This Week's Haul, July 31: Peak hot dog season
Occupy Pickering Square. With meat carts.
Good morning from eastern Maine, which last week I ventured out of for the weekend to hang out with family in southern Maine and, dear readers, I went to Costco for the first time. It’s like Sam’s Club, except better in every possible way. I wandered the aisles. I ate the $1.50 hot dog. I bought a 25 pound bag of jasmine rice. I opened up my veins and welcomed the sweet nectar of capitalism into my body, my soul, my very essence.
I hate this story so much, not just because a Northern Light doctor screwed up again, but because it is pure body horror. I feel so bad for this woman.
I guess we do have to spend a shitload of money to build a new Penobscot County Jail. All questions about where and what and how aside, it begs another question: will the county do anything about its multiple vacant buildings and lots on Hammond Street in downtown Bangor?
Oh, you mean kidnapping people off the streets and striking fear into the hearts of the immigrants and migrants that make up the backbone of the state’s tourism industry is actually deeply unpopular and bad for the economy?
Speaking of the economy, this post from Substacker Matthew Yglesias about why Maine needs to grow a spine and tax the summer people is, at the very least, food for thought. Ironically, Yglesias is a summer person who owns a vacation home.
Rest in power to Butch Phillips, a Penobscot Nation elder who was a leader in the community for many decades.
So, how does the greater Bangor community help this crucial place for folks in recovery?
OMG, a roseate spoonbill in Maine! They are very silly looking birds with salad tong beaks! And they definitely do not belong here!
Squid controversy in Searsport! My buddy Phil used to squid fish on the wharf all the time! Also you can see bioluminescent microorganisms down there sometimes.
A forgotten Bangor feminist created the first known Choose Your Own Adventure book…
Honestly, I always look forward to PETA’s various stunts during the Maine Lobster Festival in Rockland each year. I wonder, though - where is the concern for the clams ruthlessly steamed to death in Yarmouth a few weeks prior?
Mad respect to my homeboy George Danby, who not only deserves to be in the Maine Press Association Hall of Fame, but also deserves to be in the Khaki Pants and Blue Shirt Hall of Fame.
Despite the fact that the Trump Administration is attempting to criminalize homelessness – rather than treat it as what it is, which is a symptom of a broken system – there are people in our community who continue to do the work of supporting folks who lack permanent housing and struggle with associated life challenges. The Greater Bangor Houseless Collective will host a volunteer training at Coe Park in Bangor starting at 4 p.m. this Saturday, Aug. 2, where you can learn about all the ways you can help. The Collective also will start weekly outreach sessions, set for noon to 2 p.m. on Saturdays at Peirce Park, next to the Bangor Public Library, offering food and other supplies for unhoused folks. For more information, like the GBHC on Facebook or check out their website.
Do you like having lots of trails to walk or run or bike or exercise your dog on? Me too! Bangor Land Trust has been steadily plugging away and expanding and improving the network of public lands and trails in the region for years now. One of its newer preserves, the Northern Penjajawoc – which connects to both the Bangor City Forest and Walden-Parke Preserve – will be the site of a volunteer work day this Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon. Come help make the trails nicer!
100 YEARS AGO / AUGUST 5, 1925 Try to picture it: instead of a bus station, a parking garage and a never-ending redesign project, Pickering Square is instead the site of a near-daily open-air market, packed with vendors selling everything from jewelry and flowers to whole sides of beef out of their carts. By the 1920s, however, city officials decided such a chaotic mass of humanity and commerce was not befitting of Bangor. They began cracking down on the market, requiring permits for vendors and outlawing shenanigans and fire hazards more broadly. This policy was not received well by the vendors – particularly the meat cart owners, who banded together and refused to move from the square. The Meat Cart Army, as described by the Bangor Daily News, began a kind of Occupy Pickering Square action, resisting the demands for them to move for as long as they could – though in the end, you can’t fight City Hall. Well, you can. But in this case, they couldn’t. The vendors all eventually left. The parking facilities arrived. Could there be open-air markets in Pickering Square again? Maybe. If they ever finish the redesign.
Music & Dance
July 31: Panstorm, steel pan group. 6:30 p.m., West Market Square, Bangor
July 31: St. John’s Organ Society recital feat. organist Laurent Joacham performing Bach and others; 7:30 p.m., St. John’s Catholic Church, Bangor
July 31: Chicago, Maine Savings Amphitheater, Bangor
July 31: DaPonte String Quartet, 7 p.m., Stonington Opera House
Aug. 1: The Loveseats, 6 p.m., Harbor Park, Ellsworth
Aug. 1: The Crowded Table, Three Tides and Marshall Wharf Brewing, Belfast
Aug. 1: Lazers in the Jungle, 7 p.m., Hey Sailor, Searsport
Aug. 1: Downeast Saxophone Quartet, 7 p.m., Surry Arts Barn, Surry
Aug. 1: Takoda Dionne, 6 p.m., Fogtown Brewing, Ellsworth
Aug. 2: Latin dance night, 9 p.m., Happy Endings Martini Bar, Bangor
Aug. 2: Vapors of Morphine and Sparksea, 7 p.m., Hey Sailor!, Searsport
Aug. 2: Bret Michaels, Vince Neil and Stephen Pearcy, Maine Savings Amphitheater
Aug. 3: Timothy Burris and Lydia Forbes, 4 p.m., Surry Arts Barn
Aug. 3: The Thurston Howell Band Yacht Rock Spectacular, Criterion Theater, 8 p.m. Bar Harbor
Aug. 5: Goo Goo Dolls and Dashboard Confessional, Maine Savings Amphitheater
Aug. 5: Darlingside and the Oshima Brothers, 7 p.m., Criterion Theater
Aug. 6: Passamaquoddy drummer and singer Lauren Stevens and Salt Bay Chamberfest cellist Wilhelmina Smith, noon, Wabanaki Public Health and Wellness, 16 Central St., Bangor
Aug. 6: Just Honey, Bangor Public Library outdoors, 6 p.m.
Theater & Comedy
July 30-Aug. 3: “Twelfth Night,” Midcoast Shakespeare Studio, 6:30 p.m. Belfast City Park
July 30-Aug. 3: “Twisted: The Untold Story of a Royal Vizier,” Belfast Maskers, 7 p.m., Basil Burwell Community Theater, Belfast
July 31-Aug. 3: “A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” Ten Bucks Theatre Company, 6 p.m., Fort Knox State Historic Site, Prospect
Aug. 2: Broadway Rising: Celebrating the Stars of Tomorrow, musical revue of contemporary Broadway songs, 7 p.m., Penobscot Theatre Company, Bangor Opera House
Arts, Books, Film & Culture
July 31: Book signing and wine tasting with author Gillian French, 5:30 p.m., The Store Ampersand, Orono
Aug. 1: Art opening for “Everything at Once: Photos by Kristie Billings,” feat. music from Morningdove & Isaac, 5-7 p.m., Red Rabbit Bazaar
Aug. 1: Cat Video Fest 2025, 7 p.m, Grand Theatre, Ellsworth
Aug. 4: Book talk on “The Last One Out of Town Turn Out the Lights” by author David Albee, on Maine high school basketball, 5:30 p.m., Bangor Public Library
Aug. 4: Author talk with Kathryn Miles, author of “A Year With the Seals: Unlocking the Secrets of the Sea’s Most Charismatic and Controversial Creatures,” 6:30 p.m., Left Bank Books, Belfast
Aug 5: New Voices reading and signing series feat. Lauren Belski, author of “Dark Enough,” 6:30 p.m., Bookspace, Columbia Street, Bangor
Aug. 6: Author talk with Penny Guisinger, author of “Shift: A Memoir of Identity and Other Illusions,” 6:30 p.m., Left Bank Books, Belfast
Aug. 6: Hoppily Ever After romance book club, featuring “Sounds Like Love” by Ashley Poston, 7:30 p.m., Bookspace, Bangor
Aug. 6: Screening of Charlie Chaplin’s “The Gold Rush” with live music accompaniment, 7 p.m. Surry Arts Barn
Fairs, Festivals, Markets & Food
July 30-Aug. 3, Union Fair, Union Fairgrounds, Union
July 31-Aug. 2: Bangor State Fair, Bass Park
Aug. 1-3: Midcoast Gem and Mineral Fair, Bayview Point Event Center, Belfast
Aug. 2: Craft Fair and Food Truck Festival, 2 p.m., Penobscot Pourhouse, Bangor
Aug. 3: Bubbles & Blush Drag Brunch, 10 a.m.-noon, Blaze, Bangor
Aug. 5: Chapin Park Block Party, featuring food and music by the Bangor Band, 5:30-7:30 p.m., Chapin Park, Bangor
Through Aug. 9: Schoodic Arts for All Festival, 60+ workshops and 11 performances, Winter Harbor, more info here
It’s actually nice out today. But man oh man, Mainers are not built for multiple days of 90+ degree heat and humidity. There’s a reason we live in New England. And that reason is not because we love it when it’s below freezing. We love it when it’s somewhere between, say, 30 and 80. Even up to 82 or 83, if it’s not muggy, or down to 26 or 27, if it’s not windy. I think that’s a reasonable temperature range. What temps do you function best under? I believe this says a lot about you as a person.