There is a seasonality to the news in Maine…not surprising when we remember how intimately connected we all are to the land, the sea and the weather. Many of the stories in this month’s Working Waterfront (our winter double issue) reflect these ties between events and the calendar: how the right whales that visit the
The Long View: Ahead and Astern
The foreshortened days of late December and the slow turning toward the longer days that loom beyond the equinox are a good time to climb up our ramparts, or onto our widow’s walks, to survey the landscapes and seascapes of this unruly coastline. For Maine’s islands and working waterfront communities, the past year played out
Costs too much
To the editor: As a retired senior citizen on a fixed income, I like to supplement my dinner table, when I can, with fresh fish from the Gulf of Maine. When the weather is bad and I cannot take my little boat out I would like to be able to sit on my boat or
Respect and True Professionalism
To the editor: I read of the passing of Mr. David Merriman Stainton, whom I had met in Williston, Vt. in the late 1970’s. He was on the Town Planning Board and I was with a development company seeking to build a large retail complex. The very extensive and protractile debate became very emotional and
Master Stroke
To the editor: I read with interest your summary of the Brookings Institution’s report on the future of Maine [WWF Nov. 2006]. As a boater I have visited Maine for many years, and I lived in Camden for a time. My daughter was born in Maine. Maine should look to Rhode Island for a master
Clarification
To the editor: Regarding the November Working Waterfront article, “Despite questions, pesticide use persists in coastal towns,” by Craig Idlebrook we thank you for running this article and for helping get the facts out about the increased use of yard care pesticides in Maine. There are a few points in the article that need clarification:
Parallel 44: Home Rule is dead! Long live home rule!
Over the past couple of years I’ve had the pleasure of speaking to audiences all over New England about the past, present and future of the Maine Coast. I relate how our peculiar history as a colony of a colony engendered a healthy suspicion of outsiders, and how, in the heady years after the American
An American Good Samaritan
The American, Squanto, was born in the late 1500s in the village of Patuxet on Cape Cod Bay, later named by the English Plymouth, Massachusetts. Lacking written records, we may assume that he grew up there learning to catch fish, plant corn, hunt deer, ducks and turkeys and other wild game. His people often traveled
FAMILY TRADITION: On North Haven, Brown’s is a community institution
J.O. Brown & Sons boat yard: On North Haven this phrase is as deeply ingrained in the daily vocabulary as are the worn paths of foot traffic across the 150-year-old building’s floorboards. More often than not, the phrase is shortened: “headin’ down to Brown’s,” someone might say, and there is no question what the terse
BILL ATWOOD: A Lifetime in the Lobster Business
Ten thousand dollars’ worth of prime Maine lobster belonging to Atwood Lobster, of Spruce Head Island, crashed into one of the twin towers on Sept. 11, 2001. That event, reported at the time, suggested how far William Atwood had come from his first buying station at Spruce Head in 1962, a tiny wharf he called