Your Letters From the September 2017 Issue
Send letters to Editor Rick Broussard, New Hampshire Magazine, 150 Dow St. Manchester, NH 03101 or e-mail him at editor@nhmagazine.com.
Keep it Classy
Another gorgeous, interesting issue although the phrase “whiny Arlo Guthrie” in “Psychic Salute” [“In Their Own Words,” August 2017] added nothing relevant to the feature. For me, it actually detracted. New Hampshire Magazine is customarily so well-written and produced — that was gratuitous, a cheap shot and out of character. Please keep up the great work. Let lesser media be snarky.
Completely respectfully,
Chip Underhill
Manchester
Great Review
I was so pleased to see a page in your July issue telling about Ruth Doan MacDougall’s series of books [“Review”]. She is my dearest and best friend from junior high at Laconia High School. I have always admired her intelligence, her self-discipline and her explosive laugh that makes me feel witty and happy. She’s the only person I know who uses literary references in everyday conversations.
I’m sure you know about the hiking books she publishes every few years, as did her father, Daniel Doan. The books describe new trails and changes in the old trails that NH hikers want to explore.
I especially enjoy your interviews of NH characters and artisans who describe their love of New Hampshire. Have you ever done a piece on the Winnipesaukee Yacht Club? Every island and every shoreline on Winnipesaukee has a story to tell.
Sally Smith Barrett
Bluffton, SC
Diplomatic Corrections
The implication in “Rockin’ State Ambassadors” [“Politics,” July 2017] that the White House press release erred in identifying Scott Brown as a resident of Massachusetts lets him off the hook. The appointment process allows the nominee to designate his state of legal residence to the White House before it is announced for the US Senate to confirm. Scott Brown’s personal choice apparently was to be from Massachusetts instead of New Hampshire this time around.
I am familiar with the procedure, having been nominated as Ambassador to Sierra Leone by President Bush and confirmed by the Senate in 2004 as being “of New Hampshire.” Incidentally, New Hampshire is also home to many more former ambassadors than cited in the article, myself included, although not all were New Hampshire residents when appointed.
At any one time roughly 30 percent of US ambassadors are “political” appointees, while the vast majority are apolitical career senior foreign service officers nominated by the president for their diplomatic accomplishments. The article has the ratio reversed in stating that “most ambassadors are … either big campaign donors or major political players,” and referring to “a few ambassadors who are career diplomats.”
It is true that most political envoys are appointed to comfortable capitals in Europe, the Caribbean, and, yes, New Zealand. Regardless of locale, however, all ambassadors share a responsibility to advance our national interests on complex issues. Although non-career ambassadors may be diplomatic neophytes in representing America abroad, this can be balanced by a political connection to the president, as may prove true for Scott Brown.
Thomas N. Hull, III
Ambassador (ret.)
Grantham
Loving It
I love your magazine. It offers so much for me as a transplant from Maryland. I love day trips, and this state is just beautiful. The coast is my favorite place to be.
Norma Lee Englar
Manchester
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Greetings from Dublin
That’s Dublin, Ireland, not the much-closer province where our parent company Yankee Publishing is based. Like any journalistic periodical, we like to think we get around, and we encourage readers to take us with them and send back photos as proof of our reach. When local musician (and professional career advisor from New England College) Eugene Durkee went abroad in July, he had a particularly fun encounter. Durkee is known for his Celtic guitar stylings, and he had flown to Ireland for a tour of pubs where he could join sessions (Irish music jams) with local players. He recounts his first stop after disembarking:
Dear NH Magazine,
After a convoluted flight to Dublin and temporary loss of baggage, we found bartender Fergus in County Longford watching the Dublin-Kildare Gaelic football match with a copy of New Hampshire Magazine in his hand. Slainte! Cheers!
—Durk
