Category: Granite Views

By the time you read this, December will have slipped into January and another year will have ended. A time of transition, this — new calendars, new dates on checks (if you still write them), a new tax year, and the passing of the shortest day of the year. As Continue reading “The litany”

There’s an old saying about living in interesting times and it seems fitting for this era. It seems more fun to read about them in history books than to live them. My guess is that in 2023 times will continue to be interesting. If any of my 2023 predictions come Continue reading “An interesting 2023?”

As more than one observer has noted, most Americans behave with respect to political campaigns and elections as they do toward sports teams and competitions. They have their favorites and then generally sit back and watch. True, some go out and stump for their candidate (or put out lawn signs), Continue reading “How we see others”

by Jeff Rapsis

In London, visitors to St. Paul’s Cathedral who approach the tomb of architect Sir Christopher Wren are greeted with this inscription: “If you seek his monument, look around you.”

The same may be said about Raymond Wieczorek, longtime Manchester politician and businessman, who passed away recently at Continue reading “Look around you”

Like most Americans, I am ready to move beyond the 2022 midterm elections. Votes are still being counted, with the Democrats projected to have a slim majority in the Senate and Republicans projected to have a slim majority in the House. The forecasted red wave failed to materialize.

While I Continue reading “Post-election thoughts”

We were thrilled to learn last year that our daughter and her family living in Florida were relocating to New Hampshire. Our grandson would be nearby, and his parents too. Plans were made, houses were sold and bought, and the relocation process began. Imagine everyone’s shock when it was quickly Continue reading “Child care struggles in NH”

Over lunch a few years ago, a friend asked me a simple, but very direct question: “Steve: when you think of the Holocaust, what image comes to mind?” It caught me off guard as we had been talking about politics prior to the upcoming election. I paused, thought for a Continue reading “To remember”

The first time I worked on redoing the Minimum Standards for Public School Approval was 1992. I was a brand new member of the State Board of Education, which was embroiled in a huge controversy (Concord Monitor’s sixth biggest story of the year) over its seemingly heavy-handed approach to revising Continue reading “Let the conversation about our kids begin!”

I had breakfast this morning with a fascinating person. She is an architectural historian who has studied Notre Dame cathedral in Paris for many years and is now one of the experts regularly consulted as the 800-year-old building is being restored after the devastating fire of April 2019. For many Continue reading “Lessons from a cathedral”

At a family picnic this summer we gobbled salads, pulled pork and pies. Lounging in the shade of a giant maple, we admired my cousin’s picture-book perennial garden and a flock of orioles flitting above. Later we cooled off in the swirling water of the Connecticut River. All the while, Continue reading “Go easy on the kids”