Tina and I recently went to TJ Maxx to buy underwear. She picked out hers, I picked out mine, and we went to the counter. I told the young woman behind the register that we were buying “unmentionables.” She didn’t smile. We got home, and I discovered that my four pairs of underwear had no […]

There’s a dear friend in my life, a publicist, a man I’ll call “T” who has very famous clients, a good man, smart, well connected. We chat via email just to say hello, for him to give me some great inside dish, and for us to get caught up on wuzzup with our respective lives. […]

During a time when our state is facing a significant workforce shortage and an aging population, we cannot afford to allow unnecessary barriers and criticisms to get in the way of people who want to contribute to our economy. In 2019, a 10-year economic development plan for Maine highlighting our workforce challenges estimated the state […]

Four months ago, I began a new position as community navigator at The Gathering Place, a day shelter in Brunswick. My first impression of this welcoming environment was one of compassion and giving. The staff and volunteers had nurtured a safe, secure social atmosphere that was inclusive of all people. I had not known that […]

As it confronts an epochal series of decisions about how we conduct our presidential elections, the U.S. Supreme Court is skating on thin ice. Monday’s unanimous decision restoring Donald Trump to the Maine ballot just before in-person voting in Tuesday’s presidential primary was not unexpected, but its sweeping nature certainly was. The court agreed that […]

Get this: Men and women’s brains are different. Using a powerful, first-of-its-kind artificial intelligence model, Stanford Medicine was able to determine with a 90% success rate whether or not an MRI scan of human brain activity was coming from a male brain or a female brain. “The findings, the investigators suggest, help to resolve a […]

THE CONVERSATION — The local news crisis has led to no end of policy proposals, funding initiatives and angry denunciations of the harm done to journalism by the likes of Craigslist, Google and Facebook. Ideas for responding to the crisis include paying recent journalism school graduates with state tax revenues to cover underserved communities, as in […]

THE CONVERSATION — The months since Hamas’ attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, have been excruciating ones for Israeli peace activists. As the country rallies behind the war effort, critics have been arrested and condemned by opponents who say the attacks proved how misguided the peace movement is. But in activists’ eyes, the horrific violence of Oct. […]

THE CONVERSATION — They may be the most important government officials you can’t name. Their decisions have the potential to alter election results. Scholars have referred to them as the “guardians of the democratic process.” Who are these unknown, but essential, officials? State secretaries of state. You probably know only one person with the title […]