The Old House & Barn Expo at Saint Anselm College on March 14 and March 15 might at first glance seem like any trade show. There are more than 50 exhibitors, selling everything from wall stencils and paint to rugs and cabinets. Services for homeowners to help bring historic buildings into the modern age while preserving their history are also on offer.
Upon closer inspection, though, it’s much, much more. There are hands-on activities such as plaster repair, and one-on-one sessions with house doctors. An 18- by 18-foot timber frame structure will be built during the event, with ongoing hourly talks about its repair, assembly and disassembly.
There are lectures, 25 in all, held in the nearby Dana Center, that include topics both practical and inspirational, like “Mural Talk: When Walls Take Us Back in Time,” given by Lisa Curry of Canvasworks Design. More pragmatic is Justin Paynter of ReVision Energy talking about integrating solar power and heat pumps into old homes.
The biennial show is the creation of the New Hampshire Preservation Alliance, a 41-year-old nonprofit that is focused on the rescue and revival of important landmarks, and supporting old home and barn enthusiasts in similar efforts. The show, they believe, is the largest of its kind in New England. It was launched 20 years ago; this is the eleventh expo.
“The Preservation Alliance loves this opportunity to get people together,” the organization’s president, Jennifer Goodman, who also helped launch the expo, said by phone recently. “We’re excited that there are a lot of new topics, exhibitors and presenters, in addition to longtime favorites.”
Other hour-long sessions focus on building a modern kitchen into an old house, understanding character-defining features of a dwelling before starting work, and sustainability in historic preservation. A session called “House Histories” is a guide to researching the evolution of an old structure.
There are two panel discussions on the final day, “Celebrating Semiquincentennial Farms: Stewardship and Legacy,” led by former New Hampshire Agriculture, Markets & Food Commissioner Steve Taylor, and “Details Make the Difference,” with a panel that includes a representative from the League of NH Craftsmen.
Speaking of details, there’s a session on architectural millwork led by specialist Brett Hull. “It helps you date a house … so people understand the history,” Goodman said. “What the evolution over time looked like, the different eras and architectural styles, how it was made and used.”
The expo is a multi-generational event.
“It attracts young people looking for their first house as well as older people who might want to find solutions for aging in place,” she said. They’ll find answers to questions about energy efficiency, how to lower operating costs, even paint color and garden design.
There will be experts available to help people figure out how to program new uses into old spaces, build an addition to an older property, or how to use new technology to help with old house care — though old tech isn’t left out. An “Artistry in Iron” session focuses on the history and reuse of antique stoves.
The expo happens every other year and alternates with the Alliance’s statewide historic preservation conference, Goodman said. “That’s more geared toward community leaders who are saving old farms and reviving their local meeting house or trying to find a new use for an old church.”
Goodman has been with the organization for more than two decades. When asked what drew her to it, she replied, “I love the people and places involved in the preservation movement, so it’s been exciting and fulfilling to get to work with people and work on projects that are really special to the character and economy of the state.”
The work is vital, she continued: “I really believe in historic preservation as a tool to save and revive beautiful homes, beautiful barns, beautiful places and communities around the state. I really believe in how the tool is a really important factor in resource conservation and keeping communities vital economically.”
Old House & Barn Expo When: Saturday, March 14, 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and Sunday, March 15, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Where: Sullivan Ice Arena, 100 Saint Anselm Drive, Saint Anselm College, Manchester Tickets: Weekend pass $20 ($12 for students, seniors and veterans); day pass $12 ($7 for students, seniors and veterans)
Featured photo: NH House & Barn Expo. Credit Steve Booth.
A look at the scene built on the music of Ireland and beyond
One in five of all New Hampshire residents have Irish heritage, more than in any other state. Fittingly, there’s a robust Celtic music scene here. Irish Sessiuns — circles of players calling tunes, quaffing pints and finding a melodic flow — gather together regularly at pubs in Concord, Manchester, Greenland and elsewhere.
As St. Patrick’s Day nears, Irish songs are everywhere. Irish music has the highest profile of the Celtic Nations — Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Isle of Man, and Cornwall, in the southwest corner of England, as well as Brittany in northwest France and Galicia in northwest Spain.
The Granite State is home to many great Celtic musicians, and March 17 is their busiest day of the year. But the music is for every season. Regina Delaney, creator and leader of the New England Irish Harp Orchestra, pointed out that her ensemble gets especially busy on the last day of October.
“All the origins of everything that we do at Halloween are from Pagan Celtic rituals,” Delaney said recently from her home in Rochester. “We have so many great ghost songs and stories and things like that. So we do a bunch of Halloween shows.”
New Hampshire will prove its Irish bona fides with long St. Patrick’s Day queues soon enough, but it’s worth thinking of ways to keep the spirit going after.
Some leading purveyors shared their thoughts on Celtic music in New Hampshire. As befits a genre with a catalog of songs dating back hundreds of years, all the musicians made sure to mention the many performers who’d come before them and helped to light their paths.
One name that came up frequently was David Surette, who taught at Concord Community Music School for 30 years, spearheading the development of the folk program there. Surette succumbed to cancer in 2021. He was a gifted arranger of Celtic tunes, as demonstrated on albums like Back Roads and Trip to Kemper.
When Audrey Budington was 9 and taking violin lessons, Surette changed her musical path from classical to Celtic.
“I heard some different music that I’d never heard before coming from two studios down,” she said by Zoom recently. “I didn’t know at the time, but it was Celtic. I kind of peeked in and it was David Surette.”
Surette wasn’t a fiddler, but that didn’t deter her. “I was so enamored of the music that my mom contacted him and was like, ‘Hey, I know you don’t teach fiddle, but could you please at least give her an understanding of that style of music? She’s really into it.’ He started working with me. I learned a bunch of tunes.”
Budington teaches violin and fiddle at CCMS, as does folk department chair Liz Faiella. Liz performs in a duo with her brother Dan, also a teacher and guitarist specializing in Celtic music. “When I was in my early teens I studied a lot of that music with David Surette at the music school,” Dan said in a Zoom meeting with Liz.
Dan pointed out other Celtic greats who lived here.
“Tommy Makem was in New Hampshire for a bunch of years, and Winifred Horan from Solas [at Portsmouth’s Music Hall on March 12],” he said. “There are a lot of really cool people who wanted a lower-key environment, and they wound up in New Hampshire.”
Another musician mentioned by many was Paddy Keenan, who spent several years here before moving back to Ireland.
“He’s probably the most well-known Irish piper in the world; he lived in Loudon,” Jim Prendergast, a guitarist and Celtic music producer who hosts Irish Matinee on Sundays at Stone Church, said recently.
Uilleann piper Anthony Santoro, who leads the weekly sessiun at Salt hill Pub in Lebanon, remembers Keenan performing at the home of Charlie Clarke and his wife, Mary Lou Philbin-Clarke, who sold Irish music books, CDs, videos and cassettes at their Loudon store, Ossian USA.
“They were called the Loft Concerts,” Santoro said by phone. “Whoever was touring through the area would stay with them, and anybody in New Hampshire, or anywhere willing to travel that distance, could come and see whoever was there. There were great players, and Paddy was one of them.”
Santoro is now a partner in Ossian USA with Ruarri Serpa, who took over and runs the now web-based store from his home in Kennebunkport, Maine, but has Granite State roots. “I’ve been playing Irish Traditional Music since I was a kid in rural New Hampshire,” Serpa writes on Ossian’s website.
The thread continues with Roger Burridge, who was a fixture at Salt hill and led a sessiun at Manchester’s Shaskeen Pub before he passed away during Covid. Burridge was beloved throughout the state. “One of the finest fiddle players anywhere, not just New England,” Salt hill owner Josh Tuohy said in 2023.
David Surette. Courtesy photo.
Liz Faiella was studying at Dartmouth, with no plans for a music career, when she joined Burridge, Santoro and players like Roger Kahle and Randy Miller at Salt hill. “I just learned so much through that experience,” she recalled. “The sessiun scene is very often where you’re going to learn the most as an Irish musician.”
Any short list of New Hampshire’s top Celtic players includes Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki. The fiddler was making his mark here before he was a teenager. Liz Faiella calls him an inspiration. “There was this wonderful fiddle contest at Eagle Square in Concord, and Jordan was the big kid who was always winning,” she recalled.
“I began when I was 8, and by the time I was 10 or 11 I was calling myself an Irish or Celtic fiddler,” Tirrell-Wysocki, who’s also a CCMS faculty member, said in a recent Zoom call. “Of all the New England-style dance music that I was learning, it was the Celtic tunes in particular that I was most interested in.”
Jordan T-W, as he’s known, has played in jam bands and lent his fiddle sound to a range of studio recordings, including the blistering “Devil Went Down to Boston” with Adam Ezra Band a few years back. On St. Patrick’s Day his trio performs at Salt hill Pub in Newport in the morning and does an evening showcase at BNH Stage.
His view of the Celtic music world reaches across the pond to include Nova Scotia and fiddlers like Buddy & Natalie MacMaster and Ashley MacIsaac. “Those are technically the traditions,” he said. “It was heavily influenced by Scottish settlers, so that’s why there’s a lot of shared tunes and shared style.”
Mike Green leads Rebel Collective, a rock-leaning Celtic band in the vein of Dropkick Murphys or the Pogues that includes Audrey Budington on fiddle. His definition of the music is more spiritual.
“To me, it’s the songs and the stories of our people,” Green said, along with their struggles.
“The history books are written by the victors, but the songs, music and the arts are written by the suppressed and oppressed,” he continued. “Often when people were singing these songs to tell their truth and freedoms, the musicians, the harpers, and the bards were killed as an effective way to shut it down.”
An oral tradition kept these songs from vanishing.
“They weren’t written down,” he said. “We keep them alive and bring them to new audiences and new listeners. We get to play our role in the continuum of these stories of our people. For me, it has that deep connection to it, and that’s why I just love doing it.”
For Rebel Collective — Green, cofounder Brian Waldron, Ross Ketchum, Connor Veazey, Wayne Summerford and Budington — March 17 lasts all month. Their Rebel Call Stumble includes St. Patrick’s Day appearances at all three Salt hill Pubs, a stop at Manchester’s Shaskeen and a showcase at BNH Stage on March 20.
As they’ve done many times before, the band will play in the first pint at Salt hill Lebanon, and they’ll close out Shaskeen Pub’s annual bash. That gig grew out of a show by Derek Warfield and the Young Wolfe Tones in 2015 at the storied Manchester bar, which was co-founded by a member of the Chieftains.
Green cites Warfield as his biggest influence. When he learned of the show he cold-called Shaskeen owner Josh Ames to offer his band’s services.
“If you need an opener for Derek Warfield, it would be an honor of my life, we’ll do it for free,” he told him. “We took a chance, and we started playing there at least once a year.”
On the other hand, JD & the Stonemasons, a band that will share the stage with Rebel Collective in Concord on March 20, was born by taking a risk. The Newport trio went to check out their local pub, and brought their instruments, just in case — on a Friday night.
“We kind of knew what that meant,” the band’s flute, whistle, banjo and guitar player David Counts said in an interview that included JD Nadeau, who plays fiddle, mandolin and bass. “What are the odds they’re going to actually let a bunch of random people start playing on a Friday night? But to give them credit, they said yes.”
Pub owner Joe Tuohy was impressed enough to bring them back for an encore, and the group, which includes James Potvin on bodhran, harmonica player David Gainer and Hendrik Mahling on bouzouki and mandolin, is now a St. Patrick’s regular at Salt hill, playing all three pubs on the big day.
They’re careful to keep the three-bar circuit from becoming, in Nadeau’s words, the Salt hill Death March. “We’ve been relatively good about behaving ourselves with a drink; that’s the dragon in the cave,” he said. “You’ve definitely got to pace yourself, particularly if you’re going to play a late gig too.”
When it comes to sessiuns, almost everyone has a favorite. For Nadeau and Counts, it’s Waterhorse Tavern in Franklin.
Waterhorse Pub Irish Sessiun. Courtesy photo.
“It’s a great way to learn new songs, and it’s a challenge, too,” Nadeau said. “You meet someone that’s really good and you’re like, ‘Oh, man, I want to play. I’ve got to pick up my guitar.’”
The Faiella siblings and Budington are part of an unofficial house band at Epsom microbrewery Blasty Bough, a tiny pub with a living room vibe. There’s also Pete Van Berkum on button concertina, bodhran player Chris Murphy, Charles Siletti on Irish flute and bouzouki player Anders Larson, who was taught by Dan Faiella.
Larson was playing folk music with his dad and brother when he enrolled at CCMS.
“From there, a few of my teachers introduced me to Irish music,” he said in a phone call the day after the Blasty Bough sessiun. Along with bouzouki, he plays concertina and guitar. “My newest addition is bass; that’s all another music world.”
Weekly Shaskeen sessiuns at age 12 were seminal for him.
“Chris Stevens, an accordion player up in Maine, would drive down,” he said. “One or two times, his buddy Owen Marshall would come down as well. Those two, along with Alden Robinson, were a band called The Press Gang. They are by far my biggest influence.”
Delaney travels to Somerville for sessiuns at the Burren and McCarthy’s, but also occasionally hits the Barley Pub in Concord’s Tuesday get-together, one of the longest-running in the state. “That was the second sessiun that I spent a lot of time at,” she said. “My first band that I was with, we all met there.”
Green hosts Sea Shanty Singalongs twice a month at Canterbury AleWorks and at the Forum Pub in Concord in the afternoon on the final Saturday of every month. Although Green allows the genre isn’t strictly Celtic, it’s an excuse to gather, and many of the selections come from the Irish canon.
“I actually added a song that’s sung in Irish, about the pirate queen, Grace O’Malley,” Green said, noting that he’s mainly focused on sharing these centuries-old songs. “The oldest one we do is from the 1600s … some crazy old sailor happened to live long enough to have it documented and pass it on down.”
Interestingly, a guitar is in many ways a secondary instrument in Celtic music. A good guitarist must know when to pick a lane and merge into the music at a sessiun.
“It’s a completely different approach to playing guitar than any other kind of music,” Jim Prendergast said. “That’s a really big deal.”
Even for a guy like Prendergast who spent years as a go-to guitarist in Nashville studios because he was such a flexible player, adjustment was hard. He had to completely re-learn his instrument for the special tunings and modal structures of Irish music, which is not made for a guitar strumming along.
“It doesn’t need any kind of chordal accompaniment from a piano or a guitar; you’re there to shine different kinds of light on the melody … almost like a theatrical role,” he said. However, “It’s really fun to have the kind of freedom it allows…. You can choose to play a lot, a few, or no chords.”
Almost all the musicians sharing their thoughts have Irish blood, from a little to a lot. Larson is the exception; he’s primarily German and Norwegian. However, all agree that Celtic lineage isn’t required to play the music from the Seven Nations (or six, or eight, or maybe even nine, the number is often disputed).
Jordan Tirrell-Wysocki believes it’s less about heritage and more about personality and attitude.
“Make yourself aware of why this music exists, what historical circumstances helped create it, and where all the powerful emotions … are coming from,” he said. “You become a much more authentic [and] effective performer of the music if you’re taking the time to connect to [its] historical time and place.”
Green sees an advantage in his bloodline.
“It can help draw you in, and you can learn a little bit more about your history and your ancestry and feel a deeper connection,” he said. “But anybody with a background of people that have been oppressed, or had to deal with that, can automatically tap into this kind of feeling.”
Celtic music is universal, Dan Faiella noted, and can be found in all sorts of unlikely locales.
“Italy, Japan, some places in Germany … Russia has some Irish music fans and people play there. I’ve heard from people who tour in those areas that they’ll go to a session and there’s all these people who’ve maybe never been to Ireland and have spent a lot of time studying the music, and the sessions are amazing.”
Finally, Liz Faiella encouraged even newcomers to consider attending a sessiun.
“Even if you’ve learned three tunes, you can join in and play along,” she said. “People who’ve been playing for years will enjoy the same songs that they learned right at the outset. It’s a great way to do something creative and also connect with other people through that.”
Attend an Irish sessiun
Salt hill Pub 2 W. Park St., Lebanon, 448-4532 Tuesdays at 6 p.m.
Waterhorse Irish Pub 361 Central St., Franklin, 671-7118 Fridays at 7 p.m.
Shaskeen Pub 909 Elm St., Manchester, 625-0246 Saturdays at 3 p.m.
The Barley House 132 N. Main St., Concord, 228-6363 Tuesdays at 6 p.m.
The Currier Museum of Art (150 Ash St., Manchester, 669-6144, currier.org) will host Bloom: A Floral Palette today through Sunday, March 15. This exhibition is a collaboration between the Currier and the New Hampshire Federation of Garden Clubs. Garden Club members will create custom arrangements inspired by art at the Currier. Visit currier.org/bloom2026 to purchase tickets for the exhibit. See our story in the March 5 issue of the Hippo in the digital library at hippopress.com. The story is on page 12.
Friday, March 13
Tonight’s Comedy Night at the Tupelo features comedians Mike Koutrobis (pictured), Chris D., and Greg Boggis at the Tupelo Music Hall (10 A St., Derry, 437-5100, beginning at 8 p.m. For tickets, visit tupelomusichall.com.
Friday, March 13
Kimball Jenkins, 266 N. Main St. in Concord, will host a public reception for “Mosaic: A Collective Vision,” a show “celebrating the teaching and studio artists of Kimball Jenkins” tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The exhibition is on display through March 28, according to kimballjenkins.com.
Friday, March 13
Comedian Jim Gaffigan will take the stage at the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St., Manchester, 644-5000, snhuarena.com) tonight at 7 p.m. See the website for tickets.
Friday, March 13
Johnny Cash tribute act Church of Cash will perform at the BNH Stage (16 S. Main St., Concord, 225-1111, ccanh.com) tonight at 7:30 p.m. Tickets start at $38 through the Capitol Center website
Saturday, March 14
The Mosaic Art Collective, 66 Hanover St., Suite 201, in Manchester, will hold an opening reception today from 5 to 7 p.m. for “Women Wize” described as a “partnership exhibition between Mosaic Art Collective and Equality Health Center” that “celebrates Women’s History Month by inviting artists to share works that illuminate the stories, strength, and impact of women,” according to mosaicartcollective.com. The show runs through Monday, March 30.
Sunday, March 15
Firefighters, police officers and first responders from across New Hampshire will take the ice for the Battle of the Badges hockey tournament to benefit the kids and families of Dartmouth Health Children’s. The action will take place at the SNHU Arena (555 Elm St., Manchester) at 1 p.m. See snhuarena.com for tickets.
Sunday, March 15
The Majestic Theatre (880 Page St., Manchester, 669-7469) presents The Rockin’ Daddios, today at 2 p.m., performing songs of the 1950s and ’60s. See majestictheatre.net for tickets.
Sunday, March 15
’90s alt-rock band Everclear will perform at the Nashua Center for the Arts (201 Main St., Nashua, 800-657-8774, nashuacenterforthearts.com) tonight at 7 p.m. Tickets start at $57 through the Nashua Center’s website.
Save the Date! Saturday, March 28 This year’s Queen City Black Market will have an entire day’s lineup of performers and attractions. Listen to live music, see some weird performances, hear a few jokes and maybe even see a ghost before you leave. Queen City Black Market is on Saturday, March 28, at the Manchester Masonic Temple (1505 Elm St., Manchester) from 1 to 8 p.m. See @lustshroom on Instagram for details.
The Big Story – Jayson Tatum: It wasn’t exactly LarryBird coming back out into the Garden after being knocked out cold in a ’90s playoff game vs. Indiana. But there was a definite glad-to-have-you-back vibe from the crowd as Tatum returned after 10 arduous months of rehab on his Achilles. Next best after that was him going for 15 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists in an easy 120-100 win over Dallas as he spent 27 minutes knocking off some obvious rust. Which thankfully shut down the handwringers before they could get started saying the return of the Celtics’ best player could somehow be a bad thing.
Setbacks are the next concern. But assuming there aren’t any beyond routine stuff, the Celtics have 20 games to fine-tune before the playoffs begin. Their chances of winning title 19 took a big leap forward last weekend.
Sports 101: How many of the 12 NBA players to play at least 20 seasons can you name?
News Item – Red Sox Spring Training Update: The Sox start the week with an uninspiring 7-8 pre-season record. The good: JarrenDuran started hot as a pistol by hitting .583 in Week 1 with three homers, six RBI and 18 total bases. The bad: Bad but not alarming was that GarrettCrochet and RudySuarez had identical 5.79 ERAs in their first two starts. The ugly: The overall team ERA in the first 15 games was 6.56.
News Item – Pats Cut Stefon Diggs: The somewhat surprising move frees up $16 million in cap space and eliminates a guy known for his diva-ness, who caused off-the-field issues. But he also caught 85 passes for 1,013 yards so they now have a big hole at possession receiver.
News Item – 2026 NFL Year Begins Today: With the arrival of the new business year the Patriots are now on the clock for fine-tuning their 2026 team. Here’s a snapshot for what lies ahead.
• Needs – (1) Dynamic edge rusher. (2) Dramatic improvement of the offensive line. (3) A game-breaking take-the-top-off-the-D receiver. (4) After the release of Diggs, a reliable go-to for the first-down receiver.
• Cap Room – $59 million.
• NFL Draft – April 23-25.
• Draft picks – Pick 31 in Round 1 and 11 overall.
• Discussed Big-Name Need-Filling Players – Trades – WR AJ Brown. Free Agents – DE TreyHendrickson, WR MikeEvans and lesser-knowns like Indy’s AlecPierce (21.3 ypg) and NYG’s Wan’DaleRobinson (93 receptions for 1,014 yards).
News Item – WBC: Biggest highlight so far was (of course) ShoheiOhtani hitting two homers in his first game. And locally that would be Sox utility infielder NickEaton leading off his first game for Great Britain with a home run.
The Numbers:
29 – losing margin at home for the Celtics vs. Charlotte.
100.4 – miles per hour Sox rookie Payton Tolle threw during a three-inning, seven-strikeout stint vs. the Yankees last week.
… Of the Week Awards
Thumbs Up – The Celtics: For outperforming expectations in the wake of losing Tatum for the first 60 games and four key players for financial reasons.
First Time Ever Happened – Trae Young: I’ve never heard of a guy being ejected from a game before he even played one second for his new team, which is what happened to Young in the first game he was to play for Washington after being traded there while injured a while back. After finally getting healthy he ran on the court during a scuffle with Detroit and was ejected before getting into his first action for the Wizards.
Sports 101 Answer: The 20-year NBA vets are Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Robert Parish, Vince Carter, Udonis Haslem, Kevin Willis, Kevin Garnett, LeBron James, Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Jamal Crawford, Chris Paul and newest in the club KyleLowery.
Final Thought – What Should Pats Do?
Key Strategy– If they are to capitalize on DrakeMaye’s uncanny bomb’s-away accuracy they need guys who can open deep like Pierce and an OL who can give them time to get open.
What They Should Do: Given what N’Keal Harry (12), Ja’Lynn Polk (12) and KyleWilliams (11) delivered in catches as rookies after being drafted in the first, second and third rounds respectively, the Pats brass instead should get their receivers in free agency or trades for guys they know, not hope, can play in the NFL. Giving up a second-round pick for Philly’s speedy AJ Brown makes sense, though 25-year-old free agents Pierce and Robinson offer better financial terms and long-term on-field success prospects while saving draft capital for other fillable needs. Patriot Nation is now hoping EliotWolf can pull off another A+ retooling like a year ago when he hit on WillCampbell (solid till getting hurt), TreVeyonHenderson and kicker AndresBorregales, who were among eight rookie contributors, along with several free agent hits like Diggs and MiltWilliams. They’re on the clock.
In a March 7 online article, WMUR cited Brian Desfosses, the director of public works for Bedford, explaining how potholes happen: “warm temperatures melt snow, leading to water seeping into cracks in the pavement. When the temperatures get colder, that water freezes and expands, weakening the roadway,” the article said. “As the freeze-thaw cycle continues, it could create more potholes this season,” the article said. “The best advice to avoid damage to a vehicle is to slow down and watch the road.”
QOL score: -1
Comment:Consumer Reports says, “Don’t assume a small-looking pothole doesn’t pose a threat: Deep potholes can fill up with water, concealing their true depth.” Search online for “consumer reports pothole survival guide.”
But it’s also (nearly) baseball season!
In a March 3 press release the New Hampshire Fisher Cats announced a new addition to this year’s home games at Delta Dental Stadium. The “Hot Dog Happy Hour” will include “discounted food and beverage deals, live music and acts by local artists [which] will generate a new pregame buzz to the ballpark. Pregame festivities will take place at the plaza near the main entrance of Delta Dental Stadium, next to the Samuel Adams Brewhouse.” Gates open 90 minutes before the first pitch, with Hot Dog Happy Hour scheduled for the first hour of that time.
QOL score: +1
Comment: The Fisher Cats will open their season at 6:30 p.m. Friday, April 3, with a home game against the Binghamton Rumble Ponies. There will be a post-game fireworks display.
More proof that social media is the worst
As reported by Boston 25 news in a March 8 online article, “Residents of a Manchester, N.H., three-family woke up early Saturday morning to a loud kick on the front door in a prank made popular by the social media trend, the ‘Door Kick Challenge.’” Home security video showed a person “sneaking up to the door of the Derry Street building, peering through the window and violently kicking the door before running away,” the Boston 25 report read.
QOL score: -1
Comment:The website Police1.com describes the “door kick challenge”: “Participants — typically teenagers — kick or aggressively bang on random residential doors, often at night, then run away. Though reminiscent of the traditional ‘ding-dong ditch’ prank, this challenge has escalated to significant property damage and real safety concerns.”
QOL score: 54
Net change: -1
QOL this week: 53
What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire?
O’Neil Cinemas in Epping will close after the Sunday, March 15, screenings, according to a statement from the company at epping.oneilcinemas.com. “Changing industry conditions, rising operating costs, and the significant investment required to modernize the theater made it impossible for us to continue operating the Epping location at the level of experience our guests deserve,” the statement said in part. Passes and gift cards to O’Neil Cinemas can continue to be redeemed at the Epping cinema through March 15. and at the O’Neil Cinemas in Londonderry and Littleton, Mass., the statement said. Through March 15, screening tickets for the Epping O’Neil Cinemas will cost $5 (3D and DBox surcharges apply), according to a post on the Epping location’s Facebook post.
Text scam
The New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Division of Motor Vehicles has learned of a new text message scam “in which recipients are asked to submit immediate payment to resolve an unpaid traffic fine. The text messages are fake and should be deleted immediately,” according to a March 7 DMV press release. The texts claim to be “‘automatic alert’ informing recipients they have ‘unresolved traffic violations.’ The scam further threatens prompt enforcement actions … if immediate payment is not made. The scam also provides a link for payment, which includes ‘dmv-nh’ in the URL, an effort to appear to be an official State of New Hampshire website,” the release said. The NH DMV does not send text messages regarding payments and the only texts that will come from the DMV are appointment reminders, the release said. Call 603-227-4000 to talk to the DMV Customer Service line with questions about DMV communication, the press release said.
Give blood, get A1C test
The Red Cross will provide free A1C testing for successful blood, platelet and plasma donations in March, according to a Feb. 25 press release from American Red Cross Northern New England Region. Donors through March 31 can also receive a $15 Amazon gift card, the release said. “New Red Cross data reveals 1 in 5 blood donors have elevated A1C levels — a sign that prediabetes and diabetes are prevalent among adults in generally good health. … Among donors with elevated A1C levels, 80% had readings indicating prediabetes — a condition that can often be reversed through lifestyle changes such as a balanced diet and regular exercise,” the release said. “The A1C test does not require fasting and provides an average blood sugar level over the past three months,” the release said.See RedCrossBlood.org/March for upcoming blood drives and to make a donation appointment.
New Hampshire-based cartoonist, musician and educator Marek Bennett will present his new book, The Civil War Diary of Freeman Colby, Vol. 4: Summer 1864!, the fourth graphic novel of his series about real-life New Hampshire schoolteacher turned Union Army soldier Freeman Colby, at Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St. in Concord, on Thursday, March 12, at 6:30 p.m., according to gibsonsbookstore.com. See marekbennett.com for more on Bennett’s work.
603 Brewery, 42 Main St. in Londonderry, will hold its Fire on Main event Saturday, March 14, from 3 to 9 p.m. featuring food trucks, a DJ, bonfires and more, according to 603brewery.com. See Hippo’s story about the event (originally slated for February before it was postponed due to weather) in the Feb. 5 issue of the Hippo at hippopress.com.
Four-time NBA Champion, nine-time All Star, Robert Parish, who played with the Boston Celtics from 1980 to 1994, will be at Balin Books, 375 Amherst St. in Nashua, on Thursday, March 19, from 7 to 9 p.m. with his new book The Chief, according to balinbooks.com.
