Tag: 250710

This Week 25/07/10

Thursday, July 10

The Aviation Museum of New Hampshire (27 Navigator Road, Londonderry, 669-4820, aviationmuseumofnh.org) presents “What Are Spacesuits Made Of?” this evening at 7 p.m. as part of its Exploring Aviation series. This presentation will look at what goes into the design of spacesuits, and how safety, durability and comfort are balanced. There will be a full-size replica of a current spacesuit. Admission costs $10 per person.

Friday, July 11

The curtain rises tonight on the three-day run of Joseph & The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat presented by the Majestic Theatre (majestictheatre.net) at the Derry Opera House (29 W. Broadway, Derry) Friday, July 11, through Sunday, July 13. “The magical musical is full of catchy songs in a variety of styles, from a parody of French ballads (“Those Canaan Days”), to country-western (“One More Angel in Heaven”) and calypso (“Benjamin Calypso”), along with the unforgettable classics “Any Dream Will Do” and “Close Every Door.” Appropriate for all audiences and groups,“ according to a press release. Shows are at at 7 p.m. on Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Tickets cost $15 to $22.

Friday, July 11

Teen Actorsingers will perform Teen Anastasia on Friday, July 11, and Saturday, July 12, at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, July 13, at 2 p.m. at the Janice B. Streeter Theatre, 14 Court St., Nashua, actorsingers.org. Tickets cost $20 for adults, $18 for seniors and students.

Saturday, July 12

Derry Public Library (64 E. Broadway, Derry, 432-6140, derrypl.org) will host the Derry premiere of local filmmaker Tim Smyth’s Tyrannocircus Rex plus other short films by Smyth this afternoon from 2 to 4 p.m.. Popcorn, drinks and other snacks will be served. Films are unrated and generally appropriate for all ages. This event is free and open to the public.

Saturday, July 12

There will be a Five Senses Tour today, and tomorrow, July 13, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. to benefit Community Caregivers of Greater Derry. Enjoy the sights, sounds, smells, textures and flavors of the privately owned Tiffany Gardens (15 King John Drive, Londonderry). Tickets are $20 and may be purchased on site at the event or online at comcaregivers.org/garden-tour.

Saturday, July 12

Head to LaBelle Winery Derry (14 NH Rte. 111, Derry, 672-9898, labellewinery.com/labelle-winery-derry) today between 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. for LaBelle Summerfest. There will be food trucks and booths, a craft market, live music, axe throwing, minigolf and, of course, a great deal of wine. Entrance is free. Tickets are available through eventbrite.com.

Save the Date! Friday, July 18
The 9th annual Fairy and HobbitHouse Festival will take place at Bedrock Gardens (19 High Road, Lee, bedrockgardens.org) from Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily. Compete in the Fairy House and Hobbit House showcase (see the website in advance) or just arrive in costume to enjoy the day, which includes craft activities, story time and more. Tickets cost $49.87 per carload.

Featured photo: Joseph (Jack Downey) and his brothers. Courtesy photo.

Quality of Life 25/07/10

Entertainment is literally his middle name

Chuck E. Cheese has announced an expansion of its arcade offerings in many locations, including Salem (in the Mall at Rockingham Park, 99 Rockingham Park Blvd,) and Nashua (in the Pheasant Lane Mall, 310 DW Highway). In a June 30 announcement on its corporate website, the chain, best known for super-stimulating children’s birthday parties, wrote that it “is stepping into a new era with the launch of Chuck’s Arcade, [an] arcade concept from Chuck E. Cheese [that] combines classic games and the hottest new games alongside iconic animatronic characters.” The new arcades will be marketed toward nostalgic adults, the announcement said.

QOL score: +1 for skeeball aficionados

Comment: According to the announcement, in addition to the two new New Hampshire locations, there are Chuck’s Arcades at “malls across the country … with more locations on the horizon.” Visit chucksarcade.fun.

Is it a bird? Is it a plane?

According to a recent study by Social casino website McLuck,New Hampshire is the state with the second best chance to spot a UFO. A July 3 press release reported that the study “gathered the number of reported UFO sightings from the National UFO Reporting Center between 2020 and 2024 and calculated the number of sightings per 100,000 residents in each state. [It] also calculated the month and time of day that you’re most likely to spot a UFO.” According to the study, New Hampshire has 32.08 UFO sightings per million residents, and August is the best month to spot one. “The best time to spot a UFO in New Hampshire is 9 p.m., with 33 sightings during this time of day between 2020 to 2024,” the announcement read.

QOL score: +1 for helping to keep the NH Fisher Cats’ alter ego “Space Potatoes” relevant (the team thusly named will next play Friday, July 18, at 6:35 p.m.

Comment: The study found that Vermont had more sightings than New Hampshire, with 33 per million residents. “Despite having the fourth-highest overall number of reported sightings, Texas is the worst state for UFO sightings, with 7.01 per 100,000 residents each year.”

QOL score last week: 64

Net change: +2

QOL this week: 66

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

Let us know at news@hippopress.com.

First-half season that was

The Big Story – Gambling Becoming an Issue: Are the chickens coming home to roost for pro sports after buddying up to the legal betting industry? It may be just a blip, but in the last week Cleveland Guardians hurler Luis Ortiz and NBA free agent Malik Beasley came under gambling investigations. They joined umpire Pat Hoberg, fired earlier this year for sharing info with a friend who was betting on baseball, and Jontay Porter, banned for life by the NBA for betting on basketball. All happening in the same time period baseball commissioner Rob Manfred caved to the convicted felon in the White House to remove restrictions preventing the Hall of Fame from voting on Pete Rose for his gambling on baseball. And ditto for the banned since 1920 Shoeless Joe Jackson for his role in 1919’s Black Sox scandal. No charges yet for anyone, but all these cases in a year seems an awful lot.

Sports 101: Name the youngest pitcher to start an All-Star game.

News Item – MLB Update at All-Star Break:

The Blue Jays got hot at just the right time to win six straight during consecutive series sweeps of the Red Sox and Yankees to move into first place in the AL East.

Even though I still can’t get used to their being good, it’s Detroit with the best record in the AL at 55-34, just behind L.A.’s best in the majors 56-33.

Forget the record for just catchers. In hitting homers 34 and 35, Cal Raleigh not only set his own personal best but also tied Ken Griffey Jr.’s Mariners record for most homers by the All-Star break.

With each on pace to hit 50 homers again without the help of PEDs, you can make a case that Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani are the best playing-at-the-same-time duo since Willie Mays and Hank Aaron in the 1960s.

Yankees free agent Max Fried led the majors in wins with 11 against two losses. Detroit’s Tarik Skubal was just behind at 10-2 with a 2.04 ERA to Fried’s 2.27.

News Item – Jurrangelo Cijntje: You think the Ohtani hitter-pitcher story is interesting — how about this Seattle Mariners prospect? And not just for being the rare baseball player who’s from the Netherlands. The 22-year-old is a switch pitcher who held hitters to a .165 average while pitching right-handed and .360 while pitching left-handed. He’ll be strutting his stuff at the All-Star Futures game on Saturday in Atlanta.

The Numbers:

12 – players already have struck out at least 100 times with three more at 99.

… Of the Week Awards

Who’s Hot – Michael Busch: He exploded for three homers on July 4, and the fireworks extended through the whole Cubs line-up as it went for a franchise record eight homers during an 11-3 rout of St. Louis.

Who’s Not – Devers Update: It hasn’t been all roses for Rafael Devers since being traded. He hit .239 (17-85) in his first 19 games out west, which included a streak when he was 1-16 with 13 K’s last week. The power numbers were five doubles, two homers and nine RBI as the Giants went 8-11 during his 19 games with SF.

Random Thoughts:

With Pete Alonso closing in on most homers in New York Mets history it amazes me with 252 that Darryl Strawberry is still their all-time leader 35 years after leaving the team.

Sports 101 Answer: The youngest guy to be the ASG starter wasVida Blue.

A Little History – 1971 All-Star Game: The Oakland lefty was just 21 when he started the 1971 All-Star game, a four-homer game, which included a titanic blast over the roof in Tiger Stadium by A’s teammate Reggie Jackson. Despite giving up three runs in his three innings, Blue got the win when the AL rallied for four in the third, leading to a 6-4 win. It was the AL’s first ASG win in nine years and last until 1983.

Final Thought – Good, Bad and Ugly for the Red Sox at July 4:

At 9-4 with a 2.39 ERA and major league leading 151 strikeouts in 120.1 Garrett Crochet has lived up to the billing, though it would have been nicer if he could have made it to seven innings more than five times in his 19 starts.

Easily the biggest surprise was rookie catcher Carlos Narvaez, who hit .272 with seven homers and 28 RBI in 68 games.

Jarren Duran led baseball with nine triples.

Crochet, Alex Bregman and Aroldis Chapman will represent the Sox in the All-Star game.

The bullpen had a major league leading 11 blown saves to go along with its second-worst 74 errors.

Despite all the nonsense of the first half, the Red Sox were just 2.5 back from a wild card slot on the 4th.

Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress.com.

News & Notes 25/07/10

NH-01

Two Democrats have joined the 2026 race to succeed Chris Pappas in New Hampshire’s District 1 U.S. congressional seat. Christian Urrutia of Moultonborough announced his candidacy July 1 in a press release. “In 2020, [Urrutia] was appointed by President Biden to the Senior Executive Service as Special Counsel at the Pentagon, where he served in the Office of the Secretary of Defense,” the release said. Sarah Chadzynski, whose press release describes her as a “non-profit leader,” announced her candidacy on July 8, according to a July 7 press release. “[Chadzynski] is a founding member of The American Coalition for Ukraine, and she has worked with a number of nonprofits including MedGlobal and Citizen Ambassador Corps,” the release said. With Pappas having announced his run for the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by Sen. Jeanne Shaheen when she retires at the end of her term, several candidates have announced their intention to run for the House seat, including Democrats Maura Sullivan, Stefany Shaheen and Carleigh Beriont and Republican Chris Bright, according to a July 1 Boston Globe story.

Cleanup

The former Concord Stables site, a half-acre property in Concord, has received a Brownfield Cleanup Grant of $678,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, according to an EPA press release from July 1 which discussed a tour of state, local and national officials of the site. “The city plans to use grant funds to clean up the former stables site [which] has been vacant and unused since 1990. The cleanup will include abating hazardous building materials such as asbestos and lead paint in the structure,” the release said. The site on Warren Street was originally built in 1905 and used for city work horses, according to the EPA. Once cleaned up, the space is intended to be used to display Concord’s stagecoaches, according to a Concord Monitor story from June 27. The grant is part of $2 million in Brownfields grants awarded to New Hampshire locations, according to an EPA press release from May. Other sites receiving grants are in downtown Nashua and Milford, that release said.

Big Phish

According to The Medo Minute, a newsletter from the Manchester Economic Development Office sent on July 2, Manchester saw “some 18,000 unique visitors” for the Phish concerts at the SNHU Arena June 20 through June 22, “not including those who attended several shows or were repeat visitors, as well as residents or employees in the area, nearly $8 million was attributed to Phish fans visiting the City, restaurants, retail, hotels, and more.” “Prior to the concerts, some 54% of guests were shopping, dining or exploring Manchester, and 35% continued doing just that even after the concerts let out for the night,” the newsletter said.

New Hampshire Audubon’s Massabesic Center in Auburn will hold an Art Walk in the Garden on Saturday, July 12, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event will showcase “the newly installed All Persons Trail” and feature local artwork for viewing as well as lunch for sale from Greenhouse Pizza Truck, “A Season in the Sun: Photographs from the Massabesic Center’s Demonstration Garden” indoor exhibit (a reception for which starts at 10:30 a.m.) and more, according to the Audubon newsletter. RSVP for this free event at nhaudubon.org/event/art-walk-in-the-garden-2025.

Kids ages 12 and under can brush and floss twice daily — and log it on a form available at nedelta.com/patients/oral-health/oral-health-challenge — to earn two free tickets to specific Oral Health Challenge games days at the NH Fisher Cats at Delta Dental Stadium in downtown Manchester. The upcoming game days are Saturday, July 26; Friday, Aug. 8, and Saturday, Aug. 30. In addition to the two free tickets, additional tickets will be available to participates for $10, according to a Northeast Delta Dental press release. See the website for rules.

An anonymous donor has pledged a $100,000 matching gift for donations made for the renovation of the Early Education Center at the Merrimack YMCA, according to a press release from the YMCA of Greater Nashua. The renovation will modernize classroom spaces, improve accessibility and safety in the facility, expand capacity and more, according to the press release. See nmymcaeec.funraise.org.

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