The police scanner started buzzing about 10 a.m.

An alarm was sounding at the Auburn City Building. Nobody inside could find the source, and the dispatcher was calling for a fire crew.

A couple of minutes went by.

“Nothing visible from the outside. I’m going in to investigate,” a firefighter mumbled into his radio.

A couple of more minutes passed.

Then the firefighter’s voice came back. No need to send additional units, he reported. The city’s central business office was not going down in flames.

He had found the problem: Aqua Net.

Someone in the bathroom – a city employee who wanted to look good for an important meeting maybe, or a local resident who didn’t have time to primp before paying her excise tax – was going a little heavy on the hair spray, and the fumes set off the alarm.

– Lisa Chmelecki
Eerrors

It happens all the time, most recently when I picked up a take-out order at the corner store. Written on my ham and cheese Italian: Skeleton.

People always add the extra e.

Imagine my relief to discover that it’s not only me.

Preparing for a panel discussion on homelessness at Bates College Monday night, students hung directions at several spots in Chase Hall.

According to signs, the talk was upstairs, in the “Skeleton” Lounge, downright creepy if it had been closer to Halloween.

A plaque said the room was named back in 1956 for William B. Skelton, a 48-year trustee at Bates. Perhaps a distant relation, and definitely, given the date, unaware of the offending e.

– Kathryn Skelton