They've taken on City Manager Tom Aspell and NHPR host Laura Knoy. Now our fourth-grade correspondents, Ella Fabozzi and Sophia Johnson, both 9, got an exclusive interview with Gov. John Lynch. Will this bring The Insider international acclaim? One can only hope.
We sat down with the girls, Lynch and his press secretary, Colin Manning, in the govenor's State House office and recorded this conversation, painstakingly transcribed by Katie MacKenzie. (She's currently wearing dual wrists braces and attends physical therapy for injuries suffered while typing this conversation.)
Ella: This is a comfy couch.
Lynch: Now what grades are you in?
Sophia: We both just finished third grade, so we're pretty much in fourth because we passed third.
Lynch: That means you're going to come to the State House next year. Because fourth-graders come to the State House as part of their field trip experience. So that's pretty cool, huh?
S and E: (together) Yup.
Lynch: Have you been to Market Day yet?
S: We're going to go after. I have my wallet with my dad.
Lynch: So go ahead and ask me your questions, if you want.
E: I heard you have a new puppy. What's his name and what kind of dog is it?
Lynch: Her name is Katie.
E: What?
Lynch: Like Katherine, except it's Katie.
E: Oh! (Looks at Insider Editor Katie MacKenzie.)
Lynch: She's a golden retriever and she's about 7 months old right now. And we also have five cats, so they're learning to get along.
E: I've never heard of someone with five cats.
Lynch: I know . . . I never did either.
E: That's a lot.
S: Yeah, that's kind of a lot, especially if you have a dog.
Lynch: I know it.
S: I used to have a dog and a cat, and the cat, like, kind of chased my dog away from her food, so they would switch foods.
Lynch: Well, as you will find out next year when you come here, that one of our cats' names is Harry Potter.
S: We . . . I'm listening to “Harry Potter” on tape and Ella's reading “Harry Potter.”
E: Er, um, my mom is reading it to us.
S: We're both on the third book, both of us.
Lynch: So that's his name, Harry Potter.
S: We're going to like that, huh? Well, um, do you have kids?
Lynch: We do. We have three kids. We have two girls and a boy. Our oldest daughter is graduated from college. She went to Bucknell.
S: Is that them? (indicating photo on desk)
Lynch: Yes, that's kind of an old picture. Those three kids right there, the one on the right just graduated from college, the one on the left is a sophomore in college, and the guy in the middle is going into 10th grade.
E: So is my older sister.
Lynch: Oh, really?
E: Anna.
Lynch: Now, my two girls, they were gymnasts. And he's a hockey player.
S: I'm a hockey player.
Lynch: You're a hockey player?
E: I'm a field hockey player.
Lynch: Well, the one on the right was a field hockey player. So you said you're a hockey player?
S: Uh-huh. Ice hockey. I play a lot of hockey.
Lynch: You do? Do you play on a team?
S: I play ice hockey for a team, I'm on a team for floor hockey, which is like a club, then I play street hockey with my dad. Um, when I go over to my friend's I play air hockey.
Lynch: So who do you play for in ice hockey?
S: Well, I have a few people who've always been on my team, but the first time I played, I played for a team with purple and all girls. Second time was gold and a good mix of girls and boys. The third time was gray and a good mix of girls and boys.
E: Yeah, the field hockey, we're on the same field hockey team, and it's just girls.
Lynch: Well, I'll tell you a secret: I still play hockey, so maybe you could come play hockey with me sometime.
S: I'm pretty good. Are you, like, on a team?
Lynch: I do play on a team. It's two teams and the same teams play each other every week. We play at St. Paul's.
E: Um, what type of animal do you think you're most like and why?
Lynch: I don't know – probably seeing my puppy, probably most like a dog. Because they like to run and be outside and play and chase balls. I like sports, always liked sports.
S: I love sports.
E: (squealing) Me too!
Lynch: Now Colin, what kind of animal are you most like?
Colin: Uh . . . probably a hippopotamus. I like to lay around in the water.
Lynch: (laughing) So you can include that in your story.
E: I don't know how to spell hippopotamus.
Lynch: It's okay, it's being recorded so you can look that up. Use spell check for it.
S: Okay, um, do you like your job? Or did I already ask you that?
Lynch: You didn't ask me that.
S: Oh, do you like your job?
Lynch: I do like my job. I like my job because it's all about being with people. As governor, I'm with people all the time, whether its with kids or people who work in businesses or whether it's just walking down Main Street in Concord and seeing people. You also as governor get a chance to help people and it make a different in their lives. Maybe someday you'll be governor when you're done with your hockey and field hockey careers.
Giggling ensues.
E: What is your favorite midnight snack, if you have one. You don't have to have one.
S: My mom's candy stash.
Lynch: My favorite midnight snack . . . well I don't really have a favorite midnight snack because I'm not up at midnight . . .
E: I know, neither am I.
Lynch: But sort of late at night . . . Cheez-Its. Do you like Cheez-Its?
S: I love Cheez-Its. (To Ella) And you like cheese, don't you?
E: Yes, I like cheese, but I don't like goat cheese.
S: No, not really. It's not as good as other cheeses. Okay. Who's your favorite president, like in the past or Obama? Like, my grandfather likes Kennedy.
Lynch: You know, my favorite president, like of all time . . . that's a tough one because there are so many good presidents and each of them had particular qualities. I like Tom Jefferson a lot. Have you ever heard of Tom Jefferson?
E and S: Yeah.
E: I like Teddy Roosevelt and George Washington and Barack Obama.
Lynch: Yeah, it's probably Tom Jefferson.
S: Wait, wasn't he the one who wrote the Declaration of Independence?
Lynch: Yup, which is a very special document.
E: I wonder where they keep it?
Lynch: Probably in Washington, huh?
Colin: National Archives.
Lynch: We don't have it here. I don't have it in the office.
E: Okay. Um, how did you meet your wife and where was your first date.
Lynch: Oh, that's a good question. I met my wife at Friendly ice cream.
E: (laughs) Friendly's . . .
Lynch: We were about 16 years old, and we were working for Friendly's. We were just good friends and then we decided to go out, just as the result of the friendship we had working at Friendly's. That's pretty cool, huh?
E: (writing) . . . when you were 16 years old . . . okay.
S: What's your favorite state park?
Lynch: I can tell you my favorite part of the state is Franconia Notch, and Lafayette Campground. That's really my favorite part of the state.
S: Cool, maybe I should go there.
Lynch: I like state parks a lot. You know where the Old Man used to be? Did you ever see the Old Man?
S: I was asleep when my mom and dad saw it. I was a baby. I was asleep in the car.
Lynch: Well that's all part of the notch. And I like that part of New Hampshire a lot.
E: Mmm hmm. When you were 9 . . . (looks at Sophia)
S: Oh.
S and E: (together) When you were 9, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Lynch: I wanted to be a professional baseball player.
S and E: (together, though slightly disjointed) Did you ever plan on being governor?
Lynch: No, not when I was 9. I wanted to play for the Red Sox. But then when I turned 50 I realized I probably wouldn't make it to the Red Sox. I finally figured I had to pick another career.
S: So you chose governor or did you choose something else before?
Lynch: Right before I was governor, I was in business. I did things called turn-arounds and mergers and acquisitions.
E: When you were a kid, what was the toy that everyone HAD to have.
S: Like everyone wanted, everybody was like showing each other . . .
E: Yeah, or everyone had it.
Lynch: Boy, I don't even remember.
S: Right now there's a few things, I think. There's like Bakugan . . .
Lynch: There's what?
S: Bakugan.
Lynch: What is that?
S: They're balls that open up to be like a dinosaur . . .
E: Or little dragons.
S: And, Littlest Pet Shops, for the girls and Webkinz.
E: But some girls have Bakugan and some boys actually have Littlest Pet Shops.
S: And Webkinz. Well, a lot of boys have Webkinz.
Lynch: Most of the things that I wanted had to do with sports, like a pair of skates or a football or a baseball glove.
E: (humming, jots down notes) Go on.
S: (laughs) I was just watching you write. . . . I had a good one. Oh yeah, what's your favorite sport now?
Lynch: My favorite sport now is probably baseball. Although I play hockey and I don't play baseball, I still like baseball a lot.
S: Do you watch the finals and stuff?
Lynch: Yup, I try to watch the games and I go to a couple of Red Sox games in the summer and I watch the Fisher Cats. I've been to a few of their games so far.
E: Once I went to Boston with my dad and we went to watch the Red Sox, but we were like way in the back. We still couldn't see even though it was stadium seats. We're planning to do it again sometime.
Lynch: Another sport I really like is softball. Do you play softball at all?
S: I think . . . I did T-Ball.
Lynch: I used to coach softball. In fact I coached softball and baseball and hockey and soccer. In softball,I used to coach Junior Olympic softball, so it was kind of an all-star team of high school players from New Hampshire.
E: I see you like sports kinda from your tie.
Lynch: You know what kind of tie this is? Guess what kind of animal this is.
E: Cat, or wildcat.
Lynch: Yes! It's a wildcat. And do you know which school has the mascot of the wildcats?
S: Um . . . I was going to say Fisher Cats, but no.
Lynch: No, close. The University of New Hampshire, UNH.
S and E: Ohhhh.
Lynch: That's where I went to school. So this is a UNH tie.
E: What is the best trip or slash vacation you've ever had?
Lynch: It's probably camping, camping up at Lafayette Campground. We used to take our kids camping all of the time and enjoyed it a lot, because there's a lot to do. You can hike, climb mountains, go visit Profile Lake up at the campground and visit the other attractions. There's an AMC hut right near there that we used to stay at.
S: I'm going to a two-week sleep away camp for girls at Camp Huckins. And I'm excited because it's my first time ever going to camp.
E: I'm thinking about doing it next year.
Lynch: Do you ski at all?
S: Oh yeah. Well, I do two kinds of skiing. I do downhill, and I'm going to join Pats Peak ski team and then I do Nordic skiing with a class on Nordic skiing, cross-country.
E: I do more of downhill skiing than Nordic skiing. I did a team once and my older sister does a team. This year, my dad is really, really into skiing, so this year, every Sunday we're going to go skiing at Cannon.
Lynch: The most favorite vacations we've had a family is when we've gone skiing.
S: Um, my dad collects three types of things. I was wondering if you collect anything. My dad collects ties, he has a whole collection of them. He collects hockey, baseball and basketball cards, and he collects . . . oh, he collects one other thing but I forget what it is.
E: Pennies.
S: Oh yeah, um, it's bobbleheads.
Lynch: Bobbleheads?
S: Yeah, so in our dining room we have this huge row of bobbleheads. In his bedroom he has a closet for his ties and our balcony room against the wall are these boxes of his cards.
Lynch: There's nothing I really collect. I have a lot of trophies at my house, because each of the teams I used to coach, I used to give the teams trophies at the end of the year. So I always kept one for myself.
S: So you could remember them?
Lynch: Yes, exactly. So I could remember the teams and they could remember the teams themselves and how much fun they had.
E: And you weren't even governor yet, so they like find out, (excitedly) “He was my coach!”
Lynch: That does happen to me. I walk around and people come up to me who I coached. In fact, most people don't know this, the first year I was governor, I coached a baseball team. I coached my son in baseball.
S: You like baseball, so I bet that made him happy and you.
Lynch: I think coaching your kid is one of the most fun things to do.
S: My dad helps me with my football.
Lynch: You play football?
S: Yeah, I'm really good.
Lynch: So you do football, too? My goodness. So what do you want to be when you grow up?
S: Um, I kinda want . . .
E: Pediatrician.
Lynch: You know, my wife is a pediatrician.
S: I want to be a veterinarian.
Lynch: You want to be a veterinarian? My wife wanted to be a veterinarian, but she decided to be a pediatrician instead.
S: Oh!
Lynch: That's pretty neat. You could be a veterinarian and come take care of my puppy. Now how would you like to get a picture sitting at the governor's desk?
S: Oh cool!
