Officially Wrong With candidates announcing and the 2008 New Hampshire Primary beginning in earnest, I write to call attention to the fact that it is the N.H. Secretary of State, Bill Gardner, and not Governor Lynch, who will determine the date of the N.H. Primary. Your item on page 21 of the February issue is in need of correction in…
Corrective lenses — what we call “glasses” — have a long history. In ancient Egypt, people realized that looking through a glass bowl filled with water would magnify print. By the 13th century, there were magnifying glasses to help with reading. In the 16th century, the magnifying glass was streamlined into lenses for people who were nearsighted. In 1775, Benjamin…
The philosopher Diogenes wandered the streets of Athens living on a diet of onions and carrying a torch in full daylight. When people stopped him to ask what he was doing, Diogenes would reply, “I’m searching for an honest man.” Reportedly, he never found one. Maybe it was the onions. The Test: We decided to pick four Granite State population…
How Safe Are You Here in the Granite State? The short answer: about as safe as you can be anywhere, but what fun is that? Here’s a look at the state’s dark statistical underbelly. We all take pride in the fact New Hampshire ranks high among the safest, smartest, cleanest and wealthiest states. Maybe there’s none better. Some folks, not…
A John Irving conversation unfolds like a John Irving novel. The sentences begin, dense with clauses, bristling with specific detail. Merrily they traverse the tangled undergrowth between subject and verb, meandering past, around, never quite to the point. Tagging along breathlessly, the reader or listener starts to wonder: Where in this labyrinth is our hero? Has he lost the plot?…
Most of us who live in New Hampshire don’t spend a lot of time worrying about our northern border. It’s just one of those things that has always been there and has seemed to work OK. We have lots of other stuff to fret about, and very few migrant workers are sneaking across the border to take jobs in the…
It’s a fact that is both obvious and surprising, serious and ironic. The places we are most endangered are the places that feel most like home. Most people know that cars are the biggest cause of fatal injuries in the U.S. This doesn’t sound unusual at all until you realize that means YOUR car, that cozy refuge with its six…
Why did I buy six parking meters? Well, first and foremost, I’m a guy, and buying the parking meters was as much an “impulse” thing as checking out RVs at Campers Inn whenever I’m within a five-mile radius of the dealership or tire-kicking at Hobbs Automotive every time they get a repossessed car in or using the excuse of “I…
In prehistoric times clans gathered around a fire to bond by telling stories and making funny body noises. In the roaring 1920s and through the Second World War it was the crackle of the radio that brought families together every night. In the 1950s it was the cool gray eye of the television that regularly summoned the family unit, TV…
A landscaping project can be a daunting task for any homeowner. Whether the project is big or small, there are many factors to consider. To start with, there are zoning codes and safety issues, not to mention New Hampshire’s inconvenient mud season. Beyond that there are endless possibilities for reshaping the turf. Hardscapes, including stone and brick need to be…
