Articles
Building it by hand: Memoir of a house a wide-ranging exploration
The House With Sixteen Handmade Doors: A Tale of Architectural Choice and Craftsmanship By Henry Petroski With photographs by Catherine Petroski New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2014 Hardcover, 297 pages This is a difficult book to describe. Its title suggests connections with architecture and hand-made things; these topics are present and since Henry Petroski
Furniture craftsman reflects on career ‘making things’ in new book
This book has intrigued me since it was published a year ago, largely because it deals with topics—woodworking, craftsmanship, the genius of hand-made things—that have fascinated me all my life. I bought a copy for my son, a violinmaker, last Christmas, and another for myself. If sales have been good, I’m partly responsible. That said,
Zoning an Issue on Peaks
Peaks Island needs fossil fuels just like any other place in Maine. That means No. 2 fuel oil, kerosene and propane, all delivered by truck to homes and businesses. Right now two dealers service the island, splitting the number of households about down the middle. Year-round residents with oil furnaces naturally buy most of the
Mainers in the Civil War
In proportion to its population, Maine sent more soldiers and sailors off to fight the Civil War than any other state in the Union. They came from cities and small towns, from farms and islands. In the end, as many as 70,000 men (and a far smaller number of women) marched or sailed away to
Selling the Boat
The oft-repeated joke about owners and boats goes this way: what are the two happiest days in one’s life? The day you buy a boat and the day you sell it. It’s true, and now I know from experience. When I bought Karma five years ago, of course, I wasn’t focused on selling her–I’d bought
New regulations for small tanker vessels
By 2015, according to the U.S. Coast Guard, even existing small tankers must have double hulls. The requirement affects Maine firms such as Portland Harbor Fuel, serving Casco Bay, and Maine Coast Petroleum of Tenants Harbor, which operates two tankers, 40 and 60 feet respectively, between Rockland and all the island communities between Monhegan and
Changing Times
Like most changes on Portland’s historic waterfront, this change won’t happen without a fight-or at least protracted negotiations and a certain amount of politics. The change, if it happens, would be a liberalization of the working-waterfront zoning that has controlled the ways the piers along Commercial Street are used. Today and for the past 25
Volunteers, students work to restore an island with a long history
What happened nearly 70 years ago on Little Chebeague Island is hard for us to imagine today: a quiet summer colony on an 86-acre island in Casco Bay that included the site of a summer hotel and farmed fields, suddenly taken over by the federal government for the use of the U.S. Navy. But around
Venturing: Telling the story
Having spent nearly 40 years reporting and editing news, I think I know something about how it works. In the conventional sense “news” is a series of stories which, when put into context by skilled writers and editors, helps all of us understand what’s really going out there in the world. News reporting is a
Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book
Downeast Books, 2010 88 pages, $12.95 Frosting-Filled Yumminess If it’s possible for a book to be serious and cute at the same time, Making Whoopies: The Official Whoopie Pie Book is a great candidate for the honor. Cute: that’s the whole idea of the whoopie pie, isn’t it? Tasty, funny name, fattening, probably bad for