Articles
Scraping Paint, Catching Up with Old Friends and Obeying the Law
“When we started dating,” Kim Nicols, the mother of three young children, said, “the boat was part of the package.” She wasn’t speaking of her husband, Dan’s, kayak, but rather Bill Brown’s pinky schooner SUMMERTIME. That a man would feel such a sense of camaraderie to a boat not belonging to him needs some explanation.
Getting Out Alive: In the water, the key to surviving is practice
“Survival is not all physical,” says John McMillan, who conducts his U.S. Coast Guard-approved one-day survival-training course all over America’s coasts and waterways. In fact, physical strength has less to do with survival than knowing what to do and how to do it. In other words, like the old joke, “How do you get to
MERI Gallery: Where Research, Art and a Lending Library Inhabit the Same Space
Next time you’re in Blue Hill, especially if you have kids with you, take a minute to check out the Maine Environmental Research Institute (MERI)’s inviting new gallery, aquarium, touch tank, co-store, lending library and cozy reading nook. When marine scientist and toxicologist Susan Shaw founded MERI in 1990, she was involved in a major
“More attitude!” Coastal kids travel long distances to play in Bangor’s youth orchestra
Symphony orchestra conductors bring to mind flamboyant behavior and flowing hair. But Brad Mutzenard takes another approach. This down-to-earth, straightforward, humorous but utterly professional conductor of the Bangor Symphony Youth Orchestra [BSYO] is more likely to lighten a musician’s embarrassment at making a mistake by joking about it and to reward successful playing by tossing
Stonington Opera House mounts varied year-round program
For the first time in years, the Stonington Opera House has been open all year long. That it has been able to do so speaks to the efforts of the last six years by the four theater professionals who bought the Opera House in 1999 and the non-profit organization they formed, Opera House Arts, which
A Colorful History
Looking at Stonington today, it’s hard to imagine the town once had a population of 5,000. Stonington’s many granite quarries gave the town its name and drew skilled workers and their families from all over Europe, outnumbering the fishermen and theirs. Those granite workers needed recreation, and in 1893, amid the bars and brothels, hotels
“It was the best fisheries paper on the market”
Ten years ago Bill Crowe started a plain spoken, no-holds-barred monthlynewspaper called Fishermen’s Voice. He had no training or experience. He wasn’t a writer, an editor or a publisher. He didn’t write the purest English and didn’t always use the best grammar or punctuation, but every word he wrote came directly from his heart and
Sinks, boats and dogsleds
At a sharp curve on the way to Schoodic Point, if you’re not careful, you’ll drive right into a long, nondescript building set almost on Route 186 called Maine Kiln Works and Water Stone Sink. But inside that building, if you don’t get lost going from room to room and from floor to floor, you’ll
“Being an honest fisherman means everything in the world”
Herman Backman, Jr., of Beal’s Island, died unexpectedly on Nov. 25. Born and raised on Beal’s Island, after graduating from high school in 1942 he attended a trade school in Dexter to study engines and other machinery. After a stint in the U.S. Coast Guard he returned home to fish with his father. At Jonesport’s
THAW plans benefit to keep others warm
Last February the Washington Hancock Community Agency (WHCA) held a Valentine’s dinner-dance at the Holiday Inn Convention Center in Ellsworth to raise money for WHCA’s new THAW — “The Heating and Warmth” — fund. The fund was founded to help people in Hancock and Washington counties who have used up every other resource for heat