They used to be every bit as important as the web browser on that Samsung Doohickey 9 you carry in your pocket today.
Street talk
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Send in the clowns, I’m not afraid
The terror was real and it was absolute. Frozen I sat in my chair, as still as a living thing can possibly be, as the monster clown marched up and down the aisles in search of a victim. In my head played a fear-struck mantra: Don’t notice me. Don’t notice me. Oh, for the love […]
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Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme, Op-Eds
Street Talk: Painting of Auburn home a mystery
The lady’s name is Suzanne and her house is glorious. With its rounded tower capped with a steep, pointed turret, the house rises out of an Auburn field dominated by wildflowers, tall grass and giant trees that crowd in as if to guard it from the annoyances of the world beyond. It is a Queen […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme, News
Street Talk: The kiss heard ’round Facebook
Photographer Russ Dillingham originally didn’t intend to publish the kiss photo. I encouraged him to do so and I regret nothing. The photo, of a handcuffed lass kissing a bearded man while a pair of police officers patiently wait, is a perfect snapshot of hardscrabble life in downtown Lewiston. She’s a woman in love who […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Street Talk: Runaways and missing persons
All over the land, people are running away. Many of the missing are teens and preteens. They pack their bags and slip off in the night to protest abuse or what they deem injustice in their home lives. Or perhaps they have fallen in love and the lure of young romance on the road is […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Street Talk: A midsummer night’s scream
Writer Mark LaFlamme attends this year’s Fourth of July festivities as good-old Yankee Doodle Downer.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: Move along, nothing to see here
The interview was just terrific. The subject was a man who had been an emergency dispatcher for more than two decades, and he had amazing stories to tell. Powerful stories about trying to keep steady and calm when bullets were flying, when cars were crashing or when buildings were burning. A significant chunk of the […]
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme, News
Street Talk: Siren songs of the Androscoggin River
Maybe river whispers promises of sweet relief if one can just take that final step off the greasy bridge railing. If so, I say ignore it, my friends, at all costs.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: Did you hear what happened on Nichols Street?
While I may not be very bright, give me 10 years, a guy with a gun, some barking dogs and Amazon, and I’ll find a way around just about any problem.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: Prom night terror
I was cruising around the Bates College campus on my motorcycle when the invasion got underway. One minute is was just a quiet Saturday on campus and the next it was outright madness. Young women were roaming lawns and sidewalks in flowing gowns and extravagant hairdos. Boys were sauntering in tuxedos all debonair, their hair […]