Hazards” on Saturday, June 8, at 10 a.m. Discover the healing properties of plantain, a common weed found in lawns and fields. Free for members and $25 for nonmembers to register. Visit prescottfarm.org.

Manchester Makerspace (36 Old Granite St.) invites amateur locksmiths for a fun and interactive event to learn the art of lock manipulation at Locksport for Dads on Monday, June 10, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $45 for any adult, or $55 for a father and offspring (recommended for ages 12+). See manchestermakerspace.org. The Makerspace is also hosting an open house night from 6 to 10 p.m. that night.

Led Zeppelin tribute show Kashmir comes to the Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, 800-657-8774, nashuacenterforthearts.com) Saturday, June 8, at 8 p.m. Tickets start at $29.

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