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Monday, September 3 – In the penultimate frame of yesterday’s Doonesbury, after rattling off a short but appalling set of facts about the U.S. national debt, radio talk show host Mark Slackmeyer asks his guest, “Where did the myth of GOP financial responsibility come from?” While we can’t verify or refute Trudeau’s notion that the Easter Bunny and the myth of GOP financial responsibility share the same origin, we are compelled to point out that the myth of which he speaks shares a delivery system with his own cartoon: newspapers — corporate-owned, profit-driven newspapers. They are so ubiquitous as to be nearly invisible, like water …

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Thursday, August 30, 2007 — Richard J. Ducey, 58, recently of Fritz Creek, Alaska, died August 30th 2007 after a long battle with cancer caused by his exposure to the defoliant Agent Orange. He had been a resident of Concord and Barnstead, New Hampshire for over 25 years. He attended Pinkerton Academy, Derry, New Hampshire and was a graduate of Chester College of New England and Franklin Pierce College. He is survived by his beloved wife of many years, Pamela J. Ducey, his mother Eleanor M. Salisbury of York, Maine, a daughter, Sandra L. Duquette of Lowell, Mass., a stepson Gregg A. Stockman of Alton, …

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Friday, August 24 —Well, there goes the ballgame. Old timers can hang out the “For Sale” sign. The New York Times has discovered Portsmouth. The article appeared in today’s “Havens” column in the “Escape” section. Those categories indicate to me, not that life is so great here, but that it sucks everywhere else. Portsmouth, of course, has been discovered many times before since it first ventured into the tourism biz in the 1850s. But amazingly, New York Times writer Jeff Schlegel almost gets it right in a piece entitled “A ‘Mini-Boston’ on a Small Slice of Coast.” While New Yorkers still like to think of …

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Friday, August 24 – Well, it’s publication day. An image of the front page of our Volume 251, No. 24 appears at right. We should be working on the mailing labels, and clearing away the debris so the labeling crew can fold the papers so as to meet the Post Office’s latest set of deranged regulations designed to make America safe for the corporate point of view. Instead we’ve been fiddling with this digital whizbang. But we’re done fiddling, for now. We hope to be back here soon with a brief update on the progress of the fifteen Iron Butt riders who came by Federal …

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Wednesday, August 22 — I was standing in line at Piscataqua Bank the other day when the teller, without a word of warning, began telling me how much she loves the New Hampshire Gazette. I mean loves the thing. Says she rushes around town looking for it every other Friday. I believe she even used the word “fortnightly,” which is a dead giveaway that the woman is an addict. Says she reads my column at the front, then flips to the one at the back. Also loves the tide chart, old news, etc. etc. When she is done, she hands it to the woman at …

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August 21 – It’s a beautiful day in old Po’town, but the first Iron Butt Rally riders to arrive at Federal Cigar said their first dry pavement began about fifty miles back. They left St. Louis, MO yesterday about 10:30 a.m. Rob Nye, said to be the “biggest techno geek” of the bunch, is shown here on Market Street, aboard his gadget-laden BMW. Inside Federal Cigar, Bob Torter, Rob Nye, and Bob’s wife Sylvie dig into free brioche. Federal is also offering free cigars for Iron Butt riders today, but these three weren’t takers. Bob and Sylvie are shown here heading down Market Street, on …

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