So my son is a huge Darren Shan (of Cirque du Freak fame) and he made an appearance at the Boston Public Library today. The man is an excellent writer, but even more, he is a gifted reader and amazingly generous with his time for his fans. His apperance was free to those attending. He promised and delivered on the promise to sign every book someone brought with them - and by the way, he not only signed his signature, but also added quotes and comments. My son brought 24 of his treasured tomes which he schlepped in a backpack throughout Boston. As authors and reporters, my husband and I have both done a lot of readings, but this guy is the gold standard for public appearances. He was warm, genuine and animated beyond compare. We hope he does his own recorded books. No one else should read these aloud but him. We loved his message that teens - and adults for that matter - shouldn't just read one genre, or they might miss important allusions and references in books. His, for example, are influenced by no less an eclectic crew as Twain, King, and Dickens to name a few. And did we mention his great English accent with Irish overtones? The next time you can see Darren Shan read, don't miss him. Here's a photos of him with my son.

I've joined a group of knitters, crocheters, needle pointers and quilters at my local library and it's been an amazing experience which goes for beyond the baby blanket I've been working on for three months.
Only a handful of women today – none of whom I’ve met, but all of whom look somehow familiar – as if this type of woman – women who want to use their hands to make object for themselves and others, all have something familiar in common. Do I have those qualities? I probably haven’t been at it long enough yet. Or perhaps I resist - not wanting to be that retired woman with loads of time on their hands – on their hands. That’s an interesting turn of phrase. These are women with time on their hands but they use hands to turn time into these solid objects. Once again I can’t remember their names, and I bet they don’t remember mine, although one woman - I do remember her come to think of it, with an amazing wrinkled face as if she spent her entire life outside, she said she liked my article the other day. I’m amazed that all these women are so welcoming to me and so generous with their time and advice. I’m a stranger. I’m much younger – even at 53 – and I’m a reporter. That must be freaky to them. Maybe that’s why I go, because this is one of the few places I go, that I’m the youngest person in the room. A lot of these women have children my age and grandchildren my son’s age. They are so past the puberty issues and running kids to activities which I’m dealing. It’s refreshing. We had a great chat about marriage the other day, all starting with this one woman who was making floppy crocheted hats. She gave me the pattern, and let me use one of her hooks. Anyway we started talking about the hats. And this other woman who is absolutely gorgeous despite of or because of her age, said, “Remember when we went on our honeymoons and we had had to have the right hat? I jumped in with “remember when everyone wore picture hats at their weddings?” And I met with a few confused stares.
“I had a pill box hat,” said the gorgeous woman. Of course I jumped to Jackie Kennedy and realized this woman married when Jackie set the fashion – it had to be the early 60s. The picture hats would have been worn at her daughters’ weddings. I was off a generation.

I asked the woman who made the floppy hats how long she’d been married. “Forty-four years.” “You mean you’ve only had sex with one man your whole life?” I asked realizing I had probably breached knitting decorum. “Yes,” she said, looking as if she just had a great tumble in the hay. The pretty woman said “that’s the way we did it. We were virgins when we married and we stayed with the same person.” She told me her husband had died after 37 years of marriage. I don’t know how long ago that was but her heart was still broken –it was obvious.

I felt ashamed that I had brought it all up, all glib and reportery, but these women wouldn’t let me feel badly. Instead they went with it – talking about their marriages and their children’s marriages. The woman next to me who had barely said anything was working on a hand-stitched quilt. She wore little jack-o-lantern earrings. She showed me her purse – one of those black canvas bags with a plastic window in front which contained a photograph of a sprite – with red hair and big brown eyes. “This is my great-granddaughter.” That’s all she said. I told her the girl was adorable and I wasn’t lying.
I fished in my purse to find a photo of my son, but as usual I didn’t have one. What’s with me with that? It’s like a superstition or something or maybe the idea that he is so beautiful and precious to me a photo would be woefully inadequate. I’ll try to remember to put a photo of him in my purse the next time.
The women again were talking about the way things used to be – not with nostalgia or that air that their way was the right way, just that things were different.
“We tried to set such good examples, said Irene – the only woman whose name I knew. Irene was the experienced one in the crowd. Divorced once, married twice. “We didn’t want our kids to think it was ok to live with someone. Now all of our kids have lived with someone before they got married. “My granddaughter was the bridesmaid at her mother’s wedding,” said the 44-year marriage veteran.
“What were we worried about? It all turned out ok. It was just different. That’s all. Just different.”

I know making it to Broadway or even the local community acting troupe is a legitimate American dream that members of my own family have had and still have. But I am so over spelling "theater" - "t-h-e-a-t-r-e." Is it supposed to sound more artsy? Call me a creatre of habit. It rubs me the wrong way.

This is a copy of my column in Monday's Nashua Telegraph

This is a photo of my father with his father shortly after my father's mother died in the early 1920's. >

As everyone knows by now, it’s U.S. census time. You have either filled out your form and sent it back, are about to fill out your form, or a Census worker will visit your home. But things were a lot different 100 years ago when the 1910 census was taken. How do I know? I’ve looked at dozens of pages of that 100-year-old census on my quest to do genealogical research and to do it for free or nearly free.

We are lucky that in the Nashua area there are a lot of resources that make this fairly easy to do. In the past week, I’ve accumulated historical information about family that would have taken me months and a lot of traveling expenses 10 or 15 years ago, and I never traveled more than a mile and a half away from my home.

Inspired by the new NBC show, “Who Do You Think You Are?,” which follows celebrities like Sarah Jessica Parker and Emmitt Smith as they research their family history, I decided to go on my own ancestral journey.

I followed the lead of the show and started tracing a single member of my family and followed that person as far back as I could. I didn’t tackle all my grandparents or great-grandparents at the same time. I also noticed that the show was sponsored by Ancestry.com, which boasts 4 billion online records and is the most popular commercial genealogical Web site out there. It’s very convenient and easy to use, but it’s also pricey: ranging from $20-$30 a month, depending on the package.

Many public libraries, including Nashua and the Rodgers Memorial Library in Hudson, have the library version of Ancestry.com called Ancestry Library Edition, which can be accessed in the library only.

You can also access some other genealogy databases in-house and those available to the libraries from home, online with a library card.

“The genealogy databases are very popular,” said Rodgers’ reference librarian Gayle St. Cyr. “Every once in a while you’ll hear someone shouting out ‘ah’ or ‘oh’ when they find that little piece of information about an ancestor they’ve been searching for.”

The Nashua Public Library periodically offers a free class on using computers to research genealogy. The next will be April 21, from 2:30-4 p.m., and registration is required.

Since my father’s mother died when he was a very young, and my father has been dead since 1980, I knew practically nothing about my paternal grandmother, so I decided I’d look for her. I wasn’t even sure of her proper name. I only knew that she was called Lulu, which someone had once told me was short for Louise. One of my brothers and I both thought her last name might have been Von Adolph, but we weren’t sure. And we also thought she had died in childbirth at a young age and that the child did not survive either. I also knew my father was born at home in Brooklyn, N.Y., in 1918.

I started at home on my laptop by Googling the “best free genealogical websites.” I started with HeritageQuest online.com.

An hour or so later, I was able to come up with a scanned-in copy of the 1920 Census that showed my father as a 22-month-old living in Brooklyn, N.Y., with his father, Joseph, and his mother whose name was shown as Louvize. The census also showed that Louvize was born in California and that her mother and father (whose names were not on the census) were both born in Missouri.

On one site, I saw a popup with this information; on the other, Heritage, I could pull up an actual scanned copy of the census. At that time, all census data collection was done in person, written by hand. Fortunately for me, the census taker, Anna Gould, used legible cursive. I have to say there is something thrilling about seeing the actual handwriting of the person who was looking at my father as a baby, who was in the room with my grandfather and grandmother, whom I never met, and who would both be dead before the next census was taken. In a weird way, it was like visiting with them.

From there I was determined to find out more about Louvize Milbouer, and I’d gone as far as I could on my own. The 1910 census had no record of her as far as I could find. I knew that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had Family History Centers throughout the country and that one was here in Nashua on Concord Street. There I met Helen Ullmann, the assistant director of the history center, who explained why the church focused so much on genealogy.

“Mormons believe in life after death,” she said, “and we believe after death, people are organized by families, so then genealogy becomes very important.”

She explained that in the Mormon church, baptism and other “saving ordinances,” such as sealing marriages, must be made accessible to everyone who has ever lived and to make them available to people who did not go through when they were alive, they can be done by proxy. Because of that genealogical research is done so that relatives who were not baptized into the church when they were living can be baptized by proxy in death by a stand-in or proxy living relative.

So the church began collecting genealogical research resources and allows anyone to use them, regardless of their religious affiliation.

Not only can you get help at the Family History Centers, like the one in Nashua, but also on the Church’s genealogical Web site, FamilySearch.org, which is free to use from home. I needed Ullmann’s help and she was more than generous with her time. Initially, she couldn’t find out any more online about Louvise than I could, but she knew where to look to gather more information. After an hour, we still couldn’t find her maiden name – which is key to go further back in time. But she didn’t give up. She searched through various databases, censuses and cemetery listings.

“It’s always best to start with the latest information and move backward in time,” she said, suggesting I get copies of my grandparents’ marriage certificate and my grandmother’s death certificate in hopes of finding her last name and maybe more. She found where those documents could be ordered and filled out the order forms with me. The documents cost $5 each, a mere pittance compared to a subscription to Ancestry.com, which might or might not have that same information.

But the documents had to be delivered the old-fashion way, by mail and not instantly on a computer. I was bummed. I may have lived 53 years without knowing anything about my grandmother, but once I started looking, I wanted to know everything at once.

But fortunately for me, a man named Bill, a passionate amateur genealogist and regular at the Family History Center, came to my rescue.

He suggested I look on another free Web site called Cyndi’s List – a treasure trove of genealogical resources, including, said Bill (who chose not to tell me his last name), a bride and groom registry. For a few minutes, I had no luck finding a groom named Joseph Milbouer and his bride Louvize, but then I remembered that so many people have misspelled our family name with an “a” instead of a “u.” Bingo. There was my grandfather, Joseph, in the groom directory and the date that he married Louvize Adolph – Dec. 19, 1914, in Manhattan. So my grandmother had a last name and now my search for her could begin in earnest. Bill and Ullmann using the same Web site also found out that my grandmother died July 31, 1921, at age 28, when my father was 3 years old. With Ullmann’s help, I ordered a copy of Louvize’s death certificate to see if it were true that she and the baby she was carrying died in childbirth. I also ordered a copy of my grandparents’ marriage certificate.

But this is not the end of the story. It’s just the beginning. Bill, my newfound friend from the Family History Center, said it all.

“Twenty-one years ago all I knew was that my family came from Ireland and nothing else,” Bill said. “I haven’t stopped researching since. It’s an obsession.”

OK SO OFFICIALLY THIS DOES NOT REALLY PERTAIN TO THE AMERICAN DREAM - ONLY IN THE BLOGGING SENSE. BUT FOR THOSE THAT THINK THEY CAN SAY OR DO ANYTHING ON A BLOG AND REMAIN ANONYMOUS, I SUGGEST READIANG THE ARTICLE BELOW, WRITTEN BY ASHLEY SMITH IN TODAY'S NASHUA TELEGRAPH:
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He’s a man with several pseudonyms. Some, like Silence Dogood, are meant to send a message. Others, like Dennis Rodman, are purely to conceal his identity.

But there is one in particular that has placed him smack in the middle of a First Amendment case before the New Hampshire Supreme Court, and that is Brian Battersby.

It is a case that has potentially big implications for the future of journalism in New Hampshire. It could decide if media Web sites can protect the identities of anonymous commenters. It could also determine who constitutes the media in an Internet age filled with bloggers and citizen journalists.

The case has prompted national organizations like Citizen Media Law Project and The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press to intervene out of concern for the sanctity of free speech.

The man behind the Brian Battersby pseudonym sat down with The Telegraph to explain what he makes of being at the center of a state Supreme Court case that has garnered national media attention. He never imagined a legal battle over his identity would ensue when he posted an anonymous comment online criticizing a New Hampshire mortgage company, said Battersby, who agreed to speak to The Telegraph on the condition that his real name not be used.

“When I posted that blog, I felt that I was doing it anonymously,” he said.

The Web site Battersby posted his comment to is a mortgage-industry watchdog called Mortgage Lender Implode-O-Meter, which posts news from other sources about the housing finance crisis. In the fall of 2008, the site posted a story about a New Hampshire company, The Mortgage Specialists Inc., that was being investigated by banking officials for a number of alleged violations, including forging signatures, destroying documents and unfair or deceptive business practices. The company was later fined by the banking department in connection with the charges.

Along with the story, Implode-O-Meter staff posted a confidential financial document MSI had prepared for the New Hampshire Banking Department, which was provided to them by an unnamed source. Some time later, “Brianbattersby” posted a comment on the site accusing MSI President Michael Gill of fraud.

MSI asked the site’s publisher, Implode-Explode Heavy Industries, to take down the document and comment, which it did. But the publisher refused to identify Battersby. It also refused to promise that it wouldn’t repost the chart in the future.

MSI eventually sued, and won. A Rockingham County Superior Court judge ordered the publisher to reveal Battersby’s identity to the company and not to post confidential documents in the future. The Web site appealed that decision to the state’s Supreme Court, and arguments in the case took place in November. A decision has yet to come down.

Aside from wanting to keep his real name a secret, Battersby said he is concerned about the larger implications if the court decides that his identity should be revealed.

“At this point, it goes beyond concern for myself,” he said. “It’s not right for anybody’s identity to be released under this type of situation. I think it’s important that no matter who you are that you be able to voice concerns or make people aware of wrongdoing without repercussion.”

Battersby said he was surprised to learn that the superior court judge had ordered the release of his identity but was encouraged that organizations like Harvard Law School stepped in to defend him. A Harvard Law clinical fellow co-authored a legal brief encouraging the Supreme Court to rule in favor of Implode-Explode.

Neither side is denying that this is a First Amendment case, but they disagree on whether it will have any significant impact on the right of the media to protect its sources.

Lawyer Jeremy Eggleton, of Orr & Reno in Concord, who represents Implode-Explode, has said the case has potential broad, negative implications for the New Hampshire media.

“It wouldn’t just undermine, it would completely undo the protections of the press in this state,” Eggleton told The Telegraph in November, after arguing his case before the Supreme Court.

Eggleton contends the Implode-O-Meter Web site was pursuing journalism when it published the story and information about MSI and that the site should be protected under the state’s qualified reporter’s privilege, which protects confidential sources used by traditional media.

Alex Walker, president of the Manchester-based firm Divine Millimet, who is representing MSI, sees things differently. He argues that Implode-Explode is not a protected member of the media because it does not do original reporting. Even if it were, sometimes a court will order a traditional media outlet to reveal its source when it’s proven to be essential to a case and there’s no other way to get the information, Walker said in November.

“Anytime anyone invokes the First Amendment, they talk about the broader implications, but what we’re asking the court to do is something that courts in New Hampshire have been doing for many, many years,” Walker said. “We’re not asking the court to plow any new ground.”

Also at issue in the case is whether the Implode-O-Meter Web comment was libelous, meaning harmful and untrue. No entity can win a libel case based on harmful statements that are true.

Battersby maintains that all of the statements he made were true. He posted the comments simply because he felt the public had a right to know about the fraud allegations, he said.

There are a few things that Battersby is not willing to discuss. He declined to offer details about when and how he heard that Implode-Explode was being sued over his comment. He did not reveal how he knew the loan chart existed or whether he is personally acquainted with Gill, MSI’s president. Not surprisingly, considering that the case centers on his identity, Battersby doesn’t want to reveal anything that will identify him.

Still, the question remains: Who is Brian Battersby?

Battersby has used other pseudonyms. He has posted comments on the Implode-Explode Web site using the name Silence Dogood. In an e-mail to The Telegraph, the name attached to the e-mail account was Dennis Rodman.

The real Brian Battersby is an amateur astronomer who lives in Canada. His name appeared in several news stories in February 2008 after he witnessed the Pentagon’s shootdown of a spy satellite during a night he had planned to spend watching a lunar eclipse. The fake Brian Battersby saw those news stories and equated the idea of spotting a rogue satellite bound for earth to his own revelation of the allegations against Mortgage Specialists, he said.

The real Brian Battersby did not respond to an e-mail sent Thursday seeking comment for this story. It’s unclear if he knows that his name is at the center of a New Hampshire Supreme Court case.

As for the case’s resolution, the man who uses the pseudonym Battersby says he is not confident about winning the case, given that a superior court judge ruled against him once.

It’s unclear when the Supreme Court will issue a decision. The court has several options, including upholding the lower court’s decision or reversing it and extending the protections designed for traditional media to a different breed of Internet journalists.

If you haven't watched yet, check out Who Do You Think You Are? It's the NBC program that traces celebs' family histories. OK so it's a shameless ad for Ancestory.com, but it's still a riveting show. American Dream Girl can't stand Sarah Jessica Parker, but couldn't keep her eyes off her as she found out her ancestors were invovled in the Gold Rush and the Salem witch trials. And this last week's show with Emmitt Smith finding out that his great, great, great ... grandmother was a slave who had the courage to keep her family together was nothing but amazing. Every American Dream has roots whether they go back 20 years or two centuries and this show makes you ponder that and more. This Thursday Lisa Kudrow, also a producer of the show, searches her own family history which intersects with the Holocaust. The show airs Thursdays at 8. You can also see a preview of NBC.com.

To me the best place to cultivate the American Dream is in the classroom, but unfortunately so many have also been crushed there. I remember one of my high school teachers making a comment on a creative writing project which almost stopped my future career in its early-stage tracks. But for our new students at the NLS, I'd like to say welcome and let's try to make at least some of your writing dreams come true.

How lucky was I recently to be at a second-hand children's clothing store to witness first hand someone taking their first step in the their version of the American Dream, even though for many it would seem a nightmare.

This woman has dreamed of becoming a Cher impersonator. That's right a woman who wants to be a Cher impersonator, not a man. We heard she would be at this clothing store, so we thought we'd stop by. It was just weird enough to make it worth going out on a sleety New Hampshire night. So we get into this store and someone had laid out a tray with brie, wine and boxed chocolate chip cookies.

In the front I see some tweens I know, and they're giggling and turning red. Then I look up and see a woman - a rather short woman - with a long, black straight wig. She's wearing purple harem pants, a gauzy lavender top and spiders-have-dropped-dead on my eylids, false lashes.

With absoluely no word of explanation or stage patter, the woman began to sing. Scratch that. She began to lip sync "Gypsies Tramps and Thieves." It was, in a word, weird.

I didn't want to laugh or roll my eyes, so I shopped, pretended to be wildly interested in camo Doc Martins. I could see shoppers who had just entered the store and snicker. I could see people watching out of politeness and looking madly uncomfortable.

And it occurred to me that this woman had enormous courage and while everyone else was busy snickering and feeling embarrassed for her, she was busy putting herself out there and doing something about her desires, no matter how strange they seemed to others For that day, the Sher lip syncer was my hero.

Off to see "Crazy Heart" as part of my marathon weekend.