This Week's Haul, Aug. 7: Creatures of the night

And an ode to Dunkin Iced.

Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week, I and several neighbors in our relatively densely populated Bangor neighborhood have had close encounters with the following creatures: bats, coyotes, skunks and a turkey vulture. The bat actually paid us a visit, bursting into our living room Sunday evening and flapping about for a bit, doing an improvised aerial dance routine to a soundtrack of shrieking. It was safely contained under a blanket and awkwardly tossed back out into the night. At least we know it wasn’t a vampire. We didn’t invite it in.

• Sometimes it’s OK to be petty. Many’s a time I have dreamed of paying an outrageous medical bill in pennies.

• Bangor City Hall will finally reopen next week in its newly-renovated home at 73 Harlow St. Now, however, City Hall will close at 4:15 p.m., which means that if you can’t get there until after work to do your business, you are S.O.L. I don’t know why more municipal offices don’t adopt the 4-day work week and stay open until 5 or 6, or pick one day to stay open until 7 and close early on another day.

• 300 grand to buy the building the former Legacy Sandwich Shop was in. Does it come with the rats?

• Question posed: Do lobsters have brains? Answer: no. Alternate question posed: do any of us have brains? Answer: debatable.

• I wonder if a Democrat group put up a similar display taking aim at Republican lawmakers at a country fair would it be considered just a joke. It’s just a joke! Political violence is HILARIOUS.

• This interview about Maine’s history as a safe place for Black tourists to travel during the Jim Crow era was really cool to read, and Black Travel Maine is doing such great work!

• If Claire’s goes, is Spencer Gift far behind? Who will pierce your ears with a possibly unsanitary piercing gun? Going to the Bangor Mall just makes me feel bad these days; not that I’ve been in ages.

• Wake up, babe, new emojis. New additions include a trombone (which I most definitely will be using constantly) and Bigfoot, which Unicode has disgracefully decided to call “hair creature.”

• This is just to say / I have eaten / the chocolate soft serve with cherry dip / from Jimmies / and which my husband says / tastes like / candle wax

Here at The Other Maine, we love the Animal Orphanage in Old Town. They work so tirelessly to find homes for sweet puppers and kittums and other creatures that come into their care, and they are truly a homegrown organization that runs almost entirely on volunteers. Their big annual charity golf tournament fundraiser is set for 9 a.m. Aug. 16 at Hidden Meadows Golf Course in Old Town.

Speaking of rescue animals, Peace Ridge Sanctuary will have its monthly visiting hours this Sunday, Aug. 10, from 1 to 3:30 at its main sanctuary at Highmeadow Farm at 1111 Littlefield Road in Brooks. Peace Ridge welcomes neglected and abused animals, including lots of farm animals, to live out their days in peace and quiet at its rural shelters. They only request that you give a donation in order to attend.

60 YEARS AGO I’m not ashamed to admit that I am a regular customer at the Dunkin on Main Street in Bangor. They recognize me. Hell, they know my husband by name and by order. Is it the best coffee I’ve ever had? No! Are their donuts good? Not really! But I choose not to think of a Dunkin iced coffee as a true coffee drink - more of a coffee-esque beverage, and one that can really hit the spot on a hot August morning. In honor of all the nice people that work there, let’s celebrate the anniversary of its opening as Bangor’s first-ever Dunkin, 60 years ago this summer. Wait, this is an ad for a Howdy Beefburger! What the hell? Yes, that’s right - next door was this semi-obscure northeastern burger chain that opened a few weeks after the Main Street Dunkin opened, in what would later house Gold Star Cleaners and which may never actually house Urban Pizza or whatever that place is supposed to be called. As a promo for the opening of both places, they gave away two tickets to see the freaking Beatles at Shea Stadium. The Beatles made it another five years. Howdy Beefburger closed in 1974. But Dunkin, sweet Dunkin: it’ll never die.

Music & Dance

Aug. 7: Panstorm, steel pan group, 6:30 p.m., West Market Square, Bangor

Aug. 7: Belfast Summer Nights presents Bennett Konesni and Friends, 5:30 p.m., Steamboat Landing Park, Belfast

Aug. 7: St. John’s Organ Society recital feat. organist Leo Abbott performing Mozart and others; 7:30 p.m., St. John’s Catholic Church, Bangor

Aug. 8: Jazz with John Gallagher and friends, 7 p.m., Surry Arts Barn, Surry

Aug. 8: Destroy Them My Robots, 6 p.m., Harbor Park, Ellsworth

Aug. 9: An Evening with Noel Paul Stookey, 7 p.m., Grand Theatre, Ellsworth

Aug. 9: Gonzo Radio presents THE HEIST, electronic music night, 8:30 p.m., Barliman’s, Bangor, $20

Aug. 9: Milltown Takeover feat. metal bands Militia, Slampig, Coelacanth and Nostradamus, 7 p.m., Old Town Theatre, Old Town

Aug. 10: Cellist Tim Garrett and pianist Amy Irish, 4 p.m, Surry Arts Barn, Surry

Aug. 12: Volbeat and Halestorm, 6:30 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor

Aug. 12: The Mountain Goats and Craig Finn, 7 p.m., Criterion Theater, Bar Harbor

Theater & Comedy

Aug. 7-9: ImprovAcadia presents Pitch It or Ditch It improv musical theater night, 7 p.m., PTC Dramatic Academy, 115 Main St., Bangor

Aug. 7-17: “Rooted,” new comedy play by Deborah Zoe Laufer, 7 p.m. nightly, 2 p.m. Sunday matinees, Stonington Opera House, Stonington

Aug. 7-9: “Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier,” Belfast Maskers, 7 p.m., Basil Burwell Community Theater, Belfast

Aug. 7: Peter Antonieu, psychic comedian, 7 p.m., Center Theatre, Dover-Foxcroft

Aug. 7: Jerry Seinfeld, 7 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater

Aug. 8: Matt Rife, 7 p.m., Maine Savings Amphitheater

Aug. 8: Comedian Bob Marley, 7:30 p.m., Criterion Theater, Bar Harbor

Arts, Books, Film & Culture

Aug. 7: Book signing and wine tasting with author Moe Claire, 5:30 p.m., The Store Ampersand, Orono

Aug. 7: Moonlight Movie screening of “E.T.: The Extraterrestrial,” 8 p.m., Knowlton Park, Ellsworth

Aug. 8: Sip and Stamp sardine can printmaking party, 5 p.m., Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport

Aug. 8-10: “Sunken Steamboats of Moosehead,” documentary, screenings at 2 and 7 p.m., Center Theatre, Dover-Foxcroft

Aug. 8: Movies in the Park screening of “The Wild Robot,” 8 p.m., Old Town Riverfront Park

Aug. 9: Native Plants Paper Cut Art workshop with Shizuka Snyder, 10 a.m.-2 p.m., Fields Pond Audubon Center, Holden

Aug. 9: Stepping Into the Unknown: Films from the Bob Dylan Center, featuring panel discussion with songwriter Joe Henry as moderator, 8 p.m., Criterion Theater, Bar Harbor

Aug. 9: Staring Down the Truth: A Literary Evening at the Barn, featuring writers from the Stonecoast MFA program, 7 p.m., Surry Arts Barn, Surry

Aug. 12: Waterfall Arts presents Crafts and Drafts: Making a Miniature Matchbox Camera, 6 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing, Belfast

Aug. 12: Author talk with Laura Poppick and Kathryn Miles, on Poppick’s book “Strata: Stories From Deep Time,” 6:30 p.m., Left Bank Books, Belfast

Aug. 13: Derry-Free Horror Book Club, reading “Feeders” by Matt Serafini, 7:30 p.m., Bookspace, Bangor

Aug. 13: Screening of Charlie Chaplin’s “Modern Times,” 7 p.m., Surry Arts Barn

Fairs, Festivals, Markets & Food

Through Aug. 9: Schoodic Arts for All Festival, 60+ workshops and 11 performances, Winter Harbor, more info here

Aug 12. Bangor Greendrinks, 5-8 p.m., Sandollar Spa & Pool (new location at 193 Broad St., Bangor.

Did we miss your event? Email emilyburnham207@gmail.com and we’ll fix that!

Instagram user 369.any has alerted us to the fact that an ear of corn is growing out of a sewer drain in Dover-Foxcroft. How? I don’t know. Do you know how that could happen? Is corn super easy to grow? It’s a mystery to me. One time a pumpkin that was left outside for far too long after Halloween sprouted volunteer pumpkins in our front flower bed. What’s the weirdest place you’ve seen a plant grow? #sewercorn