I serve as a late night spy for the Portsmouth Athenaeum. I’m on the Special Collections committee, although I don’t believe I’ve ever attended a meeting. I do my work from home. Well after midnight, when I have finished my writing for the evening, I often reward myself by scanning items related to local history on eBay. Over the years, I’ve become so familiar with the standard items that I can zip thru the list of roughly 300 Portsmouth, NH artifacts like one of those airport x-ray machines. If I see something out of the ordinary, I check it out. Last week a unique item popped up and I was pleased to learn today that the Athenaeum was able to add it to their collection. And here it is. (Click to continue article)

To be clear, I am a full-on Kindle fan. In fact, I get all huffy when I read reviews by 20-somethings who knock the $259 pricetage or oldsters who crab that they could never read a book without paper pages. Kindle is a total miracle, works like a dream, and is worth every penny, not only because it travels and reads beautifully, but because it taps into the world’s most effective, organized, affordable and expansive bookstore. So when Amazon announced a free Kindle-like application for PC, I rushed to download it. (Click to continue)

Seacoast History Blog #69
September 29, 2009

For the last week I have been polishing the opening paragraph of a chapter in the middle of a history book that I’ve been working on all year. For the research I’ve been reading volume after volume, interviewing people left and right, combing the Internet, haunting the libraries. It’s hard work. So imagine my surprise on learning that former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has finished her first history book in scarcely two months. For someone who appears not terribly literate and who often speaks like she’s reading from a dictionary in a blender, Palin is apparently a dynamo at the written word. Her book, Going Rogue: An American LIfe, will reportedly be in the stores before Thanksgiving. (Click above to continue)

Now that the cat is out of the bag, I guess it’s time to chat a little about the Privateer Lynx. She is a top-sail schooner built in the style of the fast maneuverable boats designed to harass the British merchant fleet in the War of 1812. If you recall, President Monroe declared war on the nation with the world’s largest navy when we had only a dozen ships of our own. Private armed vessels helped win that war. Lynx is not an exact historic replica of her predecessor, built at Fells Point in Baltimore. But she is inspired by that beautiful vessel with the raked back masts and the sleek silhouette. And maybe, just maybe, she could become a frequent visitor to Portsmouth, NH. (Click headline to continue)

Seacoast History Blog #63
August 21, 2009

Rep. Barney Frank got it right when he dismissed another crazy healthcare protestor in Dartmouth, MA this week. Comparing President Obama to Hitler, she asked Mr. Frank: "Why do you continue to support a Nazi policy?’’ Exhausted with the sheer stupidity of the question, he shot back, "On what planet do you spend most of your time?’’ A Fox News commentator, unwilling even to credit the Democrat with a solid comeback, suggested that Frank was so well prepared, that the unidentified woman must have been planted in the crowd by Liberals to make the opposition look stupid. But the "birthers" and anti-healthcare nuts need no help in that department. (Continued below)

Seacoast History Blog #61
August 16, 2009

When I was teaching journalism to high school kids I had a favorite headline. It came from the front page of Foster’s Daily Democrat. A reporter had doggedly followed a story in which human remains had been found in some landfill, and each day he dutifully called the coroner for a response. The story was not high on the coroner’s list. The bones were obviously old, and there were fresh bodies showing up during a regional crime wave at that time. (Continued below) 

Seacoast History Blog #60
August 11, 2009

Here we go again. Writing history is looking more and more like that ringing gag in the film "Caddyshack" where Bill Murray tries every trick possible to catch an underground gopher. I went down another gopher hole today while researching Chapter 4 of my next book on privateering. Before that I was covering a lot of ground, digging up details on Captain Thomas Boyd, one of the most successful and gutsy privateersman during the War of 1812. Sailing the Baltimore schooner Chasseur, he took more prizes in a single day than anyone before or since. Then he faced a British warship head on, despite falling into a surprise attack, won the day, and retired rich and happy. (Continued below)