Sometimes the things I say surprise me. It’s as if I don’t know how I truly feel about something until I have “word vomited” everything else out of my head. I will talk and talk about how I think I feel and sometimes, if I’m lucky, a bit of truth eventually falls out. And when
Flood insurance changes hit home in Maine
AUGUSTA — In part because Maine has one of the oldest housing stocks in the nation, the cost of flood insurance is rising. Subsidies that kept policies at affordable levels over the past 40-plus years are gone, and the adoption of new federal flood insurance rate maps could mean more bad news for coastal and
Friendship legislator tracks JFK killers
FRIENDSHIP — Today, he’s a legislator. Back in 1967, he was a 14-year-old kid sitting in his family’s living room, watching a New Orleans district attorney explain on national TV how the Warren Commission got it wrong. President John Kennedy was not killed by a lone gunman, D.A. Jim Garrison asserted then, but rather by
Frenchboro harbor ordinance survives challenge
FRENCHBORO — A proposal to repeal the new Frenchboro Town Dock, Float, and Harbor Ordinance was soundly rejected by a vote of 12-1. The vote came at a special town meeting on Nov. 11, held at the request of David Lunt. Lunt has consistently registered his disapproval of the ordinance adopted Aug. 26 after a
A day to remember
Does anyone remember what happened on Nov. 11, 1918? Will it be spoken of in your school? Is it a dinner table conversation? Will your boss call everyone out for a moment of silence at the 11th hour? On Nov. 11, 1919, President Woodrow Wilson decreed that all Americans should take a moment of silence
What is that seahorse doing in my trap?
Last March, the seriously high-minded magazine The Economist published a cover story based on a leak from a draft from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), reporting that global warming had slowed during the 2000-2010 decade. “The rate of warming of over the past 15 years,” the story reported, “has been lower than
A fondness for an albino deer
I remember two things from my sophomore year English class—how my teacher would take off his shoes and teach in his rainbow colored toe socks, and the unit on Romeo and Juliet. While I never understood how toe socks could be comfortable, I did enjoy quoting Shakespeare when appropriate in my everyday life. (Yes, I’m
Voters approve MMA borrowing for new science, technology building
CASTINE — State voters approved borrowing $4.5 million for Maine Maritime Academy to help it construct a new building to house specialized laboratories and interactive teaching facilities. The public funds will be joined with $7 million MMA has already raised. The ABS Center for Engineering, Science and Research will be the first new building constructed
Thirty legislators call for Searsport dredge study
BELFAST — The planned dredging of parts of Searsport Harbor is unprecedented in scope with potentially catastrophic results, a group of coastal legislators and activists said in a press conference on Wednesday, Nov. 6. The group is asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to conduct a full environmental impact study before permitting the work,
‘Get your motor running’ has different meaning on island
“There goes Payson.” I was befuddled by how Brenda, who was sitting with her back to the window, could possibly have seen which car had just driven past. She sensed my confusion. “Oh, we all know the sound of different people’s vehicles. And some of us can even recognize most of the boat engines! Don’t