'From Stump to Mill' by Fred Cowan of Canaan, Vt., offers a glimpse into the area's logging history, taking readers along as he follows the timber harvests of past and present, on their journey from stump to mill.

Sentinel sports writer Butch Ladd draws on his lifelong passion for North Country sports to pen his weekly column 'On the Ball.' Butch keeps readers and fans abreast of what's new on the local sports scene, from pee wee and Little League to high school varsity and college athletics.

The only way to read Fred and Butch's writings each week is to subscribe; in the meantime, here's a sample of one column from this week's paper:

Questions that I've been saving up (there are answers to some, and some are in a grey area, but either way there are always more questions):

--Why do so many people and politicians rail against government support for National Public Radio, one of the few actual ties that bind on the national scene? We are still using a Postal Service rate schedule that favors second-class periodicals such as newspapers and magazines precisely because Benjamin Franklin, among several others, thought such a scheme was crucial for enhancing an informed electorate, particularly in remote, far-flung places. So it should be with NPR.

--Ditto for poor Amtrak, the hapless whipping-boy for pundits and politicians ranting against "government subsidies," even as they blithely approve state and federal subsidies for every single other facet of transportation, from highways to harbors to bus stations and airports. Talk about speaking with a forked tongue--and this in light of the fact that no nation on earth has ever been able to run a national railroad without subsidies. Think "REA"--to you whippersnappers, that's the government-subsidized effort that brought electricity to the countryside.

--Why does diesel, which used to cost a whole lot less than gasoline, now cost more, especially because it requires (in theory, at least) less refining? And why, on breathless network reports on how the price of gas and diesel are putting such hardships on commuters, do we hardly ever hear much about the dire impacts on loggers, farmers, truckers and commercial fishermen?

--What do the proponents of ever-more-draconian gun laws intend to do about the estimated 200 million guns already loose in the country, which are readily available to criminals via back-alley deals but are increasingly difficult to possess (and carry) by law-abiding citizens?

--Why, to many people, is hunting inherently "bad," not to mention your wife, mother or daughter posing with a deer, while your kids posing with dead fish is somehow "okay"?

--Why has Vermont been so much more successful than New Hampshire has in preserving its small dairy farms and their resultant lifestyle, traditions, open acres and postcard vistas? I've sat on several commissions on this, and the answer has always eluded us, but at heart I'm thinking "more nutrient-rich soils," and, sadly, a society that places more value on farms than on more turnpike lanes and shopping malls.

--Why do so many people evidently believe that there's a law against passing a plow truck? There's not, as long as it's reasonable, safe and prudent. In the same vein, why do some people believe that you can't pass on the right? You can, when the vehicle ahead of you making a left turn against traffic leaves enough room for you to get around. It's safer than stopping, and no reasonable officer would issue, nor would a reasonable judge uphold, a ticket for not staying within the traveled way, meaning "go ahead and use the breakdown or the shoulder to get around"--again, on the theory that it's better than being smacked by the idiot tailgater right there behind you, eyebrows arched and smoke issuing from his ears.

--Why do TV stations ("Storm Watch Nine," "Winter Storm Team," indeed) hyperventilate on what is, after all, pretty much normal winter weather, and report everything from the commuting perspective while failing to pay much attention to the dire financial needs of everyone from skiers to snowmobilers, and the huge economic spinoff for thousands of businesses and people? Why do so many people cheer when a winter thaw comes along, not thinking about interrupted winter logging operations and the damage and danger on rural roads?

--Finally, whatever happened to CNN? We remember its great days of infancy, when it was justly famed for panning cameras around to set the scene and for appearing at decidedly unorthodox news events, the essence of bringing the viewer into the story. Now it's in its not-so-great days of infamy, with ever more glitzy sets, near-zero innovative hustling, massive and maddening overkill on the primaries to the detriment of everything else happening in the nation and the world, and the ever-more grating, inescapable voice of the omni-present Wolf Blitzer.

(This column runs in 13 weekly papers covering the northern two-thirds of New Hampshire and parts of Maine and Vermont. John Harrigan's address: Box 39, Colebrook, NH 03576, or hooligan@ncia.net)

(Issue of February 1, 2012)