Category Archives: penobscot
Decision time in Bangor and Baseball
Driving below the speed limit is an act of ‘Civil Obedience’
You can drive around the block, but not around the world
Although he died in 1994, Bernard Moitessier keeps popping up in my life. For those who care about such things, Moitessier is famous for participating in, and then withdrawing from, the 1968-69 Golden Globe Race, the first solo sailing race around the world. The rules were simple: Leave from England, sail south and then east […]
The murder weapon was a car
A car in the wrong hands can be a lethal weapon, as the recent confrontation in Charlottesville showed us again. It’s impossible for me to fathom how anyone can think that deliberately striking someone with an automobile is acceptable under any circumstances. That it was done in the name of “white supremacy” makes it all […]
Do you Believe in Miracles? The August Eclipse
A total eclipse of the Sun almost makes me believe in God. Barring unforeseen circumstances, I’ll be in Missouri on August 21 to see my fifth one of these things, but my first since 1979. A total solar eclipse is, hands down, the most extraordinary natural event I’ve ever witnessed. For a few minutes, […]
Public Transportation in Maine is a lot like Sailing
I didn’t get my sailboat to Rockland on time this year for the North Atlantic Blues Festival, but I did catch some of the action on the water during Friendship Sloop Days. The Rockland Lobster Festival begins August 2. From Bangor, it’s easy to get to Rockland without a car, and you don’t need a […]
Whither Wiscasset? To Bypass, or Not?
When I was a child, and my family drove up to Maine each summer from Pennsylvania, we always passed through Wiscasset. It billed itself as “The Prettiest Village in Maine,” but what I remember most vividly were the two old wooden ships rotting on the western shore of the Sheepscot River. We always had time […]
A Subtle Bias against the Bus
Last week, our local newspaper, the Bangor Daily News, reported some good news for public transportation in the area. The Community Connector bus system has acquired several new buses. Several officials speculated that the new, reliable buses could lead to an eventual extension of service hours later in the evening. This would be a […]
First there is a Fountain, then there is no Fountain, then…?
As I was walking in Pickering Square, heading for the bus with early summer in the air, from another direction I heard the sound of jackhammers. Orange-clad workers were reducing the fountain at the corner of the square to rubble. “They’re taking it out,” said a man I recognized from shared bus rides. “Too many […]