Did You Know?

Did you know Maine is the most heavily forested state in the United States?

According to the Maine Forest Service, 90% (or about 18 million acres) of the land in the Pine Tree State is covered with trees, as of March 2006.

(Update: According to my trusty 2008 edition of Forest Trees of Maine, the percentage of forested land in Maine this year is 89%. For context, the percentage was 75% in 1908.)

- John C.L. Morgan

Whoopie

Westbrook resident Talya Corsetti's banana whoopie pies are the subject of a Maine Switch piece. Besides whipping up sugary treats (here and here), Corsetti designs sassy Coco Magoo t-shirts.

- John C.L. Morgan

Westbrook Voters Say Yes to Bond, School Budget

Bond Results:
Yes
1,101 (53%)
No
985 (47%)

School Budget Results:
Yes
1,359 (71%)
No
680 (29%)

- John C.L. Morgan

Cote, Summers Win Congressional Primaries in Westbrook

The results of the 1st District Congressional primaries:

Democratic Results:
Adam Cote: 433 (37%)
Chellie Pingree: 356 (30%)
Ethan Strimling: 181 (15%)
Michael Brennan: 172 (15%)
Mark Lawrence: 19 (2%)
Stephen Meister: 9 (1%)

Republican Results:
Charlie Summers: 421 (63%)
Dean Scontras: 252 (37%)

More in-depth election results will be posted within the next couple days.

- John C.L. Morgan

On Location

Summer Music

Via the City of Westbrook's website, here's a calendar of Wednesday evening concerts in Riverbank Park this summer:

July 9: Westbrook City Band
July 16: Cool Water
July 23: Bob Charest Band
July 30: Carolyn Currie
August 6: Flashback
August 13: Easy Money Band
August 20: Wavelength
August 27: Tony Boffa

The concerts are scheduled from 6-8p and are free.

- John C.L. Morgan

P.S. Besides these Wednesday evening concerts, the Warren Memorial Library is hosting Stream Reggae and Okbari on June 27 and July 28, respectively. Both concerts begin at 7p and are also free of charge.

Hon. Joseph A. Warren, Westbrook's Eighth Mayor (1902-1904)

Psst, Sappi is Also in Westbrook

In a Press Herald news brief about Sappi winning a 2008 CIO 100 award, the paper-maker is described as merely having a mill in Skowhegan. But as everyone knows, the South African company also has a mill in Westbrook.

You know, the mill with the 353-foot smokestack that can be seen for miles.

- John C.L. Morgan

Westbrook Almanac: June 1-June 7, 2008

Week-to-Date:
High: 78F (June 1)
Low: 49F (June 3)
Precipitation: 0.42 inches

Month-to-Date:
High: 78F (June 1)
Low: 49F (June 3)
Precipitation: 0.42 inches

Year-to-Date:
High: 85F (May 27)
Low: -5F (January 4)
Precipitation: 22.79 inches

Source: National Weather Service

- John C.L. Morgan

Top 10 Local CDs: May 26-June 1, 2008

Here are the Top 10 Local CDs for the week of May 26-June 1 (the album's spot in last week's Top 10 is in parentheses, much like this fyi note), courtesy of the Portland Phoenix:

1. Dead Season, "When Everything's Lost..." (1)
2. Bob Marley, "Maine-iac on the Loose" (2)
3. Dead Season, "Rise" (3)
4. Various Artists, "Greetings from Area Code 207, Vol. 7" (4)
5. Rustic Overtones, "Long Division" (5)
6. Gypsy Tailwind, "Halo Sessions" (-)
7. Cambiata, "To Heal" (7)
8. Civil Disturbance, "The Battle Within" (9)
9. As Fast As, "Destroy the Plastique Man" (6)
10. Dead Season, "Down Again" (EP) (-)

The list was compiled from Bull Moose Music.

- John C.L. Morgan

American Journal One-Liners

School budget will go to Westbrook voters for an up or down vote for first time.

Gravity-defying WHS student talks about the juicy topic that is SAT preparation.

Preview of Westbrook Together Days.

City reduced the cost of a pushcart vendor's license to $125 from $250.

WHS Class of 2008, which included the principal's son and 151 other students, graduated from high school.

City Council defeated Mayor Chuluda's veto of "an amendment to the policy on city employee severance packages that would require City Council approval for any such agreement that exceeded $3,000."

- John C.L. Morgan

Photo of the Day

Photo of the Day Explained

Besides allowing me to get in touch with my inner People reader, this photo of Jude Law enjoying a cup of Freaky Bean joe reminded me to tell you that the Westbrook-based coffee company was a sponsor (excuse me, the Official Coffee Company) of the American Pavilion at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival.

Freaky Bean was joined by such companies as Coca-Cola, The Ritz-Carlton Hotels of New York, and British Airways as sponsors of the American Pavilion.

- John C.L. Morgan

Just Do It

Attend this weekend's 28th 29th Annual Westbrook Together Days festivities.

- John C.L. Morgan

1980 Westbrook Together Days Program

Endorsements

To complement the voter's guide to the candidates for the Democratic and Republican primaries for the 1st District Congressional race that I posted last week, I've compiled a list of endorsements, courtesy of Westbrook's elected public officials:

Mayor Bruce Chuluda (R): Charlie Summers

City Councilor Lyle Cramer (R-Ward 3): Charlie Summers

City Councilor Drew Gattine (D-Ward 2): Michael Brennan

City Councilor Suzanne Joyce (D-Ward 5): Undecided between Michael Brennan and Chellie Pingree

City Councilor John O'Hara (R-At Large): Undecided

City Councilor Brendan Rielly (D-Ward 1): Michael Brennan

State Representative Tim Driscoll (D-Westbrook): Ethan Strimling

State Representative Ann Peoples (D-Westbrook): Michael Brennan

State Senator Phil Bartlett (D-Cumberland County): Chellie Pingree (Editor's Note: I mistakenly listed State Senator Bartlett as a Brennan supporter. He, in fact, had endorsed Chellie Pingree. I regret the error.)

Also, the American Journal, Westbrook's weekly newspaper, has endorsed Charlie Summers and Chellie Pingree in the Republican and Democratic primaries, respectively.

(Update: State Senator Joe Brannigan (D-Cumberland County): Michael Brennan

- John C.L. Morgan

P.S. City Councilor Dotty Aube (D-Ward 4) and City Councilor Michael Foley (D-At Large) could not be reached for comment.

Quote, Unquote: E.B. White

"I believe television is going to be the test of the modern world, and that in this new opportunity to see beyond the range of our vision we shall discover either a new and unbearable disturbance of the general peace or a saving radiance in the sky. We shall stand or fall by television--of that I am quite sure."

- E.B. White in One Man's Meat, a collection of his essays about life on a saltwater farm in Brooklin, Maine. The collection was initially copyrighted in 1938.

- John C.L. Morgan

Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion Revisited

Via The New Republic's blog, The Plank, I stumbled across an electronic version of this 1884 New York Times article which features a (lengthy) retort to Rev. Dr. Samuel Bouchard's "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion" speech during the 1884 presidential campaign between Grover Cleveland and Maine's James G. Blaine.

The speech, which accuses the Democratic Party of being the party of liquor, Catholics, and Confederates, is said to have cost the Maine Republican Senator James G. Blaine the election, as it alienated a sizable portion of the Catholic vote in New York. Nevertheless, it lives on as one of the most enduring election ditties in American history.

Blaine, by the way, is the inspiration for the naming of the Maine gubernatorial residence, the Blaine House.

- John C.L. Morgan

P.S. The 1884 election was ditty-rich. Besides "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion," the Republicans exploited the alleged illegitimate child of Grover Cleveland by chanting: "Ma! Ma! Where's my pa? Gone to the White House! Ha, ha, ha!" And Cleveland's Democrats retorted by questioning Blaine's ethics by singing: "Blaine! Blaine! James G. Blaine! The continental liar from the state of Maine!"

If only we could go back to the clean politicking of the good 'ol days. Either that or come up with some catchy sing-along slogans.

Presumpscot River

On Location: Presumpscot River

In his book Kennebec: Cradle of Americans, Robert P.T. Coffin states the two functions of a proper river: That of watery battlefield and cradle of civilization. Now, considering Coffin was referring to fights in which "wooden ships came right up to each other till their cannon touched, and then pounded each other till the ocean was full of dust and splinters," the Presumpscot River does not meet Coffin's pugilistic rule that "[e]very river worth its salt ought to have at least one sea fight." This, despite playing host to numerous skirmishes between the Abenaki tribes and European settlers in pre-colonial America.

However, the Presumpscot does fulfill Coffin's latter function of a river, that of a cradle. Or, as he puts it, the Presumpscot (like the Kennebec) was a place where the "first Americans cut their teeth on [its] rocks and were sung to sleep by their white music," and where the first towns were settled and flowered with prosperity.

In fact, the first dam built in Maine was constructed within the Presumpscot's veins in 1732. And the river, whose name apparently meant "many falls" or "many rough places" in the native tongues, also powered Maine's first paper mill in the 1730s, which eventually became S.D. Warren in the 1850s. You may have heard of it.

Anyway, it is indeed ironic that this historically workman-like sliver of water (think Cumberland and Oxford Canal) is now primarily the object of the Sunday leisurer, for the preceding three paragraphs were essentially a fancy introduction to the paddle and fishing expedition I had Sunday morning.

After a hearty breakfast at Guidi's Diner (more on that later), I put my 16-foot AlumaCraft in the Presumpscot at the public access spot on Mill Lane, just above the Saccarappa Dam. But before I left, I threw in the required ingredients for a rugged outdoorsman's suburban kid's morning out on the canoe: One wooden paddle; two International Orange life preservers (one for me and the other for, well, me); an Ugly Stik (yeah, I'm built "Ugly tough"); and an L.L. Bean "teardrop bag" (don't laugh) filled with cheap lures, a five-inch blade, a box of matches, my digital camera, and, of course, a pack of unfiltered Black and Milds.

Ten minutes after shoving from shore, the Dana Warp Mill receded from view, and I was just beyond Rivermeadow Golf Course. The chorus of the various birds (note to self: study up on some ornithology) mostly drowned out the distant hum of cars, and the sun warmed my brown galoshes, blue flannel shirt, and yellow straw hat. Minutes later, it was only the birds' song, the water, and me. It's remarkable that such quiet and natural curiousity is a short paddle away from Main Street.

After two hours of steady paddling and intermittent casting, I finally arrived within eyesight of the Mallison Dam (for you landlubbers, think the Cumberland County Correction Center in Windham). Then, ten minutes and a 13-inch bass later, I turned the canoe around and began paddling toward Westbrook. Who needs Planet Fitness when you've got the Presumpscot River?

- John C.L. Morgan

P.S. Unlike, say, Applebee's, Guidi's has the credibility to boast its local roots. So it wasn't annoying to see that the menu features such specials as 'Frenchtown,' 'The Main Street,' and 'Stroudwater,' 'Bradleez Plaza' (ah, the good 'ole days), 'The Falls,' 'Westerly Winds,' and 'Duck Pond.' Sunday morning, though, I opted to tap into a deep reservoir of nostalgia (not to mention my preference for salty ham) by ordering 'The Hamlett,' which consists of a very hammy omelette (hence its ungrammatical double-t's), as well as delish homefries with sauteed onion, toast, and a cup of cofee. Question: Where else can you go where a dish is named after a trailer park?

P.P.S. A handful of links for y'all to consider:

"A Paddle on the Presumpscot"
A Press Herald writer's 2001 account of a two-day paddle of the Presumpscot, the collection of articles include the canoe trip from Sebago to Westbrook, from Westbrook to Casco Bay, an historic map of the river, a story on the controversy surrounding some of the dams, and a photographic slideshow of the reporter's trip.

Friends of the Presumpscot River
Considering the Presumpscot has more dams per mile than any other river in Maine (nine dams over 27 miles), the Friends of the Presumpscot primarily focus on the elimination of three of the nine dams.

Presumpscot River Watch
The Presumpscot River Watch has a three-pronged mission: "Scientific monitoring of the river, the sharing of data to increase awareness, and serving as a steward for the river through participation in legislative, community, and individual efforts." To volunteer, click here.

Presumspcot River Watershed Coalition
Besides publishing the much-anticipated second edition of the Presumpscot River Guide (from my perspective, at least), the Presumpscot River Watershed Coalition is organizing the inaugural Presumpscot Riverfest at Riverbank Park on July 19. More on that later.

S.D. Warren Co. v. Maine Board of Environmental Protection et al.
Our collection of electronic information related to Supreme Court battle over the state's ability to regulate dams in Maine.