Remember when getting ready for a new school year meant a new backpack and a fresh pack of pencils? Man, I miss that. Last year we were figuring out how to manage returning mid-pandemic. We navigated cohorts, figured out Zoom and became experts on different types of sanitizer. This year, we are figuring out how […]
American Journal Opinion
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Through My Lens: Music and culture should be integrated
It is about time immigrant leaders in the state of Maine start embracing music and cultural integration. It is common these days for people to group themselves in faith or culture and stay together tightly for safety reasons, particularly in the past few years under Trump’s leadership. While I think that is not a bad […]
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Posted inForecaster Opinion
Life Unwound: What questions are you asking?
Do you ever wake up empty? I mean, do you first think versions of hollow questions like “What’s for breakfast?” or “Do I look fat in that shirt?” You know, questions that trigger “ugh, another day, blah.” Me, too. “Ugh” questions don’t nudge us out of bed like poet Mary Oliver’s, “What is it you […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Mainewhile: Sorrow both here and abroad
This week I packed up the youngest, along with most of his belongings, and the two of us took a road trip to settle him in at college. I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the “empty nest” phenomenon is real. Never did I think it was possible to simultaneously feel so much joy and […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Here’s Something: Labor Day reminds us all workers are essential
Americans’ work ethic, and especially Mainers’, is still as strong as ever. And as we celebrate the upcoming Labor Day weekend, it’s appropriate to take time to honor laborers of all kinds, never take them for granted and recognize they’re all essential. Without the workers that manufacture, grow, transport, care for, clean, cook, teach, serve, […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Mainewhile: Masks are our children’s only defense
My family took a lot of road trips when I was little. My memories of those trips involve a lot of singalongs, getting passed from one lap to another and curling up on a blanket in the way back when I got tired. There was no car seat. Heck, there were no seat belts. My […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Through My Lens: We own the outcome in Afghanistan
What happened in Kabul this week reminded me of what happened in Mogadishu in 2006, and the years to come for Afghanistan seem scarier than ever. In 2006, only five years after the U.S. troops went into Afghanistan in pursuit of Osama Bin Laden, an armed Islamic group who called themselves Al-Shabab stormed into Mogadishu, […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Here’s Something: An overabundance of caution is our undoing
By now, 17 months since that fateful Ides of March 2020, when Gov. Janet Mills shut down the Maine economy to essential services only in a vain attempt to stem the coronavirus surge in local hospitals, I bet everyone has had a run-in with someone, somewhere regarding COVID-19 protocols. I’ve had a few, but yesterday, […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Mainewhile: Women making strides at the Olympics
We were sitting around the dining room table the other night talking about the Olympics and the conversation wandered to the original games in ancient Greece. Among some of the more bizarre and gruesome bits of trivia and history was the relatively “common knowledge” nugget that the original games were played entirely in the nude. […]
Posted inAmerican Journal, Forecaster Opinion, Lakes Region Weekly
Life Unwound: The ripple effect of small acts
“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” – Amelia Earhart I followed my young children, turning off lights as they left rooms. It concerned money. I thought about the electric bill, which my husband said saved only a few pennies. Then I […]