admin

Wednesday, October 31, 2007 —The high point of Portsmouth’s social season comes this evening, about 7:00 p.m., when an odd assortment of characters will step off from the parking lot beside the South Mill Pond, and parade through downtown. 1968—President Johnson orders a halt to bombing of North Vietnam. 1967—Calif. governor Ronald Reagan denies a “homosexual ring” is operating out of his office in Sacramento. 1963—“I can safely say,” says Gen. Paul Harkin, U.S. commander in South Vietnam, “that the end of the war is in sight.” 1964—China explodes its first A-bomb. 1951—Joseph Stalin’s corpse is removed from Lenin’s tomb. 1941—On convoy duty on the …

Read moreConfident, But Wrong

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 — Jeez, Louise. Just when you get a good rhythm going, one of the local cable monopoly’s amplifiers goes blooey, and fries your modem, and then fries the replacement modem they give you, and you can’t get online for days. Ah, well, we’re back. Here are some items from Page Sixteen: 1995—Quebec votes not to secede, but just barely. 1990—For the first time since the Ice Age, England and the European mainland are connected; this time by chunnel. 1990—“Amazing Joe” Burrus, an escape artist, fails to escape from an acrylic coffin after it’s covered with tons of wet cement. 1972—In Chicago, …

Read moreA Big Bang and a Bad Bash

Saturday, October 27 — In light of the ever-increasing popularity of New Hampshire’s State Motto, we direct the reader’s attention to the item, below, from 1791: “Insurrections have broke out in Switzerland—the motto on the buttons is, ‘Live free, or die.’” Seventeen years after that item was first published, General John Stark (right) used the same phrase when writing to his comrades. We can’t say for sure whether or not General Stark first saw this phrase in our paper, but it’s entirely likely he was a subscriber. The possibility cannot be ruled out: “Live Free or Die” may be New Hampshire’s State Motto because General …

Read morePredictions of Victory, and LFOD

Friday, October 26, 2007 — “I am not the editor of a newspaper and shall always try to do right and be good so that God will not make me one.” — Mark Twain 2003—Iraqi resistance fighters nearly get Deputy Defence Secretary Paul Wolfowitz with a rocket in Baghdad. 2001—George W. Bush eagerly signs the USA PATRIOT Act. 1979—South Korean President Chung-hee is shot by the head of the South Korean C.I.A. 1972—Henry the K., lying as usual, says “Peace is at hand.” 1962—As planning for massive air strikes continues, President John F. Kennedy gets a telegram from Nikita Khrushchev offering to swap Soviet missiles …

Read moreSecurity, Killers, and Crackpots

Thursday, October 25, 2007 — “The writer operates at a peculiar crossroads where time and place and eternity somehow meet. His problem is to find that location.” — Flannery O’Connor 2001—Only one Senator—Russ Feingold—votes against the USA PATRIOT Act. 1973—As Nixon sleeps, Henry Kissinger, Alexander Haig, and five other unelected officials raise America’s military readiness level to DEF CON 3. 1962—Nuclear-armed F-106s scramble after a guard shoots a bear climbing a fence at a Duluth Air Force base, thinking it’s an intruder. 1962—Ambassador Adlai Stevenson produces photos of Soviet missiles in Cuba at the UN as U.S. military forces go to DEFCON 2. 1960—Martin Luther …

Read moreTwo Dead Kings, One By Monkey

Wednesday, October 24, 2007—Page Sixteen of The New Hampshire Gazette is devoted to Admiral Fowle’s Piscataqua River Tidal Guide (Not for Navigational Purposes). This semi-popular feature graphically illustrates the state of our mighty river’s extraordinary tides over the course of the coming fortnight. We get our tidal data and its cunning graphic representation (see the wavy gray lines at the center and bottom of the page at right) from the WWW Tide and Current Predictor, which we love unconditionally. The Tidal Guide is supplemented with notable historic events of each day. It has occurred to us that we might just as well post those items …

Read morePatriotism, Piety, Murder, and Monsters