When I retired from the Bangor Daily News in October 1991 after 29-plus years with the paper, publisher Rick Warren and managing editor V. Paul Reynolds kindly invited me to continue writing my weekly Saturday morning column that had run since 1967, when I began covering the Maine… Read More
Early natives of the far north were said to believe that bears were another species of man, albeit a dangerous one. According to arcticwebsite.com, when the natives encountered a bear they would stop, raise their arms, slowly back off and apologize to the animal for intruding on its… Read More
A favorite buzz phrase of politicians and other talking heads on cable television talk shows at the moment is the shopworn “walk it back,” which describes an attempt by someone who has made an outrageous statement to put a better spin on the deal when given the opportunity… Read More
I have pondered the possibility that my turn to buy the farm might well occur when I am driving on a narrow two-lane track in the outback and meet up with a heavily loaded logging truck that swings out of a curve, catches an edge, as we old… Read More
I once worked summers with an older fellow who — when someone in the crew got the better of him in the horseplay that seemed to be a part of our seasonal job description in those carefree days — would hint of retaliation to come by warning us,… Read More
Like thousands of young American men eager to see action in World War II, Maurice Phair of Limestone enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force in May 1941 because the United States had not yet entered the war. After the United States declared war on the… Read More
Nearly 50 years ago a Maine State Prison inmate escaped from the former prison at Thomaston, disappearing into dense fog and remaining at large for 11 days before state police collared him at Wiscasset. For much of that time he had been holed up in the barn… Read More
When I turned a year older but none the wiser a week ago, I received from a friend by snail mail a clipping of an essay by newspaper columnist and author Roger Rosenblatt that — near as can be determined by the handwritten note in the margin —… Read More
“Griswold isn’t even a whistle-stop on the Bangor and Aroostook’s Ashland Branch anymore. The two buildings remaining, formerly occupied by railroad employees, keep a brooding vigil over the grassy clearing and the clear waters of the St. Croix swirling past on the journey to the Aroostook River at… Read More
“May is a green as no other,’’ the poet Amy Lowell wrote. It is also many other things, she suggested, including soft earth, apple blossoms “and windows open to a South wind.’’ With its welcome greening of the countryside, rebirth of baseball and days set aside… Read More
There is an idea often expressed by frustrated taxpayers after the annual mid-April income-tax-filing frenzy has abated that the ponderous federal tax code should be junked and a new one, short and to the point, be written — this one in plain English. In the words… Read More
When a downstate friend called earlier this week to regale me with a tale about losing his car in a Bangor Mall parking lot, it occurred to me that most anyone who has driven a vehicle for any significant length of time likely has a similar story to… Read More
One doesn’t have to poke around in the archives of a newspaper for long before being reminded of the truth of the biblical observation that there is not a whole lot new under the sun. A case in point is the current discussion concerning a proposed… Read More
In the midst of the recently expired winter, a down-river friend sent me two newspaper clippings. One was a photograph of a pickup truck perched atop a substantial snowbank as two good ol’ boys — the befuddled male driver and his passenger — stood by, presumably trying to… Read More
Mainers may be impressed with the spectacular grand entrance of spring, but that doesn’t mean we have abandoned a suspicion that the weather gods will somehow extract payment for their unseasonable gift of abundant sunshine and summer-like temperatures. Show me the person who, when talk turns… Read More
The announcement came late last month. Mr. Paperback, the popular bookstore chain that has been a fixture in Maine for 50 years, would go out of business at the end of April because of a shaky economy and technological advances that have changed the public’s reading habits and… Read More
Journalism 101 teaches two basic principles of news gathering. One is that a solid news story provides readers with the who, what, when, where and why of the matter. I like to think that the late poet Rudyard Kipling alluded to the tenet when he wrote, “I keep… Read More
Had the lady been a Democrat, I suppose it could have been said that her bombshell announcement on Tuesday that she will not seek re-election to a fourth term in the United States Senate had come straight out of left field. But since Maine’s Sen. Olympia Snowe is… Read More
In oral arguments Wednesday, the United States Supreme Court began the process of determining whether the First Amendment protects from prosecution under the federal Stolen Valor Act anyone falsely claiming to have received military decorations and medals. The federal law imposes prison sentences of up to… Read More
For many a rural Mainer, a memorable vehicular encounter with mid-February’s first serious frost heave on the road to the village can be a reminder that soon the dismal mud-splattered snow banks of March will herald the pothole-patching interval that leads eventually to the welcome greenery of spring. Read More
