Tracy Nabstedt grew up the same way many little kids do: sword fighting with branches and broomsticks in the backyard. Most of those Saturday swashbucklers end up dropping the branches in favor of briefcases, but not Nabstedt. He’s the man behind the iron mask at the Concord Fencing Club, which he’s owned and operated since its inception in 1998, and he’s been able to make a career…

Drat – they picked names for those new elementary schools without asking me. But if they had, I would’ve chosen these: BeeGees Elementary. I know, I know, it’s off the beaten path, and they don’t have the same local connections as the prominent and accomplished individuals already on the list, but I think the authors of hits like “Jive Talkin’” and “Too Much Heaven” deserve some consideration. Or think of how much history these kids might pick up from a song like “New York Mining Disaster 1941”! My other big idea is to call one “Where is the” Elementary School, which…

Twenty-one-year-old Ruven Dhungana of Bhutan arrived here last year with his immediate family. We asked him a few questions about his homeland and what it’s like to live in Concord. Where were you born? Bhutan, raised in a refugee camp in Nepal. What was life like in Nepal? It was difficult. My parents were farmers, so they grew the food that we ate. I went to school, but it was…

So many of my best Concord finds lately have been arts-related. It’s true, my interests and work naturally inhabit that sphere, but it’s also true that there’s some talented people running around this city. A recent welcome surprise was the Holiday Open Studio at T. Devaney Fine Arts and the Tricia Anderson Soule Studio. Tom and Tricia, the artists, inhabit studios across the hall from one another on the second…

Not sweating the small stuff has helped Detective Sean Dougherty get through tough times at the Concord Police Department. “You see people at their worst. Sometimes you have to chuckle to get through it,” he said. And get through it he did – on Nov. 30 the Loudon resident retired after serving the department for 23 years. At only 45 years old, Dougherty is looking forward to a life with a lot less work and more time at home with his kids. Dougherty’s time at the department was no cakewalk. His career began in 1987 when he was hired as a probationary police officer. After 11 years at the…

Last week, we asked you to share memories of the Princess Restaurant. Here’s what you said: “From the l920s to the early l960s, an enterprising couple, Christ and Madeline Mamos, built a grocery store and filling station with tourist cabins on Fisherville Road (which links West Concord to Penacook). In the same area, over the years, they built a sandwich shop called The Red Rooster,…