My interest in reading about presidents started in childhood. I recall walking to the Allenstown, N.H. library, taking a short cut through an open field on a summer day to check out a biography of George Washington. I was probably about 10. Since then, I have read biographies of more than half our presidents and own about four dozen biographies of those chief executives who most affected America’s history — Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, both Roosevelts, Lyndon Johnson and others. I have skipped Franklin Pierce — the only president from New Hampshire if one does not count Josiah Bartlett...
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Dear Abbie:
Tonight you graduate from high school. Wrapping my head around that takes effort. It seems just a few days ago you were a 10-year-old girl, hair tied back in a schrunchie, clutching a Harry Potter book and sizing me up from your side of the table at Pizza King. I remember your salad was drenched with ranch dressing, a habit you have maintained. Your mom and I had started dating a few weeks earlier, and this was a big step, allowing me to meet you. I guess I passed the test, since happily I’m still around more than eight years later — the last five years as a family.
Our time...
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I went to vote last Saturday morning in the city council election. First I stopped up the street at the Farmer’s Market and bought some fresh kale, a loaf of homemade jalapeño bread and a pretty hanging pot of flowers to give my Beautiful Mystery Companion for Mother’s Day. I exchanged small talk with several acquaintances both selling and buying there. Perusing the produce and other items at the Farmer’s Market is a pleasant way to begin a Saturday morning.
Next I headed down the street to vote at city hall. I pulled into a nearly empty parking lot about 8:30 and saw a pair of canopies...
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A neighbor recently flushed a couple of copperhead snakes out of our cul-de-sac. The heavy rains are driving the serpents to higher ground, from what I have read. This has caused great consternation in our household, which is uniformly not fond of snakes. That includes the dogs.
I am not scared of snakes, exactly. I just want them to keep their distance. If they decline my invitation to leave the premises, I will dispatch them as efficiently as possible. Machete, shotgun, shovel — I have options.
Rats, I’m scared of.
In a previous life, I returned home one night to find a big, black...
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