It’s been quite an eventful year at the Insider. Kinda like the previous eight since the paper was created, but way more recent and likely the one you remember most.
And we can’t argue with that reasoning, especially because the first one is a fact and the second is likely because we did a lot of really awesome stuff.
If you’ve been following along, you know exactly what we’re talking about. And even if you haven’t, that’s okay, too. We understand that life is busy and reading every edition of the Insider cover to cover each week may not be your top priority – although if that’s the case, maybe getting your ducks in a row for your New Year’s resolution might be in order. We know you’ll try harder in 2016.
But before we flip the calendar to January and begin another year (moving one step closer to a decade of Insider awesomeness) we wanted to take a trip down memory lane to relive all that was in the past 11 months and close to four weeks. We’re talking the cool features, interesting stories and all the wild and zany stuff we got talked into trying – or just did on our own, ’cause frankly, we like to do wild and zany things.
You may remember that last holiday season, we got a little tutorial on the best way to construct and decorate a gingerbread house. And after a couple weeks of looking at it and expecting a creature to have found its way into the Monitor building to consume it, we figured why not destroy it in a very cool way. We asked you, our faithful readers, for suggestions and got some pretty good ones. But the best (and one we decided to pursue) was to blow it up with a cannon.
Now this mini cannon may not have looked all that intimidating, but it sure did pack a good punch. Like after we pulled the string, there were pieces, not much bigger than a quarter, strewed across the Monitor parking lot for the next 50 feet.
And we can’t forget about our man-versus-food experience with the 2-pound taco at Margaritas, otherwise known as the Taco Gigante Challenge. We had an hour to finish the mammoth concoction of meat, cheese and veggie awesomeness, but unfortunately only one of us was able to complete the task. (Hint: it wasn’t Jon).
But enough about us. We’ll get back to that later. This is really about the people, places, things – and animals – that made the Insider such a must-read this past year. At least we felt it was a must-read, only because we like what we do, take pride in what we do and it’s what helps feed our families. Have you seen our cute children?
But where do we begin? Should we just start with what happened in January and move our way through the year chronologically? Now where’s the fun in that? That is about as far away from the Insider style as possible and something we cannot and will not stand for. So there will be no rhyme or reason to this, no rankings or anything like that – just a bunch of memories in one neatly wrapped chaotic package.
We told you about our own experience with the 2-pound taco, but Concord firefighter Ian Holm’s was way better. What took Tim almost the entire allotted time for the challenge, Holm did in 2 minutes and 57 seconds. Let us say that again, Holm finished a 2-pound taco in 2:57. Enough said.
We went through a bit of a transition when Keith abruptly abandoned operations in August (well, actually he gave a month notice) for a new gig at the University of New Hampshire School of Law, leaving the Insider scrambling to make some big decisions.
But never fear, Jon Bodell is here. The longtime night desk copy editor made the seamless transition to the Insider pod and has teamed with Tim, now the longest tenured employee, to keep the paper moving in the right direction – or at least coming out each week.
We won a pair of media awards, which we felt was a little low, from both the Concord Grange and the State Grange. They’re shiny plaques that are hanging in our office.
After Deflategate took over the nation, we decided to see what the big deal was. Thanks to the good people at Capital Sporting Goods, we got to feel what a “deflated football” felt like compared to a “regulation football.” Still don’t know what the difference was.
Our athletic prowess was tested on multiple occasions, like when we wheeled our way around the court in the charity wheelchair basketball game at NHTI, ran for what seemed like hours on end during the NHTI wiffleball tournament or did a little work on the speed bag at Title Boxing Club. And don’t forget our attempts at slacklining, quilting and making cookies. If you go back and check the stories, we more then held our own. Actually, don’t waste your time – just take our word for it.
There was the story of some St. Paul’s students who rode their bikes across the country, from Washington to New Hampshire to raise money for veterans. After months of mystery, we got to the bottom of Tom Devaney’s eye on Main Street and we broke through the invisible boundary lines of the Insider coverage area and started covering Bow. We also took you behind the scenes of Concord 250 and the Main Street Project.
We even had exclusive interviews with NBA legend and Concord native Matt Bonner and the elusive Bow emu.
We told you it was a good year for the Insider, and all of this is proof. But, like always, we’ll try to do better, so keep reading ’cause we’re going to keep writing. See you in 2016.
