It was a dark and stormy night in January. Sally found herself walking down a road. She wasn’t sure in what direction…
Columns
On Eating and Loving Food
After returning from a long road trip with my brother, Peter, and indulging in a lot of tasty, high fat, low health level foods, I got up this morning feeling a strong desire for a good healthy…
A job
It was a heavy snowstorm that dumped a foot or more of snow and the town was just starting to dig out in the evening hours, not unlike the recent nor’easters we’ve experienced. The call came for…
I was in possession of a good-sized pile of newspapers, mostly the Bangor Daily News, from earlier this year. Many of the January and February papers were still untouched, and I could not…
Down to the sea
In the past, merchants deemed it necessary to identify their business by a sign over the door or nearby. Today, it is usually just a name on the store, but yesterday it was an object that…
Health and Wellness
“Is this a coordination test?” Carole asked, as I instructed her to sit on the floor to do an exercise. “Yes, it is.…
Lyme Time with Paula Jackson Jones
As a society, we form opinions based on what we see, hear and experience. Sometimes it’s firsthand, other times, it’s based on what is shared with us. Many times, its hard to form an opinion based…
Industrial arts
The customer service folks at the Big Box Store were nothing if not eager to please. In fact, they were determined to deliver the customer’s appliances, and earnestly promised the same. Said…
On Eating and Loving Food
On the day of that gorgeous, serene snowfall last week (easy for me to say – I didn’t lose power) Sue Mello sent me a link to a recipe for bread: “Slow bread.”
The headline, on Slate.com,…
Identity theft and fraud
Have you ever answered your phone only to find that the local number displayed is not really the number that is calling you?
This practice, known as “spoofing,” has been around for more…
Opinion
At Watershed School, it all starts with a conversation. Listening to understand, responding to others, disagreeing and agreeing, finding a path forward together- this is the Watershed Way. In…
A job
I’ve been thinking about going in a different direction with my articles and with the blessing of the editor, we’re going to give this a try. If people like it, I have lots of stories. If…
On Eating and Loving Food
I’ve been pigging out.
It’s been a few weeks of, well, not quite hell, but not exactly Disneyland either, for me.
This is a food column, so I’m not going to dwell on the gory details…
Lyme Time with Paula Jackson Jones
Snow, rain, thaw, melt, repeat. This pattern tells us that mud season is approaching. For weeks, I’ve heard people comment on the unexpected snowfall levels as they tried in vain to prepare for…
On Eating and Loving Food
There’s cheese fondue. Then there’s Kim Martin’s cheese fondue.
On Jan. 6, Michael Maxim posted a comment on my Facebook page: “Hey Suzi Thayer, I need some fondue tips...where’s my article…
Down to the sea
Most everyone in this vicinity is familiar with the large wooden building, on Atlantic Avenue in Camden, just beyond the steps that go down into Harbor Park…
Meditations
We walk through patches of snow across an unpaved parking lot that edges a salt marsh, peering out into the frozen marsh in hopes of finding a Snowy Owl. So far we've been unsuccessful at picking…
On Eating and Loving Food
You know how all of a sudden it’s, like, 1 p.m., and you’re starving? You start searching the fridge, hoping lunch will magically appear.
That happened…
On Eating and Loving Food
“There is no love sincerer than the love of food.” – George Bernard Shaw
That was the first quote I borrowed for my…
Industrial arts
A friend of mine wrote a poem called “Winter Beach” a couple of decades back, published in I-don’t-remember-which publication around here. Lots of folks send a poem to a newspaper once or twice in…
KINDNESS MATTERS is a campaign designed to change the way people interact with each other. It is the legacy of a 13-year old who took his own life after…
On Eating and Loving Food
Roast a chicken. It costs somewhere around 6 or 7 bucks for a smallish one, and if you live alone, like I do, you can get a lot of mileage out of it. I love that,…
On Eating and Loving Food
I love bubblies of all colors and prices. It’s been a while since I’ve drunk Andres, but give me an eight-dollar bottle of Barefoot Bubbly and I’m good to go.
Not all sparklers are…
On these bitterly cold days of the new year, as harbors grow a skin of ice and frosty sea smoke clouds the horizon, it's hard to imagine that on an exposed island out in the frigid bay, gray seals…
Know what you are getting into when you adopt a dog
Everyone loves dogs. Well. Not everyone, but those that don’t like dogs don’t count. Dogs that have had difficult histories tug even stronger at the heart strings. That would be the case with…
After meeting at sea with Prime Minister Winston Churchill
This month of January, as we watch the snow fall and feel the record low temperatures everywhere, we can not help but remember that one of the greatest men in history was…
On Eating and Loving Food
Until a couple weeks ago I’d never baked bacon.
I had heard, from my sister, Wendy, and others, that baking bacon was the only way to go: No greasy frying pan splattering fat all over the…
It’s more than just ‘small business Saturday’
Back in the fall of 1981 I was 17, living halfway between the ‘Keag and Spruce Head, and working two shifts at the Port Clyde Foods sardine cannery at the foot of Winter Street. There were few…
On Eating and Loving Food
There are some serious spinach pies being made in a little hole-in-the-wall down a back alley in Damariscotta.
It almost sounds illegal, and the fist-sized pies are so ridiculously…
If you had been in Camden in the late 1930s and 1940s, you would have seen group of lovely young girls, and their harps, giving a concert in the Garden Theater (or Bok Amphitheater, as it is…
On Eating and Loving Food
Pork pie. I grew up in Sanford, which was teeming with French Canadians. Most of my besties were French Canadian.
And most of my besties’ memères made tourtières. It always smelled heavenly…
On Eating and Loving Food
So, it’s the day after Christmas.
I woke up this morning and resolved to stop eating crap for the foreseeable future.
I headed to the kitchen and started…
AUGUSTA — At this time of year, we gather with loved ones to celebrate Christmas, count our blessings, remember the past year and look forward to next year.
Hello, this is Governor Paul…
On Eating and Loving Food
Thanks to Facebook I was recently reminded of a story I wrote four years ago – probably my first – when I was still doing graphics. It was published on Dec.15, 2013, and I was thrilled to see…
How to disrupt the flow
I’m not a shopper, I’m a buyer. For years I’ve been the grocery buyer and I’ve learned a lot from the grocery shoppers. Suspecting that there are others out there like me who want to…
There's really nothing like the holidays in Maine. They bring a certain spirit, one that's as magical as the first snow. But it's not the beautiful winter landscapes or the crackling fire that…
...and it isn’t just political correctness
Tuesday night, December 12th, was the first night of Hanukkah this year. I lit the menorah in the window, which I do informally in honor of a heroic Jewish great-grandmother who walked out of…
On Eating and Loving Food
Okay so here’s something we probably all had growing up, before we started growing out: Mac 'n cheese.
What is less healthful, and more fattening than a plateful of ridiculously creamy,…
It's not like they're dancing to Pa's fiddle, but young beavers do play
Imagine this: A blizzard's raging outside, and snow lies several feet deep, blocking your windows and doors. But you're safe and dry inside your little, two-room house, just you, your parents, and…
A Bird’s Tale
It’s that time of year again! It’s not JUST the holiday season. Already, tens of thousands of birders (over 70,000 last year) are eagerly awaiting the period roughly two weeks before and after…
On Eating and Loving Food
Steamers with melted butter, a great salad, some good crusty French rolls, and wine. Hello.
I love steamed clams. But for some reason I never buy them. Why? I have no idea. Pinkham’s sells…
Down to the sea: Once upon a time, Camden manufactured things
Camden’s Megunticook River is three miles long, and runs from Megunticook Lake to the inner harbor. There it ends in…
We all have a few stories in our lives that we know by heart. Those stories that you assume everyone —or at least everyone in your social circle and the adjacent ones — already has heard at least…
Down by the sea
Time has come for Camden Harbor to put its boats of all sizes to bed for the soon-to-come winter. Lyman-Morse at Wayfarer has about 40 moorings in the inner…
On Eating and Loving Food
Fish chowder is one of those things we eat year-round. It’s not a summer thing. It’s not a winter thing. It’s an everyday thing.
It’s on a lot of menus in…
Usually a logistics challenge —
Do they count Penobscot Island Air when they do those surveys of “holiday air travel” for the evening news?
As I write, Thanksgiving approaches, and I’ve just flown home from a day’s…
In February of this year I lost my dad unexpectedly. He was a force, both in my life and in the community. He was an irreplaceable person, a phrase confirmed by legions…
On Eating and Loving Food
Thanksgiving. Turkey with stuffing and gravy, mashed potatoes, squash and cranberry sauce. Those are typically three of the items that will be found on most tables on Thanksgiving.
And how…
WASHINGTON, D.C. — This week, families across our state will gather to share turkey and stuffing and (hopefully) a Maine blueberry pie – but we all know the food won't be the star of the show. No…
On Eating and Loving Food
This week it’s not about a recipe of my mother’s, grandmother’s, or great-grandmother’s. Or mine.
Sanny Norton shared a recipe on Facebook last week and it looked mouthwateringly yummy. So…
