96 p o r t l a n d monthly magazine personalities and more comfortable with that,” he says. The theme of aging and of grappling with “the dumb, awful truth” of mortality forms the dark underbelly of the book’s humor. As “a pretentious, affected, loathsome” youth, Hodgman never set out to become a multi-hyphenated actor-comedian-podcast- er. “I knew early on I didn’t want to work for a living in the traditional sense. I wanted to do as many things as I could while also be- ing able to nap.” Writing, however, has al- ways been “as essential as breathing but not as much fun as eating.” His nascent career in entertainment was propelled into the spot- light when he landed a role as “PC Man” in the Apple Mac adverts of the early 2000s. “It was life-changing in terms of my career and my family’s finances. Some of my happiest memories are of hanging about with Justin Long and director Phil Morrison, being cre- ative together. We’re friends to this day.” O ne chapter of Vacationland, enti- tled “Maine Humor,” takes place partly in Perry’s Nut House of Bel- fast. Hodgman stands before the merchan- dise, comprising “mostly of men with flinty, Downeast accents giving bad directions to people from away.” At the time, “even when work was going well, I feared it would all slip away,” he says. “That I’d end up a middle- aged man joking about Maine.” With near spasms of irony he ends the chapter, “Please put this book down for a moment to appre- ciate my incredible mastery of literary irony. I’ll just be over here curling into a ball, trying to disappear forever.” couldn’t work. Often I couldn’t get out of bed. But the tall ship community is like a big family. I survived on a combination of my savings and donations from other sail- ors. With encouragement from the commu- nity, I went back to a life at sea. I worked on three tall ships after Bounty, which helped me get my confidence back and manage PTSD triggers.” One of her greatest points of pride is that all her surviving shipmates from Bounty are back at work on boats. T hese days, she’s focusing on her career, setting a course more suited to her degree from Maine Maritime Academy’s Small Vessel Opera- tions Program. “I wanted to use my license and keep up- grading,” she says. “The boat world is like the Boy Scouts. I had a lot of badges to col- lect.” Hewitt currently works on an oil rig– “a comparative luxury to my time on tall ships.” She’s offshore for long periods at a time.“I don’t really have a home base. I wish I could make it back to Maine more, Hodgman (continued from page 45) Hewitt (continued from page 46) “IturnedacornerinMaineandgotambushedbyanestof cairns!”JohnHodgmansharesimagesfromMaineonFacebook.