Bishop outfit is hot 

During last week’s heat wave it was uncomfortably hot in most schools, but at least most students and faculty dressed for the weather, wearing shirts or skirts, capris or short sleeves.

But when you’re Maine’s Roman Catholic bishop, officiating at a back-to-school Mass, you don’t get to wear cool clothes.

Four priests and one monsignor co-celebrating Wednesday’s service at St. Dominic Academy with Malone wore their normal black pants and shirts covered by not one, but two robes. The gym was not air-conditioned. Can you say warm?

The priests weren’t wearing anything on their heads. Bishop Richard Malone wore all those robes, plus headwear. He wore the bishop’s cap, which looks like a beanie, plus a tall bishop headpiece called a “mitre.” He did take it off at times during the service.

After the ceremony, the flushed-face Malone was about to answer a few questions when he said he was warm, and could he first take off his headpiece? On days like that it ought to come with a fan inside, he mused.

— Bonnie Washuk

The dummy’s gone home

After nearly a month-long run as an accidental attraction on North Auburn Road in Auburn, Dan Bilodeau took his resuscitation mannequin back to his family’s camp in New Hampshire last week and did a dump run with the scene that had popped up around him: A fan, a lamp, TV, grill, Uncle Henry’s, a Diet Coke and women’s lingerie.

What started as simply a TV left outside a faded garage quickly grew with neighbors’ help.

“We’ve got people saying they were disappointed that he had taken off,” Bilodeau said. “They looked forward to seeing him.”

He said it felt like time to return the dummy. He’d also half-worried about what might pop up near him next, and how he’d dispose of it.

The elements didn’t leave the star attraction any worse for wear.

In New Hampshire, “he’s survived coconut marshmallows stuffed in his mouth, a hot poker in the eye — he’s pretty durable,” Bilodeau said. “That’s probably the reason he wanted to go back.”

(The marshmallows, not the poker.)

There’s a chance the dummy isn’t gone for good, he said. Its future might include “a winter scene.”

— Kathryn Skelton

A walk in the pink

The Auburn-Lewiston YMCA is going pink.

The club has partnered with CyBex International and the Breast Cancer Research Foundation to raise awareness about breast cancer. It’s part of a nationwide effort by YMCAs to promote the importance of walking and exercise as a preventive measure to reduce the risk of breast cancer.

In clubs across the country, CyBex International will install its custom pink treadmills and, for every mile logged on the machines in October, CyBex will donate 10 cents toward cancer research.

This is the second annual Pink Ribbon Run organized by the company. Last year, Americans logged more than 250,000 miles on the pink treadmills.

CyBex Executive Director Joan Carter told Yahoo Finance that, “As a company, we’re deeply committed to raising funds to fight breast cancer, and awareness about the benefits of exercise as it relates to the disease.”

“Our goal,” Carter said, “is to raise even more money in 2010.”

— Judith Meyer