up portland june 2016

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June 2016


If you are over 50, Olive Oyl is probably best remembered as Popeye The Sailor Man’s girlfriend. Back in the day her name was spelled with a “y” and not an “i” in the centre of the second word and almost no one out-side Italy and the Mediterranean area would have given olive oil (the kind that’s all the rage today) a second thought.

But times change. Almost as fast as the Olive Oyl character has become less well known by the under 30s, the kind of Olive Oil which is in jars, cans and on tables in restaurants has become all the rage. And in Portland, there’s nowhere better to explore the oils than at Micucci’s Grocery, where staff has witnessed the huge growth in the Olive Oil aisle over the past four decades — so much growth that these days the oils spread out along one aisle and parts of others. And just as the oils vary by quality, country and type of olives used to make them, so do the prices of what’s in those containers.

Rick Micucci, president of Micucci’s and a guy who knows what’s on his shelves, having grown up in the store, which was founded in 1949, recently gave a tour of the Olive Oils, and he mentioned that oils are like anything else — there are huge variations in origin, cost and taste. “I always tell people to taste...taste the difference and decide. Some of the choices will taste like, as Anna says, ‘fresh cut grass with a smell and taste that’s green’.

Olives? Oil Tell You All About ‘Em!

Others are more old school oils. It’s all about what the buyer wants his or her oil to taste like and how he or she will be using it,” Micucci said.

He noted that just as tastes in most things have changed over the years, it’s true with Olive Oils as well. Some of the few which were available when he started at the store bearing his name are still around, but the shelves which back then had a couple or three imported choices now bulge with well over 20, and closer to 50, options.He noted, too, that while Olive Oil is all the rage now in Portland and with foodies everywhere, and has been shown to have health benefits, in Italy, where his fam-ily originated, this is not news — it’s a long-time habit and tradition. “Remember that in Italy food is culture and a lifestyle which brings families together. It’s an important part of the Mediterranean culture and part of our history, too,” he said, before adding that he prefers a different oil than his wife and whenever he brings something different home, his kids notice and comment “why does this (dish) taste different then it used to?” It’s all about different tastes in the oil.

And that has a lot of variables, too. Is the oil in that tin or bottle from a single region or grove? Does it have its origin in a single breed of olive tree or species of olives? Is the oil all from the same country, and if so, which is it? And what grade and press is the oil?

Julie & Ernie, two of the staffers at Micucci’s clown around while restocking the Olive Oil aisle.

All of the questions have longer answers we will get to, but can also be answered with one word: taste. Any and all of these factors will influence what one tastes when they open the bottle or tin and how well it “fits” what they are going to be using it for.

Micucci also addressed the controversy which erupted last year when 60 Minutes did an Olive Oil feature suggesting that many of the oils were not what their containers said. “That story was an insult to a lot of the producers who are families and use time-honoured traditions and centuries-old groves to produce their olives. I spoke to just one of my suppliers when it all hit and he told me ‘look at the side of the can and see all those certifications...I have to go through all of those to just import and sell the oil. If you’d see and know what we have to certify and have checked you’d not be asking!’” Micucci said that alone convinced him that the veracity of the origin is correct on everything his store sells, but it did send him and customers to look at their Olive Oil containers.

“Remember that ‘Packed in Italy’ is not the same thing necessarily as ‘Product of Italy’ so it does pay to look,” he said. Some of the containers on Micucci’s shelves contain Olive Oil blends and while they say “Packed in Italy” below they must tell the oil’s origins. One we checked stated “selected virgin olive oil from Italy, Greece, Spain and Tunisia.” Asked what the difference was, Micucci again said that single word: taste, though he was quick to add that the words “extra virgin” also would possibly play a role.

We have all seen the words “virgin” and “extra virgin” and “cold pressed” on Olive Oils, but what is the difference? And does it mat-ter?

“Mostly how and when the oil is extracted from the olives,” we were told. Cold pressed means just what it says: the olives are pressed and


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oil removed without heating. A second pressing af-terwards might be done by some oil producers and for that they may heat the olives. That allows more oil to be extracted, but some gourmets say the quality will not be as great. And in any case, those later pressings won’t be “extra virgin” or “virgin” oil or say “cold pressed” because they are not. Other things to look for are “hand picked” which says olives were not picked by machine and thus

were selected by the person picking them for quality; and in some cases timing is mentioned, with, again, some chefs feeling oil being extracted immediately after picking is best. And there’s also the word “monocul-tivar” which means all of the oil in the container comes from one single breed or variety of olive tree.

In the end, though it all boils down to (here’s that word again) taste, meaning some folks will find one thing suits them better and while others will look for another quality and still others will not notice a lot of differ-ence. There is also the matter of price. Olive Oils can range from $16 for a litre of what Micucci called “mid-grade” oil upwards to $50 or more for the same amount of extra high grade.

There is also what he termed “commodity oil” which is at the low end of the price range. And there’s con-tainer type and size, too. “Most Italian homes have a three litre tin of Olive Oil handy in their kitchens, but what’s in that tin can vary widely,” he noted.

Finally, Micucci discussed what county or olive is “best” and he again used that word taste. Some people, he said swear by the old school olive oils where the originating groves are centuries old, owned by the same families for generations and have changed little since the start. Others like more contemporary cultivation methods where oils from different trees and different countries are blended to made a distinctive taste. There’s even a new producer of Olive Oil out there and that’s the United States, where oils have started com-

ing from California.

“Obviously they are young trees and new companies, but some cooks swear by those so we do have them to sell,” Micucci said before wrapping up our tour by noting that Olive Oil and olives as a whole have long held not only a culinary role in society “but they have been used as a peace offering, too. Everyone knows the expression ‘olive branch’ for peace and you will notice that an olive branch is featured on our logo here at Micucci’s as part of our symbol, too.”

So which oil should you try? Greek? Italian? Tunisian? Spanish? Portuguese?

“We sell sizes which range up to full gallons, but we sell small bottles of most of the oils, too, so it’s my rec-ommendation someone buy a couple or three small ones, take them home and cook with them, dip breads or use them and then decide. It’s all, but not surprisingly, about taste!” Micucci concluded.


Writing about Joan Busing, below, whose Color Fields one-of-a-kind monoprint art will be featured starting 3rd June with a one-woman show at 118 Congress Street’s Urban Dwellings, is close to impossible. This life-long artist and New York transplant to Maine is a human ‘Noreaster who has stormed the world of art and adds tons of creative energy as she describes her unique painting pro-cess, then skips over to her class and teaching interests and next shows some of her hand-made jewellery and then goes back to talking about her love of art and anything artistic.

But once the pieces get put together, Busing comes into proper focus as one of Portland’s most singularly artistic individuals, all set to expose the local art community to more of her works and talents — talents and works which have graced the walls of and classrooms at such prestigious institutions as The Design Centre in New York City, Harvard University’s Houghton Library, The Library of Congress, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, New York and Columbia University’s Rare Book and Manuscript Library. The list goes on, but what’s important is that the artist is as exited about her upcoming Portland show as she was before any of the “majors.”

Asked about her career, Busing says, “I have been doing art since I could hold a pencil ...and you do know that artists never, ever retire though we do mature and change. I am an abstract painter and as such have grown away from land-scapes and seascapes to become a colourist.”

Asked about her works due to be shown in June & July in Portland at the top of Munjoy Hill, Busing says the process is a unique one, where a set of Plexiglass plates use French oils and line up just right for a one-only print on paper; a pro-cess which she says “creates painting on paper,” adding, “The process takes two people...the artist and an assistant who makes sure that everything lines up and that the one print from each set is perfect, making each monoprint unique.” Speaking about her dedication to art, Busing is definite. “My life is my work... I have been teaching art all of my adult life and have been making art everyday since childhood.”

Discussing her unique process, she told the folks at Elisa Contem-porary Art before a show at the New York Design Centre in 2014. “Mono-prints are unique single prints made from an image painted on a plate and then trans-ferred to paper by an etching press. Each print has between four and seven layers.”

As far as the now-Portland-based artist’s life, she came to Maine in 2015, following the death of her architect husband to be close to a daughter who works in Augusta. She graduated from Bard Col-lege and Columbia University and received the Edna St. Vincent Millay fellowship for independent study in the arts. In addition to the monoprints, Busing has illustrated several major books, including A Woman’s Love and Life and Robert Shumann’s song cycle and The Translated Poems of Rumi, which have been exhibited at Columbia University, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Library of Congress, all of which have purchased them for their permanent collections.

But despite such credentials and her illustrious past, one would think Busing might be ready to slow down. Quite the reverse is true as she makes trips to cre-ate monoprints in her still active New York City studio, designs and makes jew-ellery in Maine (which is sold at the Portland Museum of Art’s gift shop), spends time with her Maine daughter and catches flights to Chicago to visit her son.

And in between it all, she spoils her cute adopted dog Fritzi unmercifully and teaches art to some of her friends and neighbours with regular classes.

See why we said ‘Noreaster? A true never-ending storm of creativity, energy and ideas all rolled into one diminutive lady whom Portland is fortunate to count as a citizen.

If readers want to experience a small sample of Busing’s work, head up Munjoy hill to Urban Dwellings, either for the First Friday Art Walk opening reception on 3rd June (5 to 7 p.m.) or thereafter thru 15th July. The art will be shown in room settings and both the folks at the gallery and Busing are excited to see it in “real life” display along with furnishings, carpets and other items which Urban Dwellings sells. For more information, visit www.urban-dwell.com or ring 207/780.6136.

Busing Takes Portland Art World By Storm


Food For Thought...

I was on walk on a recent quiet Sunday on the Eastern Prom Trail near India Street and a guy on a bike stopped to ask did I know what what happening to the old Grand Trunk Railroad Building at India & Commercial. I fi lled him in (Gorham Savings is restoring it and will be moving in by year’s end or shortly thereafter) and as he thanked me and pedalled away he said “I sure enjoy these quiet Sundays and do not look forward to the terrorists!”

It took me a second to realise he meant “tourists” and as I walked on I got to thinking that there’s a lot more good than bad in June and beyond awaiting us. Without the doubling (or tripling) of our population some weeks, holidays and weekends in the coming months, a lot of folks (including this newspaper) might not be able to survive.

But more than that, it reminded me of how much fun I get out of showing off my adopted city to “strangers” and how almost without exception if I ask do they need directions, they ask for something involving food. Maybe not gourmet or fancy or pricy spots like Street & Co., Scales, Eventide or David’s, but some-where to eat as my late dad used to say, not always dine.

On top of that, we have had guests from Indiana, Florida and Kentucky our-selves in recent months and every one of them also wanted to know where they and we should go eat and what. And again that was after we’d been on a dif-ferent day to the “big names” like those I mentioned or Duckfat or East Ender. That made me think it was time to offer a few ideas for just those two things — visitors coming in and where we locals might want to take them to add a bit of fun and Maine tourism at the same time and where to go that’s not something on the $50+ price tag list. Ie: Somewhere to grab something to eat.

First off, for those visiting or those hosting visitors this reviewer would say above all, save room for dessert in Portland. But what to eat before that? We have written about a variety of choices on the Peninsula, though we do like any of the three downtown diners — Marcy’s, Becky’s and Miss Portland — a great deal. Do not miss the eggs and hamburger patty or the great cream cheese (huge) pancakes at Marcy’s. Or the daily specials at Becky’s. Or the soups or the breakfast at Miss Portland. Any of the three will fortify you for plenty of walking on these hills.

Beyond those choices, we have had some nice light bites at Gil-bert’s Chowder House (their clam chowder and appetiser portion of the whole belly clams are really to die for and their lobster rolls are not half bad) as well as both Anthony’s on Middle Street (try an antipasto salad with Anthony’s family’s 1902 recipe dressing or a slice of the day) and Micucci’s Grocery at India and Middle, where you need to wander to the

back and get a slab of pizza, a stuffed muffaletta, meatball sub or a cold sand-wich (do not miss the one with provolone). You can also walk up India Street then cut over to Cumberland Avenue and pay a visit to Union Bagel. They have

the town’s best New York style bagels and have a tiny space to eat yours with cream cheese or more. Some locals swear by Scratch over in South Portland for bagels, but to this reviewer those are way more donuts than any bagels we grew up with.

Also, while we are on donuts, the town’s most famous and acclaimed by the food critics are at Holy Donut. We have only been to the one on Exchange Street though they have a second one on Park Avenue, but regardless, come early as when they sell out (most days in season), they close for the day.

There is also the Cookie Jar Pastry Shop (Shore Road in Cape Elizabeth, on the way to the Portland Head Light) some discuss in reverent tones, though we have been twice and we will confess we came away disappointed both times. Maybe we just do not know “good” when we taste it, but we fi nd Cookie Jar to be just “OK” and have tried everything from the in-house made English Muffi ns (Standard Baking Co, does way, way better ones though due to humidity and the risk of mould, not again until October.) to the tuna sandwiches when we wanted a late lunch. Again, that’s one reviewer’s opinion only as some friends swear by The Cookie Jar.

On a happier note, East Ender at 47 Middle Street does a bang-up lunch with our fave being the fried chicken sandwich with Alabama White BBQ Sauce ($10). It’s one not to miss.

And fi nally, there are the “national chains”... local outlets downtown which, if one is having a big local dessert or dinner later are fi ne, too. I refer here to El-evation Burger on Commercial Street and Five Guys on Fore. I tend to like the former a bit better as I can usually coax them into making my burger at least a bit less well done than Five Guys, but I’d not turn down lunch either place though I cannot for the life of me understand the big deal they make at Five Guys about their fries. To this reviewer they taste like, well, just fries!

But what about the “afters”? That’s what the British call dessert and here that can be the main show. In fact, a lot of times to us and visitors it IS the only show because downtown Portland has so many great spots for sweets.Start with a walk over to Fore Street where the town’s two best gelato shops slug it out for supremacy directly across the road from one another in the 400 block. Whenever I say whichever I say I like best I hear from 27 friends and neighbours arguing for the other, so I will say I have never had a bad taste of gelato from either.


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Daring fate, though, I will cast a slight bit of favouritism toward Gelato Fiasco, mainly because I like their staff and choices a bit bet-ter than Gorgeous Gelato’s. I also like it that they do regular online newsletters and remind me of the specials that week and month. And that they mark all the various holi-days with special gelatos, including the “biggies” like Christmas and the lesser-known like the recent Jewish Passover when they had a sea salt and chocolate covered matzo gelato (lower pic at right) which took us back three different nights in a row for more!

It should come as no shock that their “fl avour vault” has over 1,500 different gelato recipes and once you have been you will be deter-mined to try all of them.

But what else is there? Well, our friends at Two Fat Cats Bakery on India Street do some of the best pies, cookies and cakes anywhere. Two Fat Cats does awesome custom work, including this reviewer’s recent birthday pie. Yep, you read that right: birthday pie. It was a graham cracker crust Key Lime Pie with cupcake icing, icing fl owers and a Happy Birthday message. No one should count calories for their birth-day, but we will say it had plenty of sugar and was delicious! They also have the state’s “offi cial” dessert: Whoopie Pies. They make ‘em in a couple different fl avours, so do indulge and dine al fresco on the tables outside or while strolling around the Old Port.

Dessert also is doable (and deliciously) at Duckfat (43 Middle Street), where we took Indiana friends for dinner one night but nobody had room for the famous milkshakes they do so we went back the next evening after about eight and got in easily for “just dessert.” Interestingly, they use Gelato Fiasco’s gelato as a base in all the milkshakes, which the menu notes include: The Original (vanilla gelato w/ crème anglaise & fresh Tahitian vanilla bean); Wild Maine Blueberry, Choco-late, Real Vanilla Bean, Tandem Roasters Coffee, Mocha and a Sea Salted Duck Fat Caramel which we adore. Prices are $6.50 to $7.50 and well worth every sip!

Still nothing that hits home? Well, if it’s early in the day (early closing but early morning opening for breakfasts) Katie Made Bakery (181 Congress Street, on the way up toward the Observatory) is a good spot for a dessert and coffee. You can also select from one of the downtown coffee shops; most of which carry items from the local bakeries and roast their own beans for coffees. I am espe-cially into the Baker’s Bench cinnamon rolls that Coffee By Design has at their various locations, but be warned, they go fast and some, like the CBD on India Street just get one or two of these rolls and ditto the Baker’s Bench’s Cream Horns.So there you have it...some spots we’d take the visitors wanting to eat, not dine, and all under or right at $10 so affordable to boot.

But what about taking those visitors just a bit off Peninsula for a short road trip? We have two suggestions which never fail to impress our hungry friends.

To the north (and yes we have written about this before) do take guests want-ing to go to LL Bean there to walk off a great noontime buffet (every day but Sunday 11.30 a.m to 2 p.m.) in the Broad Arrow Tavern at Harraseeket Inn. It’s on U.S. 1 at the north end of Freeport and is worth the brief drive any day. The chefs there do home made everything — from some out-of-this-world soups, to the pizza, entrees and more. Their fried scrod is the best we have had anywhere and sometimes nice surprises show up if they have “leftovers” from special events or other buffets. The all I could eat fresh shrimp the day after Easter was worth the $17 price tag on the buffet alone, and lo and behold on a recent Monday, it was all you wanted stuffed lobsters. Not too shabby when it came with cheeses, salads and some house made ice milk, plus pies and cookies all for that same price.

The atmosphere at Broad Arrow is also worth a visit for locals or out of towners. Not only does it feature one of the 23 fi replaces that dot the inn, but the decor is real Maine hunting lodge and guaranteed to wow your visitors, as is service by our fave waitress, Celeste, and her compatriots. Be sure you leave some time after lunch to stroll around the inn and the grounds, which is also a great way to pass the time if you end up with a short pre-lunch wait as Broad Arrow takes


More Food For Thought...

Continued From Th e Previous Page

no reservations.By the way, if you end up with Sunday guests, the Sunday Maine Harvest Dining Room lobster brunch is a sure winner, too, but not all that cheap ($39.95) unless you can fi t in a lot of lobster then go for it, which this reviewer has once. Hours are Sundays 11.45 till 2 and they do recommend reservations for this one at 207/865.9377.

Heading south instead? The Kittery Outlets and the Portsmouth area are fun in any season, and there are plenty of meal choices around — from the Maine Diner at Wells to any number of spots in New Hampshire, but whenever our travels take us to Kittery & Vicinity, we head for Warren’s Lobster House. The address is 11 Water Street which is just off U.S. 1 in Kittery. I would fi b were I not to say I end up on the wrong street 75% of the time when we visit so do it via your GPS or use your eyes — which I am often accused by my spouse of fail-ing to do — and it’s right there.

The location is ideal to boat (they do have a dock for those arriving by wa-ter) and people watch, being right on the north bank of the Piscataqua River, which forms the Maine / New Hampshire border. Ask for a window seat if you can get one and enjoy the scene. Also worth enjoying is the food as this is a vintage 1940 restaurant — the kind they just do not make any more of in this Mickey D’s and plastic and artifi cial everything era. Also not made anymore in many places is the centrepiece of the dining room — a

huge 60+ item salad bar which includes soup, breads, cheeses and some unusual specialties, such as pickled brussels sprouts. The bar can be had as an eat-along with any meal or sandwich or as a meal in itself, but this reviewer found that ordering it with something is a better buy and will make you 100% certain of being fi lled when you leave.

Pricing at Warren’s is not cheap, but it’s one of those “Maine things” you and guests will enjoy. The chowders are delicious, the crab cakes (both above) worth more than a bite and they have lobster in all sorts of ways. Our fave here is the “Pile of Claws” which is fi ve boiled lobster claws and the trimmings. In our way of thinking it’s as good or even better than the tails or the whole lobsters they offer, not to mention “Lazy Lobster” which includes a saute and lobster rolls. Be sure to take time, read the menu and ask their very effi cient staff questions so you get just what you want, not that we have ever had a bad meal at Warren’s.

About our only two funny tales here involved a couple women on one visit discussing what could best be described as a “female condition” operation one had just had so loudly we all (and we had kids on that trip) have laughed about it ever since, and the time we hit Warren’s on Father’s Day (Coming up!) and ended up with close to an hour wait, despite the restaurant having over 350 seats, including a huge outdoor deck overlooking the river. Do be warned this place is popular with the locals and not just us!

You can check the info and menus at www.lobsterhouse.com then after lunch

drive a couple miles north and outlet shop till your wallet can stand no more.

Bits & bites....more restaurant news.... The news is good and bad for what are said to be two of the Peninsula’s largest restaurant spac-es. There’s good news on Commercial Street where we told you a couple months back that Ebb & Flow was about to ebb and indeed it has, but after a quick remodel and spruce up, the space at 100 Commercial Street has reopened as Solo Italiano with a whole new menu and new concept as well. We have had a peek at the menu but not yet been to eat so will hang on to any comments, but we will say the competition in that area is going


to be tough as it’s within a few hundred feet of everything from DiMillo’s and J’s Oysters to Rí Rá and the new Scales. On the less happy end of things, White Cap Grill on Middle Street called it quits during the Winter and we were told they were looking for a new operator and concept for that space, however as of press-time for this edition of Up Portland, the lights are still out and the door remains firmly locked. We hope they can turn things around and get this grand spot reopened sooner rather than later... Meanwhile, back down on Commercial

Street, as of this paper’s writing the Dry Dock was in, well, dry dock. Work-men were everywhere and a handwritten sign on the door said new ownership was on the way. We will keep you posted...

Meanwhile, it’s been a gangbusters first Winter for Tomaso’s Canteen on Hampshire Street off Middle Street. The place opened last Fall and it’s standing room only a lot of nights, so Tomaso’s has just received the city’s blessing to add to their tables with an outside patio. Look for that to open within a few days (or it may be already be open, depending when you are reading)... Also on Middle Street, Anthony’s Italian Kitchen is opening a second location, not on Middle, but in the Cumberland CountyCourthouse in June or July. To be called Anthony’s Cafe, it will serve breakfast and lunch Mondays thru Fridays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Court Rotunda. Anthony’s will source most foods locally and all bagels will come from Union Bagel Co. Many breakfast and dessert items will come from Two Fat CatsBakery, just to drop a couple of this reviewer’s favourite names.

Anthony’s Middle St. store has been in business 24 years and is run by the Bar-rasso family. Oh, and we love the name Anthony’s Cafe for the new place as it was rumoured for awhile (thanks to the Two Fat Cats connection) to be going to be named “Two Fat Anthony’s”. Fortunately cooler heads prevailed so the cafe it is, but it’s bound to be the best with all the local connections!


Sauntering With Mat

By Mat Robedee / Up Portland CommentatorIt was the fi rst weekend this year that Summer could be felt in the air, so I decided to celebrate by having a real Maine adventure. Knowing that Mount Desert Island was roughly a three hour drive from Portland, I took a Friday off, threw my bike on the car-rack and was on the road. Mount Desert is a true state treasure and home to the gorgeous Acadia National Park. This is a place that not only overfl ows with magnifi cent beauty, natural wonders and rich history but a park that is also currently celebrating its centennial year. Luckily I knew the park well and timed my trip perfectly to avoid the masses. To this day, I have

yet to meet a person who has ever had a negative thing to say about Acadia; other than its horrible traffi c and overly crowded tourist season.

Mount Desert Island itself has a long Maine history. It was in 1916 that President Woodrow Wilson established Sieur de Monts National Monument, which later in 1919, was changed to Lafayette National Park. In doing so, the land became the fi rst national park east of the Mississippi. It was not until 1929 that it under-went one last offi cial name change to Acadia National Park. This name selection was likely in honour of the prior French colony of Acadia, which once included Maine. In total, the park contains 47,000 acres and is famous for its 120+ miles of hiking

trails, granite peaks and striking landscape - especially that of Cadillac Moun-tain.

Sitting at 1,530 feet, Cadillac Mountain is tallest mountain on the U.S. Atlantic seaboard and I have also heard that the mountain is the fi rst place in the United States that the sun strikes upon rising — something I have personally witnessed several times while basking in the morning glow. All I can say is that if you can and are able to; do not miss out on such an experience. If hiking is not an option for you, luckily the view can still be seen by driving up to the summit via its auto road.

One of the greatest attractions of Acadia is the breathtaking network of car-riage roads, which run extensively throughout the park... miles of carriage roads originally built by John D. Rockefeller Jr., between 1913 and 1940. Rockefeller was an experienced horseman who wanted to enjoy and travel the land without encountering motor vehicles. He fi nanced, designed and directed the construc-tion of the network of carriage trails throughout the park — 57miles miles worth, a dozen of which currently are private land. Rockefeller not only has a

long and respected history on Mount Desert Island, but he had a massive infl u-ence on the park we see today.

The carriage roads seem to be something pulled straight out of Narnia or some other fantastical land. Traffi c free and shared amongst hikers, bikers, horseback riders and carriages. Upon each twist and turn, or up and down, one can get spectacular views of the ocean, island lakes, mossy pine forests, marshes and mountains. The carriage roads are near perfection because they were built to be so. When being designed, they were specifi cally constructed to fl ow with the natural setting, rather than re-shaping the earth in its place. Scattered through-out the network of carriage roads are 17 granite bridges and two gate lodges, which are in themselves worth taking this trip.

Due to being built for carriages, the roads are perfect for bikes. Take note that they certainly have their ups and downs but for the most part, the riding is smooth and easy. I packed a lunch and decided to make a day out of it, knowing the slightly overcast day would keep me cool. After 16 miles and over a hundred times going “whoooooa” due to the nonstop vistas and beauty, I called it a day. I would strongly recommend getting a warm-up in prior to taking these roads on, because, at least for me, after a Winter of hibernation and then pushing out 16 miles, I could barely walk the next day. Perhaps next time I’ll have to try this on horseback...


Processed Media

By Randy Dankievitch — TV Critic / TVOvermind

RIP Limitless – The Age of Remakes Claims An (Unworthy) Victim

Like the fi lm industry in 2016, television is currently obsessed with remakes, reboots and “re-imaginings”: from Girl Meets World and Fuller House to X-Files and Rush Hour, any number of networks and streaming services are trying to place safe bets on their programming future with these seemingly ready-made hits. However, tapping into fan nostalgia only gets one so far: it takes an actual creative vision to turn these known properties into something fresh – and as we’ve seen, most of these remakes have hardly seemed to be worth the investment in funding their productions.

There are a few recent, notable examples:

Hannibal’s three season run on NBC is a bit of artistic perfection we probably never deserved, and the success (and quality) of FX’s Fargo run certainly show there’s a way to take the known, and transform it into something new and exciting (also worth noting: the fantastic, better-than-their-fi lm shows Wet Hot American Summer and The Girlfriend Experience). But those shows aspired to something completely different than X-Files or Fuller House, two shows completely content to play off old nostalgia, and hope that was enough to drive critical attention and huge, advertiser-drawing audiences (another recent example is 24: Live Another Day, a miniseries that will be followed with a fresh reboot of the original series this Fall). Hannibal and Fargo understood that the original stories they were adapting had a magic of their own, a beauty and creativity that could be harnessed, and manipulated into something different — a world and story that reaches beyond the limiting boundaries of the fi lms that inspired them. Instead of taking the Rush Hour approach and simply trying to imitate the same rhythms of its inspiration, Hannibal and Fargo succeeded because their ambitions stretched even further; never content to be known as just an adaptation or remake.

Which brings me to CBS’s Limitless: when it was fi rst announced in the Spring of 2015, it seemed ready-made to fall into the same trappings of Minority Report or Rush Hour (Yes, Rush Hour is extremely easy to bash on – it is that terrible!), if not suffer from an even worse fate: a Bradley Cooper vehicle about a super drug turned into a weekly crime procedural? On CBS of all networks? And at fi rst, Limitless’ introductory episodes felt like just that: a show with no interest seeing beyond the goofy, familiar network procedural premise: bumbling goofball Brian ends up with super smarts and a completely unbelievable job at the FBI, tackling lame, over convoluted “cases of the week”, with the thinnest overlay of a serialised plot around it.

Over the course of its 22 episode fi rst (and unfortunately, only) season, however, Limitless became something special: a show with both a reverie for the dramatic procedural format, and a complete disgust of it. As it started playing around with its form and deepening its characters, Limitless took on a life of its own, with ambitions and ideas much larger and more meaningful than the fi lm it inspired: through some genius use of Bradley Cooper playing his original character (now a powerful senator angling for the presidency) and a constant subversion of crime tropes, Limitless grew into something truly unique. What show would openly posit its audience would rather watch Vines of puppies rather than two minutes of techno babble? What other show would take two completely inconsequential

characters (the protagonist’s handlers, nicknamed Mike and Ike) and give them meaningful, season-long arcs?

Most importantly: what procedural besides Limitless didn’t shove romantic subplots down our throats? Perhaps the best part of Limitless is how Brian and his FBI handler, Rachel, never experience a single second of sexual tension... Not one! Forget dramas: how long has it been since you watched any television show with a strong male/female central friendship? For all it did playing with the format and style of CBS procedurals and expanding on the ideas of its inspirational property, perhaps the greatest, destined to be underrated quality of Limitless was its place as a true buddy cop show. It’s perhaps the fi rst we’ve had without constant child rape and White Girl Trauma (looking at you, SVU) since the earliest days of Law & Order. Limitless’ vision of a meaningful budding friendship is perhaps the most refreshing, important development I saw on the networks all season. For all the endearing cinematic qualities Limitless offered (including two completely different, regularly-used colouring schemes) and fun twists on dramatic traditions, its presence as a true buddy cop story (unlike Hannibal, which was really a man love story, a beautiful, unique story unto itself) easily separated it from the rest of the creatively-lacking genre.

And yet, Limitless is gone, replaced by a more male-skewing MacGyver reboot, which certainly offers CBS the opportunity to show what lessons it learned from Limitless, though I wouldn’t hold my breath for it. If we’ve seen anything with the trend of remakes and reboots, it’s two things: there’s no such thing as patience, and there’s no sign of it slowing down, with everything from Twin Peaks to Prison Break coming back to life in the near future. Six months from now, we’ll all have probably sat through another half-dozen remakes on TV and in the theatre – unfortunately, none of them will be the surprisingly evocative Limitless, a show that died far too soon for the ambitious re-imagination that it eventually came to be. #MikeandIkeForever

– Randy


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The Standard Reviewer

By Bill Elliott / Up Portland’s Film & Th eatre Reviewer

The Money Monster, Jodie Foster’s fourth feature fi lm behind the camera, is aptly named. Who or what is the “monster” of the title? Is it an individual ? The global fi nancial system? Or is it money itself?

Foster’s fi lm revolves around Lee Gates (George Clooney, at his oily, smiley best), a stock market pundit in the Jim Cramer or Clark Howard mould. As host of FNN’s investment and stock tips programme, The Money Monster, Gates is part showman, part shaman — a fi nancial guru who isn’t above dressing up in silly outfi ts and dancing on the air if it boosts his ratings.

At the beginning of the latest episode of The Money Monster, Gates asks his audience if they know where their money is. “You don’t have a clue where your money is,” he taunts, and we know he is right. As the fi lm goes to great lengths to point out, the stock market is a huge casino gambling with our hard-earned money.

Since global trading is now entirely computerised, the world of fi nance has also become an international magic act. Only the “quants” and the programmers who develop the algorithms that allow high frequency trading to take place understand how the whole shebang works.

A few weeks earlier on his show, Gates had recommended that viewers invest in IBIS Global Capital, a fi nancial investment company whose stock numbers had been skyrocketing. “It’s safer than your savings account,” claims Gates, a tad hyperbolically.

Unfortunately for ordinary working stiff Kyle Budwell (British actor Jack O’Connell, doing a dodgy New York accent), taking Gates at his word has proved costly. He bet the $60,000 his recently deceased mother had left him on Gates’ “can’t lose” tip. Surprise, surprise, he loses it all when IBIS’s stock crashes spec-tacularly.

Kyle is mad as hell. And he’s not going to take it anymore. So, in the guise of a deliveryman, he secretes himself into the studio and holds Gates hostage, at gunpoint, on live TV. This is the fi rst of many unlikely scenarios presented in the fi lm, which goes for broad brushstrokes rather than nuanced details.

Kyle hands Gates a suicide bomber’s vest fi lled with Semtex and tells him to put it on. If Gates doesn’t cooperate and do exactly as he is told, Kyle will take his thumb off the remote control and detonate the explosives, blowing up Gates and the studio.

Gates is no action hero. He is a pampered TV celebrity who doesn’t want to die live on air. He and his longtime studio director, Patty Fenn (Julia Roberts), decide to work together to keep Kyle calm and in control.

It’s not easy. Kyle is incensed at the uncaring and seemingly unaccountable way that Gates and IBIS have deprived him of his life savings. According to IBIS’s PR machine, a computer glitch was responsible for a sharp dip in the stock value, wiping $800 million off the company’s value, and a causing huge losses for its investors.

As Gates tries to explain to Kyle and to the audience, money moves around the

world at the speed of light through fi bre optics. No one seems to have a problem believing that such losses are possible. No one except Kyle.

Kyle suspects the system is rigged. As another character points out later in the fi lm, the algorithm glitch “has human fi ngerprints all over it.” Kyle believes that someone is concealing the truth about what really happened to IBIS’s stock.

That someone is Walt Camby (another Brit actor, Dominic West), IBIS’s jet-setting CEO. Unfortunately, he seems to have gone AWOL. Prior to Kyle’s arrival on set, Gates had arranged an interview with Camby to get his side of the story. But, Camby is 40,000 feet in the air somewhere, and has sent his communica-tions offi cer, Diane Lester (Irish actress, Caitriona Balfe), who feeds Gates the company line.

Kyle has plenty of time to get to the bottom of the issue. As soon as he sets foot in the studio with a gun and explosives, he knows how this will end. SWAT teams descend on the studio. A hostage negotiator is brought in. Non-key per-sonnel are moved out. But as long as Kyle holds Gates in an explosive-fi lled vest with a detonator in his hand, there is little room for a quick resolution.

So, Gates has to keep Kyle talking, aided by Patty communicating through a studio earpiece. Gates tries to buy time but Kyle has no patience for stalling tactics. He isn’t interested in recovering his money; he wants answers. And he wants justice.

The Money Monster can’t quite decide what kind of a fi lm it wants to be. It be-gins, like Dog Day Afternoon and King of Comedy, as a hostage movie. It quickly turns into Network, a real-time TV spectacle where someone might die on the air. Once audiences realise this is not a staged drama, folks get interested and crowd around TVs in bars to gawk.

The fi lm then develops into a cyber thriller, with Icelandic hackers and South Korean programmers pulled into the fray. Then, it becomes a heist drama with Kyle, Gates, Patty and Diane pursuing the missing money and the culprit. Fi-nally, as Gates wins Kyle’s trust, it becomes a “buddy” movie, with hostage taker and hostage joining forces to take on the global fi nancial system.

The Money Monster is an anti-Wall Street fi lm, sugar coated for mass consump-tion. It identifi es less with the “Occupy” movement than with what it is: a Hol-lywood fi lm whose goal is to entertain the general public. And it does that very well. While the outcome is never in question (you don’t blow up George Clooney on screen), it does treat its subject matter and, particularly, Kyle’s character, reasonably sensitively.

O’Connell’s portrayal of a young man at the end of his tether is both credible and creditable. Clooney’s character evolves from narcissistic smugness to almost paternal concern for his hostage taker, while Roberts’ is the essence of “stand-by-your-man” loyalty and calm.

The Money Monster is nothing if not earnest. And perhaps that is its biggest fl aw. Foster’s fi lm doesn’t really break any new ground, thematically or ideologically. It simply underscores what we already know from the fi nancial crash of 2007–08. Trillions of dollars of investors’ money—personal retirement accounts, state pensions, nations’ entire banking systems—can disappear in an instant. And those responsible can walk away with impunity.

When the system fails, it fails spectacularly, to devastating effect. And yet every-one accepts it, virtually without question. As long as that remains the status quo, the potential for a catastrophic disruption of the global economy (whether as a result of algorithmic glitches, corporate greed, or lack of government oversight) remains a constant threat.

But Hollywood needn’t worry. It will be making fi lms like The Money Monster for decades to come.


Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag

By Stacy Begin / Owner, Two Fat Cats Bakery

Letting The Cat Out Of The Bag

The Possum“There’s a possum on the freezer.” Under normal circumstances, when pre-sented with such a startling piece of news by one of our bakers, I’d be incredu-lous. A possum on India Street? On top of our outdoor freezer?? You must be mad! But, this is India Street in May and if you’ve worked on this street for any amount of time, like I have, you come to expect that strange things will happen. Who knows why that is so, it just is and has been.

We’ve seen cars careen into the harbour, watched zombie movies fi lmed in front of the bakery and discovered a fl aming box next to an employee’s car. A possum didn’t seem that farfetched.

“There’s a possum on our freezer and he looks pretty mad.” To which I replied, “Show me this possum.” Sure enough – there he was. Quite large, looking down at us with squinty eyes and, most disturbingly, hissing.

We had a situation on our hands.

At fi rst, we thought we could scare it away. After all, the poor thing was prob-ably lost in the city, away from his forest friends and frightened. A loud noise or an approaching human form should send the big guy running back from

whence he came. Instead, that loud noise triggered a fi ght or fl ight reaction in the possum and he chose fi ght. We backed off. Way off.

It was clear: I needed to send in the experts. Unfortunately, the City of Portland didn’t see it that way. I requested an animal control offi cer. They sent two com-munity policing offi cers instead. Even better, I reasoned. They have to contend with criminals, explosive situations and delicate negotiations. And they’ve always been great. They can surely take on a possum!

So there the three of us stood looking up at the possum as he stared down at us ready at a moment’s notice to leap down on us like the killer bunny from Monty Python’s Holy Grail. We stood like that for a long time. I began to detect hesita-tion on the part of the offi cers when one of them spoke:

Offi cer: “I’m not sure what you want us to do here.”Me: “I’d like you to remove the possum.”Offi cer: “Yeah, I don’t think it’s going to go down that way.”Me: “You don’t have a big net you can use? Or maybe loop something around his neck and pull him down?”Offi cer: “Nope.”Me: “Taser?”Offi cer: “That would be a no.”Me: “What do you recommend?”Offi cer: “I recommend you wait for the possum to leave.”

How very anti-climatic, indeed. So, for the rest of the day, the use of that freezer revolved around the comings and goings of what passes for an apex creature in Portland: the possum.

Eventually, the possum did leave, but not before the police offi cers did, and normality resumed again. Until, one day, an employee ran into the bakery and exclaimed, “The possum’s back and he’s under a car in front of Micucci’s hissing at everyone!”

Someone get the big net.


Hackin’The Net

By Ted Fleischaker / PublisherFor years, my old radio friend, Bob Walker, used to show up at meetings with “news” which was no big deal, but with an urgent excitement in his voice he’d shout: “Did You Hear The News???” just to get all of our attention. Well, often Bob’s was something offbeat (like a station repainted their tower and did we think that would change their ratings) but in truth, once in awhile he did hit a goldmine with his “news”. That’s our way to say news got to us recently via Giz-modo (www.gizmodo.com) that after years of telling readers, friends and almost anyone who would listen to check their phone, WiFi or hard-wired connection with www.speedtest.net, there is a new player in the business run by no less than Netfl ix, called www.fast.com. What makes this “news” to me (and should to readers) are two points:

1.) The new service’s provider is Netfl ix, who have more than a small interest in making sure that your internet service provider (ISP) is really giving you all the speed you are paying for.

And.

2.) That there’s a long-simmering war between the different “sides” on the net as to who is going to pay for the data we all are using in larger and larger amounts. The “caps” some fi rms put on data consumption and the speed slowing others employ play the cable and phone companies off the data hunger of Netfl ix, Hulu and others who, to work right have to stream faster and faster.

It’s pretty obvious whose side Gizmodo takes when the speed issue comes up from the headline on their 18th May news about the new test: “Netfl ix’s New Speed Test Shows How Much Your ISP Is Screwing You Over.” While this columnist might not feel quite so defi nite, we will say we have been hit with data ceilings in the past, found slower speeds than were advertised with some providers, endured a recent rate hike by our Portland ISP, but fi nd that at our house, at least, the speeds pretty much do match what we pay for and show virtually the same regardless of which test we employ.

Comparing the two, the older tester takes longer and seems more thorough than the Netfl ix one. Readers are welcome to give both a try and let us know what they fi nd, but regardless of where and how you test, we do stand by a long-standing thought that we all check our connections regularly just to be sure we are not, to quote Gizmodo being “screwed over.”


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Up Portland is edited in Portland and printed the last week of every month in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. We may be contacted at the e-mail or phone number below. While every effort is made to ensure ac cu ra cy and fairness, the pub lish er assumes no re spon si bil i ty for errors. Liability is limited to the cost of said ad. Ads not cancelled by published deadlines may be billed at agreed-upon price. Ads may be edited or rejected for content at the discretion of the publisher. All items ap pear ing in Up Portland, as well as the name, logos and design are copy right 2016 by BBS, A division of High Speed Delivery Fork Ltd. & Ted Fleis chak er and may not be re pro duced in any form without prior written

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Eric’s Optimal Corner

Liam Pinson / Optimal Self Community Health and Wellness Center

In my experience there are essentially two types of people - those working out too much - and those who workout too little. “Too much” and “too little” however, deserve defi nitions. Nearly everything we do adds stress to our bodies; stress which must be cleared during sleep. Exercise is stressful. Working out is particularly stressful because it’s a concentrated amount of movement in a short period of time.

As I mentioned in a previous article — the autonomic nervous system (subconscious) works in two gears: sympathetic (expressing energy) and parasympathetic (receiving energy). So what I really fi nd in the majority of the athletes I work with is a sympa-thetic dominance. They tend to express too much energy too often and therefore show signs of burnout, overtraining, under-recovering, etc.

On the other side of the spectrum are those struggling to lose weight. Their muscu-latures and nervous systems have forgotten how to express energy as quickly as they receive energy so they carry that extra energy as fat. While it’s possible that they exist in a parasympathetic state more often than not, simply being fat does not mean that you have no stress. Fat storage is actually a very common stress response and as the body enters shock mode it tries to meet that stressor with additional energy. The trouble here being that often times our stressors are not physical and do not require more calories. Enough about stress for now, but do keep these things in mind as you continue reading.

Just because working out is stressful doesn’t mean it’s going to have a negative effect on our health. Working out is a luxury; an expression of energy we have acquired because we are fortunate enough to live in a state of relatively strong food security. We train to acquire physical ability not yet possessed. This process is simple: work hard, rest, grow, repeat. Seeing it in this light, there are two pieces of advice I have for the two groups I’ve found in the population.

To all the gym goers, athletes and people already exercising consistently: if you’re training even just three times a week, but don’t look forward to your next workout, take more days off. If you don’t feel energised, chances are, you’re not done recover-ing. If the goal of your training is ultimately to improve your health, shouldn’t you be feeling healthier day to day? To all the people who’ve done less than three intense workouts in the past two weeks: walk more. Walking is the activity which humans have evolved to spend the most time doing. While walking, neither your heart nor your muscles are taxed, but both are in motion. Bodies in motion stay in motion. Chances are, if you consistently walk for an hour every evening, you’ll be feeling much more energised and fi ght less internal resistance on the way to the gym next time.

Finally, some general guidelines in terms of exercise frequency, assuming all outside life stressors are accounted for. High intensity cardiovascular exercise (or HIIT) ses-sions are roughly on equal ground with lower body weight training sessions. They tax your respiratory systems and musculatures, respectively, but both leave the nervous system shocked. For 90% of the population: make the days before and after such in-tense sessions considerably less demanding. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t remain in motion. If you’re looking to work out on these days, keep things less taxing in gen-eral. Think a low heart rate cardio session lasting no more than an hour.

For the weight lifters: target your small muscle groups (arms and calves) weekly. This means most people can recover from three or four intense sessions and two or three gentler workouts. Keep energy balanced and keep growing stronger.

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Monday - Friday 10am-2pm + Sundays 1pm - 5pm or by appointmentmainejewishmuseum.org

Shared ConversationsWorking & Living Side by Side

The Art and Design of Jamie Johnston & Sondra Bogdonoff

Exhibit runs May 12 - July 10, 2016Curated by Nancy Davidson

This exhibit is influenced and informed by Sondra and Jamie hav-ing studios in the same building, attached to the house they have lived in for over thirty years. The last six months they have fo-cused on the intersections in their thinking and how they play off each other in their work. They each visit the other over the course of the day. They share conversations... they go back to making.

First Friday Art WalkFriday, June 3, 2016, 5pm - 8pm

UpPortlandadJohnstonFirstFriday.indd 1 5/17/2016 10:24:43 AM


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We have gone back and forth on this editorial three times, but my latest thoughts at presstime are to say how fortunate we in Portland are to have not one, but two classical music FM stations. This is not the case in Chicago, Boston, Louisville or Miami. In some cities, such as Indianapolis, they do not have even one fulltime classical FM, with their station alternating at noon & midnight between classical and jazz (and the other format going to HD, about which more in a minute).

But the above said, Up Portland is disappointed with Maine Public Broadcasting Network (MPBN) for what we feel is a mostly smoke & mirrors act by establish-ing a classical music channel and removing classical (and other music) from their full-power MPBN service and claiming this as a step forward. For most folks in the Portland area, it’s clearly not. It’s a lot of static and not much change, aside from losing some of the excellent music shows we have, for some time, enjoyed on MPBN’s main, easy-to-hear FM service, which is now all talk.

And here’s why we are so critical... For some time now MPBN have had a classi-cal HD2 in Portland and on FM main and HD signals elsewhere in the state. The programming on that classical was — and mostly still remains — what we feel are hours of an utterly boring “Classical 24” service from American Public Media based in the Midwest, with too much little-known music and hosts who do not have ties to Portland or Maine or even the New England area.

But there is good news and bad news despite the above: Bad to us is that in Port-land, which is, afterall, the city’s largest (and some would argue only) metropolitan area, the MPBN Classical Service is relegated to an HD2 channel and a “repeater” which MPBN bought (for an undisclosed sum per the Press Herald) from WMPG and boasts 50 watts of power. Stop and think about that: 50 watts. Most refrigerator bulbs are brighter than 50 watts. As far as HD, for those uninformed, HD radio has been overall one of what some in the radio industry term the biggest fl op since AM stereo, if you even recall that. HD radio — digital radio if you will — is a second channel which is piggybacked on a main FM station. But to hear it requires a spe-cial HD radio — something well under half the cars and under 15% of homes have. HD is also what this writer, as a former commercial and NPR broadcaster, would term “fi ddly”. It broadcasts with less power than the main FM channel and drops out on a whim. MPBN has had an HD2 channel for some time, and so do other stations. With almost no exceptions, in this hilly city by Casco Bay, HD reception is unreliable and problematic for those who DO have the radios.

But there’s a larger issue. Portland is truly blessed because we have WBACH. That’s commercial classical music for those unaware. New York, LA, San Francisco, Washington, D.C. and Boston, among others, do not have a commercial classi-cal station anymore because theirs were not able to pay the bills. Now they have public classical or none at all. The owners of WBACH, Binnie Broadcasting, did legion work to pick up the pieces when the former operators of the Maine Clas-sical Network (Nassau Broadcasting Partners) went belly up a few years back and ended up with the stations sold in a bankruptcy. Locally, classical vanished for awhile before Binnie returned the format to Portland on a translator station (96.9) of their WBACH (106.9) in Thomaston / Rockland. It is true that translators (theirs like MPBN’s) can have a maximum of 250 watts which WBACH does, but that’s fi ve times the power MPBN’s has and even WBACH has some “dead spots”. WBACH also does use an HD2 service (that of WTHT, Auburn). But our main point here is that WBACH is commercial, and it is successful whereas classical radio has

been impossible to sell in a profi table way in way larger places. Here, it is selling to advertisers, listeners and making money in a win-win situation. And that begs the question of should MPBN, a taxpayer and donation-funded service, be compet-ing with a successful commercial entity? We at Up Portland will say a resounding NO. Why should taxpayer and donor dollars be used to compete in the commercial world? It’s not only unfair, but we feel it’s poor use of funds.

And fi nally, if MPBN has money, a number of us would rather see that money invested to get something Portland needs: a PBS TV transmitter in the city so that a cable subscription would not be needed to watch MPBN’s excellent PBS television service. At present, the closest signal is in Biddeford and is unviewable in large por-tions of the metro area due to hills and distant signal strength.

In conclusion, we feel that public broadcasting should not be competing with the private sector, so we need to ask MPBN: Why not leave classical broadcasting to the excellent folks at Binnie with WBACH and spend any extra money you might have to bring a translator for your TV channel to Portland? It might not have the “wow” factor you felt you were getting with the “big announcement” a few weeks ago that we were getting something new and wonderful for classical listeners (because at 50 watts and continued HD2 we are not). It would, we feel, serve that public compo-nent that accounts for the “P” in your network’s name way better if you added a bet-ter TV outlet, not classical music mostly hosted from 1000+ miles away. You might say we view this as a “classic case” of it was not broken and did not need fi xing. Our offi ce radio stays fi rmly on WBACH.


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A Checklist for Retiring Abroad

Do you dream about retiring in another country? It is an intriguing option for some who feel like they are ready for a new experience to go with the freedom of retire-ment. Whether you’re looking for a favourable climate, less expensive living costs or specifi c cultural or recreational opportunities, retiring abroad could be for you.

No matter what the inspiration may be, it is not a matter to be taken lightly. Do your homework and become as familiar as you can with your dream environment before making a fi nal decision. Read on for a few things you’ll want to consider.

Get a true feel of what it will be like to live in a new countryIt is easy to become infatuated with a particular location as your future home when you visit on vacation. But there is a big difference between being a tourist and a resident. Think about how your day-to-day routine would change and what ele-ments you’d like to stay the same, such as going to the gym or volunteering. If you know others who have retired abroad, ask them about their experience making the transition overseas.

Determine what’s required to gain residencyIf you are seeking to become a fulltime resident overseas, you will have to deter-

mine the requirements. Alternately, understand the laws of the country (and they vary) to be an American resident living in that country on a fulltime basis.

Consider your living optionsWill you want to buy a home or will renting be a better option? Renting may be wiser if you want to take some time to better acquaint yourself with your new sur-roundings before locking yourself into a purchase. Consider what happens as well if you purchase a home and then plans don’t work out and you decide to move back to the U.S.

Learn about medical servicesAs we grow older, the need for health care services tends to rise. While many countries have nationalised health care systems that cover residents, you may or may not be eligible to participate. Medicare won’t cover treatment overseas, so a separate insurance plan may be required. If you think you may return to live in the U.S. one day, you may want to keep paying Medicare premiums to maintain future eligibility for the programme. Also check on the quality of health care services in your intended new home to determine if medical capabilities meet your expecta-tions.

Review fi nancial mattersDetermine how the currency exchange rate will affect your expenses. Keep in mind that your expenses may vary, particularly if you want to travel within your new region or rely on public transportation. You may want to transfer some money to a bank account in your new country, although electronic banking services today make it easy to access funds when you are outside the U.S. At the very least, you will need to continue fi ling a tax return in the U.S. and potentially paying U.S. taxes as well, though this can vary depending on your country of choice.

Choosing where to retire is a big decision. While thinking through the items above is a good place to start, consult the U.S. State Department’s website for more con-siderations. Visit www.travel.state.gov and search for the topic “retirement abroad.”


Beyond The Forecast

By Jack Sillin / Weatherman & Meterology Student

Hello everyone!

This month I’ll be talking about a fairly simple phenomenon but one that impacts the Portland area daily in the Summer months: fog. Fog is as much a staple of life on the coast of Maine as the salty air and the rocky coast. Seeming-ly clear nights can turn into an ever shifting wall of grey by morning. Likewise, warm morning sun can instantly give way to a cold misty afternoon.

Fog forms off the coast of Maine when warm air moves over cold water. The cold water lowers the temperature of the air which acts to condense the mois-ture in the air. The condensation of the moisture in the air results in thick fog. Fog banks move at the mercy of the wind which accounts for their sudden ar-rival and departure. A subtle shift in wind from the South to the South-East can mean the difference between sunny with 80 degree temps and thick mist/drizzle with 60F temps.

These wind shifts can be quite subtle due to the geography of the Gulf of Maine. Southerly or South-Westerly winds such as those seen during the Summer months will travel over either the baking hot Southeast U.S. and Mid-Atlantic or the toasty Gulf Stream waters before they arrive here. This ensures a con-stant supply of warm moist air. Once you get to around Cape Cod and the cold Labrador current takes over the ocean so the warm, moist air cools, condenses, and turns quickly to fog. Even the slightest easterly component to the wind will drive this fog bank right into the coast.

How does morning fog burn off to a beautiful afternoon?

As the sun comes up and its warm rays beat down on the city, the temperature of the fog bank begins to rise. Eventually, layer by layer, the air comprising the

fog bank warms above the dew point and the condensation vaporizes into invis-ible water vapour leaving a wonderful Summer’s day to be enjoyed.

Enjoy the coming start to Summer and be sure to think about condensation and how all this happens next time you wake up to a foggy morning!


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The Gossip Column

By Britain & Sydney / Th e Offi ce Gossip Cats

It’s June! It’s season! We pussies are off to the bedroom closet to hide under the shoes and Winter clothes until things settle back down in October! Well, we wish we could but, seriously, we got work to do, so let’s get rightat it... First off, what’s the loud noise we keep hearing over at Micucci’s? Oh, wait! It’s Dan whining loudly that he’s STILL single, so if any cute females (of the human, not the feline, kind) are interested in meeting this nice guy (and we cats hear tell wonderful cook), stop by at the store and check out Dan at the check out, but be sure to bring your own bag or it’ll cost you a nickel!... Speaking of stores, congrats to our pal Stacy over at (where else?) Two Fat Cats for taking on her son and friends as Summer help. They were getting their white aprons and fi rst day of train-ing last time we dropped by. Best of luck to all and since we kittens learned writing from our mom (without anyone’s eyes being scratched out) we are sure it’s going to be a fun, educational Summer... Speaking of educations, congrats to our friend Sophie who took the shortcut by learn-ing from us. She’s The OUTsiders Ally’s gossip dog back in Indianapolis. Her owner, Chris Peek, and our owners were good friends before we moved to Maine (because this IS life the way it should be). Meanwhile, Sophie’s taken over our wordy mantle writing about the comings and goings in Indy. Word has it she’s already got some gossip haters’ panties in wads, which means she’d doin’ her job! Congrats to her and Chris. If our Maine friends wanna see that paper check out www.theoutally.com or friend ‘em (The OUTsiders Ally) on Facebook!... Speaking of friends, it’s gonna be a long, fat Summer if we cats don’t go slow as all our friends who have visited thus far have wanted to try ALL of the town’s great eats. We’ve become too familiar faces at many of the restaurants and while we love all the food, our owners’ jeans have another opinion!... Speaking of opinions, is it just one we pussies have or do others share it that folks who run eateries which fail (in some cases miserably) should rethink their professions or at least try hard to fi gure out why they failed before opening another restaurant? We won’t name any names of open or gone places (If there’s one thing this town’s got more of than restaurants, it’s lawyers!) but we will say we were shocked to encounter a former food fl op in business elsewhere and this person looking shocked we knew of their past!... And fi nally, speaking of past, we cats can-not let this issue go past without saying a big congrats to friend Rabbi Gary Berenson at Etz Chaim and the Maine Jewish Museum on being honoured a few weeks ago by his congregants and friends. It was a packed house and an accolade which was well deserved. And for June, that’s it for us. Now for a nap in the closet, but we will be out and about before the fi reworks herald the beginning of July! Meow!


By Britain & Sydney / The Office Gossip Cats

up portland june 2016

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