When I was a kid, staying home sick from school meant getting tucked in on the couch with ginger ale, saltine crackers and game shows on the TV. I wasn’t allowed a lot of TV, so it seemed extra special, sort of a cosmic equalizer for the horrors of the flu. These memories are deep. […]

This week’s column almost didn’t make it in because the power went out. Again. Power outages are an inconvenience for me. They are life-threatening for others. The irony of it going out literally moments after I had opened my Central Maine Power bill to find an astronomical leap in cost was not lost on me. […]

In theater improv, there is a grand tradition of the “Yes/And” practice. That is, if one actor suggests something or asks a question to another, the other actor may not say “no.” They must instead run with “yes, and…” using whatever unforeseen, unplanned, tricky or even ridiculous notion tossed out there to build upon for […]

Recently, in honor of the Fourth of July, I spent some time looking at the Declaration of Independence. It seems only right to spend a moment on the sister document, the Constitution of the United States. Of the two, the Constitution is my favorite. It has a real “roll up your sleeves and get to […]

Back in the day when the kids were little, my best friend from college brought her family to visit every Fourth of July. This meant, among other things, that on the morning of the Fourth itself, the entire house was woken, bright and very, very early by her husband belting out, “When in the course […]

Setting aside, for now, the complicated origin story, I love the Fourth of July. Cookouts, watermelon, lawn games, swimming holes and a nighttime filled with explosions of color as an entire field of people chorus “ooh” and “ahh” in unison. In the mental scrapbook of my mind, one year stands out particularly. I was about […]

Did you see that “study” just released with the headline, “Maine voted most boring state?” OK, I am paraphrasing a bit here because I can’t seem to find the original clickbait that scrolled across my screen, but it was something very much like that. When I first saw the headline, I laughed and just kept […]

The other day, while out doing barn chores, I lucked into hearing the evening replay of Maine Public’s “Maine Calling.” It was an interview with Ron Joseph about his new book, “Bald Eagles, Bear Cubs and Hermit Bill: Memories of a Wildlife Biologist in Maine.” He was hysterical, in a really great way. Ron told […]

I am absolutely certain that before any major public works project is set into motion, the idea is mapped out, thought over and discussed in meeting after meeting after meeting. I am certain that the good folks at the Maine Department of Transportation have their reasons for renaming and relabeling all of the exits and […]

Holy smokes! A new study from New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine has unraveled the mystery of why hair goes gray. And found – wait for it – the graying process may be reversible. I was born with dark brown hair. I got my hair color from my mom, and my sisters did, too. […]