Calling All Bibliophiles

Are you having a difficult time remembering the books you’ve read and the books you want to read? Have you recently finished a satisfying book and are searching for the next best thing? I encourage you to visit goodreads.com, the book lover’s amusement park.

Once you create a profile (with a classy photo, of course), you can create your own shelves, suggest books for your friends to read, rate your books, and list books you’ve read and books you are reading.

Have fun exploring and finding people with similar interests in the written word.

- Elisha J. Morgan

Name-Hunting Tip #5

One of the more intimidating responsiblities of being pregnant was picking a name. When my husband and I were debating the possible names for our baby, we focused on four criteria:

1. The attractiveness of the name
2. The potential for playground beatings
3. The name's possible nicknames
4. The name's uniqueness

After hours of scouring the baby name books and websites (I even trolled the Social Security Administration's website to judge the popularity of the nominees), we settled on the compromise name of Eleanor Ivory. If I had to do it all over again, though, I'd add a fifth concern to the aforementioned list of criteria: The sound of the name as it rolls off a Mainer's tongue.

Because we kept the name a secret as a way to ward off the influences of family and friends (much to my hubby's chagrin), we never were really able to hear how Mainers actually pronounce 'Eleanor.' For the last week, though, we've grown accustomed to hearing 'Eleaner' and 'Eleanah.' Neither of which, in my opinion, is as beautiful as the name we thought we were picking.

That fifth criteria probably wouldn't have discouraged us from picking the name we did, but I just thought I'd give expectant parents in Maine yet another thing to consider while name-hunting.

- Elisha J. Morgan

Is Fraud in Maine on the Upswing?

What is the one news story that seems to pop up in every copy of the Press Herald lately? Sure, there's the daily update of the presidential race. But more and more, it seems you are likely to spot a headline highlighting yet another case of fraud and embezzlement occurring in Maine. Here, for example, are some of the headlines from just last week's batch of papers:

• Boat Supplier Says Employee Embezzled Nearly $400,000
• Biddeford Woman Pleads Guilty to Wire Fraud, Tax Evasion of $200,000
• Woman Charged with Stealing Nearly $1,000,000 From Father's Company

These small cases of embezzlement amount to peanuts compared to the gigantic business scandals like Enron, WorldCom, and Rite-Aid. But these headlines (and the ones that came before them and the ones that will probably come after them) make me wonder, What's happening in this honest and trustworthy corner of the country we call Maine? Maybe my current class about fraud examination has made me more sensitive to these types of stories, but it does seem like fraud in Maine is on an upswing.

I guess we'll just have to wait for a comprehensive report in the Maine Sunday Telegram that no one will read before we'll get an answer to that question. What I do know, though, is that most Maine embezzlement cases occur within the companies that can afford internal crime the least: Maine's ubiquitous small businesses.

- Elisha J. Morgan