By Barbara Fernald As the birds return to the islands, I have to admit that some birds are a little more special to me than others. Nothing beats that incredibly sweet moment when I hear my first hermit thrush of the season. Cardinals, with their variety of calls, used to be scarce on the island. They are more common now,…

By Courtney Naliboff As an island teacher, it is often my duty and pleasure, and that of my colleagues, to take students off-island overnight. We do it for basketball games,…

By Rob Snyder Leadership, I learned at a young age, was a trait you inherited at birth. Or you didn’t. I am fortunate to have come from a family that…

By Sandy Oliver If you are as old as I am, you can remember life without pizza. I was about 14 before I had my first piece of pizza in…

By Kendra Jo Grindle In Clatskanie, a small rural town in northwestern Oregon, local organizers are piloting a new way to connect—“mesh” networks. Medina County, Ohio is implementing an open…

Jacquelyn Gill stood entranced inside a permafrost cave in Siberia. Woolly mammoth tusks protruded through glistening walls. A lion cub, dead for 30,000 or more years, appeared as if it…

By Phil Crossman I’ve been reminded, since a January column disclosing I have cancer, that an update is called for. Since treatment began, little irritants have become routine. My nose…

The Peninsula, by Louise Dickinson Rich (1958, Lippincott) By Tom Walsh Great books often serve as literary time machines, taking readers back to the way things were. Anyone interested in the…

By Sam Belknap Too often, our conversations about climate change turn to doom and gloom as we try to wrap our minds around the magnitude of its impacts and the…

By Sally Noble For as long as anyone can remember, there’s been a 15-stool Palace Diner in Biddeford—in fact, it’s been there as long as its habitat, a 1927 Pollard…