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By Credit search: Monitor columnist

By RAY DUCKLER

Jill Doyle got her tank filled at the gas station near the East Concord traffic circle recently and received plenty of warmth on a freezing morning.She stayed comfortable in her car while an attendant pumped her gas at East Concord Mobil, an...

By RAY DUCKLER

Melissa Reep’s father thought he was funny each time he showed his daughter the calendar and asked her to point to her birthday.She’d flip to February and move her finger down to the last day of the month and find that it was missing more often than...

By RAY DUCKLER

He walked into the local convenience store loaded with the protective gear that he uses to defend himself and the residents of Pittsfield.He wore a bulletproof vest and carried a taser, two magazine cartridges, a service pistol, pepper spray and a...

By RAY DUCKLER

Cheryl and Barry Mello of Allenstown hope that former president Donald Trump uses a filter this year as he campaigns for the Republican nomination for president.They fear a backlash might surface after nearly nine years since Trump rode the escalator...

By RAY DUCKLER

The line snaked from the Grappone Conference Center entrance into the parking lot, forming a giant ‘S’ of Donald Trump supporters exhaling frosty plumes, pinching their shoulders and smiling.The frigid temperatures Friday night didn’t stand a chance...

By RAY DUCKLER

Former Marine Denis O’Connell felt ignored.He hoped someone – anyone – would answer his phone call seeking information about payments to Marines who had developed cancer from toxic water after serving at Camp Lejeune from 1953 to 1987. The base is a...

By RAY DUCKLER

Forget the eye-popping statistics – goals and assists - that regularly define hockey’s top players.That was not Mick Mounsey’s game. Instead, Mounsey used his refrigerator-like frame to keep high-flying forwards away from the University of New...

By RAY DUCKLER

She thought she had her dream job after medical school, working in a hospital, allowing her warm bedside manner to comfort patients like a heating pad.That’s what Dr. Jennifer MacKenzie had always wanted, ever since she played on medical equipment as...

By RAY DUCKLER

If you’re looking for a sappy farewell from Bill Pliakos – who’s selling the Pit Road Lounge after owning it for 23 years – look elsewhere.Pliakos, born in Greece, is not that kind of guy. His staff is, though. They love the guy, they’re loyal to the...

By RAY DUCKLER

The storyline is so good that even ESPN wants a piece of it.Once the sports network heard about a different sort of Craigue’s List – one that has nothing to do with selling a couch or buying a chair – it reached out to Nate Craigue, whose connection...

By RAY DUCKLER

John Taylor paused on the phone, more than once, before steadying himself and moving on.The first time concerned his sister, Janis Taylor, who was back in the news last week after Concord Police and the Cold Case Unit announced it was looking into her...

By RAY DUCKLER

His voice was unmistakable, even at 90 years old.We all know it, fans of Star Trek or not. The classic baritone, smooth like 50-year-old scotch, measured and controlled. The way Captain Kirk once sounded giving orders from the bridge of the Starship...

By RAY DUCKLER

Heather White of Chichester is grateful she took care of business – family business – before it was too late.Her mother and stepfather, Cheryl and Carleton Thayer of Concord, died in a car crash in Hooksett earlier this month. Black ice caused their...

By RAY DUCKLER

Don’t tell Jean Durgin of Henniker that the War on Terror in Afghanistan was a failure.In fact, don’t try to convince any Gold Star Mother, or anyone else for that matter who’s suffered a loss over there, that the recent chaotic, deadly scenes from...

By RAY DUCKLER

She called herself a “fighter,” tattooing the scripted word, in black ink, onto her inner forearm while fighting for her life.Her family used the verb “pivot” again and again to describe her adaptability, explaining that Grace Orzechowski absorbed the...

By RAY DUCKLER

Maybe Lisa Wheeler’s three kids were right after all.Maybe their home in Pembroke, site of a mass murder more than 100 years ago that, somehow, slipped through the town’s historical cracks, is, indeed, haunted. Maybe the murderer, Charles Ayer,...

By RAY DUCKLER

When it comes to homelessness, the city of Franklin is experiencing growing pains similar to what Concord once felt.And, more than anyone else, Desiree McLaughlin is absorbing the blows and shouting from the city’s rooftops, trying to draw attention...

By RAY DUCKLER

So who the heck was Franklin Pierce? I tried to find out, thinking Monday – Presidents Day – was a good time to try. Turns out, one of the most important people in the state’s history featured more gray area than a giant storm cloud.Pierce was the...

By RAY DUCKLER

The big white farmhouse on Mountain Road, near Sanborn and Sewalls Falls roads, is gone, razed to make room for new homes and families.It stood lonely for years, with a blank expression of chipping paint and rotting wood that, to passing drivers,...