Articles
Parallel 44
The past two months have been quiet ones at Portland’s International Marine Terminal, the state’s only container port. Operations at the city-owned facility were suspended June 29, shortly after the paper mill in Old Town shut down pending bankruptcy negotiations. The suspension, which forced the port’s other clients to seek alternate shipping routes, demonstrated a
Parallel 44: Terminal Decisions
On a balmy evening last month, the big cruise lines showed up at Portland’s new Ocean Gateway terminal. Not their ships — the $21 million terminal lacks a deepwater berth that can accommodate them — but rather their vice presidents and chief executive officers. Under the soaring roof, they rubbed shoulders with local officials from
Parallel 44: Book continues a long tradition: ignoring early Maine
Nathaniel Philbrick’s Mayflower is well written, carefully researched, critically acclaimed and enormously popular, a New York Times bestseller that’s helped Americans understand the real story of the Pilgrims. But from where I sit, here on our rocky side of the Gulf of Maine, it’s hard not to be upset by Philbrick’s egregious error of omission:
Parallel 44: Caucus system: Some islanders are more equal than others
It should have been the Maine Democratic Party’s finest hour. The Feb. 10 presidential caucus drew a massive turnout. Thousands of party newcomers — young people, independents and dissatisfied Republicans — swamped caucus sites, eager to play a part in the selection of the next leader of the free world, and the ejection of the
Parallel 44: Witches on the Piscataqua
In the marketplace of ideas, Salem, Massachusetts has long had witchcraft cornered. In the public mind, American witchery and the 1692 Salem Witch Trials are one and the same, a dour Puritan affair in which fearful, superstitious Calvinists turn on friends and neighbors in a fit of paranoia and religious zealotry. Salem has shamelessly exploited
Parallel 44: For LNG, Maine is the end of the line
First, a housekeeping note from my August piece on the Mitchell-Baldacci clan: while my family tree is correct, several attentive readers pointed out that I reversed the meanings of “second cousin” and “first cousin, once removed.” Sen. Mitchell and Gov. Baldacci are indeed the latter, just as Jim Mitchell and his brothers and first cousins
Maine’s Ruling Family
Maine’s a relatively small state, so it’s probably to be expected that some of our political and business leaders are going to be related to one another. It’s not unusual for a small town manager to be a close relative of, say, the local newspaper editor, business kingpin, or some senior law enforcement official, and
Parallel 44: Gulf of Maine’s popular ocean observing system could be cut back
For the past six years, a network of high-tech buoys and radar stations has been providing a rich stream of data about conditions in the Gulf of Maine to fishermen, mariners, scientists and search and rescue personnel. But the Gulf of Maine Ocean Observing System (GoMoos) — and others like it across the country —
Parallel 44: Why the Royal Navy burned Portland in 1775
Take a close look at the chandelier in Portland’s First Parish Church, just up the street from City Hall: there’s a cannonball hanging from the end of it. Poke around under the pews and you’ll find more ordnance plucked from the walls of the Old Jerusalem Church, a wooden structure that stood on the site
Confronting Imposter Lobster
Since the early 1990s, Europeans have been protecting their traditional products from imposters. By law, any bottle of champagne sold within the European Union must come from the Champagne region of France; a Parma ham must be made from Parma’s cheese-rind-fed pigs; and only olives from the Greek town of Kalamata can be marketed as