Ubiquitous, convenient and unavoidable technology turned my floppy, faithful notebook into an archaic relic good for little more than starting fires or swatting flies.
Street talk
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: In the old days, the Lewiston Walk of Shame was a weekly occurrence
Street Talk: The Walk of Shame was a giddy affair for me. For making a small-time hack like myself feel like a genuine, big league reporter, no single event could compare to the Lewiston Walk of Shame
advertisement
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: Weird scenes inside the B Section
Street talk: When I went to work for the B Section, my editors at last had their chance to punish me for all the misbehaving I’d done from my relatively safe perch on the police beat.
Posted inMark LaFlamme
When it comes to animal stories, you can’t always get what you want
Covering the plight of Ghost reminded me a lot of a different dog named Abby who, in 2016, was abandoned in the cold along Strawberry Avenue in Lewiston.
Posted inMark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: Expensive McMuffins, the evils of Florida and other secrets revealed in mystery mail
Street Talk: Once you start reading one of this mystery man’s letters, it all starts to make sense, like one of those crazy photos with mystery image hidden behind the pixels.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: The Christmas Eve beggar
On the unsteady march to the car, weaving around abandoned shopping carts and stomping through dirty slush, I pondered the great question of the day. Honest-to-God woman in need? Or just another scam artist looking to make mucho dope bucks off the naivete and generosity of good-hearted souls at Christmastime?
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: The mass shooting leaves a sense of unreality in our wounded city
Street Talk: There are times when I can convince myself, if only for fleeting seconds, that the grim affair was nothing more than a horrid nightmare; something merely imagined in a half-waking fever dream.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: Punk Icee, mysterious street wanderer, dies at 64
Street Talk: Punk lived a lifestyle that would seem almost Sisyphean to the rest of us: walk the streets from dawn until dusk, find enough empty bottles and cans to get by another day, and then when that day is done, get up and do it all over again.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: If I ask your age, an editor is making me do it
Street Talk: The man in question is doing math in his head. He’s calculating the pros and cons of giving out his real age and trying to deduce how this might trip him up down the road.
Posted inLewiston-Auburn, Mark LaFlamme
Mark LaFlamme: My name is Mike, and I’d like to sell you something
Street Talk: My inability to sell should have been obvious by the time I was 10 years old, when I was convinced I could become the richest kid on the block by selling the weekly newspaper known as Grit. Spoiler: I never became the richest kid on the block.