Marine Grade Kevlar

[The Patriot]

If you are planning a Maine cruise this summer, don't forget to stock up on USCG-approved self defense gear. For example:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/07/us/07 ... &emc=tha23

[Steve Laume]

If this winter doesn't ease up soon, we may all need opiates.

With my health insurance the robbery would happen on the opposite side of the counter, Steve.

[Joe Myerson]

Don't worry, folks.

Bingham, Maine, is located on the 45th parallel, on the Kennebec River north of Skowhegan. The river simply isn't navigable that far north, at least not by Cape Dorys.

Still, it was sad to read that article. I remember Bingham as a picture-postcard little town at the edge of the wilderness. But then I moved out of Maine in 1980.

--Joe
P.S. I think we've got more snow here in Massachusetts than I ever saw while living in central Maine.

[The Patriot]

Don't worry, folks ... Bingham, Maine, is located on the 45th parallel, on the Kennebec River north of Skowhegan ... The river simply isn't navigable that far north ...

Joe, I was more astonished by the events in both Rockland and Belfast. Over the years I've cruised both these towns quite a bit and the idea of violent crime never entered my mind. I'm not suggesting (nor do I think the article is suggesting) that Maine is more or less dangerous that other places, but rather that bad things happen everywhere, even in "Paradise."

A while back Fred Wiseman did a documentary on Belfast ME that portrayed some very difficult social situations there. Let's also not forget that author Steven King lives nearby in Bangor.