Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • My Irish Up: Teen expenses drive economy

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist Far from pauperizing children, the lapsed tradition of paying out weekly allowances has enriched teenagers as a social group, or in the case of teenage boys, as an antisocial group. Now, parents just hand the kids all the money straightaway. Most teens have no time to do chores anymore, of […]

  • Uppermost House: When one plus one equals one

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist Fifty-odd years ago, the term “Kodak Moment” was coined to sell cameras and film. A cute, even tender catch phrase, but like much advertising it was developed as hyperbole and printed as faux-truth. For a moment is the chronological equivalent of the geometric point — it has no measurable […]

  • My Irish Up: Bureaucrats and Lobbyists and Congressmen, oh my!

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist In Washington D.C., that noble city where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once stood and proudly proclaimed that he had a dream about a large group of albino buffalo that was always chasing him, our federal government goes about the important, cash-intensive business of not functioning worth a damn. I […]

  • Small World: Reading Machiavelli in Bridgton

    By Henry Precht BN Columnist In all likelihood, The New York Times has never scooped The Bridgton News. Not even once. The other day, however, I was scooped by The Times columnist David Brooks. He wrote about how, according to Machiavelli, a good ruler must sometimes take evil measures for the greater good of his […]

  • My Irish Up: Snow denial tips

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist  My mother, who may have been part Eskimo, had a hundred words for snow, most of them beginning with %#$#$ and ending with $*^&%@#! In preparing for winter storms, she taught me the Five Stages of Acceptance: 1. Denial. Mom, who had a lot of practice at it, was better […]

  • Uppermost House: I’ll bring a side dish

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist We were all standing around after church a few months ago, sorting out who was going to bring the salad or the baked beans or the pickled woodchuck to the next week’s potluck, when I offered, “Hey, I’ll bring a side dish.” I had one arm wrapped around the […]

  • It Dawned on Me: Freezin’ reveals region’s warmth, unity

    By Dawn De Busk BN Columnist Any hostess knows how much preparation goes into an event that might only last an hour or two. Whether it is a wedding, a birthday party, Thanksgiving dinner or a local fundraiser, planning and groundwork are required to ensure things go as smoothly as possible. Also, having many helpful […]

  • Gov. LePage: Paying off hospitals right thing to do

    By Governor Paul R. LePage Many Mainers know what it is like to juggle their bills until payday arrives. Imagine waiting four years. That’s the reality for Maine’s 39 community hospitals. It is difficult to believe, but hospitals in dozens of Maine communities have not received payment from the state for Medicaid services they provided […]

  • My Irish Up: Save the fluff!

    By Mike Corrigan BN Columnist In late-breaking animal news about late animals: Nefertiti, the orbiting orb weaver, has bit the space dust. It’s a sad day for those who love spiders. For the rest of us, not so much. Nefertiti was a jumping spider that orbited the earth hundreds of times on the space station. […]

  • Uppermost House: But, they can’t be caught

    By S. Peter Lewis BN Columnist I love flyfishing. Full of birdsong and watergurgle and meadowscent and forestcool and windhiss in the trees and the gentle swishwhoosh as the line goes out and back and behind and out again carrying its tiny attractive tuft at the end of a transparent hair; it’s no wonder it’s […]