Working Waterfront

Caring for our elders: A call to action

Maine’s getting old, faster than any other state. Now is the time for “policymakers and lawmakers to think boldly about how best to address Mainers’ needs for long-term care services.” That call to action was issued more than a decade ago. The 2010 recommendations by experts convened by the Maine… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Numbers don’t always accurately tell our stories

Data collection may seem like an exacting approach in capturing community reality, but if the measuring tool does not match what is being measured, inequity can result. As Catherine D'Ignazio, in a presentation on Data Feminism sponsored by the Data Innovation Project, put it: “What gets counted, counts.” Because of… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Cruel April twice experienced

April has always been a month that plays hard with my emotions. The weather has intense mood swings and suddenly there are a million things to do, not enough hours in the day to accomplish them all, and dinner is always later than I planned. The busy-ness of it wears… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Why CMP corridor is good deal for Maine

The op-ed piece by Tom Saviello in the April issue of The Working Waterfront opposing the CMP corridor requires a rebuttal. First, if Saviello has read the May 3, 2019 Maine Public Utility Commission 107-page order (docket No. 2017-00232) concerning the New England Clean Energy Connect (NECEC) corridor, he would… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

‘Lost and found’ a metaphor for this year

I pulled out my laptop to write just now and asked my six-year-old what this month’s column should be about. I had some vague ideas around maybe the virtual one-acts festival my students participated in back in March, or an ode to my greenhouse, which currently has the first tiny… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Organization within chaos is the ocean’s nature

Observing the ocean is to look for systems, myriad details in flux, each and every one, be it animal, vegetable, or data number, a microscopic part of a complex unit, each unit again a part of a system more complex. The ocean in a storm appears chaotic, in the air… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Connection, as only music can provide it

Island winters are not for the faint of heart. My first winter on Islesboro was no exception. At the beginning of my fellowship, a wise islander gave me some sage advice: the only way to make it through winter on Islesboro is to have a really good hobby. SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Walking back the memories

I suppose this is a little island. I mean, look at Greenland. On the other hand, Vinalhaven is the same size as Manhattan and it is the largest island in Penobscot Bay. Still, in the scheme of things or if one lives here for eons and is in the habit… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Island life through the eyes of COVID refugees

When Andrei Pogany, his wife Deborah Gorman, and their two young daughters, Klara and Amalia came from Los Angeles to stay on Islesford last September, they planned to be here for about three months. The island internet was fast enough to work from home and Klara could start her L.A.… SEE MORE

Working Waterfront

Let’s talk about ‘fresh’

For millennia, humankind dwelling in the parts of the globe with four distinct seasons—during which at least one of them nothing grows—never hankered for salad in February, or asparagus in January. Or strawberries, or broccoli, except in season. They actually enjoyed good health, except when struck with contagious disease, like… SEE MORE