This Week’s Haul, Oct. 1: Tart apples from a scraggly tree

And: Do we need another version of “Carrie”?

Some cute guy picking apples in the driveway.

Good morning from eastern Maine, where this week, the Nor’easter that wasn’t (at least for us in Bangor) made for an excellent excuse to stay home for most of the weekend, watching movies and catching up on TV (watch “Slow Horses” on Apple TV+ if you haven’t yet) and making an apple tart with the very sour fruit from the scraggly apple tree in our yard.

• It is my duty to alert you to Maine news stories that you may have missed and which I believe are vitally important to your well being. For example: car(s) hit rock at Dunkin.

• In other extremely Maine news: W.A. Bean is no longer using red #3 dye when it makes red snapper hot dogs, ahead of an FDA ban on the dye beginning in January 2027. Now it’s using carmine extract, a natural dye made from crushed cochineal insects - a substance used in everything from candy to lipstick. But what if I liked the carcinogens in red #3?! Is this just a ploy from Big Hot Dog to disrupt the tube meat market? Do your own research, man.

• RIP Taste of India in downtown Bangor. You were the first place I ever had Indian food.

• The hilarious show “Drunk History” is back on YouTube, and for its first episode in seven years it drunkenly recalls the story of my homegirl Frances Perkins, the mother of the New Deal. In case you weren’t aware, she’s technically a Mainer (sort of) since she lived here in her later years at her family’s beautiful homestead in the town of Newcastle, which has since become a National Historic Monument a few years back. I say we get to claim her.

The Olsen House in Cushing - famously where in 1948 Andrew Wyeth painted the iconic “Christina’s World” - is today a favorite place for art lovers and tourists to visit on Maine’s coast. It took quite a while for it to become the destination that it is today, however. For 18 years its former owner, Joseph Levine, a major Hollywood producer of films like “The Graduate” and “The Producers” and the mogul who introduced worldwide audiences to Godzilla, bought the house in 1968, with big plans to turn it into a museum and tourist destination. Instead, the house became a bit of a headache for both Levine and nearby residents, with people complaining about the traffic and the behavior of the many visitors, and some neighbors threatening to erect fences and plant trees to obstruct the view of the water. In 1986, after nearly two decades of attempting to turn the property into a Wyeth “shrine,” as the BDN called it, Levine gave up and sold the Olsen House to Carol Sculley and her husband, John, who at the time was the CEO of Apple. In 1991, the couple donated it to the Farnsworth Art Museum.

Music & Dance

Oct. 2: Belfast Flying Shoes contradance feat. Crossover and caller Chrissy Fowler, 6 p.m., American Legion Hall, Belfast

Oct. 2: Songwriter Casey Neill, 7 p.m., Barncastle, Blue Hill

Oct. 3: Belfast Bay Beer Bash feat. Rigometrics and Emmett Lalor and Friends, 4-10 p.m., Marshall Wharf Brewing Company, Belfast

Oct. 3: Zaostock, free musical festival feat. The Crown Vics, Open X, Grass Rug, Acadia Rising, Michael Anderson, DCoop, Lyonsden and Tom Fellens, noon-6 p.m., Franklin Street Parklet, Ellsworth

Oct. 3: Screening of “Downeast Hardcore” and show feat. Free To Think, Fake Smile and Last Embrace, 7 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town

Oct. 3: Songwriter Geoff Warner, 7 p.m., First Congregational Church, Blue Hill

Oct. 3: The Skyliners Big Band, 7 p.m., Next Generation Theatre, Brewer

Oct. 6: Insomniac, Kin and Blood Meridian, 6 p.m., The Old Town Theatre, Old Town

Theater & Comedy

Oct. 1-4: Penobscot Theatre Company presents “On Golden Pond,” nightly at the Bangor Opera House, Bangor

Oct. 2: The Focus Group, improv comedy troupe, 7 p.m., Brewer Performing Arts Center, Brewer

Oct. 2-4: Theatre Nouveau presents “The Bribe of Bread: A Tragical Comedy for Frivolous People,” nightly, Basil Burwell Community Theatre, Belfast

Oct. 3: Comedian Bob Marley, 8 p.m., Collins Center for the Arts, University of Maine, Orono

Arts, Books, Film & Culture

Oct. 1: Tape art workshop with Michael Townshend and Leah Smith, 3-7 p.m., Blue Hill Public Library, Blue Hill

Oct. 1: Maine Monitor Talks series presents panel discussion on Maine’s housing crisis, 6 p.m., Belfast Free Library, Belfast

Oct. 1: “Oysters, Wine and Storytelling,” reading and oyster tasting with Virginia Shaffer, 5:30 p.m., The Stoop, Blue Hill

Oct. 2: Artist talk with Carl Little and James Linehan, 2 p.m., Lord Hall Galleries, University of Maine, Orono

Oct. 2: First Friday Art Walk, 4-8 p.m., throughout downtown Bangor

Oct. 2-3: “Casablanca,” classic film screening, nightly, Criterion Theatre, Bar Harbor

Oct. 3-4: Maine Craft Weekend, events and programming celebrating Maine’s art and artisan community, events statewide; mainecraftweekend.org

Oct. 3: “Fermentation Expo: Science, Art, Fun, and the Stories In Between,” 9 a.m.-Noon, Stewart Hall, University of Maine, Orono

Oct. 3: Democratic Socialists of America Bangor chapter screens John Carpenter’s “They Live,” 7 p.m., The Emporium Spooky Goods & More, Bangor

Oct. 4: 25th anniversary screening of “Donnie Darko,” 7 p.m., Black Bear Cinemas, Orono

Oct. 6: Book talk with Robert Diamante on Eleanor Morse’s new book, “This Foreign Land,” 7 p.m., Bookspace, Bangor

Oct. 6: Book launch for “Between: Ray and Eva, 1938-1939” by Carolyn Locke, 6:30 p.m., Belfast Free Library, Belfast

Fairs, Festivals, Markets, Outdoors & Misc.

Oct. 2: Sunset paddle, 4:30 p.m., Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Old Town

Oct. 2-4: Queen City Expo, comic and toy convention, daily at Cross Insurance Center, Bangor

Oct. 3: Hirundo Fall Fest, annual fall festival feat. nature exhibits, food trucks, family activities and more; 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Hirundo Wildlife Refuge, Old Town

Oct. 3: Bangor Humane Society’s annual Paws on Parade walk, 10 a.m., Bangor Waterfront, Bangor

Oct. 3: Downtown Bangor Sidewalk Arts Festival, 11 a.m.- 4 p.m., Central and Harlow streets, downtown Bangor

Oct. 3: SardineFest, celebration of Maine sardine industry, music, food and family fun, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Penobscot Marine Museum, Searsport

Oct. 3: Fogtoberfest, annual beer festival with live music, tasting stations and more; 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Fogtown Brewing Company, Ellsworth

Oct. 3: Center Theatre Harvest Gala, 7 p.m., Central Hall Commons, Dover-Foxcroft

Oct. 3-4: Living History Days, two days of demonstrations and historical fall fun, Maine Logging Museum at Leonard’s Mills, Bradley

Oct. 4: Fall Ritual Market, artisan market, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., Waterfront Park, Bangor

The new full-series adaptation of Stephen King’s “Carrie” starts on Oct. 7 on Prime Video. You may think, “Why make another version of something that was definitively adapted in Brian DePalma’s 1976 original?” Surely we don’t need another one, especially after the very bad 2013 version. Hasn’t this iconic story been told enough?

You would be right to think that. When studios keep making multiple versions of the same story from any creator, Stephen King or not, it is generally a law of diminishing returns. But, this particular adaptation of “Carrie” is by Mike Flanagan, renowned for his King films like “Gerald’s Game” and “The Life of Chuck” and also for the incredible horror miniseries “Midnight Mass.” It updates the source material to the present day, opening a whole new world of opportunities to explore the book’s themes, like bullying, mother-daughter dynamics, misogyny and the sociology of high school. I remain skeptical of the reported decision to rethink the relationship between our telekinetic prom queen and her psychologically damaged mother to be something a little less dangerous (violent? messed up?), but I’ll definitely be tuning in to see what Flanagan has done with it.

My other big question is, as always: did they set the damned thing in Maine? I know they didn’t film any of it here, with Canada once again standing in for our state - though I know Mike Flanagan has visited our fine state many times. I personally asked him about it once. The trailer does mention the town of Chamberlain, the fictional small town where Carrie lives, so that’s promising - though the high school depicted in the trailer looks far more affluent than any small interior Maine town I’ve ever seen. That’s almost always the case with Hollywood films and TV set in Maine, however: it ends up looking like California in a Maine costume. Whatever! I’m just glad we’re part of the conversation.