When Will Santa Get To NH?

Anybody know where the recipes from Green Ridge Turkey Farm ended up?

UP A NEW HAMPSHIRE CHRISTMAS TREE

Yes, it's possible to celebrate Christmas somewhere other than New Hampshire. I've done it, even once harking my heralding angels for a winter in Tucson, Arizona. But, as a native Granite Stater in the desert, I just couldn't warm up to jackalope reindeer, Frosty The Sandman, and hanging tinsel on a barrel cactus with the same degree of Ho-Ho-Holiday cheer, so I came home to snow country.

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E-Opps

New batch of E-Opps posted on the State Council on the Arts Web site. They post these pretty regularly and it's worth getting on the mailing list if you're looking for audition, grants, literary prize, etc. info. Of note this time: " Call for Art - FAKES: RedSaw Gallery is seeking submissions for a group exhibition curated by Asha Ganpat. We are looking for artist-made sculptures and 2-d work depicting everyday objects which are completely re-fabricated, work that looks like a real and mass-produced thing, run of the mill and un-special." Hmmm... would it be wrong to assume that the better the fake, the more it would look just like the original un-special item ... and the better the artist, the harder to discern between the fake and the real thing? And another question -- what if you sent in a fake fake, or a real thing that was masquerading as a fake? Wouldn't it be even faker than the fake and therefore all the more ironic?

Arty Party

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending one of the best Christmas parties ever, and since we throw some good ones at NH Magazine where I work, that's saying something. It was at Manchester's Banks Gallery in Langer Place Mill and was for the family and friends and partners (I guess, actually I don't know who all was there) of artist Dennis Sheehan. I was invited as media, sort of, so I took a bunch of photos. Here is one that reveals one good reason the party was so much fun: Mama Kicks played. They are such a hot band. They exude hard rock joy when they play.

New Hampshire Magazine Announces Theatre Awards Finalists

Got a press release from NH Magazine today that I thought Area603ers might find interesting. My wife and I were deeply involved with theater in school and for a time beyond that -- but now with little kids and busy schedules, it's all vicarious... If you saw any of these, feel free to comment here:

PROFESSIONAL FINALISTS NAMED FOR N.H. THEATRE AWARDS
Ceremony to be held Feb. 2 at Palace Theatre in Manchester

(Dec. 3, 2007 — Manchester) The list of professional theatre finalists who will be honored at the 2008 New Hampshire Theatre Awards event has been released by the committee that oversees the annual awards night and adjudication process. All the finalists will be invited to attend the ceremonies on Feb. 2, 2008, at Manchester's Palace Theatre, where they will receive certificates recognizing their achievement. The New Hampshire Theatre Award trophy will go to the actor, director or technical artists in each category who receives the highest score from their peers.

Finally, A New Hampshire Primary Date!

NH Fish and Game Now Tossing Out Video Casts...

Cool -- New Hampshire Fish and Game is offering a good selection of videos on their site. So if, like me, you have far less time on the water than you wish you did, here's a chance for some educational, vicarious video-casts. Looks like they're a little little on the fly-fishing/trout content, though...hopefully that's coming next. (Press release within...)

It's Pumpkin pickin' time

Who knew pumpkins grew on trees. I found this display in Jackson New Hampshire this past weekend.

Here is another view posted on my blog.

Okay, Speaking of Ghost Photos...

Fifteen Best-ever Ghost Photos?

Red Sox Rule...the News

Horace Greeley on Demons, Witches and Ghosts

Famous newspaperman and founding Republican Horace Greeley, born in Amherst, NH, was a wordsmith of some note. I don't know how many poems he ever wrote, but I found the one below in a wonderful, disintegrating, old book I own titled "The New Hampshire Book, being Specimens of the Literature of the Granite State," published by Charles T. Gill in Nashville (now called Nashua) in 1844.

This poem is creepy but adheres to high moral ground (just like Mr. Greeley!) and it's guaranteed to class up Area 603 just in time for Halloween.

Casual Counsel

By Horace Greeley

"What read'st thou there, my fair-haired boy
With eye so soft and blue?
What spell has chilled the tide of joy,
Which late thy veins ran through?"
Up looked he from that page of fear,
(Such dread our race inherits,)
And spoke the title, low but clear,
"The World of Evil Spirits."

(read on ... if you dare!)

And Speaking of Presidential Candidates ... John Edwards An Area603 Reader?

It appears presidential candidate John Edwards has joined the NH.com/Area603 social network (named, aptly enough, Area603). Is it really him? I suppose I doubt it, but who knows... the candidates are all working the 'net as hard as they are town halls these days...

Giuliani Ready For Intergalactic Conflict (and anything else!)

During a town hall meeting in Exeter, NH, recently presidential primary hopeful Rudy Giuliani fielded a question [watch the video] from a young boy on our nation's preparedness in case of alien attack. If we're prepared for all the other things we ought to be ready for, he said, we'll be ready for that too.

First intergalactic war question ever in a presidential primary? Great Star Wars opportunity for Giuliani to associate himself with Ronald Reagan? Either way, a fun question coming from Exeter, which was the sight of a famous 1965 UFO sighting report.

Lawsuit of the day: Presidential hopeful vs. wikipedia

wikisuit.pdf

Not that it's any presidential hopeful you've heard of, though. This suit (click the PDF link above and get an entertaining eyeful for yourself) was filed by Kama Karna Roy, aka Joseph Geronimo Jr., and it claims that he was "denied editing free expression" two dozen times by wikipedia in relation to the article about himself.

He doesn't live in New Hampshire, but filed the suit in federal district court in Concord because he is a "Republican hopeful candidate for President of the United States". Chalk another one up to our primary status.

By the way, the court's response is that he didn't submit a filing fee.

A host of debunked New Hampshire urban legends

For as long as I have been wandering online, "snopes" has been the urban legend info source of choice. The site is run by a California couple, Barbara and David Mikkelson, who have made an art form out of hunting down the truth behind persistent rumors, and doing it with charm and style rather than the snarky how-could-you-be-so-stupid tone that makes most debunking such a pain in the patoot.

In honor of the relaunched Area603, I went to the site and searched its archives for anything with a New Hampshire angle. Here is the search page, which includes such gems as:

+ Did a government memo regulating the sale of cabbages use 27,000 words?
+ Does a poem by Maya Angelou assert that Timberland is owned by the KKK?
+ Bride walks out of wedding after announcing that the groom has been sleeping with maid of honor.
+ Is Ernie of Sesame Street going to be killed off in an upcoming episode?

These are all New Hampshire related in the sense that somebody from the state is involved, but none of these really feel specific to New Hampshire - there's an albino-moose legend, but it doesn't involve us.

Ghost Hunters to Speak at UNH

The guys from TAPS (Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson, from the Sci Fi Network show Ghost Hunters) will be speaking at UNH on Oct. 24. According to a university press release, demand will be so high they'll be turning folks away:

“We’ve never had as many phone calls for an event as we have in the past three or four weeks for this,” says David Zamansky, assistant director of the Memorial Union Building at UNH. “Ghost Hunters” Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson are coming to the university as part of the MUB’s 2007 Current Issues Lecture Series. “People have been trying to reserve a seat. We’re telling them to come at least two hours early if they want to be sure to get in.”

I believe it! The paper did a circulation promotion with these guys (in conjunction with a local haunted attraction) a few years ago and people drove from hours away to do a quick handshake and get an autograph signed.

Octoberesque

An October mystery for me and you.

Earlier today I was working in the yard when I had an Area 603 moment. Like I do every fall about this time I was dragging some debris and yard waste to the gulley that runs alongside our property. The gulley is actually on our land, so I use it for disposal of branches and other organic stuff that won't mulch. On the way back up I noticed for the first time a bit of stone that was sticking out of the Earth, sort of like a tooth. It was strange I'd never noticed it before. I've made dozens of such trips right past it in recent months. I reached down to grab it, to see how deep it was buried and realized it was inscribed.

I have no idea who "Fredy" was, nor what happened on May 6, 1962 (I was 9 and living in Florida) but it was significant enough to someone that they felt the need to create this tiny marker. What do you suppose it is? A headstone seems likely, but for what. A beloved pet? A miniature imaginary friend? The strange thing is that this spot is right off the trail that I and my three kids have walked countless times every year for the 20 years we've lived on South Street.

I guess the real question is: Why did it reveal itself now, on the cusp of Halloween, the day after my first official posting on Area 603?

(Cue kettle drums and theramin music.)

Crop Suck-le