Big Lake

ALTON BAY, N.H. -- "Tickety-boo," the man sipping coffee outside the lakeside information booth said in response to my "good morning. " "Well, tickety-boo to you too," I replied. "They say that in Scotland," said volunteer Vic Jones, who opened the tiny office and let us in to get a few brochures. "It means everything is OK. " The expression, made popular in a Danny Kaye song for the 1958 film "Merry Andrew," set the tone for an A-OK day trip around half of New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee.

Alaska State Troopers say a man apparently angry that a snow berm was blocking his car is accused of attacking a snowplow with an ax. Snowplow driver James Ross told troopers that a man with an ax ran in front of his truck in Big Lake on Nov. 6. Ross says he was forced to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting the man. Ross says the man swore at him and then hit the driver's side door of the plow truck with the ax. The Anchorage Daily News...

If you haven't been to Meredith on Lake Winnipesaukee since the days when you were a child vacationing with your parents you may not recognize the place. Long a sleepy little town on winding Route 3, Meredith is now a bustling tourist destination, with new hotels, restaurants, marinas, and stores - along with some old ones - offering boating, fine dining, quality stays, and killer views of Meredith Bay on which its main village sits. STAY Church Landing at Mills Falls (281 Daniel Webster Highway, 800-622-6455, millfalls.com/inns/church_landing.htm, rates $239-$269)

If you haven't been to Meredith on Lake Winnipesaukee since the days when you were a child vacationing with your parents you may not recognize the place. Long a sleepy little town on winding Route 3, Meredith is now a bustling tourist destination, with new hotels, restaurants, marinas, and stores - along with some old ones - offering boating, fine dining, quality stays, and killer views of Meredith Bay on which its main village sits. STAY Church Landing at Mills Falls (281 Daniel Webster Highway, 800-622-6455, millfalls.com/inns/church_landing.htm, rates $239-$269)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Floodwaters rose still higher across northwest and central Missouri yesterday, leading nervous residents to remove valuables from their homes and fill sandbags to protect river communities. Near-record flooding that inundated the village of Big Lake earlier this week broke levees, and water levels were expected to peak in some spots this weekend. In other areas, however, the danger appeared to be passing. The Missouri River had dropped a few inches yesterday near Craig, where inmates from a St. Joseph prison and National Guard members spent Wednesday sandbagging, trying to...

‘Big Lake’’ is bad, but not bad enough to be good. What I mean is, the new Comedy Central series is off-key, but not so off-key that it’s demented and weird like, say, Comedy Central’s “Strangers With Candy.’’ It’s just a flat traditional sitcom built around lazy, repetitive jokes and audience cackles. It’s just bad. Why should the show, which premieres tonight at 10, be anything better? For one thing, it’s from Funny or Die guys Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, and it features Ferrell’s fellow “Saturday Night Live’’ alums Chris...

Big Lake 10 p.m., Comedy Central This show ought to be better than it is. Funny or Die, the comedy-short website, is uneven. But “Big Lake,’’ which is produced by the Funny or Die folks (including Will Ferrell) isn’t even uneven. It’s just plain straight-ahead awful — the laziest kind of multicamera sitcom about slackers that you can imagine. It’s too bad. Pictured (from left): Chris Gethard, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz. Covert Affairs 10 p.m., USA USA just renewed this show for a second season, so fans can relax and enjoy.

Alaska State Troopers say a man apparently angry that a snow berm was blocking his car is accused of attacking a snowplow with an ax. Snowplow driver James Ross told troopers that a man with an ax ran in front of his truck in Big Lake on Nov. 6. Ross says he was forced to slam on his brakes to avoid hitting the man. Ross says the man swore at him and then hit the driver's side door of the plow truck with the ax. The Anchorage Daily News...

MOULTONBOROUGH, N.H. -- What do loons eat? How many eggs do they lay? Where do the chicks nestle when they ride on a parent's back? The answers to those questions and other facts about the black-and-white checkered birds can be found in the heart of New Hampshire's Lakes Region at the Loon Preservation Committee's Loon Center on a north shore sliver of Lake Winnipesaukee . Tucked away on a secluded back road off Route 25, the center, built...

Forget Atkins, the Zone, and South Beach. I lost five pounds in eight days on the Altitude Diet. Of course, there are side effects: headache, sleeplessness, nausea, vomiting, exhaustion, chills, and shortness of breath. While most folks, even if they take no precautions, feel few symptoms of altitude sickness at elevations higher than 6,000 feet, others can do everything right and still end up sick. I’m one of them. The best strategy for averting altitude sickness is to skip vacationing at elevations that trigger it. Here are my favorite...

Big Lake 10 p.m., Comedy Central This show ought to be better than it is. Funny or Die, the comedy-short website, is uneven. But “Big Lake,’’ which is produced by the Funny or Die folks (including Will Ferrell) isn’t even uneven. It’s just plain straight-ahead awful — the laziest kind of multicamera sitcom about slackers that you can imagine. It’s too bad. Pictured (from left): Chris Gethard, Chris Parnell, and Horatio Sanz. Covert Affairs 10 p.m., USA USA just renewed this show for a second season, so fans can relax and enjoy.

‘Big Lake’’ is bad, but not bad enough to be good. What I mean is, the new Comedy Central series is off-key, but not so off-key that it’s demented and weird like, say, Comedy Central’s “Strangers With Candy.’’ It’s just a flat traditional sitcom built around lazy, repetitive jokes and audience cackles. It’s just bad. Why should the show, which premieres tonight at 10, be anything better? For one thing, it’s from Funny or Die guys Adam McKay and Will Ferrell, and it features Ferrell’s fellow “Saturday Night Live’’ alums Chris Parnell and...

ALTON BAY, N.H. -- "Tickety-boo," the man sipping coffee outside the lakeside information booth said in response to my "good morning. " "Well, tickety-boo to you too," I replied. "They say that in Scotland," said volunteer Vic Jones, who opened the tiny office and let us in to get a few brochures. "It means everything is OK. " The expression, made popular in a Danny Kaye song for the 1958 film "Merry Andrew," set the tone for an A-OK day trip around half of New Hampshire's Lake Winnipesaukee.

MOULTONBOROUGH, N.H. -- What do loons eat? How many eggs do they lay? Where do the chicks nestle when they ride on a parent's back? The answers to those questions and other facts about the black-and-white checkered birds can be found in the heart of New Hampshire's Lakes Region at the Loon Preservation Committee's Loon Center on a north shore sliver of Lake Winnipesaukee . Tucked away on a secluded back road off Route 25, the center, built...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Floodwaters rose still higher across northwest and central Missouri yesterday, leading nervous residents to remove valuables from their homes and fill sandbags to protect river communities. Near-record flooding that inundated the village of Big Lake earlier this week broke levees, and water levels were expected to peak in some spots this weekend. In other areas, however, the danger appeared to be passing. The Missouri River had dropped a few inches yesterday near Craig, where inmates from a St. Joseph prison and National Guard members...

Another bill that would change Alaska's system of taxing oil and gas production together has been introduced, this time in the House. Rep. Mark Neuman says his bill, HB306, is the same measure that passed from the House Resources Committee during the decoupling debate in 2010. Neuman says he intends to propose an amendment to address a particular gas-tax rate. He says he disagrees with the governor that the state should wait until there's an actual gas line project before talking fiscal terms.

HAMBURG, Iowa — The rising Missouri River ruptured two levees in northwest Missouri yesterday, sending torrents of flood waters over rural farmland toward a small town in Iowa and a resort community in Missouri. Water rushing from a 300-foot-wide hole in a levee near Hamburg, in far southwest Iowa, is continuing to widen the breach, placing more people in jeopardy. Flood waters are expected to reach a secondary levee protecting the partly evacuated town of about 1,100 people by today.