Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Autumn – Winter Day

    An early season snowstorm moved north a couple of nights ago, blanketing the ground and the trees with heavy wet snow. The next morning, we felt quite cozy indoors, enjoying our morning cup of tea and looking out at falling snow, until we were startled by the sound of three loud explosions coming from outside, […]

  • The tired man and the sparrow

    In the dim twilight inside the old barn, the man stood on the stepladder holding the screaming circular saw waist-high and pushed the blade along the blue chalk line in the old dry boards. The late afternoon light bore in through the raw slice; a laser of gold teeming with swirling sawdust, tracing a perfect […]

  • The short session

    The Maine Legislature has a two-year cycle, with a “long session” and a “short session.” The first year is the “long session,” and during this session the Legislature generally meets until mid to late June. The second year is the short session and it generally ends in mid-April. This past year, was the long session, […]

  • Patches of place

    By Bridie McGreavy Early last spring, a curious yellow flower with a translucent stem popped up all over my yard in Orrington, which is just south of Bangor. They were everywhere, lining roadsides, covering ditches, and along the lakeshore. When I first noticed them, I gave them the very unscientific but fitting label “weird dandelions.” […]

  • Streamlining state government

    This past year when the Maine Legislature passed the budget, they intentionally left a gap of $25 million. This was on the assumption that at least that amount could be squeezed out through increasing the efficiency of the government. To reach that goal, a Streamlining Task Force was set up. This task force consists of […]

  • As my mother loved the sea

    My mother loved the sea. She loved its ubiquitous, painful blueness; its shades of green and grey and hints of purple. The curling thunder of its great breakers one day; its lapping calmness the next. The caress of hot sand between her toes, and the tickle as each receding wave brushed past her ankles. She […]

  • East meets west

    This afternoon felt like a summer day, so I abandoned my computer, ignored a small mountain of laundry and a pile of accumulated mail, and went outdoors to soak up the warm sunshine. White pine trees, over 100-feet tall, tower over everything else in our yard. They are majestic trees, and one is so wide […]

  • Improving Our Laws Regarding Maine’s Sex Offenders

    By State Senator Bill Diamond Dealing with sex crimes is a difficult thing for society to undertake. Such crimes often go unreported, as the very nature of the crimes makes it hard for victims to come forward and talk about them. Dealing with the offenders is tricky as well, as they tend to have a […]

  • The Man in the Mirror

    We got some news a few weeks back, the kind that generates a restrained, I’m-happy-probably-but-have-questions sort of, “Huh…wow…really?” response. Like when I was little and my parents invited friends over for supper and instead of bearing the typical potted plant or seasonal dish towel as a little gift, our guests presented Mom and Dad with […]

  • Hawk Migration on Hacker’s Hill

    Hawk watching around here can sometimes be challenging. Often, hawks are glimpsed briefly as they zip through a clearing in the forest, or are so far overhead they look like specks in the sky. For many years, a friend and I hiked up Hawk Mountain in the fall to look for migrating hawks, and while […]