Articles
Arghh, matey it’s a new play set on Islesboro!
Maddie Dodge Field, Islesboro’s recreation park on Hewes Point, is the place to play pirates these days, or to play medieval knights, or to be a mountaineer, a fireman, or even pretend to be a lobsterman. An extensive new play set was erected this summer-a gift to the town from a family that has enjoyed
“The Coast is Clear”
Children use the phrase when playing war in the backyard. If one in the group says that “the coast is clear” it means that it is safe for the group to advance. No enemies threaten. Whether or not a coast is nearby is irrelevant. The message suggests that the group can change position with minimal
Wood Heat: sometimes you can improve on it, sometimes not
Islanders have always had to pay a little more for fuel than mainlanders but the steeply rising cost of heating a home is forcing year-round residents to consider alternatives to fuel oil and propane. On Islesboro, woodstoves are commonly used as a secondary source of heat, supplementing a fossil-fuel fired central heating system. Within the
PUMPED! Islesboro’s muscle cars invigorate their owners
Peter Coombs is an Islesboro excavator who would prefer driving his 1968 Mustang Fastback on Sundays to hauling shale in his dump truck. The four-speed Fastback was originally from the South, brought north by a NAPA franchise owner in Wiscasset who was making a business of buying and selling Texas cars. Coombs’s Mustang is a
Form and Function
Visitors to the Vikingship Museum in Oslo, Norway, wonder why there is a notch extending from the holes that were used as oarlocks on Viking longboats. The notch allowed the blade of the oar to pass through the hull from inside the boat. If the Vikings had not cut the notch, they would have had
Kreps or Hummers? – Lobster-savvy Norwegians can choose between them
The morning wholesale fish market opens at 4 a.m., on the docks below Akershus Castle just a minute’s walk away from the Oslo City Hall. Here, owners of local fish markets buy what they hope they can sell in a day. By 8 o’clock, the dealing is over and fish that are promised to local
The Barberry Coast
Rick Dyer takes Japanese barberries personally. As a professional forester he has seen the barberry scourge invade Eastern woodlands and he has witnessed the startling robustness of the aggressive, non-native import on coastal islands such as Monhegan. Two years ago, when he was studying for a master’s degree in Forestry at the University of Maine,
Editing the past
We pray that the young girl never knew who and what struck her. At the moment of her death it would have been best if she were preoccupied with a toy or a household chore. At worst, she would have turned her head at the last moment, reacting to the sound of a creaking floorboard
Ferry Follies
Ticket agents at Maine state ferry terminals are a patient bunch, answering simple questions about schedules that require only a routine response. Some questions, however, invite multiple responses or are so open-ended that there’s a temptation to bark a short-tempered retort. More often than not, though, an agent will respond to an unusual or unexpected
Razor Clams Are a New Specialty for Irish Fishmongers
Among the small, slick piles of fresh fish was what looked like a stack of Cuban cigars bound by a thick rubber band and standing on end in a bed of crushed ice. The stack loomed conspicuously over an assortment of brooding Irish bivalves including mussels, scallops and clean, white clams. The stack was a