Even great old houses sometimes need help meeting contemporary needs.
Ray Routhier
Staff Writer
Ray Routhier has written about pop culture, movies, TV, music and lifestyle trends for the Portland Press Herald since 1993. He is continually fascinated with stories that show the unique character of Maine’s people and places. He’s written about why so many businesses use the made-up word “Mainely” in their names, how you can trace Portland’s history through its various smells and why Mainers lament the loss of Portland-made B&M baked beans. He’s interviewed a wide variety of filmmakers, actors, musicians and authors, including Patrick Dempsey, Tony Shalhoub, Richard Russo, Tess Gerritsen, Tony Bennett, Anna Kendrick, and Stephen King. His passions, besides writing, include baseball history, old movies and “Jeopardy!” A native of Manchester, New Hampshire, he graduated with a degree in political science from the University of New Hampshire. He lives in South Portland with his wife and two children.
Posted inLife & Culture
Cruise on up to Bangor
Sunday’s daylong Carnival of Madness is the place to catch some 25 bands playing rock.
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Posted inLife & Culture, News
Does your job bug you? Try this one
Standing in a vacant second-story apartment, Jon Locke announced that the place was free of bedbugs.
Using a 2-year-old beagle named Pops — who has been trained in the ways of scent detection — Locke had just guided a complete sniff search of the place and found nothing buggy going on.
Posted inLife & Culture
Pack to school
Backpacks seem to get smarter every year, with new features to meet the needs of students of all ages.
Posted inArts & Entertainment
Author Q & A: A hero found amid searches and rescues
Real stories inspire a second mystery pitting a game warden against Maine evil-doers.
Posted inLife & Culture
The Baseball Project: For the love of the game
Baseball has been very, very good at inspiring songs written and performed by a devoted group of rock musicians.
Posted inLife & Culture, News
Maine at Work: Raking blueberriesby hand proves no easy feat
Jake Powers is raking blueberries on a hillside with spectacular views, bending over and using an aluminum rake with two small handles to sweep through the low-lying blueberry plants that cover the land.
It doesn’t look that hard, so I grab my little rake — it’s sort of like a big dustpan with tines — and bend over at the waist. That is my first mistake . . .
Posted inNews
Radio host Voornas comes out
The longtime area personality tells listeners this week of her upcoming union with her same-sex partner.
Posted inLife & Culture
Open House: Neat nooks
Clever use of random spaces gives a Harpswell cottage by the sea the illusion of being much bigger than it really is.
Posted inUncategorized
Carrying on the Zappa legacy
Dweezil, son of Frank, is making sure that his father’s brilliance still shines.