Category: Columns & Letters

So many topics from which to choose this month. Do I go with the tragedy in Lewiston or the indescribable beauty of the next morning’s sunrise? The carnage in Israel or the discovery that chicken feathers can replace PFAS chemicals in renewable hydrogen fuel cells?

Where is Cundy’s Harbor? When David Perrier first arrived as librarian, this was his question. It seemed every person with whom he talked had a slightly different answer. Being a lover of historical records and maps, David began to seek out the answer.

Like many news observers in Maine, I read with interest recent reports about the money behind the purchase of 22 Maine newspapers by a national nonprofit.

Likely the first thing one thinks about in contemplating the mission of a public library is the collection and dissemination of books. Curtis Memorial Library accomplishes that and then some.

Just when it is safe to go outdoors without fear of browntail moth caterpillars or disease-bearing mosquitos, along comes more bad news. While this new pest will not harm you directly, it damages the environment around you, and if you are a gardener, there is no joy in this article.

As noted in Part I, an animal-derived product helped save our daughter’s life. The valiant doctors and nurses in the neonatal section of the hospital were the heroes of this story, but an extract from calves’ lungs played a key role.

I spent a lot of time this past summer reading. Because of the considerable amount of rain, my gardening took a back seat. I happened to read and reread some of Andy Rooney’s books. Many of you may remember Andy from a segment at the end of “60 Minutes” every week.

It’s a Sunday afternoon and I’m at the grocery store, driving around, looking for a place to park. Close to the store, cars fill the hundreds of games of tic-tac-toe outlined on the tar. I see a pickup truck taking up two precious spots.

Sometimes, the mental gymnastics I perform to access even the tiniest bit of gratitude are so extreme, I’m sure I’ll rupture a muscle.

Nearly every week we spend time with a couple of like-minded folks who suffer my public behavior as though it were normal. By like-minded, I mean we mostly drive to town in search of some cheap food in an atmosphere quiet enough to have an actual conversation about our doctor visits.

I spent a couple of days in September on a friend’s boat. My goal was to take pictures for the Orr’s Island Library’s 2025 Harpswell calendar, which will be entitled “Harpswell from the Water.” It was during day two when he remarked, “I can’t believe we get to live here.”

Thanks to stunning achievements in chemistry and biology, we now have numerous health products derived from natural sources. There is too much hype and quackery in some sectors, but there are dozens of proven lifesaving products.

When most people think about October, they think about the leaves changing color and cooler temperatures. But did you know that October is National Seafood Month?

My wife and I are in a dressing room at Macy’s. I am wearing a mint green shirt covered with paddleboards. “You think I can wear this to work?” “Paddleboards are cool,” Ally says. “And you can wear this untucked with a navy blue T-shirt underneath.”

Did a coven of nutritionists invent bobbing for apples? Only powerful witchcraft could convince people to dunk their heads in a bucket of water swirling with the oily lip balm, sweat, saliva and snot of every stranger who already bobbed — all to come up with an apple. An apple!

The subject of art is an interesting thing. What to one person is an inspired demonstration of the mixing of vision, movement, emotion, perspective, imagination, color palette, and freedom from objectivity is to another person a 6-year-old’s prized finger painting.