Only in Maine

Comic relief Downeast style...

Homemade ‘house float’ on Green Lake irks shorefront dwellers​

pressherald.com/2021/04/26/homemade-house-float-on-green-lake-irks-shorefront-dwellers/

By Anne BerleantApril 26, 2021
Jason Spinney, half owner of the pontoon-style floating structure pictured on the screen, speaks to city councilors and Green Lake shorefront property owners on April 19.

ELLSWORTH — The tension between lakefront residents and recreational users of Green Lake ticked up at an April 19 City Council meeting, in an agenda item sponsored by Councilor Heather Grindle. “It was brought to me by a number of folks,” she said.

Under fire are houseboat-like structures anchored in one spot for days or weeks for recreational use, and that often attract their like, tied side-to-side for a floating party.

“I don’t own anything beyond the high-water mark,” Dedham resident Dale Jellison said. But he also visualized lines drawn from lakefront properties out into the water, with use of that area requiring the property owner’s permission.

Lake towns outside of Ellsworth have already moved on this. Green Lake property owner Andy Hamilton pointed to Wilton, Harrison, Edgecomb and, in particular, Rangeley, where mooring a houseboat in front of a property requires written permission from the property owner and registering the boat with the town.

Currently, statewide bill LD 626 is being considered in Augusta to regulate houseboats and floating structures on lakes, but it could take until 2022 for it to be decided. That is too long for Hamilton.
“We’ll be watching this summer, and we’ll be back,” he said.

But despite the warning, Hamilton said he and his Green Lake neighbors are just looking for some balance with the houseboat crowd. “All we want is an opportunity to have a committee and a conversation.”

Green Lake is not taken over by houseboats every July and August. It is one particular structure that is raising local temperatures, owned by Terry Pinkham and Jason Spinney, both Ellsworth residents.
Pinkham holds a commercial boat operator’s license and is a Master Maine Guide. He and Spinney constructed the “house float” out of redwood, placed it on pontoon boat tubes and anchored it on Green Lake.

“Our families enjoy it, our kids enjoy it,” Pinkham said. “We want to be able to keep using it as we are, respectfully.”

The boat is engine-less and has a self-composting toilet. And, yes, rafting up (tying up with other floats or boats) is a common occurrence, he noted.

But Green Lake property owner Patty Hamilton said things got out of hand at times, and the house float stayed in one location all summer without the beach owner’s permission.

“We need more conversation,” she said, “to come up with a fair agreement that works for everyone.”
Houseboats are not the only floating structures that could be affected by any local ordinance or state law dealing with mooring privileges. Branch Lake property owner Alison Cowen said she places a big float with a slide in the water for summer fun and camaraderie. “Boats come from all over. Kids love it.”

Councilors were legal-minded.

“My property line stops at the low water mark,” Councilor Michelle Kaplan said. “Those are the restrictions I live with.”

And while Councilor Gene Lyons offered to moderate the conversation between property owners and recreational users, he said, “My thought is the water belongs to everyone.”

City staff will gather information as a first step, City Manager Glenn Moshier said.

“We’re not claiming ownership beyond the shore,” Andy Hamilton said. “It used to be people could talk about these things.”
 
Not really an "Only in Maine" story, but we do have a very large Canadian border that is pretty low-key, with some towns having the border running right down the middle of a street. Many families have been separated for the entire pandemic, and will meet at the border to "communicate" across the border...

I believe that I read somewhere that travel between certain provinces in Canada is banned, and unlike the same ban that was seen here, it is AGRESSIVELY pursued and results in huge fines...

Frustration builds on world’s longest border as Canada goes slow on reopening​

pressherald.com/2021/04/26/frustration-builds-on-worlds-longest-border-as-canada-goes-slow-on-reopening/

By Sandrine Rastello April 26, 2021
[IMG alt="A car approaches the Canada-U.S. border in Quebec. About 25 percent of Canadians have their first shot but just 2.4 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.

Canada’s Justin Trudeau has a border problem. Like his counterpart in the White House, he’s being pummeled by his political opponents for it.

Canada’s land border with the U.S., the world’s longest, has been shut to many foreign travelers for more than 13 months. Nonessential workers entering the country are required to quarantine for two weeks. The rules have blocked tourists, kept families apart, prevented students from visiting college campuses and hurt trade-dependent manufacturers.

But new variants of COVID-19 still arrive and a third wave has raged across parts of Canada. Trudeau finds himself squeezed between two groups. On one side are critics including doctors and the premiers of Ontario and Quebec, who say loopholes in the government’s travel rules and weak controls at airports have made the situation worse. On the other are businesses calling for the prime minister to loosen restrictions, or at least outline a plan for doing so.

In a country that sends more than 70 percent of its exports to the U.S., the border matters a lot. Trucks and trains continue to move goods despite the pandemic, but Canada’s tourism and travel-related businesses lost an estimated C$19.4 billion ($15.6 billion) in revenue last year from the plunge in international visitors.

Manufacturers are feeling the pain, too. From his base in Windsor, Ontario, across the river from Detroit, Tim Galbraith competes with American companies to build industrial molds for U.S. factories. Border rules are costing him business with U.S. customers.

Technical experts won’t cross the border for key tasks, including testing out a mold before it ships, and prospective American clients won’t visit because of the quarantine.

“There’s no chance this guy is going to come and sit in a hotel for 14 days, just so he can come and spend 3 hours in our plant and drive home,” said Galbraith, sales manager at Cavalier Tool & Manufacturing Ltd. “This is a trade barrier the Canadian government has erected that is doing more to repatriate business in the U.S., in our industry, than all the Trump rhetoric of the last four years.”

A quick reopening seems unlikely. It’s not merely that Canada has a lot of virus cases, but a lot of serious ones. Ontario has about 850 people in intensive care units, and the number has more than doubled in a month. The province is under an emergency stay-at-home order.

Nationally, the mood is cautious. In a Leger poll conducted for the Association of Canadian Studies last month, 70 percent of Canadians said they worried about reopening the border with the U.S., versus 31 percent of Americans. Cases have jumped since the poll was taken, along with criticism of politicians at all levels of government for not doing enough.

Attitudes may change once more progress is made on vaccines. About 25 percent of Canadians have their first shot but just 2.4 percent are fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker.
For the battered tourism industry, that may mean a second summer of empty hotel rooms and restaurants.

“What people don’t understand, too, is the huge connectedness between Canada and the U.S., especially in the border regions where we’re quite used to just going over to have dinner,” said Marta Leardi-Anderson, the executive director of the Cross-Border Institute at the University of Windsor.

American tourists are missed at Le Priori, a boutique hotel nestled in Quebec City’s historic neighborhood where they usually make up a quarter of guests. Many visit after ending a cruise on the St. Lawrence River, spending freely and helping stretch the summer tourism season into the fall, general manager Erwan Franchet said.

Now, cruises are banned until 2022, Quebec’s capital city is in lockdown, and it’s still unclear how quickly vaccination will unlock borders.

Franchet expects visitors from other parts of Quebec this summer, but no end to the crisis until the end of the year. He worries the industry, which faces current occupation rates around 10 percent, may lose some players by then.

“There will be a huge demand for travel, everyone on the planet will compete to attract tourists and refill their coffers,” he said. “We must show up for it.”

About 550 miles to the southwest, at one of Canada’s most famous natural wonders, the president of Niagara Falls Tourism believes that moment may come as soon as the summer. The town welcomed only 36 percent of its usual 14 million visitors last year, but Janice Thomson pins her hopes on vaccination and rapid testing at the border.

“Those will give everyone confidence to travel and to get back at experiencing what we’re used to,” she said.

On the opposite side of the Niagara River, U.S. Rep. Brian Higgins, D-N.Y., is losing patience. His district, which includes Buffalo, took a massive hit from losing Canadian visitors at its airport, shops and sports arenas, he said.

Higgins has been pressing President Biden to obtain exemptions for U.S. residents wanting to reunite with loved ones or access their property in Canada. He’s also pushing for a full reopening by July.

“My people are being denied access to Canada,” he said. Yet “with vaccines, the verification of vaccines, and wearing face masks, the likelihood of getting COVID-19 and the likelihood of giving COVID-19 is very, very low.”

Galbraith, from the Windsor mold-making company, says months of alerting authorities about the impact of current rules has gained the industry some support in its effort to exempt some technicians from quarantine. Manufacturing GDP dropped almost 10 percent last year and employment also fell, data show.

“They’re seeing the fact that we’re not crying wolf,” he said. “We’re really losing business.”
 
The satirical New Maine News site is back on-line. Some tasty gems:

Legendary Maine Topless Bar Ground to Dust, Snorted by Former Patrons​



East Millinocket– One of Maine’s most famous off-the-grid landmarks was torn down to make way for a new gun shop, but that doesn’t mean fans of the establishment didn’t get one last thrill.

La Casa, northern Penobscot county’s most beloved, celebrated, and only, topless bar, was smashed to pieces by heavy equipment.

The pieces were then crushed and cut into increasingly smaller pieces. After being reduced to a fine powder, plow equipment pushed the dust into neat lines.

Former hardcore patrons and many former employees lined up for one last bump.

“Brings back lots of memories of good times,” said one La Casa fan.

“We used to drive here from Skowhegan and get sideways,” he said.

Others remember La Casa for its business opportunities.

“I used to sell my stuff to guys here, and I knew I could always make a ton of money,” said one enterprising former fan.

“I hoped I could come and visit one last time but the place closed down while I was on my little vacation,” he said, referring to a 2-year prison sentence.

The closure of the club was a huge blow to Maine’s sleazeball community. However, one last gift from La Casa appeared when it was discovered the site was built on top of a giant mirror.


For 107th Straight Year, Lobstermen Predict Worst Season in History​


Coastal Areas– Informal surveys of members Maine’s commercial lobster industry paints a grim picture of the future.

According to most respondents, the 2018 lobster season will be anywhere from “bad” to “grim,” with many predicting it will be the last for as much as 90% of the industry.

“Going to be lots of long faces this year,” said one veteran fisherman. “Price is up, but there’s nothing out there right now.”

Others predict “hard times” and ruinous results.

“Lots of guys going to be hanging it up at the end of this year,” another fisherman said.

“Seen it before. You have to take the fat times with the lean. Most of these fellas don’t know that,” he added.

The survey of the lobstering industry happens each spring, as members begin painting boat bottoms and rigging gear for the upcoming season.

The lobsters will begin their crawl inshore from their winter habitats, with most fisherman agreeing they’ll be lucky if they get here by August.

“Once they finally get here, those bastards will drop the price, you just wait.”
 
Even Gordon Ramsay can't yell at people in Maine...

Gordon Ramsay’s tour of the midcoast to air in June​

pressherald.com/2021/05/12/gordon-ramsays-tour-of-the-midcoast-to-air-in-june/

By Meredith Goad May 12, 2021

Rockland chef Melissa Kelly takes a selfie with Gordon Ramsay, who visited Kelly in September to film an episode of Uncharted. Photo courtesy of Melissa Kelly

Melissa Kelly, chef/owner of Primo in Rockland, doesn’t watch food TV – or any television, really – so she’s unfamiliar with the version of Gordon Ramsay who’s famous for yelling at young cooks on “Hell’s Kitchen.”

But she is familiar with Ramsay’s life and work because she’s followed his career – and pored over his cookbooks – for years. Kelly respects the man and his talent, so when National Geographic invited her to be the featured “local food legend” in a Maine episode of “Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted,” the two-time James Beard Award winner said yes. The episode was filmed in the midcoast in September. Kelly and Ramsay went seaweed harvesting and cooked on a wood-fired grill at the Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde.

Their time together will be featured on the National Geographic Channel series at 9 p.m. on June 13. The Maine Office of Tourism will be very happy – the episode is basically a love letter to Maine and its passion for local foods, with lots of scenic photography showcasing the coastline. Ramsay’s goal, he explains at the beginning of the episode, is to cook so well with Maine ingredients that locals will declare him a Mainer. (Good luck with that, Gordon.)

“He was absolutely lovely to work with – very respectful, very eager to see what we were all about and what Maine was all about,” Kelly said. “Very talented, very smart. Fun. Lots of energy – a ball of energy. I got the same feeling from him that I got from Tony Bourdain. He’s a real passionate person, just exuding culinary information and an insatiable desire to learn anything food related.”

Season 3 of “Uncharted” premieres at 9 p.m. May 31 – Memorial Day – then on June 6 begins airing weekly on Sundays at 9 p.m. The series follows Ramsay around the world as he harvests local ingredients and learns about local food customs and regional flavors. This season the chef hunts for rattlesnakes in Texas, harvests barnacles in Portugal, free dives for mollusks in Croatia, goes spearfishing in Puerto Rico, cooks bread in geothermally-heated soil in Iceland, rappels down a waterfall in the Smoky Mountains, and harvests honey sacs from burrowing ants in Mexico.

And in Maine? In addition to harvesting “truffle of the sea” with Kelly on their seaweed foraging excursion, Ramsay, known for putting young chefs through the wringer in the kitchen, got a taste of his own medicine while struggling to bait and release lobster traps aboard the Gold Digger with lobsterwomen Heather Thompson and Hilary Oliver. Thompson hilariously told the world-renowned chef that her 15-year-old niece could move faster.

Ramsay also traveled to North Haven, where he dove for clams and harvested oysters with Adam and Zeb Campbell. He seemed astonished by the size and beauty of the clams, calling them “absolute crackers.”
Next, he learned how to use a crosscut saw with Tina Scheer, aka Timber Tina, who runs the Great Maine Lumberjack Show in Trenton, and churned cultured butter with Lauren Pignatello at Swallowtail Farm and Creamery in North Whitefield.

Kelly said Ramsay was originally scheduled to visit Maine in last May, but the schedule kept changing. She worked with a production crew ahead of time and spent four or five days with Ramsay’s entourage before the chef arrived for filming. Kelly spent a couple of days with Ramsay, ending with a massive cook-off at the lighthouse, where they made food for all the other locals in the episode who had introduced Ramsay to the Maine ingredients he used in his dishes.

Ramsay prepared a clam and lobster bouillabase; grilled Lobster Thermidor with grilled corn, seaweed butter and yogurt slaw; and a platter of grilled oysters and Rockefeller smoked oysters with apple mignonette. Kelly prepared a stew with clams and tasso ham made from pigs she raised at Primo; a lobster and uni hand-rolled tagliatelle; and a grilled oyster and tuna deconstructed BLT. (Kelly seared the tuna on hot rocks.)

“It was fun, and he was really fun – a little competitive and jesting,” Kelly said. “He’s a really nice person and very talented.”

The day before he left Maine, Ramsay ate breakfast with one of his producers at The Porthole Restaurant and Pub on Custom House Wharf. Ken Macgowan, owner of the restaurant, said the staff was thrilled when Ramsay agreed to take a photo with them, particularly one employee who “idolized” the chef. “I thought she was going to faint on me,” Macgowan said.

Ramsay didn’t leave Maine before dropping one of his famous expletives, describing how much he liked The Porthole’s Casco Bay Omelet.

Gordon Ramsay poses with the staff at The Porthole Restaurant and Pub in September. Photo courtesy of The Porthole
 

Rare two-tone lobster donated to university​

pressherald.com/2021/05/17/rare-two-tone-lobster-donated-to-university/

By Staff Report May 17, 2021
This rare half-orange lobster was donated to the University of New England Marine Science Center.

A rare two-tone lobster has been donated to the University of New England’s Marine Science Center in Biddeford.

The half-orange, half-brown crustacean is considered to be a one-in-50 million catch, according to UNE. By comparison, Blue lobsters are one-in-two million and Albino lobsters are the rarest at one-in-100 million. UNE became home to a one-in-30 million yellow lobster in February.

The split-colored lobster was given the the school late last week by Eric Payne from Inland Seafood Corporation in South Portland.

“We are honored that local lobstermen entrust these rare animals to UNE’s Marine Science Center where we will use them in our teaching and outreach activities,” Markus Frederich, Ph.D., assistant professor of marine sciences, said in a news release.

While rare, lobsters with unusual coloring are landed in Maine every year, and often end up in laboratory tanks to be studied or displayed.
 
Oh the humanity!!!!

Porta-potties in short supply as outdoor events make rebound in Maine​

pressherald.com/2021/05/24/porta-potties-in-short-supply-as-outdoor-events-make-rebound-in-maine/

By Edward D. Murphy May 24, 2021

Ryan Fuller, shop foreman at Troiano Waste Services, cleans a portable toilet this month at the business’s South Portland headquarters. Ben McCanna/Staff Photographer

The economic disruption brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic has come full circle.

A year ago it was toilet paper that was in short supply. Now, it’s porta-potties.

Those much-maligned plastic portable sanitation devices are in high demand and a crunch is coming as the weather warms and the need for outdoor facilities rises.

Porta-potties are ubiquitous in some settings. They’re needed on job sites for construction workers and are often required for outdoor festivals, carnivals and other events – most of which are expected to return this summer after being canceled last year.

That’s what has led to the high demand, and some ramifications of the pandemic are contributing to the short supply.

T.J. Troiano, whose family runs South Portland-based Troiano Waste Services, said his company is hampered by delays in an order for 100 new porta-potties while it’s also being squeezed by a worker shortage and longer construction times that keep porta-potties on building job sites for longer periods.
He said the labor shortage is hindering operations. The company needs workers to drive trucks to drop off porta-potties, to service them out in the field and to pick up those that are no longer needed and return them to the company for cleaning and reuse.

Troiano said the company ordered 100 new porta-potties in March and had expected that they would be delivered in a few weeks, as is usual. But the Indiana manufacturer has told him not to expect the order to be filled before Memorial Day, he said, creating a squeeze for the company in getting porta-potties to customers.

Danny Schaver, marketing director for porta-potty maker PolyJohn, said higher demand, a shortage of plastic and a switch in focus for the company are all adding up to a backlog of orders.

Last year, there was high demand for portable, plastic sinks to help people maintain hand-washing protocols and PolyJohn shifted its focus to those, he said. The company’s output is typically 70 percent porta-potties and 30 percent portable sinks, but last year that ratio was reversed, he said.

This year, demand for portable sinks has fallen back to normal levels, while demand for porta-potties has grown, and the company has had to rework its manufacturing schedules to accommodate the change.

“We’ve been trying to catch up,” Schaver said. “We had to do a lot of flipping around as a country.”

Schaver said his company’s books are full through September for porta-potties, which generally start at around $600 each.

PolyJohn, which is based in Whiting, Indiana, just outside Chicago, was deemed an essential business and was able to continue to operate through much of the pandemic, Schaver said. It had to shut down, briefly, a couple of times due to COVID outbreaks, he said.

Demand for porta-potties nationally has been up this spring because of orders for outdoor markets and restaurants, which use porta-potties for customers who have been restricted to outdoor dining during the pandemic, he said.

Like Troiano, Schaver said the labor market is tight around Chicago, so PolyJohn has had to scramble to get factory workers to produce the porta-potties. An additional stumbling block, he said, is a worldwide shortage of plastic resin, exacerbated by severe weather in Texas and surrounding states, where most of the resin for the U.S. market is produced.

Troiano said his company faces challenges in part due to changing work rules that are lengthening construction schedules. Contractors are a mainstay of the porta-potty business because they need to provide sanitation for workers on a job site, and if the porta-potties are out a longer time, that limits the company’s ability to service other customers.

“The units aren’t turning and coming back to the yard as soon as they used to,” Troiano said. He added, ruefully, that a shortage of steel is reducing the number of dumpsters he can obtain, creating yet another headache for the business this year.
 
Sheesh, too bad we're not interested in selling...

Maine home sales up 36% in April​

pressherald.com/2021/05/24/maine-home-sales-up-36-in-april/

By Staff Report May 24, 2021

Maine home sales increased by nearly 36 percent in April from a year earlier, while the median sales price shot up more than 17 percent.

Sales of existing single-family homes were up 35.7 percent in April compared with a year earlier, and the median sales price increased by 17.1 percent to $276,000, Maine Listings reported Friday. The median indicates that half of homes sold for more money and half sold for less.

“Maine’s residential real estate market continues to be fast-paced,” said Aaron Bolster, broker/owner of Allied Realty in Skowhegan and president of the Maine Association of Realtors. “The April 2021 statistics … reflect a comparison to one year ago, when the state of Maine was in COVID-shutdown status. Last month’s sales volume was strong – 13 percent above the pre-pandemic April 2019 figures.”

Nationally, home sales were up 28.9 percent in April comparted with a year earlier, and the national median price rose 20.3 percent to reach $347,400, according to the National Association of Realtors. The Northeast experienced a significant sales boost of 30.4 percent, while the regional median sales price increased by 22 percent to $381,100.
 
@Old Mud will appreciate...

Maine Observer: You might get Prowtsneck driving on The Cahpahk​

pressherald.com/2021/05/30/maine-observer-some-choice-words-for-summer/

By Carol McCormick SempleMay 30, 2021

Maine loves tourists, we do, because they put money in the till and it’s fun to talk to people from elsewhere. Still, sometimes it’s hard to share this patch we call home.

With the arrival of our visitors, ever-resilient Mainers must adapt their behavior – and their words. So here is a glossary of tourism-inspired words, in no particular order. Go ahead. Express yourself.

​

• The Cahpahk: Interstate 295 from Portland to Brunswick during July and August.

• Bait Noire: A visitor who doesn’t wear bug repellent during black-fly season.

• Chum: A visitor who refuses to wear a life vest.

• Jamesbeard — Notorious 18th-century pirate who hid his ships in Maine’s coves and estuaries. Was known to be a helluva cook.

• Pogies: Pedestrians who fill the sidewalk and move as fast as a barnacle.

• Prowtsneck: An affliction blamed on too much rubbernecking at the scenery while driving.

• Moosemeat: A visitor who thinks it’s OK to drive 100 mph in Maine because how much enforcement could there be way out here?

• Moxie Falls: Stuff that dribbles out of tourists’ mouths when they try a certain soft drink for the first time.

• Clawfuls: Restaurant patrons who expect the waitstaff to intuit that they want a lobster.

• Bottom Feeders: Visitors who don’t tip.

• Pouts: Unhappy tourist children.

• The Gut: A diner who believes fish should only be served fried.

• Katahdin-din: A meal in a chef-owned restaurant.

• Kayyakkers: Paddlers who talk really, really loudly on rivers and lakes.

• Golden Diggers : People who admire Maine’s 2nd District congressman because they think he’s cute.

• Pisscataquick: A portapotty.

• Potty Mouths: People constantly asking where to find a rest room.

• Duck Point: What duck boat passengers do to Portland residents who are just walking down the street minding their own business. Or maybe we’re just paranoid.

• Duck Blind: Defense mechanism in Portlanders when duck boat passengers point at them.

• Speedo-philes: Visitors who won’t leave the beach.

• Sahdines: Cruise ship passengers.

• Wharf Rats: Visitors to the Old Port who get too drunk to walk on the cobblestones.

• Portland Head: Type of hangover experienced by Wharf Rats.

• Trail Hix: Hikers who wear flip-flops and don’t carry water.

• Smelts: Tourists who complete a hike on a hot day.

• All-A-Gash: The faces of hikers who get lost and decide to bushwhack.

• Meddy Bumps: Name for the welts after mosquitos have finished with a hiker who forgets the bug repellent.

• New Castle: That honkin’ big house the folks from away build on a lake and call a “camp.”

• Where’s Waldo?: Note to visitors: In Maine this is a serious question.

• Canon Fodder: A tourist dad who always keeps a camera around his neck.

• Canon Mudder: A tourist mom who always keeps a camera around her neck.

• Largemouth: A very loud visitor.

• Harlequin Duck: A gaudily dressed tourist.

• Puckheads: Visitors who make fun of Maine accents.
 
It wouldn't be a shock to me if the flag starts fraying because it's been constantly flying...

And for those of you who'd like a "No Chit Sherlock Moment", here's the quote of the week: Don’t go swimming if you see a seal colony because that’s what sharks eat. Ya THINK???

A year after a fatal shark attack, Harpswell adopts warning flag​

pressherald.com/2021/05/31/a-year-after-a-fatal-shark-attack-in-harpswell-town-adopts-warning-flag/

By Kathleen O'Brien May 31, 2021

Maryellen Amendola, right, her daughter Julia, center and Hannah Doak sit at the waters edge on a beach at the head of Mackerel Cove on Bailey Island in July 2020. Amendola, who has summered on Bailey Island for 20 years, said she and the girls won’t be going in the water past their waists after Monday’s shark attack that happened farther out in the cove. Gregory Rec/Portland Press Herald

Harpswell will display a flag to warn beachgoers if a shark was spotted nearby in response to the state’s first fatal shark attack off the coast of Bailey Island last summer.

The flag — purple with a white shark silhouette in the middle — will be hoisted in Mitchell Field, Mackerel Cove and Cedar Beach when there is a reported shark sighting within a quarter mile, advising beachgoers to swim at their own risk. The flag will fly until the next day following the reported sighting.

Arthur Howe, Harpswell’s fire administrator and emergency management agent, said the town will deem any report credible because “we don’t have the scientific background or time to validate sightings on a case-by-case basis.”

Harpswell officials have yet to determine what number the public should call if they believe they see a shark.

Howe said the flag isn’t intended to alarm people, but to keep them “aware and educated that we have sharks in our waters.”

Maine state beaches and coastal parks will also adopt the flag this summer, said Gary Best, state park regional manager at the Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry. The shark warning flag is widely used in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, which sees more white sharks than Maine, he said.

Both Best and Howe said Harpswell and the state started looking for a way to improve public safety on Maine beaches after the state saw its first documented fatal shark attack last year.

Julie Dimperio Holowach, 63, a retired fashion executive and summer resident of Harpswell, died on July 27, 2020 after a shark attacked her while swimming about 20 yards offshore near her home on Bailey Island, the Portland Press Herald reported. The shark was identified as a great white based on tooth fragments.

There were three other reported shark sightings in the week following that attack, the Portland Press Herald reported. One was spotted near Cousins Island in Yarmouth and the Maine Department of Marine Resources received two reports of shark sightings near Popham Beach in Phippsburg. Although marine patrol couldn’t verify the sightings, beachgoers were urged to stay out of the water.

“Sharks aren’t new to the state, but the horrible tragedy last year raised everyone’s awareness,” said Best. “We strive to keep all of our beaches as safe and enjoyable as possible. Water safety and public safety is an evolution and we continue to adapt and improve.”

James Sulkowski, a former University of New England professor and researcher who conducts shark research in Maine and worldwide, said shark sightings could become more frequent in Maine because they’re drawn to the state’s healthy seal population.

“Sharks are looking at how they can eat as much as possible while expending the least amount of energy possible,” Sulkowski said. “Seals are the food source of white sharks, and if there’s a lot of food around, you’re going to undoubtedly have more sharks taking advantage of it.”

Maine is home to eight different species of sharks, including great white sharks — also known as white sharks — which are considered potentially more dangerous to humans because they swim closer to the coast and feed on marine mammals, according to Sulkowski.

To better understand how many sharks are in Maine, the Maine Department of Marine Resources partners with Sulkowski, the Massachusetts Division of Marine Fisheries and the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy in 2020. The group places acoustic monitoring devices, or “receivers”, which record signals from acoustic transmitters, or “tags”, attached to sharks.

The Department of Marine Resources placed 11 receivers along the coast between Wells and Popham Beach which detected 16 sharks in 2020 between late July and late November, 14 of which were white sharks, according to the department’s website.

Although sharks are present in Maine waters, Sulkowski stressed that shouldn’t deter people from enjoying Maine beaches this summer.

“Globally, there are about 120 shark interactions per year and about 10 are fatal,” said Sulkowski. “People in Maine have a higher chance of being killed by a falling icicle.”

However, he recommended people stay away from seals and avoid swimming at dusk and dawn to lower the chances of a shark interaction.

“Don’t go swimming if you see a seal colony because that’s what sharks eat,” he said. “Humans, the way that we swim, we look like a sick, dying seal. If a shark sees something that looks injured, sharks hone in on that and pick out the weak. If we’re wearing a wetsuit that makes us look more seal-ish, that increases the chances.”

Other than the incident in Harpswell last summer, the only other confirmed shark attack in Maine occurred 10 years ago near Eastport, according to Jeff Nichols, communications director for the Maine Department of Marine Resources.

That shark was reported to be an 8-foot porbeagle shark that attacked a diver’s camera, thought to be mistaking the camera for food. The diver was uninjured and able to fend off the shark with his camera and captured the encounter on film.
 
$34 Lobstah Roll??? Only a tourists will pay that...

Consider the $34 Lobster Roll​

The pandemic has exacerbated a price spike in the iconic New England summer sandwich.

A lobster roll piled high at Red’s Eats in Wiscasset, Maine. The motto at Red’s is “We don’t measure… we pile it high.”

A lobster roll piled high at Red’s Eats in Wiscasset, Maine. The motto at Red’s is “We don’t measure… we pile it high.” Credit...Ryan David Brown for The New York Times

WISCASSET, Maine — On the first weekend of June, the scene at Red’s Eats seemed much like summers past. The line of tourists waiting to order at this picturesque seafood shack ran down the block. The sun beat down and employees passed out umbrellas and water, the sort of nicety you provide when your restaurant makes “best of” lists and causes traffic jams in attracting people from across the country.

Red’s menu offered its usual fare of sea scallops, whole belly deep-fried clams and its most famous dish, a fresh lobster roll, “piled high.”

The only change was the price: This year, the lobster roll is $30.

“Are you kidding me?” said Bindu Gajria, who was vacationing from Philadelphia and hadn’t checked the menu before getting in line. “I was going to order one, but now I’m having second thoughts.”

And $30 was a relative bargain. Two weeks earlier, as reported in the Bangor Daily News, Red’s was selling the sandwich for $34 — a mere $136 to feed a family of four.

Umbrellas and water are handed out to those waiting in line at Red’s.

Umbrellas and water are handed out to those waiting in line at Red’s. Credit...Ryan David Brown for The New York Times

Up and down the coast of the northeastern United States, the price of lobster — and thus, lobster rolls — is at historic highs, say restaurateurs who serve them.

“The most it’s ever been,” said Steve Kingston, owner of the Clam Shack in Kennebunkport, Maine, who this summer is charging $24.95 for his lobster roll.

Last year, the lobster roll was $18.95, but the price of lobster meat “was so high that we had no choice but to go significantly higher,” he said.

At the Lobster Landing in Clinton, Conn., an eatery that’s earned praise in Yankee magazine for its roll, the cost is up 75 cents from last year, to $19.75.

“For us, a family of four is 80 bucks and then sales tax, which is nothing to do with me,” said Enea Bacci, an owner. “Everywhere around us it’s $21, $22, $24. For me, I didn’t want to go $22 and shock the people.”

As with used cars and houses, the price spike in lobster meat is, in part, a matter of supply and demand exacerbated by the pandemic. Home cooks, stuck inside during the lockdown, turned to all manner of seafood to expand their palates and learn new kitchen skills over the past year.

The wait at Red’s can easily be over an hour and a half during the summer.

The wait at Red’s can easily be over an hour and a half during the summer.Credit...Ryan David Brown for The New York Times


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The board each day shows the market price for lobster rolls and other items. Credit...Ryan David Brown for The New York Times

“The processing sector is demanding a lot of meat,” said Dick Douty, an owner of Douty Bros., a lobster wholesaler and processor in Portland, Maine. “There’s more players, and there’s not more lobsters.”

Is lobster roll inflation, dare we say, transitory? It’s true the catch tends to be lower in May and June and increases through July and August, as the lobsters migrate to shore with the rising water temperatures.

But the lobster industry is also “inefficient by design,” said Annie Tselikis, the executive director of the Maine Lobster Dealers’ Association.

There are roughly 4,500 licensed lobstermen in the state of Maine, and every fishing vessel is an independent operator. “The fishery and the supply chain are completely disconnected,” Ms. Tselikis said. “I cannot tell those boats to go fishing,” if a captain decides to take the day off.

And when it comes to processing, she added, “We don’t have a lot of automation in this industry because we’re dealing with an animal that has two large claws, eight legs, a tail and an exoskeleton. In order for that lobster to get out of the ocean and to a consumer is an incredible process. This isn’t a hot dog. It isn’t a hamburger.”

All of which has resulted in an epic mismatch between supply and demand so far this year. So epic, in fact, that Red’s opened in April with no lobster on its menu. That’s like Peter Luger opening with no steak.

But the lobstermen and women from whom Red’s buys were not having good harvests, even offshore. So it was either go without until live lobster was available or serve frozen meat — an option that Debbie Gagnon, an owner of Red’s, likened to “a stake in the heart.”

Wearing a red Red’s T-shirt and ball cap, Ms. Gagnon spoke to a reporter through the order window, where she was simultaneously scribbling on a pad and making announcements over a loudspeaker (“Welcome to Red’s. Get ready for the best lunch in Maine! … Last weekend we had Academy Award-winning actress Susan Sarandon waiting in line …”).

“Frozen lobster is like wet cardboard,” she said. “And it’s not who we are. I would never, ever serve frozen lobster.”

Just down the hill from Red’s, another lobster shack, Sprague’s Lobster, was selling its roll for $25.95, and you didn’t have to stand in line. Further up the coast, at McCloon’s Lobster Shack on Sprucehead Island, the roll was $19.95. Then there was Mr. Bacci down in Connecticut with his 20-cents-off roll.

Was there a gouging of tourists by some eateries? Or are varying prices an indication of individual restaurants’ approach to the roll?

The owners of McCloon’s, which include Mr. Douty, also own a wharf, where they furnish the lobstermen with bait and fuel and buy lobsters directly, making supply less of an issue. They stuff their $20 lobster roll with four ounces of meat.

Red’s serves a buttery, heaping roll that contains so much meat — about eight ounces — the bun is invisible. Decreasing the portion size would be another stake in the heart.

Ms. Gagnon hopes to lower the price as the supply increases. But many restaurants set the lobster roll price at the beginning of the season and maintain it. Mr. Kingston, who tends to operate this way, said determining the price for his 5½ ounce roll was “painful” this year.

“I worry about this stuff,” he said. “We’re on people’s bucket lists. They will tell me, ‘We got off the exit to come here. We understand you serve the Bushes.’ But there comes a point.”

How much is too much for a summer food tradition?

“I didn’t think we were there at $24.95, but I’ve been worried,” Mr. Kingston said. “I’m pretty sure we’re not selling as many as 2019.”

Places like the Clam Shack, which has won the Lobster Roll Rumble several times, and Red’s, may have pricing power, at least during the tourist season — especially after last year’s lost summer, as Americans are traveling and embracing life outside their homes again.

Steve Pulliam and his wife, Allison, who were among those waiting in the scorching sun at Red’s, had traveled from Fayetteville, Ark., to be there. Visiting Maine was “on the bucket list,” Ms. Pulliam said.

Did the $30 price tag (plus tax) for a lobster roll give them pause?

“No, because this is probably the only time this summer I’ll have a lobster roll,” Mr. Pulliam said. It was also his first time.

After standing for 40 minutes in the slow-moving line, the couple approached the window. They ordered two lobster rolls, scallops, French fries and two sodas. Total cost: “Ninety dollars even, dear,” Ms. Gagnon said.

Mr. Pulliam had already justified it: “I’m glad I didn’t bring the kids.”
 
More "Smoked" Lobstah Lore...

Mainer’s idea to put the pot in the lobster sparks new research​

pressherald.com/2021/06/14/mainers-idea-to-put-the-pot-in-the-lobster-sparks-new-research/

By Hannah LaClaire June 14, 2021
Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound, doses a lobster with valerian. Gill uses the plant, sometimes called nature's valium, as a substitute for cannabis, which she uses to sedate the lobsters before boiling them.

Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte's Legendary Lobster Pound, doses a lobster with valerian. Gill uses the plant, sometimes called "nature's valium," as a substitute for cannabis, which she uses to sedate the lobsters before boiling them. Courtesy of Charlotte Gill

When news first spread that a Southwest Harbor restaurateur was using marijuana smoke to sedate lobsters before cooking them, reasoning that getting them high made their deaths more humane, scientists were skeptical.

However, new research out of California suggests that Charlotte Gill, owner of Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound, may have been on to something when she started getting her lobsters baked before they were boiled.


Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound in Southwest Harbor, where a sign on the window advertises compassionately treated lobsters. Courtesy of Charlotte Gill

Using Gill’s highly publicized method of hotboxing lobsters as a base, a team of scientists at the University of California San Diego set out to determine if there was science behind the sensation.

The researchers tested locomotion (how much and how fast the lobsters moved after THC exposure), THC content in lobster tissues and what reactions, if any, the crustaceans had to temperature changes.

In a paper that has yet to be published or peer-reviewed, scientists reported that exposure to the drug made lobsters slower, and that duration-dependent levels of THC showed up in their tissues. The experiment also showed that lobsters reacted to being submerged in hot water, but that the impact of THC on this reaction was minimal.

Gill’s claims that cannabinoids could be introduced into the lobster by “atmospheric exposure” and that this would have a behavioral effect are supported, they concluded, but the assertion that it dulls their reaction to being put in hot water is not.

Furthermore, whether the drug gets them “high,” or relaxes them at all, still remains to be seen.
“Further experimentation would be required to fully investigate other behavioral outcomes, including anxiety-like measures,” the scientists wrote.

Whether lobsters can even feel pain has long been a subject of debate.

Richard Wahle, director of the University of Maine’s Lobster Institute, said it can be hard to tell.
“Certainly lobsters do avoid and react to excessive heat and other noxious stimuli, … but do they perceive pain the way humans or mammals might?” he said. “We don’t know. We can’t ask them. We can look at physiological responses, (but) pain is such a subjective experience that it’s hard to make inferences.”

Even if scientists aren’t sure, Gill, a lifelong lover of all animals, whether feathered, furry or covered in carapace, has no doubts.

As a little girl, she’d walk across the street to the local lobster pound and, with all the money she’d saved, buy as many crabs and lobsters as she could, take them down to the pier and set them free.

Now, decades later, she’s found herself as the proprietor of a restaurant serving up many of the little clawed crustaceans she once worked so hard to set free – an irony that Gill said became harder to stomach as the years went on.

“The purpose of the restaurant … it’s about way more than the food,” she said.

Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound has built its own little community, and in Maine, where lobster is king, it served as “the gateway drug to get people here.”

The restaurant became a place that radiates “light and happiness,” she said, but it “became more and more obvious that all of this was happening at the expense of the lobster.”

With a menu that seemed at odds with her love of animals, she considered making the menu vegetarian, but that would mean scrapping everything she’d built. So, instead, she turned her focus in 2018 to easing the lobsters’ passing.

“If you can’t stop the process, then make it better,” she told herself.

That’s when Gill, then a registered caregiver, thought of cannabis. The experiment was relatively simple.
She and some of her employees took Roscoe, a “wildly frisky” lobster, and placed him in a few inches of saltwater in a plastic box, making sure all his gills were submerged. They made a small opening in the box, inserted a straw and piped cannabis smoke from the top into the water, essentially “hotboxing” Roscoe, Gill said.
He was given three to five minutes of constant exposure and then removed.

“What we saw was absolutely profound,” she said, calling Roscoe a “limp noodle” post-bake.

After making sure there were no adverse effects and waiting for the high to wear off, Roscoe was released for his contributions to science.

All in all, the experiment was re-created between 40 and 50 times, always with the same results – the lobsters were calmer, no longer climbing over each other and shooting their claws off, she said.

Getting the lobsters high had another benefit, too. According to Gill, it made them taste better.

“The meat is sweeter, lighter and better,” she said. “In my opinion, this is happening because there is little or no stress hormone in their system.”

Wahle could neither prove nor disprove the claim, but said he was not aware of any rigorous taste test experiments that would support it.

That said, “testable questions is where the science starts,” he said. “It might be a project worth working on.”

Gill never served the cannabis-treated lobsters to customers, though she hopes to be able to one day.
When she does, the lobsters won’t get customers high, she noted. With the short exposure time and high-heat cooking process, the THC is essentially removed.

Drug tests following the consumption of small amounts of the lobster, and then copious amounts of the lobster, all yielded negative results.

Not everyone was as thrilled with the tests.

When news of Gill’s new method spread, the state health department stepped in and told her that as the owner of a restaurant, which is federally regulated, she cannot sedate lobsters with cannabis, which is still federally illegal, she said.

Regulators of the state’s marijuana programs did not confirm whether they were involved in investigating the lobster pound. But David Heidrich, spokesman for the Maine Office of Marijuana Policy, said at the time that “medical marijuana may only be grown for and provided to persons with a marijuana recommendation from a qualified medical provider. … Lobsters are not people.”

Heidrich also noted that recreational marijuana products can be sold only in marijuana stores, which had not yet been licensed in 2018.

For now, Gill has found another, legal way of easing the lobsters’ passage: valerian.

Often referred to as “nature’s Valium,” valerian is a flowering plant known for having a calming, mildly sedative effect and is “generally recognized as safe” by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Gill either pipes the valerian vapor directly into the lobsters’ mouths or adds the plant to the water and essentially steeps them like a teabag.

Valerian works well and fast, she said, with results in just three to five seconds. She estimates that, compared to cannabis, it’s about 75 percent to 100 percent as effective.

But it’s expensive. Charlotte’s Legendary Lobster Pound doesn’t charge extra for sedated lobsters, so Gill is absorbing the cost. Cannabis, on the other hand, she could ultimately procure for free.

“We’re going to do our best to re-enter our cannabis sedation arena as quickly as possible,” she said, adding that with the fully realized recreational market, she hopes it could be as early as the fall.

Gill isn’t concerned that the study yielded slightly less impressive results than in her own experiment.
In fact, she’s encouraged.

“Their experiment differed drastically,” she said, citing the lab’s use of a vape cartridge, smaller doses and longer exposure times.

“The takeaway is even with completely adulterating the experiment, they still got results,” she said. “It’s absolutely awesome.”

Gill was unaware the research was even being done and said she wished she had been notified and given the chance to help guide the researchers.

“I can’t even imagine the results they would have had if they had done it the way we do,” she said.

The process of boiling lobsters alive isn’t one that developed from any scientific roots but has been an “unquestioned, longstanding practice for as long as people have been eating cooked crustaceans,” Wahle said, with people choosing the fastest way to get the freshest meat.

But recently, Gill and others have indeed started to question the practice.

In 2018, Switzerland joined New Zealand and Reggio Emilia, a city in northern Italy, with a live-boil ban.
Instead, the animals must be killed or stunned beforehand. Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as killing, say a fish, because lobsters lack a centralized nervous system, so something like a stab to the head won’t do it.

There are other ways, though.

For example, the “Crustastun,” a device approved by the United Kingdom’s Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, uses an electrical current to stun the crustaceans’ nervous system. It takes less than a second to stun the animal, and then 10 seconds to kill it.

According to Wahle, this device is used among many large lobster dealers and processors.
“Concerns about animal welfare have become more prominent, and so the industry is responsive to consumer concerns,” he said.

Gill believes the research has the potential for ripple effects across the food chain.

“If this type of process can work on a lobster, it really should be able to work on any creature in our food supply,” she said. “I’m not suggesting we put them all in bake box, … but if we can (ease their suffering) there is no downside.”
 
Roccus7 said:
Even Gordon Ramsay can't yell at people in Maine...

Gordon Ramsay’s tour of the midcoast to air in June​

pressherald.com/2021/05/12/gordon-ramsays-tour-of-the-midcoast-to-air-in-june/

By Meredith Goad May 12, 2021

Rockland chef Melissa Kelly takes a selfie with Gordon Ramsay, who visited Kelly in September to film an episode of Uncharted. Photo courtesy of Melissa Kelly

Melissa Kelly, chef/owner of Primo in Rockland, doesn’t watch food TV – or any television, really – so she’s unfamiliar with the version of Gordon Ramsay who’s famous for yelling at young cooks on “Hell’s Kitchen.”

But she is familiar with Ramsay’s life and work because she’s followed his career – and pored over his cookbooks – for years. Kelly respects the man and his talent, so when National Geographic invited her to be the featured “local food legend” in a Maine episode of “Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted,” the two-time James Beard Award winner said yes. The episode was filmed in the midcoast in September. Kelly and Ramsay went seaweed harvesting and cooked on a wood-fired grill at the Marshall Point Lighthouse in Port Clyde.

Their time together will be featured on the National Geographic Channel series at 9 p.m. on June 13. The Maine Office of Tourism will be very happy – the episode is basically a love letter to Maine and its passion for local foods, with lots of scenic photography showcasing the coastline. Ramsay’s goal, he explains at the beginning of the episode, is to cook so well with Maine ingredients that locals will declare him a Mainer. (Good luck with that, Gordon.)

“He was absolutely lovely to work with – very respectful, very eager to see what we were all about and what Maine was all about,” Kelly said. “Very talented, very smart. Fun. Lots of energy – a ball of energy. I got the same feeling from him that I got from Tony Bourdain. He’s a real passionate person, just exuding culinary information and an insatiable desire to learn anything food related.”

Season 3 of “Uncharted” premieres at 9 p.m. May 31 – Memorial Day – then on June 6 begins airing weekly on Sundays at 9 p.m. The series follows Ramsay around the world as he harvests local ingredients and learns about local food customs and regional flavors. This season the chef hunts for rattlesnakes in Texas, harvests barnacles in Portugal, free dives for mollusks in Croatia, goes spearfishing in Puerto Rico, cooks bread in geothermally-heated soil in Iceland, rappels down a waterfall in the Smoky Mountains, and harvests honey sacs from burrowing ants in Mexico.

And in Maine? In addition to harvesting “truffle of the sea” with Kelly on their seaweed foraging excursion, Ramsay, known for putting young chefs through the wringer in the kitchen, got a taste of his own medicine while struggling to bait and release lobster traps aboard the Gold Digger with lobsterwomen Heather Thompson and Hilary Oliver. Thompson hilariously told the world-renowned chef that her 15-year-old niece could move faster.

Ramsay also traveled to North Haven, where he dove for clams and harvested oysters with Adam and Zeb Campbell. He seemed astonished by the size and beauty of the clams, calling them “absolute crackers.”
Next, he learned how to use a crosscut saw with Tina Scheer, aka Timber Tina, who runs the Great Maine Lumberjack Show in Trenton, and churned cultured butter with Lauren Pignatello at Swallowtail Farm and Creamery in North Whitefield.

Kelly said Ramsay was originally scheduled to visit Maine in last May, but the schedule kept changing. She worked with a production crew ahead of time and spent four or five days with Ramsay’s entourage before the chef arrived for filming. Kelly spent a couple of days with Ramsay, ending with a massive cook-off at the lighthouse, where they made food for all the other locals in the episode who had introduced Ramsay to the Maine ingredients he used in his dishes.

Ramsay prepared a clam and lobster bouillabase; grilled Lobster Thermidor with grilled corn, seaweed butter and yogurt slaw; and a platter of grilled oysters and Rockefeller smoked oysters with apple mignonette. Kelly prepared a stew with clams and tasso ham made from pigs she raised at Primo; a lobster and uni hand-rolled tagliatelle; and a grilled oyster and tuna deconstructed BLT. (Kelly seared the tuna on hot rocks.)

“It was fun, and he was really fun – a little competitive and jesting,” Kelly said. “He’s a really nice person and very talented.”

The day before he left Maine, Ramsay ate breakfast with one of his producers at The Porthole Restaurant and Pub on Custom House Wharf. Ken Macgowan, owner of the restaurant, said the staff was thrilled when Ramsay agreed to take a photo with them, particularly one employee who “idolized” the chef. “I thought she was going to faint on me,” Macgowan said.

Ramsay didn’t leave Maine before dropping one of his famous expletives, describing how much he liked The Porthole’s Casco Bay Omelet.

Gordon Ramsay poses with the staff at The Porthole Restaurant and Pub in September. Photo courtesy of The Porthole
Click to expand...
Watched the show last night on NatGeo and it was really good. It was really interesting when Gordon was harvesting clams and Oysters with the locals in a certain which was a mix of fresh water from a stream and salt water from the bay which made for a lush environment. The lobsta' captain gal was hilarious. They bleeped her out quite a few times as she was going off on Ramsay's lobstering techniques.
 
Nice Maine write up in the NY Times. I don't think that's a good thing, there are too many "visitors" here...

Driving the States of Maine

Driving the States of Maine​

Taking U.S. 1 the length of Maine reveals the shifting nature of the state’s character, from lobster shacks and antiques stores to vast forests and a lost French colony.

For such an iconic and well-traveled thoroughfare, U.S. 1 is surprisingly unknowable. Various sites and sources disagree on when it was established and how long it runs, and pretty much everything except that it passes through 14 states on its way from Key West, Fla., to Fort Kent, Maine. In most of those it offers less variety than you might crave; even Florida is pretty much Florida all the way through.

But if you can hang in there and make it all the way to Maine, you will find, spread out along almost 530 miles, a perpetually evolving panorama. By the time you get to the very end of Maine’s Route 1 (as it is called there), you are sure to feel as though you are no longer in the same state as you were when you first crossed the Piscataqua River from New Hampshire. Perhaps not even the same country.

Southern Maine along Route 1 is a land of tourist attractions and seafood shacks.

Southern Maine along Route 1 is a land of tourist attractions and seafood shacks. Credit...Stacey Cramp for The New York Times

Land of vacations​

There are many Maines, and most get their turn on Route 1. The road enters the state from Portsmouth, N.H., via the Memorial Bridge; the first thing you see as you alight in Kittery is the Maine Sailors and Soldiers Memorial, a striking sculpture commemorating the state’s First World War dead. Shortly thereafter, U.S. 1 dives into Southern Maine as a mile-long, car-clogged gauntlet of outlet stores. Only once you’ve cleared them will you see the sign for the Maine Visitor Center.

The state has long billed itself as “Vacationland,” and you could make the case that the Southern Maine portion of U.S.-1 is just one extended visitor center. Driving it, you get the sense that Mainers have conceded these towns — some of the oldest in the state, dating back to the 17th century — entirely to tourists.

The road here is mile upon mile of motels, antique shops, art galleries, restaurants, ice cream stands, and the occasional miniature golf course or theme park. It’s not all honky-tonk: Downtown Kennebunk, for instance, with its dignified old brick and clapboard edifices, whitewashed Unitarian church with ancient graveyard and flag-festooned lampposts, looks like a set for a Hallmark Channel movie. And sprinkled among most towns are signs that people do, in fact, live here year-round, treading water in a rising tide of tourism: offices, supermarkets, a Civil War monument on the lawn of a gas station.

But for the most part, this stretch of Route 1 seems set aside for what Mainers call folks from away. Those who cling to a cherished image of the place gleaned from a childhood visit, or an old film or novel or Winslow Homer painting, might be struck by a green street sign with a yellow appendix that abuts the road in South Portland: The sign reads “Memory Ln.”; the appendix, “Dead End.”

A ragged coast​

U.S. 1 skirts Maine’s largest city, Portland, but not another gauntlet of outlets in Freeport. From there, though, it emerges into a less dense Maine known as Midcoast. Midcoast Maine was mostly settled in the 18th century and built on fishing and shipbuilding, though as you head north, you’ll smell the ocean but won’t see it; this stretch of coastline is quite ragged.

Route 1 completely bypasses some Midcoast towns, but goes right through Thomaston, a picture postcard village that was, incongruously, the home of the state’s maximum-security penitentiary for 178 years. Don’t call it Shawshank, but do stop into the Maine State Prison Showroom (“the prison store” to locals), an old brick shop where one can purchase wooden furniture and toys and even intricately-detailed model schooners, all handmade by some of what one prison official once described to me as “the 900 most dangerous people in Maine.”

The prison itself is now a few miles away, but until 2002 it sat right next to the showroom on U.S. 1. Its former site is now a park; if you’re diligent, you can find a little green enclosure surrounded by an old wrought-iron fence and perched dramatically above the St. George River. Inside, a solitary rock bears a stone slab that simply reads: “In Memory of Those Interred in This Plot.”

There’s a good chance you’ll have to sit in traffic in Rockland, but once you make it through its cramped downtown, the buildings melt away and the ocean jumps right out at you, having grown tired at long last of playing coy.

The Penobscot Narrows Bridge has a tower observatory that is the tallest occupied structure in Maine.

The Penobscot Narrows Bridge has a tower observatory that is the tallest occupied structure in Maine. Credit...Stacey Cramp for The New York Times

A lot of things jump out at you along Midcoast’s U.S. 1: In Rockport and Camden, it’s big old ship captains’ houses repurposed as inns; in Belfast, it’s “Passawassawakeag,” the name of the river that promenades beneath you on its way out to sea. And in Prospect, it’s the Penobscot Narrows Bridge, a striking cable-stayed span with two towers that, at 447 feet, stand more than twice as high as the tallest building in Maine. (That would be a church.)

At the top of one is an observatory which affords glorious vistas of land and water and the town of Bucksport, where Route 1 passes right by the grave of namesake Jonathan Buck (1719-1795). His marker bears a stain in the shape of a woman’s lower leg and foot, said to be the manifestation of a curse hurled at Col. Buck by a woman he was burning at the stake as a witch. Two separate plaques next to it explain that this is a myth and that no one was ever executed for witchcraft in Bucksport (or Maine), but I believe the tale anyway, because I want to.

By the time you get to Ellsworth, you’ve driven past countless lobster shacks and piles of nautical knickknacks and motels with names like Yard Arm and Yankee Clipper, so when you see signs pointing to Bar Harbor, you may experience some form of seasickness. The good news is, U.S. 1 doesn’t go there.

The bad news is, you’ve got another 120 or so miles of coastline left.

But it’s different from what you’ve seen heretofore. Very different. You’re now in the third Maine: Downeast.

Open roads and empty fields​

Almost as soon as you leave Ellsworth, everything just disappears: The boutiques and antique stores and art galleries and ice cream stands and motels and inns and putt-putt and your cell signal and, most of all, other cars. In their stead is a lot of open road, and empty fields, and pine trees, and water near and distant, and historic homes in various states of deferred maintenance, and, well, a fair bit of good-old-fashioned Maine weird. This is a part of the state where people are relatively few and typically have deep roots and historically haven’t gotten out much except to head out to sea or off to war. I’m not saying that fostered eccentricity; but something did.

You will pass things that, if you don’t feel like stopping the car every few miles, you will want to at least make note of and research later: The large corrugated metal building in Hancock with “Chainsaw Sawyer Artist Live Show” painted on its side; the otherwise nondescript house in Gouldsboro with a Ferris wheel in its yard and a vintage pickup truck parked on its roof; the giant geodesic dome painted like a blueberry in Columbia Falls. In Machias, you might consider following the sign down to Fort O’Brien, where, in June 1775, a deal to trade groceries for lumber went bad and escalated into the first naval battle of the American Revolution. There is a long tradition, up here, of driving a hard bargain.

A large white abandoned house marks the spot in Whiting where U.S. 1 takes a sharp left turn. It soon passes many abandoned things, including barns, shops, boats and a dollop of rock and pines in the bay named St. Croix Island. In June, 1604, 79 French would-be settlers (including Samuel de Champlain) went ashore there and started building. Nearly half died that winter. Today it’s an International Historic Site, the only one in the entire National Park Service system. Its visitor center, a lonely outpost, closes from mid-October to late May, something Champlain no doubt would appreciate.

Many of the handsome brick waterfront buildings in the town of Calais also appear empty, though the entire facade of one, an imposing four-story edifice from 1847, still advertises Dr. Thomson’s Sarsaparilla, The Great English Remedy. Cures When Others Fail!

Dr. Thomson is long gone. So, as an historical marker outside an auto-parts store on Route 1 will tell you, is Washington County’s only synagogue, which once stood at that spot.

More moose than people​

Around Danforth, you’ll start to notice empty log trucks heading north. Follow them, and you’ll soon cross over into the fourth of Route 1’s Maines: Aroostook County. Most Mainers just call it “The County,” and don’t know much more about it than you do. The largest county east of the Mississippi, Aroostook is an expanse of forest and farmland the size of Connecticut and Rhode Island combined, with just 67,000 people scattered throughout the whole thing. It’s entirely possible they’re outnumbered by moose.

The first sizable town you hit heading up Route 1 is the county seat, Houlton. Once home to lumber barons, it’s a treasure for connoisseurs of Gilded-Age architecture, and for road nerds: It hosts both the reunion of Route 1 and I-95 (which last crossed paths back in Kittery) just before the latter terminates at the Canadian border, and the only place in the country where U.S.-1 and U.S.-2 intersect, the latter starting in Houlton and ending 2,500 miles west in Everett, Wash.

In a frame on the wall o this a little marble representing Pluto; for the next 40 miles, you’ll pass a 1:93,000,000 scale model of the solar system spaced out precisely along the roadside (earth is the size of a cantaloupe; Jupiter, a giant pumpkin) ending with the sun (sort of) in Folsom Hall, the science building at the University of Maine at Presque Isle. The whole thing was planned, plotted and built by local students, perhaps comforted by the knowledge that the universe, like their county, is mostly empty.

To the border​

Outside a little red one-room schoolhouse in Cyr Plantation (in use until 1964), a wooden sign welcomes you to the Saint John Valley — in English and French. Atop it is carved a little tricolor with a gold star in its blue field: The flag of Acadia. A French colony in what is now Canada, it technically ceased to exist when Britain won the French and Indian War in 1763 and expelled its inhabitants, most famously to Louisiana; some, though, sneaked across the Saint John River and have been here ever since. The valley, with its roadside crosses and shrines, and gold or silver painted church steeples, and people who speak English with a thick accent and French at home — and, everywhere, those flags — feels more Acadian than American or Canadian.

fter U.S. 1 makes a second sharp left turn at the town of Van Buren, it hews close to the river, which forms the border of the two countries, and which is narrow enough to hit a baseball (or slap a hockey puck) across. You can count the cars parked outside the big churches on the other side; when the water’s low, you could wade to mass. In Madawaska, a paper plant, one of the few remaining in the state, actually straddles the river and thus the border. Pulp produced in Edmundston, New Brunswick, on the Canadian side, is sent through pipes to Madawaska, where it’s turned into pet food bags, magazine pages and labels for prescription bottles. (Even after Covid closed the border, those pipes stayed open round the clock.)

Madawaska is also considered the northeasternmost town in the United States — making it a destination for bikers who take on the challenge (known as the “Iron Butt”) of visiting all four corners of the continental United States in just three weeks — but U.S. 1 keeps going through it, and neighboring Frenchville, before finally coming to a stop in Fort Kent., A marker at a plaza downtown says “2,446 Original Miles,” without explaining that “original.” The plaza, which sits beside the bridge to tiny Clair, N.B., is named “America’s First Mile.” Take that, Key West.

There are people who come all the way to Fort Kent, a rustic place that could pass for Alaska, expressly to see that spot. Few, though, wander over to see the actual Fort Kent, a wooden blockhouse constructed during the Aroostook War of 1838-9, a border dispute between England and the United States that ended without a shot being fired. And thus, Maine’s allotment of U.S. 1, 22 percent of the whole thing, ends just as it began: with a bridge, and a war.
 
At least we don't feel like "current cellphone customers" when it comes to vaccination giveaways!!

A vaccinated Mainer could win close to $1 million in new sweepstakes campaign​

pressherald.com/2021/06/16/maine-reports-51-new-cases-of-covid-19-5-additional-deaths/

By Rachel OhmJune 16, 2021

One lucky Maine resident who has been vaccinated against COVID-19 could win close to $1 million in a new sweepstakes campaign the state announced Wednesday as an incentive to encourage more people to get their shots against COVID-19.

The “Don’t Miss Your Shot: Vacationland Sweepstakes” will reward one vaccinated winner with $1 for every person vaccinated in the state by July 4. If the drawing were held today the prize would be $876,655.

“Maine is a national leader in COVID-19 vaccination thanks to the more than 876,000 people who have already rolled up their sleeves,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement. “Our goal with the Don’t Miss Your Shot: Vacationland Sweepstakes is to encourage even more people to get the vaccine and declare their independence from COVID-19 as we approach the Fourth of July.”

The announcement comes as states around the country have been offering all kinds of incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated as demand has waned. California announced Monday it would be offering six “dream vacations” including hotels, entertainment and food for vaccinated residents over 18, while Massachusetts is offering five $1 million prizes for vaccinated adults and five college scholarships for residents 12 to 17 years old.

Entries are being accepted online at www.maine.gov/covid19/vaccines or by calling the Community Vaccination Line at 888-445-4111. The governor will announce the winner and the prize amount on the afternoon of July 4.
 
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Roccus7 said:
At least we don't feel like "current cellphone customers" when it comes to vaccination giveaways!!

A vaccinated Mainer could win close to $1 million in new sweepstakes campaign​

pressherald.com/2021/06/16/maine-reports-51-new-cases-of-covid-19-5-additional-deaths/

By Rachel OhmJune 16, 2021

One lucky Maine resident who has been vaccinated against COVID-19 could win close to $1 million in a new sweepstakes campaign the state announced Wednesday as an incentive to encourage more people to get their shots against COVID-19.

The “Don’t Miss Your Shot: Vacationland Sweepstakes” will reward one vaccinated winner with $1 for every person vaccinated in the state by July 4. If the drawing were held today the prize would be $876,655.

“Maine is a national leader in COVID-19 vaccination thanks to the more than 876,000 people who have already rolled up their sleeves,” Gov. Janet Mills said in a statement. “Our goal with the Don’t Miss Your Shot: Vacationland Sweepstakes is to encourage even more people to get the vaccine and declare their independence from COVID-19 as we approach the Fourth of July.”

The announcement comes as states around the country have been offering all kinds of incentives to encourage people to get vaccinated as demand has waned. California announced Monday it would be offering six “dream vacations” including hotels, entertainment and food for vaccinated residents over 18, while Massachusetts is offering five $1 million prizes for vaccinated adults and five college scholarships for residents 12 to 17 years old.

Entries are being accepted online at www.maine.gov/covid19/vaccines or by calling the Community Vaccination Line at 888-445-4111. The governor will announce the winner and the prize amount on the afternoon of July 4.
Click to expand...

And everyone is signing up, hell I did!!

More than 100,000 sign up for shot at nearly $1 million on first day of vaccine sweepstakes​

pressherald.com/2021/06/17/maine-reports-34-new-cases-of-covid-19-1-additional-death/

By Joe LawlorJune 17, 2021

More than 100,000 people have signed up for Maine’s vaccination sweepstakes, 24 hours after Gov. Janet Mills announced the lottery-style prize in an attempt to boost vaccination rates in Maine. Depending on how many people get vaccinated, the prize could approach $1 million.

As of Thursday afternoon, 102,427 people had signed up for a chance to win the prize, dubbed “Don’t Miss Your Shot: Vaccinationland Sweepstakes.”
 
Ever potentially have your life saved by a tourist trap??? I have. I was all set to be a docent at the Maine Maritime Museum working on the Mary E, BUT I realized the 50 min drive would end up being one of 1.5 hours because of the traffic in Wiscasset caused by all the touristas going to "Reds Eats", Maine's biggest Lobstah Roll tourist trap. It got written up once in the NY Times and since then it's been a MUST GO spot for visitors, but you'll never see any folks who liver here on the hours long line in front of the place...

Historic schooner capsizes on Kennebec River with 18 on board​

pressherald.com/2021/07/30/historic-schooner-capsizes-in-kennebec-river-with-18-on-board/

By Kathleen O'Brien July 31, 2021

The newly renovated schooner Mary E sails the Kennebec River in 2019, slightly downriver from where she was launched in 1906. Contributed photo via Maine Maritime Museum

The Mary E, a historic schooner owned by the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath, capsized on the Kennebec River Friday evening with 15 passengers and three crew members on board.

All passengers and crew were rescued and two people were taken to Mid Coast Hospital in Brunswick, Coast Guard Lt. James McDonough said. He didn’t know if the two people were admitted or what their condition was Friday night.

The 73-foot vessel capsized around 5:30 p.m. Friday near Doubling Point Lighthouse in Arrowsic, Bath Chief of Police Andrew Booth said.

The Coast Guard is investigating the incident because as a passenger-carrying vessel it’s inspected by the Coast Guard annually, McDonough said.

He said it’s too early in the investigation to say if weather was a factor. Winds in the area were 10 to 15 knots, but there were some higher gusts.

Everyone on board was rescued by Bath fire and police officers, Bath Iron Works security boats and “a few” nearby vessels, though Booth didn’t know how many.

McDonough said the Mary E. tipped on its side and began to sink, but rescue crews were able to stabilize it. It has been towed to shallow water and likely will be pulled out of the river Saturday, he said.

“At this time we are working to determine what factors may have contributed; we will provide more information as it becomes available,” Maine Maritime Museum spokesperson Katie Spiridakis said. “We are grateful for the rapid response of the crew and the multiple agencies that assisted in quickly bringing those aboard to shore.”

On Friday, the schooner, advertised as “the only Kennebec-built schooner still afloat,” was scheduled for a river cruise from 4-6:30 p.m. that would take passengers past BIW, Doubling Point Lighthouse and the Kennebec Range Lights, according to the museum’s website.

The Mary E. had sailed past BIW on its way upriver when it capsized, McDonough said. It was still within sight of the shipyard when it capsized, he said, and a BIW vessel was the first to reach the site to start rescuing people.

“We commend our partners in the Bath community for their prompt and effective response which saved the lives of 18 people,” Capt. Amy E. Florentine, Coast Guard Sector Northern New England commander, said in an email Friday night. “We will ensure a full and thorough investigation is conducted in order to determine what caused the incident.”

Sea Tow towed the partially submerged vessel to shallow water near the Maine Maritime Museum and it no longer represents a hazard to navigation in the area, Florentine said.

The two-masted schooner was built by Thomas Hagan in 1906 in a Houghton shipyard, where Bath Iron Works now stands. For 38 years the vessel was operated as a fishing and trade vessel out of Rhode Island. The ship was sold in 1944 to become a dragger until it was abandoned in 1960 and sank in Lynn Harbor, Massachusetts, after a hurricane on Thanksgiving 1963.

William Donnell of Bath – whose great-grandfather was a shipbuilder associated with Hagan – bought the vessel in 1965 for $200 and brought it back home for restoration. Following that two-year endeavor, the Mary E became a passenger vessel in the Maine Windjammer Fleet.

Maine Maritime Museum purchased the Mary E in early 2017 for $140,000 and uses it for cruises on the Kennebec River.
 
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