HISTORY MATTERS

The Portsmouth Public Library moved to its expansive new facility on Parrott Ave six years ago. Yet now and then a very delinquent borrower stops by the old brick library building at the corner of Middle and Islington streets with some very-overdue books. He peers through the windows of what is now the Discover Portsmouth Center. What he sees is a building turned inside out. Wires dangle from an exposed ceiling and the floor is littered with lighting fixtures, heating ducts, and coiled cables. (Continued below)

HISTORY MATTERS

Last week a caller told me that what I do for a living is trivial. I tend to agree. I write about obscure historical topics, he pointed out, focused on the smallest seacoast in the nation. What could be less important? That’s exactly my point. Out of the tiny mustard seed, according to the ancient parable, big things grow. (Continued below)

HISTORY MATTERS

And you think you have a hangover. One minute Thomas Morton and his friends were happily drinking and dancing around an 80-foot maypole in Massachusetts. The next minute he was all alone on a deserted island off the New Hampshire coast. Was he just a rabble-rouser or a visionary founding father beaten up by the Boston area Puritans? (Complete article below)

HISTORY MATTERS

Someone has to be held accountable. Who started this outrageous rush to holiday gift giving? How did we devolve to the point where consumers camp outside mall stores and slug it out in the toy aisle?  Let’s blame John Harvey. (Continued below)