The first time I ever rode on Route 88, then called Route 1, was in the 1930s. I rode in the rumble seat of my dad’s roadster on the way to Belfast to visit my grandparents. As we moved along I used to count the bumps separating the cement sections on the highway. And now […]

At 7:48 a.m. on July 25 I was crossing Franklin Street with my dog while the crossing signal was activated. A gray GMC pick-up stopped at the light started to make a right onto Congress Street while I was directly in front of the driver’s side. As the truck touched me I slammed my fist […]

We ask a lot of our local elected officials. We expect them to be know-it-alls on topics ranging from general assistance to residential zoning. We ask them to pinch pennies in multi-million-dollar budgets. They put in long hours, and usually don’t get paid much, if at all. And on Election Day, we’ll send them packing […]

Soon, the United States will either have defaulted on its debt obligation or we will have cobbled together some last-minute plan that is more a desperate gambit than well-thought-out solution. Democrats and Republicans have coherent explanations for why the other party is responsible for our being in hock over our necks, about why each plan […]

When it comes to eating, I’m afraid I’m an indiscriminate omnivore. I’m the kind of guy who can’t tell the difference between Two Buck Chuck and Chateau Mouton Rothschild and doesn’t care. I scoff down hot dogs and burgers and fries. I’m an out and out haute cuisine philistine. Back in the 1970s, I was […]

Summer means road trips. And, unavoidably, rest areas. I have driven all over the Northeast, and after having sampled a goodly number of rest-area restrooms, what I want to know is this: When did someone decide that we would be better served if our hygiene were automated? Was it because not enough people were flushing […]

We have been picking up leftover bread twice a week from Scratch Bakery for a number of years, and now with Bathras open next door, they, too, are donating leftover bread twice a week. We freeze the bread and thaw on Thursday morning for giving to clients. We thank both stores for their generous donations. […]

Our primary electricity provider, Central Maine Power, is offering us three “smart meter” choices. We can select the free unit that sends and receives thousands of amplified wireless signals a day between our meter and a third-party company that traps and sells our data with us paying for the electricity to send this data, on […]

Applications for refunds of up to $1,600 are available for property taxes or rent paid in 2010. The state refund program, called “Circuit Breaker,” provides middle and low-income Maine residents with a partial refund of local property taxes and/or rent paid on their primary residence. This program is a great way to get some tax […]

I should have written this letter years ago. Edgar Allen Beem rocks. Last week’s column on the future Republican presidential candidate, Gov. Rick Perry of Texas, was another in a long line of outstanding, incisive works. I like The Forecaster, and mean no insult to it by saying this, but a writer of Beem’s caliber […]