NH State Representative Delmar Burridge recently introduced HB 0037 proscribing death by firing squad:

When the penalty of death is imposed, the punishment for a defendant convicted under RSA 630:1, I(g) shall be execution by firing squad.

Burridge would likely describe himself as “principled,” like when he reported one of his constituents to the cops because of his advocacy for marijuana decriminalization.

The photo above is a still from a Ridley Report interview with him.

The Woodman Institute Museum in Dover NH is famous for having a four-legged chicken, but that’s only a small example of the weirdness you’ll find inside. A big collection of snakes and bugs and bears in top hats along with other examples of taxidermy fills the first two floors. The top floor is dedicated to war and includes the obligatory rusty cannon ball that killed and maimed.

The absolute scariest part of the entire museum, however, is the hall of dolls. Amanda Etches-Johnson calls it the stuff of nightmares.

Two very important things: I have every confidence that the NH Primary results were correct and accurate, and, most importantly, unmolested. And, I’m also quite happy with them. But that doesn’t mean I’m not anxiously awaiting the results of the hand recount that Congressman Kucinich has requested.

Conspiracy theories abound, and Diebold is a despicable company worthy of general derision, but at least our AccuVote OS machines have paper ballots. The company says they’re the greatest thing (though they seem to have withdrawn them from the market in favor of their touch screen systems), but they’re easy to open, and the software is a complete unknown. Kucinich figures they’re all basically broken, and he may be right.

What I don’t believe, however…. What would really destroy me, is to learn that the people involved with our primary might have manipulated the results. For, despite their faults, these machines can’t throw elections on their own. Perhaps the most disturbing thing is that there are people who might take advantage of these machines to do that, or that there’s such widespread fear that such people exist. Democracies are built on the character of their people, not their machines, and if there’s anything New Hampshire prides more than our primary, it’s our yankee honesty.

What does it mean about the state of democracy when viral video darling Obama Girl Amber Lee Ettinger shows up in NH? And Chuck Norris too? (Chuck Norris political facts.)

It probably surprises no one that Kucinich’s press secretary’s 18 year old daughter is more articulate than Amber and Chuck combined. Ugh.

The CEO of NH’s first online-only, distance education high school expects about 700 students to enroll in its first semester, to start in January. So says a report at NHPR.

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Corey and I went to Berlin to watch the stacks fall today, but bad weather, confusion, and some dud explosives conspired to leave me with no usable pictures of the event.

We arrived early and lined up a perfect view of two out of three towers that were to be felled, but as the explosions started it became clear that I was mistaken about which smokestacks were being destroyed, and instead we had a really good view the one stack that was supposed to be left standing at the end of the day. And the other tower we had a great view of didn’t fall as was expected.

So, without any pictures of my own, I searched Beyond Brown Paper for images of the old Burgess Mill before it was dismantled, and of those smokestacks that so dominated the city’s skyline. See it in 1952, 1950, and 1914

KDPaine & Partners has a nice post (copied here?) and pictures. It turns out the problem with the third stack wasn’t dud explosives, but the heavy duty rebar reinforcement it was built with. As the demolition crew tried to cut it as a last ditch effort, the stack came down on power lines and caused some injuries.

berlin, new hampshire, burgess mill, smokestacks, implosion, explosion, demolition

My favorite place to eat in all of New Hampshire is LA Burdick’s in Walpole. It’s a chocolate shop and cafe and I’ve never had anything there that isn’t sinfully delicious. We took my mother-in-law there for Mother’s Day this year. We started the meal with their delightful cheese plate. This featured four cheeses in a range of intensities, a delightful fruit chutney, olives, seasoned nuts, and crackers. The cheeses were all wonderful and could be purchased at the market next door, many are by local artisans. We took home a creamy sheep’s milk cheese and a tangy blue.

For entrees Judith, my mother-in-law and I both enjoyed the salad nicoise. This version featured perfectly prepared tuna, egg, roasted peppers, new potatoes, green beans, and some delightful pickled red onions. My husband had the steak frites, cooked to perfection. We enjoyed this with a couple of glasses of house wine. The meal was simply scrumptious.

At Burdick’s desert is not an option. Unless you are a robot, their sweet confections are quite simply too good to pass up. Judith and Casey, my husband, both had frappes made from Burdick’s homemade ice-cream. Judith had the chocolate-banana and Casey had the chocolate-strawberry. The frappes were thick and a rick dark-chocolate in color. I sampled both and I can honestly say that these were the most delicious frappes I’d ever had. I had the hazlenut-orange cake and it was perfect, nutty and sweet.

Of course, I can’t leave Burdick’s without a take-home treat. The brazilian chocolates are my favorite, I savor their rich taste long after I’ve returned home. When I run out, I know its time to go back.

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Mt. Moriah, this time better than last time.

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Wendy sent out this invite last week:

Last month the Monningers quite suddenly became restauranteurs. Six weeks later, Wendy, Joe and Pie are excited to announce the Grand Opening of “the Twig”– an ever-so-cute restaurant in their hometown of Warren, NH.

On Saturday, June 24th from 11-2 come to the Twig for free pizza and cake. Win gift certificates and enjoy the newly-opened “Brook-Side at the Twig,” a beautiful outdoor beer garden along the bank of Black Brook.

Thank you to all our family, friends, neighbors, vendors and eaters who have supported the Twig. We appreciate your support and look forward to seeing you soon.

It’s all in Warren, at the only full-service restaurant/bar in town:

Open Mic Night at the Twig
Every Thursday night 8-11pm.
Hosted by Sky King ( formerly of the Sopha Kings, presently with Woodchuck Hollow).
Come to play or listen.
Pizza and bev. specials.

Scrabble Night
Every Tuesday night from 7-9pm, starting on June 27th.
BYOSB (bring your own scrabble board).

Sunday Brunch
Every Sunday from 8am-12pm.
All you can eat brunch for $8.00/pp. Kids $5.00.
Great spread including fresh baked breakfast pastries and dessert.

Breakfast Tue-Sat 7-11am
Lunch Tue-Sun
Dinner Tue-Sun. Open until 10ish (except Sunday until 8pm)
Best pizza in town
Great dinner specials
Sunday brunch
Full liquor license
WiFi/ TV/ AC
Tuesday Scrabble
Thursday Open Mic
Brook-Side at the Twig

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The Millyard Museum was hosting the New England Lego Users’ Group Saturday, building LEGO replica’s of Manchester NH’s old victorian-era houses. It turns out they’re building a scale model of the entire millyard.

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The folks at WMUR’s Chronicle are featuring my friends Joe and Wendy and their dog sledding tonight. The photos above are of Justin in a race a few years ago (video of the finish also online). Warren hasn’t been so proud since we put the rocket up.

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Snow, thick and heavy because of the thaw these past few days, covers Warren. Our rocket stands tall for all seasons.

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Will and I climbed Moosilauke in early August, but it was only now that I got around to stitching the panorama.

The view is considerably wider than 360 degrees, composited from 33 photos. The “full-size” version on Flickr contains 8 gigapixels of data. The real full-size version is a over 34 gigapixels.

tags: 4000 footer, moosilauke, mount moosilauke, mountain, mt moosilauke, new hampshire, warren, warren new hampshire

I climbed the Osceolas with Will and Adam this weekend. It was my first overnight in a long, long time, and their first mountaintop sunrise. I used to do sunrises on Mt. Monadnock, but I’d lost the habit.

More pictures of the Osceola adventure at Flickr.

tags: 4000 footer, camping, geo:lat=44.006336, geo:lon=-71.547260, geotagged, hike, hiking, mount, mountain, mt osceola, mt. osceola, new hampshire, osceola, panorama, scenic, sunrise, waterville valley

The Fairlee Drive-In Theatre is open with double features on weekends

Details:

1809 Route 5, Fairlee VT 05045 (one mile north of town)
802-333-9192

Notes from Driveinmovie.com:

The usual Hotel/Motel concept of in-room movies is cable TV, this is one of only two Drive-ins in America that have a motel on the premises with a view of a drive-in movie. All rooms have a picture window and speaker, allowing motel guests to watch the movies. The motel has only 12 units, so be sure that you make a reservation well in advance to enjoy this unique drive-in which has been in operation since 1950 in rural Vermont.

But the Meadows Twin Drive-In in Woodsville (NH) appears to have closed at the end of last season (old info at Driveinmovie.com).

tags: double feature, drive-in, drive-in theatre, fairlee, motel, movie, movie theater, new hampshire, theater, vermont, woodsville

The Laconia Citizen reported today that Ron Mowry’s 31 year quest for recognition as the real pinball wizard of 1974 has finally achieved some success. The Twin Galaxies Official Video Game & Pinball Book of World Records will credit Mowry’s 72 hour 8 minute marathon pinball session as a record.

Mowry set his 1974 record at a sandwich shop in Hallandale Beach, Florida, but he was raised in Plymouth, NH, where he now works for the university.

What odd, mostly anonymous lives we all lead.

Technorati Tags: florida, laconia citizen, new hampshire, pinball, pinball wizard, plymouth, twin galaxies, video game, wizard, world record

Treated Mom to lunch at L.A. Burdick’s in Walpole today. The food at Burdick’s is always remarkable, but this time I got a decent photo of it.

I’m calling the plate in front a real tuna salad. Yes, those are strips of medium-rare tuna, but it’s the pickled onions that delighted me. In the middle is my rare steak with a dollop of stilton butter. For desert, we enjoyed a frappes and shared a piece of hazelnut-orange cake while thunder and large hailstones menaced the street outside.

The bigger problem, so far as Sandee is concerned, is that I’ve taken to photographing everything I eat. I blame Friday Food Fiesta on Flickr for that.

Technorati Tags: burdick’s, lunch, main street, new hampshire, walpole