Twenty years younger in three seconds

Last Saturday, the Woman’s Literary Union of Androscoggin County held the “Fairy Godmother Prom Gown Giveaway” to help high school girls having trouble affording their prom dress. Over 50 teenagers got to choose from 225 new and gently-used gowns in Foss Mansion in Auburn.

I covered the giveaway for Sunday’s Sun Journal, spending most of my time on the mansion’s second floor where I got to talk with some of the girls and browse the beautiful gowns. After about an hour, interviews done and notes taken, I headed out.

And then an organization volunteer stopped me.

“Did you find your dress?” she asked me sweetly.

Um.

Well.

The thing is, I’m 38 years old. I haven’t been a high school student for 20 years.

“No, I’m a reporter,” I told her. I shook her hand. “But thank you! You’re my new best friend.”

— Lindsay Tice

Thankful for cold snap, snow

The cold snap that turned heavy rain on April 15 into half a foot of snow by early morning on April 16 was greatly appreciated by Rumford and Mexico Town Manager John Madigan.

Up to that point, when temperatures suddenly plummeted below freezing, high temperatures and rain had melted much of the considerable snowpack in the Androscoggin and Swift river watersheds, causing streams and rivers to start flooding the River Valley area.

Addressing Rumford selectmen on April 17, Madigan said, “We were spared by that cold snap the other night when it all turned to snow.”

“The last time I saw the water that high was the ’87 flood, and we were right on the edge,” he said. “And had (the temperatures) not gone down or we had a little bit more rain, we’d have been in trouble.”

From what he’d seen while driving around town, Madigan said low areas like Sunnyside Terrace and Prospect Avenue in Rumford, and Holman Avenue, Flood Street and Carleton Avenue in Mexico, are prone to spring runoff flooding. 

“Those streets flood every year,” he said. “We were spared a lot of damage. We were very lucky. Best cold snap. First time all winter I was so happy it was cold.”

—  Terry Karkos

He’ll be the judge of that

Defense attorney Peter Rodway was addressing Active-Retired Justice Robert Clifford on Tuesday in the Androscoggin County Law Library during the sentencing of Rodway’s client, Ali-Nassir Ahmed.

Ahmed had been convicted at a bench trial on one count of felony theft by deception, stemming from his subsidy by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on an apartment he and his wife shared for years in Lewiston. Prosecutors showed the couple actually had ample income during that period of time and didn’t qualify for the subsidy.

Rodway was making an argument before the judge for a low basic sentence, asking Clifford to compare the manner in which Ahmed committed the theft in comparison to other ways another person charged with the same crime might have behaved.

“Theft from a vulnerable victim or theft by a sophisticated scheme,” Rodway offered as two examples of worse ways to commit theft.

“The United States government can’t, I would suggest, be looked at as a vulnerable victim.”

“Even though it’s 17 trillion dollars in debt?” Clifford countered, without missing a beat.

“I hadn’t thought of that,” Rodway replied. “But, you know, as compared to some older person who has a knock on the door: ‘I’ll pave your driveway. Give me $5,000 and then they never pave the driveway.’”

“I understand,” Clifford said. “Your point is well taken.”

— Christopher Williams

How did he tame a 750-pound bear?

On April 14, Montana children’s author Ben Mikaelsen spoke to Lewiston Middle School students about bullying, writing and his life experiences, including how he raised a 750-pound black bear, Buffy.

OK. Considering the challenge I had training my black lab, how did he tame a black bear?

“Why didn’t it eat you?” I asked.

Bears don’t automatically eat something just because it’s there (unlike my lab), but when threatened, bears can be incredibly dangerous, said Mikaelsen, who is an adventurer.

He got the bear very young from a research organization. At first, Buffy “was not tame. If a stranger came into his pen, he’d probably kill him.” For the first eight months, Buffy tolerated Mikaelsen because, after all, he fed him. It wasn’t until he was eight months old that they bonded.

“I came home one day and a (second) wild bear was attacking his cub pen,” he said. “He almost entered it.” Mikaelsen beeped his horn and threw rocks, but the attacking bear didn’t back down. Mikaelsen then picked up a broom, hoisted it over his head “and ran at him like a banshee.” The attacking bear took off.

Buffy was shaken up.

Miikaelsen crawled in the pen, and after 15 minutes, the bear “crawled over to me, got on my lap and hugged me.”

At that point, the bear realized Mikaelsen was not only his provider but his protector.

“We bonded. I spent four to five hours a day with him.”

— Bonnie Washuk

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