Bulletin board
Congress’s Power of the Purse Why does the federal government “shut down” when members of Congress fail to agree on new spending? Why is it becoming harder for Congress to pass routine spending bills? Why does Congress, rather than the President, hold authority over spending, and why does it matter? Professor Zachary Price will discuss Congress’s “power of the purse,” meaning its authority to control government spending, and provide...
Catholic Charities NH Mardi Gras set for Feb. 10
The 18th Annual Mardi Gras will be making its return to Concord on Feb. 10 at the Grappone Conference Center, bringing together the community to support NH neighbors facing poverty, homelessness, mental health challenges, and other timely issues impacting communities statewide. The evening will include a variety of authentic Cajun cuisine, games, live and silent auction items, dancing and more. The live auction will feature vacations...
This week in Concord history
Feb. 8, 2002: Lindsay and Allyson Lemire, 21-year-old Bow natives, appear on Sally Jessy Raphael’s talk show. The show is a dating game-like episode titled “Love Search. . . For Someone Like Me,” and pairs the women with aspiring actors and Doublemint twins Jermyn and Joseph Daube. Feb. 8, 2001: More than 30 Concord police and state Drug Task Force officers raid an apartment complex in Concord to arrest three men and a woman who the...
Book review of ‘Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman’
‘Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman’ by Lucy Worsley (2022, 415 pages, Genre: Biography) “Once I’ve been dead ten years, I’m sure no one will ever have heard of me.” This statement wouldn’t be nearly so ironic, had it not been uttered by one of the 20th century’s best-known authors: Agatha Christie. Even today, nearly half a century after her death, Christie is a household name. She has been identified by UNESCO as the world’s...
Bulletin board for the week of Feb. 1, 2024
Civics lecture Join New Hampshire Civics on Tuesday, Feb. 6 from 11 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. for a virtual William W. Treat Lecture with Dr. Richard Haass. Dr. Haass and a panel of New Hampshire high schoolers will have a virtual discussion about what the American people can do – both individually and collectively – to ensure that American democracy not only survives, but thrives. NH Civics would like to thank New Hampshire Humanities and...
Super Stellar Friday at McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center
The McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center looks forward to welcoming Jacob Garside as our February 2024 Super Stellar Friday speaker. Jacob is currently a second-year student at Plymouth State University here in New Hampshire, pursuing a B.S. in Meteorology. He has been a part of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project since 2022. He was also a NASA Space Grant intern at the Discovery Center during the summer of 2023, and his campers...
History for the week of Feb. 1, 2024
Feb. 1, 2003: News spreads through Concord that the space shuttle Columbia has exploded, reminding many of the space shuttle Challenger. “It’s amazing how it brings those feelings right back,” says state Rep. Jim MacKay, who was the city’s mayor when the Challenger exploded 17 years ago with Concord teacher Christa McAuliffe on board. Feb. 1, 1971: The New York Times reports rising concern among some New Hampshire officials that...
Gibson’s photographer, author Margo Cooper
Margo Cooper visits Gibson’s Bookstore, 45 S. Main St., on Feb. 20 to share her stunning new book of photographs and interviews, Deep Inside the Blues. Cooper will be joined in conversation by Holly Harris, host and producer of Spinning the Blues, a radio show airing Saturday nights on WUMB. Margo and Holly’s conversation will cover the musicians in the book, the music they made, the clubs in the Boston area, (including Harper’s...
‘A great neighborhood activity’: Outdoor hockey and nearly two decades of memories
Tom Philbrick’s basement has become something of a hockey sporting goods warehouse. Goalie equipment, sticks, skates, pucks – you name it, it’s probably down there. Oh, and don’t forget about all the hockey pucks not in the basement. “Hundreds of pucks around the neighborhood,” Philbrick said. “You find pucks from 10, 15 years ago stuck. I found them on my roof, found them on my neighbor’s roof. It’s unbelievable.” It’s a little more...
Book review: ‘Annihilation’ by Jeff VanderMeer
‘Annihilation,’ by Jeff VanderMeer (2014, 195 pages, Genre: Science Fiction / Horror) “’The map had been the first form of misdirection, for what is a map but a way of emphasizing some things and making other things invisible?’” This is an excerpt from the journal of the biologist, the otherwise unnamed main character in Jeff VanderMeer’s first installment of his Southern Reach trilogy. For over thirty years, a government agency...
History for the week of Jan. 25, 2024
Jan. 25, 2002: Area lawmakers approve $24.2 million worth of renovations and additions to the Merrimack County jail, wrapping up years of discussion on whether and how much county taxpayers should pay to reduce the facility’s crowding. Jan. 25, 2000: Concord receives nearly 9 inches of snow, hardly an extraordinary occurrence for late January; however, it is the first significant snowstorm of the season, and for that to come in...
Book review: ‘Manner of Death’ by Robin Cook
‘Manner of Death,’ by Robin Cook (2023, 337pages, genre: medical thriller) Dr. Jack Stapleton and NYC Chief Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery are back with another chapter in the medical examiner’s office in NYC. What starts out as a simple way to interest a senior pathology resident in his required month of rotation at the office turns as the resident, looking to avoid actually attending autopsies, proposes a research project...
Bulletin board for week of Jan. 18, 2024
Food bank receives $10K donation Merrimack County Savings Bank (The Merrimack) is helping to fight hunger, and its root causes, with a $10,000 donation to New Hampshire Food Bank. The contribution will not only feed families and individuals across the Granite State, it will also support programming and education to those in need. According to the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA), an estimated 6.2% of New Hampshire...
Bulletin board for the week of Jan. 18, 2024
Dr. Lloyd Sederer visits Gibson’s Dr. Lloyd Sederer, a Concord author, visits Gibson’s Bookstore to share the inspiring true story of how a small group of dedicated leaders achieved radical and relentless change to save McLean, Harvard’s historic psychiatric hospital from for-profit changes. Caught in the Crosshairs of American Healthcare shows readers that, with grit, brains, and support, we can still change our world. Sederer...
Book review: ‘The Chinese Shawl’
‘The Chinese Shawl’ By Patricia Wentworth (1943, 270 pages, genre: mystery) Laura Fane comes of age in England and inherits a property called the Priory. Her older cousin Agnes lives there, and Agnes wants to buy it from Laura. Agnes is a formidable woman and was once engaged to Laura’s father. Laura’s father broke the engagement in order to marry Laura’s mother. Agnes never married and has hung onto her heartbreak and anger....
This week in history for Jan. 18, 2024
Jan. 18, 2002: A frustrated House majority declared that landmark court rulings requiring the state to pay for schools were wrong, the Monitor reports. While the resolution has no legal effect, supporters see it as a first step to taking back control over school funding from the state Supreme Court. Jan. 18, 1782: Daniel Webster is born. His parents are Abigail (Nabby) Webster and Captain Ebenezer Webster. The future U.S. senator and...
Bulletin board for week of Jan. 11, 2024
NHTI introduces Workforce Education NHTI is introducing Workforce Education, a new collaborative educational department to expand the college’s efforts in providing essential skillsets and continuing education. The goals include increased opportunities and empowerment for community members looking to expand their career knowledge and learn a new skill. Previously known as the Business Training Center, the new Workforce Education...
Week in history for Jan. 11, 2024
Jan. 11, 2002: Dozens of residents from small towns between Concord and the Seacoast are expected to meet in Barrington with state officials to review options for stopping, or scaling back, what could be the state’s largest water-bottling operation, the Monitor reports. USA Springs, the Pelham based company that hopes to construct a water-bottling plant on 100 acres it owns on the Barrington/Nottingham town line, wants state...
A year in review: Merrimack County 2023
County of Merrimack Many people wonder what the role of county government is. For some, the answer is apparent; for others the answer may not be so clear. A look back at the major achievements and celebrations of Merrimack County during 2023 will shed some light on our role – to support a healthy, vibrant, safe, and resilient life for all Merrimack County residents. Health: County nursing homes and assisted living facilities offer...
This week in history for Jan. 4, 2023
Jan. 4, 2003: A federal judge has denied Gary Sampson’s plea to escape the death penalty, the Monitor reports. Sampson is accused of killing Robert “Eli” Whitney of Penacook along with two Massachusetts’s men. He will be found guilty in Massachusetts and sentenced to death, the first time the state has issued such a sentence since 1973. Jan. 4, 1859: The Coos Republican of Lancaster prints a list of all town residents who had died the...
Bulletin board for the week of Jan. 4, 2024
Curbside Christmas tree collection begins Concord residents with curbside trash and recycling collection can place their Christmas trees curbside for disposal on their trash collection day starting on Jan. 2. Christmas trees will be collected for two weeks through Jan. 12. Due to the New Year’s Day holiday on Monday, trash and tree collection will be delayed by one day throughout the first week. Trees must be placed at the curb with...
This week in Concord history
Dec. 28, 1863: Henry Plummer Brooks, a Pittsfield boy of 14 years 10 months, enlists in the Third Regiment, New Hampshire Volunteer Infantry. After fighting in two battles, he will die of illness in North Carolina. A history of the town’s Civil War soldiers will assert that although there were younger drummer boys during the war, Plummer was the youngest by 10 months of any soldier who carried a rifle. Thus the town will claim both...
Book review: ‘The Last Tale of the Flower Bride’
The Last Tale of the Flower Bride By Roshani Chokshi (292 pages, fantasy, 2023) Rooted in fairy tales and folklore, “The Last Tale of the Flower Bride” can leave the reader wondering what really happened. Is there magic? Did it touch the two narrators? I’m still thinking about the events in the story. The first narrator we meet is The Bridegroom. We never learn his name. He’s a scholar of folklore and fairy tales who has traced...
Concord Crew, Red River co-host evening showing of ‘Boys in the Boat’
Concord Crew and Red River Theatre are co-hosting the movie “Boys in the Boat” for the evening showing on Tuesday, Dec. 26. During Depression-era America, an underdog rowing team at the University of Washington amazingly defies all odds and achieves the ability to represent the USA at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Director George Clooney deftly delivers a heartwarming and bold depiction of perseverance and unity in “Boys in the Boat” –...
This week in history for Dec. 21, 2023
Dec. 21, 1833: Benjamin Brown French of Chester, who will serve for many years in Washington, D.C., arrives there for his first job as a clerk in the U.S. House. He writes: “I entered the Capitol today, for the first time, and I viewed it with thoughts and emotions which I cannot express – will it always be the capitol of my happy country?” Dec. 22, 1840: Belknap County is established. Dec. 23, 1999:The Monitor reports that Gov....
Bulletin board for the week of Dec. 21, 2023
Holiday conversations and oral history The Pembroke Historical Society is offering some suggestions for families to address their oral histories at upcoming holiday gatherings. “The Basics of Video Interviews” and lists of potential questions are now available on the PHS website to help facilitate discussions with family members, neighbors and friends. “The holidays are a perfect time to ask about family stories and histories,” says...
Book review: ‘Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman’
‘Agatha Christie: An Elusive Woman’ by Lucy Worsley (2022, 415 pages, biography) “Once I’ve been dead ten years, I’m sure no one will ever have heard of me.” This statement wouldn’t be nearly so ironic, had it not been uttered by one of the 20th century’s best-known authors: Agatha Christie. Even today, nearly half a century after her death, Christie is a household name. She has been identified by UNESCO as the world’s best-selling...
City newsletter for the week of Dec. 11
Here’s a look at what was included in the last city newsletter: Meetings City meetings are held in person in Council Chambers at 37 Green Street (unless otherwise specified on the City’s calendar). Upcoming meetings include: Planning Board: Wednesday, December 20, 7 p.m. Visit https://concordnh.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx for City Council and Planning Board agendas, which are posted prior to the meetings. View the City calendar...
Zach Nugent’s Dead Set to perform
It usually only takes one show to understand why Zach Nugent is one of the most sought after guitarists in the live music scene. Since touring as de-facto Garcia expert with Melvin Seals and JGB, he continues to build his dedicated following, putting together and leading multifaceted groups for special runs and festival appearances. Never one to shy away from new and challenging ideas, his performances promise intensity and beauty in...
Five local young professionals are creating community in Concord
Concord Young Professionals Network (CYPN) introduces you to the “Young Professional of the Month,” the CYPN Ambassadors Committee. Each month, the CYPN Steering Committee recommends a young professional in the community it thinks readers would enjoy getting to know better, and this month it will highlight all five members of the CYPN Ambassador Committee. These local volunteers ensure that everyone is welcomed at CYPN events, new...
