Somewhere in between the 1918 Spanish Flu and the current novel coronavirus, I had a happy childhood. Today, I flashed back to about 1958 as I stumbled upon my first childhood watch featuring Davey Crocket. Sixty years later, the King of the Wild Frontier has been replaced by the Apple watch, ...
Hello dear readers, and welcome to the sunny month of June. I don’t know about you, but despite the sunshine, I’ve been feeling bored lately and looking for ways to add some good feelings into my days during “the virus.” Have you been dealing with boredom, too? Feeling a lack of ...
I couldn’t be happier to announce that my niece Victoria is a married gal as you read this – congrats to Tori and her new hubby Jonathan. The socially-distanced service was held at St. Patrick’s on Saturday. I wanted to wear flip flops with my seersucker suit to the wedding at the ...
A friend is somebody who supports you when you want to get something done. A friend is somebody who lends a shoulder when you are in pain. A friend is somebody who celebrates your accomplishments with you without taking the credit for themselves. And a friend is somebody who gives you honest ...
Born during the Woodrow Wilson administration the eldest of 10 children of Swedish immigrants, she’s outlived all but one sibling, was around, albeit as a child, when women got the OK to vote, and to this day can recite a favorite childhood prayer verbatum – in both Swedish and English – ...
Over recent months, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the need to improve access to telehealth services across New Hampshire. During this challenging period, and at all times, individuals and families face significant hurdles to accessing in-person health care, including physical, geographic, ...
The COVID-19 contagion has hit New Hampshire hard, as it has the rest of the country, hurting small businesses, local economy and our local media. At such an unprecedented moment – when more than 121,000 Americans have died – our local and national media are more important than ever before. ...
In the spring of 1968, I was a 22-year-old seminarian preparing for the ministry at a theological school in Rochester, New York. It was a predominantly white seminary with a sizeable number of Black students (the term “African American” had not come into use at that time). On the evening ...
Dames. Broads. Cats. Crumb bums. Sadly, no one talks like this anymore and it’s a doggone shame. I wasn’t born until ‘64 so I missed the parlance from the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s eras. Having seen Sinatra live more than a dozen times, I have relied on his ring-a-ding-ding lingo to ...
The coronavirus interrupted 2020 legislative session will be one to remember, just as graduations will be this year for college and high school seniors. Normalcy is gone, improvisation is the norm and things may never be the same. This year a high school graduation ceremony was held atop ...
OK, today it would be, “Who was that masked person?” But most of us who hail from a certain age group can certainly identify with this question. It was typically asked by anyone who was present when none other than the Lone Ranger himself would mysteriously disappear and ride old Silver off ...
What if I told you the sad and ignorant man who called my wife the N-word in New Hampshire isn’t really the problem? What if I said that well-mannered ‘white’ folk like you and me are just as much the problem as he? Let me explain. The term ‘structural racism’ is redundant. Racism ...
We were just taking the final bites of dinner – mine, of course, of butter-grilled “frankfurts” and potato chips – when the man I didn’t know pulled my mother aside to convey a message that had come from the big meeting room upstairs. Until that moment, it was a routine, uneventful ...
“But times must alter, or this is a ruined country. Nothing but integrity in private and justice in public bodies can preserve a republic. If calamities are necessary to teach us wisdom and virtue, I wish God would rain down showers of them upon us.” – Benjamin Rush to John Adams, ...
Call it the kitsch of death. When you think back, the 8-track tape was the music equivalent of the middle finger. It was a punk. It was skateboarding on the sidewalk, shoplifting at Woolworth’s stupid. It had no respect for pretention, had no use for societal norms and sound quality? Let’s ...
For four years, I have been blessed to work in New Hampshire’s charitable gaming industry, and even more privileged to have spent a year and a half managing the staff at the highest grossing casino in the state. It’s an industry filled with memorable characters on both sides of the gaming ...
As I travel down Ferry Street toward Library Park, I am impressed by the display of American flags on the park. Each flag represents an individual and each individual has their own story of service as a veteran or first responder. This display brings to my mind these May 30, 1949, photos of ...
Am I the only one who’s misplaced their driving mojo during the pandemic? Actually, anyone who has been misguided enough to ride in the co-pilot seat with me would claim I’ve never had any driving mojo. With one minor fender bender on my 50-year driving resume, that would seem a bit ...
As our country faces enormous challenges, let's be inspired by what Abraham Lincoln said of America's noble purpose: "government of the people, by the people, for the people." Lincoln spoke those words during the Gettysburg address of 1863 when America's survival as a nation was in peril ...
This week the House will meet outside of Representatives Hall for the first time since the Civil War and next week the Senate will meet in Representatives Hall. The historic changes allow lawmakers to adhere to social distancing recommendations to avoid coronavirus transmission. The ...
