Archive for ‘Opinion’

  • Of chainsaws and pickle jars

    This time of year, I usually drive down to Connecticut to visit my dad and help him button up his place before the howling nasties come visiting from Canada. We scrape leaves out of gutters, put up storm windows, string heat-tape along eaves, stuff like that, stuff Dad shouldn’t do anymore because at 84 he’s […]

  • Being thankful for what matters

    The man knew he was dying. Knew because of the tubes and the blinking monitors and the white-coated people who clicked in and out of his room with clipboards. Knew because of the plastic bracelet on his wrist and the pills and the bad food and the full-body hurt. Knew because his wife was sitting […]

  • Giving Thanks

    By State Senator Bill Diamond There is no doubt about it that the past year has been a time of great challenges for many. Thanksgiving reminds us that despite the individual or shared problems we have faced, we are resilient and can get through anything if we work together. Perhaps this resiliency dates back to […]

  • Lessons from Augusta

    By Richard M. Sykes State Representative District 98 Election season 2010 is behind us. Gone are the thousands of road side signs, robo telephone calls, polling, millions of dollars in media advertisements (many of them negative and deceptive), postal mailers and political candidates knocking on your doors. The voters have spoken and now it is […]

  • Wool Rising over the Fleece Landscape

    By Jen Deraspe Fleece came of age when I did. All the hip and trendy outdoorsy types sported it. I shortly followed suit. The fleece industry touted their new age material as far superior to any natural fiber ever utilized. The woolen ways of my father and his father were disregarded and my tattered, well-worn […]

  • Appropriations Update

    The Appropriations and Financial Affairs Committee received positive news just before the election regarding the state’s financial outlook. September’s revenues were up and the projections for October looked optimistic. Revenue for the month of September was $3.77 million over projections. This puts the General Fund over estimates by $26.26 million more for the first four […]

  • A surprise of swans

    Every fall, nearly 100,000 tundra swans leave the arctic tundra of Alaska and Canada and migrate southeast to spend the winter in coastal marshes from New Jersey to South Carolina. These magnificent birds are all white, stand about three feet high, and have a seven-foot wingspan. I first saw them about 15 years ago when […]

  • Tripping over the threshold of the future

    Our home, hemmed by fields and forest just off the west shore of Crotched Pond, is as old as the state of Maine — both were hammered together from howling wilderness in 1820. Like Maine, our old farmstead rests on a foundation of granite, is bound on one side by the rising and falling sea […]

  • This sidewalk is definitely going somewhere

    By Alan Manoian, Bridgton Director of Economic and Community Development There is no greater guardian of personal and economic freedom than a well-designed and solidly built American downtown sidewalk. The right and blessing of personal mobility, to independently move about and circulate where you wish to go, free of poorly designed obstacles and potential threats […]

  • Immigration Fuels Huge U.S. Population Growth

    By Ken Roy There is a limit to the number of people our planet can support, known as “carrying capacity.” It refers to the number of people who can be supported without degrading the physical, social and cultural environment. We are responsible to future generations, and we owe them a chance at a good quality, […]