Braking for Lobster Rolls

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Bob's Clam Hut in Kittery makes a damn fine lobster roll!

Bob’s Clam Hut in Kittery makes a damn fine lobster roll!

Opinions concerning food are subjective; I get that. Some people like certain types and flavors of food. If you like lobster rolls, then you probably like a certain kind of presentation.

There are guides and rankings out there about what constitutes good, or even great, lobster rolls. One such guide that Miss Mary and I have been using since last summer is Mike Urban’s, Lobster Shacks: A Road-trip Guide to New England’s Best Lobster Joints. Continue reading →

Cape Escape

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Our 21st century lives place more demands on us all the time. Life seems especially hectic and sped-up for Americans.

In my own life, work, family, writing, commitments to be fit–all of these place increased pressure on my personal speeding train that sometimes seems precariously close to jumping the rails. Continue reading →

Content for People Who Tweet

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Last night, I had a drink with someone with a lot of tweets. He has lots of tweets he told me because he’s been tweeting for a long time and he got in while the tweeting was good. I got in after he did and I don’t have as many tweets, or people who follow my tweets. Continue reading →

The Need for Distance and Space

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When an event occurs, like it did today at the tail-end of the Boston Marathon, there’s a tendency to react. Given that many of us are connected via smartphones and social media platforms, news spreads like a wildfire in a windstorm. Continue reading →

Night Swimming

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Swimming is a new experience for the JBE.

Swimming is a new experience for the JBE.

When I first dipped a tentative toe into the South Portland Municipal Pool on February 14, I wasn’t expecting much. Actually, I figured that things would go so poorly that I’d have an excuse to quit, although I’m not really given to quitting since I became the JBE, free agent superhero.

That first experience didn’t get off to a great start at all. Continue reading →

Don’t Wait Too Long

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Maine has lost one of its workforce champions.

Maine has lost one of its workforce champions.

Mentoring has become somewhat of a lost art in our culture. At one time, it was an expectation that older men would pass on their knowledge and wisdom to those younger and on their way up. Some cultures still maintain elements of this. I think it’s a positive thing. Continue reading →

Whither Goest Baseball?

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Baseball fans seeking autographs get creative.

Baseball fans seeking autographs get creative.

Sports have occupied a significant swath of my own personal history. Baseball is the one that has garnered the majority of that attention.

Baseball was the first sport that I played; it was the sport that my father handed down to me and in turn, I passed on to my own son. I was a talented player throughout high school and into college and continued to play some form of competitive baseball until the age of 39. I then coached and ran a local college-level summer league for five years. I even wrote a book about baseball and its history in Maine, post-WWII. Continue reading →

30 Minutes to Write

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30 minutes in the library.

30 minutes in the library.

People are busy; I gather this because whenever I ask them how they are, they often say, “busy.” We live in busy times and there’s no way back from here.

Writing takes time, but what happens when you are so busy that you don’t have inordinate amounts of time to write, or even blog? Should you just throw up your hands and say, “I can’t do this?” Continue reading →

Communication Breakdown

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School boy from the 1970sI’m glad that I went to school when I did. My public school teachers may have been part of a nefarious plot to turn me into a minor cog in some impersonal corporate machine. Or they might have just been putting in their time until retirement, weathering each successive storm of boomer births. Something along the way foiled their intent, however. Continue reading →