If your youngster — or grandchild — has a summer job, it's easy to provide a smart start to his or her retirement. Sounds premature? Not really. The kids have time on their side.
Consider a…
Columns
Off to our wonderful and wild neighbor, Quebec
Nunatak, a lovely Greenlandic word I first heard uttered by a botany professor while in college referring to, “an exposed, often rocky ridge, mountain peak, island or peninsula not covered by an…
Adrift
ROCKLAND — Those who saw the movie RawFaith, when it showed at the Strand Theatre last month, or witnessed the real-life adventure of the 88-foot, home-built galleon's sojourn in the…
Objects in Mirror
They come increasingly from all over the world for a brief taste of Maine island summer. Well, maybe not China and Japan so much, but certainly from all over this hemisphere and Western Europe.…
Financially Speaking
There's something celebratory about burning a paid-up mortgage and owning one's home free and clear, but paying off the mortgage may not be the best use of your money. It's all about dollars and…
How about a Common Core that addresses niceness, tolerance, peace, joy, building community?
Education is an amazing march towards the future now happening at the speed of an NFL blitz. The entering class of 2013 will probably graduate around 2025. Preparing children for this period of…
Economic releases in Europe showed that the region's economy was improving in August. U.S. releases were also mostly positive. Yet, the prospect for U.S. involvement in the hostilities in Syria,…
Ron Joseph: With the rapid decline of moose numbers in New Hampshire, will Maine’s moose population suffer, too?
During my 33-year career as a wildlife biologist in Maine, “Where can I see a moose?” was the most frequently asked question. Everyone, it seems, would like to see a moose. The large,…
Objects in Mirror
My wife likes bird feeders. Because she has also been a cat lover her whole life, I used to call them cat feeders. But now that the long sythe of time has thinned out our felines…
‘You have broken your vows a thousand times — come, come again’
On Monday, Aug. 26, I happened to be in Rockland overnight, basically because the dump wasn’t open that day. At about 3 p.m. I drove off the ferry vessel Everett Libby…
‘this is my article and I’ll write it any way I want’
I’m upset with the media this week, and as upset people often do, I have very little facts, but solid opinion.
We, as a society are always looking for the worse and I think the media is…
There were few releases in this August summer week, but, nonetheless, those releases managed to send mixed messages to the markets. While Europe appeared to be poised for recovery, the U.S.'…
Financially Speaking
The new tax law has extended the 50-percent bonus depreciation through 2013. That will mean bigger deductions for buyers of new vehicles purchased new and placed in service this year. The cars,…
We need to have conversations about it, no matter how uncomfortable
Unfortunately, our Midcoast community has lost far too many young people to suicide. As a mother, former teacher, and community member I am deeply saddened by each loss. As the executive director…
The papers are full of articles these days of sexual predators on the prowl for your children. They no longer have to lurk behind trees in city parks or lure kids with candy into their cars. …
Design Notes
In this column we would like to make the case for what makes Rockland such a vibrant and growing place. Listed below are some of the reasons we love Rockland.
Rockland's Main Street…
View from Offshore
The island house is like an old lady — proud but a bit stooped and creaky if the truth be told. We make accommodations for her, even as she makes them for us.…
THROUGH MY LENS
When I was 15 years old I played baseball, listened to music and played some more baseball. That was my life in a nutshell.
I find 15-year-old Katherine Orne's life much more exciting…
Financially Speaking
Many parents and grandparents wisely start putting away funds to pay college tuition almost as soon as a child is born. But what's the best way to do it?
Custodial accounts, under the…
Father Bill Speaks
Even though I live a couple of towns away from Camden I still follow what goes on because it is my home town and it’s fun to watch the struggles that people create when they take themselves way…
Hospitality House News...
ROCKPORT — A woman came into the Penquis office for assistance because their family home had been lost to foreclosure and she and her family were presently living on a sailboat. What began as a…
Objects in Mirror: lobster shell disease not only increasing, but also moving north
PORT CLYDE — This is not their first rodeo, you think, as you listen to the procession of lobster boats leaving the harbor one after the other beginning when the sky is still a…
Notes from abroad: BELFAST—BELGIQUE
June 28
According to the small television screen attached to the cabin ceiling, we are somewhere over…
Drunken wildlife
One winter day when I was 12, our family’s arthritic cat brought three waxwings into our home in rapid succession before being detained in the bathroom. Stepping outside to investigate, my mother…
Father Bill Speaks: If you want to make a difference in this world, reach out to someone
If you’re expecting some flip commentary from me, this is not the week for you. While I would appreciate you reading this article, it would mean way more to me if you would take action on what…
Governments and politicians get in trouble when they try to pick local winners, punish outsiders
Ben Polito grew up on an island—one bridged to the mainland— at the remote end of Georgetown Island, beyond the reach of Central Maine Power utility poles, for the first seven…
Financially Speaking
Most of us are not concerned about federal estate taxes that now exempt $5.25 million estate value from taxation. We figure we'll slide in under that ceiling.
But 21 states and the District…
Hospitality House News...
ROCKPORT — The Hospitality House and the Knox County Homeless Coalition would like to take the opportunity to say thank-you for the support for our fundraising activities and events.
We are…
Fish soup
I usually write about fishing in Maine, but last summer I had a chance to visit Montana. In the fly fishing world, Montana has a big reputation. Look at a map of Montana and there are…
Financially Speaking
Under Obamacare — even the president has learned to like that name for the health-reform law — almost everybody is supposed to have health insurance. What if you don't? Starting next year, there…
For some reason, we feel we don’t deserve decent weather
We have, at the most, 10 to 12 days a year that are really hot. That’s it. Just as soon as the hot weather arrives, the New England Power Grid warns us to conserve power by not using our air…
Tim Sample: Stories I Never Told You
I recently treated myself to a “mental health day.”
With my wife off visiting her family in Minnesota and the weatherman promising bright sunshine and temps in the high 80s, the conditions…
THROUGH MY LENS
Every summer people send out e-mails to me asking if I know where their son or daughter can go to basketball camp and which once's are the best. So I find what I can and there are a number of them…
Father Bill Speaks
I just got back from the Sprint Cup NASCAR race in Loudon, N.H. We’ve been going to just about every race since the track opened. We take the motorhome and have the same spot at Speedway Sports…
View from Offshore
I don’t need the “IT” Girl, I need the IT Guy now that the last of the digitally literate children has moved out of the house and for the first time in more than a decade a pair…
Industrial Arts
Recent weeks were rough for the transportation geeks. I hang around with rail fans, and guys who’ll spend hours talking about airplanes, and with people who would go quite a bit out of their way…
Hospitality House News...
ROCKPORT — This winter, while Hospitality House on Old County Road in Rockport was closed, the Knox County Homeless Coalition collaborated to provide resources for families that were homeless. The…
Tim Sample: Stories I Never Told You
At age eight I contracted a serious case of the TV bug.
Not the common variety whose primary symptom is a compulsion to watch endless hours of television, but the infinitely…
Industrial Arts
Maine’s island schools pride themselves on the extent to which the education of children is truly aligned with the life of the community. More than just a grasp at “relevance” in subject matter,…
Hospitality House News...
ROCKPORT — Members of the Knox County Homeless Coalition are moving forward with our goal of opening the doors to Hospitality House, and we are asked this question repeatedly — "Why isn't the…
Financially Speaking
The federal government has presented a new, easier repayment plan for student loans, but it doesn't work for everyone.
The income-based repayment plan allows certain federal loan borrowers,…
Week ending June 30
The economic releases were mixed this week, allowing consideration of a longer time frame for tapering of QE. Equity markets were higher, but bond markets were not convinced; bond yields were…
Of those species that have suffered, or benefited, by our intervention, for better and worse
PENOBSCOT BAY — This past spring, a close friend who turned 60 invited us to his birthday destination celebration at the remote end of one of smallest Hawaiian…
Father Bill speaks
The recent ambulance situation in the Midcoast was stressful, to say the least. The outcome was very sad, but predictable. Every day I work with businesses to show them…
Hospitality House News...
ROCKPORT — The growing problem of homelessness in our community is being addressed by the newly created Knox County Homeless Coalition. Following the economic downturn that hit our state in 2009,…
Design Notes
From time to time we are going to look at tangible real experiences of space in our community. We want to share with you some of our favorite places and explore why they work. We realized that…
Industrial Arts: In defense of small rural schools
The elementary schools in Frankfort and Stockton Springs have just seen their last school year. Other small public schools all over Maine — and no doubt in every state — are closing as well, or…
Week ending June 22
Economic releases were largely positive this week, but the capital markets reacted negatively to the post-Fedearl Open Market Committee meeting comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.…
Tim Sample: Stories I Never Told You
The late Charles Kuralt, a frequent visitor to the Boothbay region, once referred to Maine as a place where it’s possible to become so relaxed that your self-winding watch stops working…
Financially Speaking
Medical expenses are up-deductions for them are down. Here's how it works.
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