Hiking the Presidential Range in New Hampshire used to be a regular part of my winter agenda. A continuum of battles with arthritic knees and hips had kept me off the big peaks for three years. Recently, a couple of cortisone injections and an invite from friends Gary and Suzanne Cole to climb Mounts Madison […]

On Monday, we celebrate George Washington’s official birthday. Each year on this occasion, I remind readers that Washington’s Birthday is the legal U.S. and Maine government holiday. In remembering all presidents, some outright failures, the day meant to honor Washington has become “Presidents’ Day,” a commercial holiday. Upon taking office as president, Washington realized that […]

They are enchanting glassy single-celled organisms that produce up to 20% of the oxygen on the planet. They can form colonies in the shape of elegant ribbons and fans or even stars. This is impressive for a tiny creature that can be as small as 2 micrometers. As a reference, a human hair is around […]

The day my Mother and Father met, he was arguing with some high school friends about whether a slice of lemon would corrode the coating on a porcelain sink. “I never came across any man quite like your Father,” my Mother says, still happily befuddled by the stubborn old fellow. Their meeting in 1950 began […]

Like many Americans allergic to adulting, I often zone out on Facebook when I should be doing something more useful – like scooping the litter box or lecturing my children about the dangers of social media. Inevitably, I come across one of those surveys posted by Facebook users who are probably planning to hack into […]

The city of Bath needs to take a second look at what it’s planning to do to wildlife in order to protect humans, as officials have already unanimously decided to partner with the Department of Agriculture to set traps before the end of the month. Will this work? “The USDA cannot guarantee this is going […]

Allegations are flying left and right about potential – or actual – efforts to unfairly and secretly influence the outcome of the 2020 election. It’s a time when political scientists and constitutional scholars like to look back on other times when the electoral process was, you might say, helped along by practices that either were […]

“It’s complicated.” That often means “I don’t know”, or “It’s none of your business.” But nothing significant is ever simple or easy and that is particularly true of health costs in America. We are again immersed in a quadrennial flood of promises to make healthcare and medications at once less costly and more accessible. Most […]