New Hampshire Magazine - March 2010

November used to be a quiet time for shopkeepers and innkeepers in the Mt. Washington Valley. No longer. Talk to any shopkeeper, and they’ll tell you that the November weekend customer base now largely consists of small groups of women…

Speaking of being new to New Hampshire,” the woman said, “we hadn’t been living here long when I heard gunshots in the woods, so I called the police. I got the dispatcher. I guess she was the dispatcher. She wasn’t…

Strawbery Banke 27th annual Holiday Stroll Just imagine that holiday traditions are great stitches, binding years of the past together like pleats in the fabric of time. Well, nowhere in New Hampshire is the holiday fabric richer or more colorful…

Mind Games I was interested to see your reference to the “Brainball” game in your November Editor’s Notes. Did you know there is a place to play this high-tech game right here in New Hampshire? The Children’s Museum of Portsmouth…

It’s a bit of a puzzle how the Granite State prides itself on both rugged individualism and a powerful sense of community. That’s a contradiction we can live with. In spite of our differences and our longing for independence, we…

The Democrats are tinkering with the calendar again, which is always a dangerous thing. The party’s rules committee plans to insert a Nevada caucus between Iowa’s caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, leaving this state third on the schedule of…

The sun is a-rising To welcome the day. Heigh-ho! Come to the fair! In “The History of the 124th Rochester Fair,” Violet Horne Dwyer and Florence Horne Smith give a fine account of the early days of the fair (when…

In the country: granite mountaintops, cliffs and ledges; tumbledown stone walls; random rocks and boulders scattered everywhere. In towns and cities: graveyards, public monuments and buildings great and small. Do some yard work or plant a garden; hunks of granite…

Human happiness is a work in progress. Once it was enough to survive. Civilization and culture created new standards of success. Philosophy and psychology opened doors to self-realization, but through it all hearts have hungered for ultimate meaning and delved…

What do fragrant pea blossoms, caramelized elk filets, delicate peach ice cream and Coulommier cheese have in common? Yes, they were all part of recent dinner service at the Mountain View Grand, but more importantly they all have long roots…