It’s that time of year again! It’s not JUST the holiday season. Already, tens of thousands of birders (over 70,000 last year) are eagerly awaiting the period roughly two weeks before and after…
Columns
Down to the sea: Once upon a time, Camden manufactured things
Camden’s Megunticook River is three miles long, and runs from Megunticook Lake to the inner harbor. There it ends in…
We all have a few stories in our lives that we know by heart. Those stories that you assume everyone —or at least everyone in your social circle and the adjacent ones — already has heard at least…
Down by the sea
Time has come for Camden Harbor to put its boats of all sizes to bed for the soon-to-come winter. Lyman-Morse at Wayfarer has about 40 moorings in the inner…
On Eating and Loving Food
Fish chowder is one of those things we eat year-round. It’s not a summer thing. It’s not a winter thing. It’s an everyday thing.
It’s on a lot of menus in…
Usually a logistics challenge —
Do they count Penobscot Island Air when they do those surveys of “holiday air travel” for the evening news?
As I write, Thanksgiving approaches, and I’ve just flown home from a day’s…
In February of this year I lost my dad unexpectedly. He was a force, both in my life and in the community. He was an irreplaceable person, a phrase confirmed by legions…
On Eating and Loving Food
Thanksgiving. Turkey with stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes, squash and cranberry sauce. Those are typically three of the items that will be found on most tables on Thanksgiving.
And how…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, families across our state will gather to share turkey and stuffing and (hopefully) a Maine blueberry pie – but we all know the food won't be the star of the show. No…
On Eating and Loving Food
This week it’s not about a recipe of my mother’s, grandmother’s, or great-grandmother’s. Or mine.
Sanny Norton shared a recipe on Facebook last week and it looked mouthwateringly yummy. So…
On Eating and Loving Food
Okay, I’m done fooling around. Last week after blabbing on and on about Jud Strunk performing his hit song, “A Daisy a Day,” for a bunch of drunk cowboys out in some backwoods bar in Colorado,…
Early in the summer of 2015, I was talking on the phone to my late father. A gearhead at heart, and a true man about town in the local community, he had been conversing with the owner of a popular…
Why admire the obnoxious Blue Jay, who hogs the bird feeder and displays poor table manners? This sassy bird has more going for it than you might think, and deserves our interest and attention. So…
On Eating and Loving Food
Back in the day, when I lived at Sugarloaf in the winter and Boothbay Harbor in the summer, part of a group we called “The Route 27 Club,” as Route 27 will take you from Southport directly to…
Transformations
Friends in New York City (not to mention those in L.A.) look at me like I'm crazy when I say I love being in Maine at this time of year. "But it gets dark at 4 p.m. and it's freezing cold." Yes, I…
and yes, we have to talk about health insurance
MATINICUS — When I was a kid, one year during what these days would be called middle school, my class was herded into a room for a session of what was pathetically termed “group guidance.” The…
The Great Camden Fire: Nov. 10, 1892
So many times we refer to "The Great Fire of Camden" but maybe you have not read about it. It was in November 10, 1892 (just one year after Camden separated to become Camden and Rockport). It is…
DEMOCRATIC RADIO ADDRESS
BELFAST — “You put your nose to the grindstone and you keep it there," that's what David Flanagan told me as we sat in his office overlooking Viking Lumber Yard in Belfast.
With that…
On Eating and Loving Food
I think swordfish is my favorite fish. I love haddock. I love tuna. I love halibut. I love salmon. I love mackerel, as long as I don’t have to catch it and cut its…
Shortly after President George W. Bush signed the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001, just as the "Bush tax cuts" were kicking in for many Americans, I took a trip to a…
On Eating and Loving Food
Leftovers vs. gourmet dinner, in or out. Cheap vs. expensive. Delicious vs., like, totally awesome. Sitting on the couch, alone vs. in a nice restaurant with friends, or a date. OK, friends.…
From the Senate
On Monday, Oct. 23, my colleagues and I will travel back to the State House to convene for a special session that has been called by the governor to address a few specific concerns.
The…
This summer I enjoyed the genuinely happy experience of meeting one of my students from 30 years ago again, when a young woman came by the bakery who looked familiar. She had been my third grader…
On Eating and Loving Food
Chicken soup: When was the last time you made a big pot full? It's one of those simple things to make, but because it's so simple, I just keep putting it off. “Ah, I can make chicken soup …
Each year, on the first Friday of October, cities and towns across America celebrate National Manufacturing Day. This is a day where we honor the people and businesses that drive local economies,…
On Eating and Loving Food
Sushi is one of the most sought after items on restaurant menus these days.
The word brings to mind raw fish, but sushi, though it can, and sometimes does, contain raw fish, is always made…
From Washington, D.C.
When I finished my second term as governor in 2003, I embarked on an unconventional new adventure: I hopped in an RV with my wife, Mary, and our two children and circumnavigated the country, from…
On Eating and Loving Food
‘Let them eat cake.” That’s a famous quote, supposedly uttered sometime around 1789 by Marie Antoinette in response to being told that her subjects had no bread. That off-the-cuff remark led to…
Making up the news
Sometimes, things take me back. When I was doing executive transports for the firm, I picked up an executive who had recently relocated to Texas. He was back here tying up loose ends and I was…
A Bird’s Tale
Three tall white birds danced along the muddy shore of the Kennebec River in Gardiner last week. They were great egrets, birds just a little smaller than the familiar great blue heron, but all…
Lyme Time with Paula Jackson Jones
With an increase in Lyme and tick-borne cases, patients are reporting a variance in how they are or are not being treated. Why? The simple answer is that there are two standards of care, however,…
As a birder, I feel fortunate to live within easy visiting range of one of the East Coast's best birding hotspots, Monhegan Island. During spring and fall migration, this island about 10 miles…
Not that much has changed in 30 years...
As we meet this year's new Matinicus teacher, and as he meets his little class, I recall my first few days working on this island 30 years ago.When I taught school, the group included very nearly…
On Eating and Loving Food
Well, folks, face it: Summer is over. Labor Day has come and gone, and supposedly, the “ceremonial end of summer” has happened.
But really, it isn’t officially over till Sept. 23, at 1:32…
Industrial Arts
THIS SUMMER we’ve had Mr. and Mrs. Cardinal fly in for breakfast every morning. Actually, I haven’t seen Mrs. Cardinal in the bush by the…
On Eating and Loving Food
Ok, it's time for a story about manhattans. I've mentioned them in practically every one of the almost two years' worth of columns I've written, but I've never devoted the whole thing to them.…
Meditations
This is a test. Not of the emergency broadcast system, and not involving questions about columns I've written to determine how popular I am. The last one flopped. Luckily, for me, my ego is still…
On Eating and Loving Food
Aug. 8 was National Sneak Some Zucchini Onto Your Neighbor’s Porch Day. I was enlightened of that news thanks to my friend, Judie Webster. She’s always up on the newest, and oldest, food trends.…
There were few economic releases this week, but none of those releases mattered to the capital markets. In the U.S.,… |
On Eating and Loving Food
Pesto: That green stuff that I used to refer to as oobleck, the green gooey stuff that fell from the sky in the Dr. Seuss book, “Bartholomew and the Oobleck,” when King Derwin of Diddare grew…
On Eating and Loving Food
Well, summer in Maine is in full swing, folks. Now – what's for suppa?
It’s a lot easier to come up with something ridiculously delicious during the summer, when fresh stuff abounds, than…
Here's the cast of characters: The Betrothed, The German Cousin, The Neighbor, The Confederate, The Slowpoke, The Old Maid, The Sweetheart, The Penitent, the Infant, The Herald. What's the drama…
On Eating and Loving Food
Blueberries. What a happy word. How could you say that word and not smile? Go ahead. Say it out loud.
Blueberries are a Maine summer thing. Blueberries and lobsters. Say THAT out loud. A…
On Eating and Loving Food
The Fourth has come and gone. How'd that happen? It was snowing a few weeks ago, wasn't it? Time flies when you're having fun.
…
Subway, Renys & More .... Eating healthy ..... Alumni Banquet
A dear friend was admitted to Waldo County Hospital last week, and I couldn’t go see her. Couldn’t make myself go. Probably could have, but argued myself out of it – family and friends…
On Eating and Loving Food
Okay so it's July 2. Two days before the Fourth of July, which, coincidentally, falls on the fourth this year :-)
I took a break from writing over the weekend, which is kind of unusual for…
Maine’s wild orchids
When you think of orchids, exotic flowers growing in vine-draped tropical jungles might come to mind. Or perhaps those striped and colorful flowers staked upright in little pots in the grocery…
On Eating and Loving Food
Here in the United States most of us think of petits fours as those cute little square chocolate-covered cakes that come in a box around Christmastime.
That's what I thought when I asked…
