This week I read the following on the Environmental Protection Agency's website which makes me want to change my habits: "Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time…

A staycation, a stay-at-home vacation — it's that time again for me.

The third or fourth week of November is a good time for me to take a break from work. It is between local high school…

About 38 years ago, before my non-fiction writing career, I tried my hand at writing short stories and poetry to perhaps sell to a publication. I gave up the idea after the regular weekly…

The Boothbay Harbor Rotary Club, Southport Central School, Boothbay Region Garden Club, Southport Memorial Library, American Legion Post 54 in Wiscasset and the town of Woolwich are honoring our…

The voter turnout on Tuesday, Nov. 5 will be light – much lighter than next November, a presidential election year.

However, ballots will be handed out at our local town offices from 8 a.m…

Why doesn’t she just leave?

Or, if the domestic violence victim being talked about is a man, you might hear, or ask, the same question: Why doesn’t he just leave?

With all the…

I wish to offer my sympathy to Martha, Gerard and Erika Landry on the death of their beloved, David. Martha and I go back to kindergarten days and she and my wife shared pregnancy terms together…

Kudos to the volunteers of Wiscasset, Waterville & Farmington Railway Museum for their work in recent years to rebuild locomotive No. 9, replace the bridge at Trout Brook and build more track…

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

According to a definition on the Psychology Today website, "domestic violence can be physical or psychological ... It may include behaviors…

With our dog having her pick of fallen acorns to wallow around in her mouth since early September, I began thinking that I had not seen a gray squirrel around our house in quite a while. I think…

You are right (again), Susan Quinby.

Sometimes (most of the time!) I struggle when writing this column (please don’t consider it as an editorial). I usually end up writing it a few hours…

It was a year that has forever stuck in my mind. It was the year I became a teenager. Was I supposed to become a young man or was I supposed to still be able to "goof off?" Was I supposed to be…

Once again, a horrible incident elsewhere has moved people here. Monday’s explosion that …

Congratulations to the fall sports athletes at BRHS and WMHS for showing up and giving your best, despite having short rosters. It is nice to see some of the Seahawks and Wolverines competing…

I do a lot of reading, both on the job and for pleasure. This summer, I read three fictional novels; fiction takes me to a different place, away from the “real” world we all deal with day to day.…

Three cheers for the Boothbay Railway Village offering its green to the Farmers Market for the final four Thursday markets of the season, Sept. 19 and 26, and Oct. 3 and 10. Work is being done on…

Last year at this time, my wife, Melodee, and I had to deal with a heartbreaking situation. On Sept. 1, 2018, we had to have our 6-year-old Labradoodle, Ruby, put down.

We are not looking…

Did you read the Washington Post article about Maine's aging population which started with the headline, "'This will be catastrophic'?"

It is pretty scary. The numbers don't lie and let's…

Is life not worth living anymore? Why are people killing people and what good does it do if you kill someone, or many innocent people? You either get killed shortly afterwards, you chicken out and…

I was going to do my usual cheerleading. After all, it’s a beautiful time of year on our beautiful Midcoast. It still will be next week.

Let’s take a moment to talk about our nation’s…

It was suggested that I continue my Cheers and Jeers column, which I resurrected last week, each week. It is a good suggestion, but I think it may get a bit stale after a while. I will bring it to…

Fourteen months ago, I had a column entitled Cheers & Jeers. I explained that Cheers & Jeers was a feature I remembered from the days of reading TV Guide. The magazine picked out the good…

No, I'm not writing about Jackie Bradley Jr.'s latest highlight, or one of the most memorable putouts in baseball history, Willie Mays' over the shoulder grab while on the dead run.

But yes…

Family reunions are the best. At least in my family they are. I have a huge family. There were 55 of us – dads, mothers, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, cousins, significant others, girlfriends…

Enjoy it while it's here.

Summer, the great equalizer to one's mood after months of cold, wet and cool weather — and a business's bottom line — has finally arrived and we're loving it.…

We hope everyone enjoyed the 57th edition of Windjammer Days last week. Personally, I didn't get to a lot of the activities due to work and doing things with our son, brother-in-law/wife's brother…

Keep a good thing going.

Wiscasset and Boothbay Region schools have tried a bunch of times in recent years to band together on sports teams, sometimes successfully. Cross-country, soccer…

Our assistant editor, Susan Johns, makes a good point in her editorial this week. Boothbay and Wiscasset high schools should continue trying to work together to salvage sports teams before they…

For those who have never been here in the Boothbay or Wiscasset region, welcome! It is now summer and there's lots to do, including next week's 57th annual Windjammer Days Festival in Boothbay…

Happy early Father's Day to you, Dad, and to all the men I know who are fathers. We, like mothers, are honored with a national holiday. According to the National Days Calendar, "In 1966, President…

After thousands of high school seniors receive their graduation diploma this spring, many will get ready for the next phase of their lives; it may be college, the military, travel or just showing…

There were a lot of positive observances as I traveled around the region this past week. Here are some you might relate to:

Leaves on the trees, and grass and flowers growing so speedily…

My longtime friend Munro Dodge, who moved from Boothbay Harbor to Boothbay a couple of years ago, grew up in East Boothbay.

Some of you may not know it, but many of you know he is a true…

I hope you have noticed that when I title my column, Three things, I am usually on a tight schedule or have not thought about writing on one topic. I hope you don’t mind.

The first of “…

I'm leaving the Patriots out because it's only May and some of us are still smiling from witnessing another Super Bowl victory three months ago.

But it has been a busy month for my TV…

Kindness appears out of the blue most times. You see it happening all around almost on a daily basis, especially if you look close enough.

Fortunately for me these past two weeks (and…

Can you picture your favorite local summer event without the volunteers? How about the rest of the year’s? I couldn’t think of any that would be what they are, if they would happen at all. And…

I don't pretend to be a techie. I've learned on the run since our website expanded from a seed to a mighty oak but I am still on the first set of branches when it comes to knowing processes, terms…

OK, Rick Charette, you're going to get what you love. Charette, Maine's longtime children's singer-songwriter, wrote the popular song, "I Love Mud." Well, maybe he doesn't love mud but we are…

April 7-13 is National Library Week.

So, I must admit, I can't remember the last time I "used" our library's resources. Lord knows, I like to read, but I am not a voracious reader. Perhaps…

Do you have earworm? Earworm, which I only recently discovered as a real word, is a term for songs that you can't get out of your head because of their catchy melody or repeated stanzas.

It…

I have had many regular summer visitors in the office over the years, bringing in news releases, columns, renewing their subscription, or just wanting to say hi after a long winter.

Last…

Lucille Machon had already lived through a world war, a war in Korea and witnessed the start of the Vietnam War before I was born. But like her, we were both born and raised in Boothbay Harbor,…

There are many things I will (try) to remember about the most successful Lady Seahawk basketball season ever – the 2019 undefeated and state championship team.

Now, I am not an insider but…

What's the coldest you've ever been for, say, 20 minutes or more?

The temperatures in the teens and lower on Monday and Tuesday this week, coupled with the 30 mph and higher winds, were…

Remember the party line? My grandparents had one, on their rotary dial phone. Remember rotary dial? The party, or shared, line meant they and someone else had different rings to answer. I think…

We all have them. Days when everything seems to go smoothly and then there are the days when you want to pull your hair out because of unexpected problems that come your way. Some say it is all in…

Tuesday into Wednesday winter storms are not conducive to tiptop weekly newspaper production. We worked hard to get this issue finished by the end of the day on Tuesday so the staff wouldn’t have…

Margaret Hamilton cried, "I'm melting," when Dorothy threw a pail of water on her in the "Wizard of Oz."

I almost cried "I'm shrinking" — actually, I kind of chuckled — after my height was…

Come Monday, 53 Super Bowls will have been played. The New England Patriots will have played in their third straight, fourth out of the past five, and 11th overall. It is no wonder there are…