Articles
The Pasha: How Mehemet Ali Defied the West, 1839-1841
McFarland & Co. $45 In the Middle East, some things never change. “I’d always had an interest in Mehemet Ali because he had an idea of how to modernize Egypt and how to enable the Middle East to compete with the West,” said Middle Eastern scholar and author Letitia Ufford of the historical character who
“Step it Up!” promotes climate change awareness
“If sea level rises just three feet — that’s less than a meter — the Blue Hill peninsula loses over 2,420 acres of land,” said independent researcher and freelance journalist Judith Lawson, of Brooksville. Last April, she said, she helped students at Blue Hill’s Liberty School with the calculations. “They found the formula for calculating
Deer Isle couple volunteers in Mississippi
“They think it’s going to be another five years before the houses will be rebuilt in Biloxi,” said Deer Isle lobsterman David Heanssler as he played a video of the continuing rebuilding effort, one of many following in the wake of destruction left by hurricane Katrina. In other words, there is still time and opportunity
A few grumble, but Maine’s waterfront access program moves ahead
Even in an effort as well-intended as Maine’s Working Waterfront Access Pilot Program, there will be differences of opinion over how best to disburse limited funds that may be used to purchase development rights to qualifying waterfront parcels. In the program’s first round this year, all six projects that completed the application process were funded.
Weaks, Deads and Shrinkage How (and when) a lobster is handled affects an entire business
“There are places that have better lobsters, to begin with,” said William Atwood, a major Maine dealer, discussing the handling of lobster. Singling out Swan’s Island and the Cranberry Isles, he said, “People took care of them.” He spoke of how Swan’s Island’s Joyces “carred” lobster and said he’d asked them, “How come you guys
Filling the Pockets, Reading the Bottom Lobstering couple hauls 200 traps a day
Watching a champion lobsterman haul his traps is like watching the Olympics: the perfection of craft. There’s not one unnecessary move. Every movement counts because any unnecessary one wastes time. To many, Leroy Bridges is the thinking man’s lobsterman. He’s thinking all the time. One winter day, he said, “Being on land is boring.” You
Winter Harbor hosts an international sculpture symposium
“His sculptures can be `read’ two different ways,” said artist, art teacher and Winter Harbor Sculpture Site Selection Committee member Mary Lou Weaver, of the stylized granite boat cleat by Round Pond sculptor Don Justin Meserve. She said the cleat also represents a safe harbor. The Cleat is one of seven massive sculptures made at
Lobstermen tie up, with mixed results
“Although the process is far more complicated, simply put: we were too high for the buyers and too low for the fishermen,” said Corea Co-op manager Dwight Rodgers, explaining why lobstermen who sell to the co-op went on strike at the end of August. He said one of his most reliable fishermen told him that
Fighting over Territory
“The playing field is not level,” stated Harlan Billings, of Stonington, referring to an off-island lobster buyer who has parked his truck on the town’s Commercial Fish Pier and has been buying lobster from fishermen since July 4, paying 50 cents per lb. more than the co-op. “He sits there all day monopolizing a shaded
Giant blue lobsters invade Winter Harbor
Remember the old television show, “Mr. Lucky?” Well, you can start calling Winter Harbor fisherman, co-op president and harbormaster Dale Torrey by that name. On June 14, he pulled up one of his small traps off Turtle Island. Wedged in the back part lay a female blue lobster weighing 11 pounds. “I had to cut