EDITOR AT LARGE

Nostalgia for the 1950s Mickey Mouse Club remains strong. An eBay buyer recently paid close to $1,000 for a scrap of a costume worn by Eileen Diamond, who later founded and co-managed Portsmouth’s Seacoast Repertory Theatre for two decades. (See more)

EDITOR-AT-LARGE

I am worried. I can no longer clearly see the boundary line between being a normal healthy dog owner or becoming one of those obsessed dogocentric weirdos. I fear we are skating along the border.

EDITOR AT LARGE

Hatchling Studios doesn’t have to prove it’s the best computer animation studio around. We know that already. But still they insist on rubbing it in. Now they’ve raised the bar on holiday office giveaways. This is one killer toy for the whole family. It’s lead-free and made in the USA too.

EDITOR AT LARGE

We have heard a lot of energetic opinions pro and con about the new electronic reader from Amazon.com. But nobody seems to be thinking of it as a godsend for the visually impaired. The editor, who cannot see a barn door from 50 paces, weighs in on what may be a revolution for a page-deprived few.

GUEST EDITORIAL

Shade of Fahrenheit 451. When local writer Rod Philbrick set out to write an anti-gang SF novel for middle-schoolers, he never imagined his own book would be banned as a pro-gang book. That’s what happened in Santa Rosa when educators outlaw books without reading them. (click to read)

EDITOR AT LARGE

She was so gorgeous, she could have been a Mouseketeer. She was that talented too. And, although she may not have known it at the time, she was my girl. Then -- somehow -- half a century slipped by before I found her photo, and the whole crazy affair came swirling back.

EDITOR At LARGE

There was a time when the men who ran the city were power hungry and wealthy. Today they may net even be men at all. Portsmouth seems to be bucking the political tide by electing likeable citizens to office. The editor welcomes in the new and remembers the old.

EDITOR-AT-VERY-LARGE

Freshly married couples, research now tells us, gain more than wedding gifts. Along with the a newfound sense of security comes flab. They used to tell us married men live longer lives, but could it be harmful to your health?

EDITOR AT LARGE 

Halloween used to mean sifting through the rag-bag or old attic trunks, but no more. Kids these days can pick from hundreds of ready-made costumes and plastic paraphernalia. Adults too. And that has created a sleazy new market place where horror and hormones make a sick stew.

EDITOR-AT-LARGE 

We do not usually advocate sin. But there is sin of varying degrees, and seasons where such acts are more fruitful. Harvest time is ideal for this particular act, which although we do no advocate it, we sure do enjoy it. .