Ann Markusen directs the Project for Regional and Industrial Economics at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota. On Monday, Feb. 25, she will speak about “Taking Coos Creative: A Cooperative Approach to Regional Economic Revitalization” at the White Mountains Community College in Berlin. Formerly an economic policy fellow at the Brookings Institute, Markusen has extensively studied rural economic revitalization. Her talk is sponsored by the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire. For more info: www.aannh.org.

Suzan-Lori Parks won a Pulitzer Prize for her play Topdog/Underdog. It follows the frustrations of brothers Lincoln and Booth. Lincoln had been a master of Three Card Monte, which Booth wants to learn, but Lincoln swore off cards after his best friend was killed. They are trying to make a better life but don’t know how, said Suzanne Delle, founder of six-year-old professional company Yellow Taxi Productions.

Sky Market’s owner, Joseph Yi-Pellegrino, and Harbor Trading’s Scott Moody were on the same wavelength. Both knew Nashua lacked a fresh fish market, and both wanted to find a way to fill that need. Fate intervened one day when Moody walked into Sky Market.

If I were on the jury and had to know beyond a reasonable doubt if he did take steroids before voting to convict Roger Clemens, the thing that would nag at me is why would anyone in a position of wealth and privilege risk going to jail by lying under oath to Congress as he may have last week?

It is with great sadness that I witness the closing of New Hampshire’s two CompUSA stores in Nashua and Salem.

The retailer was sold to a liquidator in December, seven years after going private under a Mexican company. Some individual stores were sold, but most are going out of business.