This astonishing time in Maine’s history, left out of textbooks for nearly 100 years, will be explored by author Mark Alan Leslie as part of the Thompson Free Library’s Maine Bicentennial Speaker Series at 6 p.m. Thursday, June 18, live via Zoom.

While sheltering in place, I have more time to brood over what is causing me so much anxiety and sadness which I feel the need to share. What occupies my mind are concerns about whether the virus will infect family and friends. I find myself thinking about and praying for all the people suffering from the virus and for all those courageous citizens providing services to their neighbors and countrymen/women. But my anxiety and sadness is more deeply rooted.

Loudspeakers kept blasting out Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the U.S.A” while the crowd screamed the refrain with delirious enthusiasm. What could be more thematic than a “Make America Great” theme song? But how many of you have listened to the lyrics? I

So the question is, I guess, "When is a Green Drake a Green Drake, and when is a Hex a Hex?" You don't care? Well, in that case, you're probably just a casual fly fisher of trout. Those of us, whose heroes are fly fishing entomologists, like to know our bugs, for that is how you get to know your trout and how best to seduce them.

While restaurants, shops and lodging establishments are already feeling the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, another sector of the tourism economy in Maine is bracing for a rocky summer. Normally, communities located along the famous Appalachian Trail welcome thousands of long-distance hikers every summer, offering shelter and supplies to those endeavoring to complete the famous 2,190-mile trail. But this year, everything has changed.

On Wednesday, June 17 at 1 p.m., the director of peer services at NAMI Maine Nicole Foster, JD, will relate the story surrounding her diagnoses of PTSD, major depression, and generalized anxiety disorder. Her message of hope will include the professional treatments that helped her and the daily coping mechanisms and protocols that she uses for continued healing. Her PTSD lived experience centers on serious accident, domestic violence, sexual assault and child abuse scenarios. 

The Maine Appalachian Trail Club (MATC) would like to thank Aislinn Sarnacki for her recent Act Out article on safely enjoying the Appalachian Trail (AT) this summer and getting the word out to a broader audience. As the management resource for Maine’s section of the AT, we would like to reinforce on a couple of points.

The smelt runs start soon after ice out on the waterway headwater lakes. Brook trout and togue follow these forage fish to their spawning areas and gorge themselves on the easy food source. If you are lucky enough to be in these spawning areas at the right time, the fishing can be unbelievable. Almost all of the major tributaries of the waterway support smelt runs. These are the “hot spots” for early season fishing.

Recently, a gentleman in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania encouraged his community to stand up against violence. They gathered in front of a Target store and prevented violent protesters from entering and looting this store.

Tom Coon, a dyed-in-the-wool outdoorsman from Medway, reveled in canoeing, fishing, fiddleheading and the quarter century he spent as a ranger on the Allagash Wilderness Waterway. And when the 63-year-old died May 31 of complications from COVID-19 at Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, it was in a hospital room with a view of the Penobscot River down below.