Still contemplating a major for your college career? Don’t go looking in the course book under “Demonology.”

Keith Johnson and his twin, Carl, in Lewiston today for the 2005 New England Ghost Conference, are members of The Atlantic Paranormal Society. On the Sci-Fi Channel show “Ghost Hunters,” which features the society, the brothers are called demonologists.

“I get e-mails every single day asking me, How can I become a certified demonologist?'” Keith Johnson said in an interview last week.

It’s a bit more subtle than a degree program, he says. “I don’t claim to be certified.”

A mix of personal experience and the study of the nature of the demonic realm, including angels, has led to the title, he said.

The Web site for the brothers’ own group, New England Anomalies Research, has an entire section devoted to demonology. Topics include “String Theory, Spirits & Synchronicity: The ranks and categories of principal devils and chief demons.”

Almost sounds like a course title.

– Kathryn Skelton
Mystery unfurls

A mysterious Civil War-era flag that has hung for decades in the Lewiston superintendent’s building will soon get a facelift.

A restoration expert will take the faded flag to New York next week, where she will clean, repair and preserve it.

The flag has been displayed in the superintendent’s building for “as long as anyone can remember,” said Human Resources Director Tom Jarvis, who is heading the flag preservation effort. Furled in a glass box and placed near windows, the flag grew dingy and fragile. When the building was renovated recently, officials carefully moved the display away from natural light.

An old index card gives the flag’s only known history: It flew over the city’s high school in 1865. It was donated to the school system by the Class of 1901.

“There’s all kinds of gray area,” said Jarvis. “There’s kind of a mystery out there.”

Since it’s been furled for so long, officials don’t even know how big the flag is or what it really looks like. In 1865, it wasn’t unusual for militias or states to create their own Stars and Stripes, Jarvis said.

After the flag is preserved, officials hope to display it unfurled in the superintendent’s building. Gwen Spicer, who worked on flags from Augusta’s Hall of Flags, will pick it up Monday. Officials don’t know how long it will be gone.

Depending on what is needed, the restoration could cost a few thousand dollars. That money will come from the school system budget.

People with any information on the flag’s history are asked to call Tom Jarvis at 795-4100.

– Lindsay Tice
Political footnote

Whether it was intentional or not, the clich “saving the best for last,” proved true at the Oct. 12 Maine Ethics Commission investigative hearing in Augusta into the 2004 campaigns of Julia St. James and Sarah Trundy.

Jessica Larlee of Minot, the last of four witnesses interviewed during the eight-hour ordeal, appeared to have stunned commissioners not only with her appearance but also with rambling testimony.

Larlee, Trundy’s campaign manager and St. James’ treasurer, walked in sporting a wild-looking snarl of dreadlocks, charcoal sweatshirt, faded brown jeans and sneakers.

After a brief foray into the twilight zone regarding psychic behavior, Larlee’s testimony drew looks of incredulity most of the time.

At one point, Larlee pleaded the Fifth when asked if she had anything to do with a smear mailing in a February 2004 campaign in Biddeford. Then, she proceeded to tell stunned commissioners everything about it.

Not only did Larlee shed light on her role in Trundy’s campaign, but she also got in some footwork about a postcard mailing.

“Sarah has these tattoos on her toes of the moon and stars, and I thought that’d be cool if we put those on the card,” she said.

– Terry Karkos