Serving Maine and Lincoln County for over 140 years
It was a dark and stormy night…
This opening line has been a literary “facepalm” since it first appeared in a overwrought Victorian novel by Sir Edward George Earle Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton. It has become synonymous with the Victorian melodramatic style, and the annual Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, begun in 1982 as an homage to this most famous of opening lines, requires contestants “to compose the opening sentence to the worst of all possible novels.”
Art of the square: “I can’t believe it’s been a whole year since we first met at my art display at the Bristol Area Library,” Walpole artist Susan Bartlett Rice told me in a recent email. Indeed, a year has gone by since Rice’s last Bristol exhibit, and now she has a new exhibit at the same library, which runs through the end of February.
Dear friends and neighbors,
Change of venue: Nita Greenleaf’s community supper will be held this Saturday, Feb. 17 from 4:30-6 p.m. in the Old Town Hall. Ten dollars for adults and eight dollars for kids under age eight will get one a tantalizing meal of roast pork and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy, string beans and applesauce, and coffee and tea and dessert. Shake off the winter doldrums and join folks for some food and conversation this weekend.
The ways in which humans communicate with each other seem almost limitless. We talk, we text, we email, we call each other on the phone. We give “significant looks” to those we know well. Animals are no less communicative, though I’ve yet to receive an email from a dog.
Welcome, McGrory & Wolf: I had mentioned to several people last year, after attending ArtWalk Waldoboro, that the art scene in Waldoboro seemed to be picking up steam. The addition of Valerie Greene Studio, for one, to the excellent local lineup was exciting.
The front page of The Lincoln County News reported on Jan. 11: “Blizzard, high tide cause flooding power outages in Lincoln County.” I can relate to this storm well, as I had to measure the snowfall, and the wind was moving it around so freely that it was an almost impossible task. Maine isn’t noted for its good winter weather, and blizzards happen here often.
“Kindness Matters is a campaign designed to change the way people interact with each other. It is the legacy of a 13-year old who took his own life after years of bullying,” says the Kindness Matters website, kindness-matters.org.
This past week while Marjorie and I were looking over one of our Damariscotta postcard collections, we came across a postcard which shows some old buildings on lower Elm Street right in the village area. The postcard was dated April 8, 1908 and was sent at 4 p.m. It is a real nice postcard showing both the Damariscotta and Newcastle sides of the Twin Villages and the Damariscotta River in color.
On behalf of our 135 employees and dedicated Mobius Inc. Board of Directors, I am pleased to share the story of Amrita, a longtime recipient of our services and an individual for which we are proud to be building a “home” at the Chandler House on Academy Hill Road in Newcastle. We strive to provide a sense of home that balances the inner self, desires, and hopes with the outer self and its needs and abilities.
And the winter continues on… Even so, resident Vern can be seen walking the streets of Damariscotta, in and out of shops and Yellowfront, and getting his daily dose of health.
Art and hobnobbing at the Grill: Last week, I stopped by the Wednesday opening reception at Damariscotta River Grill for the new art show there, featuring the work of 16 local artists in the Pemaquid Group of Artists.
Catching up with Lincoln Theater: I was having lunch the other day at King Eider’s Pub in Damariscotta with a couple of my LCN co-workers and had the pleasure of running into Lincoln Theater Executive Director Andrew Fenniman there as I was leaving. We started chatting about what’s going on at the theater, a conversation that needed more time than I had (since I had to get back to the workplace), so I asked him to please lay it out for me in an email.
Hello, friends and neighbors!
I am sure you have noticed that the weather seems more unpredictable than ever. Snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain, wicked cold, unusual warmth — we get it all, and sometimes within the same day! If you love playing in the snow, take advantage when it is here. Last week, we managed several nice days of skiing before the big melt and rain came again. We also enjoyed hiking in both of our local preserves and are grateful that we can drive to them in about 10 minutes.
The prolonged bitter cold snap over the holidays has affected 139 million Americans. Still, this weather effect was localized — the U.S. comprises less than 2 percent of Earth’s surface area. Many other parts of the planet were much warmer than normal.
