Local Commentary
Nashua’s Jeannette Lafrance, a World War II WAC and post-war foreign services worker, honored
Not too long ago, a Nashua native, born one of 12 children to one of the many large, Franco-American families that populated the section of Nashua we now call “The Tree Streets” neighborhood, took a little vacation to see the sights of the nation’s capital, Washington, D.C. Alice ...
SB61, Right to Work, should be voted Inexpedient to Legislate
Here it is, again. SB61 is boilerplate from ALEC, part of the Koch network – a a union, a collective of corporations seeking to define public policy. SB 61, misleadingly named “Right to Work” (RTW), has a long history that explains the purpose of the bill clearly. Its’ proponents ...
It’s an oxy, moron
I was driving last Sunday through different towns and cities in the area, when I came across the sign for a restaurant, “Chateau Italiano,” wondering what kind of bread they would serve, French loaf or Italian? Are the waiters snooty mimes who talk with their hands? Is the restaurant ...
Right to work … for more
The world is in the midst of a global pandemic, the likes of which we haven’t experienced in more than 100 years. And there is one very important thing that the New Hampshire General Court can do to help New Hampshire’s economy come out of the pandemic stronger than it went in. Pass a ...
Can we put an end to youth homelessness in our community?
I’ll be honest with you: some problems can feel really overwhelming to me. When that’s the case it’s usually because of a combination of complexity and severity. Such is the case with youth homelessness. For several years now we’ve become more and more involved with this issue in our ...
Floridays: This week in weird
Some years ago, a newspaper suggested that the state of Florida is the perfect barometer for strange behavior. As a former Floridian, I concur. I may not have added to the Sunshine State’s gritty surrealism, but I sure didn’t fight it. IN THE DOGHOUSE: Last week, a Miami veterinarian ...
Job well done, except for the leaves
Thank you to the New Hampshire National Guard, local community and safety personnel who continue doing their parts in batting down the COVID crisis. After four visits for vaccine injections, (two for Lady Baba, two for me), I am grateful not only for their service but impressed by their upbeat ...
Undaunted by pandemic, PLUS Company presents 30th Wild Irish Breakfast over airwaves
U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, New Hampshire’s senior senator, just may have discovered the secret to delivering her self-admitted so-so jokes at the PLUS Company’s Wild Irish Breakfast – with no concerns whatsoever about how they’ll be received by her audience. Shaheen, who as a former ...
DISTANT DOME: Redistricting Is partisan politics and always will be
Elections have consequences and Democrats are about to receive a difficult reminder of how impactful the repercussions can be. The second decade of the 21st Century ended Dec. 31 and that means the U.S. Census will be done counting the nation’s people, the population of every state, ...
Keeping our schools and children safe
Ensuring the safety of students should be the top priority of all of New Hampshire’s schools. Students need to know that they are in a safe and secure environment in order to learn. Many communities across our state, including here in Nashua, have for years partnered with their local police ...
The fight for fair elections in New Hampshire: ‘Democracy is not something we have – it’s something we do’
In a democratic republic like the United States, voters are meant to choose their politicians, not the other way around. Like many of our fellow Granite Staters, we take free and fair elections personally. One of us served for years as a Republican leader in the NH House of Representatives ...
A spring in the hand is worth the sharpest bulb in the drawer
This time of year never fails to catch me off guard. Perhaps it’s bearing witness to the cycle of rebirth, as life, that fecund thing, can be found in those sprouting flowers. Why, you can even see it in the joyful flitting of birds and the adorable buzzing of bees. However, you won’t ...
In latest book, ‘The Granite State Showman,’ looks back at a long, eventful, fruitful life
Three days before Christmas in 1947, leaders of Nashua’s Universalist Church – this was before the parish merged with the Unitarians to form the Unitarian Universalist Church – took a chance and invited a local teenager they’d heard was a pretty good magician to do a show at the ...
News briefs and boxers
WAXING PHILOSOPHIC: Famed NYC restaurant Peter Luger Steakhouse has teamed with Madame Tussauds to have celebrity wax figures rub elbows with patrons, promoting the easing of pandemic restrictions on indoor dining in the Big Apple. A wax Jon Hamm, known for his ad exec Don Draper in the series ...
Thinking back to the days when we got free stuff
Free is the ultimate catch word for any promotion. Use the word “free,” and one is likely to garner almost anyone’s attention. Free with purchase, free for stopping by, free, today only. A TV ad for a regional car dealer who likes to “keep it awesome” even promises free money. Of ...
Collaboration is how to solve the mental health crisis in a pandemic
In February 2013, I wrote an Op-Ed about a new record number of individuals who were stuck in New Hampshire hospital emergency departments waiting for a psychiatric inpatient bed for an involuntary emergency admission (IEA). There were 44 individuals waiting on February 4, 2013. Eight years ...
Ninety years ago next month, Nashuans mourned the sad ending to a once-majestic downtown opera house
The 1930s are often referred to as “Nashua’s Disaster Decade,” and is understood to refer to the three calamities that visited these parts between May 1930 and September 1938. Unless, of course, you count the Great Depression, which would bring it to four calamities within the ‘30s. ...
Culinary creativity, persistence and cautious optimism
There are some traits that you anticipate being passed down through a family – eye color or hair color, for example, or artistic ability or a knack for science. And then there are other traits that work their way down through the generations that are a little more unusual. To our great ...
What I would do for a Klondike bar
I’m pretty excited that in just days I will have my second COVID-19 vaccine injection. I realize this is a serious time but there are still some funny things happening. I am feeling a bit left out since WMUR was not on hand when my first shot went in. Have you noticed that people receiving ...
Highlights from CPAC
If you were sitting on your couch, rocking back and forth as you prayed the pain and discomfort away, then you were probably watching the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), a four-day event held in Orlando, Florida last week. The event was held at an Orlando Hyatt because ...