Alone again (naturally) So, I logged into Zoom on Tuesday for the weekly Sun Journal meeting. Got the camera adjusted just so. Tested my mic by blowing on it and muttering “Hello? Hello? Is this thing on?” like all the professionals do. Rubbed the cowlicks out of my hair and made sure the crack pipe […]
Mark LaFlamme
Posted inMark LaFlamme
Fuzzy wunnit! And other thoughts on coffee
I could see the look of horror in my wife’s face the second I crawled out of bed at the crack of noon. “Now, you mustn’t panic,” she said, easing herself to relative safety on the other side of the kitchen island. “Above all, you’ve got to stay calm.” “Whazza?” I babbled. It’s how I […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Talk of the Town: Such sweet sorrow
Teens flee shelter to elope I was kind of swept up in the romance of this news, but if we’re honest with ourselves, we all knew it would never work out. Not these days. Take heart, young lovers. If Romeo and Juliette had lived in the age of surveillance cameras, they would have gotten nowhere, […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
‘Utter chaos:’ Dispatchers, fire crews in the teeth of a rampaging storm
Dispatchers and firefighters working together in a rampaging beast of a springtime storm.
Posted inMark LaFlamme, Perspective
The price of freedom: The Covid-19 measures are only temporary. Right?
“The virus is harmful, but the destruction of rights is fatal.” Edward Snowden. “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stomping down on a human face – forever.” – George Orwell, “1984.” I’m having trouble sleeping these days. My nights are vexed by bad dreams. My days, too. The worst of […]
Posted inbPlus, Mark LaFlamme
Tigers, paprika and how to remove fungus
A fungus among us Got a message in my spam folder the other day with a subject line that advises: “Do this to make fungus disappear.” Typically, I’d snort at such an email and then delete it forever. These days, though . . . Well, I’ve been sitting around doing a whole lot of nothing […]
Posted inbPlus, Lewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Talk of the town: Keep that tongue to yourself, mister
Together we will lick this thing So. It would appear that there are people out there licking toilets, coughing on produce and shooting video of themselves tonguing ice cream inside the supermarkets just for kicks. You know, I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries lately about the Black Death and other plagues that have vexed […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme
My COVID-19 uniform needs a washin’
Here. Smell this hoodie. Smells OK, right? You’d consider that, if not ocean breeze clean, at least clean-adjacent? Good deal. I’ll wear it for another day. Been wearing this hoodie since a time before I even heard the term “coronavirus.” I keep MEANING to wash it, but what would I do while it’s spinning in […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Looking back on ‘the new normal’
The boy’s name was Timmy, and after we filled out all the required paperwork and endured the waiting period, he was able to come visit me in the government-issue bubble that serves as my back porch. “Uncle Mark?” he asked me, his eyes alight with curiosity. “What was the world like before the coronavirus?” “Oh, […]
Posted inMaine, Mark LaFlamme
The coronavirus crisis: It could be worse
Bad? Sure, it’s bad. It’s miserable, frustrating and unrelenting, this COVID business. In spite of round-the-clock, all-you-can-eat news updates on THE CRISIS, firm answers elude us. How bad will it get? How long will it continue? Will my circle of friends and family still be intact when it’s over? Is anyone I love dying even […]