The staff at the Penobscot Park dining room and lunch counter in Searsport. PHOTO: PENOBSCOT MARINE MUSEUM

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Ready to serve ‘people from away’

The staff of the Penobscot Park dining room and lunch counter in Searsport meet the gaze of the Eastern Illustrating & Publishing Co. photographer’s camera in the accompanying photo. Their serious faces are frozen in time on a glass plate negative. The tables are set and the shelf behind the… SEE MORE

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Maine should welcome immigrants… again

Few countries were unscathed by the Great Recession, whose symptoms first appeared in the fall of 2008 and which metastasized six months later as U.S. unemployment rates nearly hit 10%. Scary times, and certainly unprecedented in most of our lifetimes. One country that was hit especially hard was Iceland. The… SEE MORE

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Island landscapes, island stories

Vinalhaven—Portrait of a Maine Island Photos by Joel Greenberg, Narratives by Phil Crossman Vinalhaven—Portrait of an Island is a wonderful, wonderful book. The beautifully composed, nuanced images of Joel Greenberg together with Phil Crossman’s stories are the threads that weave these lovely images together into a fully realized rare experience.… SEE MORE

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A kinder, gentler visit to Maine

Vacationland: A Novel By Meg Mitchell Moore (2022) Dear readers, a true confession: I’m late to this party, reading what are known as “beach books,” “escapist novels,” or “summer fiction.” These books have romance in them, but the focus seems as much on managing complex relationships with friends and family… SEE MORE

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Anatomy of a failure: Who killed Quoddy?

Moondoggle: Franklin Roosevelt and the Fight for Tidal-electric Power at Passamaquoddy Bay By Mark C. Borton, Downeast Books (2023) A rival to the Hoover Dam in Eastport? That could have been the Quoddy project to generate electricity from one of the highest tides in the world. For Mainers, the ghost… SEE MORE

Stan Beal’s "Wharf, Beals, Maine,” (2022) collage, 18-inches by 24-inches. IMAGE: COURTESY LITTLEFIELD GALLERY

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Mary Prince: On Stan Beal’s wharf

While attending St. Andrews Presbyterian College in Laurinburg, N.C. in the late 1960s, Mary Prince drove through Maine on a trip to St. Andrews, New Brunswick. “I felt immediately that Washington County was the place where I wanted to live,” she recalls. And live there she did: In 1983, the… SEE MORE

Visitors enjoy Popham Beach in Phippsburg in 1886. PHOTO: MAINE MARITIME MUSEUM

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Beach recreation is relatively new

The practice of beachgoing is more modern than one might expect. In fact, it wasn’t until the turn of the 19th century that a cultural appreciation for beachgoing gained solid footing in European society. Popular medical texts touted the benefits of ocean air and dips in frigid waters. At the… SEE MORE

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In our spare time…

All the recent noise about AI, artificial intelligence, has left me wondering what we are going to do with all our spare time. AI apparently can learn, solve problems, and plan for the future, which leads me to suspect that considering the state of the world, there was an awful… SEE MORE

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Wisdom from my mother-in-law

This month’s deadline at the end of April has me staring at my 70th birthday arriving in May. I admit to having mixed feelings about it, but so far the only birthday that really bothered me was my 40th. I remember having tea with my mother-in-law, Anna, and her friend,… SEE MORE

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A supreme encounter on Vinalhaven

A few years ago, the chief justice of the United States administered the oath of office to president-elect Barack Obama. Perhaps he was all the while recalling his visit to Vinalhaven the previous summer and comparing this lofty and prestigious Washington moment with that less auspicious occasion on the island.… SEE MORE