Most of you have probably already heard. I would have posted this earlier, except that the forum was not functioning. Hopefully it's fixed now.

What can't be fixed is the most important state icon of New Hampshire. The Old Man of the Mountain, a natural rock formation that resembles the profile of a man, fell down last weekend. Although the profile was reinforced with chains to keep it from eroding, the forehead rock came loose and fell, taking the nose and upper lip on its descent.

As it happened, I had gone up to my parents' house on Friday night. The drive involves passing through Franconia Notch, where the Old Man is viewable from the highway. It was dark when I passed, and so I did not manage one last look at him. On Sunday, I returned.

It's the strangest thing. The only thing I can possibly liken it to -- and I'm not sure even this is appropriate -- is the disappearance of the One Tree from One Tree Hill in Auckland, New Zealand. The Old Man is as important to New Hampshire as the eagle is to the United States at large. It is featured on the back of the New Hampshire quarter. Our state route signs are shaped in his profile. It's been around forever. It's been photographed as long as there have been cameras. Yet when I passed this familiar landmark and looked up, the Old Man's face was blank. His chin was there, but the rest of his face, while it still juts out from the ledge, is blank.

One of New Hampshire's least known attractions is the Old Woman of the Mountains. I'm not even sure that anybody recognizes it, but if you walk about twenty five feet left from the optimal viewing angle for the Old Man, you can see, much lower down the ledge, a smaller and less impressive profile of an elderly woman. She's still there. She's a widow now, I suppose. Women always seem to outlive men.

It's the end of an era, I guess. Those of you who attended RinkUnion II got to see the Old Man of the Mountains. I'm glad I set a RinkUnion here while he was still around.