Category: Columns

Last fall, after multiple lockdowns and much social isolation, my work colleague Steve and I were ready for an adventure and an experiment. How hard would it be to drive a Tesla Model 3 across the U.S.?

What is a library? You don’t have to pay to come in. You don’t have to buy anything. You don’t even have to read, if you don’t want to. You can go just to think, or to be quiet. You can study or work there.

“I think there has always been a writer in me,” Cate Wnek says, “but it was photography that took me on a nosedive into the pursuit of my creative curiosity.” As the mother of two boys, Cate began photographing them playing on the floor as babies.

Sometimes the divide between horror and comedy is not so wide that you have to back up several feet and get a running start to jump across, and even then, feel your heel scrape against the emptiness of the chasm below as you land safely on the other side.

Watching “Stranger Things” made me question some of my life choices and I’m worried that I managed myself out of a lucrative career. “Stranger Things” hits all the fear buttons: slimy, crawly things; a dystopian dimension; Cold War intrigue; and supernatural predators consuming minds and bodies. Kids and misfits are the heroes. It’s gory, terrifying, and redemptive.

Pete was lunching along the shore of Cobscook Bay near Lubec, enjoying a fine view. Suddenly he felt a sharp sting, then another. Pete noticed tiny red ants crawling up his legs, clearly with painful intentions. He brushed them off, wondering what triggered the attack.

Once again, the humidity has descended upon us here in Maine. I thought for sure that it would be a short-lived heat wave, but I was wrong. As I listen to my air conditioner sputtering in the background, I contemplate what to make for supper.

More than 60 years ago, a 15-year-old neighbor taught me to smoke a cigarette. Thirty years later, I became a nonsmoker. Now, 30 years after that, I’m smoking again, but this time it’s bovine protein getting blackened rather than my lungs.

I bring a trash bag when I take my dog for walks along Cundy’s Harbor Road. Once I found a giant empty Rubbermaid trash can in the ditch. I used that moment to teach my dog situational irony. Another time I found an iPhone that, by the looks of it, had spent the entire winter in suspended animation. It turned out to be permanent suspended animation.

When I see too many birds gathered in one place, I think of Tippi Hedren in the phone booth. “The Birds” and real-life bird experiences have left a mark. I remember childhood beach days at Reid State Park. An open cooler was a beacon to seagulls and it was hard to tell if they wanted to steal my PB&J or make an appetizer of my arm.

Fireflies are also known as candleflies, lampbugs or moonbugs. (ISTOCK PHOTO) Summer is a time for...

Blueberry buckle with vanilla ice cream. (KATHY D’AGOSTINO PHOTO) August is here and that...

“Do you have a temperature?” “Of course.” “Well, why didn’t...

A rugosa rose on Bailey Island. (HANNAH CAMPBELL PHOTO) Rugosa roses (Rosa rugosa) line the cliffs...

For many of us, graduations can be both exciting and sad. While we are beginning a new chapter, we...

Go here. Go there. But wherever you go and whatever you do, go as fast as possible. If the speed...

Lobster cakes are a quintessential Maine appetizer. (KATHY D’AGOSTINO PHOTO) It’s...

A harbor seal peaks above the surface. (ISTOCK PHOTO) If there is one point upon which we can all...

Zucchini picked a day too late (pen for scale). (ERIN O’MARA PHOTO) My gardening strategy...

I was a skinny kid with a pitchfork filling bait barrels with fish and salt at the co-op when one...