April 23
A STARK PORTRAIT
I am trying to find a copy of the portrait of John Stark to give as a gift to my husband who recently did his masters thesis on John Stark.  Do you have any suggestions as to where I can find a website or store that carries a copy for sale or has more information?
Amber Ober

EDITOR’S REPLY: My suggestion is always to go to eBay. I’m not aware of any NH location that sells portraits online. Might be one at the John Stark House in Manchester, NH, but they don't appear to have a web site. Also possibly at the NH Historical Society (nhhistory.org). But so much easier to just go to eBay. Go to ADVANCED SEARCH and type in "John Stark" and make sure you click the toggle for "exact phrase". Otherwise you will get every listing with the word "john" in it. Then scroll down the listings and you are likely to find one or more people selling reproduction images, most likely from 19th century magazines. If you check back every few days, eventually you will find someone selling an original 19th century image if you don't want the reproduction. These are all, sadly, torn from the pages of old books and magazines.  My guess is that you should find one from $10-$25. I've ordered hundreds of items this way and almost always had great service.  

 April 18
GETTING HIGH ON THE SEACOAST
I absolutely love the headers gallery! Gorgeous! And J. Dennis Robinson's article about the high places he's been made me laugh out loud! I, too, am a Yankee and prefer not to push my luck. Thanks once again for a bittersweet taste of the Seacoast for this Portsmouth-native who'd love to come "home."
Sue Lee

April 17
DON’T FORGET ADAMS POINT
Looking over your list of walks I found you omitted Adam's Point State Park, which is off the Durham Point road in Durham. The Adams Point Trail around this "almost an island" peninsula is, what I believe to be, the finest short walk in the area. Access the Durham Point Road off route 108 just south of the Oyster River Bridge. From there follow the road until you come to the access road marked with the Jackson Marine Lab sign on the left.
The walk begins at a tiny parking lot on the right near the gate of UNH's Jackson Marine Lab. Across the road the trail begins with a gentle slope through open woods on the east side of the peninsula down to the west end of Little Bay. Then along the Little Bay shore to cross the access road and through giant hemlocks to the marshes, then the waters of Crommet Creek. From here the trail climbs fairly steeply to the crest of the point and then along the top a steep cliff to the east shore of Great Bay. Coming out of the forest it enters a large, overgrown, field (keep a sharp eye out for poison ivy along the path) and follows the shore until it reaches Ferber Strait, the narrows between the two bays. Here the trail follows the Strait back to the Jackson Marine Lab and the parking lot. The whole distance covered by this very varied trail is less then a mile and a half and I cannot think of a more interesting or beautiful walk anywhere in the entire area.
Nels Tyring


EDITOR’S REPLY: Scenic Seacoast Walks is a work in progress. We try to add one each month and Adam’s Point is definitely on the list, along with a new walking trail in the woods nearby in Newmarket.

April 16
WHY I COMMUTE BY BIKE
May is bike to work month. I own numerous vehicles but the best option for commuting is usually my bicycle. At one time in my life the choices I made forced me to commute by bicycle. The choices I make now allow me to ride my bike to work.

Increased circulation makes the brain work better and the solitude of the open road frees one from outside distraction. I can go for a ride with one of my problems and come home alone. I see things more clearly when I ride my bike.

We don’t own the earth; we are only guests visiting for a short while. The trail of debris I leave behind is not a measure of my importance. The production and consumption of oil damages the environment. My bicycle does not contribute to congestion or cause pollution.

President Bush has stated that we must break our addiction to oil and I don’t approve of where the oil money goes. I know that it goes "into the register", but it doesn’t stay there. Much of the money does more harm than good and some of every dollar spent on oil goes to support terrorism. In OPEC countries it keeps oppressive regimes in power and in this country much of the profit from oil is squandered. Considering the consequences; I just don’t seem to need as much oil.

The higher the Socio-economic status the longer and healthier one’s life is (Scientific American, January, 2006). One should not live a life of deprivation but reducing one’s cost of living is equivalent to an increase in income. Commuting by bicycle 25mi/day takes me about 20 minutes (100 min/wk) more than using a motor vehicle. At $.30/mile (or more) I’m saving at least $22.50/hr for the extra time spent each day. I think my total savings is around $2000/yr. To have the same net income I would have to work quite a bit of overtime. Working to pay for needless expenses is a waste of time. On Saturday I can be one of the fat old men working overtime in the factory or I can be riding my bike. Life is for doing what we like to do with people we like to be with.

I get 90 minutes of cardio-vascular exercise daily but it only takes 20 minutes out of my life. To maintain the same fitness level I would need almost 6 hours more time. My High School clothes still fit and they’re 40 years old. It requires over 1000 Calories to power my bicycle to and from work. To maintain the same body size I would have to eat much less if I didn’t ride my bike. I don’t like to be hungry.

I prefer leisure time rather than working to buy things I don’t need or have time to use and I want to stay in shape. According to Bill Gates, time is the only thing of value and each of us has 24 hours every day. Commuting by bicycle requires careful planning but actually saves time. I don’t have the time to drive my car.
Bill Fisk

EDITOR: See Bike Commuting by David Balkin

April 14
PIRATES, YO
Hi. I’m researching an article on Rachel Wall (the pirate) for my grad school class at UNH (Advanced Non-fiction Writing). As your website seems to be written by experts of seacoast history, I was hoping that somebody would be willing to talk to me about all the pirate-esque shenanigans that happened off our shores.
Heather M

EDITOR’S REPLY: It’s pretty hard to mail down pirate activity along an 18 mile coastline. The first reference of "pirates" affecting New Hampshire was in 11632 when some of the very first Strawbery Banke settlers heart about an attack by the English pirate Dixy (Dixie or Dixey) Bull who had been attacking the colony at Pemaquid, Maine. That is all we know. He was not captured. There are spotty tales of 18^th century pirates at the Isles of Shoals by data is spotty and unreliable. At least one pirate was captured in the Shoals area, but tales of pirate hideouts and buried treasure appear to be largely imaginary. Pirates rarely got "treasure" from raiding ships because ships rarely carried any. Ships carried masts, manufactured goods, food, livestock, fish, etc. In 20 years of study we’ve not found anything significant about pirates on our specific shores, although they certainly passed by.

April 12
PAUL JONES THE COMIC OPERA
My web-searching under Paul Jones Comic Opera has led me to your website. I am trying to access the libretto and score to this musical, and your web page "Miss Huntington Plays Paul Jones" indicates that you actually have a copy. It was not unusual back then for women to play the male leads in comic opera - the forerunner of the Principal Boy in pantomime. I am currently working on a performance based on one of Australia's leading Comic Opera actresses of the early 1900's, who also played Paul Jones, and have been trying to access a copy of the show. Please could you let me know whether it would be possible for you to let me have a copy of this forgotten work?
Stephanie Mann

EDITOR’S REPLY: Amazingly, it appears we do have a copy. Attached is the first page of the score that we purchased from an online auction in New Zealand. The manuscript, however, is 142 pages long which is more work than we can currently manage unless we come upon a few web site volunteers.

April 4
GIRL SCOUT MEDALS?
I am a mother of a junior girl scout here in Bow, NH; Troop 2472. I have talked with other leaders from other states and they told me there is something called heritage trail medals for self-guided tours, but I did not catch what place you go to for these. Do you do heritage trail medals for these tours?
Lori L.