This Week's Haul, Dec. 11: Welp, guess I'm not a real Mainer

And: See you at the Bangor Book Fair this weekend!

The crows! So many crows this time of year. Captured on Wednesday evening from my bathroom window. It was snowing, too.

Greetings from eastern Maine, where this weekend, I hope to see you at the Bangor Author’s Book Fair and Literary Festival. I’ll be bopping around the beautiful, historic Bangor Public Library all afternoon, including from 1 to 2 p.m. at the Islandport Press table - they’ll have books for sale, including mine, which I’d love to sign for you! Then, at 2:30 p.m., I’ll be giving a presentation on the photos, stories and history in my aforementioned book, “Downtown, Up River: Bangor in the 1970s.” Chris Packard and his fellow organizers do such a great job planning the festival. I look forward to this event every year!

• If you watched “Saturday Night Live” last weekend, you may have clocked a reference in the “free sample” grocery store sketch to a “Rocky Lake raclette cheese from Maine.” Turns out, that’s a real cheese, made by Josh Pond, a blueberry and dairy farm in the Washington County town of Whiting, which is owned by SNL mastermind Lorne Michaels.

• In a few short days, two more Maine towns may choose to disband: Maxfield, in Penobscot County, and Highland Plantation, in Somerset County. I have been to Maxfield, once, when there was a goat farm there and I got to write a story and play with baby goats.

• Kudos to Elizabeth Walztoni of the Bangor Daily News for this important piece about how right wing beliefs have infiltrated the homesteading movement in Maine, and how they stack against the beliefs of Helen and Scott Nearing, Maine’s OG back to the landers.

• National Geographic said that you’re not a real Mainer if you haven’t been to these seven Maine towns: Brooklin, Rangeley, Camden, Bar Harbor, Brunswick, Greenville and Monhegan. Welp, here’s the God’s honest truth, folks: I’ve never actually been to Monhegan. I’ve been to North Haven, Vinalhaven, the Cranberries, Islesboro, many of the Casco Bay islands, but not yet to Monhegan. I guess I’m not a real Mainer. I’ll turn in my dry Yankee sense of humor and One Free Lobster On Your Birthday card that we’re all issued at birth.

We like to highlight nonprofits, organizations and individuals doing great work in this neck of the woods from time to time. This time, we’d like to shout out The Lighthouse Project, a Bangor-based nonprofit that provides free support groups for families that have experienced loss – especially those with young children. The holidays in particular can be a difficult and triggering time for folks that recently lost a loved one. It’s OK to ask for help, or to lean on your community to get you through it. A donation would really help them help people when they need it most!

50 years ago this week, on December 15, 1975, residents of Bangor’s east side got to listen to the sound of demolition instead of caroling, as work began on tearing down much of the slum housing between Hancock and York streets, between Broadway and what is now Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center. The plan was to “redevelop” the neighborhood, and while the Terraces apartment complex was eventually built in the early 1980s, very little of the new housing ended up being built. The people who had lived in that substandard housing were displaced; some moved elsewhere in Bangor, and many left town entirely.

Music & Dance

Dec. 11: Paul Sullivan and Friends in concert, 7 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono

Dec. 12: Viqueen, AZV, Coelacanth, Anatomy of a Thief and Vox Populi, 7 p.m, The Old Town Theatre, Old Town

Dec. 13: Penobscot Bay Orchestra winter concert, 2 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Church, Miller Street, Belfast

Dec. 13: Blue Hill Community Holiday Party, feat. music from Noel Paul Stookey, the GSA Jazz Band and the Brooklin Band Bits, 2-5:30 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library

Dec. 13: Corrective Measure, Zinc, Last Embrace, Fake Smile and Combatant, including toy drive for local children, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town

Dec. 13: Contradance with the Tough End String Band, 7 p.m., Keith Anderson Community Center, Orono

Dec. 13: New Renaissance Singers winter choral concert, 7 p.m., Unitarian Universalist Society of Bangor, Park Street, Bangor

Dec. 15: Winter concert from Divisi, a capella choral group, 6 p.m., St. John’s Episcopal Church, French Street, Bangor

Theatre & Comedy

Dec. 11: Broadway tour of “Hadestown,” 7 p.m., Cross Insurance Center, Bangor

Dec. 4-28: Penobscot Theatre Company presents “Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Cinderella,” Wednesdays-Sundays daily, Bangor Opera House, Bangor

Dec. 4-21: Improv Acadia presents “Another Kick In Your Dickens,” holiday improv comedy show, Thursdays-Sundays, Bangor Opera House, Bangor; limited tickets available at the door

Dec. 12: The Frogtown Mountain Puppeteers present “The Grinch,” 6 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill

Dec. 12-14: “The Groon Show,” family-friendly original musical, all weekend at the Basil Burwell Community Theatre, Belfast

Arts, Books, Film and & Culture

Dec. 11: Artist talk with Cristi Rinklin on her new exhibit at the museum, 5:30 p.m., Zillman Art Museum, Bangor

Dec. 11: Author talk with Steve Hindy on his book “The Ali Hindy Story,” 7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill

Dec. 12: Red Rabbit Film Club screens “Tokyo Drifter,” 7 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar, Bangor

Dec. 13: Bangor Author’s Book Fair and Literary Festival, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Bangor Public Library

Dec. 13: Guided winter wildlife hike, 9 a.m., Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Old Town

Dec. 13: Winter seed sowing workshop, 10 a.m., Fields Pond Audubon Center, Holden

Dec. 13: Sing-a-long and cheering-encouraged free screening of “Elf,” 1 p.m., Colonial Theatre, Belfast

Dec. 16: Jane Austen talk from Dee Reiber, and Regency Era-themed tea party, 1:30 p.m., Old Town Public Library, Old Town

Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.

Dec. 12: Orono’s Night Out, featuring vendors, food and Christmas lights around town, 7 p.m., throughout downtown Orono

Dec. 13: Wabanaki Winter Market, 9 a.m.-3 p.m., Hudson Museum, University of Maine, Orono

Dec. 13: Ye Olde Holiday Shoppe, annual artisan’s fair, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Page Farm and Home Museum, University of Maine, Orono

Dec. 13: Holiday on the Harbor, free family community event, 11 a.m.-1 p.m., Belfast Boathouse, Belfast

Dec. 13: Parade of Lights followed by fireworks, 6 p.m., downtown Bucksport

Dec. 13: Jingle Bell Ball, night of music, dancing and fundraising for the Muscular Dystrophy Association, 7 p.m, Cross Insurance Center, Bangor

Dec. 14: Bangor Community Chorus holiday concert, 3 p.m., First United Methodist Church, Brewer

The head of Maine’s Christian Civic League, a Republican lawmaker and (shocker) two people from a Calvary Chapel church are circulating a petition to get a question on the 2026 ballot to overturn legalized recreational cannabis in Maine. Man, right wing people sure do love these ballot initiatives, don’t they? I truly cannot see any scenario in which they get enough signatures for this to actually end up on the ballot, but hey, people like this got enough signatures for the so-called “voter ID” question and then Mainers rejected it at the polls so hard. Like the aroma of the dankest nuggs, most Mainers can smell a dumb idea from far away. Here’s hoping they can also detect the thick waves of bullshit emanating from the other ballot attempt happening right now - also from the same larger crew of right wing weirdos - to force Maine schools to ban trans kids from the bathrooms and sports teams they belong on.

Ironically, I’m really not much of a cannabis consumer - I smoked enough weed between the ages of 17 and my late 20s to last a lifetime, but a combination of age and SSRIs have greatly lessened my ability to enjoy it. I wish I could. The most I ever have is a sip or two of a weed soda at the end of the night, and even that’s rare. Almost all of my friends are huge, huge fans, and I envy the pleasure they get out of it. So, if you like your bedtime weed gummy, or getting high before you watch a movie, or the $45 million in tax revenue cannabis sales generate in Maine, don’t sign this stupid, stupid petition.