summer reading

Summer in Maine! The time goes faster than you can say, don't get me stahhted! 'Nuff said. The weather outside is delightful and with all this extra daylight, it's always useful to have some ideas for outdoor activities. Between commuting to the daily grind (albeit with a Vacationland license plate) and those occasional weekend festivals around Maine, we need only be reminded of those simple and timeless pleasures.
Not passing up a chance to learn from history, StrangeMaine presents a few ideas drawn from the Archives of the Portland Public Library. You may recognize some of the landmarks...

Summer treats and walking with friends: Old Orchard Beach, 1937. A great thing to do on a lingering evening.


Sightseeing. Mainers can do this, too! Our versions of "stay-cations" include some great places. This was taken on Portland's Eastern Promenade, near Fort Allen Park in 1953.


Go for a spin in your faithful old car! This image was taken in 1944, though the car (called the "Deering High School Staff Car") is much older than that. Your passenger might even wind up with a foot on the windshield!


A carefree bicycle ride. Extra credit if you decorate the spokes! This was taken in 1953.


Baseball! Maybe playing it, maybe going out to the ball game. Here are the Portland Pilots in 1947. Back then, the place where Hadlock Field stands was called Portland Stadium. The firehouse on the left on the picture is still there, and the street in the background is Washburn Street.


Do some writing. In this fine weather, you can bring those literary projects outdoors! If your car doesn't have a rumble seat (and a pillow) , there are always lawn chairs. This picture is from 1938.


Sketching by the sea. Get out the charcoal, the watercolors, or the oils- and maybe a few kindred artists. Recording their impressions, these captivated folks were photographed in 1951.

The Beach. Well, of course. And we all have our favorites. Here's Portland's East End Beach in 1953.


Don't forget to keep plenty of water handy in that wicked hot weather. Or Moxie. Here's an aqueous-minded dog at the SPCA Pullen Fountain on Portland's Federal Street, in 1948.

Have a fabulous summer- and take lots of pictures, too!

Photographs from: Portland Press Herald Still Film Negative Collection, Portland Public Library Archives.

Fort Knox Paranormal & Psychic Faire 2010!

While I am unable to make it to the Faire this year, that doesn't mean you should stay at home! Far from it. Please see my article about last year's faire here: http://strangemaine.blogspot.com/2009/09/not-your-normal-fort.html Needless to say, I highly recommend a visit to the Fort, faire or not.



The annual Psychic/Paranormal Faire returns to Fort Knox on Saturday and Sunday, July 31st and August 1st, 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM. This unusual event features presentations from ghost hunters, UFO enthusiasts, an exorcist, speakers on the legacy of Edgar Cayce and a practicing psychic. Psychics/card readers will be on hand for those wishing to purchase a reading and vendors will be present to sell unusual items.

Melissa Gaspar will be presenting a talk on one of America’s most famous psychics, Edgar Cayce. Cayce was alo known as the sleeping prophet, because many of his revelations about the future came about when he was in a trance-like state.

Christopher Gardner and Cindy Proulx, will lead discussions on the topic of Unidentified Flying Objects. They will be facilitating discussion on the topic with audience members.

The Bangor Ghost Trackers will be on hand to talk about their investigations at Fort Knox and other sites around Maine. The Ghost Trackers will exhibit the tools, techniques and results found in their paranormal investigations.

Former President of the American Dowsing Society, Gordon Barton, will speak on his decades of experience in the filed of dowsing. Barton will reveal that there is far more to the art of dowsing than simply looking for underground water.

Local psychic, Sky Taylor, will speak on her life experiences as a psychic and how people might tap into their own psychic abilities. Cindy Proulx, a long-time UFO enthusiast will lead discussions on the possible existence of Unidentified flying Objects.

Here is the schedule for the two-day faire:
Saturday, July 31st

All-Day Events
10:00 – 4:00 Psychics and vendors in the Fort Officer’s Quarters
10:00 – 4:00 Lecturers will be available in the Visitor Center

Lectures
Lectures take place in the amphitheater at Visitor Center.
10:00am Paranormal Investigation Process, Equipment and Techniques (Bangor Maine Ghost Trackers)
11:00 The Legacy of psychic Edgar Cayce (Melissa Gaspar)
12:00 UFOs? What Do You Think? (Facilitated by local UFO enthusiast Cindy Proulx)
1:00 Exorcism (Ahura Z)
2:00 Paranormal Investigation Process, Equipment and Techniques (Bangor Maine Ghost Trackers)
3:00 Developing Your Sixth Sense (Sky Taylor)

Sunday, August 1

All-Day Events
10:00 – 4:00 Psychics and vendors in the Fort Officer’s Quarters
10:00 - 4:00 Lecturers will be available in the Visitor Center

Lectures
Lectures take place in the amphitheater at Visitor Center.
10:00am Paranormal Investigation Process, Equipment and Techniques (Bangor Maine Ghost Trackers)
11:00 The Legacy of psychic Edgar Cayce (Melissa Gaspar)
12:00 UFOs? What Do You Think? (Facilitated by local UFO enthusiast Cindy Proulx)
1:00 Exorcism (Ahura Z)
2:00 Paranormal Investigation Process, Equipment and Techniques (Bangor Maine Ghost Trackers)
3:00 Developing Your Sixth Sense (Sky Taylor)

Admission to the Psychic/Paranormal Faire is the standard Fort admission plus a requested $2 event donation to help defray costs and fund fort restoration projects. For further information on Friends’ of Fort Knox special events go to their web site at fortknox.maineguide.com. Fort Knox is owned and operated by the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands for the people of Maine.

----------------------------------
This two-day event, sponsored by the Friends of Fort Knox, is one of many special events this summer at the State Historic Site. The following week, Friday/Saturday, August 6 and 7, at 6:00pm, Shakespeare Comes to Fort Knox featuring the presentation of Romeo and Juliet, performed by Ten Bucks Theatre Troupe (http://www.tenbuckstheatre.org). Ticket prices for the Shakespeare event are $10 for adults, $5 for children 12 and under. Advance tickets may be purchased at the Fort Knox gift shop, by telephoning 207-469-6553 or by emailing FOFK1@aol.com

A twisted crime in Portland

Here in Portland yesterday a small wave of panic went through the female population after a report surfaced of a woman being attacked and sexually assaulted by a group of men while out jogging around Back Cove on Monday night. Hours later, confusion and a different kind of rage emerged in the watching population as the second part of the story came to light, and cries of "Hoax!" rang out. As of this morning, the site at Channel 8 News had been updated and amended so that now the article reads thusly:

Police: Alleged Sex Assault Victim Recants Story
Woman Charged With Filing False Public Report
POSTED: 4:11 pm EDT July 20, 2010
UPDATED: 6:09 am EDT July 21, 2010

PORTLAND, Maine -- Portland police said the woman who claimed she was sexually assaulted on the Back Cove on Monday night has recanted her story.

Detectives said the woman claimed she was attacked by five men on a jogging path on Portland's Baxter Boulevard around 9:30 p.m.

Officers said Tuesday afternoon the sexual assault never happened.

Tuesday night police said Maryanne Morin, 22, of Portland was summonsed on a charge of filing a false public report.

[Source]

Figure THAT one out. Crying wolf is a terrible thing to do.

For those who would like to read on, there is more extensive coverage of the story on the Portland Press Herald site:
http://www.pressherald.com/news/back-cove-assault-a-hoax_2010-07-21.html

Missing Member at UNE gallery

The West End News reported on a striking attack of vandalism at a local art exhibit:

Penis Hacker Loose in Portland
An unknown person went into the sculpture garden of the Art Gallery at the University of New England on the night of June 17th and hacked off the penis of a
two-foot high clay sculpture that was on exhibit.

The sculptor, Munjoy Hill artist Nancy Nevergole, had been asked the previous day to remove the sculpture. Nevergole discovered the vandalism when she arrived to remove the sculpture. The statue was part of the annual Sculpture Garden Invitational held at the UNE gallery. The missing piece has not been found.

See photos on WEN site: [Source]

untold (and told) fortunes !

Today's photo emerges from the 24th of January 1951. Here is Miss Joyce Clark, fortuneteller at the Gorham State Teachers College (now USM Gorham) carnival. A carnival in January, you ask? Well, this was to help raise funds to furnish the student lounge. We can only image- or call forth the essence- of the circa 1950s furnishings!

EVENT: Hidden History of Maine, SATURDAY!

WHAT: Author appearance
WHEN: Saturday, June 19, 2010 at 12:00 noon
WHERE: The Green Hand Bookshop, 661 Congress Street, Portland, ME
FMI: call (207)450-6695 or email michelle.souliere[at]gmail.com

Come to the Green Hand Bookshop for a reading and signing of the Hidden History of Maine by Harry Gratwick!

The history of the Pine Tree State would be bare but for the contributions of hardy and impassioned individuals—generals, governors, settlers and activists whose lives of leadership make up the story of Maine’s “hidden history.”

Author Harry Gratwick creates intimate and detailed portraits of these Mainers, from the controversial missionary of Sebastien Rale to Woolwich native William Phips, whose seafaring attacks against French Canada earned him the first governorship of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Gratwick also profiles inventors who “challenged the assumptions of [their] time and place,” such as Robert Benjamin Lewis, an African American from Gardiner who patented a hair growth product in the 1830’s, and Margaret Knight, a York native who defied nineteenth-century sexism to earn the nickname “the female Edison.”

Discover over four hundred years of Maine’s history through the tales of its unique residents, from soprano Lillian Nordica, who left Farmington to become the most glamorous American opera singer of her day, to slugger George “Piano Legs” Gore, the only Mainer to have ever won a Major League batting championship.

Harry Gratwick is a lifelong summer resident of Vinalhaven Island in Penobscot Bay. He is an active member of the Vinalhaven Historical Society and has written extensively on maritime history for two Island Institute publications, the Working Waterfront and the Island Journal. Harry and his wife, Tita, spend the winter months in Philadelphia. Hidden History of Maine is his second book.

U.S.S. Portland Maine tattoo

Another nice addition to the collection of photos we've posted over the years here of Maine-related tattoos!

Matt Anderson obligingly lent his arm for a moment to allow me to capture a shot of this recent inkwork.

EVENT: Strange Maine book release party!

It's finally here! "Strange Maine: True Tales from the Pine Tree State" by Michelle Souliere is available and for sale at The Green Hand and other fine local bookshops. Join us on the evening of May 27th for a release party and book signing!

WHAT: Book release party
WHEN: Thursday, May 27 from 6:00-9:00
WHERE: The Green Hand Bookshop @ 661 Congress Street, Portland ME

I'll do a short reading at the start, and sign books following that. We'll have refreshments, and Curtis Clark will be playing some music live, so it should be fun!!!

On Facebook, you can view the event page here:
http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=124774294204694&ref=mf

If you are interested in reading a review of the book, the folks over at the Talk Stephen King blog have posted a great one, the first one out so far, here:
http://talkstephenking.blogspot.com/2010/05/strange-maine.html

EVENT: Maine horror movie release

WHAT: Screening of "The Wrong House"
WHEN: Thursday, May 20, 2010, 7:00pm
WHERE: Nickelodeon Cinemas, 1 Temple St, Portland, ME
COST: $8 ticket, available at the door or prebuy online now at http://www.patriotcinemas.com/tickets_nickelodeon.htm
FMI: email thewronghouse@gmail.com

On May 21, Maine's Wisdumb Productions will release its first feature film, the HD horror flick THE WRONG HOUSE, on DVD. Filmed in Limerick, Maine, this hardcore tale of terror was inspired by a burglary at the home of husband/wife producers Shawn French and Sue Stevens, who financed this deeply personal project out of pocket and play the serial-killer residents of THE WRONG HOUSE.

The story: An isolated house in the woods looks like an easy mark to a group of friends camping in the Maine wilderness. The thieves haul away several ounces of pot and hallucinogenic mushrooms in the heist. But when the homeowners track them down, the thieves learn too late that there are some people you just shouldn't mess with... and that they picked The Wrong House.

"After the burglary, we desperately needed an outlet for our anger," said writer/director Shawn French. "By filming at our home and having the onscreen thieves break in through the same window the actual thieves used, we seriously blurred the lines of reality. The emotions were real and we went all out with the action, really beating the hell out of each other. I broke three ribs and we all walked away bruised."

Thursday May 20, the night before the DVD release, THE WRONG HOUSE will be screening at 7 p.m. at Nickelodeon Cinemas in Portland, Maine. Tickets are on sale for $8 each at the box office or online at www.patriotcinemas.com/nickelodeon. At the screening, fans can pick up signed posters and purchase their copy of THE WRONG HOUSE a day before it launches nationally. Nearly 300 fans attended the last screening of this film, so people are encouraged to get their tickets early.

"The reception at the premiere was amazing," French said. "The story really seems to resonate with Mainers, and we had such incredible performances from our cast. The finished cut is a much tighter, darker and grittier version of the film that the crowd ate up at the premiere. Our audience is in for a hell of a ride."

The film features music from Maine musicians Damien Zygote, The Motengata Band and Stream Reggae, and an original score by Washington composer Tim Butcher.

THE WRONG HOUSE DVD will be available on May 21 at www.thewronghousemovie.com and Amazon.com.

There is a high-quality version of the trailer online here ...
www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=1203815657941
...or you can click below to watch it on YouTube.

EVENT: Help spring clean Eastern Cemetery

Hello from Spirits Alive!

If you have a hankerin' to get some cemetery dirt under your fingernails, we've got a proposition for you!

WHEN: Saturday, May 8, 9am - 12pm
WHERE: Eastern Cemetery, Congress & Mountfort Streets, Portland, ME
FMI: http://spiritsalive.org/events.htm#workdays

Come help us plant, prune, tidy, and trim on Saturday before lunch! Enjoy a sparkling soda courtesy of Shipyard Brewing while you're there.

We are happy to train new cemetery gardeners -- hope to see you there!

More Sword Swallowing in Maine!

The Amazing Ariel is keeping Maine's circus tradition alive! Here she is this morning on Fox's early show, performing a preview of the antics that will be unveiled as part of Sanctuary Tattoo's big 10th Anniversary Bash which is happening at Port City Music Hall tomorrow night, as a benefit to the Preble Street Resource Center.

We've posted about sword swallowing before, but previously it had been in a historic context. This is something else entirely, to be able to see it happen right in front of you!!

Click here to read our prior post on the subject:
http://strangemaine.blogspot.com/2009/09/sword-swallowing-in-maine.html

To find out more about the 10th Anniversary bash (which is tomorrow night!) you can visit Sanctuary's Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Portland-ME/Sanctuary-Tattoo/225022229833?ref=nf

The book!

Well the wait is over -- I finally have the first batch of copies of my book in hand! Published by the History Press, Strange Maine: True Tales of the Pine Tree State is officially out and about.

Readers of the Strange Maine Gazette will recognize a few of the original research stories I did for the paper, but there is also a lot of new material, photos, illustrations, and interviews that are fresh reading even for my regulars. :)

I have copies of them at my bookshop, The Green Hand, 661 Congress Street here in Portland, Maine. The publisher set the retail at $17.99. Please do stop by if you are interested in picking one up! I'll also have copies at the Sanctuary Tattoo 10th Anniversary bash that is being held to benefit Preble Street Resource Center, which recently lost one of its major sources of funding.

Vacationland = Paranormaland?

My friend Rachel runs the great Smother of One blog, and just did a post which contains a couple of interesting things, not the least of which is the footage of strange curtain movements that occurred at the Empire club here in Portland and freaked a number of employees out, shown on their website as taken off their closed circuit taping system's monitor (see below).


Find more videos like this on Empire Dine and Dance

Sunny side up in Portland

Well, the topless march we posted about earlier definitely went down today as planned, and attracted a lot of spectators (no surprise there), in spite of some who thought it was just an April Fool's Day joke.

You can read the original post here:
http://strangemaine.blogspot.com/2010/03/half-nude-in-portland.html

Overall, the crowd was happy and ebullient, and there was a lot of cheering as the small group of shirtless men and women marched from Longfellow Square down Congress Street, heading for Monument Square.  It also attracted a LOT of men with cameras.

The most obvious response?  The guys with cameras were not NEARLY as interested in the half-naked men.

But I think everyone had fun, and it definitely made folks really think about what the heck makes barebreasted females unacceptable.  Think it's illegal in Portland?  Guess again!  Here's an interesting article by the ever-well-spoken Bill Nemitz, over at the Portland Press Herald:
http://www.pressherald.com/news/full-exposure-of-their-___-principles_2010-03-28.html

To quote:

Calls last week to Portland City Hall and the Cumberland County District Attorney's office confirmed that while it is illegal for men and women to expose their genitals in public, local and state laws contain no such prohibition on uncovered breasts – male or female. (Although, considering some of the men who insist on parading around topless, one could argue that there should be.)

Maine, in fact, is one of a handful of "top-free" states that have no laws banning breast exposure, according to the national organization gotopless.org. The group lists the others as Hawaii, New York, Ohio, Texas and the "coast of California."
[Source]

Fount of mystery...

[Photo by Eric Pomorsky - Source]

Fans of urban exploration will recognize the wonder that comes in small discoveries such as the one in this photo. To quote: "This used to be a fancy marble-lined bathroom in a below-ground shopping concourse. The tower above is still active and occupied, but the old 1930's-era shops in the network of basements below it have been converted to storage or left to crumble away."

This is one of a continuing series of local photos by the prolific Portland photographer Eric Pomorski. I highly recommend looking through his photostream on Flickr.com -- it is well worth it! He has an excellent eye.

April Fools in the news!

Well, Portland's free newspapers are having a field day with April Fool's Day! Make sure to find a copy of the Portland Daily Sun, or of the Munjoy Hill Observer (a copy of which some kind person left tucked in my door this morning, thank you!).

From battles over censorship of Bigfoot sexuality, to the landing of the carrier JFK on top of the defunct Jordan's Meats plant in downtown Portland (as opposed to the harbor where one would normally expect large ships to park themselves), it's a bonanza that shouldn't be missed!!!  The April 1 issue of the Portland Daily Sun is available online in an e-edition here.

Half-nude in Portland?

Well, it's going to be an interesting weekend on Congress Street, according to an announcement that appeared in the latest issue of the West End News...

Topless March Planned for Congress Street
What is being billed as 'Portland's First Ever Female-Bodied and Allied Topless Adventure' is being planned for Congress Street on Saturday, April 3rd. The event will include both men and women marching topless from Longfellow Square to Tommy's Park.

The event is scheduled from 1:00pm - 3:00pm, and is meant to point out the inequality in the social acceptance of male toplessness as compared to female toplessness. Full topless nudity is strongly encouraged, but for the more modest, pretty electrical tape will be in supply.

[Source]

Personally, I can think of a number of more pressing issues that could use this kind of attention and effort, but maybe they just want to lighten things up a bit (not many things out there are lighter than skin after a Maine winter!!!). Or perhaps someone just wants an opportunity to see lots of happy skin out in the open? Who knows...

Illustration is from an edition of Lysistrata translated from the Greek of Aristophanes with illustrations by Norman Lindsay.

TONIGHT! Umbrella Cover Museum on TV

Nancy 3. Hoffman announced this good news about a show airing tonight on the Weather Channel at 9:00pm:

Dear Fans of the Umbrella Cover Museum -

BIG NEWS - The Umbrella Cover Museum will be on The Weather Channel this weekend! It will be on Cantore Stories at 9 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday and Sunday nights, March 27th and 28th. It's on a segment about places to go in Maine, so don't give up if it's not the first part of the show. THANKS for all your support and encouragement!

Don't forget to join the Umbrella Cover Museum Facebook Fan page if you are on Facebook. Also you can hear the theme song and see a tour video on YouTube.

It sounds like USA Today carried a travel section featuring the Umbrella Cover Museum on Friday, March 5th, earlier this month. It's been a great year so far for them!

For those of you unfamiliar with the Umbrella Cover Museum (which perches on the coast of Peaks Island at 62-B Island Avenue, a short ferry ride away from downtown Portland), it is dedicated to the appreciation of the mundane in everyday life. It is about finding wonder and beauty in the simplest of things, and about knowing that there is always a story behind the cover.

To see a short video that Nancy3 put together about the museum, you can click below or go to the page on YouTube. Watch out -- expect accordion music!! :)

Old view of Eastern Cemetery

This is an old postcard showing a view of Portland's oldest cemetery, the Eastern Cemetery, located at the corner of Congress and Mountfort Streets.  This view shows a considerably different appearance than the cemetery has today.  I'm planning on making a trip up to the East End to take photos there sometime this spring, so everyone will have a point of comparison to go from when looking at this old piece, which was printed by the Leighton & Valentine Company, in New York City.

Maine Extreme Paranormal podcast

PIR Radio (Para Investigators Radio) hosted the local group Maine Extreme Paranormal as their podcast guest in late March. They discuss how the group started and why it has developed on its own path with the founder, Debbie Perkins. They discuss past investigations, group philosophy, methods and the equipment used to capture evidence.

At the link below you can either listen to a streaming feed of the interview, or download the mp3 file for later use.
http://para-investigators.planetparanormal.com/?p=151

EVENT: Calling all zombies!

The First Annual West Fest block party is including a zombie kickball game!

WHAT: West Fest block party
WHEN: Saturday, May 22nd, 2010, 2:00-4:00pm
WHERE: Game will be played outside on the Reiche School field (or inside in the gym)

Like Zombie Kickball events in the past, you know the drill-- come on down in your best zombie get-up, and have some fun!
----------------------
The annual Zombie Kickball is still TBA for this year, but should take place sometime during the summer on the East End. Zombie Kickball is looking for a new wrangler/captain/organizer/manager (loosely speaking), if you're up for the job let us know your contact info and we'll forward it appropriately. :)

Portland part of Worldwide Obscura Day

A guest post by Loren Coleman:

On Saturday, March 20th, at 80 different sites around the world, an international celebration of wondrous, curious, and esoteric places will be occurring. It is called "Obscura Day" (http://
atlasobscura.com/obscura-day), and is the brainchild of the people behind Atlas Obscura, a compendium of the world's wonders, curiosities, and esoterica.

A location right here in Maine has been chosen to be one of the special sites, the International Cryptozoology Museum at 661 Congress St., Portland, from 10 am to 7 pm. The event at the museum will occur for their usual small admission fee of $5.00 per person, but with a wide variety of extras too.

"Since the Obscura Day celebrations are fast approaching this coming Saturday, March 20th, we recommend visitors merely show up; no reservations necessary at this point," said Jeff Meuse, the museum's chief docent coordinator. "We will have staff available to assist in signing up people for the tours of the museum. We'll have special Bigfoot cookies and Loch Ness Monster treats for sale for people who
are waiting for the short time until the next tour begins. Also the unique Green Hand Bookshop is at this partner location for visitors to browse."

Here is Atlas Obscura's paragraph on the Maine event from their website:

PORTLAND, ME
TOUR OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRYPTOZOOLOGY MUSEUM WITH LOREN COLEMAN

Over the years, Loren Coleman has amassed an unrivaled collection of replicas and artifacts relating to world's famous and lesser-known cryptids, ranging from the fanciful (P.T. Barnum's Feejee Mermaid) to the factual (like the coelacanth, long thought to be extinct but discovered alive in 1938). For Obscura Day, Coleman has generously agreed to lead a band of curious souls on a tour of his newly opened
International Cryptozoology Museum.

"I think this happening on the same weekend as the 50th anniversary of my getting into the field of cryptozoology, which is the investigation of all kinds of little-known cryptids, in addition to
the better known Abominable Snowmen, Bigfoot and Nessies, seems more than a coincidence," noted Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum. "It feels like a cosmic acknowledgment of the wonder of all those new species that remain to be discovered and the hard work it took to have this museum come to life. For Maine, my home for the last 30 years, to be picked this
way, is terrific."

For further information, please email Loren Coleman at lcoleman[at]maine.rr.com or for a phone interviews, contact the museum at 207-518-9496, Wed-Fri this week, from 11 am to 6 pm Eastern.

EVENT: New horror with Joe Hill TONIGHT!

7:00 PM at the Borders in South Portland, ME, and another reading tomorrow, again at 7:00, at the Borders in Bangor. It's Maine's own son of horror!

As the man himself says, "Come on out, it’ll be just like seeing your favorite band in concert (if they didn’t bring their instruments, and didn’t actually play anything, and hid off stage while I read from my book)."

(photo from Joe Hill's site)

[Source]

Eagle with bells on

Yet another peculiar article has emerged in my hunt for other material through the Victorian newspapers of Maine. Remarkable stuff!

Aerial Sleighbells

"Rings on his fingers
Bells on his toes
He shall make music
Wherever he goes."

Thus runs the old nursery rhyme, the latter part of which applies to the big eagle with sleighbells attached to his legs, which merrily jingle as he sweeps through the air. The "belled eagle" was seen last week flying over Woolwich by the Sasanoa Bluff cottages. He is a Kennebec bird but makes quite often "flying" visits to New Hampshire and Mass., having been reported as seen over portions of Boston. It is now many years ago when Charles Hunnewell, now a selectman of Woolwich, captured the eagle, then an eaglet, and wired the bells upon him. He has jingled them ever since.

[Source: Bath Independent, July 28, 1888, page 1]

Denture Rescue in 1908

The Daily Kennebec Journal reported on an interesting and almost unbelievable tale of denture rescue from the Victorian era.

The Washington County railroad has gone all the other railroads in the country one better in the matter of accommodating its patrons. A passenger one day last week lost a set of false teeth out of the window. The loss was reported to the obliging conductor, who stopped the train, backed to the scene of catastrophe, where the missing molars were found and returned to their owner.

[Source: Daily Kennebec Journal, April 10, 1908, page 6]

This is not the first denture-related Strange Maine story, as those of you who remember the denture-stealing mouse of 2007 will have noticed.

Old time crime

I ran across this entertainingly written article when I was researching some old Daily Kennebec Journal articles, and thought some of you might be intrigued by it:

Maine Gossip

The North Dexter correspondent of the Bangor News says numerous tramps have made their appearance on our main roads and are causing much uneasiness in the rural districts. Sunday night, D.C. Carlton, a youth of 19, while returning from a neighboring visit, about ten o'clock, was startled by the appearance of a large man standing in the road near what is locally known as Thomas' corner. Not liking his appearance he quickly transferred his pocket book to the inside of his trousers' leg, and, with the cold chills creeping up his spine, with the pocketbook crawling stockingward he approached the man who asked him the time.

Carlton responded by saying he had no watch, whereupon the man seized him and made a thorough search of his various pockets. Not finding anything of value he said, "Well you're all right," and told him he could pass along. It is needless to say that young Carlton took this advice literally and did not stop for a second invitation, breaking all former records for one-half mile dashes, arriving home in a breathless condition.

Source:
Daily Kennebec Journal, 4/11/1908, pg.6

Cabbie surprised by bop on the nose

The West End News reports on an unexpected incident that occurred in a Portland cab recently.

Cabbie Punched in the Nose After Doing Good Deed
by Marge Niblock

At 6 AM on January 25th, a cab driver thought a woman was being assaulted by some males on State Street. He pulled the cab over and Robin Ann Anderson, 25, jumped into the vehicle. She then allegedly punched the cabbie in the nose and left.

The cabbie called police, who were able to apprehend Ms. Anderson nearby. When they ran a check on her it was discovered that she had four active warrants for her arrest. She was arrested and charged with assault, for her attack of the cab driver.

[Source]

UMaine ghost hunters

UMaine in Orono has its own on-campus paranormal investigation club, the UMPIC, (or possibly PRIUM: Paranormal Research and Investigation of the University of Maine, depending on where you look online). The Maine Campus online newspaper has been reporting on the recent rallying of the group, which was founded in 2005 (according to an earlier Maine Campus article, also included below).

Who you gonna call? UMaine Paranormal Investigation Club
By Rhiannon Sawtelle
Posted on Thursday, February 4th, 2010, 4:01 am

Tales of Ma Estabrooke wandering the halls of her dormitory, the spooky noises in Colvin Hall and the housemother watching over the Beta House remind the University of Maine community there is a rich history of supposed paranormal activities on campus.

The UMaine Paranormal Investigation Club is ready to confirm or disprove these legends. With a resurgent presence on campus, the group is working on building their base of members to expand their ghost-hunting endeavors.

“We’re still working on trying to get it up,” said Denise Bickford, a second-year English student and president of the group.

The group has been on campus for at least six years, but has declined in membership over the past few years. When Bickford joined in the fall of 2008, she began to pick up the slack of the dissipating group.

The club made strides last semester when it became an official student group, recognized by Student Government.

“That was really exciting,” said Amie Dick, a second-year social work student and vice-president of the club. “We just got back on our feet.”

The numbers are growing, with a solid base of 10 members and five or six more new recruits who grew interested after a presentation from Mike Marino, a member of the Bangor Ghost Hunters.

Marino spoke to the group during their usual meeting time Monday from 5 to 6 p.m. in the Senior Skulls room. He spoke about his experiences in the group, how to investigate and the equipment used in the process.

“It was really informative. … It was interesting to hear from someone on the case,” Bickford said.

With growing interest in the group, the club is escalating their efforts to investigate the paranormal.

“We’re trying to expand to all paranormal stuff,” Bickford said.

This year, they plan to investigate hauntings around campus, take a tour of a cemetery in Lewiston and visit a cryptozoology museum. According to Bickford, this is a great improvement over last year when the group only went on one investigation in Estabrooke Hall.

The members’ interests lie in all things paranormal, and they takes different steps depending on what they are investigating. When they investigate supposed hauntings, they bring camcorders and still-frame cameras, hoping to capture ghost sightings.

During the cemetery visit, they will use their own observations and electrical readings that denote the presence of spirits. There has been a lot of reported activity around a mausoleum in the cemetery.

“A lot of people have felt a presence there. … It’s intuitive,” Dick said.

“It depends on what you’re looking for in a haunting,” Bickford said. “It’s not a science; you can’t really prove anything.”

Bickford and Dick note that a real ghost-hunting experience isn’t like those portrayed on popular television shows like “Ghost Hunters” and “Paranormal State.”

“You’re not going to find something most of the time,” Bickford said. “You have to go over what you think is real and what isn’t.”

“I think it’s good to go into an investigation with an open mind,” Dick said.

Both women believe there is paranormal activity alive and well in the world but admit that skeptics are good to have around to balance an investigation.

“I don’t consider myself a skeptic … but there are things that can be written off,” Bickford said.

They explained the importance of critically examining evidence and understanding there won’t be activity every investigation.

An interest in the unknown is what drew Bickford and Dick to the club; they joined through word of mouth. While Dick is still waiting for a paranormal experience, Bickford recently experienced a sighting this summer. The incident confirmed her suspicion there were things we can’t explain in the world.

Bickford’s family lives in an old house in Winterport, and her mother has always heard unidentifiable voices and music. Bickford had never before experienced a haunting but woke up one night this summer to see a figure of a man in her room.

“It’s nothing I should be scared of. … it freaks you out if you don’t know what’s going on, though,” Bickford said.

As for Dick, she is still waiting for an experience to confirm her beliefs.

“I wish,” she said.

[Source]

an earlier article, also from The Maine Campus online newspaper, mentions a Ma Balentine spirit instead of a Ma Estabrooke spirit, but you get the idea.

Paranormal Club tackles supernatural on campus
By Michael Hartwell
Posted on Monday, April 4th, 2005, 12:00 am

Toby Paradis has been intimately familiar with cemeteries for over two years. He’s not a grave robber or in mourning. No, the third-year theater major goes to graveyards because he has a passion for the supernatural. A little while ago, he figured out a way to find other students with similar interests: He started a club.

Last semester, Student Council gave the University of Maine Paranormal Investigation Club the greenlight. Right now there are 10 dedicated members and a host of drifters and frequenters. Since only a few months have passed since its formation, UMPIC is still a trial club. This means it will take a few months before Student Council starts giving them any funding.

UMPIC covers a lot of ground in the world of the unexplained. “We focus on ghosts and spirits,” Paradis said, but is quick to point out that nothing mysterious is off-limits. Secretary Michelle Shandorf said “We don’t do aliens and stuff, but we’ve been asked about it a lot, so maybe we will someday.”

A typical one-hour meeting can have discussions that cover topics as diverse as poltergeists, telekinesis, Chupacabra, rains of frogs and Pamola, the storm god who watches over Mount Katahdin.

UMPIC members don’t just talk about the supernatural, they go out and look for it. In late January, they investigated Balentine hall in hopes of finding Ma Balentine, the long-dead house mother who allegedly still makes her curfew rounds. Unfortunatly, their search didn’t yield any evidence of hauntings. Vice President Caiti Joly wasn’t discouraged. “Just because we don’t find anything doesn’t mean there’s nothing there, we could have missed it,” she said.

Veterans of the Balentine expedition point out that the residential director wouldn’t let them into the locked fourth floor due to a series of potential hazards. UMPIC members think that recent construction may have driven Ma Balentine up to the restricted, untouched floor.

UMPIC prides themselves on their fair investigations. “We don’t make conclusions around opinions or beliefs. We’re scientific. We stay focused and we stay skeptical,” Shandorf said.

Investigations involve members exploring areas that are reported to have paranormal activities. They bring any equipment they have, cameras and tape recorders for now, and try to find evidence. The investigations are open to anyone, even scaredy-cats.

“We don’t go anywhere alone, we use the buddy system,” Paradis said. There are two reasons for this rule. One reason is to make sure no one gets protecting investigators from becoming uncomfortable or frightened. The other incentive is so they can rely on any evidence they collect.

“If you were recording and alone, you could cough into the tape recorder and forget about it, and then when we listen to the tape, we wouldn’t know where that sound came from,” said Joly.

The Maine’s Paranormal Research Association, the group responsible for the Halloween night investigations on campus in 2003, are making plans to visit UMPIC in the near future and give them some investigation pointers.

According to UMPIC, most of the buildings on campus have had reports of unexplained phenomena. One of the explanations the group suggests is that the Hilltop area is built over Indian burial grounds. Well-known spectors include the suicide ghost of Stodder, Ma Balentine and the various spirits of Estabrooke.

UMPIC member Dave Sawyer is looking forward to the upcoming investigation of Estabrooke hall on April 9. The Estabrooke resident director plans to accompany the group and grant them access to all of the locked rooms. “From what I’ve read, classic hauntings happen around places people don’t frequent,” Sawyer said.

Sawyer reports that he has already seen a few paranormal activities in Estabrooke.

“I was in the basement and I saw what appeared to be a ball of light dance around and melt into a door. What did I actually see? I can’t be sure. I still don’t believe my own eyes. That’s something I’m embarrassed about; I don’t tell my friends about it,” Sawyer said.

Other phenomena from Estabrooke include exploding light bulbs and a locked, unoccupied dorm room that placed a series of 911 calls.

UMPIC feels their investigations will really take off when they receive their funding. The club plans to spend it on an electromagnetic field meter, cameras, thermometers and transportation costs. Instead of sitting on their hands and waiting like good little children, UMPIC is making plans to earn money by selling pizza cards for $10. Each card is good for 20 buy-one-get-one-free pizza opportunities. The store to redeem them has not yet been selected yet.

UMPIC encourages potential new members and curious parties to stop by their meetings Thursday nights at 8 p.m. in the Senior Skulls room on the third floor of the Memorial Union. Unfortunately, there are no telepaths in UMPIC at this point. Until then, all questions can be directed to Toby Paradis or Michelle Shandorf via FirstClass.

[Source]

PRIUM has a Facebook page here:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2201466794

and a presumably defunct/non-functional website here:
http://umaine.edu/umpic/home.htm

Upcoming historic talks

Local cemetery-revivalist group Spirits Alive is once again sponsoring a short series of free winter lecture series with local author-historians. These events will be held at the Maine Historical Society (see http://www.mainehistory.org for more info about the MHS), and are made possible with funding support from the Maine Humanities Council. Of the series, one was held in January (my apologies for neglecting to post it in time), and the other two are upcoming, one in February and one in March. Read on for more info!

WHAT: "Privateering on Casco Bay"
WHEN: Saturday, February 27, 2010 at 10:00am
WHERE: Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress Street, Portland, ME
COST: Free and open to the public.

DESCRIPTION:
James L. Nelson, author of George Washington's Secret Navy, brings America's historical connection with the sea to life through fiction and nonfiction. His writing covers a wide range of America's maritime heritage, from piracy in Colonial Virginia to the naval action of the Civil War. Mr. Nelson will talk about privateers -- armed private ships licensed to attack enemy shipping -- in New England.

For more information on the book: http://www.jameslnelson.com/george_washington%27s_secret_navy.htm

For more information on James L. Nelson: http://www.jameslnelson.com/biography.htm

WHAT: "The Historical Development of Munjoy Hill"
WHEN: Saturday, March 27, 2010 at 10:00am
WHERE:Maine Historical Society, 489 Congress Street, Portland, ME
COST: Free and open to the public.

Earle G. Shettleworth, Jr., Director of the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, will present a slide lecture on the history of Munjoy Hill. Born in Portland, Mr. Shettleworth has been researching, speaking, and writing about Maine history since he was a teenager. He has been on the commission since 1971 and director since 1976.

For more information on the Maine Historic Preservation Commission:
http://www.state.me.us/mhpc/

About the Maine Humanities Council:
The Maine Humanities Council is a private nonprofit organization, Maine's affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. It promotes strong communities and informed citizens by providing Mainers with opportunities to explore the power and pleasure of ideas. For more information, visit their Web site at www.mainehumanities.org.

About Spirits Alive
Spirits Alive is a non-profit organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of Portland's historic Eastern Cemetery through a range of activities including promotion and education. Founded in 2007, the group carries out an active program of seasonal tours of the cemetery, a winter lecture series, and is conducting a stone-by-stone inventory of the nearly 4,000 grave markers still existing in the 340-year-old cemetery. http://www.spiritsalive.org

The vote is on!!!

Okay, we made it into the running! Now it's time to vote. I trust you folks to have your own say on the matter, and here's the link to the blog category (or just click on the button below):
Vote for the best Portland blog!

Of course, you can start at the beginning and vote for all sorts of categories here:
Portland Phoenix's Best of Portland voting

An important note: To actually register your vote, after you've made your selections, you must click on the "SKIP TO FINISH" or "FINISHED" button to enter your name, etc. The vote is not logged in until this part of the process is completed.

Have fun!!!

For you to decide!

To those of you who feel so inclined -- it is once again time for the Portland Phoenix to collect nominations for their annual Best of Portland vote.

I would be very honored if any of you would like to nominate me for Best Blog. And even if not, it's a great chance to vote on your other favorites as well!

You can add your nominations here!!! (or just click on the big red button below)



The Blog category is located under the "City Life" category on the linked page. There are a bunch of other fun categories too!

I will mention that there is a friendly rivalry afoot between myself and the Action Chad blog, and they are nefarious and wiley opponents. Good heavens. It could be an interesting election if we both get nominated!

Others of you who are fans of monthly Bingo, featuring The Fuge and Country Rhodes, may be interested in making sure they get into the running for the Portland Comedian category!

Water pulls a vanishing act

Thanks to T. Woodrich for spotting this bizarre story for us! He heard it mentioned on the radio and scared up a Bangor Daily News article about it.

Despite all the honest Yankees out there, there are still some Mainers who will stop at nothing to steal what they want, from dragging ATMs out of storefronts with their pickup trucks to siphoning gas out of cars in the dark of the night. But this is a new one on me... read on!

Stonington firm searching for missing water
By Rich Hewitt
BDN Staff

STONINGTON, Maine — The Stonington Water Co. has a mystery on its hands.

Large amounts of water have been disappearing regularly from the system since October, and officials don’t know how or why. It does not appear to be a leak, according to water company Superintendent Roger Stone, and the missing water is not running into the town sewer system.

There’s concern that someone may be drawing water from the system either deliberately or by accident.

Either way, the problem is getting worse.

“It’s bizarre,” Stone said Thursday.

Since October, approximately 1.2 million gallons of water has simply disappeared from the water company tanks. It always happens on Wednesday, Stone said.
[...]
The problem appears to be getting worse. Stone calculates that about 200,000 gallons was missing in October; it increased to about 400,000 gallons in November; and to more than 600,000 gallons in December.
[...]
Stone has discounted a leak, although he continues to check the water lines regularly. A leak doesn’t start and stop once a week, he said.
[...]
Stone said they have searched for chlorine residue in areas where the water may have been dumped, but so far they have turned up no clues as to where the water is going, Stone said.

“There’s absolutely no sign of it,” he said.
[...]
Stone has concluded that some individual or individuals are behind the water loss.

“Somebody’s doing it,” Stone said. “What we don’t know [is] if it’s malicious or not.”

The mystery is a costly one for the water company. About 75 percent of the water that has passed through the system in the past several months has not been paid for, Stone said.
[...]
While he continues to search for the source of the water losses, Stone is urging Stonington residents to contact him if they go anywhere where they hear the sound of continuous running water, or if they notice anything else out of the ordinary. They can contact Stone at the town office at 367-2351.

Read full article here: [Source]

Cryptografitti?

sasn grafitti
Originally uploaded by misfitgirl.

Seen across the street from the newly installed International Cryptozoology Museum at 661 Congress Street.

Photo (c)2010 by Michelle Souliere

Breaking News- Fire at Zinnia's!

We got a call (thanks McNallica!) that the old Zinnia's building at 660 Congress Street near Longfellow Square in Portland, across the street from my bookshop, The Green Hand, and next to my husband's shop, The Fun Box Monster Emporium, was on fire. There was smoke blowing through the block onto Deering Street as we arrived just before 10:00.

Firemen were breaking out the top story windows as we arrived on the scene. An early eyewitness report mentioned an overheard conversation between a few people talking on the stoop of the building shortly before the fire, the topic of their conversation being about breaking into various buildings. More news as warranted.

UPDATE:
Photos now online here, on my Flickr site. A few included below.

Herbie the tree to be gone...

I met Herbie this June, and my only regret is that I didn't have my picture taken with him properly (well, I did, but it didn't come out well). Anyone who wants to visit him before he meets his demise should be sure to go this week!!! Herbie stands, gargantuan, at the corner of East Main Street and Yankee Drive.

240-Year-Old Yarmouth Elm Tree To Be Chopped Down
Tree Will Be Cut Down Jan. 18
POSTED: 8:13 am EST January 8, 2010

YARMOUTH, Maine -- A 101-year-old man who has spent the last half-century caring for New England's oldest and tallest American elm tree said he's made his peace with the tree's impending demise.

The 110-foot-tall tree is nicknamed Herbie. It has stood sentinel in Yarmouth since before the American Revolution.

It also has survived 14 bouts of Dutch elm disease -- but the latest round has proven fatal.

Former town tree warden Frank Knight calls Herbie an "old friend." He said the tree was so big and beautiful he couldn't bear to chop it down in the 1950s.

Over the years, he nursed Herbie with insecticides and fungicide injections to battle the dreaded disease. But Knight said nothing is forever.

The tree is estimated to be 240 years old. Its exact age will be known once it's cut down Jan. 18.

[Source]

Fort Knox ready for prime time!

Exciting news from our friends at Fort Knox! Read on...

Ghost Hunter TV Program Coming to Fort Knox

The Friends of Fort Knox received an interesting email recently from the producer of the SyFy Channel's hit series, Ghost Hunters. According to the email, the producer was searching the Internet and came upon reports of paranormal activity occurring at the State Historic Site.

Over the past several years, local paranormal investigating groups have approached
the Friends of Fort Knox to enlist their help facilitating night time research. Some of these paranormal research groups such as Bangor Ghost Hunters, Central Maine Paranormal and Maine Supernatural, have posted their investigation result on the Internet. Recently, a new paranormal investigation group, the Bangor Ghost Trackers, were featured on a local TV news program describing their belief that Fort Knox is indeed haunted.

The Friends notified the Maine Department of Conservation’s Bureau of Parks and Lands (BPL) about being contacted by the Ghost Hunter TV program. The Bureau of Parks and Lands manages Fort Knox on behalf of the people of Maine and is being asked to approve the shoot. The Friends informed BPL that they would be willing to head up this project by providing staff supervision, facilitate a meeting between the TV show producers and individuals who have reported “experiences” at the Fort and assist the film crew with logistics.

Friends of Fort Knox executive director, Leon Seymour said that "The Friends are very excited about the possibility of the Ghost Hunters traveling to Maine to investigate and film at Fort Knox. The Friends believe that featuring Fort Knox on a TV show watched by millions will swell Fort Knox and Penobscot Narrows Observatory attendance and have a positive impact for local businesses from increased tourism."

Though the Friends of Fort Knox have never taken a position on whether the Fort is haunted, they say that they are often asked by visitors if the historic site is indeed occupied by spirits. The Friends of Fort Knox are a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring Fort Knox and enhancing its educational, cultural and economic value for the people of Maine. The Friends' latest restoration effort is focused on extensive masonry repair throughout the Fort.

Individuals who wish to be considered for an interview relating what they believe to have been a "paranormal experience at the Fort, may contact the Friends at FOFK1@aol.com or by telephone at 207-469-6553.

Let's hope the folks at the Bureau see fit to approve the adventure! I for one would love to see an investigation of the Fort. It's such a fantastic location to begin with, and the stories coming out of the Fort have been so interesting.

One of the most recent took place during work on Fright at the Fort 2008. The Bangor Daily News reports:

Worker ‘creeped-out’ by ‘Fright’ at Fort Knox
By Rich Hewitt, BDN Staff

PROSPECT, Maine — When the Cowardly Lion stood in the Haunted Forest wringing his tail saying, “I do believe in spooks, I do believe in spooks,” he had good reason.

He was surrounded by trees with faces, flying monkeys, a wicked witch and, yes, spooks.

Now, Teddy Cooke, 19, of Verona Island has a good reason to say the same thing.

Cooke, who works as a tower and gate attendant at Fort Knox Historic Site and the Penobscot Narrows Observation Tower, didn’t have to deal with the Wicked Witch of the West, but he did have a close encounter of some kind last Saturday night inside the fort.

“It creeped me out,” he said.

It happened Saturday night as Cooke was closing up the fort after the annual Fright at the Fort event. He wasn’t one of the ghouls, trolls or ogres stationed in the fort to spook the nighttime visitors. Cooke was part of the tech crew, in charge of the fog, the lights and the scary audio for the event.

The fort was dark except for the “Fright” effects.

“My job was to lock up, shut down all the electrical stuff, the fog machine and the strobe lights,” he said. “I was going to the upper level of the officers’ quarters when I saw it — it was the back of a leg moving at the end of the hall.”

At that point, he said, he thought there was a straggler from the Fright event, and he called out to say the fort was closed and to follow him out. There was no response.

From the hall, a set of stairs leads up to a long corridor known as “Two Step Alley.” Cooke walked up the steps and as his eyes reached the level of the floor, he saw the dark shape of someone walking down the alley.

“About halfway down, I could see the figure of a person,” he said. “There was a red floodlight at the other end and it clearly blocked out the light.”

He called out again, but there was no reaction.

Cooke said the figure looked like a “solid shadow.” He saw no face or details, but could tell it was walking, not gliding. It did not react or turn when he called. And it made no sound that he heard.

Although he said he felt a little jittery, he didn’t feel any emotion or any presence from the figure.

He reached for his flashlight and the figure was gone.

“I looked down for just a second and when I looked up again, there was nothing there all the way to the end of the alley,” he said. “At this point, I’m still thinking it’s a person. There are pillars all the way down the alley, and I thought they may have ducked behind there. I thought maybe someone was going to jump out and scare me.”

Cautiously, he checked each pillar all the way down.

No one was there.

“There’s no way anyone could have gotten down the alley in that time,” he said. “Up until I got out I thought it was a person. I don’t know what it was. I got out of the fort as quickly as I could.”

Cooke admits to being a fan of the “Ghost Hunter” television show, but said he wanted proof before he’d believe in ghosts. He says he has it now.

“I considered myself a skeptic until something happened so that I would know,” he said. “This was kind of that ‘it’ that happened.”

Some might discount Cooke’s account as imagination, but he’s not the first to have a supernatural experience in the fort. According to Leon Seymour, executive director of the Friends of Fort Knox, there have been reports for years from visitors and fort staff of unusual happenings.

“I’ve heard hundreds of stories,” he said. “People having their hat taken off, people being pushed.”

The fort is a likely spot for spirits, according to Sky Taylor, a Bangor radio announcer and co-founder of the Down East Paranormal Society.

The granite and the fort’s proximity to the water all help to store and conduct spirit energy, Taylor said.

Taylor and her husband have had unexplained encounters in the fort before, one of them in the same area where Cooke saw his spirit on Saturday. Several years ago, she brought in a psychic, who confirmed there were spirits dwelling in the fort.

Although no one actually died inside the fort, Taylor said, the spirits could be soldiers who had strong ties to the fort. One might be Sgt. Leopold Hegyi, who spent 13 years at Fort Knox and died in a house across the road from the fort where he lived.

Taylor produced a special radio broadcast about the spirits at the fort and included the story from a former guide at the fort during the 1980s. The guide reported that on one of her tours, a soldier showed up at the edge of the group. She assumed it was one of the Civil War re-enactors who hold encampments at the fort.

She learned later that none was at the fort that day.

“A little later, she saw a photo and said [the soldier] looked just like Sgt. Hegyi,” Taylor said. “If anyone had ties to this place, it was Sgt. Hegyi.

Although Hegyi’s widow, who lived in New York, collected his belongings after the sergeant died, she did not claim his remains. He is buried in a cemetery a short distance from the fort down Route 1 in Stockton Springs, Taylor said.

Cooke is not sure what he saw, but he’s convinced he saw something. He’s a little “uneasy” about going back in for this weekend’s version of Fright at the Fort, and admits that anytime he comes back into the fort, he’ll recall this incident.

“I’m not sure I’d want it to happen again,” he said. “But I’d be excited if it did.”

See BDN article for photos: [Source]

Photo (c)2009 by Michelle Souliere.

A different type of chill

Photo of SMCC's Hillside dorm from PRI-ME.org website.

While the cold has settled into the state in earnest, I'd like to throw some spooky chills into the mix as well.

I was talking to a friend of mine who has worked in SMCC's resident inn, and finds it a pretty creepy place to work through late nights at. But online, I found references to SMCC Hillside dorm as a home for haunts, which was new to me. I can't vouch for any of this information, but would definitely be interested in hearing from anyone who has experienced any of the Hillside phenomena mentioned here:

Southern Maine Technical College, South Portland: A Funeral Home

The Hillside Dorm has a long and strange history. This specific branch is now housing for students but at certain points in its career it has been not only a funeral home, but a brothel, and a nursing home. All this history makes it difficult to predict exactly what is haunting the halls of this college. There is a man who wanders the floors of the attic. There is also repeats of a creature up there who moves to and fro. Many times maintenance has tried to catch it, but as of yet it has eluded all traps. Strange dusty footprints have been reported around the traps. There is also an older lady and a young boy who are said to torment some of the students by messing with their blankets and windows at night. There is also a young woman in a nightgown who walks up and down the staircase in the evening hours. The validity of this sighting is that not only has she been seen by individuals, but also groups.

[Source

In searching for a photo of the dorm online, I found that Paranormal Researchers and Investigators of Maine (PRI-ME) has done a training session for paranormal investigations at the site. You can read about their investigation here -- lots of photos too!

Pine Tree State Mutant Turtles

The Trusty Plinko Stick blog has a funny little post up that involves a few of my Maine favorites:

The now-defunct but much-loved Moonshadow Comics of Portland

The Maine-born weirdness that is the world of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Back in the day, Bill of the Plinko Stick used to get his comics via mailorder from Moonshadow in Portland.

Sure, I got my issues of Captain America, Marvel Age, and some of the other books I considered essential, but the rest were odd. I should have been reading the first issue of the Howard the Duck movie adaptation, but instead I had this dumb book a lady with clocks on her boobs, a grey, Peter Porker-looking barbarian, and four ninja turtles.
[Source]

For more info on Maine-born Kevin Eastman, co-creator of the Turtles, you can dig around online, or check the Wiki on him here. There is conflicting information on his birthplace, with Wikipedia stating Springvale, and the TMNT25.com site claiming Portland. At any rate, there's no doubt he's a Mainer!

Maine's mystery penny

Mental Floss Magazine's blog has an interesting post about 8 top Out-Of-Place Artifacts, which includes in the #1 spot Maine's own weird penny, a.k.a. The Goddard Penny. To quote the site:

The Maine Penny. So an archaeologist finds a silver coin while digging in Maine. No big deal, right? It is when the archaeological site was an old Native American settlement and the coin is found to be a piece of Norse currency dating from 1065-1080 AD. Although more than 30,000 pieces were recovered from the site, they were all Native American save for the coin.

There’s no evidence that the Vikings ever had a settlement there, however, and no evidence that they even came that far south in the interest of trade. The only Norse settlement ever found in North America is in Newfoundland. The strongest theory thus far suggests that Native Americans acquired it through their trades and travels. There’s no doubt that the coin itself is authentic, but how it ended up at the site is still in question – was it planted or did it really end up in Maine by honest means?

Click here to see a photo of the penny, and read about the other OOPArts: [Source]

More info on the penny can be found on the Wikipedia page devoted to its discussion (click here to ponder the penny further).

Forget the register, gimme the ATM!

The Bangor Daily News reported on yet another odd Maine crime earlier this week.

Maine man charged with stealing ATM from store
11/30/09
Associated Press

SCARBOROUGH, Maine — A Maine man accused of taking a cash machine from a convenience store and driving off with it in the back of a pickup truck faces charges including aggravated assault.

Scarborough police who arrived at the convenience store late Sunday found the front door had been ripped off, and soon spotted the pickup with the ATM in the back. Police say the truck backed into a police cruiser and then sped off.
[...]

Please click here for full story: [Source]

You don't think he could have found a more subtle way of getting into the store?

Greetings and tardy salutations

Hello all! Just an update on why I've been silent on the blog front...

On November 6th, I finally secured my city permits to open The Green Hand, my used bookshop at 661 Congress Street, with three hours to spare before the Grand Opening was scheduled to start! Phew. There was a ribbon-cutting ceremony (click here for photos) during the First Friday Artwalk that evening, with Representative Herb Adams presiding. Loren Coleman's International Cryptozoology Museum opened at the same time in the rear portion of my shopfront, and it's been great working with him in this venture so far!

In the 3+ weeks since them, I've been trying to groom my store's selection, processing books as quickly as I can, and putting out tempting stocking stuffers for connoisseurs of the ridiculous and delightful (anti-werewolf Silver Bullet Mints, anyone?). Hence my silence here!

I've missed working on the blog dreadfully, and this post should mark a return to regular posting again. In addition, the long-overdue October issue of the Strange Maine Gazette is in the works, and should be showing its face soon, so keep your eyes peeled.

Thanks, everyone, for your patience and understanding, and I hope you'll enjoy the progress of the blog, and maybe even stop by the shop sometime to say hello!