It was suggested that I continue my Cheers and Jeers column, which I resurrected last week, each week. It is a good suggestion, but I think it may get a bit stale after a while. I will bring it to…

I was going to do my usual cheerleading. After all, it’s a beautiful time of year on our beautiful Midcoast. It still will be next week.

Let’s take a moment to talk about our nation’s…

About a week ago, a century-old dam, a decades-old diner and a meetinghouse still standing after nearly a quarter of a millennium, all kept hanging onto the Earth as always, through our planet’s…

Fourteen months ago, I had a column entitled Cheers & Jeers. I explained that Cheers & Jeers was a feature I remembered from the days of reading TV Guide. The magazine picked out the good…

A dollar a day doesn’t go far, much less one a year. On a sale or lease, it’s a token to help document a deal. 

I like the fine arts, all of them, some more than others. My associate’s…

No, I'm not writing about Jackie Bradley Jr.'s latest highlight, or one of the most memorable putouts in baseball history, Willie Mays' over the shoulder grab while on the dead run.

But yes…

Family reunions are the best. At least in my family they are. I have a huge family. There were 55 of us – dads, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, significant others, girlfriends…

Some weeks, we are practically singing with good news online and on these pages; and this week, some of it is ours.

On our websites, Facebook and now on our front page of this week’s print…

Enjoy it while it's here.

Summer, the great equalizer to one's mood after months of cold, wet and cool weather — and a business's bottom line — has finally arrived and we're loving it.…

When I scrap an editorial for one good reason or another, one source of quick inspiration is to see what special day, week or month is upon us.

To wit:…

We hope everyone enjoyed the 57th edition of Windjammer Days last week. Personally, I didn't get to a lot of the activities due to work and doing things with our son, brother-in-law/wife's brother…

Five years ago this week, Wiscasset went independent on education. July 1, 2014 was the town's first day outside Sheepscot Valley Regional School Unit 12.

How's it going?

OK and, in…

Keep a good thing going.

Wiscasset and Boothbay Region schools have tried a bunch of times in recent years to band together on sports teams, sometimes successfully. Cross-country, soccer…

Our assistant editor, Susan Johns, makes a good point in her editorial this week. Boothbay and Wiscasset high schools should continue trying to work together to salvage sports teams before they…

For those who have never been here in the Boothbay or Wiscasset region, welcome! It is now summer and there's lots to do, including next week's 57th annual Windjammer Days Festival in Boothbay…

Friends of Wiscasset Village's Orange Barrel Festival idea sounds like a hoot, embracing the weirdness of what we've all been driving, walking, or biking through this spring, and celebrating the…

Happy early Father's Day to you, Dad, and to all the men I know who are fathers. We, like mothers, are honored with a national holiday. According to the National Days Calendar, "In 1966, President…

Some of the nicest bouquets have a mix of flowers and, since this was a super busy week with graduation and a lot of other, mostly good news, I offer just a spring mix of mentions:

…

After thousands of high school seniors receive their graduation diploma this spring, many will get ready for the next phase of their lives; it may be college, the military, travel or just showing…

Did you help build the McCain?

Did a loved one or someone else you know? Were they among the thousands of Mainers (read: Americans) who built it for our Navy at Bath Iron Works?…

There were a lot of positive observances as I traveled around the region this past week. Here are some you might relate to:

Leaves on the trees, and grass and flowers growing so speedily…

It wasn't the infamous take-out coffee cup in "Game of Thrones," but a word that found its way into a video interview Friday was ironic: "Lost."

…

My longtime friend Munro Dodge, who moved from Boothbay Harbor to Boothbay a couple of years ago, grew up in East Boothbay.

Some of you may not know it, but many of you know he is a true…

To look at, live near, or sail it, kayak, fish, or cool off in it, Midcoast Mainers are drawn to the water. For some, it's why they're here, or here this time of year.

May is National Water…

I hope you have noticed that when I title my column, Three things, I am usually on a tight schedule or have not thought about writing on one topic. I hope you don’t mind.

The first of “…

The Midcoast's recurring strings of dark, chilly and often rainy days this spring have made the sunny Saturdays of late all the more welcome. Timing can be everything, for sports, fundraisers and…

Reading of the latest school shooting, Tuesday in Denver, involving student gunmen, and the child suicide statistics Gov. Janet Mills cited earlier this week in bringing back the Children's…

I'm leaving the Patriots out because it's only May and some of us are still smiling from witnessing another Super Bowl victory three months ago.

But it has been a busy month for my TV…

Can you hear it?

This spring's growing chorus of area town officials talking comprehensive plans means at least three things: If the towns commit to the reviews, massive work awaits; that…

Kindness appears out of the blue most times. You see it happening all around almost on a daily basis, especially if you look close enough.

Fortunately for me these past two weeks (and…

Can you picture your favorite local summer event without the volunteers? How about the rest of the year’s? I couldn’t think of any that would be what they are, if they would happen at all. And…

I don't pretend to be a techie. I've learned on the run since our website expanded from a seed to a mighty oak but I am still on the first set of branches when it comes to knowing processes, terms…

Summer is coming.

That play on a buzz phrase from HBO’s “Game of Thrones” might give you the wrong idea. I’ve never watched the epic show.  It looks well done, but I’ll take my soap operas…

OK, Rick Charette, you're going to get what you love. Charette, Maine's longtime children's singer-songwriter, wrote the popular song, "I Love Mud." Well, maybe he doesn't love mud but we are…

You know who you are.

You love it here, but have the good sense to fly or drive south before the first icy wind foretells the season of the white sky, with its six months of snow and total…

April 7-13 is National Library Week.

So, I must admit, I can't remember the last time I "used" our library's resources. Lord knows, I like to read, but I am not a voracious reader. Perhaps…

One of the hardest parts to observe in a homicide trial can be the autopsy review. The medical examiner speaks in extensive detail and we include some of that detail in our coverage, because we…

Do you have earworm? Earworm, which I only recently discovered as a real word, is a term for songs that you can't get out of your head because of their catchy melody or repeated stanzas.

It…

It has been good having Chris Cooper back moderating Alna's annual town meetings after a hiatus. I've only ever seen competent moderators there and elsewhere, but with resident Cooper, you could…

I have had many regular summer visitors in the office over the years, bringing in news releases, columns, renewing their subscription, or just wanting to say hi after a long winter.

Last…

Have you seen the signs around our towns?

Bump.

There are more bumps, or frost heaves, than signs, but any warning beats none.

If you slow down, you can avoid your back hatch…

Lucille Machon had already lived through a world war, a war in Korea and witnessed the start of the Vietnam War before I was born. But like her, we were both born and raised in Boothbay Harbor,…

What will later generations say instead of "March comes in like a lion?"

March comes in like a lion, whatever that was.

March comes in like a predatory beast in an online game?

There are many things I will (try) to remember about the most successful Lady Seahawk basketball season ever – the 2019 undefeated and state championship team.

Now, I am not an insider but…

What's the coldest you've ever been for, say, 20 minutes or more?

The temperatures in the teens and lower on Monday and Tuesday this week, coupled with the 30 mph and higher winds, were…

Kudos to Central Maine Power on its quick work around the region Monday as some of us lost power in the windstorm. Thankfully, the outages in our towns were mostly spotty and, except for the…

We all have them. Days when everything seems to go smoothly and then there are the days when you want to pull your hair out because of unexpected problems that come your way. Some say it is all in…

Remember the party line? My grandparents had one, on their rotary dial phone. Remember rotary dial? The party, or shared, line meant they and someone else had different rings to answer. I think…

Tuesday into Wednesday winter storms are not conducive to tiptop weekly newspaper production. We worked hard to get this issue finished by the end of the day on Tuesday so the staff wouldn’t have…

Good calls as usual, Wiscasset Area Chamber of Commerce, on this year's picks for your annual awards. I can't go downtown without running into Lincoln County Regional Planning Commission's Mary…