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,…

- Dec. 14, 1955: A train conductor uncoupling an engine from the freight train in Concord gets his foot caught between the rail and guard rail and is then run over by the train and crushed to death, the Coos Republican reports. - Dec. 15, 1987: Just before noontime, Gary Hart and his wife Lee stroll onto the State House Plaza, where the media horde waits. After having dropped out in May because of highly publicized womanizing, Hart announces that he is back in the Democratic race for president. “I have the power of ideas,” he says, “and I can govern this country.” - Dec. 15, 1836: The Legislature…

The Winant Park trails of Concord are delightfully rugged, and the reward for reaching the top is a breathtaking panoramic view of the New Hampshire landscape, including the State House and the St. Paul’s School campus, with mountains on the far horizon. The rock-strewn picturesque pathways are what you would expect in a typical New England forest, and the rocks make good stepping…