Good evening, living people. Since Halloween looms and everything in the cold October world seems dead or dying, I thought this would be a good time to tell you about my experiences with ghosts. We’d have fun, you and I, huddled in the orange gloom of dusk exchanging our tales of skin-crawling confrontations with the […]
Mark LaFlamme
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Mark LaFlamme: It was a night just like this
Cider house ghouls A storytelling cemetery walk in North Yarmouth advertises “cider, doughnuts and opening of the vault!” Can you say, yoinks! I can only guess what’s in the vault – the door of which will no doubt swing open with a chilling ‘creeeeeeee’ sound – but I’m going to go out on a limb […]
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Posted inAndroscoggin County, Mark LaFlamme
The rise and fall of George Stanley’s empire of stuff | Mark LaFlamme
You can call Stanley a lot of things — eccentric, strange, more trouble than a house full of monkeys — but stupid isn’t one of them, Mark LaFlamme writes.
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Talk of the town: The clock strikes thirteen
Important underpants news I regret to inform you that I will be retiring last year’s union suit, bought at Tractor Supply and worn with great pride and stinkiness throughout the winter season. It has been replaced with a Merino wool base layer that, while less stylish than the bright red union suit, should offer greater […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Mark LaFlamme: Can I interest anyone in some crisp, delicious Funyuns?
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]