Flying Saucers! Well, not that kind...

Hi everyone!  While things have been quiet here on the blog, I've been busy fitting in research around my foolish work schedule (too much overtime, bleah).  But in my delvings, I found a couple of things the other day that caught my eye.  I thought you all might like to see them too.  😄 

I'll transcribe the article in case the images don't load.  This one is from a winter 1958 article in the Bangor Daily News.

Warning Issued to Coasters By Old Town Chief

Old Town Police Chief Robert Lee reported today that one motorist who spotted a "flying saucer" while driving along Brunswick Street today was terrified but the chief reports it was no joke.

The "flying saucer" was a small child riding atop a saucer sled coasting from a steep bank across the busy street.  Luckily, he was not struck.

Lee issued a warning against such dangerous practices asking parents to tell their children not to use any grades for sliding that might end up in a street or intersection.

And in another winter issue of Bangor Daily News I found this photo, from two years later in 1960, which aptly illustrates the irresistible joy of sailing through the air on FLYING SAUCERS!!!

Caption reads:   

FOR REAL "FLYING" SAUCERS -- The man on the business end of a shovel might not display the enthusiasm for the season's snowfall that these two youngsters do.  But Mark Pooler and Susan Purinton of Bangor, both 11, beam with joy about the whole situation as they sail out into the air on their flying saucers over a bank of the wonderful white stuff.  (NEWS photo by Maher)

I hope everyone is having a great winter, and enjoying all the white stuff out there.  Before you know it, spring will be here! 

Ghost Trackers on track for TV?

Back at the end of October, the Maine ghost hunting team called East Coast Ghost Trackers announced a screening of a pilot episode of their nocturnal adventures, which they hope to find a home for on the airwaves.

WABI TV-5 in Bangor reported on the story, interviewing Ken Ort, founder and lead investigator of the group. You can read their article and see a video clip of the interview on their website here:
http://www.wabi.tv/news/15271/east-coast-ghost-hunters-hosts-screening-of-television-pilot
 

A preview for the team's proposed show can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1393827300379&ref=mf (I suggest watching the regular quality video, as the HD one tends to misfeed if your access is at all slow.)

You may recall hearing about the Ghost Trackers in conjunction with paranormal reports from Fort Knox, near Bucksport, when during their investigation they believe they encountered a manifestation of the spirit of Leopold Heghyi, who was stationed at the fort and was buried nearby.

Jekyll and Hyde, anyone?

I was going to include this with my Round II posting of this year's Halloween events, but the number of dates and special events occurring in conjunction with the Bangor Opera House production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is hefty enough to warrant a post of its own, so no one gets confused in the process. Besides the performance run of the play, a book discussion will be held 10/26, the 1920 film will be shown with live accompaniment on 10/30(see below), and there will be a special screening of a new local ghost hunting group's latest work.

WHAT: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
WHERE: Bangor Opera House, 131 Main Street, Bangor, ME
FMI: For tickets or more information, phone the box office at (207)942-3333, or visit penobscottheatre.org
WHEN: Performances will be held on:
October 20, 2010 at 7:00 PM
October 21, 2010 at 7:00 PM
October 22, 2010 at 8:00 PM - OPENING!
October 23, 2010 at 5:00 PM
October 24, 2010 at 3:00 PM
October 27, 2010 at 7:00 PM
October 28, 2010 at 7:00 PM
October 29, 2010 at 8:00 PM
October 30, 2010 at 8:00 PM
October 31, 2010 at 3:00 PM
November 4, 2010 at 7:00 PM
November 5, 2010 at 8:00 PM
November 6, 2010 at 3:00 PM
November 6, 2010 at 8:00 PM
November 7, 2010 at 3:00 PM
COST: $20-35 (all Wednesday show tix are $20)

Penobscot Theatre, Bangor’s professional theatre company, continues its 2010-2011 season with a surprising, inventive, and provocative theatrical production of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Celebrated playwright Jeffrey Hatcher’s adaptation is in performances at the Bangor Opera House between October 20 and November 7.

“This is a dark, sexy and shocking production of the story you think you know,” says Producing Artistic Director Scott RC Levy. “In one of the most theatrically inventive tellings I’ve come across in a long time, our production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is sure to get under your skin.”

On the fog-bound streets of Victorian-era London, Henry Jekyll's experiments with exotic "powders and tinctures" have brought forth his other self — Edward Hyde, a sensualist and villain free to commit the sins Jekyll is too civilized to comprehend. When Hyde meets a woman who stirs his interest, Jekyll fears for her life and decides to end his experiments. But Hyde has other ideas, and so the two sides battle each other in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse to determine who shall be the master and who his slave. With multiple Hydes portrayed by members of the cast, this new and shocking version of Robert Louis Stevenson's classic tale of depravity, lust, love and horror is a perfect adult treat this Halloween season.

Penobscot Theatre’s production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is written by Jeffrey Hatcher whose work was last presented in Bangor in 2007 (Tuesdays With Morrie). The ensemble includes Allen Adams as Dr. Jekyll and Christie Robinson as Elizabeth Jelkes. Bernard Hope, Jeri Misler, Arthur Morison and Drake Andrew (in his Penobscot Theatre debut) portray all of the other characters, including Hyde. Directed by Producing Artistic Director Scott RC Levy, the production is designed by Erik Diaz, Jonathan Spencer and Jimmy Johansmeyer.

Penobscot Theatre is also thrilled to announce a number of additional events surrounding the production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde:

· FREE NIGHT OF THEATER – For the third year in a row, PTC is taking part in this national initiative and giving away 50 tickets to each of the first 5 performances of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Designed to re-introduce people to the wonder of live theatrical performance, information can be found at www.freenightoftheater.net

· HALLOWEEN WEEKEND – PTC will host a full day of activities on Saturday, October 30th, to coincide with other Halloween events in downtown Bangor.
.....At 2:00PM, PTC continues its Humanities Series with a screening of the silent film version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde starring John Barrymore. This screening will feature live piano accompaniment by Harry Weiss.
.....At 5:00PM, the East Coast Ghost Trackers will hold the premiere screening of their pilot television episode, featuring ghost tracking at Fort Knox in Bucksport. The East Coast Ghost Trackers will be on hand to talk about their experiences, including the ghosts of the Bangor Opera House.
Tickets are free, but require a reservation.
Additional activities, including downtown trick or treating and costume parades are still being developed.

· BOOK READING AND DISCUSSION GROUP – Facilitated by Esther Rauch, professor of English at the University of Maine, PTC will hold a free discussion of Robert Louis Stevenson’s novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde at the Bangor Opera House on Tuesday, October 26th from 6-7:30 PM. Free copies of the novella are available on a first-come, first-served basis, by calling 942-3333 or emailing Marcie@penobscottheatre.org

Tickets for all performances and events to Penobscot Theatre’s production of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde are available for purchase through the theatre’s website (www.penobscottheatre.org), by phone at (207)942-3333, or in person at the Bangor Opera House, 131 Main Street, downtown Bangor.

Performances begin October 20th and run November 7th. Tickets range between $20 and $35.

***NOTE: NEW THIS SEASON: $20 Wednesdays - Tickets to all performances on Wednesday evenings are $20

Next time, DON'T call a cab.

Yet another one for the books -- Bangor Daily News reported on a July bank robbery during which a woman had a cab driver unknowingly ferry her getaway car -- until he caught on and tipped the police to her location!

Driver 'furious' about use of taxi by alleged bank robber
By Nok-Noi Ricker, BDN Staff
7/7/10

BANGOR, Maine - There was nothing unusual about the three women Ace Taxi owner-operator Yehoshua "Josh" Mizrachi picked up Tuesday morning for a ride to a downtown bank. In fact, the cab driver said the trio were regular customers, and he already had transported them once that morning.

Mizrachi wasn’t even concerned when one of the women, later identified as Matisha Pitts, 25, of Bangor, asked him to park in front of Bangor Savings Bank on State Street while she ran inside at around 9:30 a.m.

"That's not unusual," he said Wednesday morning at a local coffee shop.
[...]
Mizrachi then took the trio of women to Market Street, where he said Hall [Ariel Hall, 19, of Bangor] went inside an apartment for a minute or two and then returned to the cab.

After leaving Market Street, the cab was taking the women to Kenduskeag Avenue when a Bangor police officer called him.

"He wanted to know if I picked up anybody on State Street," the driver said. "All of a sudden, it gelled in my mind about what was going on."
[...]
"The minute I realized what was going on, I was furious," Mizrachi said. "I was furious at [Pitts'] audacity to use my cab."

read full article here:
http://www.maineville.com/detail/148229.html

Sword Swallowing in Maine

In a random way I happened upon a great website, the Sword Swallower's Hall of Fame. The page lists a wide range of sources and information about historic and current sword swallowers, and lists their purpose to exist as "the Internet's most comprehensive list of sword swallowers past and present." Looks good to me!

Among the sword swallowers listed is a certain Professor A.J. Pierce, a.k.a Albert J. Pierce, a Victorian-era sword swallower who appears to have lived in New York City, though he comes to our attention because of a show that occurred in 1905 on Harlow Street in Bangor, Maine:

Professor A.J. Pierce, Albert J. Pierce
Performed 1905, Died May 30, 1909?
Bangor, Maine / New York, NY (USA)

Professor A.J. Pierce was the star sword swallower of a show run for several days out of a vacant storefront on Harlow Street in Bangor Maine in 1905. "He runs swords and small saws and scissors and bayonets down his throat until it seems that it must slash his vitals; but he gets through all right and smiles at the frightened spectators."

"He chews and swallows glass, eats hot pitch and rosin and sealing wax, swallows tacks and does other stunts that cause the observer to wonder what his insides are composed of. ... He finished his stunt by swallowing about 16 inches of a snake," wrote a reporter for the Bangor Daily News on Nov. 11, 1905.

Pierce performed with two other colleagues who performed similar feats of daring. LaCrosse, the Human Stone Crusher, let people break stones on his stomach with a sledgehammer, while Madame LaMonte, the Hindoo rope juggler, freed herself after being bound in 50 feet of hemp. The show took place in East Market Square (near where City Hall is today) in what the reporter referred to facetiously as "the tenderloin," a reference to urban neighborhoods known for vice and graft.

The show was operated by Professor H.H. Perkins, a scholar of bizarre amusements like his partner Professor Pierce. An article in the New York Times dated May 30, 1909 states, "Albert J. Pierce of No. 2076 Lexington Avenue, a sword swallower, is in Harlem Hospital in serious condition. While doing his usual stunt in a Fourteenth-street show last night, the sword got too deep and cut the lining of his stomach. Dr. Cassini of the hospital says he is suffering from a gastric hemmorhage." Seeking photos and more information.

[Source, with link to 1909 article]

The Sword Swallower's Hall of Fame is seeking further information about this sword swallower, including photos, which you can e-mail to them via research[at]swordswallow.com. If you have any info for them, or would like to share any other info about performers in Maine history, please feel free to post a comment or contact us!

Bizarre air rage case results in plea of "very guilty"

A Bangor hearing decided the fate of a Siberian-born artist last week, in possibly the strangest case of air rage that I have ever heard of, involving soap drinking and ankle biting, among other things. The Bangor Daily News reports:

Woman pleads ‘very guilty’ in assault
5/22/09
By Judy Harrison, BDN Staff

BANGOR, Maine — The Siberian-born woman who mixed prescription drugs and wine before drinking liquid hand soap and attacking flight attendants didn’t just plead guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court.

“I plead very guilty,” said Galina Rusanova, 54, of London in her pronounced native accent.

Rusanova pleaded guilty to three counts of assault on three flight attendants on April 29 and was sentenced to time served, or 22 days in jail. She admitted pushing a purser, kicking one flight attendant and biting the ankle of another. In a plea agreement with prosecutors, the more serious charge of interference with a flight crew was dropped.
[...]
“Please believe me, it was a mistake,” Rusanova told the judge. “If I had imagined the result would be so bad and so dramatic, I never would have mixed pills and wine. I’m sorry and ashamed. This is so embarrassing at my age.
[...]
Rusanova, who lives on government disability support in London, went to Los Angeles to meet a man with whom she had been communicating on the Internet. Her fear of flying apparently led her to mix pills and wine, according to court documents.

She does not remember what happened but does not dispute that prosecutors could prove their case against her, her attorney, Matthew Erickson of Brewer, told the judge.

Rusanova told Kravchuk that she suffered from severe depression and had been without her regular medication while being held without bail at the Somerset County Jail in Skowhegan since her arrest.

She told the judge a short version of her life story. Her father, Rusanova said, was murdered in 1970 when she was 16. She went to work in a factory to help support her sister and mother, who died of a heart attack a few years later.

Rusanova did not say how she came to work in theater and radio in Russia, the career described on her Web site. She also published children’s books there before moving to London in the late 1980s and becoming a British citizen.

About seven years ago, Rusanova took up painting. Her Web site showcases her portraits of people and wildlife, but she told Kravchuk on Thursday that she had not painted in more than two years, since the death of her sister.

Rusanova also said that while she has been in jail in Maine, her dog died in London while in the care of a neighbor.
[...]

Read the full article here: [Source]

Strange abandoned bus near Bangor

CALL FOR INFORMATION!

Dan S. forwarded this to me a while back, and I've been digging around trying to find something about it ever since. The only thing I've been able to track it to is the blog that Dan found it on in the first place, whose author, Jamie Rhein, prefaces the photo with a very intriguing paragraph:

This topic of weird things in the woods is one that could bring about a spine tingling novel or a short story. When we come across a thing in the woods like a bone or two --or a shoe, or a cheap plastic comb, we wonder about the story that happened before we arrived. "What happened here?" we ask. In the above photograph, this abandoned Navy bus is rotting in the woods near Bangor, Maine. The text underneath the photo also begs the question, "What in the world is it doing in the woods?" [SMe Editor's note: I'm not sure what she means by "the text underneath the photo" -- what is there for text below the photo on her blog doesn't seem to relate to her question.]

[Source]

Does anyone out there know anything about this bus??

...Not to be confused with the very cool and almost mysterious Bangor BAT Bus!

BEWARE the owl!

Photo used by permission of T. Beth Kinsey, from her blog, The Firefly Forest.

Thanks to Cranky Yankee for catching this one. :) Bangor is under siege... by a great horned owl!!!

The Crown of Maine webcam site up in Presque Isle, Aroostook County, is asking folks to weigh in today on their online poll, asking "Have you ever been attacked by an Owl?" The best part is that one of the possible answers, beyond the usual "yes" and "no," is the interesting addition of "Don't remember" to the list of choices. HA! You think?

Read on! Great article by John Holyoke from the Bangor Daily News!

Owls Attack: Warnings posted at Bangor city forest
By John Holyoke
BDN Staff

BANGOR, Maine — For some cross-country skiing enthusiasts, there’s nothing like heading into the woods on a crisp moonlit night.

Beautiful trails. Pristine snow. Peace. Quiet.

Idyllic.

Idyllic, perhaps, until a great horned owl swoops down out of a tree, talons outstretched, and smacks you on the head.

For the past several weeks, local cross-country skiers have learned, one by one, that touring the Rolland F. Perry City Forest in Bangor may lead to unforeseen consequences.

Out there on East Trail, near the Veazie Railroad bed, is an owl. An ornery owl. An ornery, territorial, get-out-of-my-neighborhood owl who, in fine Maine fashion, can be a bit brusque when it encounters interlopers.

According to frequent visitors to Bangor’s city forest who have begun keeping count, at least eight skiers (and a few romping dogs) have been targeted by the marauding owl — or owls — over the past three weeks.

Jim Allen of Bangor is a frequent visitor to the forest who had heard about owl attacks while chatting with fellow competitors at last weekend’s Caribou Bog Ski Tour and Race.

On Tuesday, Allen joined the ranks of those who have ended up on the wrong end of an irked owl.
[...]
“I didn’t hear a thing and just caught a glimpse of a shadow after I’d been hit,” Allen said. “I didn’t sit around to see if anything was sitting up in the trees. I screamed, waved my poles and left. With my heart in my throat.”
[...]
“[Great horned owls are] thought to be the most likely,” said Charlie Todd, a wildlife biologist with the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. “It’s the boldest nocturnal raptor and the one that has the best reputation for the occasionally bizarre.”
[...]
Many incidents occurred this week — Cassidy said five encounters took place on one evening — and Bangor City Forester Brian Dugas was prepared to post signs warning skiers to avoid the East Trail.
[...]
Allen has been back in the forest twice since his Tuesday encounter, and said he has had other wildlife experiences in Bangor’s city forest.

Last year, he saw a black bear. And several years ago, a hawk struck his head while he was cycling.

The owl incident, however, was one he’ll remember.

“They say … there’s no sound at all when an owl flies. So you don’t hear them coming,” Allen said. “I believe it. Because I never knew anything was coming. I was just skiing merrily along.”

To read full article, and see photos: [Source]

I guess we know what Jim Allen will be answering in the poll! Certainly not "Don't remember"...

Bangor's Victorian Rowdies

Bangor Daily News ran a great piece this past Monday on the wild times some local lads had back in 1908!

Bangor High boys had rambunctious night in 1908
By Wayne Reilly
Monday, May 26, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

"HIGH SCHOOL BOYS HAD WILD NIGHT," declared the headline in the Bangor Daily News on the morning of May 15, 1908. "Threw Students Into Watering Troughs, Paraded Streets, Besieged Windsor Hotel ... Police Were Kept on the Jump." ...

Bangoreans were used to riots of all shapes and sizes. Usually these events involved a few drunken sailors and loggers or a crowd protesting a liquor raid. Occasionally, a small army of noisy University of Maine boys marched through town on their way to the theater.

Usually, a half-dozen big cops with nightsticks took care of things. But the ragtag mob of high school boys, reported at 200 strong, that charged about the streets of downtown Bangor for three hours one spring night a century ago was as unusual as it was humorous to everyone but its victims — and the school board.

While the newspaper reports never explained exactly what touched it off, the riotous behavior apparently had to do with hazing freshmen by members of the school’s military cadet program. The rioters were upperclassmen. A few friends must have accompanied them, because there were only 60 cadets regularly enrolled, according to Principal Henry White’s report that year. Their targets were a handful of freshmen who ran through the streets of downtown Bangor like scared rabbits chased by a pack of dogs.

Events began early in the evening after the school’s battalion of military cadets was dismissed from drill in the high school yard on Harlow Street, (where the Abbott Square parking lot is located today across from the Bangor Public Library). ... Hardly had they finished when members seized one of their number and drenched him under the pump that supplied the school’s drinking water.

A procession then formed for a march up the street to the watering trough in East Market Square (where City Hall is today). Another freshman was produced and ceremonially dunked. From there, the students swept across the Kenduskeag Bridge and on into Haymarket Square (where the KeyBank complex is today across from Pickering Square).

A third freshman was thrown into the local watering trough. "This time the victim was about half-drowned, only the tip of his nose showing above the sluggish water," wrote the Bangor Daily News reporter.

The crowd of onlookers was growing, and the police were becoming quite interested. "Patrolmen Meade and Reagan came up from the [Devil’s Half] acre and interfered," the newspaper reported.

Instead of breaking up the festivities, however, the boys retreated up the street to the Unitarian Church at Union and Main streets, where they met up with yet another snag — a popular police officer described in the Daily News as "Handsome Dan Kennedy, Beau Brummel of the police force and custodian between 6:30 and midnight of the destinies of upper Main Street."

... They headed back downtown to the Nickel movie theater on Central Street, where another freshman was hiding inside.

"They wanted to go in, but Manager Forrest had opposite views and the sight of four patrolmen and a half-dozen unsentimental ushers drawn up across the entrance to the big lobby had a quieting effect," reported the newspaper. Meanwhile, the freshman, who was apparently a bit sharper than his fellows, slipped out a side door and, eluding his pursuers, ran up the street into the nearby Windsor Hotel at the corner of Harlow and Franklin streets.

Discovering how it had been outwitted, the student mob surrounded the big hotel. A huge crowd had assembled to watch the antics. Hotel staff blocked the doors. Students ran up fire escapes expecting to find their prey in one of the rooms. "For a little while affairs assumed the proportions of almost a real riot," commented the reporter hopefully.

Half an hour later, the boys realized they had been outwitted again. With the help of hotel staff and a police officer, the intended victim had been dressed up in the head chef’s white apron and coat. With the collar pulled up high, he had walked out the door, pushed through the crowd and disappeared into the evening.

...

Read full article by clicking link here: [Source]

Perished twice in a week

I was pleased to make the acquaintance of Matthew Barker, editor of an Irish historical newsletter, last week when doing my regular stint at the Maine Historical Society. If we are lucky, we will see a lot more of him on our site as time goes on -- I hope to convince him to add his two cents to the mix here. Meanwhile, he passes to us an interesting article he found in an old issue of Portland's bygone newspaper, the Eastern Argus, about a peculiar case of the resurrection of a young Irish girl of Bangor, Maine.

The Irish Girl Who Went to Heaven

We get some singular facts from the Whig, of the case of the Irish girl, at Bangor, who our readers will recollect, being attacked a few weeks since with the cholera and apparently dead -- while her father went for a coffin, revived and told a wonderful experience of heaven -- whither she averred she had been, and of having seen her mother and friends in that happy place, and predicting the death of more friends. Here is the sequel to that touching picture:--

Although at the time of the seeming death of this child it was not supposed that her aunt Lynch was dangerously il, she not having cholera but attacked with dysentery. But she died the next day as stated.

On Sunday afternoon, Mr. Daniel Warren, a very worthy religious man, who has been much among the cholera patients, and feeling perhaps a little moved by curiosity, called to see the little girl, and addressing her cheerfully and told her that she appeared better and would soon be well, and get out in a day or two.

"But I'm going to mother again at four o'cl'k," she quietly and softly said.
"When, to-morrow?"
"No, to-day."

Mr. Warren endeavored to turn her attention to hopeful prospects of recovery; but the little sufferer was fast sinking away -- the death rattle was heard, and she soon ceased to breathe, her pulse stopped, and the fixedness of death was impressed upon her beautiful countenance. She was dead!

Mr. Warren looked at the town clock, in the distance, from the window, for there was no clock in the house, and it was four o'clock.

While pondering upon, to him the singular coincidents in this case, and about half an hour had passed when new signs of life appeared and again the spirit of the sweet girl returned. She asked for water and said she was tired and sunk away into a quiet sleep.

Since then she has been gradually recovering, but her elder sister who watched her so tenderly and who would so willingly have accompanied her to live with her blessed mother in heaven, was the next day taken with the cholera and the following day died and was buried.

...

Such are the simple facts in the case which we leave for the present without comment or attempted explanation.

Source: Eastern Argus, Portland, Maine, October 15, 1849

Tunnels Unearthed in Bangor

Some interesting items are emerging from the subterranean world of Bangor, as recorded by the Bangor Daily News. I wonder if the Bangor Explorers Guild has been in yet?

PHOTO shows Stephen Wintle of Facility Management Group Incorporated peering into a tunnel which was discovered in the basement of the Penobscot County Courthouse. The four foot deep tunnels snakes under the building and was used for ventilation. Photo taken Friday, March 28, 2008 for the Bangor Daily News by Kate Collins.

Bangor: Courthouse work yields surprises, hazards
By Judy Harrison
Friday, April 04, 2008 - Bangor Daily News

BANGOR, Maine - Murphy's Law has been hard at work in the basement of the Penobscot County Courthouse. Since renovations began last fall, the century-old building has revealed a few hidden secrets and more hazardous material than expected.
...
The latest discovery (a system of tunnels that appears to have been part of the original building's ventilation system> came last week when workers removed the concrete floor. The original building was completed in 1833. The tunnels are not on the plans for the courthouse that was constructed between 1901 and 1903.

Davis speculated that the system might have been left over from the original courthouse built on the same site. It was torn down when construction on the current building began as the 20th century dawned.
...
The entire concrete floor, several inches thick, was removed by hand, a few chunks at a time, in wheelbarrows last week. A new concrete floor is expected to be poured later this month once it's determined how to keep the ventilation system from being filled in, according to Collins.

"When they peeled the onion, they found more things that we did not know existed," Collins said. "We found silica that had to be removed along with more asbestos and more lead paint. One of the bigger secrets is that we've found more tunnels that we didn't know existed."
...
As the project began last fall and the walls came out in one room, old steam pipes and a tunnel, believed to have been installed when the building was completed in 1903, were uncovered. They have been sealed off.

They appeared to go under Court Street to the former YMCA building. That building was constructed in 1890 and replaced in 1970 with the current structure.

...
The tunnels yielded yet another unwelcome surprise -- several 5-gallon cans that contained a chemical that has yet to be identified. In addition to testing the cans, soil in the tunnels where they were found will be tested for contamination.

From a historical perspective, the finds have been exciting but sometimes a little scary, Collins said.

"We've truly peeled back the onion skin and we're making it a much better place and a safer place," he said. "One of the things we found was an electrical conduit laid in the floor that had rusted away. There were exposed live wires under the floor. That's simply too dangerous."
...
Read full article here: [Source]

92-year old surprised by early obituary

There's nothing like reading your own obituary in the paper to get your attention!

Wrong Maine woman declared dead in obit
By Aimee Dolloff
Saturday, December 15, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

BANGOR, Maine - Anne E. Hathaway was somewhat shocked Friday when a friend called to see if she was still alive.

The Orono resident’s obituary had appeared in Friday’s Bangor Daily News. The information in the short obituary and the list of death notices was correct, except for the part about her being dead.

The deceased was actually Ann Hathaway of Bangor.

Both women had made advance funeral arrangements at the same funeral home. When pulling the file for the deceased Ann Hathaway, the funeral home employee didn’t realize there were two women with very similar names and grabbed the wrong one.
...
At 92, Hathaway admits she’s no spring chicken but said that she’s not dead yet.

"I just laughed," Hathaway said. "I went to the pearly gates and opened the door and they didn’t have any strawberry shortcake and they didn’t like the way my hair looked."
...
"It’s just a matter of us checking the vitals a little more carefully," a funeral home employee said Friday.

To read the full story, please click here: [Source Photo by John Clarke Russ of the Bangor Daily News.

Double Dipstick Prize

The Bangor Daily News had a real piece of genius on display. This guy doesn't know when to quit. Text in italics is my emphasis.

Alleged burglar nabbed twice in 24 hours
The Associated Press
Monday, May 14, 2007

BANGOR, Maine (AP) A 23-year-old man was arrested for burglary Friday night just 15 hours following his release from jail for two other burglaries, police said.

Edward Turner of Hermon and his roommate, Donald Searway, were arrested late Thursday after police found firearms and jewelry in their car and home that were reported stolen from homes in Levant earlier in the day, according to Maine State Police.
Turner was released on bail Friday morning, but it wasn't long before he was back in hot water.

Bangor police arrested Turner at 8:45 that night when he was spotted with a backpack that contained numerous pieces of jewelry that still had price tags on them and were attached to jewelry display boards.

Turner was charged with smashing a store window at Downeast Coins and Collectibles and snatching the jewelry from a display window. He is also accused of breaking a window at a pawn shop across the street, but police say he couldn't get into the store.
[Source]

100 Years Ago in the Devil's Half-Acre

The Lewiston Sun Journal has a daily feature which looks back 100 years ago, 50 years ago, and 25 years ago. Today's was pretty interesting, and gave a name to a part of Lewiston that I hadn't heard of before.

In a Lewiston special to the Boston Herald on the local rum situation, it is stated that letters have been sent from Androscoggin County to Gov. Cobb asking him to send the Sturgis deputies here. The special concluded with this paragraph: "It is asserted that the liquor deputies pass the well-known places on the principal streets to make searches for liquor in the shops of the French quarter of this city, and the dives and kitchen bar-rooms in Hines alley and on 'The Devil's Half-Acre.'"
[Source]

Little did I know, Lewiston wasn't alone in claiming this moniker. According to Wikipedia, Bangor was know as the Devil's Half Acre too: "Sailors and loggers gave the city a different and more widespread reputation - their stamping grounds were known as the 'Devil's Half Acre.'" [Source] Their information comes from "Maine League of Historical Societies and Museums (1970)" in Doris A. Isaacson: Maine: A Guide 'Down East'. Rockland, Me: Courier-Gazette, Inc., pages 163-172. The Bangor Daily News published an article about the events of 1906 that led to a wider recognition of this nickname:

'Crime wave' entertained Bangor
By Wayne Reilly
Monday, July 24, 2006 - Bangor Daily News

During the long, hot summer of 1906, Bangor became the crime center of the nation, perhaps of the world, at least in the fevered imaginations of reporters and editors at the Bangor Daily Commercial, the city's afternoon newspaper. "MANY CROOKS HERE ... Bangor is Pretty Nearly as Badly Off as Chicago Now ... HOBOES ARE INSOLENT," announced a multidecker headline on July 17. Hoboes, yeggmen, pickpockets, muggers, con artists, robbers and a host of other bad guys had been gathering in the Queen City since sometime in the spring.
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The reporter advised, "One only has to take a walk through the section of the city known as the 'Devil's Half-Acre,' through the railroad yards and up along the river front from Washington Street to Foley shore below the Eastern Maine General hospital to satisfy himself of the number of these tough characters in the city."

Yet after setting the stage so well, the reporter admitted there had not been a single murder or bank robbery or something else really serious. The author seemed mostly concerned with the hoboes, that mysterious infestation of rootless men that bloomed like algae along the riverfront on the borders of the city's most exclusive neighborhoods each summer. Housewives had been scared out of their wits by villainous-looking individuals knocking at their kitchen doors looking for handouts.

And just the other night two young men "well known in society" had to employ a horse whip both on the horses and on intruding thugs to prevent being held up as they traveled by carriage with their wives just below the Tin Bridge in Hampden.
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One of the benefits of living in a city with two newspapers is that there are often two sides to a controversial story. The Bangor Daily News was always ready to correct the Commercial's tendency to overdramatize the facts, and vice versa.
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The city was safe. People "may visit the 'Devil's Half-Acre' or even the water front without being sandbagged or robbed or shot or stabbed or poisoned." The Commercial was confusing begging and drunkenness with real crimes, scoffed the BDN.
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One of the most interesting crime stories of the summer, however, was more appropriate to a Norman Rockwell painting than to the lurid pulp magazines that documented heinous acts in Chicago. "THOSE HORRID BOYS ... They Go Swimming Without Bathing Trunks Again ... POLICE ARE SHOCKED," declared a playful headline on July 20 in the Commercial.
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Bangor has recorded some ghastly crimes in its history, but not that summer. And soon the hoboes would be disappearing down the tracks like the autumn leaves.
[Please click here for full article: Source]

Catalyst for Crime

Cranky Yankee over at the New England Anomaly caught this Maine crime story, which shows up in today's Lewiston Sun Journal (click link to read full story).

Thieves targeting catalytic converters from cars, trucks
By David Sharp, Associated Press Writer |
February 6, 2007
Associated Press

BANGOR, Maine --Thieves have long targeted stereos, radar detectors, air bags, compact discs and even pocket change from
cars.

The latest item being snatched from cars and trucks has unsuspecting motorists scratching their heads. The targeted vehicle may look just fine but the exhaust lets out a NASCAR-like roar when the operator turns the key.

It turns out thieves are crawling under vehicles and cutting away catalytic converters, making them a hot commodity in more ways than one at scrap yards.
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In Bangor, medical secretary Karen Thompson found out the hard way when she was summoned by hospital security to the parking lot, where someone had cut away the converters from several vehicles including her 2006 Toyota Tundra pickup truck. The telltale evidence came when she started it. Because someone had sawed through the exhaust pipe, the truck rumbled as if there was no muffler.

"It was really, really loud. The rearview mirror shook," Thompson recounted. The cost of replacement and repairs at her local Toyota dealership was $2,100.
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Thieves tend to target sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks because they don't have to be jacked up. They can simply slither under the vehicle and saw away the catalytic converter within minutes, investigators said.

In Bangor, the thefts from a busy hospital parking lot that's patrolled by security staff illustrate the ease with which converters can be stolen. Thompson remains incredulous that someone managed to crawl under her truck and cut away part of her exhaust system without attracting attention. "It was pretty gutsy to do it in broad daylight," she said.

Police say it's hard to nail a thief unless they're caught in the act, and that's what happened last week across the river in Brewer. Police received a report of a theft behind an auto repair shop. The thieves were gone by the time police arrived but the getaway car had backed into a snowbank and left an imprint of the licence plate, said Brewer Police Detective Sgt. Jay Munson.

Brewer police used the license plate number and tire impressions in the snow to track down the car and secure a search warrant. Inside, investigators found two battery-powered saws, a portable jack and three catalytic converters, Munson said.
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[Source]

I guess we can't count on all of them to leave their license plates imprinted on snowbanks. Good job by the Brewer Police, catching that well-hidden clue! So keep an eye out... those puppies are expensive to replace, and all the jerks who are stealing them are paying for them with an easily fixable wet rear end from shimmying in and out from underneath your vehicle.