Doooooooughnuts On an early evening in Kennedy Park last week, while a handful of police had gathered to keep the peace, a woman came walking through with a big box of Dunkin’ Donuts in her hand. A weird moment ensued as the officers tried to deduce whether she had brought the doughnuts for them and […]
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Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
The runaway hair and other capers
Tell it like it is Heard a police call the other night during which some downtown ne’er-do-well was reported to be acting strangely in the narrow dark between tenement buildings. The first cop to arrive in the area totally dispensed with the legal mumbo jumbo and tedious 10 codes and reported that the shady suspect […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn
Grandmother Sargent's 1893 trip to the Wild West
I will probably always think of my grandmother as a small lady with snow-white hair who led a quiet life at our family farm homestead. But there was another side to Hattie Field Sargent. I got some insight about that other woman from a 56-year-old newspaper story of her “trip to the Wild West.” It […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Talk of the town: Say it like you mean it
He went that-a-way A police foot chase one recent night came to an end right next to the Wendy’s drive-through window on Center Street in Auburn. See? This is exactly why, if I was a crook, I’d keep a red-headed pigtail wig and some fake freckles as a disguise. As it turns out, I already […]
Posted inRiver Valley
Young Rainy remembered
My little goose, less than 1 year old, has died. Rainy tried to lay an egg too soon and it got stuck. Despite taking her to the veterinarian, giving her antibiotics and tenderly caring for her, she died. I know we could not have done anything more, but I feel so bad. Although I have […]
Posted inLocal Sports, sj-web
In the Crease: As love for tournaments grows, so too should the tourney season
And so ends the busiest week of the winter sports season. Really, it’s the busiest week of the high school sports calendar, and it’s not even close: The Maine Principals’ Association awarded no fewer than 20 state team championships in the past nine days. Another five days from now, 20 teams will vie for 10 […]
Posted inBethel, Franklin, Oxford Hills, River Valley
Geese are built to withstand cold winter months
Sometimes I wish I had all that lovely down that my flock of geese has. I look outside the back window during this frigid, wintry weather and wonder how they stay healthy and well during such awful weather. But my geese, although domesticated for hundreds of years, have a historic memory taken from their wild […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Farewell (for now) after 27 years, and change
It makes no sense when you consider the salary and hours, the occupational hazards and reduced life expectancy, but young men and women fresh out of college are engaged in an everyday battle royal to get into this profession. They would be flabbergasted, probably even infuriated, to learn that I stumbled into it while loitering […]
Posted inLocal Sports
The Hot Corner: Failure to appreciate Warriors, Bryant is your loss
At some point since the turn of the century, mostly with the help — no, hindrance — of technology, we lost our ability to appreciate great athletic achievement. Our cynicism and our ridiculous rush to be too-cool-for-school have taken over. Post-game interviews aren’t finished and we’re already falling on our asterisk, eager to compare, contrast, clarify […]
Posted inLocal Sports
Skiing: Spring conditions always mixed bag
I don’t know how many times I have driven from Maine to Vermont, sometimes heading for northern areas and others to the southern part of the state. I have driven in all kinds of weather, from super cold to warm spring days, but never have I experienced a drive like we had a week ago […]