I don’t believe in ghosts. Not really. I don’t think. Maybe I do. More and more lately, I’ve been running into people who speak of ghosts as a simple fact of life. They are things to be tolerated or endured, like crab grass or indigestion. Some people enjoy their ghosts and welcome the specters as […]
Mark LaFlamme
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Talk of the town: What’s that odd smell, Uncle Ford?
The lady has my number So, recently I retired an old cell phone number I’d been using for more than a decade for work purposes. As it turns out, the number has since been reassigned and now belongs to a nice older woman who can’t understand why weirdos are calling her asking for some clown […]
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Street Talk: Barbershop chatter is akin to flattop cut
So, it’s been nearly a week now and none of you has commented on my haircut. Inconsiderate beasts, the lot of you. It’s a flattop, you know, flat enough to shoot pool on if you’re into that sort of thing. Makes me look like one of those guys who does more before 9 a.m. than […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Talk of the town: Can you believe it’s dark already?
Get your deer yet? It’s a perfectly valid question this time of year and the beauty is that it applies to anyone you see, from a 95 year old grandmother to a ten year old kid with a snot bubble. It’s amazing how many people enjoy hunting, or as it’s properly pronounced, ‘hunnin.’ Of course, […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Mark LaFlamme, The Franklin Journal
Street Talk: Things were different here in Lewiston when we were Exit 13
For one reason or another over the past week, I had to use the Maine Turnpike almost every day to come and go. And every time I came or went, I thought the same thing as I breezed up the ramps: Holy crap, did I leave my iron on? But in addition to that, I […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Mark LaFlamme, The Franklin Journal
Street Talk: Learning to sashay in a bouffant wig for Halloween
As far as any of you can prove, I’ve only dressed up as a woman once in my life. I was 7 or 8 years old and Halloween totally sneaked up on me. I had wanted to go as the Six Million Dollar Man, but I wasn’t tall enough and I couldn’t find anyone willing […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Mark LaFlamme, The Franklin Journal
Street Talk: Dying of baseball fever as postseason approaches
Pass me a tissue, would you, friend? Or I could just use your sleeve again and call it good. I’ve been trying to think of things that are as sad as the end of baseball season. A child at a birthday party at which no one showed up? A kitten placed in a beach pail […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme
Street Talk: Wearing black socks and a leather coat at the beach
Sometimes writing a weekly column is like being a cast regular on “Roseanne.” Or like scoring a walk-on part on “Gilligan’s Island,” or being one of those dorks with feathered hair and a neck chain on “Three’s Company,” but during the late seasons, after Chrissy has gone off to become a brain surgeon or whatever. […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme
Talk of the town: What if only teens with beards were let on Facebook?
Weird beards The tradition of baseball players growing beards for the postseason has been around for a long time, but the Red Sox have really raised the bar. I would be shocked, for example, if Mike Napoli doesn’t have a small colony of wrens living on his face. When a man grows that much facial […]
Posted inAdvertiser Democrat, Mark LaFlamme, The Franklin Journal
Street Talk: Watching you watching hockey in hockey town
There’s an old man sitting in a seat just off center ice five or six rows back. He’s got the team jersey, the team hat, a bucket of popcorn and a gadget which, when you shake it vigorously, makes a hell of a lot of noise. The old man is sitting alone but in the […]