I’d like to touch upon a disturbing topic: things that vanish. Any adult who has done laundry knows that socks disappear. This has been a source of both fodder and much head scratching over the years. We all know the tale of woe – you put four pairs of matching socks into the dryer, and […]

This summer my two brothers and I have been slowly disposing of our parents’ worldly possessions. Mom and Dad are now living together in a nursing home, where a lifetime’s accumulation of material objects cannot follow. Both of my parents grew up in Portland (Deering High ’40 and ’42), but they have moved around so […]

As sponsor of legislation to develop high-speed Internet in rural Maine, I am extremely proud of the public-private partnership that created hundreds of jobs in our state. It marks the beginning of a high-tech success story for Maine. In fact, a recent Portland Press Herald story notes that the project was finished on time and […]

Human experience and training lead to random acts of violence and random acts of kindness. We all know that in athletics, we learn a skill, like how to kick a soccer ball, shoot a hoop, swim a lap or serve a tennis ball; by repeating it. With enough repetition it becomes second nature, automatic. This […]