Cambridge, MA 02138. http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~kendo/shoryuhai.php Even more impressive — possible — is a breakdancing competition. Oh yes, baby! “Breakonomics” is Apr 26, at La Sala De Puerto Rico, MIT Student Center, 84 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA. 12-9pm. http://www.mit.edu/~imobilare Is your idea of fun is picking up garbage, perhaps you’d like to attend the Earth Day Charles River Cleanup. Watch out for that sodium. Apr 26. http://www.crwa.org/cleanup.html You’ve played Scrabble the board game. But these people are serious experts. The Scrabble Tournament Regionals are Apr 25-27, in Westford, MA. http://www.scrabble-assoc.com/tourneys/2008/calendar.html or http://sasj.com/tourneys You missed last week’s kiting event? It’s still National Kite Flying Month. See Annual Kite Day @ Bose Mountain, Apr 27, Framingham, MA. http://www.kone.org/Events.html and also Apr 26 the Wenham Kite Festival, http://www.kone.org/Events.html

Hey-o,

There’s so much weird this week!! It’s the first week of 2008 that I feel like I don’t need any filler, and it’s going to continue like this through October!

It’s Earth Day! Celebrate at the Franklin Park Zoo and elsewhere. Apr 22. Unfortunately the central Earth Day site seems to be down or gone. Anybody have a link?

And now, the weird event of the week! It’s the Annual Sheepshearing Festival, Apr 26 at 52 Gore Street, Waltham, MA. (781) 894-2798. This is not just some agricultural festival. Gore Place is an actual 1806 historical mansion and museum, and they’ll have sheep-herding dogs, wool spinning, gardening, magicians, and “historic demonstrators” which I hope means re-enactors. And sheep. http://www.goreplace.org/events/events.htm

Not the weirdest, but the most recommended event of the week has got to be the New England Folk Festival, Apr 25-27. I know what you’re thinking — you’re WAY too hip to get caught folk dancing. Oh really? Maybe you should give it a chance and just don’t make eye contact with the goth friends you’ll see slumming it for the day all 18th century. I’ve been twice and it’s the largest gathering in New England of people who not only want to sit and listen, they want to learn dance Bulgarian or Israeli style, learn sea shanties, jam in the corridors with fiddlers and drummers. More than most festivals, people are friendly and approachable. You really can’t just go and feel alone in a crowd. Mansfield, MA. F 7pm-11:30pm, S 9am-11:30pm, Sun 9am-5:30pm. Highly recommended! http://www.neffa.org

This week is the Cambridge Science Festival! It’s really for grade schoolers, but presumably anybody can stop by and check it out. It’s the first citywide science festival in the United States and there are tons of things happening. Apr 26-May 4. Cambridge, MA. http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org

— A Science Carnival on Apr 26, 12-4pm at Cambridge City Hall, northwest of Central Square on Mass Ave. It’s quite a list of free activities and presentations! http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2008Festival/ScienceCarnival.aspx

— The Science Trivia Challenge

— A wildlife trek to see forest animals such as foxes and otters close to Cambridge. Apr 26, 10am-12pm. “Walk on the Wild Side”. http://www.cambridgesciencefestival.org/2008Festival/2008ScheduleOfEvents.aspx

— THe Charles River Watershed Asociation (CRWA) River Science Festival. Apr 27. http://www.crwa.org/events/sciencefest.html

— MIT/Cambridge Science Expo, Apr 29. Cambridge, MA. 2-6pm. Volunteers needed. 350 seventh and eighth grade students from 14 local public schools. http://web.mit.edu/mitpsc/volunteering/programs/expo

Women’s Hula Hoop Party with Allyson Makiej. What more is there to say? If only there were a loving, totally safe environment where MEN could go hula hooping. I’d be all over that. Apr 24, Lowell, MA. They want you to reserve a spot in advance. http://www.revolvingmuseum.org/Calendar/Calendar.htm

Here’s an arts festival that attracts 13,000 people, at least so they claim. The Boston College Arts Festival is Apr 24-26. Boston College, Boston, MA. They’ll show Urinetown, a musical whose title has always seemed too much marketing not enough substance to me. They’ll have music, film, theatre, literature, “kids activities”, including the ubiquitous face-painting. If only there were a totally safe envrionment where MEN could go for face-painting. 617-552-2787. http://www.bc.edu/offices/artscouncil/festival.html

If trekking out to BC is too much work, right here in Cambridge we’ll have the North Cambridge Open Studios Apr 26-27. As I never tired of repetitively saying, open studios are when artists open their private homes or work studios to the public. So it’s a chance to stroll around a region of metro Boston, an opportunity to possibly buy inexpensive art, but more importantly you get to meet the actual artists, not their dealers, and EAT THEIR FREE SNACKS. Yum! Snacks vary widely. Some involve chips. Some involve fruit and wine. 12-6pm. http://www.noca-arts.org

Also outdoorsy: it’s Arbor Day Weekend Celebration at the Tower Hill Botanical Garden, which I’ve never been to but it’s one of Boston’s top 5 gardens. Apr 25-27.