Week 1 of high school football quickly showed me two things: A) Adding a fourth class didn’t dramatically reduce the number of blowouts. B) The politics of navigating those one-sided games, for both victorious and vanquished coaches, will never change. Coaches consistently proclaim that games of hammer-versus-nail “aren’t good for anybody,” and those gentlemen are […]
column
Street Talk: I can help you with your many, many, many, many problems
Some weeks, I wish I had an advice column. No more wracking my brain for fresh ideas or fetching old columns out of the recycle bin and hoping nobody will notice. Remember the time I did that? No? Well, just forget I said anything about it, then. Yup, an advice column would be just the […]
The Hot Corner: Time to examine what our kids are consuming
There are so many visible and intangible forces sabotaging our kids’ lives that we just can’t seem to keep track of them all. We’ve done a credible job, for example, with anti-bullying programs and by teaching them to respect people of different faiths, skin tones or other orientations. Yet somehow we fell asleep at the […]
Par For the Course: Match play tourney set for Fox Ridge
No tournament ever will replace the Maine Amateur as the crown jewel of amateur events in the Pine Tree State, but the Maine State Golf Association’s Match Play Championship, scheduled Tuesday through Thursday at Fox Ridge, has become a popular event in this, just its fourth year of existence. Unfortunately, only one of the past […]
Outdoors in Maine: Any-deer rules revised to attract young hunters
As a rule most of us — even those who try to stay informed — learn about new state laws after the fact. It’s the nature of the beast. If you quit your job and became a total recluse holed up in a cave with nothing but an I-Pad, a year’s supply of energy bars, […]
The Hot Corner: Super win for the little guys
OXFORD — Travis Benjamin now has won the same TD Bank 250 that Kyle Busch dominated two years ago. Same event that Kevin Harvick commanded three Julys before that. The difference couldn’t be more dramatic if you took a panoramic photo of Charlotte Motor Speedway, then plopped it down next to a snapshot of Benjamin’s […]
The Hot Corner: Forty looks super on this little, big race
Turning 40 gets a bad rap. I’ve been there, and now, as of Sunday evening, so has the TD Bank 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway. When approaching that milestone, we often read about the dreaded midlife crisis. Hey, I changed the left digit of my age together with the right one eight months ago, and […]
Outdoors in Maine: No consensus solution to waterproofing conundrum
Staying dry in unrelenting wet weather is easier said than done. It surely isn’t as easy as it sounds in the outdoor clothing catalogs. A camper, hunter, or angler who finds himself wet clear through to the skin is no longer having any fun. One of my shortcomings as an outdoorsman has been making poor […]
The Hot Corner: Ten days of angst, bargaining and acceptance
They don’t make television and movie comedies like they used to. When you’re connected to Boston sports fans through every pipeline of new media, however, you don’t need a sign reminding you to giggle or guffaw. It’s like Caddyshack multiplied by Animal House filtered through Cheers, every fun-loving day. If you aren’t ROFL, LYAO, either […]