Our family’s move over to the faux side this holiday didn’t play well on Instagram. Last week I posted a photo of our recent stop at Home Depot to shop for fake trees. The comments ranged from “What?!?!?!” “No” and “I am so sorry” to “This AND the election? Way too much for one month. […]

With the madness of the presidential election still dominating the headlines, it seems like it must be a golden time for comedy. And that’s good ,because to hear comic Benjamin Roberts tell it, there has never been more talent in Maine at one time. The Leeds man ought to know. Roberts  was an average working […]

Produced by Maine Poetry Central and Dennis Camire This week’s poem by Jim Donnelly explores a wonderful memory of a nursing home resident about her summer nights at the Old Orchard Beach pier.   St. Madeleine of Biddeford By Jim Donnelly   Madeleine, Dear Madeleine of the supplicating hands and bleeding heart dear, debilitated Madeleine […]

I had barely closed the door behind the last trick-or-treater when the first signs of the holiday season began to appear. My inbox is cluttered with emails shouting helpful suggestions for purchasing, decorating and hosting. Our mailbox is stuffed with catalogues. Holiday music accompanies my mall browsing and I spy Santas surrounded by twinkling lights […]

Much of the headline-grabbing research about chimpanzees, humans’ closest animal relatives, is framed in terms of how good chimps are at doing things we do. Well, here’s a new finding on something those great apes trounce us at: Recognizing each other’s butts.They’re good at this in the same way we people are at recognizing individual […]

Every month or so, Dwane Bowen drives two hours across Pennsylvania to buy cookies, brownies and sticky buns from a vegan bakery in Bethlehem – and he’s not even vegan. “A friend brought me here about a year ago,” says Bowen, “and I said, ‘It better be damn good if we’re driving two hours just […]

Chris Stowe worked on a bomb squad during six deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Between tours he sought help for the headaches, anxiety, memory loss and other symptoms of trauma and brain injuries he suffered while being exposed to hundreds of blasts. He tried talk therapy, medication and a self-prescribed regimen of yoga and meditation, […]

Takes care of the peer pressure problem On my first day at my current job, one of my colleagues brought in a dozen doughnuts to welcome me to the team. I love doughnuts. And pie. And cake and ice cream and french fries and pancakes. But I almost never eat those things anymore. Instead of […]