Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • My Irish Up: Things my mother said (and said) (and said)

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist My mother’s job was to take charge of utter chaos and pretend to give it shape and form. As her children, our job was to provide the chaos. We felt our work gave mother a purpose in life, and she should be grateful. I don’t think she was. Actually, she […]

  • Memories sitting by Highland Lake

    By Peter C. Berry Guest Writer They visited the lake often in good weather and sat in their folding chairs at the water’s edge under a clump of white birch trees, she with her knitting and he with his book, and they took great pleasure in the peacefulness of the surroundings and the familiar view […]

  • My Irish Up: What is wrong with you?

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist What’s wrong with people, anyway? I thought I would investigate. In fact, I did investigate, which may explain the clicking sounds on your phone and those obviously fake moose tracks leading up to your dining room window and then abruptly ending, as if the “moose” attempted to leave the area […]

  • Views from the Uppermost House: My life as an invertebrate

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist I enjoy invertebrates as much as the next guy; used to be one myself, in fact. Back in 1967, I was just a normal kid sitting in an elementary school cafeteria peeling the wrapper off a package of Ring Dings with my teeth when I looked around and realized […]

  • Small World: Riddles of the Sphinx

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist Egypt’s recent “coup” or, if you prefer, Second Revolution, raises important questions, first, about its authenticity and, second, the implications for the United States in the Middle East. In brief, the Moslem Brotherhood government of President Mohammed Morsi was brought down by the army which arrested him and many of […]

  • Earth Notes: Dump picking was recycling

    By Price Hutchins A lot can be learned from how we alter our image of the world around us just by the words we use. In a generation the terms toxic waste, transfer station and waste management, have replaced pollution, the dump and the garbage man. Today, the image of scavenging at the dump conjures […]

  • Small World: The muffled shouts from the street

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist In a column a few weeks ago, The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman surveyed the outbreak of street revolts led largely by the middle class in democracies around the globe. Why, he asked? Three reasons, he replied: First is the rise of “illiberal majoritarian democracies,” which interpret their election as […]

  • My Irish Up: Impeachment might be fun!

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist In the right-wing echo chamber, all the talk is of impeaching the president. I think it’s a great idea. It will give Congress something to do! Congressmen are America’s wealthiest welfare recipients. They don’t do anything now besides raise money for their next election run and cash their paychecks. Impeaching […]

  • Uppermost House: And so our family grows

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist Last week, on June 25 at 8:38 in the evening, my first granddaughter, Sophie Emalynn Lewis, got her introductory glimpse of the outside world — which turned out to be the four walls of a nice private maternity room at Mid Coast Medical Center in Brunswick. Sophie was not […]

  • Small World: Obama and his critics

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist What’s not to like about President Obama, especially if you’re of the left of center persuasion — or even [slightly] to the right? He’s not grumpy or mean-spirited. He’s fair-minded and makes an effort to understand other viewpoints and to reason with their supporters. His language is artfully crafted (if […]