Reprinted from the New Hampshire Gazette, July 12, 1771 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, July 12, 1771: We hear from Damariscotta (Maine), that about three weeks ago, three men being in a canoe, fishing, about half a mile from the shore, a large shark came along side, and after going several times round the canoe, came up […]

Snow.   A Masquerade Country Ball at the Hawk’s Head Tavern.  Too Much Snow to travel.   Everyone is stuck in the tavern for the night.   The people of the town are absolutely charmed by …. 

In September of 1777, the gentleman at the right, François, Marquis de Barbé-Marbois was traveling from Boston to Philadelphia, as secretary of the French legation to the newly born United States.    On the 6th of the month, some 22 miles outside of Boston, he had this to say about the inhabitants of New England: No […]

How We All Came to Be We’ve had a lot of good reaction to my last two blogs on the subject of the vile, cheap buffoon and intellectual pretender, Jon Stewart.   He’s not worth any more space, but I wanted to use his absolute lack of taste, and his utter lack of spiritual depth, […]

My Blood Runs Cold, My Memory Has Just Been Sold… In the summer of 1975, trying to beef up my college-bound credentials, I took a biology class at Arcadia High School, taught by a self-satisfied, sandal-wearing ex-hippy whose name I can’t remember.   I may not remember his name because, unlike the rest of my […]

Jon Stewart, the Two Dollar Whore Suppose you’re sitting in one of those little comedy reviews, like the Ice House in Pasadena or the Laugh Factory in Los Angeles.   The comic steps up to the microphone and starts in on your aunt, who is sitting one table over.   It’s a real Don Rickles […]

Re-printed from the New Hampshire Gazette, July 26, 1771 Boston, July 22: We are informed from the county of Hampshire, that on Saturday the 13th, the famous Joseph Holmes of Hatfield (who has been a frequent visitor at the courts of assize in that county, and has as often broke Goal (jail)) was detected at […]

“…Benjamin Merrill, be carried to the place from whence you came, that you be drawn from thence to the place of execution, where you are to be hanged by the neck; that you be cut down while you are yet alive…” Without dispute, the greatest news story of 1771 in the American Colonies would have […]

In the BBC adaption of the Elizabeth Gaskell novel, Wives and Daughters, a rumpled country Squire Hamley played by Michael Gambon, anxiously makes a bid for the help of Miss Molly Gibson (Justine Waddell) in the care of Squire Hamley’s ailing wife. Unfortunately, Miss Gibson’s step mother, using Molly as a chess piece, insists the […]