August is the sidekick of summer — at least here in New Hampshire where June can’t make up its mind and July’s fireworks and patriotic parades loudly declare that vacation time is here. Hot, holiday-free August gets little respect.
Our Best of New Hampshire issue is a snapshot of a moving target. The great Granite State is a dynamic place with lots of players competing for attention. For something even more consistently out-of-this-world amazing, just look up.
The “Chautauqua” movement began just a few decades after the Civil War with a goal of bringing people from different walks of life together for fun and enrichment. Our Best of NH Party began two decades ago with similar goals.
I once walked in an early version of what’s now known as the metaverse via an online app called Second Life. It included a whole digital world and a downscaled version of real life. It even featured a virtual “New Hampshire.”
From Ernest Harold Baynes’ beloved birds and buffalo to Clark’s famous bears to North Conway’s Spunky the Frog, animals have been movers and shakers of our history and culture for as long as we’ve been a state.
The holiday decorations brightening my street last month included a few illuminated peace signs — though most of our neighbors are way too young to remember the peace symbol as the potent ’60s icon it once was.
Former Parenting NH editor Melanie Hitchcock reflects on friend and colleague Bill Burke, who passed away suddenly in October.
Bill’s big, buoyant heart held so much joy that it’s difficult to comprehend how it could have failed him
Tom Waits, no ray of sunlight, wrote and sang of November: “November’s cold chain / Made of wet boots and rain / And shiny black ravens / On chimney smoke lanes / November seems odd / You’re my firing squad.”
A decade or so ago, I built a stage in my backyard. My kids were all performers of some sort and we had a couple of annual musical parties each year. Plus, I guess I had a lot more time on my hands back then.
