Dance, dance not-quite revolution
Where to go to get down
By Dana Unger dunger@hippopress.com

On a Saturday night in downtown Manchester you can turn down any given street and hear the thudding bass of muffled dance music coming from clubs and bars. Groups of young people mill around outside, checking their cellphones and catching a quick smoke in between forays back into the action on the dance floor.

Anne Alexander finished her granite sculpture about a day and a half early. Most of her recent colleagues say three weeks is pretty short, though. She carved pod-like forms that look as if they are attached to the rock. One can sit on the rocks, stroke the pods, and reflect, she said.

People: Midwife = “with woman”
Carol Leonard delivers a book about her profession
By Jeff Mucciarone jmucciarone@hippopress.com

Carol Leonard served New Hampshire as its first and perhaps most prominent midwife. Having practiced for three decades, the 58-year-old Hopkinton resident isn’t delivering babies now; she is taking time out to write and to build a 400-acre farm in Maine. The mother of two adult children, she is co-founder of the Midwives Alliance of North America. She spent time in Moscow in the early 1990s helping Russians with their delivery practices. In July she self-published Lady’s Hands, Lion’s Heart: A Midwife’s Saga, which details her adventures as a midwife and delves into the origins of the midwife profession. To learn more about Leonard, go to www.badbeaverfarm.com.

LONGSHOTS: "How come?" is the main question of the day
by Dave Long

I’m the kind of guy who likes to ask a lot of questions. Even though I find if you ask ones people don’t like they address you with disdain, depending on where you are and who the audience is, a liberal, a communist, contentious, a conservative, a Yankee fan, a Red Sox fan, a cross dresser and/or from the East Coast, left wing, biased media elite. Some also will say “that’s the dumbest question I’ve ever heard” like Bill Parcells would do when he wanted to bully a reporter and then not answer it. And then there are those who are even less polite and simply say you don’t know what the blank you’re talking about.

Food: Indie donuts rising
Milford shop bakes its own way
By Linda A. Thompson-Odum food@hippopress.com

In a world full of chain donut shops, it is a treasure to find an independent one that makes its own. Donut Fresh Express in Milford is such a place. Each night the baker comes in to prepare the donuts, pastries and muffins so they are fresh for the next morning..

Techie: Netbook update
Tiny laptops get cheaper & awesomer
By John “jaQ” Andrews  jandrews@hippopress.com

Wi-Fi for Web browsing. A keyboard for typing up papers or e-mails. What else do you really need from your ultraportable laptop? You’d think there wouldn’t be much to distinguish one so-called netbook from another, but the sheer number of models flooding the market since I last wrote about them in April gives you plenty of choices.