Franklin D. Roosevelt, it is said, counted as the three most brilliant Americans Ben Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Thompson of Concord, New Hampshire. Benjamin who? Well might one ask, and the most enjoyable way to find out arrives in the form of Nicholas Delbanco’s The Count of Concord (Dalkey Archive Press, $34.95), a novel […]
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Make-A-Wish Contacts in New England
The Make-A-Wish Foundation is dependent upon finding volunteers with a wide array of skill sets (kids can come up with some unique wishes). Anyone who can do anything can do something to help. If you’re interested, please contact your state office: Connecticut 877-203-9474, 203-261-9044 ct.wish.org Maine 800-491-3171, 207-236-3171 mainewish.org Massachusetts 617-367-9474 mass.wish.org New Hampshire 603-623-9474 […]
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‘Sunflowers for Wishes’
“This is a good thing.” It’s a mantra Duane Button repeats often. When asked to explain what he has accomplished on his little family farm — when words fail him — he says this. And really, what else is there to say? Duane Button readies for his day when the sun is just rising on […]
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Dancing in the Dark | Mary’s Farm
Hot summer nights make the young restless, and now that I’m older, I wonder why. I was once guilty of pumpkin smashing and a few pranks worse than that, so it’s not that I don’t understand. But when I think back to such a time, I truly can hardly believe that I did those things, […]
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Obama and the Little Snowflake
Those of us who live in New Hampshire saw the just-concluded primary season unfold like nowhere else. Everyone came here — candidates, eager campaign staffers, press — and we soaked it up. We didn’t catch newsbites; we had conversations. Our flesh touched their flesh. Our eyes met theirs. No wonder the state holds onto its […]
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Paper Trails
I’m one of those people who keep things long after I’ve ceased to need them. For instance, my raw material for stories has long been the daily newspapers that come into the office from all corners of New England. I pore over the Maine Sunday Telegram, the Providence Journal; the Hartford Courant; the Cape Cod […]
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Forever Young
24 Forever Young You’ve got to admit, it’s pretty impressive that Boston once had the pitcher for whom the award for pitching excellence is named: Cy Young. It’s safe to say that Young was Boston’s first big sports celebrity, joining the Boston Americans in 1901 as a 34-year-old right-hander who had played for the St. […]
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Father’s Day at the Office
A few days ago, a young woman and a young man, one a college senior, the other a college junior, walked through the doors of Yankee for their first day as summer interns. Over my many years here, I’ve worked with dozens of interns and have never failed to learn from them, perhaps more over […]
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Manny Being Manny
12 Manny Being Manny John Hart, the general manager of the Cleveland Indians when they drafted Manny Ramirez in 1991, remembered, “He was kind of a different kid.” Really? Never noticed. Hart recalls that Ramirez had been late paying some bills during a stretch in his first season with the Indians and bill collectors were […]
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The Fisk-Carlton
7 The Fisk-Carlton I owe a long-overdue apology to a college professor for an early morning class I missed in the fall of 1975 while attending Northeastern University. You see, there was Game 6 of the ’75 World Series to take in, and when it didn’t end until 12:34 AM, the chances of making that […]
4 The Thrill of Schill Curt Schilling’s sock was bloodied by the popping sutures in his right ankle as he pitched the Red Sox to a 4-2 win in Game 6 of the American League Championship Series in 2004 against the Yankees, tying the series at 3-3. That moment was every bit as heroic as […]
Over the weekend, I held a writing workshop here at the house. Writers gathered in my living room, clutching notebooks and harboring stories. We ranged in age from 84 to 15, six women and one man. The 84-year-old woman wanted to share a story about her night-blooming cereus, a desert plant she’d rescued from the […]