Polar vortex, cold, wind chill, chilly: All references to the weather last weekend, when the polar vortex descended in full force. Temperatures hovered around zero,…
Columns
On Eating and Loving Food
I rarely order a sandwich when I go out to dinner. I want dinner at dinnertime. With a manhattan before and wine with. Sandwiches are for lunch.
But lately I've been known to order a…
Part 1 of 2
On Eating and Loving Food
Fall is when I start thinking about apples and apple pie. I rarely have either in the summer.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t care less about eating an apple. A fresh, crunchy cold apple just…
If you’re a follower of mine on Facebook, you no doubt have seen the posts about the bear baiting, donut Saturday mornings. I post about sharing a donut with a local law officer while on my way to…
There was a story I happened to see twice on the evening news back on Thursday — first on the NBC evening news, and then another report ran…
‘My husband hasn't been feeling good for a few days. How is yours?’
In the early 1900s, we were fortunate not to have telephones, automobiles, etc. Maybe you can't imagine why but there is one good reason. In spite of the fact that we love our…
On Eating and Loving Food
Speaking of comfort foods (soups and chowders over the past couple weeks), have you had a chicken pie from Wiscasset General Store lately? No? Okay, don't say I didn't warn you. If you're trying…
The words to the old sea chanty, in the back of my head, make me smile when I drive the truck noisily aboard the ferry, banging onto the steel deck in a U-Haul loaded with a ton-plus of trash,…
Look Up!
Late at night sometime in early spring 1989, at Middlebury College in Vermont, word spread quickly through the dorms: Go outside and look at…
On Eating and Loving Food
Turkey. Now there's an interesting subject. Wonder what made me think of that. Just kidding.
CNN reported that last Thanksgiving an…
Sign orchards .... Hunting as a season ..... Buy local, give local
I live with a man who is prone to posting appropriate comic strips around the house, appropriate by his lights, that is. One that survived many years on our refrigerator door had Snoopy sitting on…
This year is more like uncivil disobedience
I usually don’t write just before elections because everyone is more interested in letters to the editor than my drivel and it’s hard to get space to get noticed. This election was something, wasn…
On Eating and Loving Food
It's that time of year. Time for chowders like the one I made last week, and soups like the one I made last night — curried cream of butternut squash soup.
…
On Eating and Loving Food
Hot chowder on a cold day: The ultimate comfort food. Seriously. Imagine taking a long walk — like 10,000 steps — on one of these cold days. Like Angie McLellan, Julie…
It would not be a good idea for me to write a political opinion column, because nothing is simple enough in my worldview or my experience to fit into a succinct, tidy, manageable, gross…
On Eating and Loving Food
I used to pick mussels off the rocks in front of the cottage in Cushing at low tide.
We had them way too often when I was a kid. They…
Down by the sea
We are all too young to have seen the carved figureheads on the bow of large vessels, but they existed and are seen now, I believe only in museums. I recently saw two in the Maine Marine Museum in…
On Eating and Loving Food
Okay, so a couple weeks ago I told you about my favorite choco, or chocolate cookies. At some point in my ramblings about those I mentioned my other favorite cookies: Ginger. I never shortened it…
Look up!
The constellation Gemini, the Twins, is dominated by two bright stars side-by-side in the sky above Orion: Castor and Pollux. These twin brothers share an interesting backstory in Greek mythology…
Industrial Arts
John Donne wrote, “No man is an island.” Simon and Garfunkel countered with, “I am a rock; I am an island.” Sometimes a summer visitor will comment—with the most romantic of intonation—that they…
I’ve been seeing ads for devices that you attach to something you might lose and these things help you find those lost things. On the surface, they sound kind of interesting, but me being me it…
On Eating and Loving Food
I know I've mentioned salads with hot pan fried sliced steak thrown on top — maybe more than once, but I haven't really stressed how good it is.
A hot steak salad is my go-to dinner —…
Penobscot Falcon
When I was a teenager, I entered a model railroad competition at the encouragement of my father […
On Eating and Loving Food
Choco cookies: That's what I wrote on the recipe card 30 years ago, when I was into shortening any word that could be shortened: lobs, spags and balls and choco were…
On Eating and Loving Food
Remember Crepes Suzette? I think back when I first heard the word “crepe” it was never mentioned without the last name, Suzette.
…
Industrial Arts...
As the treasurer of the Association, I just paid the power bill for the Matinicus Island Library. That felt pretty good.
This past summer, residents and visitors to Matinicus Island have…
Industrial Arts...
For the last few decades we've had a regular rotation of observers venturing out to Matinicus for a day or an hour and nattering on about ours being a "unique lifestyle." Writers, especially, and…
“Hands across the water, heads across the sky.”
Remember those words from Paul and Linda McCartney's song “Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey?” I always thought it was “hands across the sky,” too.…
On Eating and Loving Food
Back in the mid ’70s I was a soda jerk at Mitchell's Drug Store on Townsend Ave. It was during my first winter in Boothbay Harbor after I came back from sailing to the Caribbean with my first…
Down to the sea
The Babb family has been a prominent family in Camden for many years. Del Babb and Janaan Babb Vaughn live in town today. It is their grandmother, whom I write about, because…
Look up!
When you look the full moon in the face, what do you see? Many see features of a man's face — the Man in the Moon — amid the dark and light patches created by the moon's topography. A wonderful…
‘I need to state that all of this is alleged’
People keep asking me why I haven’t been writing and why they haven’t seen any articles from me, lately. Well, I’ve been wicked busy and when I’m busy it’s hard to find time to write and then I…
On Eating and Loving Food
“For decades we've been trucking our super fresh, delicious scallops to out of state processing centers where they're mixed in with the stuff from the Federal fishery…
On Eating and Loving Food
OK, so as I said last week this column has been dragging on for half a year now. I just counted 25 food columns! Yikes! Time flies.
I’…
Okay so I cheated you out of a recipe last week. I'm sorry, but every time I started writing about the one I'm going to give you this week, my ADD kicked in and I got…
On eating and loving food
So, on the off chance any of you were freaking out because my food column didn’t appear in last week’s Boothbay Register, Wiscasset Newspaper and Penbay Pilot, relax, I…
Look Up!
When you think of the "dog days of summer," you think of dogs lying around panting in the sun. But in fact this period of extreme heat was named for the Dog Star, Sirius, which rises with the sun…
Okay I know I’ve said this so many times you’re probably sick of hearing it but I really do love food, and eating. As I say in my disclaimer at the bottom of each of my columns I’m not a chef and…
Down to the sea
Of great interest in Maine, to natives and tourists alike, are Camden’s Curtis Island Light and all the lighthouses along the coast. There are many of various sizes and shapes. These…
On Eating and Loving Food
Who doesn’t covet a raw oyster?
Me.
So far I’ve only written about foods I love, or at least like: good sandwiches, pizza, biscuits, chocolate cream pie, popovers, chocolate bread…
Look up!
For most of this summer, the planet Jupiter is the king of our evening sky. Named for the Romans' king of the gods, the largest planet in…
Out to Sea
I’ve always loved little spaces that I could make my own. I remember when I was a kid,…
On Eating and Loving Food
OK guys, I’m going to apologize before I even start this week because what I’m about to tell you could ruin your resolve to lose weight for your summer attire. Be forewarned.
…
‘What’s the weather supposed to be?’ .... ‘Well, it’s supposed to come around sou’west.’
Last week was National Lightning Safety Awareness Week. I had no idea there was such a thing.
First, I'll confess to a moment of complete idiocy as regards the subject of lightning safety.…
Down by the sea
In 1928, when Mrs. Edward Bok purchased land for the Camden Public Library, she also purchased all the land around it and across the road to the Camden Harbor. The place had been filled…
He was an ideal choice for a Godfather
Life is full of things we have to do and things we don’t look forward to doing. Often, they’re the same thing. That’s what’s happening to me on Sunday. I have to pay my respects to my Godfather…
how does a bird know where it's going that high up and in the dark?
Step outside on a clear night in late spring, look up at the stars, and listen. You probably won't catch the music of the celestial spheres. But if you listen carefully, you just might hear the…
