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...
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...
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...
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,...
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....
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...
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,...
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...
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. ...
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: 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,...
