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“Where common memory is lacking, where people do not share in the same past, there can be no real community. Where community is to be formed, common memory must be created.” – George Erasmus, Dene elder I start nearly all of my trainings around diversity and inclusion with this quote. I find it serves as an important reminder of the work needed to genuinely create community. In this emergency, we are in the most unique of places because we are creating common memory. This is not a local, state or even national event; this pandemic and its implications stretch across the globe. There are few, if any, who will emerge without experiencing the pain and disappointment of a world in crisis. Although it may be hard to imagine now, we can emerge from this with more faith and resiliency; we can create not just community but a compassionate community. There are clear indications of how much we are valuing community in this time away. From making masks to holding drive-by birthday parties, neighbors, colleagues and friends are showing the most beautiful parts of humanity. In contrast, those who are displaying individual acts of entitlement and/or violence are met with the harshest of criticisms from their fellow man. Finally, I believe our hearts are open in a way to feel the collective pain and loss we are all experiencing right now. This is why we are breaking down our silos and showing appreciation for all, from the warehouse worker to the doctors within our hospitals, regardless of their social stature and class. We are grateful for each other, even in this time of fear, and we are starting to wake up to the interconnectedness of all. It’s inevitable that we will be looking back on this time to glean important lessons from our time apart that, hopefully, brings us closer together. There will be moments to celebrate, such as rental forgiveness and improving access to health care through telemedicine, and there will be clear holes in our social structure that need to be addressed and remedied. This is our opportunity, through our creation of common memory, to chart a new path forward for our state and for our nation. Some may think that what we are doing right now is radical, and in many ways it is, compared to the history of this nation. But is it the interruption we needed to create the compassionate community that I believe, deep down, we all want? Allyson Ryder addresses social justice issues in a variety of professional and volunteer capacities across New Hampshire. She can be reached at almryder@outlook. com.
APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 VOL 20 NO 15
News and culture weekly serving Metro southern New Hampshire Published every Thursday (1st copy free; 2nd $1). 195 McGregor St., Suite 325, Manchester, N.H. 03102 P 603-625-1855 F 603-625-2422 hippopress.com email: news@hippopress.com
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ON THE COVER 12 HOW DOES THE SHOW GO ON? Local arts organizations are switching to remote learning platforms to keep their students engaged and their businesses alive. Find out how they’re making it work, one Zoom session at a time. ALSO ON THE COVER, now seems like a good time for some kitchen experimentation, and bread-making offers an array of options, from simple quick breads to more complex sourdough loaves, p. 18. If you’re spending your free time outside doing yard work, there’s a beer for that, p. 21. And when all else fails, do a puzzle! You can find a few on pages 27-30.
INSIDE THIS WEEK NEWS & NOTES 4 News in Brief. 6 Q&A 8 SPORTS 10 QUALITY OF LIFE INDEX THE ARTS: 12 VIRTUAL ARTS Plus, the latest arts news. INSIDE/OUTSIDE: 15 GARDENING GUY Henry Homeyer offers advice on your outdoors. 15 TREASURE HUNT There’s gold in your attic. 16 KIDDIE POOL Family fun events this weekend. 17 CAR TALK Automotive advice. FOOD: 18 HOW TO MAKE BREAD In the Kitchen; Weekly Dish; Beer; Try This At Home. POP CULTURE: 22 BOOK, MUSIC AND FILM REVIEWS Amy Diaz looks at movies for and about families, including A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, Troop Zero, John Mulaney and the Sack Lunch Bunch and Uncorked. NITE: 26 BANDS, CLUBS, NIGHTLIFE Comedy in the time of coronavirus, Nite Roundup. 27 & 29 ROCK AND ROLL CROSSWORD Puzzles for the music-lover. ODDS & ENDS: 27, 28 & 29 SUDOKU 28 & 30 CROSSWORD 29 SIGNS OF LIFE 30 NEWS OF THE WEIRD
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Covid-19 updates State health officials reported a total of 715 confirmed cases of Covid-19, as of April 6. According to the state Department of Health and Human Services, 103 of all positive cases, or roughly 14 percent, required hospitalization. A total of nine deaths due to coronavirus complications have been reported. Health officials also said that community-based transmission has been identified in all counties in the state with cases. Several of the new cases are still under investigation, but officials said most have either had travel out of state or had close contact with someone with a previously confirmed diagnosis of the virus. In an April 6 press conference, state epidemiologist Dr. Benjamin Chan said there have been about 50 new cases each day for the past week, and health officials account for about 26 percent of positive cases. An employee of the New Hampshire State Prison for Men has also tested positive for Covid-19, the state Department of Corrections announced in an April 6 press release. The employee last worked in the facility on March 25 and is now quarantined at their home. New emergency orders Eight more emergency orders have been issued by Gov. Chris Sununu in the past week in response to the Covid-19 crisis. On March 30 Sununu issued Emergency Order No. 20, giving temporary wage enhancements of 10 percent to each of the New Hampshire Liquor Commission’s retail employees. On April 1 Sununu issued Emergency Orders No. 21, No. 22 and No. 23. Emergency Order No. 21 is the establishment of the Covid-19 Emergency Domestic and Sexual Violence Services Relief Fund, which will disburse up to $600,000 to domestic and sexual violence crisis centers across the state. Emergency Order No. 22 authorizes emergency funding for child protection services in New Hampshire. Specifically, all family violence prevention specialists in each DCYF office across the state have been moved from part-time to fulltime. The order also includes funding to hire three new licensed drug and alcohol counselors, and the state’s Strength to Succeed program has expanded its age range from children ages 6 and under to ages 10 and under. Emergency Order No. 23 adds modifications to several local government and municipality requirements. Marriage licenses, for example, that are scheduled to expire during the state of emergency are extended 60 days from the end date of the emergency, while vital records requests and applications can be transitioned to phone, online and limited by appointment-only services to encourage social distancing. On April 3 Sununu issued Emergency Orders No. 24 and No. 25. Emergency Order No. 24 is a modification and clarification of Emergency Order No. 4, which temporarily prohibits landlords in the state from issuing eviction and foreclosure notices to their tenants. Under Emergency Order No. 24, eviction proceedings can be HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 4
initiated if the tenant causes substantial damage to the property, if the tenant presents a threat to the health or safety of others living on the premises, or if the tenant abandons the rental unit or space. Emergency Order No. 25 temporarily gives local municipalities authorization to grant blanket abatements for late property tax payments. The temporary prohibition on foreclosures outlined in Emergency Order No. 4 also applies to the late payment of property taxes. On April 4 Sununu issued Emergency Order No. 26, which is an extension of Emergency Orders No. 2 (temporary prohibition of dine-in services on bars and restaurants), No. 6 (temporary authorization of carryout beer and wine sales at restaurants) and No. 16 (temporary prohibition of social gatherings of over 10 people), all of which are now in effect through May 4. On April 6, Sununu issued Emergency Order No. 27, restricting all hotels and lodging providers in the state to services for essential workers and vulnerable populations only, through May 4. These also include all motels, bed and breakfasts, inns, AirBnb and other short-term rental services. Public and private campgrounds do not apply to this order, and are permitted to remain open. The order identifies “vulnerable populations” as children in emergency placements, domestic violence victims, homeless individuals and families, New Hampshire residents who are self-isolating or self-quarantining, people receiving long-term care, people in need of housing due to extenuating circumstances, or people unable to return to their homes outside of the state due to flight cancellations or other direct travel constraints. Details of all Emergency Orders can be found on governor.nh.gov.
Hike at home In an effort to promote social distancing while hiking outdoors, Gov. Sununu introduced the “Home Hike Challenge” during an April 3 press conference. He encouraged everyone wanting to get outside for fresh air and exercise to explore local trails in their area during the state of emergency as opposed to popular hiking destinations like Mt. Major and Mt. Monadnock, which have the potential to attract large crowds. Sununu invited those doing so to post pictures of their experiences on social media with the hashtag #homehikechallenge. Clinical trials A team of researchers at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center is studying a potential treatment for Covid-19, according to a March 31 press release. Dartmouth-Hitchcock is one of approximately 97 clinical sites worldwide testing Remdesivir, “an anti-viral medicine identified by the World Health Organization as being the most promising agent against Covid-19 disease,” according to the release. The medicine was originally used to fight the West African Ebola virus and has shown promise against Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). The two trials
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CONCORD
The Community College System of New Hampshire announced in an April 6 press release that Dr. Susan Huard will serve as interim chancellor in Concord when Chancellor Ross Gittell leaves this spring for a new position outside of New Hampshire. She is expected to serve for about a year while the Board of Trustees searches for a permanent replacement. Meanwhile, Brian Bicknell has been named permanent president of Manchester Community College, according to the release. Tupelo Music Hall in Derry has expanded its family meal and supplies program after a successful first week, according to an April 1 press release from Tupelo. Donated trays of food fed about 300 people that week, and the facility is now also offering grocery items for people who are high risk and don’t want to go to stores. Visit tupelohall.com for an updated list of available items, as well as details on how to order and pickup times.
Hooksett A family from Exeter recently returned home after being stranded in Peru for several weeks due to the Covid-19 pandemic, according to anGoffstown April 2 news release from U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. Shaheen’s office helped Julie Givens, Javier Jimenez MANCHESTER and their three kids get on a flight organized by the State Department to bring AmerBedford icans home. The release said that Shaheen’s office also helped Paul Blaisdell of Northfield return home from Merrimack Amherst a work trip in El Salvador. Milford The Nashua School District has loaned nearly 1,700 Chromebooks to families in need, according to a March 31 press release from the district. The laptops were removed from carts of devices normally used for classroom work and state testing to allow all students in the district to participate in remote learning.
taking place at Dartmouth-Hitchcock are studying how effective the medicine is in patients with moderate and severe Covid-19 disease. “Covid related research is a top priority for our organization,” Leigh Burgess, vice president of D-H’s Research Operations, said in the release. “As an academic medical center we have the tools and the teams to address this evolving situation. Special acknowledgement and thanks to the teams that worked together to open this study quickly and offer these important options for our patients.”
Shop United People who are quarantined, can’t access their usual modes of transportation or do not have caregiver support during the coronavirus pandemic are getting help from the United Way of Greater Nashua, which has launched a program called Shop United to get food to those individuals, according to a press release. People can visit unitedwaynashua.org, enter a shopping list and prepay for groceries, and volunteers from United Way will shop for and deliver the food. The program is available to anyone living in the 11 communities of Greater Nashua, including Nashua, Hudson, Milford and Merrimack. The service is free, and people can pay for the groceries with a credit card or using public benefits like SNAP.
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“Shop United is our response to maintaining the critical pipeline of food flowing into people’s homes during this time of shutdown,” United Way President Mike Apfelberg said in the release.
Prevent child abuse In recognition of April being National Child Abuse Prevention Month, the New Hampshire Office of the Child Advocate released a statement April 1 calling on residents to watch for signs of child abuse and neglect, particularly in light of Covid-19 and the governor’s stayat-home order. “Common stresses known to contribute to child abuse such as economic insecurity, unemployment, limited access to medical and mental health supports and other stressors have been exponentially multiplied with parents out of work and schools closed,” Moira O’Neill, Director of the Office, said in the statement. The state’s Division for Children Youth and Families received approximately 30,000 calls of suspected abuse and neglect in 2018, and based on current risk factors, those numbers should increase this year — yet referrals to the DCYF hotline have been halved, with kids not in school or other public places, according to the release. O’Neill urged neighbors, extended family and anyone NEWS SHORTS CONTINUED ON PG 7
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ZADITOR® ANTIHISTAMINE Remembering Tomie EYE DROPS 5ML Bookstore owner looks back on dePaola’s writing life
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New Hampshire and the world mourn the loss of beloved children’s author and illustrator Tomie dePaola, who died on March 30 at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center in Lebanon at the age of 85 from complications from a surgery following a bad fall, according to the Associated Press. DePaola, who resided in New London, wrote and illustrated more than 270 children’s books during his 50-plus-year career, including the popular Strega Nona series. His books have been translated into more than 20 languages, and nearly 25 million copies of his books have been sold worldwide. Michael Herrmann, owner of Gibson’s Bookstore in Concord, remembers dePaola, who “never missed a year” visiting the bookstore.
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Gibson’s owner Michael Herrmann welcomed Tomie dePaola to the store many times over the years. Courtesy photo.
Strega Nona and Nana Upstairs & Nana Downstairs by Tomie dePaola. Courtesy photos.
What was Gibson’s Bookstore’s relationship with Tomie dePaola? The story I heard was that the folks who owned Gibson’s in the 1970s — Jeff Haight and Annie Mahler — were among the first booksellers to host an event with Tomie, when his career was starting to take off, so the relationship goes back virtually to the beginning. When I bought Gibson’s in 1994 [to] 1995, I was very nervous to meet Tomie — I think I met him at a gallery event in Manchester, but he immediately put me at ... ease and was just a fun and supremely interesting person to know.
match his visual style to the story he was telling. It was like watching a grandmaster solve a chess problem. He was always searching for new color palettes and lines. His art was never tentative. It was always strong, but in a way that fit and was not showoff-y. Have Tomie’s books been a popular sell at Gibson’s? Have you seen an increase in orders for his books since his death? We’ve always had a strong market for Tomie’s books. We’ve had a lot of orders from outside the state since his passing.
What legacy does Tomie leave here in New Hampshire? Tomie was our children’s book writer. He was an artist of the people. I think that New Hampshire in particular loves when a famous, talented person thinks of it as home, comes from away to be adopted by it, and to adopt it in turn. Many beloved literary figures have adopted New Hampshire and have become adopted by it in this way — Tomie, Donald Hall, Maxine How would you describe Tomie? What Kumin. do you remember most about him? Tomie was at once a fun and engaging What are your top five recommended person, almost always with a twinkle in books by Tomie? his eye, and also a very disciplined artist Well, all of the Strega Nona books, and storyteller. He always seemed full of especially the ones where Big Anthony wonder at the rich diversity of the world has issues, but also The Art Lesson, Nana and of the people he would meet. Upstairs & Nana Downstairs, Pancakes for Breakfast, and his Mother Goose. You What is special about Tomie’s literary can’t go wrong with any of them. Tomie and illustrative style? Why are so many wrote hundreds of books, and his batting people drawn to his books? average puts him in the Hall of Fame. Tomie would always find ways to — Angie Sykeny
Did Tomie’s yearly visits to Gibson’s get a lot of attendance? Oh, yes, always — as many people as we could fit into the store, sometimes. Well over a hundred every time, and so many children. We were lucky to be able to draw on the skills of Bob Hechtel, Tomie’s personal assistant of many years, to help manage the signing line.
NEWS SHORTS CONTINUED FROM PG 4
who can to learn to recognize child abuse and report it at knowandtell.org or 864-0216. And, according to a press release from NH Children’s Trust, the trust has created an interactive guide to help families learn more about the virus and includes resources and activities to support parents and caregivers. Find the guide at nhchildrenstrust.org/Covid-19.
Vapers at risk Catholic Medical Center in Manchester is warning people who use e-cigarettes, cartridges or other vaping accessories that they are at higher risk of contracting the coronavirus. In an April 2 news release, Dr. James Flynn, a cardiologist at CMC’s New England Heart & Vascular Institute and president of the New Hampshire Chapter of the American Heart Association, said some young people are under the impression that they won’t get sick with Covid-19. “This is false. Anything that compromises lung function and causes inflammation in the lungs is a huge risk,” he said in the release. “Vaping, smoking or inhaling other irritants causes lung inflammation at any age and potentially puts people at higher risk of complications from infection, regardless of age.” Mobile testing site ends Mobile testing site operations for Covid-19 at the New Hampshire Army National Guard Armory in Manchester have been suspended. In an April 3 press release, the Manchester Emergency Operations Center cited shortages in available personal protective equipment and testing swabs among the several contributing factors in the decision to suspend testing. Testing will continue at hospitals such as Catholic Medical Center, Elliot Hospital and Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, as well as at ConvenientMD urgent care centers. Since March 14 approximately 1,000 people in the greater Manchester area have been tested at the mobile testing site, according to the release. School meals The New Hampshire Department of Education has secured a waiver from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to allow schools to provide meals to students through April vacation, according to an April 6 press release. While some schools in the state are giving students and faculty the week off, others have chosen to work through the scheduled April break at the end of the month. Under normal circumstances USDA would not reimburse school districts for meals served over a vacation week, according to the release. “Our federal school nutrition programs were not crafted with these disruptions in mind,” Cheri White, administrator of the state Office of Nutritional Programs and Services, said in a statement. “This waiver will give schools flexibility to continue to feed students healthy meals uninterrupted, during April vacation.” Spring turkey hunting The spring turkey hunting season in the Granite State remains slated to begin on May 1,
according to a press release from New Hampshire Fish & Game, with the youth turkey hunt taking place the weekend before, on Saturday, April 25, and Sunday, April 26. However, this is subject to change based on the statewide efforts to control the spread of Covid-19. Many licensing agents in the state may be closed or have limited hours. Fish & Game said in the release that it is currently working on potential alternative turkey registration procedures. Updates will be provided once they are available. A New Hampshire turkey license is required for hunters of all ages ($16 for state residents and $31 for non-residents). Hunters ages 16 and older must hold a current hunting or archery license and a turkey permit. See nhfishandgame.com for more details.
Officer-involved shootings Two separate officer-involved shootings were reported in New Hampshire over the weekend, according to press releases from the state Attorney General’s office. The first occurred at White Park in Concord, where police responded to a burglar alarm at its skate house at approximately 11:19 p.m. Saturday, later receiving reports of someone on the nearby ball field with a gun. The suspect, later identified as 22-year-old Dylan J. Stahley of Windsor, N.H., was shot during a confrontation with the police at about 12:15 a.m. Sunday. Stahley was taken to a local hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. He has been charged with burglary, reckless conduct and felon in possession of a firearm. A second officer-involved shooting occurred in Manchester Sunday evening. Police responded to Lake Shore Road at approximately 5:53 p.m. to investigate a report of a truck belonging to 62-year-old Carl D. Manning, who was sought as a person of interest in a fire and explosion that occurred at 27 Dearborn St. earlier that morning and an unrelated violation of a protective and stalking order. A short time after police approached and encountered an armed Manning inside the truck, he was shot during a confrontation and later pronounced dead at the scene. No officers or other civilians were injured and the fire remains under investigation. Cold case victim ID’d The remains of a homicide victim found on the side of a New Hampshire highway more than 50 years ago have been identified, according to an April 6 press release from the state Attorney General’s office. On Aug. 7, 1969, a roadwork crew on the northbound side of Interstate 93 in Salem discovered human remains in a water-filled pit just south of Exit 2. Fingerprints were taken at the time of the autopsy, which showed that the victim was shot several times in the head and torso. But a match could not be made until a criminalist with the New Hampshire Cold Case Unit manually plotted individual characteristics and resubmitted them to the FBI database. The victim was identified as Winston Richard “Skip” Morris of Barre, Vermont, who was 30 years old at the time of his death, according to the release. The investigation into the circumstances of his murder remains open.
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8 With Dianne Davidso
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SPORTS DAVE LONG’S LONGSHOTS
Final thoughts on Brady era
And Bill Weidacher
With the New York Post still running a story A Weekly Podcast a day about Tom Brady Providing buyers and sellers with the leaving, the Patriots knowledge to navigate the evolving saga is not quite done. real estate landscape and to share But for me, I offer my our thoughts on the importance of final thoughts today giving back to our community. before flipping the page to the most interesting Presented by part of this story – what Fine Homes Group International comes next. I’ll do that on NFL draft day, which will someday be called the day Part II of the Belichick era began. First, the real reasons why all involved did what they did: Tom Brady: At 43 he didn’t want to be coached like he was at 25 and given his status/wealth he doesn’t have to. Second, he doesn’t have time to wait for a Pats retooling and needed to get to a team ready to win on Day 1. Bill Belichick: He’s seen every NFL pass Brady’s ever thrown. So he knows Upcoming Episode: better than anyone how much he has left. Finding The Right Agent For You - Part 1 Given this, combined with a messy salary cap and several big offensive holes, he All episodes on demand at concluded a two-year deal to a 43-year-old QB coming off a bad year was not smart. Because if that trend continued he’d be stuck with a 44-year-old QB coming off a bad year in 2021. Or, worse, he’d have to cut him in mid-contract to deal with a PR firestorm far worse than the current one. So he, ahh, passed. Bob Kraft: If he wanted Brady signed, he would’ve been signed. What he really wanted was not to get blamed, and Bill took care of that. Tampa Bay: Spoiled Patriots fans like me won’t be excited with a 9-7 season. But in Tampa Bay, where they’ve been awful State Farm® has a long tradition of being there. That’s one reason why we’re for 20 years, 9-7 is cause for a celebration. proud to support HIPPO. ® They went 7-9 with a QB who threw 30 State Farm has a long tradition of being there. That’s one reason why we’re Like a good® neighbor, State Farm is there.® picks. Brady won’t do that if he plays lefty proud to support State Farm has aHIPPO. long tradition of being there. That’s one reason why we’re – so a two-year deal at a non-extravagant ® neighbor, State Farm is there.® Like good proud to support StateaFarm has aHIPPO. long tradition of being there. That’s one reason why we’re price was a no-brainer. proud support HIPPO.State Farm is there.® Like ato good neighbor, As for what lies ahead: ® Top Story Lines Going Forward: (1) Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. ® What’s Brady got left? (2) Can Bill win without him? (3) Why did Bill not appreciate what he had? (4) Who replaces TB-12? ® Isreason the dynasty kaput? (Honorable menState Farm has a long one why we’re State Farm® has a long tradition of being there. That’s one reason whytradition we’re of being there. That’s(5) tion) Hollywood Henderson was right Lombardi,HIPPO. Agent Lowell A Hart, Agent Rene C LeClerc Ins Agcy Inc proud to support HIPPO. proudDick to support 1837 Elm Street 32 Main Street Rene LeClerc, President about Terry Bradshaw. ® Like a good neighbor, State Farm isRoad there.® Like aManchester, good neighbor, State Farm is there. NH 03104 Salem,A NH 03079 Hooksett Dick Lombardi, Agent Lowell Hart, Agent Rene1100 C LeClerc Ins Agcy Inc What’s He Got Left? I think he’s 75 . Bus: 603-623-4675 Bus: Hooksett, NHPresident 03106 1837 Elm Street 32603-458-1715 Main Street Rene LeClerc, percent of peak. Protection issues played a dick.lombardi.gzl5@statefarm.com lowell.hart.e3tn@statefarm.com Bus: 603-668-0009 Dick Lombardi, Agent reason Lowell A NH Hart, Agentwe’reRene1100 C LeClerc InsRoad Agcy Inc ® one Manchester, NHa03104 Salem, 03079 Hooksett That’s why StateMon-Fri Farm9:00am has long tradition of being there. one reason why we’re to 5:00pm Monday FridayThat’s 9AM - 8PM Mon.-Fri. 9:00am to 5:00pm 1837 Elm Street 32-603-458-1715 Main Street Rene LeClerc, President role in his being uncharacteristically inacBus: 603-623-4675 Bus: Hooksett, NH 03106 Dick Lombardi,HIPPO. Agent Lowell A Hart, Agent Rene C LeClerc Ins Agcy Inc Saturday 9AM-3PM Eve.&Sat. by appointment proud to support Manchester, NH 03104 Salem, NH 03079 1100 Hooksett Road dick.lombardi.gzl5@statefarm.com lowell.hart.e3tn@statefarm.com Bus:LeClerc, 603-668-0009 curate most of the year. But he had only 1837 Elm Street 32 Main Street Rene President ® Hours By Appointment Bus:9:00am 603-623-4675 Bus: Hooksett, NH 03106 Mon-Fri 5:00pmState FarmOther Monday -603-458-1715 Friday 9AM - 8PM Mon.-Fri. 9:00am toRoad 5:00pm ® Like aManchester, good neighbor, is there. NHto 03104 Salem, NH 03079 1100 Hooksett two typical Tom Brady games against dick.lombardi.gzl5@statefarm.com lowell.hart.e3tn@statefarm.com Bus: 603-668-0009 Saturday 9AM-3PM Eve.&Sat. byNH appointment Bus: 603-623-4675 Bus: 603-458-1715 Hooksett, 03106 Mon-Fri 9:00am to 5:00pm Monday - Friday 9AM - 8PM Mon.-Fri. 9:00am to 5:00pm good teams – Pittsburgh and the second Other Hours By Appointment dick.lombardi.gzl5@statefarm.com lowell.hart.e3tn@statefarm.com Bus: 603-668-0009 Saturday 9AM-3PM Eve.&Sat. by appointment Buffalo game. 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to greatness rising to the challenge. Of course, betting against him when he’s got something to prove hasn’t proved to be smart in the past. Can Bill Win Without Him? Contrary to popular belief the most successful QB-coach tandem was not Bill Walsh and Joe Montana, Terry Bradshaw and Chuck Noll or even Bart Starr and Vince Lombardi. It’s Otto Graham and Paul Brown who went to the championship game in their 10 seasons together. And the interesting part that applies to Brady-Belichick is Brown never won even a conference title in Cleveland or Cincinnati after Graham retired. Time will tell if Bill does. What’s the Deal With Bill? The unavoidable truth is leaders have to make unpopular decisions and this qualifies. History shows they don’t all work out, like the Malcolm Butler mystery of SB 52. But In Bill We Trust grew out of his being spectacularly right most of the time – like keeping a not ready for prime time Brady as a fourth QB in 2000. How did that one turn out? Sometimes you have to live with quirky to get the good. Is the Dynasty Done? This one has the haters giddy. But with a projected $100 million to spend going into 2021, I’m betting the haters won’t crow for long. Who Replaces TB-12? I say go with Jarrett Stidham to see what they have. If he can play they have something going forward. If not, it helps the draft position for when they’ll have to draft one in 2021. Hollywood Henderson Was Right About Terry Bradshaw: The Cowboys linebacker famously said in the ’70s, he can’t spell cat if you spotted him the C and the A. Right or wrong, hearing the original TB-12 say Brady left for ego is the pot calling the kettle black since Bradshaw didn’t speak to Noll for 30 years for being mean to him when Noll was his coach. Sound familiar? One Final Thing: $50 million guaranteed is preferable to $25 million. But it’s just one more year. If he really wanted to stay and really believes he can play until 45 then why not bet on yourself and sign the one-year deal? If he delivers, think Bill won’t re-up? No, so he’d have the $50 million. That means leaving had more to do with being tired of Bill’s way, wanting better weapons to fortify his legacy or he sensed a phase-out coming after last year’s stinker, as most 42-year-old QB’s would. Not saying he’s wrong. Just pump the brakes on the Saint Tom routine because he’s doing what’s best for Tom. Ditto for Bill, who from just the football part gave his team the best chance to win long term by doing what he did. Email Dave Long at dlong@hippopress. com.
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NEWS & NOTES
QUALITY OF LIFE INDEX Scouts help out
Girl Scouts in Merrimack and Hopkinton are making face masks for health care workers, according to an April 2 news release from the Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains. Merrimack Girl Scout Samantha Laflotte, 13, is using her 3D printer at home to make masks. Cassandra Rodriguez, 13, also from Merrimack, is making cloth face masks using the instructions in a video posted by Dartmouth-Hitchcock. And in Hopkinton, Hanne Stuke, 12, is making cloth masks and has already donated 70 masks to Concord Hospital. According to the release, the Scouts will donate the masks to St. Joseph Hospital in Nashua, Elliot Hospital in Manchester, Concord Hospital and other health care providers in the area. Meanwhile, the Daniel Webster Council announced in an April 3 news release that the Boy Scouts of New Hampshire and the New Hampshire Hospital Association have teamed up for the “Scouting Supports Hospitals” initiative, a call to action that asks Scouting families to assemble and deliver care packages to local hospitals and to make masks for health care workers. Comment: The Scouts’ donations will undoubtedly be appreciated by New Hampshire hospitals, which, like countless other hospitals across the country, have been experiencing a shortage of supplies needed to fight the coronavirus.
Warm Line offers extra support for families
A free Family Support Warm Line is now available to anyone in the state who could use a little extra support during these “unprecedented times,” according to an April 3 news release from Waypoint. Waypoint, with funding in part from the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services, has created the Warm Line to allow callers to talk to family support professionals for help with issues they might be struggling with, like family relationships, child behaviors and emotional distress. “Callers may need advice or just a trusted, nonjudgmental ear,” says Borja Alvarez de Toledo, president/CEO of Waypoint, said in the release. The Family Support Warm Line number is 1-800-640-6486 and is available Monday through Friday, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Comment: The release notes that this is not a hotline, and anyone with an emergency should call 911.
Ice is out, spring is in
On Monday, April 6, at 8:59 a.m., Dave Emerson of Emerson Aviation declared the “ice-out,” indicating the official arrival of spring on Lake Winnipesaukee, WMUR reported. While flying his plane over the area on Sunday, he noticed dead ice in Meredith Bay and a chunk of ice at the mouth of Center Harbor, which broke apart and melted once the winds picked up and the sun rose the following morning. The declaration of ice-out is a New Hampshire tradition spanning more than 130 years and has been entrusted to the Emerson family for the last 40 years. The ice-out has been declared as early as March 18 and as late as May 12, with the average date being April 19. Comment: The governor’s stay-at-home order does not ban people from being active outdoors, as long as they continue to practice social distancing, so head outside and enjoy the spring weather.
Know an outstanding young leader?
Stay Work Play, an initiative that celebrates and recognizes New Hampshire young people and businesses doing remarkable work in the state, is now accepting nominations for its 11th annual Rising Stars Awards, according to an April 6 press release. The Rising Stars Awards are given to “emerging young leaders and organizations making a positive impact in their communities, and helping to shape the future of the Granite State,” the press release said. The awards look at the most outstanding civic leader, college student, cool company for young professionals, high school student, intern, young entrepreneur and young professional of the year. To nominate an individual or company, visit stayworkplay. org/risingstarsawards. The deadline for nominations is July 10, and the winners will be announced at the Rising Stars Awards ceremony scheduled for Oct. 15. Comment: Now more than ever, it’s inspiring to see young people working to make a difference. QOL score: 63 (the score is temporarily suspended, but QOL will still be keeping tabs on New Hampshire’s well-being each week) What’s affecting your Quality of Life here in New Hampshire? Let us know at news@hippopress.com.
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ARTS How does the show go on?
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Music, theater and arts organizations try to keep their students and some of their revenue By Angie Sykeny
asykeny@hippopress.com
All is quiet at local arts and performance centers, but many of their students are continuing to learn and practice visual arts, writing, dance, music and theater, right from their own living rooms. The Hippo talked with 15 local arts and performance organizations that are using remote education in some capacity, to find out how they are carrying out their missions from a distance, and how the change is affecting them financially.
Remote possibilities
Each arts and performance organization’s approach to remote education, most of which utilize a video conference platform such as Zoom, is unique based on the organization’s mission and the needs of its students. Some, for example, provide pre-recorded educational videos for their students while others live-stream their classes and lessons, or do a combination of both. The New Hampshire Writers’ Project, a nonprofit literary arts organization that provides professional development, resources and community for writers, was one of the first local arts organizations to shift its educational programming, which includes a series of upcoming three-hour writing workshops on various topics, to a remote, live-stream format. “You still get to meet new people and be with other writers in a creative space,” Writers’ Project chair Masheri Chappelle said. “You can present your work and get feedback and have a dialogue just as you would in an in-person workshop.” Some organizations, like Dimensions in Dance and New England School of Dance, both located in Manchester, released recorded educational videos to keep their students busy while they were in the process of developing their live-stream educational programming. “We recorded over 30 classes and uploaded them to YouTube so that our students could take [classes] on their own time, when it was convenient,” Dimensions in Dance director Amy Fortier said. Fortitude for Dance in Manchester hosts a daily live-stream class and uploads pre-recorded classes daily, “in case dancers have too much school work and can’t attend [the live-stream] class on time,” studio owner and director Jacqueline Laferriere said. Wildflower Studios, an arts and crafts studio in Concord, and Southern New Hampshire Dance Theater in Bedford are just a couple of the other local arts and performance organizations that are offering
HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 12
hybrid programming, with both live-stream and pre-recorded classes and lessons. Additionally, some organizations, like the New Hampshire Writers’ Project, are recording their live-stream educational programs and making those recordings available to their students or members in an effort to accommodate those whose schedules and responsibilities at home prevent them from being able to participate in or watch the live-stream. “Generally, we don’t record our workshops, but because of this [coronavirus] situation, we feel that [uploading] those recorded workshops so that our members will have access to those during this time will be something that can really help them,” Chappelle said, adding that the recordings will be available to members through the summer. Arts and performance organizations have also had to decide whether to continue teaching the same curriculum they were teaching prior to the coronavirus-related shutdowns, or to modify or even overhaul their current curriculum to better adapt to the new remote education format. The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, for example, is developing ways to continue offering its regular educational programming, to the greatest extent that it can, remotely, according to Shannon Dodge, registrar and studio coordinator for the Currier Museum Art Center. The museum is working with local schools to replace its traditional school tours with online tours of the galleries, paired with curriculum centered around pieces in the galleries, that students can access from home as part of their regular school’s remote education programming; and the museum’s Art Center will move forward with its spring term, which runs from the beginning of May through early June, as scheduled, modifying its wide array of art classes and workshops to be better suited for a remote format. Nashua Community Music School is offering packages of three remote musical instrument lessons, taught by the students’ usual instructors, “for students who want to keep their skills sharp,” assistant director Tori Caruso said. “[The packages] offer flexible scheduling and a custom curriculum tailored to the needs of each student,” Caruso added. Concord Dance Academy has been uploading new “mini-lessons” on YouTube that include warm-up activities and strength-and-conditioning exercises, while still “slowly going over and reviewing [its] recital choreography,” head teacher Hilary Fuller said. Dimensions in Dance students will con-
Rattlebox Studio. Courtesy photo.
tinue working on the choreography for their production of The Little Mermaid, originally scheduled for May 23 at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. (The Palace Theatre has suspended all of its programming “until further notice,” according to a statement on its website.) “We know that it seems very uncertain when we will be able to perform it, but we want to keep our students’ morale up … and [give them] a focus at this difficult time,” Fortier said.
Easy as A-B-screen
The response from educators, students and students’ parents to this new world of remote learning has been overwhelmingly positive. Some educators reported having no hangups at all when they switched over to the new format. “We made a very smooth transition to online lessons,” said Peter Klapka, owner and artistic director of Merrimack Music Academy. Others, like Bedford Youth Performing Company director Ann Davison, said that implementing the technology and tools required for remote education has been “a learning curve,” but doable. “[These are] challenging times that are calling for creative responses. It takes an enormous amount of planning, creativity, energy and pure dedication to make it work,” Davison said, “... [but] our team has lots of heart. … For us, it’s about the kids, and that is motivation enough.” Though nearly all educators agree that in-person classes and lessons are preferable, some said the remote learning format has changed their perspective on education, given them a renewed energy for teaching and challenged them to experiment with dif-
ferent teaching methods that could prove to be more effective, even for face-to-face instruction. “We are using [remote education] as an opportunity to make music and theater in new ways,” said Robert Dionne, artistic director of Majestic Theatre, a theater performing company and theater education center based in Manchester. “I have ... found that [teaching remotely] has allowed me to take a closer look at the techniques of my students and focus on improving their overall sound and execution.” Generally, remote education may not be ideal, but in some creative forums its drawbacks are negligible. Chappelle said that, in a live-stream New Hampshire Writers’ Project workshop in which she recently took part, she, the instructor and the students were immersed in the “good conversation” being had. “For the whole three hours, it’s like we all forgot where we were. I had to remind [the instructor] twice that it was time for a break. We were just focused [on the workshop], not on where we were,” Chappelle said. “We feel so blessed to have this platform, and fortunate that our mission can easily be translated through this platform.” Remote education can also come with some benefits for students, one being increased accessibility. Finding transportation and child care and other barriers that might make it difficult for a person to attend an on-site educational session are eliminated with remote education. “Being online allows us to reach more people, especially people living in other parts of New Hampshire or even other states,” Chappelle said. Young students are experiencing some positives with remote education as well, especially amid the instability, stress and
13 isolation brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. Several educators emphasized the importance of providing children with a sense of normalcy in their lives during this turbulent time in the world, and allowing them to continue participating in their regular extracurricular activities can play a big part in that. “Kids are looking for connections with teachers and with their friends,” Davison said. “They need routine, to be involved with the familiar, something that they can count on, with so much that is unknown.” Remote education has some perks for parents, too, since many are still getting used to having their children at home with them all day. “I’m getting loads of emails from parents, expressing their gratitude,” said Aaron Jones, owner of Rattlebox Studio in Concord, where he leads music classes and private music lessons for children as young as 5 months. In response to the coronavirus-related shutdowns, Jones is hosting live-stream children’s music classes every day on Facebook and YouTube. “The livestream classes are a way to productively engage children for about 45 minutes ... allowing adults to get some work done, whether it’s for their job, doing dishes or cleaning up around the house.”
Keeping the lights on
For some arts and performance organizations, the loss of revenue, community and resources due to the coronavirus has been immeasurable. “When everything shut down due to Covid-19, I had a moment, thinking, ‘Uh-oh. What, now?” Jones said. “My whole business is based on in-person classes and concerts, and in a few short days I lost months of work.” Jones has been able to financially sustain Rattlebox Studio through public donations made in support of his free daily live-stream classes, and with the tuition fees he charges for his private music lessons, which he is continuing to teach, remotely. Overall, however, among the various local arts and performance organizations, those in the music sector appear to be executing the quickest and most seamless changeover to remote education. “As with many other businesses, we had to react quickly to the coronavirus outbreak and [the] surreal situation it has created,” Klapka said of Merrimack Music Academy. “We were fortunate enough ... [to be] able to switch to online remote lessons and continue with [providing] music education to our students.” “All of our instructors and current Nashua Community Music School students have transitioned to remote lessons,” Caruso said. “Our instructors and families have been so open, flexible and patient.” The theater sector appears to be struggling the most, since the majority of theater organizations’ revenue comes from tick-
et sales for their community productions, and the coronavirus pandemic has led to the cancellation or postponement of all theater productions with dates set during the next several months. The Peacock Players, a Nashua-based theater performing company and theater education center, was forced to cancel its March production, reschedule its May production and cease rehearsals for all productions and performance troupes entirely. “We were already a healthy organization, financially; however, this pandemic will hurt us, greatly,” artistic director Keith Weirich said. “We are attempting to remain as flexible as possible ... and [develop] new technologies and outlets, as well as fundraising efforts, to help support our organization during this economic crisis.” “It has been a challenging time for us,” Dionne said of Majestic Theatre. “I [performed] a ‘virtual piano [and] virtual cabaret’ [show] ... to help raise some much needed funds to help us maintain our essential expenses. People really responded generously, and we were able to ... keep our lights on and utilities paid until we can offer performances again.” Organizations offering classes and lessons in the visual arts, such as Kimball Jenkins School of Art in Concord, are also experiencing some hurdles, given that some of the art forms taught in their curricula, like ceramics and printmaking, require the use of on-site equipment and hands-on instruction and assistance. “Classes like that just can’t be moved to an online format,” executive director Julianne Gadoury said, “so we’re trying to find more art forms that will be accessible for people to work with in their homes, and that our instructors will have the capability to teach online.” Additionally, Kimball Jenkins and many other of the aforementioned arts and performance organizations decided that it would be unfair to their students to charge the same tuition fee for remote education that they charge for in-person education, and are therefore offering their remote programs at a discounted rate, further contributing to their loss of revenue. “[Kimball Jenkins’ financial state] will all depend on the enrollment [in the school’s remote education programs],” Gadoury said. “We have essentially no income right now. Any revenue that we were to get right now would be used to help us pay for utilities and to pay our staff.” Gadoury and a number of other arts and performance organization leaders said they are “crossing their fingers,” hoping that the negative impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the local arts community will not persist long enough to interfere with their organizations’ summer camp programs; summer camp is easily their largest source of income every year, many said, and they are counting on that income to get back on their feet.
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The latest from NH’s theater, arts and literary communities
• Remote Poetry Out Loud state championship has a winner: According to an April 2 press release from the New Hampshire State Council for the Arts, Sydney Kilgore of Concord High School has been named the winner of New Hampshire’s 2020 Poetry Out Loud High School Championship. Adyant Shankar of Nashua South High School was named the runner-up. Poetry Out Loud is a national poetry recitation program open to all high school and homeschool students in grades 9 through 12. More than 9,000 New Hampshire students from 40 high schools and homeschool groups participated in this year’s program. The state championship is usually held at the Statehouse but this year finalists submitted videos of their poetry recitations to a panel of judges. Traditionally, the state champion is awarded an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C., to compete in the national championship but that event has been canceled this year. Kilgore will still receive a $200 prize, and her high school will receive a $500 stipend to buy poetry books. Shankar will receive a $100 prize and a $200 stipend for his school. Visit nh.gov/nharts. • The Palace Theatre gets new tech: In its spring newsletter, sent out April 2, The Palace Theatre (80 Hanover St., Manchester) shared details about its new 34-foot-wide, 19-foot-high LED video wall that was installed by the theater’s tech crew and Gateway Construction in February. “[The video wall] is an incredible addition to The Palace Theatre that will be sure to enhance all future performances, from concerts and tribute shows to our professional shows,” the newsletter stated. The video wall was premiered in the theater’s mainstage production of Mamma Mia! which ran for two weeks before the theater had to cease all of its programming due to the Covid-19 pandemic, so only a small number of patrons have had the chance to experience it, but among those patrons the video wall got positive reviews, the newsletter said, and the theater looks forward to sharing its new feature with a wider audience once it reopens its doors. Visit palacetheatre.org. • A conductor’s book and music picks: The Nashua Public Library (2 Court St., Nashua) has invited Symphony New Hampshire music director Roger Kalia to be its Reading Radar celebrity for April and May. Every couple of months the library chooses a local celebrity and publishes a Reading Radar page on its website featuring that celebrity’s favorite or recommended books and music albums.
Symphony New Hampshire music director Roger Kalia. Courtesy photo.
“As a conductor, the music that I conduct is connected to many different historical topics, and it is extremely important to dive into each piece from a variety of angles,” Kalia said in his personal statement on the Reading Radar page. “Reading a variety of books makes me a better conductor … and I am always looking to learn more.” Kalia’s list of books includes The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (1950) by C.S. Lewis, The Call of the Wild (1903) by Jack London, Angels & Demons (2000) by Dan Brown, Where the Wild Things Are (1963) by Maurice Sendak and more. His list of music albums includes the soundtrack to Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1942), Kind of Blue (1959) by Miles Davis, Mahler: The Complete Symphonies (2017) as performed by Simon Rattle and Berlin Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the soundtrack to Game of Thrones (2011) by Ramin Djawadi and others. Visit nashualibrary.org/connect/reading-radar to see Kalia’s full lists and his personal comments about each book and music album. • The symphony comes to your living room: In response to the Covid-19 stayat-home order, the Portsmouth Symphony Orchestra is going virtual with a series of four different weekly live-streams hosted by PSO musicians, aimed at both youth and adult audiences. The “PSO Virtual Experience” series will include “LIVE in your Livingroom,” a live concert held on Sundays at 3 p.m.; “Dinner and Dessert,” a program for kids in which musicians talk, teach and play music, held on Saturdays at 10 a.m., with live performances at 10:30 a.m. by student musicians; and “Midday Maestro Lunch-in Symphony 101,” a talk from PSO artistic director John Page about the symphony as a genre and the music written for it, held on Wednesdays and Sundays at noon. The live-streams will be shown on Facebook, with recordings of the live-streams available on YouTube. Visit portsmouthsymphony.org. — Angie Sykeny
INSIDE/OUTSIDE Summer blooms
15
Plan and plant now
By Henry Homeyer
listings@hippopress.com
If you’re home from work and chomping at the bit to just do something, planting some bulbs now for summer blossoms might be just your ticket. I recently got some calla lilies and sword lilies and planted them in pots. Calla lilies come in various colors and sizes. The blossoms are hard to describe: they are often called trumpet-shaped, but they aren’t really. Each is an asymmetrical trumpet called a spadix with a yellow spathe inside. The spathe is a narrow pointed protrusion made of tiny flowers. You’ve seen a spathe if you’ve looked inside a Jack-in-the-pulpit. Grocery stores often sell pots of short callas with pink blossoms, or taller white ones. These beauties are not true lilies at all, but members of the Arum family, which includes Jack-in-the-pulpit, skunk cabbage and the house plants dieffenbachia and philodendron. Calla lilies are perennial in warm climates but, like dahlias and gladiolas, must be dug and brought inside before the winter here. They are relatively inexpensive. I paid $12.99 for three big rhizomes (a bulb-like modified stem) at Gardener’s Supply (gardeners.com). Now is the time to start some calla rhizomes indoors. The calla rhizomes I planted were, at first, mysterious. Unlike daffodils or tulips, they had no obvious top or bottom. No pointy end to go up. But I did a little research and found that the smooth, rounded side goes down and the gnarly side (covered with little bumps and protrusions) goes up. They should be planted 3 to 5 inches deep and given a square foot of soil surface for three bulbs. I planted three calla lily bulbs in an 11-inch pot, which is a little crowded according to the recommendation on the package. Others I planted solo in 6-inch pots. In either case it’s important to have good deep pots full of rich potting mix. I had saved plenty of last year’s
The smooth side of a calla lily goes down. Photo by Henry Horneyer.
Sword lilies are easy to grow, and very fragrant. Photo by Henry Horneyer.
This elephant ear plant should get huge this summer. Photo by Henry Horneyer.
potting soil at the end of the season, and I mixed it with equal quantities of composted cow manure and added a tablespoon of organic fertilizer. Later I will occasionally add some fish and seaweed fertilizer to the water I give my calla lilies. Everything I read indicates that calla lilies like rich soil and plenty of moisture. That contradicts what I have seen: In Portugal I saw wild calla lilies growing in dry places with poor soil – including right alongside railroad tracks. What is certain is that they do best with plenty of sunshine, six hours or more per day. One of my favorite summer bulb plants is called a variety of common names: peacock orchid, sword lily, or fragrant gladiolus (even though this plant is not an orchid, a lily or a gladiolus). That’s why I like Latin names. If you ask for Acidanthera murielae, plant-knowledgeable people around the world will know what you mean. But for now, I’ll refer to it as sword lily. The sword lily has long, narrow leaves — like swords — that stand 18 inches or more tall. The blossoms are white with deep purple markings in the center of the six-petaled flower, along with a little yellow at the very center. You get two or three blossoms per stem, and
they are enticingly fragrant, particularly in the evening. Like the calla lily, sword lilies are tropical so we can grow them here, but they won’t overwinter outdoors. But the corms (bulbs) will survive in a 60-degree location all winter, and you can re-plant them next year. I have planted them in the ground, but I favor them in pots because they are so fragrant. They are wonderful on the deck. According to the directions, you can plant a dozen bulbs in a square foot of soil. So I planted a dozen in a 12-inch pot, each bulb 3 to 4 inches deep. You can plant them directly in the soil, of course, but I like starting them early for a mid-summer bloom instead of a fall bloom. Other summer bulbs include gladiolus, crocosmia, ranunculus and best of all, elephant ear. Those are all delightful plants, each with its own requirements and benefits. All need plenty of sun and to be brought inside before winter. But in the space remaining, let me say that in Cameroon, West Africa, where I spent nearly four years as a young man with the Peace Corps, elephant ear was a food staple. There it was called cocoyam, and it was the corm,
or bulb, that was boiled, pounded and served as a main dish with a spicy sauce and perhaps a little meat. Elephant ear leaves get huge — three feet long and half as wide. The leaves are also edible, and substituted for the non-existing Tupperware container in Cameroon. Just wrap your lunch in a leaf, tie it up, and go off to the fields. They produce no noticeable flower. Because of my long association with elephant ear, I often grow it. It likes full sun and wet soil, or at least moist soil. I have grown it in the ground, but mostly grow it in a pot. I have had one all winter, indoors. I had cut it back in the fall and thought it might stay dormant, but it has been growing in a west-facing window, though the leaves are very small now. You can order corms and plant them now. Each bulb can weigh a pound or more. So if you are suffering from cabin fever, get some summer-blooming bulbs and a bag of potting soil, and get going. It’ll give you something to look forward to!
came from. They could just be decorative adornments from the turn of the century for a fancy piece of … what? That is the question. The value to them is really not your question, but just being birds makes them useful to a decorator for another piece, so I would say they could be in the $20 range. Now where to look for another? You could try a salvage place, flea market, barn sales or online. If you could refinish it or cover where the third one was with something else, then just using the two could be another option. Your
hunt could be tough, or maybe you will be lucky and find one.
You may reach Henry by email at henry. homeyer@comcast.net. He is a UNH Master Gardener and the author of four gardening books.
INSIDE/OUTSIDE TREASURE HUNT
Dear Donna, I actually have two questions for you. Can you tell me anything about these two metal pieces? They were for a piece of furniture that had three, but I only found these two. Any information and where I can possibly find another one? They are 7” x 3”. Dan Dear Dan, Those look so sweet! Being vertical instead of horizontal makes them interesting, but it’s tough to give you an answer without seeing the piece of furniture they
Donna Welch has spent more than 30 years in the antiques and collectibles field, appraising and instructing, and recently closed the physical location of From Out Of The Woods Antique Center (fromoutofthewoodsantiques. com) but is still doing some buying and selling. She is a member of The New Hampshire Antiques Dealer Association. If you have questions about an antique or collectible send a clear photo and information to Donna at footwdw@aol.com, or call her at 391-6550 or 624-8668.
Courtesy photo.
HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 15
16 INSIDE/OUTSIDE
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The New Hampshire Audubon is helping people stay connected to nature. Each week they’re hosting a series of videos: on Tuesdays at 3 p.m. it’s “Hands On with NH Audubon” with an educational activity, on Wednesdays at 10 a.m. it’s a storytime featuring a children’s book about nature and on Thursdays at 10 a.m. it’s a live animal Q&A with educator Shelby Morelli, featuring one of the Audubon’s animal ambassadors, according to the nhaudubon.org (where you can find instructions on how to access the events live and later). The website also features information about birding from your backyard including tips for responsible birding. And you can go into actual nature (keeping in mind all the rules about social distancing and avoiding crowds) at the Audubon’s 39 wildlife sanctuaries across the state. Find a listing and trail maps on the website. And do some bird-watching without going outside by checking out the NH Audubon’s Peregrine Falcon cam, which broadcasts the goings on of the falcon nest at 1750 Elm St. in Manchester. On April 6, a peregrine falcon could be seen hanging out in the nest with a group of eggs.
Any time is movie time
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HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 16
• While most new wide-release movies have been pulled from the schedule, Trolls World Tour (PG), the sequel to 2016’s Trolls, is still slated to premiere this Friday with release for home viewing on the same day. Anna Kendrick, Justin Timberlake and many more of the original voices return for this animated movie about the big-haired, pop-music-loving trolls whose new adventure includes the introduction of other musical-genre trolls. The film will cost $19.99 for a 48-hour rental. (For more films for families or about families, check out this week’s film section, which starts on page 24.) • Get kids movies for absolutely nothing through Hoopla, a service that streams audiobooks, music, ebooks (including comic books) and movies and is often a part of your library membership. Children’s movie offerings (of which there are 1,714, according to my Hoopla search) include Elmo and Sesame Street specials as well as specials from other PBS shows (such as Wild Kratts and Cat in the Hat) and wide-release films such as 2004’s Ella Enchanted. You can also find cartoons of many popular children’s books, including several Mo Willems books. Many area libraries are issuing library cards online, so you can still get access to your town’s
Trolls World Tour
offerings even if you haven’t checked them out before. • Speaking of author and illustrator Mo Willems, he completed a run of 15 videos called “Lunch Doodles with Mo Willems” on Friday, April 3. Find all of them archived at kennedy-center.org/education/ mo-willems. • Red River Theatres in Concord (redrivertheatres.org) can help you fancy up your family home movie night. Get printable tickets, a marquee and popcorn labels by emailing info@redrivertheatres. org or on their Facebook page. For grownup movie night: the theater, like art house theaters around the country, is taking part in virtual cinema — purchase a “ticket” to screen the movie at home and a portion of the ticket price goes to the theater. See available films on the theater’s website.
If you do doodles...
• Speaking of New England-based authors offering doodle opportunities, add Jarrett Lerner, author of Enginerds, to the list. On Lerner’s website, jarrettlerner.com, find comics-related printables including blank comic pages and “Finish this Comic” pages as well as writing and drawing prompts in the “activities” section. Find other activities and chapters from one of his books on his blog. (A child drawing comics is not a child asking for snacks or fighting over toys with their siblings.) • In addition to Willems’ doodle instruction and Lerner’s comics activities, check out New Hampshire author Marty Kelley’s website (martykelley.com), where the “Fun and Games” page features three printables with illustration prompts, including one that has a series of comic strip boxes. Marek Bennett, New Hampshire-based musician, cartoonist and educator, has videos on his website that could appeal to comics creators of all ages, including the highly useful “Set Up a Blank Mini-Comic” and more. See marekbennett.com, and then go to “Teaching” and “@ Home and Beyond.” Patreon memberships offer supporters extras.
17 INSIDE/OUTSIDE CAR TALK
It’s best to shoot for a better-than-average rating
Dear Car Talk: Hi, I love your lousy radio show! I am 6-foot3 with long arms, and am in my 50s, so things are starting to hurt. I don’t fit well in most car seats — they’re too small for me By Ray Magliozzi and encourage a slumped posture that hurts my back. I like the Ford F-150 seat; it lets me sit fully upright. However, I am seeing reports of poor reliability of the F-150 for the past 10 model years or so. Just how bad is the reliability? Thank you. — Creaky Scott Well, as recently as 2014, the F-150 got an “average” rating from our favorite consumer magazine — the one that collects extensive data on reliability. That’s three out of a possible five stars. But even average isn’t that great. Remember what the great George Carlin said: “Do you ever think about how stupid the average person is? And then remember, by definition, half the people are stupider than that.” OK, that’s completely irrelevant here, but it was a good excuse to quote George Carlin. In terms of cars, we’ve found that most people are not happy with average reliability. It sounds OK, but when your average car breaks down, you get miffed. So we generally recommend that our readers and listeners try to buy cars with good reliability. Or at least bet-
ter than average. Here’s the bad news, Scott. Since 2014, the F-150 got two out of five stars for reliability one year, and one star all the other years. Oof. The Dodge RAM 1500, the new version of which is wonderful to drive, had a couple of years when it reached up to three stars, but otherwise falls below that, too. The Chevy Silverado gets mostly ones and twos. In contrast, since 2014, the Toyota Tundra got one three-star rating (in 2017), one four-star rating (in 2016), and the rest are five out of fives for reliability. If reliability is a priority for you, Scott, I’d see how you like the seat of a Toyota Tundra. But try to take a good, long test drive. Or if that’s not possible, ask if you can just sit in the truck for an hour, then see how your back feels. A 10-minute once-around-the-block may not actually tell you how your back will respond to owning the vehicle and spending hours in that seat. If the Tundra seat passes your test, I’d lean toward one of those. But if the F-150 is the only truck that really suits you, get one and put aside some money in a repair fund. It might be a little cheaper than back surgery. Dear Car Talk: I have a 2013 Camaro with the V-6 engine. When I changed the spark plugs, the old plugs from cylinders two to six were light tan in color, but plug No. 1 was dark and sooty.
The engine seems to be running fine. Is this a problem to worry about? — Michelle I’d worry a little, Michelle. When a spark plug is black, that’s usually a sign that there’s incomplete combustion in that cylinder. And when it gets bad enough, it’ll turn on your Check Engine light, and might even create a misfire. You’re not there yet, but you’ll likely get there eventually. The cheapest and easiest thing it could be is a bad spark plug. If a spark plug isn’t firing hot enough or is badly misgapped, it won’t combust all the fuel and you’ll be left with a coating of black soot. So now that you’ve replaced the plugs, check them in 30 days and see if No. 1 is getting black again. If it’s clean the next time you check, then all you had was a bad spark plug, and you’re all set. If it’s black again, then the next thing I’d test would be the coil. This car has what’s called “coil on spark,” where there’s a coil on top of each spark plug. If that coil isn’t sending enough voltage to the plug, you’d get incomplete combustion. Since you changed the plugs yourself, you sound like a do-it-yourselfer, Michelle. It’s pretty easy to test a coil by simply swapping two of your coil packs. Switch the coils from cylinders No. 1 and No. 2, and check back in 30 days. If your No. 2 plug is now getting black, then you’ve identified your bad coil, and you can just buy a new one for about $40.
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If the blackened plug still shows up in cylinder No. 1, next on my list would be a bad fuel injector. Each cylinder has its own fuel injector to spray in the precise amount of fuel at exactly the right moment. If your No. 1 injector is leaking, or its spray pattern is messed up, too much fuel can be sent into that No. 1 cylinder, and not all of it will be combusted. You’d test the fuel injector the same way you test a coil, by swapping two of them. But, unfortunately, getting to the fuel injectors is a lot more involved. So if you’ve got a free weekend — or better yet, a nice holiday three-dayer — you can dig in and try swapping around two of the injectors. Then check back in 30 days and see which plug is black. On the other hand, if you’re going to go through the trouble of removing the intake plenum, the fuel rail and all the wiring, you might want to just go ahead and buy a replacement injector for $150 or so, and replace the No. 1 injector while you’re in there. Once you’ve ruled out the plug and the coil, there’s a pretty decent chance that the injector is what’s causing your problem. Or if that all sounds like too much trouble, you can wait until your Check Engine light comes, like most red-blooded Americans would, and then let your mechanic figure it out while you spend the weekend watching Netflix. Visit Cartalk.com.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT
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HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 17
18
FOOD Got time? Make bread
With stay-at-home bread making on the “rise,” local bakers share tips and tricks By Matt Ingersoll
News from the local food scene
By Matt Ingersoll
food@hippopress.com
• Farewell to Matbah: After nearly four years in business, Matbah Mediterranean Cuisine in downtown Manchester has closed its doors. Owners Omer and Cigdem Yasan made the announcement in an April 2 post on the restaurant’s Facebook page, thanking their customers, friends and family members for the support over the years. “We have enjoyed our time on Elm Street and we hope to see you again someday when there are better conditions,” the post read. Specializing in authentic Ottoman-Turkish cuisine with Greek, Italian and French influences, Matbah won several awards over its nearly four-year run, including Best International Cuisine in Hippo’s 2019 readers’ poll. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the eatery switched to takeout-only on March 17 before the Yasans made the decision to close for good two weeks later. Matbah is at least the third New Hampshire restaurant forced to permanently close as a result of the economic challenges of the coronavirus, after both The Joinery Restaurant in Newmarket and Lure Bar & Kitchen in Portsmouth made similar announcements last month. • Bottled up: As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, Contoocook Creamery, known for its farm-fresh milk distributed in glass bottles, has changed its packaging to include milk in plastic jugs, according to a press release. The change is being driven by its retail partners’ no longer being able to handle bottle returns due to coronavirus concerns. Grocery stores across the state are now carrying the plastic bottles as of April 6. Its signature products, Contoocook Creamery at Bohanan Farm in Hopkinton produces several flavors of bottled milk, including skim, half and half, chocolate, coffee, strawberry and blueberry. Visit contoocookcreamery.com. • Doire Distilling recognized: Derry’s Doire Distilling received two bronze medals from the American Craft Spirits Association’s 2020 awards, co-owner Andy Day recently announced. In a virtual ceremony streamed on the Association’s website on March 30, Doire Distilling was awarded one bronze medal each in the whiskey (for its Prototype peated whiskey) and vodka and grain spirits (for its Spud Slight vodka) categories. Both products were among the more than 500 entries evaluated by a group of more than 30 expert judges at Cardinal Spirits in Bloomington, Indiana, in October. Other categories from the 2020 American Craft Spirits awards included brandy, gin, rum, specialty spirits and ready-to-drink cocktails. HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 18
mingersoll@hippopress.com
Even though she’s had to put her bread baking classes on hold, Cheryl Holbert of Nomad Bakery in Derry has never before seen such a growing interest in the craft. “I’ve taught bread baking for a long time, and until this crisis, people who might have been skittish about baking bread are just going right in and not even thinking they can’t do it, which is kind of neat to see,” Holbert said. “There does seem like there’s this movement of returning to baking in the home … and there’s nothing like the house smelling of fresh bread.” In fact, according to a March 24 report from Google Trends, the word “bread” as a search term recently reached an all-time high in the United States. New Hampshire ranks among the states with the highest volume of searches over the last several weeks, the data shows. If you’ve been thinking lately about getting your hands in the dough, read on for some tips and tricks from local bread baking experts on sourdough, enriched and quick breads.
Bread basics
The quality of its four basic ingredients — flour, water, salt and yeast — is key to baking any bread successfully, according to chef Chris Viaud of Greenleaf Restaurant in Milford. “I would go for any kind of unbleached flour, a nice salt and a treated or filtered water,” Viaud said. “Unbleached flour is going to have more nutrients compared to bleached flour, which has all kinds of chemicals put in it to extend its shelf life.” If you’ve never baked bread before, Viaud said he recommends starting with a yeasted dough. There are two types of commercial yeast used as a leavening agent for bread: active dry yeast and instant yeast. Active dry yeast is the most common type you’ll find in grocery stores (although, as with many baking ingredients at the moment, yeast can be harder to find in stock at some stores). “Instant yeast typically works really quick, while active dry yeast extends the rising time,” Viaud said. “I’d go for the active dry, because I like to let the yeast ferment in the dough longer. I’ll usually let it develop overnight.” Sourdough bread baking in particular has been a hot topic among Holbert’s customers and class students as of late.
Her No. 1 seller is her country sourdough, which uses half organic whole wheat flour and half organic bread flour. “It is one of the healthiest breads because of the microbes in it,” she said. “It’s basically good bacteria like you would find in any kind of gut food like yogurt, pickles or cheese.”
Start some starter
If you don’t want to use a commercial yeast, or if you can’t find yeast at the store, you can make a sourdough bread starter in your own kitchen. The process involves combining equal parts flour and water and “feeding” the mixture, or continually adding the same amount of flour
Photo courtesy of Chris Viaud of Greenleaf Restaurant in Milford.
Sourdough bread Courtesy of Chris Viaud of Greenleaf Restaurant in Milford (yields one loaf) Note: About 6 to 8 hours before you plan on making the dough, use your starter to build your levain. Discard ¾ of your active starter and feed the remainder with one cup of water and one cup of flour. After the 6 to 8 hours the levain should be active and ready to use. Weigh out the amount you will need for the dough and the remainder will be the starter you can continue to feed and use for future batches. 402 grams (or about 3¼ cups) all-purpose flour 38 grams (or about ⅓ cup) wheat flour 325 grams (or about 1⅓ cups) water 11 grams (or about 2½ teaspoons) salt 132 grams (or about ½ cup) levain In a large mixing bowl, mix the two flours and water by hand. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 45 to 60 minutes. Spread the levain and salt over the dough. Pinch and fold to fully incorporate. Cover with the towel. Every 30 minutes for the next hour and a half, pick up a corner of the dough, and stretch and fold into the center until all sides have been folded in. Lightly wet your hand with warm water to prevent sticking. After the last fold, let the dough proof on
the countertop for 12 to 14 hours. Dust your work surface lightly with flour and place the dough on the table. Bring each corner of the dough to the center, flip the dough and roll into a smooth ball, dusting your hands with flour if needed. Place the dough in a floured bowl for proofing with the seam side down. Allow to proof for about an hour and 15 minutes. When there is about one hour left in the proof, place a Dutch oven with its lid on it into the oven and preheat to 475 degrees. Cut a round piece of parchment that is one inch larger than the width of the Dutch oven. When the dough is roughly doubled in size, invert onto your lightly floured work surface. Using the tip of a very sharp blade, such as a paring knife, make a cut off to the side of the dough, working from the top end to the bottom. Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and set on the stove top. Use a bench scraper to lift the dough and transfer to the round piece of parchment. Grab the loose ends of the parchment and carefully drop into the Dutch oven without touching the sides. Put the lid back on and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake for an additional 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a cooling rack for at least two hours before cutting into it.
19 and water, over a period of several days to attract wild airborne yeast. Although this fermentation process can take time and patience, Holbert said, it’s what ultimately creates the flavor profile of the bread. Start with one cup each of flour and water and store in any type of container that can be partially left open with a lid. You can use any type of flour you want — Holbert said she even likes to use a combination of flours like whole wheat and bread flour. There are many variables involved, from the time of day you feed your starter to the temperature of the room you’re working in, but Viaud said a general rule of thumb would be to add a cup each of flour and water each day, within about 18 to 20 hours each time. “You want to discard about three quarters of it each time you feed it, and average room temperature is perfect,” he said. “You’ll see a lot of action after about seven days. Bubbles will form and gluten strands will develop within the container.” If it’s possible, Viaud said, he recommends having at least a six-hour window of time to feed your starter one last time before you’re ready to start building your dough. The active starter you use in your dough is often called the levain — once you weigh out the amount you need for your bread, the remainder of the starter can be used for future batches as long as you continue to feed it. Storing your starter in the refrigerator can help slow this down, feeding just once a week as opposed to every day.
Rolling in the (sour)dough
Bill Woodman of Woodman’s Artisan Bakery in Hooksett said using a digital kitchen scale that measures in grams is effective in weighing your bread dough portions due to its precision. “You can get scales pretty much anywhere. Being able to use a scale … will just make that process a lot easier, and it’s definitely much more accurate,”
Woodman said. When following any standard bread recipe that involves mixing flour and water that will later be added to the levain, Viaud said he likes to knead the dough and then let it rest for at least 45 minutes to an hour after combining in a bowl. “That process is called autolyse, and basically what that does is it allows air pockets to develop and will give the bread a nice crust,” he said. After you add the levain and salt to your dough, Viaud said stretching and folding the corners with your hands toward the center further helps allow the entrance of air. You can lightly wet your hands in warm water before doing this to prevent them from sticking to the dough. When that’s done, you can form the dough into a smooth ball and allow it to “proof,” or rest to develop its flavor, according to Woodman. Different recipes will have different recommended proofing times. A Dutch oven or similar cooking pot works great for baking sourdough. “It allows the bread not only to steam but to also be encapsulated by the surrounding heat, so you build that nice crust,” Viaud said. “It helps keep that shape you’ve worked so hard to form too.”
Enriched breads
Beyond the basic flour, water, salt and yeast, any bread that uses additional ingredients is known as an enriched bread, according to Holbert. An example of this would be challah, a Jewish braided bread popular around the holidays that also uses eggs, sugar, oil and honey. “Challah has almost like a taffy pull. It has a much more delicate crust and it leavens a lot quicker,” Holbert said. “You can bake challah in a day as opposed to taking several days to make sourdough, though you can also use a sourdough starter to make it.” Making challah involves portioning the dough as several small balls that you’ll roll out in the shape of a rope, creating
Banana bread Courtesy of Bill Woodman of Woodman’s Artisan Bakery in Hooksett 1 whole medium-sized banana 3 teaspoons buttermilk ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract ½ cup sugar ¼ cup brown sugar 1 egg ¼ cup canola oil ⅔ cup bread flour ¼ teaspoon salt ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon baking powder ⅛ teaspoon cinnamon 3 tablespoons walnuts
Use a mixer to combine banana, vanilla and buttermilk until banana is broken up. Combine the sugar, brown sugar, eggs and oil in a bowl until well incorporated. Combine all the dry ingredients and add to the wet ingredients, mixing until halfway incorporated. Add the walnuts and continue mixing until incorporated. Fill an 8x4-inch pan about three quarters full and bake at 350 degrees until golden brown (about 50 minutes to an hour).
Photos courtesy of Chris Viaud of Greenleaf Restaurant in Milford.
the braided design of the bread. Braiding challah can take practice, as you must gently cross each rope-shaped strand of dough over, twisting them together and pinching each end without tearing it. “You’ve got to do each braid and try to fold it up, and you can just bake it on a regular sheet tray,” Woodman said. “You want to proof it in a steamed environment, so what you can do is get a pot of water, boil it on the stove and then let it sit inside the oven for an hour, hour and a half.” Brushing the top of the braided challah with egg wash is popular, but Holbert said you can also do this with maple syrup to achieve a caramelization. Brioche, another enriched bread, is baked with eggs, sugar and butter and can make great dinner rolls or burger buns, Viaud said. He’s also made challah using a brioche recipe.
Quick breads
If you don’t have the time for artisan breads, quick breads like banana or zucchini bread can be fun too, especially because most of them don’t need yeast to bake, according to Woodman. “With quick breads, you’re usually using baking powder or baking soda, and that sort of mimics what the yeast would be doing with sourdough, that chemical leavening,” he said. The absence of yeast means less time and skill required to make a simple quick bread, combining the mixed wet and dry ingredients and baking your dough in a small loaf pan. “The only thing I would say is to not overmix it, because it could make it tough,” Woodman said. “Some people are more comfortable doing breads like that, maybe adding bananas, nuts or chocolate chips. It’s a lot more user-friendly.”
Brioche Courtesy of Chris Viaud of Greenleaf Restaurant in Milford (yields one loaf with a little dough left over) 175 grams (or about ¾ cup) cold water 330 grams (or about 2 ⅔ cups) all-purpose flour 50 grams (or about ⅓ to a ½ cup) wheat flour 5 grams (or about ⅓ tablespoon) salt 6 grams (or about ⅓ to a ½ tablespoon) yeast 50 grams (or about ⅓ to a ½ cup) sugar 1 large egg 97 grams (or just under a ½ cup) room temperature butter Add water, butter and egg to the bowl of a stand mixer, then add the remaining ingredients. (Adding the wet ingredients first helps prevent the flour from clumping to the bottom of the bowl). Mix on low speed for 20 minutes to develop gluten structure. Use a non-stick spray to coat a container that can hold double the vol-
ume of the dough. Proof in the refrigerator overnight for up to 20 hours. Flour your work surface and weigh out the dough into 500 grams using a kitchen scale, to fit an 8.5x4.5 loaf pan. Remaining dough can be used for dinner rolls or burger buns. Roll the large dough into a ball, then roll into a log a little less than the length of the pan. Coat the loaf pan with non-stick spray. Place the dough into the pan and place in a warm draft-free area, allowing to proof until three times its original size. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. For a nice crust, use an egg wash to brush over the top of the dough before baking. When the oven is ready, place the bread in and bake for 40 minutes until nice and brown. Remove from the pan and allow to cool on a resting rack for at least one hour before slicing. HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 19
20 FOOD
IN THE
Kitchen
What celebrity would you like to see eating at your restaurant? Gordon Ramsay. If I’m going to be criticized by anyone for my cooking, I would want the most critical person, and it’s him.
WITH KEN MOSHER
salad. What is the biggest food trend in New Hampshire right now? It seems that people just want to be more aware of what they’re eating.
Ken Mosher of The Country Chef (944 Gibbons Highway, Wilton, 654-1086, thecountrycheWhat is your favorite thing on your What is your favorite thing to cook at frestaurant.com) oversees a menu of classic menu? home? comfort foods, from burgers and sandwiches Probably the corned beef Reuben. I corn I grill and smoke a lot. I like smoking to appetizers, breakfast entrees and platmy own beef for it, so it’s very fresh and brisket or ribs. ed dinners. Since opening late last year, The flavorful. Typically it comes with fries or a — Matt Ingersoll Country Chef has become a popular eatery among local residents — among the biggest sellers, according to Mosher, are the seafood offerings, like baked stuffed haddock, Chunky chili Courtesy of Ken Mosher of The Country Chef in Wilton fish and chips, and baked stuffed shrimp, as well the sandwiches and burgers, which include fresh corned beef brisket Reubens, 2 pounds chuck, cut into one-inch cubes Brown the chuck in a six-quart Dutch oven. steak bomb and chicken Parmesan grinders, and eight-ounce Angus beef burgers. Spread ground beef on a baking sheet. Cov1 pound ground beef A Rhode Island native, Mosher previously owned the former Red Rock Bar and Grill 2 cups green bell peppers, chopped into er with chili powder and cumin and cook at in the Ocean State town of North Kingstown. The Country Chef is currently offering ¾-inch pieces 350 degrees until browned. Add onions, peptakeout on Wednesday and Thursday from 3 to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 2 cups onion, chopped into ¾-inch pieces pers and jalapenos to Dutch oven and cook noon to 10 p.m., and Sunday from noon to 6 p.m., until further notice. What is your must-have kitchen item? Having the right pans to cook [with].
dumplings, with a nice cold beer.
What is your favorite local restaurant? What would you have for your last meal? I don’t really have one. I really don’t go I would probably have chicken and out to eat much.
TRY THIS AT HOME Baked apple fritters
If you’re a fan of apple fritters, you may fritters. These delightful breakfast treats are
1 to 3 jalapeno peppers, to taste diced 4 tablespoons chili powder 2 tablespoons cumin 1 cup beef stock 1 28-ounce can ground peeled tomatoes 1 29-ounce can kidney beans 2 teaspoons kosher salt, to taste
chance that you have all of the ingredients on hand. If you don’t have cider, replace it with milk for the glaze. It won’t change the flavor enough to make a difference. Make a batch of these fritters; they’re sure to satisfy your sweet tooth and put a smile on your face. And you can do both of those things from the comfort of your kitchen. Baked Apple Fritters Makes 16 fritters 1½ cups all-purpose flour ½ cup brown sugar 1½ teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 1½ teaspoons cinnamon 6 tablespoons cold butter, diced 1½ cups diced apple 1 large egg 5.3 ounces vanilla yogurt, 1 single-serving size container 2 tablespoons milk 1½ cups powdered sugar 3 tablespoons cider 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
Baked apple fritters. Photo by Michele Pesula Kuegler.
have contemplated making them at home. However, the task of deep frying can be daunting, both in dealing with hot oil and in the cleanup after it. No longer do you need to have those concerns! Now you can make apple fritters at home with less angst. Allow me to introduce you to baked apple HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 20
really quite simple to make. Plus, the reward for the effort comes in the form of a warm from the oven, coated in sweet glaze, edible product. These fritters are almost irresistible. (Scratch the almost; they actually are irresistible.) Take a quick peek at the ingredient list, and then check your pantry. There’s a decent
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, and 1½ teaspoons cinnamon, stirring well. Add the butter with a pastry blender, two
until onions are translucent. Deglaze with beef stock. Add drained ground beef and spice. Add tomatoes and simmer for 45 minutes. Add beans and salt and simmer for 20 more minutes. The chili yields about 12 servings (leftovers are even better the next day, according to Mosher).
Michele Pesula Kuegler has been thinking about food her entire life. Since 2007, the Manchester resident has been sharing these food thoughts and recipes at her blog, Think Tasty. Please visit thinktasty.com to find more of her recipes.
forks, or your hands until coarse crumbs form about the size of peas. Gently stir in the apples. In a small bowl, whisk together the yogurt and egg. Add the yogurt mixture to the flour mixture and mix to combine. Add milk 1 tablespoon at a time until the batter forms a ball when stirred. Place a heaping tablespoon of batter on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until they are golden brown and fully cooked through. Remove the fritters from the oven, and allow to cool for two minutes. Transfer the fritters to a cooling rack with a layer of parchment paper under it.* In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, apple cider and 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon. (The glaze should be thick.) Spoon the glaze over each fritter and let it drip down the sides. Eat at once. (Very messy, but worth it!) *Reuse parchment paper from baking.
21 DRINK
Yard work and beer
You’re not going anywhere, so grab a rake and a beer By Jeff Mucciarone food@hippopress.com
In the midst of yet another child meltdown last week, my wife said, “People aren’t meant to spend this much time together without a break.” Look, I don’t know if that’s been proven scientifically, but the sentiment feels spot on, and I’m inclined to just agree with my wife no matter what right now for my own survival-related reasons. Every time I see a hashtag about how we’re all in this together, my immediate thought is, “Believe me, I know.” Families and spouses couldn’t possibly be more together right now. So, OK, you can’t really “get away” at the moment, but you can go outside and get some stuff done in the yard. And you probably should do that because, regardless of the current global pandemic, it’s just that time of year — spring cleaning time. Your lawn needs raking, probably some fertilizer and maybe some seeds. You probably have a buildup of branches that have come down over the winter that you’ll need to cut up and hopefully burn in a glorious blaze. You’ll need to clean out the leaves and debris that have built up around your bushes and flower beds. The list goes on. The point is, it’s time to get outside and breathe in the fresh air, cross something off the to-do list, and then relax with a beer. Here are four brews that would be perfect rewards for a job well done: Double Dry-Hopped Hop Weave by Resilience American Ale Project of Schilling Beer Co. (Littleton) Schilling produces any number of brews that would be tremendously appropriate as a reward for, say, raking all the thatch out of your lawn. This is an exciting IPA that blends big tropical fruit notes with some piney flavor. This complex IPA would be a perfect choice to enjoy while sitting in a plastic Adirondack chair as you survey just how beautiful your lawn now looks. This comes in at 8 percent ABV so take it slow. Downtown Coffee Brown by Throwback Brewery (North Hampton) I’m a well-established sucker for brown ales and coffee, so finding a brew that brings those two things together is a wonderful thing for me. While I haven’t personally tried this one, I imagine myself savoring the roasty, nutty and coffee flavors of this brew while I burn up brush — is there a better springtime pastime? Also, bonfires can be perfect for social
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gatherings that still maintain social distancing as you and your neighbors can easily keep six feet apart as you relax by the burning embers at the end of the day. Brown ales are perfect for fires — fact. Town Pound Porter by Concord Craft Brewing Co. (Concord) This brew is rich, creamy and packed with rich chocolate flavor. This is not overly heavy, but this has a decadence to it. The chocolate flavor is pronounced but this is not a sweet brew and, because of that, I think this porter has considerable range to it. Sure, it could be your dessert beer, but I think it goes just as well with a burger or a big, juicy steak. S.M.A.S.H. Lager by Portsmouth Brewery (Portsmouth) With the acronym standing for “Single Malt And Single Hop,” this brew’s beauty is in its simplicity. When you’re outside all day working hard, you don’t always want to think about your beer. You just want it to be good and easy. And this is that: crisp, clean and flavorful. Jeff Mucciarone is a senior account manager with Montagne Communications, where he provides communications support to the New Hampshire wine and spirits industry.
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What’s in My Fridge Finestkind IPA by Smuttynose Brewing Co. (Hampton). This is a beer I keep coming back to time and time again. It’s not the biggest IPA or the most unique or frankly the best, but it’s consistently quite good and extremely well-balanced. I pick up nice citrus notes but I think the piney character is what stands out for me, and after spending more time than I’d care to admit raking up pine needles it felt awfully appropriate. Cheers!
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HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 21
POP CULTURE
Index CDs
pg22
• Anna Burch, If You’re Dreaming A • Lynn Anderson, Cry A+ BOOKS
pg23
• Enter the Aardvark A • Book notes To let us know about your book or event, email asykeny@hippopress. com. To get author events, library events and more listed, send information to listings@hippopress.com. FILM
pg24
• Troop Zero B • A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon A • Uncorked B • John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch A
22
MUSIC, BOOKS, GAMES, COMICS, MOVIES, DVDS, TV AND MORE Anna Burch, If You’re Dreaming (Polyvinyl Records)
The vibe laid out by this Detroitbased folkie evokes a more waifish Waxahatchee, a strummy mixture of influences led mostly by Fiona Apple, or so Burch claims. She’s no iron-throated edgelady like Apple, though; more of a traditionalist who won’t bore you to tears with dull attempts at portraying a sad weirdo. “Party’s Over,” the opening song to this, her second album, is prettily captivating, combining 1950s Everly Brothers hollow-body guitar with sleepy Lana Del Rey vocals in a successful effort to make millennial relationship-angst interesting again. “So I Can See” is a surprisingly catchy, openly friendly ’60s-pop jaunt in which her mandolin-emulating acoustic guitar fits her reverb-dipped vocals perfectly, and by then it’s pretty much impossible not to mention Carole King as a songwriting comparison. She’s the real deal, in other words; the only way I could see her failing is because the list of wonderfully talented female buskers seems to be growing bigger by the minute. Barring (probably inevitable) schedule changes, she’ll be at Great Scott in Boston on Aug. 8. A — Eric W. Saeger
Lynn Anderson, Cry (Legacy Recordings)
Country music diehards are well-versed in the career of this legendary singer, but upon the official digitally remastered release in March of Lynn Anderson’s two 1972 records (this one and Listen to a Country Song) by Sony’s Legacy imprint, her accomplishments could undoubtedly serve to inspire women of newer generations. I think of her as the prototype from which modern female pop-country sprang; the world might have never been made fully aware of Dolly Parton, to name just one, if Anderson hadn’t bulldozed a path for her, this by being the first female country singer to appear on the Tonight Show (1970), the first to headline a sold-out Madison Square Garden (1974), all those things. Cry opens with the universally known 1951-written title track, a hint of bossa nova belying the sadness of receiving a breakup letter. “Never Ending Song of Love” (which had been introduced to the world only the year before by Delaney & Bonnie) follows, a sturdy example of what drove Anderson’s pop-country crossover appeal. The closer, “We’ve Got to Get It On Again,” is a gospel-pop nuke, in which Anderson becomes nothing less than Superwoman. “Essential” is far too limp a word for this masterpiece. A+ — Eric W. Saeger
PLAYLIST A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases • April 10 is a Friday, which means new CDs are scheduled to be released. Don’t worry, I think it’ll just be another Friday of new album releases, but instead of meeting your friends at the pub to talk about how awesome suchand-so album is, you folks will instead listen to those albums alone, and then post Instagrams about how awesome such-and-so album is, then go back to sitting in front of some boring English-dubbed Netflix series you’ve already seen, all while wondering how many cans of Dinty Moore it will take to keep yourself fed until Sanjay Gupta finally announces, while never blinking his eyes, “OK, no more apocalypse, everyone get back to your shifts.” Now, if you’re a balding millennial, the album you’re probably most looking forward to is The New Abnormal, from The Strokes. I know we’re all supposed to love everything The Strokes do, because they’re like so totally indie gods, or at least they were when there was a glimmer of hope for mankind a few years ago, but the new single, “Bad Decisions,” from this album, is a wanton mashup ripoff of two ’80s tunes, specifically Modern English’s “I Melt With You” and Billy Idol’s “Dancing With Myself.” No, really, go listen to it, it’s like a smushing together of those two antique rock ’n’ roll songs, tunes you only hear nowadays when you get your teeth cleaned. The video rips off Nirvana, if that’s any consolation. • Pretty sure I already complained about the new Lady Gaga album, Chromatica, but she’s pushed back the release date, according to USA Today, and will announce a new release date soon. In the meantime, we can talk about Joe Satriani’s new album, Shapeshifting, because hot guitar licks! Joe is a guitar god, so in case you’re too much of a normal and cool person to have ever tortured yourself with guitar-god-rock, I’ll let you know that the tire-kicker track from this new album, “Nineteen Eighty,” is a totally rockin’ thing, like he does a totally awesome and rockin’ Eddie Van Halen “deedledeedledeedle” thing for like a full minute, then the bass comes in for like three seconds, and then Joe pushes the bass player aside and totally owns rock itself with this wicked cool melodic blues-metal thing, and there’s no singing. If you want to know how nauseating this is, the first comment on YouTube is from someone who says, “If Marvel ever does a Silver Surfer movie, Joe needs to be composer.” So, you get it, right full rudder and all ahead flank yourself away from this brain-damaging monstrosity, peeps. • What else, what else. Oh look, it’s an album from ’80s band The Dream Syndicate, called The Universe Inside. I wonder if it’ll be like a boring version of Nick Cave, like the old days, or maybe they’ve added accordions and kazoos to be more indie? Ah, here’s a sample tune, called “The Regulator.” It is 20 minutes long, built on one groove. Since I refuse to spend 20 minutes trying to identify the various nuances, I fast-forwarded and came to the conclusion that the average Yo La Tengo tune is cooler than this. Yep, write that down, I would rather listen to Yo La Tengo than this. Dark days, guys, dark days indeed. • Finally, we have Trust the River, the new one from Texas-based band Sparta. The only reason I’m bothering with this is that I have no idea who these guys are, aside from their being an art-punk band, and I like art-punk bands. Hey, this single, “Empty Houses,” is pretty cool, sort of like early U2 in a lot of ways. Godspeed, Sparta, whoever you are. — Eric W. Saeger Local (NH) bands seeking album or EP reviews can message me on Twitter (@esaeger) or Facebook (eric.saeger.9).
Retro Playlist Eric W. Saeger recommends a couple of albums worth a second look. Quite a few bands have co-opted the Led Zeppelin sound over the last few years and had some success with it. Actually it’s been a lot longer than that, if you count Whitesnake and the hilarious Kingdom Come. The worst one of all, of course, is The Darkness, an act that sounds like a talking horse singing over riffs that were so lousy that they wouldn’t have even made it onto Zep’s worst album, In Through the Out Door. HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 22
A couple of fairly recent albums have done a great job exhuming the Zeppelin sound and expanding on it. Without a doubt, the best one was Fantastic Negrito’s 2018 LP Please Don’t Be Dead. That album was masterminded by former Prince wannabe Xavier Dphrepaulezz, apparently the only hard rock musician who recognizes that the secret to making good Zep is to add oddball influences to their boilerplate hard rock. Where Zeppelin relied on early 1900s blues-masters like Leadbelly to thicken their core concept, Dphrepaulezz went further, builing on
the recipe by adding spirituals, toasting, and other little-known black-culture staples. I have no idea why Greta Van Fleet is semi-famous and this guy isn’t, but life ain’t fair. Another Zep-like joint you should know about is Band of Skulls’ 2009 full-length Baby Darling Doll Face Honey. Back when it came out, I was in total disagreement with the Pop Matters critic, who saw the tunes as too mishy-mashy, apparently because he couldn’t wrap his head around the fact all three members contributed to the songwriting while evincing vastly different
hard-rock influences. This British band is no Negrito, but their melodic pastiche is unique and quite awesome, acid-rock for people who don’t think Jack White has all the answers. If you’re in a local band, now’s a great time to let me know about your EP, your single, whatever’s on your mind. Let me know how you’re holding yourself together without being able to play shows or jam with your homies. Send a recipe for keema matar. Email esaeger@cyberontix.com for fastest response.
23 POP CULTURE BOOKS
Two pages into Jessica Anthony’s Enter the Aardvark, you think it might be one of the worst books you’ve ever read. Thirty pages in, you think it might be the best. It’s neither, as it turns out, but pleasingly inventive and wickedly smart, and a welcome distraction from the miseries at hand. Alexander Paine Wilson (R-everywhere) is a Reagan-obsessed, sexually conflicted congressman who believes America should formally split into two parts: Republican and Democrat. (“You know that Fox will go crazy for it.”) In D.C., he lives in a townhouse outfitted with a $4,125 shower head, a $339 towel and $6K in assorted unused stuff from Williams-Sonoma (reminding us of the recent real-life Twitter hashtag #eattherich). He also has a pair of Reagan’s former cufflinks, American flags, that he paid $5,900 for and wears only at debates. As we meet Wilson, he is consumed with the upcoming election, in which he is being challenged by a middle-aged married mom named Nancy Beavers. (“Your platform is Bachelor and her platform is Children, and you are trying to wrap your brain matter around the fact that many people who should constitute your electorate will actually trust Nancy (expletive) Beavers more than they trust you simply because she has children.”) But then his life is upended by a taxidermied aardvark that is delivered to his front door with no note or return address. It is an aardvark he has met before —
at the home of a man with whom he recently had a tryst. Puzzled, Wilson sets out to return it, while deciding at the same time that it’s time to take his staff’s advice and find a wife. Mayhem ensues, mayhem that eventually involves Nazis and an impeachment hearing, which is all that can be said of that without spoilers. The antics of Congressman Wilson, however, are just one half of this splendidly plotted novel, which pivots nimbly from present-day America to 19th-century England, with every chapter. The aardvark herself, “marvelous humpbacked, profoundly clawed,” is a character in her own right, and a mystery that has to be unraveled. (Why, for example, did the naturalist who first obtained her commit suicide?) The stories of the naturalist and the taxidermist who stuffs the aardvark (a man for whom taxidermy is not so much a profession as it is a prayer) eventually entwine and intersect with happenings more than a century later. The taxidermist, Titus Downing, also unmarried and childless (parallel alert), is so obsessed with his work that he almost absorbs the persona of the animals he works on. With the aardvark, he “can almost feel the scrabble of the loose soil as she thrusts her spoons into the earth to begin burrowing, the dirt smells of sugar, he can almost taste the nectar of termites now on his own sticky tongue until morning arrives and enter the bark, the soft piggy squeal: don’t wake me in daylight!” A note about the opening, which, at first, reads like something you would
get if an encyclopedia mated with a dictionary. Excerpt: “within the oceans are vast trenches paralleled by islands, which are cool rock formations from the hot lava varietals sludging obscenely over the mantle, itself now a whole globe of unmappable graywacke and chert.” But read it twice, and the meaning and the genius and beauty of the words become clear. It is the first chapter of Genesis for what is to follow, an unorthodox telling of the planet’s origin, which morphs seamlessly into the naming of the aardvark, or “earth pig,” in 1875. The pace of the novel is brisk, as if Anthony (a former butcher and masseuse who lives in Maine) and her publisher
BOOK NOTES Americans have no appetite for anything unrelated to the novel coronavirus, as evidenced from the offerings of the nation’s major news outlets. As such, a number of books related to pandemics and vaccines are enjoying a resurgence on Amazon and elsewhere. If you can’t get enough of this stuff, here are three to consider: The Vaccine Race, by Meredith Wadman (Viking, 2017, 361 pages; paperback by Penguin in 2018) is the book you want to read if you want to be the smartest person in the room for the rest of the year. It takes you from Philadelphia homes quarantined for measles early in the 20th century to the Ebola vaccine, and explores the people and politics, and the tragedies and triumphs, of vaccine development. The American Plague, by Molly Caldwell Crosby (Berkeley, hardcover, paperback, audio, 2006). I read this during the height of Zika, which is all but forgotten, but it’s a memorable and engrossing look at another viral scourge that has eerie resonance today. “A virus is one of the smallest beings in evolution’s survival of the fittest, mutating and coalescing in order to thrive, its ultimate goal being epidemic,” Crosby begins. In 1773 yellow fever disrupted all of American life, even moving the capital from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C. It killed more than 100,000 people, many in New England. Chillingly, Crosby reminds us that even after a vaccine is
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developed, the threat it was supposed to vanquish can return. The Great Influenza, by John M. Barry (Viking). It’s 560 pages in hardcover and was published in 2004, but The Great Influenza, the story of deadly flu of 1918, is a top 10 seller on Amazon this week, for obvious reasons. It’s unavailable in paperback as of this writing, and some used hardcovers are going for more than $100, but it’s available in audio and electronically. Finally, if you have, in fact, had it with all things virus-related, and want a Covidfree light read this week, new in paperback is Wow, No Thank You (Vintage, 336 pages), a collection of humorous essays by Samantha Irby, whose We Are Never Meeting in Real Life was well-reviewed in 2017. Irby’s reflections on ordinary snippets of life are a merry riot, as when she talks personal grooming (“I use Neutrogena body oil because you can get a giant bottle super cheap at Target and it smells like rich people”) or going out with her wife and being asked by the bartender if it’s Moms Night Out: (“Me: Excuse me, I have tattoos, Jeff. Him: Oh, my goodness ma’am, I’m so sorry, I just saw the fluid collecting at your ankles and assumed —”) Funny stuff, and paperbacks are in stock pretty much everywhere, no price gouging. Order from your local bookstore if you can. — Jennifer Graham
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knew we’d have no time for the frivolous in the spring of 2020; its tone, bawdy, as if they knew we needed a break from 24-7 domesticity and its tedious virtues. There are a few poignant and dark moments, but plenty of mirth. Satisfyingly, the book also skewers much of American culture that needs skewering like a shish-ke-bob. An added benefit: After reading this novel, you’ll know more about aardvarks, and taxidermy in general, than all of your friends. Enter the Aardvark is the novel we didn’t know we needed two months ago. As things are, it’s not just a fine comedic book, but a public service. A — Jennifer Graham
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HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 23
24 POP CULTURE FILM REVIEWS BY AMY DIAZ
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon (G)
reaching all parts of its audience. This movie comes from Aardman Animation of Wallace & Gromit and Chicken Run fame and like those properties Farmageddon had that claymation, stop-motion animation look, which works just perfectly with the kind of story it’s telling and the tone of good-natured adventure that runs through the movie. This one is a true family-friendly winner from top to bottom. A Rated G. Directed by Will Becher and Richard Phelan with a screenplay by Jon Brown and a story by Mark Burton and Nick Park, A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon is an hour and 26 minutes long and is distributed by and available on Netflix.
A mischievous sheep helps a lost alien in A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon, a movie that truly is all-ages appropriate.
There are a few moments of very light sadness and an extremely mild villain, but this basically dialogue-free movie feels like a rare bit of entertainment that really does work for anybody old enough for, say, PBS’ Wild Kratts (and actually this movie’s villain is far less villainous that most of that TV show’s bad guys). And it had plenty of cute and funny moments that made me laugh as well. Shaun (voiced by Justin Fletcher, though the “voice” is limited, as with all characters here, to sounds) is one of a member of a small flock of sheep in rural England looked after by Bitzer (voiced by John Sparkes), a sticklerfor-the-rules dog, and to a far lesser degree by the human farmer (also Sparkes). Shaun is the sort of sheep who enjoys taking the harvester for a spin or ordering pizza for the sheep looking for a change in menu. Bitzer’s job usually is to put a stop to this fun. The pizza delivery didn’t just get Shaun another angry growling-at by Bitzer; it also lured a small newcomer to the farm. A wideeyed little alien (voiced by Amalia Vitale) had a run-in with a man in the woods, one that caused the man to drop his fresh french fries and flee. Getting a taste for Earthly junk
AT THE
SOFAPLEX
Several movies that were in theaters at the time they closed are now available for home viewing. Here is a rundown of recent releases and some of the bigger award movies and endof-year movies from 2019, starting, in keeping with some of this week’s reviews, with some movies rated PG. * Indicates a movie to seek out. Find full reviews for most films in past issues, which are available at hippopress.com. Cats (PG) Jennifer Hudson, Judi Dench. That’s right, they dragged poor Judi into this along with Idris Elba, James Corden, Ian McKellen, Taylor Swift, Rebel Wilson and Francesca Hayward. Look, I don’t have prior Cats experience so I am coming to this Tom Hooper-directed first draft filled with very questionable CGI choices fresh. And still I can see what would be appealing about this production — namely, the singing and dancing, which all felt weirdly muted and obscured here. And yet some of the performances, Hudson’s in parHIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 24
Troop Zero (PG)
A group of social misfit girls becomes a troop of Birdie Scouts in food, the alien soon found her way to the piz- an earth-shaking burp, was a winner with my 1977 Georgia in Troop Zero, a movza place and settled in to the delivery case to children, who gave it big laughs and one of ie in praise of “strange little girls” who eat the pizzas while the delivery man biked to them immediately wanted to see it again. I embrace their underdog status. A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
the farm. The next day, the alien and Shaun meet and, after the alien explains (using cabbage and telekinesis) that she’s from space, Shaun tries to help her get back to her spacecraft. Along the way, the pair pass through the local village, which has become a minor tourism destination after a UFO sighting, and the alien is introduced to the ultimate in volatile Earthly substances: soda and candy. The candy and soda scene, which features
ticular, shine through. Sure, I gave this movie a D+ for the way it used special effects rather than making the most of its cast and their talents. But tweens and teens, particularly those with an interest in music and dance, may want to check this one out. Available for purchase. *Emma (PG) Anya Taylor-Joy, Johnny Flynn. Emma has many fine qualities but she can also be careless with people’s feelings and kind of, well, clueless, so argues this new adaptation of the Jane Austen novel. This Emma not only highlights the comedy aspect of the story but gives everybody, from Taylor-Joy’s Emma Woodhouse to Flynn’s Knightley, welcome flaws that add some tartness to this delightful sweet treat. Be warned, English students; the movie doesn’t exactly follow the book (you still have to read the book). A- Available for rent for $19.99 for a 48-hour period. Frozen 2 (PG) Voices of Kristen Bell, Idina Menzel. The adventures of Elsa and Anna continue in this sequel to the 2013 blockbuster. There are some cute songs — Olaf’s “When I’m Older” and Kristoff’s 1980s power ballad “Lost in the Woods” — and some nice
was charmed by the way this movie, with British-y grunts and well-used visuals and audio bits, was able to make nicely underplayed jokes for the parents (frequently referencing other UFO-y pop culture) without interrupting the flow of the story. And that they were able to do this all without real words — I think the alien “says” more things than the other characters — demonstrates both how delightfully clever this movie is and how good it is at
moments and some beautiful visuals but the movie didn’t, like, dazzle me. However, “me” is probably not the point. I do think the movie, particularly in its final third, skews a little dark and might be more elementary school than preschool fare. B Available for rent or purchase or with a Disney+ subscription. *Little Women (PG) Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh. Both of whom received Oscar nominations as Jo and Amy respectively. Other Marches include Emma Watson and Eliza Scalnen and Laura Dern as Marmee; Timothee Chalamet is Laurie. Director and screenwriter Greta Gerwig has crafted a perfect movie in this adaptation of the beloved story of sisters coming of age in Massachusetts during and after the Civil War. The movie starts the story in the middle of the book, giving us a portrait of each sister separately before we see them fully together, which makes this well-known story feel fresh. A Available for purchase (and for rent on April 7). Onward (PG) Voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt. Pixar’s latest animated movie takes place in a world where magical creatures — elves, centaurs and the like
Christmas Flint (Mckenna Grace) is obsessed with space, perhaps in part because thinking about the infinite makes it easier to bear the loss of her mother. When she hears that the Birdie Scouts who perform the winning act at the upcoming Jamboree get to have their voices recorded for the Golden Record and sent into space, she is determined to be part of that recording, even if her local chapter of Birdies put her in a school lock-
— now have non-magical suburban existence. Two teenage elf brothers receive a gift from their late father that allows them to bring him back for just one day. When the spell goes wrong, the brothers manage to bring back half of him (legs and feet) and have only a day to bring back the rest to tell him all the things they’ve always wanted to say. The world-building here is sort of uneven, more The Good Dinosaur than Cars or Toy Story, but the relationship between the brothers and with their mom (voiced by Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is the solid core of this movie. B Available for purchase now and scheduled to be available for rent and on Disney+ on April 3. Sonic the Hedgehog (PG) James Marsden, voice of Ben Schwartz. The super-fast blue hedgehog of video game fame gets a buddy movie (with a very game Marsden) featuring Jim Carrey doing his Carrey-est as the villain. Very kid-friendly, very easy on the adults. B- Available for purchase. Bad Boys for Life (R) Will Smith, Martin Lawrence. If what you want is Will Smith and Martin Lawrence in a Bad Boys mov-
ie, this movie delivers, exactly that and nothing more but, like, exactly the quips and car chases signed up for. B- Available for purchase. *A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood (PG) Tom Hanks, Matthew Rhys. Hanks is Mister Rogers in this movie that isn’t so much a biopic of the extraordinary Fred Rogers, children’s television host, but captures Rogers via the lens of a falling-apart journalist/new father tasked with writing a profile of him. The performances are excellent; the plot is I guess slightly above average. B Available for rent or purchase. Birds of Prey (And the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn) (R) Margot Robbie, Rosie Perez. Also starring Jurnee Smollet-Bell, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ella Jay Basco and about 60 percent too much of Ewan McGregor. This movie is at its very best when the women are brought together but it doesn’t get around to this until the last half hour or so (though when it does, the possibilities of what could have been are evident). C Available for purchase now (and for rent in April).
25 POP CULTURE FILMS
er when she asks to join. Troop leader Miss Massey (Allison Janney) doesn’t approve of such “ugliness” (in the Southern sense of that word), but does try to explain to Christmas that, bless your heart, you just aren’t Birdie material. Undaunted, Christmas decides to start her own troop and asks her dad’s (Jim Gaffigan) assistant Miss Rayleen (Viola Davis) to be the troop mother. Miss Rayleen eventually agrees and the troop comes together including bully Hell-no (Milan Ray) and her friend Smash (Johanna Colón), the oneeyed Anne Claire (Bella Higginbotham) and, because nothing actually says Birdies have to be girls, Christmas’ best friend Joseph (Charlie Shotwell). Miss Massey has given them a collection of leftover badges — they must each earn one to qualify for Jamboree — that the girls are expected to fail but slowly they figure out how to lean into each scout’s skills, all while practicing the dance that will send Christmas’ voice to the stars. This movie hits all of the right beats for this kind of Bad News Bears riff and has solid actors, particularly in Viola Davis and Allison Janney, who feels like she has this particular kind of jerk character in the queue and ready to go. There is something clunky about how it all unfolds, chunks of butter and sugar that haven’t quite been blended together into a smooth batter. It doesn’t necessarily get in the way of this being a good family movie (Common Sense Media recommends age 10 and up and that’s probably about right) and it doesn’t dampen the impact of some of its more emotional moments. B Rated PG for thematic elements, language and smoking throughout, according to the MPA. Written and directed by Bert & Bertie, Troop Zero is an hour and 34 minutes long, distributed by Amazon Studios and is available via Amazon Prime.
John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch (TV-PG)
Comedian John Mulaney is note-perfect as “John Mulaney, comedian serving as the adult host of a children’s television special” in John
John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch
Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch, a thing that isn’t really a movie but it’s one contained non-serial thing so I’m going to review it.
This also feels like Mulaney’s approach to this strange little creation: It’s a weird amalgamation of things he likes so he does it. I feel like, if we’re going to live in this time of a million streaming sources all producing their own strange mix of content, at least sometimes we get something bizarre and awesome like this. I like Mulaney’s stand-up and one of his particular strengths has always been discussing the absurdities of childhood, such as his extended set on school assemblies in John Mulaney: Kid Gorgeous at Radio City. His description of this show, which he explains in the beginning, is that it’s roughly all the things he liked about children’s television as a child, which is perhaps why the show has a Saturday morning cartoons/Electric Company/1980s Sesame Street vibe to it. Basically, Mulaney and a group of kids he calls the Sack Lunch Bunch perform in a series of skits with musical interludes or sometimes music in the skits and a sprinkling of guest stars including David Byrne, Natasha Lyonne, Richard Kind and, perhaps most game of all, Jake Gyllenhaal. In between these segments are moments of the kids talking about things like their biggest
fears, which whether real or not are winning in how they show off the kids’ personalities. Who is all of this for, with songs about grandma’s new boyfriend and the joys and despair of only wanting to eat a plate of plain noodles with a little bit of butter? I have no idea. I think it’s possible that kids of roughly the same age as the kids featured here (10 to 12-ish is my guess) and kids of a show-bizy bent would enjoy this along with their Mulaney-fan parents. The concept and execution has the same richness of detail as Mulaney’s Saturday Night Live musical sketches but is more kid-friendly. And while there is a kind of kooky self-consciousness about the proceedings here, there are also moments of earnestness that are genuinely endearing. A Rated PG-TV. Directed by Rhys Thomas and written by John Mulaney and Marika Sawyer, John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch is an hour and 10 minutes long and available on Netflix.
Uncorked (TV-MA)
Notes of family drama, quarterlife crisis and romance with just a hint of comedy come together in Uncorked, a movie written and directed by Prentice Penny, who has writing credits on
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Happy Endings and Insecure, among other things. This movie is more earnest and dramatic than those shows but this movie does have a nice crisp comic sensibility. Elijah (Mamoudou Athie) is really into wine. Even though he works at his family’s popular barbecue restaurant in Memphis, he has a second job at a wine store and attends tastings, bringing back big ideas for new bottles for his boss to stock and changes to the store’s wine club. His dad, Louis (Courtney B. Vance), might have plans for Elijah to take over the barbecue spot but Elijah dreams of becoming a master sommelier, a designation which requires a year of school and a test that is notoriously difficult to pass. Elijah’s new girlfriend Tanya (Sasha Compère) and his mother, Sylvia (Niecey Nash), are supportive but Louis is hurt that Elijah doesn’t want the restaurant and skeptical that Elijah, who we’re led to believe has bounced around in terms of what he wants to do with his life, will truly follow through with, as Louis calls it, the wine thing. This movie is at least 20 minutes too long and maybe isn’t the sleekest machine in the way it integrates all the pieces of this story — the relationship between Elijah and Louis, the relationship between Elijah and Tanya, Elijah’s own lack of confidence. But I still enjoyed Uncorked. The movie might not always feel like it knows what it wants to do with all of its characters, but all of its characters are interesting and are people that I enjoyed spending time with. And Elijah and his various struggles actually make for low-key but realistic-seeming life situations. Even though he’s presented here as maybe mid-twenties, you get a sense that he’s still finding himself, still figuring out how and to what degree to separate himself from his family and chart his own course. I like how the movie crafts that central story, with some of the standard story beats — meet cute with his girl, a big fight with his dad, doing great in wine school, having a setback — but crafted in a more complex, real-life-like way. B Rated TV-MA. Written and directed by Prentice Penny, Uncorked is an hour and 44 minutes long and available on Netflix.
From your friends at the
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HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 25
26
NITE ‘Comedy is not net-friendly’ Local music news & events
By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com
• Curl up: As the world settles into pandemic culture, takeout and a virtual set of music are substitutes for dinner and beverages at the local restaurant. That’s easier thanks to performers like Boston’s Maddi Ryan, who’s hosting weekly Couch Sessions. Joined by Charles Greenwood on guitar and percussion, she plays everything from Dolly Parton to Buffalo Springfield, along with a few country-tinged originals. Locally, Ryan has played at Bonfire in Manchester, Granite State Music Hall in Laconia and The Goat in Hampton Beach. Thursday, April 9, 7 p.m. on Facebook and Instagram. • Glorious: A favorite at places like Riverwalk Café and the Press Room, Ward Hayden & the Outliers have a rocked-up throwback sound. The group’s weekly Outlier Fridays are timed for a happy hour start and include plenty of originals (recent and from their days as Girls, Guns & Glory), seasoned with a few surprising covers. Hayden recently learned Joe Exotic’s “I Saw a Tiger” after binge-watching Tiger King. Friday, April 10, 5 p.m. on Facebook Live at facebook.com/wardhaydenandtheoutliers. • Original voice: Singer-songwriter Lisa Bastoni has accolades aplenty, keeping company with a few legends by winning a New Folk Award at Kerrville last year, and a Boston Music Award nomination. In September she released How We Want to Live, an album Americana-UK called “wonderfully poetic.” She was due to play a Listening Room Series show in Henniker, but a virtual set from her living room will have to suffice. Saturday, April 11, 7:30 p.m.: Go to facebook.com/lisabastonimusic for details. • Chill out: Every holiday season Heather Pierson plays A Charlie Brown Christmas all over New England. The rest of the year the dazzling pianist offers an eclectic musical menu, from jazz to contemporary to pop. To ease stress during the current crisis, she’s doing an at-home set every Saturday at 7 and a mood-lifting Meditation Monday to kick off the week. Listen in, and buy some merch at heatherpierson.com/store. Monday, April 13, 4 p.m. See facebook.com/ heatherpiersonmusic. • In review: Ben Gibbard of Death Cab For Cutie recently released a new song, “Life During Quarantine,” that perfectly sums up the surreal, unprecedented nature of life right now. The Roundup will continue to spotlight upcoming shows with enough advance notice for making plans, but some of the best sets happen spontaneously. Brad Bosse, Patrik Gochez, Carissa Johnson, Jenni Lynn Duo and Liz Bills are just a few local performers “popping up” online. HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 26
Local comedian and promoter discusses Covid-19 impact tough times — storms and all that stuff — but we literally lost the complete industry within 12 to 24 hours. EveryIn the 1970s Steve Martin opined that thing wiped off the calendar. “comedy is not pretty” — turns People like out, it’s also not Seth Meyers are net-friendly. Lots doing their stuff of musicians are with no audience. taking their show How does it feel online, but it’s a as a comedian to taller order for see a great joke comics. Rob Steen and there’s no is New England’s feedback? king of comeIt’s hard. dy, booking more Chunky’s in Manshows at more venchester asked me ues than anyone if we could do a ROB STEEN comedy livestream else in the region. On March 14 his from their theater world ground to a because they have halt. the capability of doing that. I go, ‘Well Steen spoke by phone recently about you can’t really do our comedy livesthe impact of Covid-19 on his business, tream; you need an audience.’ I watched plans for the future, and why he won’t be Jimmy Fallon and he did a great joke, doing virtual standup anytime soon. but no laughs. Just the band and the crew. I don’t think people realize [that] First of all, how are you doing? when you are doing comedy, the audiWell, I lost over 320 shows all the ence plays a crucial part. It’s like the way through end of May … but the good drummer in a band, they keep the time. thing is a lot of them are rebooking. … You need that audience laughter to Most of my clients are on the same page, keep going. Even if you have five peoand most of them are going to book for ple laughing where they’re supposed to, either summer or fall. So it’s not all lost, it keeps the flow going. Without an audijust postponed. ence, you can’t just tell jokes.
By Michael Witthaus
mwitthaus@hippopress.com
You need that audience laughter to keep going. ... Without an audience, you can’t just tell jokes.
What was the last show that you did? At my comedy club in Manchester on March 14. It was St. Patrick’s Day weekend and we were tracking to sell out, then we ended up with only like 70 people. However, most of the people who bought tickets [in advance] said keep the money. They didn’t even want a refund, which was really nice. They said, ‘We can’t make it because of social distancing; give us credit for a future show.’ Almost all of them did that, which is very supportive as customers to the community.
Rob Steen. Courtesy photo.
always tell them, I go, here’s some YouTube videos of this comedian, but it’s not necessarily what they’re going to do at your fundraiser. Comedy’s best heard live. Even the big shows like on Netflix a lot of the stuff you see is production. They increase the laughter. They shoot three shows and cut the best parts together. Exactly. So you don’t have that option online. And when you watch a sitcom on TV there’s a laugh track and you’re laughing along with it, but if that laugh track wasn’t there you wouldn’t be laughing at half of those jokes.
Yeah, especially a guy like you — your crowd work is basically the center of your act. Even if you don’t do comedy, if you just do jokes. I was watching Laugh Factory in L.A. on their website. They had Jay Mohr, and it just looked really odd seeing a comedian up there by himself Is there a silver lining in any of this trying to do his act to tables and chairs. for you? People get to spend more time with the Yeah, it’s easier with music. family. Everyone’s taking a pause, and If you go out and there’s a guy with a I think the silver lining in my opinion guitar playing songs, you’re still talking could be they can appreciate each othto your wife and eating dinner. You can’t er more. And the fact that you know just do that while a comedian’s in the corner going to the restaurant is something to telling jokes. You have to pay attention. appreciate — you realize what you had You go to the ballet, it’s live, but they because you lost it. don’t need audience feedback. Ninety-nine percent of comedians need that What’s the first thing you’ll do when interaction with the audience, so it kind we’re told normal life can resume? of hurts. Gather the troops, my staff, just like
You were pretty determined to carry on when a lot of people were canceling shows. When did you realize that you had to pull the plug? I want to say the 16th. On the 14th we did the show at Manchester, then had like six shows cancel. Then literally I woke up Monday morning [and] the You can watch a movie and you get whole month of March into the begin- people playing off each other, but just ning of April is canceled within 15 to one person alone telling jokes... 20 minutes. That’s the hard part of this It’s almost impossible. A client hired whole thing; we’ve all gone through a comedian from me, and this is what I
the restaurants are doing … and just say, ‘Let’s move forward and see how we can slowly limp back to normal and start from scratch.’ Slowly build that attendance back up with a fresh attitude.
27 ROCKANDROLLCROSSWORDS.com BY TODD SANTOS
WE’LL SHARE THE SHELTER OF MY SINGLE BED Across 1. The street Bob Seger sang about 5. ‘73 Humble Pie album about lunch? (3,2) 10. Supermodel Kate that Pete Doherty dated 14. ‘This Too Shall Pass’ Chicago band (2,2) 15. The Evens ‘Cut From The __’ 16. Gary Numan ‘__ __: You Die’ (1,3) 17. Bob Marley wanted to share the same one, on ‘Is This Love’
18. Great White lived in a ‘__ Of Broken Love’ 19. Hank Williams III ‘__ Up And Loud’ 20. ‘02 Saliva album wanted to shoot their rock ‘Back __ __ System’ (4,4) 22. Singer John of Cake 24. Clarinet mouthpieces, or single __ 25. “NOW I know this song!” 26. Mortally wounded Local H ‘As Good __ __’ (2,4) 29. ‘90 Black Sabbath album
about Norse war god, perhaps 30. Alphabetical Jackson 5 hit 33. Brody Dalle and Tim Armstrong were a romantic one 34. Bob Marley ‘__ __ The Sheriff’ (1,4) 36. Pink Floyd will go up and down on a ‘__-Saw’ 37. ‘97 Harvey Danger album ‘Where Have All The __ __?’ (11,4) 41. ‘Rescue’ __ 6 42. ‘67 Warhol movie Nico was in (1,1,3) 43. ‘Eyes Without A Face’ Billy 44. Jamaican musician __-A-Mouse 45. Important time in music is called this 46. ‘This Is Me’ child star/singer Demi 48. Honky tonking ‘All My Love’ Joe 49. Counting Crows ‘Across __ __: Live In New York City’ (1,4) 51. ‘02 Tom Petty album ‘The __ __’ (4,2) 54. George Thorogood’s classic Hank Williams cover ‘__ Over’ (4,2,2) 58. 80s ‘Funkytown’ band Pseudo Echo 59. “Iiiii, oooooh, I’m still __, yeah I...” Pearl Jam 61. Our beloved ‘Mickey’ one-hitter, __ Basil 62. David Bowie ‘How Does The Grass __?’ 63. Peter Green pal Watson 64. ‘My Evil __’ They Might Be
Giants 65. Chris Brown ‘__ The Light 66. McCartney: Ivory/Wonder: __ 67. Bob Marley ‘Hold __ __ This Feeling’ (2,2) Down 1. The Streets ‘Memento __’ 2. ‘Right Now (Na Na Na)’ singer/rapper 3. Jim Croce ‘__ __ A Name’ (1,3) 4. Alice Cooper got fed up and said ‘__ Nice Guy’ (2,4,2) 5. What voice did through the stairwell 6. Not silently 7. You do them on the road to promote albums 8. ‘82 Who album ‘__ Hard’ 9. XTC “I may be __ __ of Simpleton but I know one thing and that’s I love you” (3,5) 10. Drummer Mitchell of The Jimi Hendrix Experience 11. Sweaty outfit might have a strong one 12. Popular label for a king? 13. Rolling Stones “I __ __ red door and I want it painted black” (3,1) 21. Pro vote for song inclusion 23. These battery-charged bad boys get you where you’re going at fests 26. Til Tuesday’s Mann 27. Clark of Def Leppard 28. Allman Brother slide guitarist Trucks 29. When Depeche Mode told the
second part of the story they said ‘And __’ 30. What Kim Mitchell drinks when sober (1,4) 31. ‘02 Vanessa Carlton album ‘__ __ Nobody’ (2,3) 32. ‘The Lady Killer’ Green (3,2) 34. Simon & Garfunkel ‘__ Rock’ (1,2,1) 35. No Doubt genre that combines elements of calypso 38. ‘98 Pearl Jam traffic sign-inspired album 39. Tom Petty had a ‘Last Dance’ with her (4,4) 40. Trixter ‘__ Me Good’ (4,2,2) 46. Party thrower Bob Marley told us to ‘__ Up Yourself’ 47. Northwestern Black ‘N Blue home state, for short 48. ‘The Second Coming’ NJ punk/rap band 49. Pal, at rock en español show 50. Ambient-alt band from LA that is interlaced? 51. Deana Carter ‘Did I Shave My __ For This?’ 52. Hem only has a ‘Half’ of this plot of land 53. The Eels wear the same one on the ‘Other’ foot 55. Springsteen cover ‘Santa Claus Is Coming To __’ 56. Beyonce had to leave the kitchen and reminded us to ‘Check __ __’ (2,2) 57. ‘Confession’ band Ill __ 60. ‘84 Howard Jones album ‘Human’s __’ © 2020 Todd Santos
NITE SUDOKU Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. See last week's puzzle answers on pg 29.
Puzzle A
Puzzle B
Puzzle C
HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 27
28 ROCKANDROLLCROSSWORDS.com BY TODD SANTOS
That’s where my baby’s from
Enjoy this Rock and Roll Crossword, originally printed in 2012! Across 1. The Cult ‘Earth __’ 5. Tomahawk ‘__ De Sac’ 8. ‘Señor Blues’ guy Taj 13. U2 ‘__ Better Than The Real Thing’ 14. Kool And The Gang ‘Get Down __ __’ (2,2) 16. Little sister hits the stage. She can’t help it, she’s coming __ __” (2,3) 17. Queens Of The Stone Age ‘Songs For The __’ 18. Lady Miss Kier band Dee-__ 19. Went to all night techno party 20. Grammy-nominated ‘Indestructible’ Disturbed song (6,3,4) 23. 1985 Asia album 24. ‘Once __ __ Lifetime’ Talking Heads (2,1) 25. Rogue Traders “__ __ believer” (2,1)
R&R answer from pg 27 of 04/02
Jonesin’ answer from pg 28 of 04/02
Classic Jonesin’ answer from pg 28 of 04/02
28. Like newly hired producer 33. Unhappy Pearl Jam ‘Lost Dogs’ track? 36. ‘Rabbit Songs’ band 37. ‘03 Alien Ant Farm album 38. Built To Spill ‘___ And Burning’ 41. Neil Young “Out of __ __ and into the black” (3,4) 42. Where you get taken on world tour 43. “Roadhouse” 44. Trip producer 45. Theory Of A Deadman ‘Scars & Souvenirs’ single (3,5,2,2) 49. Cold War Kids ‘Hang Me Out To __’ 50. You sit in one at show 51. Bon Jovi ‘Living __ __’ (2,3) 55. Jackson 5 ‘Goin’ ____’ (4,2,7) 60. Pink Floyd-inspired Toni Braxton album? 62. ‘Typical’ band __Math 63. Aka, glitter rock 64. ‘Metal On Metal’ band 65. Cranberries ‘Everybody __ Is Doing It, So Why Can’t We?’ 66. Sometime part of image, slang 67. Of or relating to a mode 68. ‘Sleeping My Day Away’ band 69. Gains a singer Down 1. They hound a successful career 2. ‘Into The __’ Blessed Death 3. Star meal, perhaps 4. Springsteen “Whoa-oh-oh, I’m __ __” (2,4) 5. ‘Unforgettable’ singer Nat King 6. ‘97 Regurgitator album 7. Nirvana ‘Nevermind’ hit/video 8. Doom metal band Memento __
9. Like distant seating area 10. Foo Fighters ‘One On One’ single (4,2,3) 11. Jim Croce song about growing? 12. Gary Moore ‘__ Clones’ 15. Some goers at underage shows 21. Georgia Satellites Baird 22. ‘Epic’ ___ __ More (5,2) 26. Seattle rockers ___ The Bear 27. What Chris Cornell did for a second in Singles 29. Billy Squier ‘In __ __’ (3,4) 30. __ PE, or Planet Earth 31. Kiss ‘Tears __ Falling’ 32. Seattle label __ Pop 33. Stevie Nicks ‘___ Back’ 34. Get Up Kids ‘Anne ___’ 35. 80s Lou Reed hit (5,4) 39. Might want to thank her for talent 40. Maggie’s last name, to Beatles 41. AC/DC ‘75 album 43. Temptations ‘I Wish __ __ Rain’ (2,5) 46. Duran Duran ‘Someone Else __ __’ 47. Estate auction action 48. ‘Sadeness (Part I)’ electronic band 52. What Canadian ‘Fold A To B’ punk band eats before it’s entree? 53. Bon Jovi ‘__ __ Out Of Love’ (2,3) 54. Dave Pirner ‘Faces & ___’ 56. ‘Only Time Will Tell’ band 57. 80s band Soft __ 58. ‘__ __ Sin’ Pet Shop Boys (3,1) 59. Boston ‘I __ Your Love’ 60. Beatles ‘Polythene __’ 61. Appropriately-titled Muse debut single © 2011 Todd Santos
NITE SUDOKU Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 through 9. See last week's puzzle answers on pg 29.
Puzzle D
HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 28
Puzzle E
Puzzle F
29 JONESIN’ CROSSWORDS BY MATT JONES
“Bowl Games” — I’m busy reading the back Across 1 Meat in a can 5 Satirical internet comedy group since 2002
10 Media monitor, briefly 13 Bones beside radiuses 15 Former capital of Japan (and anagram of the current capital)
SIGNS OF LIFE
All quotes are from Baseball in April and Other Stories, by Gary Soto, born April 12, 1952. Taurus (April 20 – May 20) He swung at a low ball. Then he wound up and sliced the next ball foul to the edge of the infield grass, which surprised him because he didn’t know he had the strength to send it that far. You may surprise yourself. Gemini (May 21 – June 20) Although Ernie could see Alfonso’s desperation, he had plans with his friend Raymundo. They were going to catch frogs at the Mayfair canal. He felt sorry for his brother, and gave him a stick of gum to make him feel better, but there was nothing he could do. The canal was three miles away, and the frogs were waiting. Frogs don’t wait forever. Cancer (June 21 – July 22) Alfonso studied the magazine pictures of rock stars for a hairstyle. He liked the way Prince looked — and the bass player from Los Lobos. Alfonso thought he would look cool with his hair razored into a V in the back and streaked purple. It could be a good time to try a new style. Leo (July 23 – Aug. 22) He always messed things up when he tried to take them apart, like the time he tried to repad his baseball mitt. He had unlaced the mitt and filled the pocket with cotton balls. But when he tried to put it back together, he had forgotten how it laced up. Everything became tangled like kite string. Make a sketch before you take it apart. Virgo (Aug. 23 – Sept. 22) Their family ate a lot of frijoles, which was OK because nothing
16 Pie ___ mode 17 Type of information listed on 62-Across 19 Former “Great British Bake Off” cohost Giedroyc 20 Mingle amongst 21 “That was my best effort” 23 Lumberjack, colloquially 25 “Who ___ is going?” 26 “___ additional cost!” 30 “Atlas Shrugged” author Rand 31 Hybrid lemon variety 32 Moisturizer stick that Kellogg’s once actually sold, based on retro 62-Across 35 “Take ___ Train” (Duke Ellington song) 37 Passionate 38 Completely absorbed 42 Perry Mason creator ___ Stanley Gardner 44 “It stays ___, even in milk!” (claim for some contents of 62-Across) 45 Actor Colm of “Chicago” and “Thor” 48 New, to Beethoven 50 Risque message 51 NYPD alerts 52 Showtime series about a killer of killers 55 Burger topping 57 Did some indoor housework
else tasted so good, though one time Alfonso had had Chinese pot stickers and thought they were the next best food in the world. Try a new food! Libra (Sept. 23 – Oct. 22) He talked to himself as he stood in the box, bouncing slightly before the next pitch, which he smacked into the outfield. It’s OK to talk to yourself, but be mindful of what you say. Scorpio (Oct. 23 – Nov. 21) Alfonso looked down at his shoes. He wanted to say something clever the way people do on TV. But the only thing he could think to say was that the governor lived in Sacramento. As soon as he shared this observation, he winced inside. You don’t have to be clever. Sagittarius (Nov. 22 – Dec. 21) Alfonso sat with his brother in silence…. Girls could sure act weird, especially the ones you meet on Halloween. Make room for weird. Capricorn (Dec. 22 – Jan. 19) His portable radio was on, but not loud enough to make Mr. Rojas come down the steps and wave his cane at him. Good volume control makes good neighbors. Aquarius (Jan. 20 – Feb. 18) During lunch Alfonso hid in [the school] metal shop so he wouldn’t run into Sandra. What would he say to her? If he weren’t mad at his brother, he could ask Ernie what girls and guys talk about. But he was mad…. Ernie doesn’t know either. Pisces (Feb. 19 – March 20) One day Manuel didn’t show up with his duffel bag. On that day, it was clear to the four boys who remained that the baseball season was over. They threw
61 Make mistakes 62 Containers at the breakfast table (represented by the circled letters) 65 Apple’s mobile devices run on it 66 Golf course hazards 67 Authoritative decree 68 Explosive letters 69 Air ducts 70 “Quit it!”
27 “Formal Friday” wear 28 “All Songs Considered” broadcaster 29 “Heads” side of a coin 31 List of options 33 Frigid ending? 34 “Bad” cholesterol letters (I have trouble remembering which is which) 36 “Tell ___ About It” (Billy Joel hit) 39 Deck member 40 Code for Arizona’s Sky Harbor Airport Down 1 Grapefruit, in school solar system 41 News program created by Cenk Uygur, for short models 43 Dir. from Denver to Chicago 2 “Clue” Professor 44 Pirate’s sword 3 Against 45 “Look at the facts!” 4 Groucho of comedy 46 “Julie & Julia” director Nora 5 Winter Olympics squad 47 Singer-songwriter Conor 6 “Goodness gracious!” 49 Word after “I before E” 7 Ending for ball or buff 52 Tractor manufacturer John 8 Laundry mark 9 “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” captain 53 Finless fish 54 “Sticks and Bones” playwright David Raymond 56 Sketch show with Bob and Doug 10 Target of a G rating McKenzie 11 “A Fish Called Wanda” star 58 Shows approval 12 Mobile artist Alexander 59 Door sign 14 Dancer and YouTube star JoJo 60 Art ___ (style from 100 years ago) 18 Box office buys, briefly 63 Went on the ballot 22 Gains again, as trust 64 Engine additive brand 24 Six-legged colony member by Matt Jones 26 Furry TV alien
the ball around, then got on their bikes and rode home. Jesse didn’t show up the next day for practice. Instead he sat in front of the TV watching Superman bend iron bars. Some days you practice; other days you seek inspiration. Aries (March 21 – April 19) Luis and Hector never said much at the table. It wasn’t until his
grandfather was finished and sitting in his favorite chair that Hector would begin asking him questions about the world, questions like, ‘What do Egyptians look like? Is the world really round like a ball? How come we eat chickens and they don’t eat us?’ It’s a good time for after-dinner chats.
Sudoku Answers from April 2 Puzzle A pg 28
Puzzle B pg 28
Puzzle pg 29
Puzzle pg 30
Puzzle C pg 28
HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 29
NEWS OF THE WEIRD BY ANDREWS MCMEEL SYNDICATION
Annals of isolation
• In Melbourne, Australia, “a bit of boredom in isolation” led 27-year-old astrophysicist Daniel Reardon to experiment on March 26 with an idea to stop people from touching their faces — a necklace and accompanying bracelet of magnets that would sound an alarm whenever someone reached up, The Guardian reported. When that didn’t work, Reardon started playing with the powerful neodymium magnets, clipping them to his earlobes and nostrils, and that’s where things went wrong. Two magnets inside his nostrils became stuck together, and he couldn’t separate them. Reardon tried using pliers, but they became magnetized: “Every time I brought the pliers close to my nose, my entire nose would shift toward the pliers and then the pliers would stick to the magnet,” he said. Finally, his partner “took me to the hospital that she works in because she wanted all her colleagues to laugh at me,” and doctors applied an anesthetic spray, then manually removed the magnets. “Needless to say, I am not going to play with the magnets anymore,” Reardon said. • Donuts Delite in Rochester, New York, has found a special way to pay tribute to immunologist Dr. Anthony Fauci. Since March 23, the shop has been printing Dr. Fauci’s image on thin, edible paper, then applying it to the buttercream frosting on its doughnuts. Nick Semeraro, franchisee of the shop, told the Democrat & Chronicle: “He’s on TV giving us the facts; you’ve got to respect that.
... People are buying them like crazy. We’re making more right now.” The doc doughnuts go for $20 per dozen, curbside pickup and delivery available. • A survey commissioned by Mentimeter, an interactive presentation company, found that 12 percent of people working from home turn their computer’s camera off during a video meeting because they’re wearing few or no clothes, United Press International reported on March 26. Along with that, Walmart Executive Vice President Dan Bartlett told The Washington Post, “we’re seeing increased sales in tops, but not bottoms,” a phenomenon presumably driven by video conferencing workers who do leave their cameras on. • App developers Daniel Ahmadizadeh and Christopher Smeder have good news for those in the dating pool during this time of social distancing and staying at home. Quarantine Together is a text-based app they launched on March 15 that asks users once a day whether they’ve washed their hands, and if they say yes, they’re introduced to another user. Nivi Jayasekar of San Francisco told CNN she was eager to give it a shot: “It was a hilarious idea. I feel like it’s an opportunity to form a deeper connection with someone before meeting them,” she said. Ahmadizadeh reports that sign-ups have been growing by 50 percent every day.
ton state troopers received multiple calls on March 29 about a car hitting two other vehicles south of Seattle and then racing away at speeds up to 100 mph, AFP reported. Trooper Heather Axtman said when officers got close to the 1996 Buick, they were shocked to see a dog sitting in the driver’s seat. Alejandro was steering and pushing the gas pedal from the passenger seat. “When we took him into custody,” Axtman said, “he admitted to our troopers that he was teaching his dog to drive. ... I’ve heard a lot of excuses ... but I’ve never had an excuse that the dog was driving.” Alejandro was charged on multiple counts, including driving under the influence of drugs.
Discovery
Friends Callum Gow, Josh Grossman and Carson Schiefner in British Columbia, Canada, all in their early 20s, decided a hike away from more heavily traveled trails near Alouette Lake would be a good way to maintain social distance on March 20. There have long been rumors of a stash of gold hidden in the area, but the treasure they discovered was completely different: a secret camp, including supplies, that hadn’t been touched for almost 30 years. “It was almost like one of those time capsules that you run into,” Schiefner told the CBC. The hikers found sealed boxes, a radio, a Coleman stove, first aid supplies, a knife, tobacco and, apropos Doggone it! Alberto Tito Alejandro, 51, was arrested to current day, a big roll of toilet paper. A following a high-speed chase after Washing- log book revealed the camp had been used
from 1986 until 1991, and through social media, the hikers managed to find some of the original campers, including Rick Senft. He explained that a group of friends calling themselves the B.C. Weirdness Federation set up the camp, but “life gets in the way” and they gathered there less and less. “They’re probably some of the best years I had,” he reminisced.
Desperate measures
After three days quarantined in his house in Mexico, Antonio Munoz got a yen for Cheetos. With the neighborhood store just feet away, but out of reach for a nonessential trip outside, Munoz enlisted the help of his chihuahua, Chokis. Munoz attached a note and $20 to Chokis’ collar and sent the dog across the street. Sure enough, Chokis returned with the Cheetos, and Munoz told Metro News on March 25 he has repeated the trip two other times, bringing back different flavors of potato chips.
Can’t win
A tractor-trailer crash and subsequent fire near Dallas on April 1 lay waste to an entire load of a hot commodity in these bizarre times: toilet paper. The Associated Press reported the driver was unharmed, but the TP “burned extensively” and spilled over the interstate, which had to be closed to traffic. The truck was hauling the large rolls typically used in business restrooms. Visit newsoftheweird.com.
JONESIN’ CROSSWORDS BY MATT JONES
“Puh-leeze!” — you’ve got to e-nun-ci-ate Enjoy this Jonesin’ Crossword, originally printed in 2012!
HIPPO | APRIL 9 - 15, 2020 | PAGE 30
Across 1 King with a golden touch
6 Place to get a mocha and a paper 15 Lofty poet 16 Travel website with longtime spokesman William Shatner 17 Make those clumsy fools earn their living? 19 Send a quick message 20 The Band Perry’s “If ___ Young” 21 Weapon at Hogwarts 23 Genesis name 27 Missouri River tributary 28 Jacob’s twin 29 “On the Road” protagonist ___ Paradise 30 Portioned (out) 31 Redundantly named undergarment? 35 Response: abbr. 36 Florida city home to the headquarters of Telemundo 37 Behavior modification? 40 Hug in the shower? 45 “That’s a tough ___ follow...” 47 Dig in 48 Finito 49 Take a knee on the field 50 Three-person card game 52 Money on the line 53 Rent-___ 54 Dutch ___
24 Palatial homes 25 Unseen disaster waiting to happen 26 Canada’s first province, alphabetically 27 Home of a mail order steak business 32 “I was not expecting it to be that Down good” 1 Get the yard done 33 Small inlet 2 Words exchanged at the altar 34 Ric-___ (wavy fabric) 3 What the dead take, in a macabre 37 Bullring hero phrase 38 “It Was a Good Day” rapper 4 Invited to one’s apartment 39 Island stop on a Caribbean cruise 5 Group that sang the line “I’m 41 “Killing Me Softly with His Kilroy!” Song” singer Flack 6 Computer’s “brain,” for short 42 Ties 7 He won the NHL’s top rookie 43 Fully prepared award while still a teenager 44 The elderly, for short 8 Newton fruit 46 Bullring hero, again 9 It’s also called the “Lincoln Law” 51 Temperature tester (found in GOLF CART) 55 Ginormous 10 Swirly swimmer 57 It’s the hottest thing around 11 Girl who lives in the Plaza Hotel 58 Org. that gives out 9-digit IDs 12 Personal information, literally 59 Upstate N.Y. school 13 Immune system booster 60 The night before 14 Does the field again 61 Guys 18 Fifth qtrs. 62 Ending for lemon or Power 21 “Rushmore” director Anderson 63 Trippy tab 22 Home of the Sun Devils: abbr. ©2012 Jonesin’ Crosswords 56 Practice for being forced into something? 64 Too forward, as behavior 65 Dating game show of the 1990s 66 Rings out 67 On film
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