Posts by Nathan Graziano
Standing along the first base line, Andrew Marais—the 32-year-old on-field emcee and the Senior Manager of Marketing and Promotions with the Fisher Cats organization—dons a bright green blazer with his face painted white and his hair dyed green to resemble The Joker from the “Batman” series.
There is something happening here in Manchester, something fresh and unique rumbling just below the surface. The voices of poets, writers and performers of all sorts are teasing out a literary scene in the Queen City.
And my favorite bartender is a French-Canadian woman named Sylvia Caron. Sylvia has worked at Chelby’s Pizza for more than 40 years and has not lost a step. Like all fine bartenders, Sylvia is personable and kind and patient.
I’m about to get all Gen X, sitting-cross-legged-in-front-of-the-television-eating-Cocoa-Puffs real with everyone now.
According to the BMI chart—and I understand that the BMI chart is a dubious and sometimes dangerous measure of healthy weight—I’m not a lost cause, but the opportunity to get my “summer body” continues to dwindle in my rearview as I speed off to another rendezvous with a cheeseburger and a beer.
It’s prom season, and while teenagers throughout the nation are stocking up on whitening strips and working on their tans, the adults are just supposed to snap the pictures of the teens gleaming for the camera. Not so fast.
My stomach sunk as I remembered. I remembered committing to rake the stupid refuse in our stupid yard and pack it in the stupid lawn bags then mow the stupid lawn. I remembered agreeing to help sweep our stupid patio and pull the stupid weeds growing in the stupid cracks between the stupid bricks.
With business partner Eric Klesper, of New Boston, who will handle the books and business management—as well as working some bartending shifts— and the culinary talents of Kelley-Sue LeBlanc (aka KSL) owner of The Sleazy Vegan catering and food truck, Azevedo is opening Pembroke City Limits, a restaurant and tavern in the historic mills of Suncook Village.
As soon as I’m lifted onto the bed, I’m greeted by this picture of a pug that looks like me and is, quite literally, larger than life. There I am, the “King of Kings,” or the “Pug of Pugs.” But unlike Ozymandias, I’m aware of the fact that time will sweep me into oblivion, as it will all of you, too.
I can’t remember exactly how it originally came up, but one night I was out with Manchester Ink Link’s publisher Carol Robidoux, and the topic of baseball and the Fisher Cats came up. I remember expressing an interest in writing some feature pieces on the team—the organization and its personalities, the park and its idiosyncrasies, the fans and minor league baseball culture.