St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada: Breakwater Publishing, 1992 Although Random Passage is not a brand new book, this fictional account of one family’s emigration from England to a remote outport in rural Newfoundland nearly 200 years ago has a habit of staying in print and selling regularly. The book’s popularity is in part due to its
Small Rockland Plant Produces Gel for Multiple Purposes
Along a back road in Rockland is a one-story biotech plant that turns out a product used in developing drugs, forensic lab work, testing for HIV and DNA research. The product, agarose, is processed from ordinary seaweed, farmed overseas on 15-acre plots. “It’s amazing something as simple as seaweed is so paramount to understanding DNA
Where One Size Doesn’t Fit All; Good News
Recently we’ve had two perfect demonstrations of a maxim most people have known about for years, but which the federal government, apparently, has never understood. The maxim, of course, has its origins in the “one size fits all” message on the inside of an adjustable baseball cap: in public policy the reverse is almost always
Weekending in New England: 22 Complete Getaways to Pursue Your Passions
Woodstock, Vermont: Countryman Press, 2003. First of all, let’s define the author’s use of “passions.” If you picture that as indulging in purely sensual and possibly decadent pursuits, that’s not what this author is going to help you with. But if you enjoy the creature comforts of small hotels, inns, and bed-and-breakfast joints set in
Disappearing Seaweed Suggests Changes in Bay of Fundy
Some types of seaweed are disappearing from the Bay of Fundy, according to scientists at the University of New Brunswick (UNB) and at the Huntsman Institute in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. The reasons for the disappearance are far from clear. “Something’s happening,” says Gary Saunders, Canada Research Chair in Molecular Systematics and Biodiversity at UNB.
Island Lifeline: Matinicus Depends on its Air Link to the Mainland
If the Grinch wanted to stop Christmas from coming this year to the people of Matinicus, he would probably rub his little gnarly hands together and cook up a plan to shut down Maine Atlantic Aviation. Because without the airline’s three Cessna 206s’ daily service between this remote island’s little gravel airstrip and Owls Head,
Sylvia’s Recipes for All Cooks: Many Maine Dishes from Maine Folks
(self-published) $28.95 “If I can get the younger generation into the kitchen then I will have done what I hoped to do,” said Sylvia Hocking, who has just published her second cook book, Sylvia’s Recipes for All Cooks, Many Maine Dishes from Maine Folks. The South Thomaston author baked for the rich and famous after
New Role for Canadian Coast Guard?
Canadian Coast Guard personnel and their vessels could be armed if the Canadian Parliament adopts the recommendations of a federal Senate committee. In late October the Standing Senate Committee on National Security and Defense proposed that Coast Guard “play a constabulary role on Canada’s Coasts.” At least one Member of Parliament, however, has concerns that
Coin of the Realm: How the VICTORY CHIMES Finally Made it Onto Maine’s Quarter
If you were from, say, the Midwest or Colorado or some other state or country and had never seen the Maine coast, you might look at the Maine quarter and say, “Oh, that’s nice.” But if you either live here, have seen the Pemaquid lighthouse, a towering pine or spruce, or were on the state’s
The Fierce Yellow Pumpkin
with illustrations by Richard Egielski. New York: HarperCollins, 2003. Margaret Wise Brown (1910-1952) is known as a prolific author of children’s books. Less well known is her association with Vinalhaven, where she spent many summers beginning in 1938. Happy to leave Manhattan behind, she bought an abandoned quarrymaster’s quarters near Long Cove and The Basin,