Ed Robinson

What is in a name? Shakespeare wrote that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet." 1960s personality psychologist Gordon Allport stated that "the most important anchorage to our self-identity throughout life remains our own name."

Stuck at my desk, clearing the last to-dos so I can head to the cabin, I'm feeling the crushing weight of another Anchor deadline. The songbirds and gray squirrel feeding a few feet away are a diversion. The germ of an idea is in my head but undefined when BANG — something smashes into the sliding glass door! I look up in time to see the back end of a sharp-shinned hawk streaking from the scene and his feathers littering the ground.

It is time to feel a bit of optimism regarding the impaired river systems across our state. In the past I have described the problems associated with more than 1,100 dams in Maine, most of which are poorly maintained and serve no commercial purpose.