Yule be shocked by this news Look, I hate coming in here every Sunday morning and spilling bad news all over your Eggos, or whatever it is that you people eat. But I have it on good authority – and I’m talking sources deep inside the system here – that Walmart already has its Christmas […]
Mark LaFlamme
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: Gangland shootings and cute dogs in hats
It had been a rowdy morning on Bartlett Street. Right around the time most people are sleepily fetching newspapers from front porches, bullets were flying between two groups of rival drug dealers. Apartment houses were dotted with bullet holes. Tenants dove for cover under kitchen tables and on the street outside, a trail of blood […]
advertisement
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Mark LaFlamme: So, what're you wearing?
Shots fired! No. There were no shots fired. I’m sorry to scare you like that. Go change your underpants. It’s just that for reasons I can’t quite fathom, fireworks seem to be all the rage again in Lewiston. In all corners of the city people are firing off Big Jimmies, Little Louies, Poodle Rockets, Banana […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Street Talk: Pretty sure the moon is out to get me
“There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls.” – George Carlin I’m not saying there are werewolves running amok in downtown Lewiston. I’m just saying there probably are. A few years back, I wrote a fairly tedious feature story about the full moon and its reported affect on crime and […]
Posted inbPlus, Mark LaFlamme, sj-web
Talk of the town: Your Yankee Doodle Dandy in a gold Rolls Royce
Campaign season hell As a sort of reporter, I get put on to all kinds of lists so I get mail from every political candidate from one end of the state to the other. It’s a real joy, especially during campaign season. You think campaign signs are a blight? You ought to see my email […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Street Talk: Looking up numbers in the deep dark past
You younger kids will have a hard time believing this, but back in the day, hardworking professional types such as myself kept all of our important phone numbers written on little squares of paper. I kid you not, whippersnappers. We wrote those phone numbers in “pen” and kept them all together in a little “box-type […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
This aisle for 10 items or less
Wallingford’s summertime death machine Some heartless wife I know tricked me into going to Wallingford’s last weekend and managed to crush both my spirit and my heart. Wallingford’s is a fine place and all, but I associate the joint with fall and all things autumnal. Being there on a hot summer day just felt wrong. […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: Stuff I swore I'd never do as a reporter
The guy on Walnut Street was talking fast and pointing every which way, frantically trying to describe the experience of having bullets flying over his head. I scribbled as quickly as I could to keep up, but this guy was talking in such a rat-a-tat-tat fury of words, I was afraid the notebook pages would […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Talk of the Town: It happened on Knox Street. And also Bartlett, Howe and Walnut.
The tragic tale of the light blue windbreaker So, during an epic trail ride on Sunday through Auburn, Buckfield, Canton and Turner, my beloved blue windbreaker jumped off the back of my bike and vanished seemingly forever. What followed was me basically weeping all over Facebook and pleading for its safe return. Let’s be realistic, […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: All of summer in one weekend
If I was a more enterprising lad, I’d create a service in which people could fulfill all of their summertime desires over one glorious — and probably sleepless — Labor Day weekend. You know how it is, my bros. Labor Day comes around and you’re just moping all through the family barbecue because you realize you […]