Editorial

From the assistant editor

Town surveys, in Wiscasset or elsewhere, do not always get huge responses, just as local votes at the polls or town meetings do not always draw most registered voters. They all get whoever shows…

From the editor

It’s not my way to state the obvious, but I was beginning to think that we might escape an almost snow-less January. However, the overnight three to four inches of the fluffy stuff on Monday-…

From the assistant editor

Why did you come here, beautiful eagle? 

You might ask what we are doing here, also, beautiful bird, ever near as we can be to wherever you light. We have not your wings and eagle eyes, we…

From the editor

Ever since my last column was drying on the pages, I have been home taking care of the house, one dog and three cats. My wife, Melodee, and neighbors, Brandy, Corey and Spencer Pottle, took a road…

From the assistant editor

National Weather Service’s forecast for Jan. 11 was, as of Friday, for a daytime high near 8F. Based on years of reporting, reading, television viewing and radio listening, I can tell you what…

From the editor

Hats off to the Boothbay Region YMCA trustees, current and past members, for never standing pat on what the “heart of the region” offers. And to the people of the region and around the country,…

From the assistant editor

Early Monday, I was online looking up early 2000s Alna politics for a story on some new Alna politics, the latest petition, and Safari offered me a site that, from what I have found so far, has…

From the editor

With only one more game against the Miami Dolphins on Sunday, Jan. 9 at 4:25 p.m. – thankfully it isn’t “a win and you’re in, or lose and go home” situation, the Mac Jones-led New England Patriots…

From the editor

I don’t know about you, but it has been a struggle for me to remain truly happy since about March 2020 … which is when you know what happened.

Yes, there have been many personal happy…

From the assistant editor

It’s a little early for New Year’s resolutions, but there is no time like today (as in, every day) to improve. Today, I will no longer put so much time into crafting some emails. They are mostly…

From the editor

Before I forget, Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you enjoy time with family and friends, as well as this issue of the newspaper, with the second section packed with Letters to Santa, family…

From the editor

Thanksgiving is nearly three weeks in the past, however, this is still the season of caring and giving.

The saying “Someone always has it worse” really hit home this week.

Waking…

From the assistant editor

The best thing about area schools’ pooled testing for COVID is you don’t have to do it. Parents decide if they want to sign their child up. The second best thing, or a tie, really, is schools can…

From the editor

I used to ice skate and many of us who lived near Pat’s Pond in Boothbay Harbor have lots of great memories of daytime hockey matches and nighttime bonfires (and playing “Wolves and Sheep,” where…

From the editor

Have you heard about Niksen? Maybe you’ve heard of its translation, nixing?

Niksen is a Dutch verb which means “doing nothing.” It has been used to deal with work-related health problems,…

From the editor

When Daylight Saving Time ends, it is not fun. You go to bed when it is dark and you wake up and it is still dark. My dog doesn't like it either. She takes shorter walks when it isn't light out. I…

From the assistant editor

Hope you have many personal things to be thankful for this Thanksgiving. Here are some thoroughly Wiscasset-area reasons to be:

Senior housing developer Optimus set its sights on Wiscasset…

From the assistant editor

When did an expletive help win an argument, political or otherwise? Using them may be understandable when the speaker is upset from fear, anger, frustration, or grief. But if you’re speaking…

From the editor

I have heard a few comments this past week that it’s going to be a “long winter.” The calendar says winter begins Dec. 21, over four weeks away, so we’ve got a good stretch of time before the next…

From the assistant editor

It’s a small, mostly local victory in the scheme of very important things, a pandemic, climate change and American politics where dramatic things have happened in recent months and years. But it…

From the editor

Celebrations have and will be held this week.

American Legion Post 36 started things off Saturday with its annual community awards. Congratulations to all the deserving recipients. Good…

From the assistant editor

Go to the grocery store and find a shelf bare? Order online locally or not and find that something is out of stock? In the pandemic, the season of giving and celebrating is also the season of…

From the editor

A few weeks ago, I received an email asking that we change where we place the obituaries on our websites.

The email read: “Is it just me or is it a little unusual and somewhat depressing to…

From the assistant editor

When Wiscasset Farmer’s Market talked with selectmen Oct. 19 about possible new sites, Parks and Recreation Director Duane Goud offered one that could make sense. The back of Wiscasset Community…

From the editor

Congratulations to coach Nick Scott, coach Warren Cossette and the Boothbay Region-Wiscasset cross-country team. As Cossette pointed out in a letter to the editor last week, with assistance from…

We’ll get to the Red Sox. Cheering for their record-breaking third grand slam Monday night goes without saying, but cannot be said enough.

But first, back to Wiscasset: Sometimes after a…

From the editor

It’s 7:27 on a Friday morning here at the office. I am the only one here. I just downloaded onto my laptop some game photos taken yesterday afternoon and will check my email and start editing…

From the editor

Comeback wins! A scoreless tie! Celebrations!

Taking into consideration the local sports scene and Boston/New England teams, this week has been a fun week to be a fan.

Friday night,…

From the assistant editor

What if we could have put on our Facebook page a link to Monday afternoon’s announcement of three days of remote learning for Wiscasset Middle High School due to COVID-19?

We could not,…

From the editor

Do you like to get the lowdown on what the local winters are going to be like?

As soon as October arrives, I start scouring the internet for stories from “experts” predicting the upcoming…

From the assistant editor

This time of year, you start to see the most orange on our pages. Christmas has its reds, greens and often nature’s white backdrop; and red is a February regular for Valentine’s Day, plus paired…

From the editor

I don’t normally watch YouTube videos that are longer than 10 minutes (unless it is for work) but tuning into Boothbay Region Land Trust’s 2021 annual membership meeting last week kept me glued to…

From the assistant editor

Did you feel it?

Not the icy reception selectmen’s and other boards’ decisions in any of our towns receive sometimes. That can happen any time of year.

This was the other night. A …

From the editor

At least I’m not staring at a wall all the time – as was the case during my time working at home when the pandemic struck.

For the most part of my three-plus decades here at the Register…

From the assistant editor

Another round of outdoor events in the past week and a first week of full-time school accomplished, Wiscasset is forging through the change of seasons and, where it can, moving nearer to normal…

From the editor

I was going to write another “serious” column this week – about the Delta virus and what I read in a New York Times article about the variant of COVID-19 – but I chucked that idea out the window…

From the assistant editor

How was your summer? 

Did you weather Wiscasset traffic and find, sometimes, at least, it flowed better than you expected for that time of day or week? And did the opposite also happen? As…

From the editor

We still seem to be on edge 20 years after America was attacked Sept. 11, 2001, perhaps more so because of the homespun violence rather than a foreign plot. Chicago’s violence numbers, alone, are…

From the assistant editor

Even before school starts next week, I have found myself slowing down to 15 mph in school zones. No matter how old we get, September always feels like school, because that’s what it was for our…

From the editor

You can be assertive without being rude.

We’ve all seen or heard it – restaurant customers being demanding over a certain meal serving, being loud and obnoxious, letting children run around…

From the assistant editor

If Schoonerfest can spend a couple years coming to fruition as it did in Wiscasset last week, we can take a few minutes honoring what it accomplished. Make that about 12 minutes, to come up with…

From the editor

It has been a delight to attend and record this summer’s Boothbay Region YMCA Y Arts productions. Director and choreographer Emily Mirabile, along with her assistants, have done an amazing job –…

From the assistant editor

Sometimes, some of the nicest story ideas take a while, weeks or longer, to become the stories you read in print and at wiscassetnewspaper.com and boothbayregister.com. We prioritize much of our…

From the editor

For the past two years, I have written two columns about motorists going too fast and asking everyone to slow down on our roads. This is the second one for 2021.

Ever since I got pulled…

From the assistant editor

Remember Wings Over Wiscasset?

The inaugural WOW in 2013 at Wiscasset Municipal Airport was really nice, honoring veterans, having an air show and other attractions including static…

From the editor

It’s funny how things transpire when you stop and talk to people.

I had stopped at Walgreen’s last week to pick up a prescription and, upon returning to my car, I noticed the license plate…

From the assistant editor

For U.S. House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy, R - California, to joke it will be hard not to hit House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D -California, with the gavel if he succeeds her, and for that to receive…

From the editor

Reporting on tragedies is one of the unenviable jobs a reporter has, especially in a small community. Not much is gained except the truth and reporters should be cognizant of how such a story will…

From the assistant editor

Kudos to the artists who came this month to capture Wiscasset’s outdoor beauty, which is both easy and hard to do. As I recall once saying about Westport Island, Wiscasset, too, cannot take a bad…

From the editor

Boothbay Harbor is a friendly town with a lot of things to do and see, especially during the summer months. That's why we get an influx of tourists every year. It seems that this summer, as…