Dead jellyfish stings 100 at Rye beach, no effect on N.H. biz

Ah, summertime and the livin’ is easy. Or in the case of us news types, boring.

I wear about eight different hats at NHBR. Part of what I do is troll headlines from the Internet for any interesting mentions of New Hampshire that I can turn in even more interesting articles, or at least fodder for Flotsam.

Often a hot news story about New Hampshire will get repeated across the country with some desperate headline knacker trying to come up with something different other than what else has been said. Most of the time, these oft-repeated stories are perfectly news-worthy.

Sometimes, they are not.

I can’t tell you how many iterations of the now-infamous Wallis Sands jellyfish that stung posthumously as many as 150 beach-goers.

Summer can be a very slow news season here in the Granite State, but this is ridiculous.

Virtually all the local media outlets have given this story a news cycle roughly the equivalent of the Gulf oil leak. That’s understandable. It’s a slow time for news in N.H.

But in Boston? New Jersey? Fox News (since they’re “fair and balanced” I expect exclusives from other ocean invertebrates any day now)?

Even the venerable Grey Lady herself. Yes, The New York Times had a big spread on our late jelly, interrupting the vacation of some poor UNH academic for quotes.

I loathe the idea that summer is half over, but if chilly nights and shortening days will bring folks back from their holidays to do business mischief again so we have something decent to write about, it’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make.

Or we could always join ‘em?

“Next time on Flotsam & Jetsam…Dead rye jellyfish puts in a bid for Judd Gregg’s Senate seat…”