Dennis King used to harvest alewives in the Somes Pond-Long Pond watershed on Mount Desert Island. He said the springtime alewife run was a site to see. More than 200,000 alewives swam upstream to spawn; enough, legend has it, to walk across a brook on their backs. King said all those alewives attracted seals, ospreys,
Lobster Chic Shopping for “bugs” is getting more complicated
There’s a new guy in town selling lobsters — Whole Foods, which just opened Feb. 14 in Portland. At 45,350-square-feet, this supermarket is my town’s new epicenter for the animal-compassionate consumer who strongly believes in the humane killing of naturally fed animals who’ve lived a stress-free life. I, however, am feeling a tad overwhelmed —
Sea of Thunder: Four Commanders and the Last Great Naval Campaign 1941 – 1945
Simon Schuster, $27.00 356 pages The Fog of War Sixty years after the end of World War II, we continue to see a steady stream of books dealing with a history of the war. My grandson gave me for Christmas Rick Atkinson’s An Army at Dawn, which is about the North African campaign in 1942-43.
The Long View: Island Indicators
We are often asked “How are the islands doing?” Lurking behind this question are all sorts of motivations. Islanders want to show how they measure up in the state and the region, and to demonstrate to funders that islands are a sound place to invest in innovative programming. Legislators and policy makers need real data
Benedict Arnold’s Navy: The Ragtag Fleet that Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain but won the American Revolution
McGraw Hill, $32.95, 363 pages Before he betrayed his country… In September of 2005 I reviewed a novel by James Nelson called Thieves of Mercy for this newspaper. Nelson’s latest work is a dramatic, non-fiction account of Benedict Arnold’s contributions to the success of the American Revolution. The versatile author sets the tone for his
Correction
An editing error in our page 1 story about composites (WWF March 06) resulted in a statement that Andre Cocquyt is an employee of Harbor Technologies, Inc. In fact, he is not an employee of the company, but does teach at the advanced composites training center as stated elsewhere in the story.
Painting Freedom
An example of the tenacity of human spirit has been tucked away in a corner of the Blue Hill Library. Library patrons can be forgiven if they missed it, a tiny display of paintings and collages amid shelves of equally worthy books, sculptures, and other works of art. But those who found the small collection
The Baked Bean Bonus
That cold spell in March that came just as I was beginning to give up on winter altogether and gird myself for mud season paid out a bonus in baked beans. Cheapskate Yankee that I am, there is something about long slow baking in an electric oven (with the meter running) that goes against my
Proposed transfer tax would support affordable housing
Almost every area of Maine suffers from a lack of affordable housing. Only two counties, Aroostook and Somerset, have a median income that actually exceeds what is necessary to purchase a median-priced home within the county. In coastal and lakefront communities and on Maine’s islands this challenge is even more acute. According to 2006 MaineHousing
Fresh Water
Fresh water has always seemed inexhaustible in Maine, a state with thousands of lakes, hundreds of miles of rivers and groundwater good enough to market in bottles all over the world. There’s plenty of evidence, however, that even in this water-rich region we’re facing some limits. This month we report on the frustrations of homeowners