Brother Guy Consolmagno spent 15 years as a scientist and teacher at various schools, including one in Kenya as part of the Peace Corps, before joining the Jesuit order in 1989. Upon taking his vows two years later, he became curator of the Vatican meteorite collection, which consists of 1,400 individual pieces. He splits his time between Castel Gandolfo, Italy, and Arizona, where the Vatican set up an observatory to get away from city lights. He is giving two talks, at 7 and 8:15 p.m. Friday, March 3, at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium in Concord.

Twelve years ago, the Majestic Theatre took up temporary residence in a Ste. Marie Parish auditorium at 281 Cartier St. It signed another 10-year lease last year, but the parish has recently started a facilities feasibility study and asked Majestic what its plans are.

Gardner Berry is a keyboardist with the hugely popular cover band Mama Kicks and with Four Sticks, a Led Zeppelin tribute band. Berry grew up in Kingston, where his mother owned a donut shop.

He has lived in Manchester for 15 years and is a full-time musician. For the past 30 years Berry has been and on-again-off-again vegan-vegetarian. Here he talks about his thoughts on skipping beef.

As Howard Dean counts down the days to New Hampshire?s first-in-the-nation primary, it?s time to go to the mail bag to see what?s on the mind of some folks out there.

What are your excuses for not reading?

I used to go with ?too busy? and ?I deal with words all day.? A reporter?s life is filled, after all, with transcriptions, press releases, meeting minutes and stories from a variety of news sources, not to mention one?s own articles. The last thing one wants to do in one?s precious free time, then, is ingest more words.

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