The Importance of Being Earnest

The Maine Switch has a story in this week's issue about the need to tune your bicycle now that the snow's melting away. Besides featuring some how-to tips, the piece also includes a plug for Ernie's Cycle Shop, 105 Conant Street.

A tune-up at Ernie's will set you back between thirty and forty dollars, depending on the type of bike.

- John C.L. Morgan

We've Been Switch'd--Again

The Maine Switch, which may want to rename itself the Westbrook Diarist (see here, here, and here), ventured into Westbrook once again. This time they checked out the bachelor pad of Westbrook resident Todd West. Click here to read the article and here for a virtual tour of the Westbrook Housing Authority's Riverfront Lofts.

- John C.L. Morgan

11:53 AM: Wow, I Never Realized How Beautiful Westbrook Is

Besides taking an (unsuccessful) field trip to Westbrook's bowling alleys, the folks at The Maine Switch also hopped on Metro's #4 bus (that would be the Westbrook bus for all you sophisticates) and wrote a minute-by-minute account of their adventure that can be read here.

I used to ride the No. 4 quite a bit when I worked in Portland and still ride it occasionally when I venture into the Big City. I think Avery Yale Kamila does a decent job setting the scene and capturing the various pros/cons of riding the bus. I particularly enjoyed her 12:09p entry: "We're now somewhere called Westbrook Gardens. We may as well be in a foreign country."

- John C.L. Morgan

P.S. Attention, Westbrook foodies: Add Kamila's rave (if brief) review of Burrito! to the list of reviews compiled by your modest correspondent here and here.

(Not) Bowled Over

This week's Maine Switch features a story about candlepin bowling in the Greater Portland area. Unfortunately, the only mention of Westbrook's Colonial Bowling Center is in the form of a complaint: The writer, Amy Martin, showed up at 4p on a day public bowling was off-limits after 3p.

Moreover, Martin erroneously claims West-Port Bowling is a candlepin alley (there seems to be a disconnect in editing, because not even the list of bowling alleys in Greater Portland accompanying her article lists West-Port as a candlepin alley) and is further ticked off by West-Port's cash-only, sorry-the-closest-ATM-is-at-Kohl's policy.

Ever the cheerleader of Westbrook (not to mention healthy self-promoter), I recommend you read this dispatch from Colonial Bowling Center. As for Martin, a game of candlepin at Colonial is on me.

Good thing she'll probably never know.

- John C.L. Morgan

A Large Dose of Coolness

I was catching up on some reading this morning and noticed The Maine Switch named the opening of the The Frog & Turtle as one of Portland's Top 10 Food Milestones of 2007. Dubbing it Maine's first gastro pub, The Switch said the Westbrook restaurant brought a "large dose of coolness to the up-and-coming mill town."

Ironically, The Switch also mourned the closing of the "short-lived, but much-loved" Chicky's Fine Diner in May 2007. The irony, of course, is that Chicky's was replaced at 3 Bridge Street by The Frog & Turtle.

- John C.L. Morgan