Monthly Archives: December 2014
On being “discontinued”
I’ve been writing The Mindful Reader column for The Concord Monitor since April 2012. Thirty-three columns, one a month on the Sunday book page, reviewing dozens of books, all by New Hampshire or northern New England authors, many published by small presses. It’s been a wonderful experience.
People often stop me when I’m out and about to tell me how much they liked a column, or to ask my opinion about some aspect of one of the books I read. They come into the library, where I am the librarian in charge of adult services, and our local indie bookstore, where I was once event coordinator and bookseller, to ask for the books. That’s been a thrill — there is nothing better for a writer than knowing your work not only reached someone, but moved them enough that they wanted to participate in the thing you’ve written about. And the…
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9 ‘Lost’ Railway Stations
1. Birmingham Snow Hill
This fine Edwardian station was demolished in 1977 despite a public outcry. The historic fabric was razed and trains on the old Great Western line to Leamington were terminated at Moor Street – originally devised as an overflow station for Snow Hill. However, the damage to cross-city services was so severe that the station was rebuilt, in a smaller, far more utilitarian idiom, in 1987 – a mere ten years after the Victorian station had disappeared.
2. Newmarket
The unique Newmarket Station of 1848 had an imposing facade comprising a colonnade of eight sets of paired Ionic columns topped with massive entablature plinths and finials. Closed in 1967, the station buildings survived until 1980 – when, despite their listed status, they were regrettably demolished. Today the site is a housing development.
3. London Euston, The Arch
The most celebrated of all Britain’s railway monuments, the severe…
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30 uses for wood ashes, you never thought of.
I must tell Preston that wood ash can be sprinkled on the rose bushes.
Preview: This is the world’s next iconic museum
Thanksgiving by Alice Rose Crow~Maar’aq
We are pleased to share the first winning entry in Brevity‘s Holiday Smile contest:
After freeze up, smiling Eskimo kids, imported Bureau of Indian Affairs kids, Federal Fish and Wildlife kids, Federal Aviation Administration kids, school teacher’s kids, missionary’s kids, and cop’s kids sat around faux wood tables at the yellow state-operated school. We spilled broken crayons from repurposed red No. 10 coffee cans to connect the dots then color in stock images. Smiling Indians offered provisions into outstretched hands of smiling settlers. We reached for Crayolas to color Indians a mix of tan and brown; pilgrims, peach. If we dug around and couldn’t find a sliver of peach, we left smiling settler faces blank. If we colored on construction paper, we grabbed white nubs.
We were American children sitting in compulsory school. We had already stood up to recite the Pledge of Allegiance. After coloring, gluing, and stapling, we…
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Hetty Startup 