City newsletter: Ponds have thawed for now
The city manager’s office sent out the City Manager’s Newsletter last Friday. The full newsletter can be found by going to concordnh.gov and clicking the “Newsletter” button. Here are some highlights: Trail Guides Due to the rising cost of printing and supplies, the Conservation Commission had to raise the price for the trail guides to $11 (or $13 if mailed). This price covers the printing cost, no revenue is generated through the...
Book of the Week: ‘Mycroft Holmes’
Mycroft HolmesKareem Abdul-Jabbar and Anna Waterhouse2015, 323 pagesFiction This is an exciting adventure story about Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock Holmes’s big brother. Mycroft is a 23-year-old English gentleman who has just finished at Cambridge, and has a responsible job working for the Secretary of State for War. He asks beautiful Georgiana Sutton for her hand in marriage, and she accepts. But Georgiana has a terrible secret that began...
This week in Concord history
Jan. 21, 2000: Barney’s Clothing, a fixture in downtown Pittsfield since the 1940s, announces it is going out of business. “It’s an end of the era for the downtown,” says shopper Sandy Burt of Barnstead. “I think it’s too bad they can’t compete with the superstores.” Jan. 21, 1857: A choral concert celebrates the opening of the new city hall and county building on the site of the current Merrimack County Courthouse. Jan....
Maple Weekend 2019: Everything you need to know to have the stickiest time of your life
New Hampshire Maple Month 2019 is in full swing, with dozens of sugarhouses across the state opening their doors for tours, demonstrations, samples and sales. While the official Maple Weekend is this Saturday and Sunday only, many operations offer special experiences every weekend of March – some even open up every day. Here is a roundup of sugarhouses in Concord and the general surrounding area that have events planned for Maple...
Book: NPR host examines top businesses
How I Built This By Guy Raz (302 pages, nonfiction, 2020) Ever wonder how successful businesses did it? What steps did they take in the early days to get them to where they are today? If you are an entrepreneur or you just like hearing the story behind the business, then this book is for you. Guy Raz, from NPR, looks at the origin stories of big names like Airbnb, Five Guys, Southwest Airlines, and tons of other businesses. Get...
Don’t feel like traveling for Maple Weekend? You don’t have to
Hardcore New Englanders and pancake lovers have longed to hear it – maple season is finally here.Hosted by the New Hampshire Maple Producers Association, March is Maple Sugaring Month, and this upcoming weekend is Maple Weekend, when dozens upon dozens of maple operations all over the Granite State – from commercial size to hobby size – open up their sugar shacks to let visitors in and check out the process. This is always a...
Bulletin Board: Look overhead
How to be a stargazer The Harris Center for Conservation Education is hosting a free online session with the McAuliffe-Shepard Discovery Center’s David McDonald to find out what to look for in the winter sky. The Zoom presentation will be held on Friday, Jan. 15, from 7 to 8 p.m. It will include how to find specific constellations. McDonald will also show us the sky as it is this very night, using special software to highlight...
Injustice for Brawl 2 to provide family-friendly fun for a good cause
The Undertaker. Stone Cold Steve Austin. Randy “Macho Man” Savage. Hulk Hogan. The Rock.These names are all legendary in the pro wrestling world now, but they all started off somewhere else, likely bars and local sporting arenas.On March 31, Everett Arena will become one of those venues, as Injustice for Brawl 2 brings pro wrestling to Concord for the first time in about 30 years. The best part is that proceeds from the show will go...
City ponds open for skating
Insider staffOn Jan. 8, Concord Parks and Recreation announced that the White Park and Beaver Meadow ponds were ready for skating. Another skating area is available at Rollins Park.The city does not open the ponds for ice skating until there are at least 5 inches of frozen ice. Staff takes measurements in several locations to make sure ice is safe. All skating is at your own risk. Please follow all posted signs. You can check the...
Album Review: Andrew North’s ‘Lost City’ a piano-lover’s dream
If you’re a regular reader of the Insider or a regular fan of the local music scene, you’ve probably seen the name – and probably the person, too – Andrew North. Maybe you’ve seen it as Andrew of the North, or you’ve seen the full-band version called Andrew North and the Rangers. The point is, it’s all the same guy (with sometimes different accompanying members), Andrew Grosvenor of Concord, and he has a new solo album out.Following...
Frozen excursion: Ice Castles open
You don’t have to travel to the North Pole to find Frosty’s winter wonderland. The company that has built a frozen fortress in New Hampshire for the last seven years has returned again in 2021. Ice Castles is an award-winning frozen attraction located in four cities in the U.S., including Woodstock, an hour drive up Interstate-93. It is opening for the season on Jan. 14. The attraction is built using hundreds of thousands of icicles...
Making Good Health Simple: Crock-Potting 101: Rules to live by
Crock-Potting – a verb. To some, a sport. For me, it’s a time-saver. In the late 1930s, Irving Naxon (one of my heroes) applied for a patent for a portable cooking device that would be able to cook evenly and replace hours of someone miserably and inefficiently standing over a stove stirring. The two-part appliance contained the crock housed inside a casing that contained the heating element. Can we say genius? I have attempted to...
City Newsletter: Things to do on the snow and ice
The city manager’s office sent out the City Manager’s Newsletter last Friday. The full newsletter can be found by going to concordnh.gov and clicking the “Newsletter” button. Here are some highlights:MeetingsThe planning board will meeting Wednesday at 7 p.m. via Zoom. For more information, visit concordnh.legistar.com/Calendar.aspx. Agendas will be posted ahead of the meetings. Visit the City of Concord calendar,...
Entertainment: Loaded music schedules at Area 23, Hermanos, plus lots of laughs coming to Hatbox
It’s a pretty good week ahead – if you’re into music, comedy and movies, that is. There’s tons to check out, so stop reading this intro and go be entertained! Music Tuesday Kid Pinky at Hermanos Cocina Mexicana at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday Andrew Merzi at Hermanos at 6:30 p.m. Open mic at Area 23 at 7 p.m., sign-ups start at 6. New Black Eagle Jazz Band at Concord City Auditorium at 7:30 p.m. Thursday Richard Gardzina at Hermanos at 6:30...
Poem: Concord Gasholder
Sometimes a memory, is just meant to be, the old round brick building, whose fate we await to see. Passed each day, anonymous a century or more, our gasholder has returned, with much old lore. The past should be remembered, as our past will too, sometimes history is best not repeated, if our ancestors only knew. Let us think, as we do gather, do we want to preserve our past, or do your thoughts think rather....
CASL: These students have bright futures ahead
The Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce welcomed 24 students selected to take part in Capital Area Student Leadership (CASL) 2019 during a reception on Feb. 20, also attended by parents, guardians, CASL committee members and Chamber staff program liaisons. The students assembled again last Wednesday at the City Wide Community Center for CASL Communication Day, during which students interviewed each other for this Insider feature, gave...
Author events: Zoom in to two book talks
On Jan. 21 at 7 p.m., Simon Winchester will present Land in a Zoom discussion with Gibson’s Bookstore. The author of The Professor and the Madman and The Perfectionists will explore the notion of property — our proprietary relationship with the land — through human history, how it has shaped us and what it will mean for our future. He will be joined in conversation by Gibson’s own John LeDonne. Signed bookplates will be included with...
Bulletin Board: Acting workshop, jazz show at Audi and more
Poetry Out Loud champ named The New Hampshire State Council on the Arts announces that Rachel Budd from Bow High School is the winner of New Hampshire’s 2019 Poetry Out Loud High School Championship, which took place at the State House’s Representatives Hall on March 15. Alana Ervin from Oyster River High School was selected as alternate champion. As state champion, Budd receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip with an adult...
Poem: January
The fire crackles in the old brick hearth, a warm friend on this cold day, thinking of summer past, thoughts wander to days of May. The wind howls from the north, as temperatures hover very low, January in New England, sunsets across the fresh snow. The festive days have now ended, cloudy days and dark nights arrive, a good book read by candlelight, until spring I will survive. Winter indulged with warm treats,...
City Manager’s Newsletter: World Water Day, wastewater treatment facility open house and more
Last Friday, the city’s public information officer, Stefanie Breton, sent out the City Manager’s Newsletter. The letter was too long to print in its entirety here, but you can access the full version at concordnh.gov by clicking the “Newsletter” button on the homepage. Fix a Leak Week and contest Join Concord General Services in celebrating EPA WaterSense’s “Fix a Leak Week,” March 18 to 24! Leaks can waste a lot of water and can lead...
Book: Ragtag crew works together to save the day
Six of Crows By Leigh Bardugo (465 pages, young adult fantasy, 2015) Unlikely heroes. The impossible keeps happening, and rumor of a synthetic drug making super soldiers circulates the city. Criminal prodigy Kaz accepts a job to rescue the scientist responsible, held in a fairway fortress as world powers attempt to steal and weaponize the formula. Kaz selects a ragtag crew from the underbelly of society: an impossible group for...
Fill your bellies while helping the homeless at the 10th annual SouperFest
The 10th Annual SouperFest, a benefit for the Concord Coalition to End Homelessness, will be held Saturday, March 30, at Rundlett Middle School in Concord. This anniversary event will be the first with an international flavor, celebrating the diversity that makes Concord such a wonderful, welcoming community.The event begins at 2 p.m. with FunFest, sponsored by the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Concord. The gymnasium will be...
This week in Concord history
January 14, 1858: The Coos County Republicans hold a convention and pass a resolution stating: “As the advocates of freedom and equal rights, we deplore the existence of slavery … and ardently hope for its speedy abolition when it can be constitutionally effected.” Jan. 14, 1824: The “other Concord” – in the North Country – officially changes its name to Lisbon, ending confusion with New Hampshire’s capital city. ...
Delusive Relics address gender equality in their home country with latest project at Hatbox Theatre
Delusive Relics, a new electronic music project in the style of Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails, will perform music from its debut album at Hatbox Theatre on Friday. Delusive Relics is the side project of Farhood Ghadiri, member of the Iranian progressive rock band Mavara, and his wife, Anis Oveisi. Ghadiri, who performs under the pseudonym Frank Nik and grew up with music from Depeche Mode, Gary Newman and other ’80s and early ’90s...
Book: A novel for these times
Survivor Song By Paul Tremblay (320 pages, horror, 2020) Massachusetts has been overrun by a mutated rabies pandemic. The disease is spreading rapidly, and the infected are driven to bite other people. The word zombie is being whispered online. Hospitals are inundated with the sick and dying, and hysteria has taken hold. Dr. Ramola Sherman receives a frantic phone call from her best friend Natalie, eight months pregnant....
Book of the Week: ‘The Ravenmaster’
The Ravenmaster: My Life with the Ravens at the Tower of London Christopher Skaife 2018, 241 pages Nonfiction Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave the Tower of London then the tower “will crumble into dust and great harm will befall the kingdom.” But Yeoman Warder Christopher Skaife is there to make sure that this doesn’t happen. Skaife has been the Ravenmaster at the Tower of London since 2011. He tells us about his daily life...
Book: A guide to know yourself better
The Body: A Guide for Occupants By Bill Bryson (450 pages, nonfiction, 2019) In his latest book, The Body: A Guide for Occupants, Bill Bryson once again earns his reputation as one of the 21st century’s best popular science authors. As in his immensely popular A Short History of Nearly Everything (2003), Bryson displays an uncanny ability to distill complex subject matter into not just informative, but also incredibly fun,...
This Week in Concord History
March 19, 1967: The calendar says spring is about to start, but few believe it. The low temperature in Concord falls to 16 below zero, tying the record for the coldest March day in the 20th century. This follows a reading of 13 below the day before and 10 below the day before that. March 19, 2000: On its way to the NCAA championship game, fifth-seeded Florida cruises past fourth-seeded Illinois in the second round of the men’s...
Hit the snowy trail
For those looking to get outside this winter while staying close to home, cross-country skiing checks off those boxes. The wallop of snow from the Dec. 17 made trail conditions glorious before a warm and wet Christmas rinsed it away. Snow is returning to the trails as winter goes on and its worth a visit. Some ski areas have groomed trail systems open to the public. There are more than six miles of cross-country skiing trails at...
Check out some fine student artwork at Steeplegate Mall during Youth Art Month
It’s finally March, the month many New Englanders look forward to all winter long. It’s a month often associated with new beginnings – we turn the clocks ahead, days start to get a little warmer and signs of spring start popping up all over the place. Another big part of March is the abundance of student art that starts popping up, too, particularly at Steeplegate Mall. March is Youth Art Month, and every year around this time a big...
