Of the many changes in our politics — the movement of political power from the Northeast and Midwest to the South and West, the coarsening of our national conversation, the transformations wrought by technological change, including the internet and social media — the one that might be the mo…
Unintended consequences. You sign up for Paramount+ to watch “Yellowstone” and because you forgot to cancel the service, you wind up watching “Tulsa King.” You get hooked on Three Musketeer bars at age 8 and you’re getting another crown at 75. Our best intentions are all too frequently sabot…
There is a certain magic to a trail. You feel it in the crunch of soil underfoot, the play of light through the leaves and the pause to let someone else pass. Trails meander. They invite a slower pace and a kind of shared respect among the people who use them. Over time, they shift with the …
Even when droughts turn our dirt road desert-dry, and inconsiderate motorists race by, raising 15-foot clouds of dust, we take most of our walks on Davis Hill. Sometimes we bring gloves and plastic bags, to pick up after the pigs in our society. If we or our neighbors don't undertake litter …
My mother died February 4, 2024. Last week I ordered an engraved inscription for the headstone she shares with my father, beneath which she has lain these 20 months. Why the rush, you ask? As my brother has commented on a few occasions, “She would not be happy with us.” Indeed, although in o…
The tragic assassination of Charlie Kirk has once again forced Americans to confront the specter of political violence. In moments like these, leaders face a choice: They can appeal for calm or they can use tragedy to inflame public divisions. New Hampshire’s leaders have offered both models…
MONTREAL — Hardly noticed in the United States amid its worries about domestic tranquility was an important, telling and symbolic development that prompted bold-faced headlines here.
The times they keep gettin’ crazier. But no matter how wild it gets, we must remain clear sighted about our foundational freedoms. And that among these are the freedom of press, speech, expression and assembly — my sacred right to be an annoying and offensive jackass.
Rink Earle returned to South Conway from a trip to Colorado in May of 1963, reporting severe drought conditions throughout the West. By summer, those conditions had migrated eastward, and on the Fourth of July it was so dry here that the North Conway Water Precinct banned the watering of law…
OGUNQUIT, Maine — The Old Dirigo State. The Lumber State. Down East. The Switzerland of America. The Polar Star State. The Pine Tree State. Vacationland.
Coping Skills
We sure are getting a lot of protection these days. Our prisons protect us from criminals by “taking them off the streets.” One N.H. state prison guard made $388,000 last year — $280,000 in overtime. It raises the question of whom we need protecting from.
The use of "remedial" as an educational term is about a century old. It first appeared in the title of a book published in 1924, but only in the 1970s did it come into common usage in the teaching profession. In 1977, in an article on the adverse impact of overcrowded classrooms, an Irish ne…
A man was lost. He wandered in the wilderness for a long while. From despair and confusion arose meaning, and he found himself.
The overhaul of American attitudes toward immigration has many fronts. One is the border, both the southern and northern frontiers. Another is workplaces — Mexican restaurants, manufacturing plants like the Hyundai facility where hundreds of Koreans recently were arrested — where the undocum…
Twenty-four years ago. Many of us recall exactly where we were and exactly what we were doing when we first heard the news. We remember with horror the images and the stories that shocked the world.