Hark, how the bells, sweet silver bells, all seem to say, throw cares away, Christmas is here, da da, duh duh… I have a lovely singing voice. Please, no throwing of money or underpants. I bring my dulcetness up only because I’ve started to hear Christmas carols everywhere I go and, as always, Christmas carols […]
Mark LaFlamme
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Street Talk: At college campuses, it’s ‘The Crucible’ all over again
The world has gone nuts. There’s hardly anything more that needs to be said about it. The world is crazy, and it’s apparently out of our control now to bring it back. In Missouri, a group of students stomping their feet and screaming about phantom insults was enough to force a president and chancellor out […]
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How many kinds of things can we blame on zombies?
Coals? On Monday, the Kohl’s department store sign burned up after flames from a brush fire reached up to devour it. Nobody hurt and, thankfully, the discount racks were not damaged. The discount rack at Kohl’s is where you can find a truly stylish shirt that just happens to be three sizes larger than the […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Street Talk: The lost art of note-passing
Dear Reader. I like you, do you like me? Your eyes sparkle like diamonds and I think you’re neat. Don’t tell anybody, OK? OK. In Florida, a 9-year-old fourth-grader is in trouble — in BIG trouble, little mister — for passing a love letter to a classmate. Apparently the lovelorn lad wanted the girl to […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme, sj-web
Talk of the town: Now with new blue diamonds!
Hornets! You know the seasons are messed up when it’s a week into November and you’re still running, sissy-like, from hornets. If anyone knows a sure fire way to get rid of the things, I’d love to hear it. Every time I give it serious contemplation, the only solution I come up with involves a […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Street Talk: In search of a new arch rival
I’ll never forget the day the bulb of garlic appeared in my mailbox, wrapped in its coffin-shaped box and topped off with a pair of wax fangs. This was the Brother Doug Taylor’s way of reminding me that he doesn’t celebrate Halloween and that I shouldn’t either. It was in many ways a political message, […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme
You won’t BELIEVE what I found in my trick-or-treat bag
Darkness there and nothing more Holy carp! Did I just hear that today is November? And just like that, all good things have come to a dismal end. Halloween is over, baseball is ALMOST over and the white tomb of winter yawns before us. You’ll forgive me if I eat all my Halloween candy in […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Why candidates for public office are more like carnival attractions
So you want to run for public office. Pound a few campaign signs into the ground, shake some hands, maybe get quoted in the paper a time or two. Sounds good, sir or madam. How hard can it be? My only question, having never thrown a hat into the political ring myself, is: Why would […]
Posted inMark LaFlamme
Talk of the town: Spitting gross stuff out in my napkin
Aaaaaalrighty then I was in the checkout line at the Lewiston Hannaford the other night when an older couple in front of me found themselves a few dimes short of their total. The clerk, a teenage boy, waved them through, telling the couple not to worry about it and that he’d cover it. When the […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Street Talk: My shame is great. Again.
A drizzly morning in the spring of 1995. It was close to 1 a.m. and I’d been in a downtown bar most of the night drinking high-end Pabst Blue Ribbon. I’d been running my mouth about a recent stabbing murder that had not been solved. Everybody knew the killing was related to the local crack […]