With school back in session, parents are carrying a load of questions about their children and their heavy backpacks and wondering whether these packs can result in back problems in their little ones. Let me back up and provide some information on backpacks. There are some studies of high ...

I was in the post office buying stamps and chatting with the guy who knows more people than anyone else in My Home Town, and in return is liked by more people in MHT — Mark Deshaine. In case you didn’t recognize the name, or you’ve never mailed a letter here, Mark is the guy who ...

Swimming boils down to this: Bathwater to you is goosebumps to me. Initially swimming involves me standing on the sand, rock or pool deck repeatedly asking, “Is it cold?” Although I identify as a cold water wimp, my BFF Jen Kretser has the cold tolerance of a yeti with a penchant for ...

I’ve always been fascinated by maps, especially old ones. Studied carefully, they can reveal a lot of history. Nineteenth-century maps accompanying the earliest guides to the region, by Seneca Ray Stoddard and E.R. Wallace, for example, show that the way to get from place to place on Long ...