In a word: Albatross, posterize and other sports terms

One of the sports world’s greatest attractions is the language it uses. Over the years, words and phrases have been continually coined, appropriated and fabricated.

Two Auburn memorials to be dedicated Friday

AUBURN — The city will unveil two new memorials Friday morning, May 27, at Mount Auburn Cemetery honoring veterans who served America in wartime and military conflict. The idea for the two new memorials grew out of an outdoor ceremony held by the city last year at a memorial at Mount Auburn Cemetery erected by […]

RSU 16 budget passes 1st vote

POLAND — Voters passed the nearly $25.9 million budget for Regional School Unit 16 during a districtwide meeting Tuesday night at Poland Regional High School. Before the warrant articles were presented to the 58 voters from Mechanic Falls, Minot and Poland, Superintendent Ken Healey listed factors that contributed to the $1.63 million increase from the […]

How to get fostering

While a growing number of Maine people have opened their homes to foster pets, a lot of dogs and cats are still out there without homes, creating a never-ending cycle of need for the people who try to take care of the animals. Angela Poulin, the adoption coordinator at the Androscoggin Greater Humane Society in […]

In a word: RINOs, DINOs, jackasses and more political wildlife

In 1870 Harper’s Weekly cartoonist Thomas Nast called one of his drawings ‘A Live Jack-Ass Kicking a Dead Lion,’ in which the jackass represented the Northern Democrats, and the lion was Lincoln’s secretary of war, Edwin M. Stanton.

RSU 16 budget vote set for Tuesday in Poland

Officials will hold a districtwide meeting Tuesday to review the nearly $25.9 million budget for 2023

Do these calling options from the past ring a bell?

By the 1960s, advancing technology meant most callers didn’t need operators to make local phone calls. But operators continued to patch through collect calls, person-to-person calls and long-distance calls. Remember those? Collect call: You would place a call through an operator, who would connect to the person you were seeking and ask them if they […]

In a word: ‘Wedges,’ ‘rafts,’ ‘kindles’ and more animal talk

A group of ravens is known as an ‘unkindness,’ while when it comes to geese, on the ground a group of them is called a ‘gaggle,’ but in flight they’re known as a ‘skein’ or ‘wedge.’

Franco Fridays: St. Peter’s School boys show off their sports gear, 1925

‘Screwball Comedy’ at The Public Theatre dazzles with great cast

A small, talented group of actors create big laughs in this take on the classis screwball comedies of the past.