{"id":1240,"date":"2009-10-22T10:52:28","date_gmt":"2009-10-22T17:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=1240"},"modified":"2019-11-06T09:30:39","modified_gmt":"2019-11-06T14:30:39","slug":"10-most-intriguing-people-in-maine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/10-most-intriguing-people-in-maine\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Most Intriguing People in Maine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe allowfullscreen allow=\"fullscreen\" style=\"border:none;width:100%;height:450px;\" src=\"\/\/e.issuu.com\/embed.html?backgroundColor=%23d2d2d2&#038;backgroundColorFullscreen=%23d2d2d2&#038;d=200909nov_ten_most_cropped&#038;hideIssuuLogo=true&#038;pageNumber=40&#038;u=portlandmagazine\"><\/iframe><br \/>\nNovember 2009<\/p>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<h2><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-1308\" style=\"margin-left: 6px; margin-right: 6px;\" title=\"ramsay-kick-large-new\" src=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/ramsay-kick-large-new.jpg\" alt=\"ramsay-kick-large-new\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/ramsay-kick-large-new.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/10\/ramsay-kick-large-new-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>Gordon Ramsay<\/h2>\n<p>Yes, but is it a Maine lobster?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Interview by Colin S. Sargent<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Gordon Ramsay, dressed in a white chef\u2019s jacket and dark trousers, leans down next to the head chef of the Black Pearl in New York City to have a peek at the struggling lobster shack\u2019s inventory.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re all from Maine?\u201d he asks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese are, uh\u2026Maine, some from Canada\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThese look like Canadian lobsters to me,\u201d says Ramsay.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYeah, these are Canadian.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramsay looks over at his harried colleague, fresh from a disappointing dinner service, who has been forced into cost-cutting measures by the restaurant owners he doesn\u2019t believe in.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo the Canadian lobsters\u2013they\u2019re always a lot cheaper. I use the Canadian lobsters for raviolis and tagliatelles and spaghetti. They\u2019re not Maine lobsters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramsay, star of Fox\u2019s <em>Kitchen Nightmares<\/em> and <em>Hell\u2019s Kitchen<\/em>, as well as British television station Channel 4\u2019s <em>The F Word<\/em> and <em>Ramsay\u2019s Kitchen Nightmares<\/em>, has been awarded 16 Michelin stars and has created successful restaurants around the world, including Restaurant Gordon Ramsay at Royal Hospital Road in London and Gordon Ramsay at The London in New York City. A vocal advocate of fresh ingredients and local sourcing, Ramsay needs to confront one of the Black Pearl\u2019s owners on the mislabeling.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou told me about the passion for <em>Maine <\/em>lobster. Are you aware that the lobsters in your fridge are Canadian?\u201d Ramsay stands with his arms folded, disgust beginning to well up in him like the lava under Vesuvius.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSame waters, North Atlantic waters.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou\u2019re telling me now that <em>Canadian<\/em> lobster, half the price of Maine lobster, has the same taste and flavor? There\u2019s a big difference. <em>I <\/em>can\u2019t get Maine lobsters!<em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s right, so they get them from Ca\u2013\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramsay interrupts. <em>\u201cI\u2019m <\/em>using Canadian lobsters!<em>\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>The owner is back on his heels. \u201cThat\u2019s right, that\u2019s what they d\u2013\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut <em>I<\/em> don\u2019t advertise them as Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTell me, is it a different animal?\u201d the owner answers.<\/p>\n<p>Ramsay is incredulous. \u201cMaine\u2026is a\u00a0 Canadian lobster for you?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>Homarus Americanus<\/em>\u2013same animal, right?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramsay shakes his head. \u201cHoly f#\u00a2&amp;.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m asking you a question.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ramsay slows his voice, as if he\u2019s speaking to a child. \u201cWhat you\u2019re trying to dictate to me is that you\u2019re selling Maine lobster. They\u2019re not from Maine.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell, it comes from the same vendors.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHoly f#\u00a2&amp;.\u201d Gordon draws out the epithet before he explodes, \u201cThe award-winning Maine lobster roll\u2026is Canadian!\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>W<\/em><em>e\u2019re always delighted to speak to anyone whose admiration for Maine lobster matches ours. We got a chance to catch Gordon Ramsay in London, in between managing his 6 currently running television shows (not counting specials) and his 25 restaurants.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><strong>In Series Two, Episode Four of <em>American Kitchen Nightmares<\/em>, you visited the Black Pearl and had a spirited conversation with one of the owners, in which we were very pleased to see you share an appreciation for the magic of a Maine lobster worthy of a Mainer. For you, what\u2019s so special about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Maine has a great reputation for lobster. Even though the lobster is in the same family as the Canadian lobster, there is something special\u00a0about getting them from Maine. They are locally sourced and helping to maintain a tradition within the state.<\/p>\n<p><strong>While we Mainers like to think we\u2019d always be able to tell the difference, is there a particular characteristic that tips you off to when you\u2019re being served counterfeit Maine lobster?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Both the Canadian and Maine lobster are in the same family\u2013they are the same animal\u2013but the most obvious difference is the size and quality of the meat.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Nobody would really take a New York Strip when they\u2019d ordered veal either, and that\u2019s the same animal as well. Why would someone use Canadian lobster in restaurant-scale operations?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The price of the lobster varies with the seasons. Most suppliers will substitute with Canadian lobsters when there is a shortage of Maine lobster. During December and January, few lobsters come out of Maine, and there are more available from Canada.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How often have you suspected you might be getting Canadian lobster dressed as Maine? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It is a common practice, as it can be difficult to tell the difference. Using a good supplier that you have a good working relationship with probably helps prevent this!<\/p>\n<p><strong>As a chef who\u2019s clearly shown how passionate he is about <\/strong><strong>real food and real ingredients, what\u2019s your opinion of food fraud? Does it make a difference if the customer never knows?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Of course! When a customer orders a meal, they expect what they see on the menu.\u00a0 Substituting an ingredient or using a lower-end product is not an option. I use the best ingredients wherever available\u2013it is the basis to a great meal.<\/p>\n<p><strong>We understand you were in Maine for three months in the not-too-distant past. What was the best meal you had in a Maine restaurant while you were here?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was dinner at a restaurant called One Dock at the Kennebunkport Inn.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Oh, that must have been <em>very<\/em> recently, since they\u2019ve only had the new menu and the name \u201cOne Dock\u201d since the end of June 2009. What were you doing here? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d surf, as I love Maine\u2019s coastline. It\u2019s stunning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Particularly at Gooch\u2019s Beach. What do you think of the lobster advocates who claim it\u2019s morally wrong to put a live lobster into a boiling pot?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Putting a lobster straight into boiling water is one of the fastest and\u00a0more humane ways of killing it. This may not seem right to some people.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some \u2018lobster virgins\u2019 can be afraid of the appearance of, and the experience of, eating a lobster. Do you have any recommendations for helping them past this?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>There are many different ways to cook and eat lobster. Maybe at first not showing them the whole body,\u00a0encouraging them to help you prepare them, and gradually introducing them to the legs and claws. Avoid the green stuff!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Since I\u2019ve got this opportunity, I\u2019ve got to ask this question. What New England meal would you recommend to cook for a hot date?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can\u2019t go wrong with a clam bake\u2013with lobster, clams, mussels, and corn on the cob.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sounds like it would go great with beer and conversation. We\u2019ve seen so many variants on the lobster roll, including lemon juice and curry. Have you got a personal twist on the famous Maine sandwich you\u2019d be willing to share with us?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It has to be simple! Lobster, mayo, celery on\u00a0grilled\u00a0hot dog roll with butter\u2026<\/p>\n<p><em>And the lobster has to be from Maine<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Colin S. Sargent has a Master\u2019s in history and has lived south of London\u2013where he caught the cooking bug\u2013as well as south of Portland. He is continuing his studies toward a Ph.D. at Northeastern University and recently returned from China, where he furthered his exploration of regional cuisine.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>James Craig<\/h2>\n<p>Portland\u2019s new police chief is 3,000 miles from southern California, his home of 28 years, and staring down the barrel of his first Maine winter. \u201cI am concerned about the climate, not having gone through a good Maine winter,\u201d jokes Chief\u00a0<strong>James Craig<\/strong>. \u201cThat could be a deciding factor.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s unlikely that anything like snow, ice, sleet, or hail is going to deter the 52-year-old Craig. Certainly the money didn\u2019t. He\u2019s taken a significant pay cut, from the $170,000 he made as a captain in the Los Angeles Police Department to $91,000, but he says, \u201cThere is a good, supportive community here. I know together we can make a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Since you took office, has the situation with respect to crime, the community, and your department been what you anticipated?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Just before I took office, I became aware of the fragile relations between the police and some of the Sudanese. The second day after I arrived, I met with [the late] Angelo Okot [chairman of the Sudanese Community Association] to talk about the kind of things we could work on together to bridge the gap.<\/p>\n<p>Since then, I\u2019ve met with different groups within the African community. It was clear that many of the immigrants\u2014not just the Sudanese\u2014were not familiar with policing in the U.S. We\u2019ve discussed launching a community police academy with a focus on new citizens. We see this as an opportunity to educate the immigrant community about why the police do certain things, with the sole purpose of building better relationships.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What do you see as your department\u2019s top priorities?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>First, we\u2019d like to build and further develop our community policing.<\/p>\n<p>Next would be launching our youth initiatives. We\u2019ve had success with a Portland Police Explorer Post [which trains young cadets who are considering a career in law enforcement]. We\u2019re looking at boosting the size of that program. Through the Police Athletic League, we\u2019ll start youth basketball camps and games this fall and winter.<\/p>\n<p>As part of my restructuring process, we\u2019ll be establishing community sectors, each of which will be headed by a Senior Lead Officer (SLO) who\u2019ll be the contact for that community. The purpose is to be able to work more closely with the community to solve concerns and enhance quality-of-life issues.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Some people are convinced Portland\u00a0is a more violent city than it was a few decades ago. What do you hope to do about it?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Talking to long-time residents and police officers who\u2019ve worked here for many years, I\u2019ve heard that the crime picture has changed and that they\u2019ve seen more incidents of violence and drug dealing. The drug issue is a concern for me. We\u2019re also seeing a slight increase in what we think is gang activity. It\u2019s not to a point where we should live in fear, but it\u2019s certainly a concern. We\u2019re gathering intelligence and working very hard to identify those involved.<\/p>\n<p>Let me say candidly that the old Portland Police Department\u2014and I put the emphasis on old\u2014wasn\u2019t very good about working closely with other agencies. The department has done a phenomenal job in addressing crime, but we could have done a better job of maintaining strong relations with our state and federal partners. That was one or two administrations ago. I\u2019m working on rebuilding those relationships so we can work together as one team instead of separate fiefdoms. The other officers in the department are some of the best and are eager to work on these relationships, so the situation was not a reflection on the rank and file. It was something the old guard embraced, being very territorial.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How is your administration changing the way it addresses crime in the city?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve launched CompStat [computer statistics]. It provides ways of analyzing crimes and seeing trends, and it gives you a benchmark and the ability to hold your management team accountable. Since we launched CompStat in August, we\u2019ve seen a steady reduction in crime\u2014and it\u2019s not even fully up and running. Overall, crime is down 9 percent and, year to date, violent crime is down 13 percent.<\/p>\n<p>But when I\u2019m out there meeting with community groups, I hear, \u201cWe still feel that there are areas that aren\u2019t safe.\u201d While it\u2019s nice to be able to say we\u2019ve seen the reduction in crime, what\u2019s equally important is the fear of crime. I can sit here and talk about crime reduction, but if you don\u2019t feel safer, I haven\u2019t done my job. \u2013By Donna Stuart<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Patricia Quinn<\/h2>\n<p>Patricia Quinn has a need for speed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Donna Stuart<\/strong><br \/>\nIt\u2019s a little past 8 a.m., and two Downeaster trains have already left Portland, speeding at 79 miles per hour across Scarborough marsh on their way to Boston\u2019s North Station\u2026<\/p>\n<p>Patricia Quinn has been at her desk for more than an hour.<\/p>\n<p>Quinn is executive director of Northern New England Passenger Rail Authority, which coordinates passenger rail service for the State of Maine. When, with a staff of just four, you\u2019re overseeing a budget of $15 million a year and a business that transports half a million people annually in three states over two railroads, the hours are long.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are days I wonder, \u2018How in God\u2019s name did I ever end up in this job?\u2019\u201d says the modest 45-year-old. \u201cI went from making flyers for the pottery shop at the Naval Submarine Base in Groton, Connecticut, to being out in a field looking at how many spikes are in a piece of rail\u2013but I love it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Quinn moved to Maine in 1987, first working for an escorted tour business in northern Maine, then as the general manager and division manager for Erin Co., a chain-hotel firm with interests including Holiday Inns. By 2000, she was burnt out and looking for something new. That October, she was hired to plan the Downeaster\u2019s inaugural run.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019d never even ridden on a train,\u201d she confides, but she says her business background kicked in. \u201cWhen you think of it, it wasn\u2019t that different from what I\u2019d been doing. In a hotel, you have an inventory of rooms. On a train, it\u2019s an inventory of seats.\u201d\u00a0When, after a few months, the inaugural run was delayed, Quinn was hired full-time as NNEPRA\u2019s development, marketing, and public relations director. In 2005, she became the executive director. Two years later, she was the recipient of the Amtrak President\u2019s Award for Excellence.<\/p>\n<p>For Quinn, the key to Downeaster\u2019s success has been making the connections with partners, passengers, and railfans. \u201cThe service isn\u2019t successful because of me or NNEPRA. It\u2019s because of our partnerships with the host railroad Pan Am; the MBTA [Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority, which runs greater Boston\u2019s public transportation system]; Amtrak; our food service partner, Epicurean Feast; Trainriders\/NorthEast, whose members serve as volunteer hosts on the train\u2026the list goes on and on. Even though we don\u2019t cover our costs through the fare box, we try to make the services streamlined and customer-focused. If the customers are happy, a lot of things fall into place.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What Quinn hopes will fall into place soon is Stimulus Fund money to pay for improvements to the Portland to Boston line, as well as expansion north to Brunswick. The goal will be to make the trip to Boston from Portland in just 2 hours and 10 minutes\u201315 minutes less than the trip currently takes\u2013and add two more round trips a day.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This will also \u201callow us to make improvements to the track. The more sidings we add where trains can pass each other, the more flexibility and capacity we have. We won\u2019t be increasing the top speed\u2013the maximum speed will still be 79 miles per hour\u2013but there are places we\u2019ll make improvements, so instead of going 60 miles per hour, we\u2019ll be able to go 75 or 79,\u201d she explains. That\u2019s still slower than the fastest train in North America, Amtrak\u2019s Acela Express, which runs between Boston and Washington, D.C., with a top speed of 135 to 150 mph.<\/p>\n<p>Quinn says expanding service to Brunswick\u2013with a stop in Freeport, the number one tourism destination in the state\u2013is critical to turning the train into a tourism engine for the region. \u201cEvery time you connect the dots, it gives you that much more opportunity. Now, 86 percent of travelers who ride the Downeaster are headed to Boston. It\u2019s been a bit of a challenge to get people to use the train to come north to Maine. The State of Maine owns the Brunswick to Rockland branch and spent about $40 million to rehab it several years ago so it can support passenger rail. Right now the Maine Eastern Railroad runs an excursion service between Brunswick and Rockland. Making the connection to Brunswick also provides an additional 15 miles to Rockland.\u201d The result: Riders will be able to go from Boston to Rockland, possibly as early as October 2011.<\/p>\n<p>Quinn, who lives in Scarborough, finally did get her first train ride one month before the Downeaster\u2019s inaugural run. Does she take the train when she vacations? \u201cI really don\u2019t [go on vacation]. I\u2019m a homebody. I have two teenagers and a wonderful man in my life. I love to garden, cook and run.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As if running the most successful train in the Amtrak system weren\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Mary\u00a0Pols<\/h2>\n<p>Accidentally on Purpose in Maine<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Donna Stuart <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many women might be reluctant to tell even their closest friends about a one-night stand. Brunswick native Mary Pols not only confessed to family and friends, she wrote a memoir about it: <em>Accidentally on Purpose: A One-Night Stand, My Unplanned Parenthood, and Loving the Best Mistake I Ever Made<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Even before it was published, she sold the story to television. <em>Accidentally on Purpose<\/em>, starring Jenna Elfman, premiered in September on CBS in the highly coveted time slot between <em>How I Met Your Mother<\/em> and <em>Two and a Half Men<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Pols and her child\u2019s father opted <em>not<\/em> to watch the series opener on September 21; instead, they went out for a quiet dinner. A week earlier, she\u2019d been at the taping of the sixth episode. \u201cEven though I prepared myself, watching the show was very, very weird, like something out of <em>The Player<\/em> [the Robert Altman film] or a Woody Allen movie.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pols sees more points of difference than similarities between the show\u2019s main character, Billie, and herself. \u201cShe has an apartment that looks pretty nice to me, with an extra room she can turn into a nursery. I didn\u2019t hear her stress about money, but that was really on my mind. It looks like she\u2019s going to have a more active dating life than I did, or than I do. She doesn\u2019t seem at this point to be too concerned with the state of journalism; I no longer have a job at a newspaper. The only similarity is that she\u2013both the character and Jenna, the actress\u2013likes to make people laugh, and that\u2019s me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pols does approve of the casting. She\u2019s blogged, \u201cI liked [Elfman] on <em>Dharma &amp; Greg<\/em>. I think she\u2019s a gifted comedian, especially when it comes to the physical stuff, and when I met her in person, she was beautiful, graceful, and sweet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>But Pols doesn\u2019t like the show\u2019s portrayal of Billie as a \u2018cougar.\u2019 \u201cI find the whole cougar thing gross, and I want no part of it. I did say to the people at CBS that I hoped they wouldn\u2019t play up the whole cougar thing, because I think society is already over it. It\u2019s now considered a turn-off.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Pols got pregnant, she was 39, living in northern California and working as an entertainment writer for the <em>Contra-Costa Times<\/em>. As one of six siblings born to a Bowdoin College philosophy professor and a stay-at-home mom, Pols had always wanted a baby\u2014but as part of a life with a soul mate. Instead, after 11 months of celibacy and an evening of too much wine, she had a one-night stand with Matt, an unemployed twenty-nine-year-old she\u2019d just met.<\/p>\n<p>Three weeks later, she found she was pregnant and, realizing how much she wanted to keep the baby, told Matt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI asked him how he felt about babies, and he replied, \u2018Well, everyone wants a child.\u2019\u201d If Matt wasn\u2019t the man of her dreams or life- partner material, at least he\u2019d be devoted to their child.<\/p>\n<p>Over the ensuing months, Pols struggled to balance working, paying the bills, an unemployed baby father (who lived with her sporadically), and the needs of her family in Maine. Her mother, suffering from dementia, was in a nursing home; her father, in failing health, had an Irish Catholic take on out-of-wedlock pregnancies. With humor, startling honesty, and an acerbic wit, Pols recounts in her memoir the story of her pregnancy, son Dolan\u2019s birth, the death of both her parents, and how she and Matt found their way as co-parents.<\/p>\n<p>Birthing the 272-page book wasn\u2019t easy. \u201cMy editor, Lee Boudreaux at HarperCollins, is wonderful, but she was a brutal taskmaster. I thought because I was writing a book, I could go on and on. She kept slashing, tightening, and making it move at a really fast pace. There were many, many drafts. She\u2019d read a draft and send me a 12-page, single-spaced letter about what I needed to do.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For Pols, Maine was always the heart of the story. \u201cThere were points in the draft that had me spending so much time going back and forth to Maine. My editor said, \u2018This book is supposed to be set in California\u2026\u2019 How do you explain to anyone, if you\u2019re from Maine, how important it is to you? I\u2019ve lived on the West Coast for 20 years, but I\u2019m still a Mainer. The most important story in my life takes place as much in Maine as in California. I had to fight to keep Maine, but it ended up being a slightly smaller part of the book.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pols returns each summer to stay at the Boathouse, the waterfront cottage in Phippsburg that her family has rented each summer since she was a child. \u201cWe\u2019re already signed up for next year. It\u2019s really trite, but when I come back, I have to eat lobster as much as possible and in as many forms as possible. To get them, we go down to Small Point Fish near Sebasco Lodge [now Sebasco Harbor Resort], where I worked when I was in college. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve ever had a better job than when I was a waitress at the Lodge. The other thing I have to do is get in the water. All year I dream of swimming in Maine. I feel like I\u2019m not really myself until I\u2019m in that water. The one line I can remember from sixth-grade poetry is, \u2018I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,\u2019 and that\u2019s how I feel.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Five-year-old Dolan loves it, too. \u201cHe\u2019s filled with joy when he\u2019s in Maine. If it weren\u2019t for keeping him close to his father and my work as a movie critic, I\u2019d move back to Maine in a heartbeat.\u201d This past summer, she and Dolan also spent time in Boston and Brunswick. \u201cWe went to Fenway. It was amazing\u2014and a little embarrassing because he rooted for the A\u2019s. The A\u2019s lost, and he cried.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When the conversation turns to Brunswick, it\u2019s clear that Bowdoin was a powerful influence in Pols\u2019s life. \u201c[Growing up], to be so close to a place that is so rich in culture, to be a little girl playing on the steps of the Museum of Art, running in and out of the building and knowing those galleries almost as well as I knew my own house\u2026 to be taken to theater at the college, which my mother did from the time we were very young, or to be taken to movies\u2013the fact that it was all there was really essential. I love seeing my nieces and nephews having the<br \/>\nsame experience.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Pols isn\u2019t sure that Maine will be part of the sitcom. \u201cCBS bought it, and they get to do with it what they want. It\u2019s too bad.\u201d Initially Pols wasn\u2019t sure she wanted to sell the television rights. \u201cI considered not selling it\u2014it\u2019s not really that much money. And what if it\u2019s really embarrassing? I\u2019m not a TV snob by any means. I\u2019m devoted to <em>Mad Men<\/em> and <em>Project Runway<\/em>. We did some negotiating. Then I asked Ann Packer, who wrote <em>The Dive from Clausen\u2019s Pier<\/em>, which was turned into a Lifetime movie. She told me selling to television was like found money; you\u2019ve already done the work, so go for it\u2013and I did.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Selling the television rights and her first book hasn\u2019t made her wealthy. Pols still lives in the same rented duplex she moved into while pregnant. \u201cIn March 2008, I took a buy-out from the newspaper and then freelanced. The first six months was really slow. I was just being rejected or not having e-mails even returned.\u201d The money she received has given her the opportunity to focus on writing a novel.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have two novels started; I\u2019m waiting to see which takes hold. The one I\u2019m more excited about is set in Maine at a resort; the inspiration is Sebasco. I\u2019ve read so many books set in Maine that are written by people who don\u2019t really know it. The other is set in Italy. It\u2019s important when you\u2019re writing to put yourself in a place geographically that makes you happy.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Jenna Elfman<\/h2>\n<p>is not a Mainer, but she plays one on TV\u2013in her new\u00a0 CBS prime time comedy<em> Accidentally on Purpose<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Your show navigates through some interesting territory\u2013\u201cabout a single woman, Billie, who finds herself \u2018accidentally\u2019 pregnant after a one-night stand\u201d with a 22-year-old man, Zack. It\u2019s full of snappy humor alternating with flashes of real self-awareness. Is that what draws you to the character?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Yes. The situation of <em>what\u2019s happening in this girl\u2019s life<\/em>\u2013what her friends say, what her reactions are, her ex-boyfriend\u2019s reactions (he\u2019s also her present boss)\u2013and the great scripts are what make this show different. There are big changes in Billie\u2019s life\u2013she\u2019s pregnant, with all this craziness around her, yet she somehow finds a way for her confidence, self-doubt, and sarcasm to coexist. She is able to find joy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What\u2019s it like knowing the real-life version of your character, Billie, is alive somewhere\u2013in this case in Maine?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Because I\u2019ve gotten to meet Mary Pols [the Phippsburg resident who is the author of the bestselling memoir <em>Accidentally on Purpose<\/em>, on which the show is based], I\u2019m completely in love with her. She\u2019s so charming and witty and funny and smart, and I think she knows that in order to make this show a comedy we have to take her life situation and run with it a bit to keep it a comedy venue week to week. So there\u2019s always some differences, and her Billie is different from this one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Meeting Pols must have been like looking through a looking glass\u2013seeing someone who resembles your character as you interpret her but is necessarily different.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She came and visited us on set several episodes in. I\u2019d asked Claudia Lonow, our writer and executive producer, if she thought I should read the book before we started filming. She said, \u201cLet\u2019s read it later, and create what we\u2019re going to create now.\u201d I think that was a good thing. Now that I know \u2018where the funny is\u2019 [in terms of the show], I\u2019ve loved reading the book for additional layers of who Billie is. I\u2019m fascinated with how she can express her self-doubt in such a confident way.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019re from Los Angeles, and originally the book had a split setting of California and Maine. It makes sense to set the show in California\u2013arguably the un-Maine\u2013to simplify things. But do you think of Maine as the alternate world of setting that <\/strong><strong><em>almost<\/em><\/strong><strong> happened, waving to you outside the window?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Reading the book, I just remember thinking, <em>that\u2019s where her family lives<\/em>. I\u2019m reading it from such a point of view of the show. <em>Wow, we don\u2019t have Maine as part of this. I don\u2019t have heavy family as part of this. This is Mary-specific. This is particular to her<\/em>. Maine\u2019s so different from San Francisco. The juxtaposition of her family, what that meant to her, is such a different road running beside the San Francisco craziness.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Maybe when Billie needs to be alone for a while she could clear her head in a place <\/strong><strong><em>like <\/em><\/strong><strong>Maine, even if it\u2019s somewhere in California. Practically speaking, where would that be?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>(Laughs) <\/em>We can\u2019t get away from our characters, or there wouldn\u2019t be any story. She\u2019d have to <em>bring her sister and her best friend<\/em> with her. Maybe\u2026Marin County?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Have you ever been to Maine before? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I toured with Z.Z. Top as a dancer in 1994. I remember just getting out and walking in Portland. We were in a tour bus. I remember walking over a beautiful bridge over a river and really taking the whole feeling of it in. I remember there was this bridge.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019re really the center of this show. What\u2019s that feeling like, where everyone is keying on the expression on your face after something\u2019s just happened?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s more in this show than anything I had in <em>Dharma &amp; Greg<\/em>. I love reacting. It\u2019s letting whatever happens really land on you and absorbing it. Letting some big moment really land on you and finding an unexpected reaction.<\/p>\n<p><strong>There\u2019s a neat tone in the show that\u2019s rapid-fire-funny and then thoughtful as you transparently examine your own motives.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Even when she gets herself in a pickle, there\u2019s a part of Billie that <em>likes <\/em>the life experience of the pickle and the craziness. She likes mocking herself. She\u2019s slightly enjoying the craziness because it\u2019s <em>living<\/em>\u2013it buffers a total neurotic introversion.<\/p>\n<p><strong>What are your secret vices on set? Where do you get your energy?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Usually it\u2019s going to my dressing room and seeing my two-and-a-half-year-old boy, who fills me up with such joy. And I\u2019m usually sipping some kind of tea throughout the show.<\/p>\n<p><strong>When will Billie have her baby? <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>She\u2019ll have the baby in the season finale.<\/p>\n<p><strong>How do you approach that as an actress?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>I am pregnant with my second baby right now. My due date is in March.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ah, the Stanislavski method! Our readers wouldn\u2019t let us get away without asking you to describe the difference between Billie and Dharma. <\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Dharma was a brand new Volkswagen with a flower on it, cute, perky, and fun, while Billie is a cool, vintage Mercedes convertible, with style and classic lines and a great curve. You know those small, white Mercedes convertibles from the 1950s that look as though they\u2019re about to start speaking French or something? Billie has experienced life, she loves life, and she doesn\u2019t take it too seriously but is aware of her situation. Because she\u2019s a movie critic, she has this strange exterior view of her experience while exploring her feelings on the inside, too.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Again, some interesting gray areas, made more dramatic by a selective relationship where one moment she can love what she needs to love about Zack and then another moment dismiss him outright.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>These scripts have been created with such dimension. <em>You don\u2019t feel one way about someone<\/em>. You feel multiple ways about someone. <em>I love that he stayed in my life. I love that he stayed with me. But he\u2019s a 22-year-old male<\/em>. That universe is not her universe. When that whole 22-year-old boy thing comes up, she\u2019s humored by it but feels no need to take it seriously.<\/p>\n<p><strong>If you could pick an actress from the last 100 years\u2013someone who can be accessible or even callous when the situation requires it\u2013to play your part just so you could have the fun of watching her, who would you choose?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Now don\u2019t make it seem like I\u2019m comparing myself to them, because I\u2019m not! But what I\u2019d like to see is\u2026sort of a cross between Rosalind Russell and Katharine Hepburn.\u00a0 <em>\u2013Interview by Colin Sargent<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Emmett Beliveau<\/h2>\n<p>Few can keep up with President Obama. It\u2019s Emmett Beliveau\u2019s job to stay ahead of him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Donna Stuart<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>There\u2019s a picture of Emmett Beliveau sitting in President Jimmy Carter\u2019s lap at his maternal grandparents\u2019 house in Wayne, Maine, on February 19, 1978. Just a toddler, Beliveau was already in the thick of political life. Today, the 32-year-old son of former state representative and Democratic gubernatorial candidate Severin Beliveau is the director of advance for President Barack Obama. Having served in that capacity throughout Obama\u2019s candidacy, he\u2019s now responsible for planning and organizing every major event that takes place outside the White House, including the president\u2019s foreign and domestic trips. Since January, Beliveau has traveled ahead of presidential visits to France, Germany, Italy, Canada, the U.K., Czech Republic, Iraq, Russia, and Egypt. His next trip will likely be to Oslo, Norway, in advance of the president\u2019s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize on December 10.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI grew up around politics in Maine and spent a lot of time at the capitol up and down the corridors of the third floor, so it was something I was exposed to a very young age. My first exposure to advance was when President Clinton and Senator Mitchell visited Deering Oaks Park [in 1993]. Seeing a couple of guys, whom I now understand were advance people, organizing the logistics of the event from the crowd control to the visuals and the program, I said, \u201cI think I want to do that someday.\u201d In the summer of 1996, when President Clinton came back to Maine, I was involved as a volunteer helping the advance team and really caught the bug; after graduating from college, I went on to do it full-time for the Gore campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI met [then Senator] Obama in the fall of 2006. I was practicing law in D.C. and had taken off a couple of weeks from work to go down to Tennessee to volunteer on Harold Ford\u2019s Senate race. Sen. Obama came to Nashville for a day to campaign for Congressman Ford. I put together the senator\u2019s visit and traveled around with him that day. I was wildly impressed with his message and with him as a person and believed almost instantly that if he decided to run for president, as was speculated at the time, I very much wanted to be part of that campaign. I told him that that day. Several months later, in February 2007, I found myself in Springfield, Illinois, planning his campaign announcement event.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn the summer of 2008, when I organized the rally in Berlin [attended by a crowd of 250,000], I made two trips to Germany, one by myself to scout out different locations, and then back with a large advance team two weeks prior to when the president came through. We worked with the German officials to organize what was the only public event of the president\u2019s foreign tour that summer. The German people and the officials in Berlin were incredibly gracious hosts, and we couldn\u2019t have done it without them.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think the best moment for me was on election night, watching the president-elect of the United States take the stage in Grant Park in downtown Chicago. My daughter was one day old and in the hospital\u201310 days early and about 10 blocks down the street, at Prentice Women\u2019s Hospital. The plan all along was to have her in Chicago, but Maeve didn\u2019t want to miss the action, so she showed up a day before election day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe inauguration was a wonderful American celebration and an incredibly powerful experience for me, for my family, and for my three-month-old baby girl. I was lucky to work with such an incredible team who put that inaugural together.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously the inauguration is more than just the moment when the president takes the oath of office. There were days of events and of service and celebration around that time. At the Presidential Inaugural Committee, or PIC, which I led, we had a staff of about 425 that started from a dead stop about a week after election day. It took about seven or eight weeks to ramp up, to organize the inaugural events, and then to ramp back down.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEssentially I now have a desk job in D.C., where I\u2019m managing the advance staff. I don\u2019t travel with the president. We work anywhere from two months to six days ahead of him.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Asked if there\u2019s a picture of the <em>next<\/em> generation of Beliveaus sitting on the lap of the president, the proud father replies, \u201cNo, Maeve hasn\u2019t met the president yet. We\u2019re looking to do that maybe around her first birthday, if the president is available.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Deborah Rice<\/h2>\n<p>Staring down the chemical lobby<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Donna Stuart<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fall 2009 is hot time for Dr. Deborah Rice. The 62-year-old toxicologist, who works for the Maine CDC, was just about to take a long-planned vacation in Iceland when, out of the blue, she won $100,000.<\/p>\n<p>No, it wasn\u2019t the lottery.<\/p>\n<p>The Heinz Foundation chose Dr. Rice as a Heinz Award recipient for her research into neurotoxicology leading to the conclusion\u00a0 that \u201cearly exposure to major environmental pollutants\u2013lead, methylmercury, and PCBs\u2013can plant the seeds for later deficits in cognitive, sensory, and motor function.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The award citation continues, \u201cDr. Rice\u2019s work has also led to national and state policies that regulate exposure to developmental toxicants.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Rice\u2019s studies of the flame-retardant chemical, decaBDE \u201cresulted in the 2007 ban of decaBDE by the Maine legislature\u201d which led to other states following suit.<\/p>\n<p>But decaBDE did not go gentle into that good night.<\/p>\n<p>After Dr. Rice, a former risk assessor at the Environmental Protection Agency in Washington, testified before the Maine Legislature about decaBDE in 2007 as an independent scientist, she chaired a national five-member peer review panel on the flame retardant, with comments forwarded to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for review.<\/p>\n<p>Then the American Chemistry Council, the lobbying group for the chemical industry, wrote a letter to the EPA, asking for her removal from the panel, charging conflict of interest because of her earlier testimony in Maine. The EPA complied, striking her comments from the record, even though it was common to have scientists with ties to industry on such panels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cInitially it was embarrassing,\u201d says Rice. \u201cThen I realized it was just the industry being the industry. The fact that a Bush appointee would agree with the industry wasn\u2019t surprising. Then I began to enjoy watching what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The controversy escalated into a whirlwind of accusations of undue industry influence within EPA, leading Congress to investigate and changes to be made.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt didn\u2019t make any difference at all whether my comments were there or not. It made no difference that I was chairing the session; all that meant was that I was running the meeting. My comments [held no more weight] anyone else\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So why the kerfluffle?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe only reason I could come up with was that other states had bills in to ban deca. The industry really wanted to keep deca in production [because] it\u2019s very lucrative. I think their real agenda was to discredit me so they could go to Illinois or any other state and say, \u2018You shouldn\u2019t pay any attention to what happened in Maine because the EPA says Rice is a biased scientist.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When asked if winning the Heinz Foundation award feels like payback, Rice bursts into laughter. \u201cIt\u2019s really the icing on the cake. It was worth it! When the head of the foundation called and said it was an award and it\u2019s $100,000, my first question was: \u2018What?\u2019 My second question was, \u2018Why?!\u2019 I was just stunned. I feel so honored to be the recipient of this award because I don\u2019t feel like I ever set out to change the world. I guess what I have going for me is that I don\u2019t hesitate to speak my mind, and I don\u2019t back down.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Carolyn Gage<\/h2>\n<p>Greetings from Lesbos, Maine<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Donna Stuart<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Who are we, and where have we come from? For some of us, looking at our immediate family provides all the answers we need. Lesbian playwright and activist Carolyn Gage has been searching for her own history for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I realized I was a lesbian, which happened in my early thirties, that was the most compelling story because that was the one that had been kept from me. I really needed to go find my people, and when I found them, it was so fascinating, and our history is so amazing; those were the stories I wanted to tell on the stage,\u201d says the 57-year-old. She tells some of those stories in <em>Greetings from Lesbos, Maine: A Theatrical Journey through Maine\u2019s Lesbian History<\/em>. Written and directed by Gage and Meghan Brodie, an instructor in USM\u2019s theater department, the production includes stories of famous lesbians who were from Maine or spent time here. Audiences meet Sarah Orne Jewett, author Natalie Barney, poet Ren\u00e9e Vivien, and novelist Marguerite Yourcenar. Gage takes the stage as Cornelia \u2018Fly Rod\u2019 Crosby, the first Maine hunting guide, in <em>The Parmachene Belle<\/em>. The solo show is taken from the collection of plays that won Gage the 2009 Lambda Literary Award for the best LGBT [lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender] drama in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I started out, a lot of people felt very threatened going to LGBT theater, and most of my audience was lesbian,\u201d explains Gage, a graduate of Portland State University in Oregon. \u201cWhen I moved to Portland [Maine] and started producing my work, all kinds of folks came to see the shows. There\u2019s a sense here that anything that goes on in Portland is of interest to Portlanders. It\u2019s like, \u2018We may not know much about this, we may even be a bit nervous about it, but you\u2019re a neighbor, and we\u2019re going to come.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Dartmouth Street resident has high praise for Portland\u2019s theater community. \u201cAs a freelance playwright, occasional producer, and sometime touring artist, I have had so many opportunities. The St. Lawrence Art Center has co-sponsored me, and Mike Levine with Acorn Productions has been hugely supportive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen lesbians, who don\u2019t normally grow up in lesbian families, go to find their history, we just keep running into all these locked doors,\u201d she continues. \u201cPeople say, \u2018Oh, of course if she had a husband, she couldn\u2019t be\u2026,\u2019 or \u2018There\u2019s no proof she was a lesbian. Just because Fly Rod wore men\u2019s clothes and looked kind of masculine doesn\u2019t mean anything.\u2019 But I think Fly Rod was in my community, and I want to know her history and how she negotiated that identity in 1890-something.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOne thing about Mainers is that we\u2019re incredibly proud of our history. Let\u2019s put the lesbian history on the table because we have such famous women here. If your daughter came home and told you she was a lesbian, and the first thing you thought of was Sarah Jewett or Fly Rod Crosby, that\u2019s a very different thing than if you\u2019re immediately thinking of something pornographic or what you might have heard in church about burning in hell forever.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring this recent campaign [to repeal marriage equality in Maine], the outsiders, the haters [have been] trying to scare people, saying that if gay marriage is legal in Maine, your children will be taught about homosexuality at a really young age. They\u2019re trying to scare parents, using lies. At this point, all children are assumed to be heterosexual, and everything they learn, even at three years old, is about heterosexuality, like the prince and the princess. And they\u2019re learning it\u2019s the entire world and that anything else is weird or wrong. What we\u2019re doing to the children right now is way scarier than the kind of open examples when same sex people can get married.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you sit down to a table full of lesbians my age and ask, \u2018Who ever thought of killing yourself?\u2019 most hands will go up. I wrote a play, <em>Ugly Ducklings<\/em>, about girls in a Maine summer camp and the impact of homophobia on girls. Homophobia is very frightening, especially for children\u2013people calling you queer, and sometimes you\u2019re so young you don\u2019t know what it means, but you know [what they\u2019re saying is that] there\u2019s something really wrong with you. The play deals with the fact that children can and do take their own lives as a result of gay-baiting. Statistically, something like 40 percent of child suicides are related to LGBT issues\u2013and then there\u2019s homelessness, because they\u2019re not able to stay in their homes. To me, it\u2019s high time that kind of childhood went away.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Arthur Fournier<\/h2>\n<p>Tugs of war<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Donna Stuart<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The stories flow easily from Arthur Fournier, who\u2019s like a Borscht Belt comedian with a well-rehearsed schtick. He knows how to tell tales and how to move the goods. He\u2019s owned and operated tugboat and barge businesses from New York to Belfast and a short line railroad in Cleveland, and he\u2019s been a tugboat captain and senior docking pilot in Portland Harbor. By turns, the 78-year-old is garrulous, pugnacious, and even charming\u2026but after agreeing to be interviewed, he cautions, \u201cIf you can\u2019t say anything nice, don\u2019t say anything at all.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Are tugboat captains known for circumspection and manners?<\/p>\n<p>Granted, the U.S. Coast Guard did give Fournier the Meritorious Public Service Award in May 2001, saying, \u201cHis actions have set a standard of excellence in ship-handling and port safety over a period of significant tanker traffic growth in Portland.\u201d But it\u2019s not always been awards or his skills in ship-handling that have put Fournier\u2019s name in the headlines during his 63-year-long career. Most recently it\u2019s been for a family-splitting legal action that pits Fournier against his son, Brian.<\/p>\n<p>The oldest of Fournier\u2019s three living sons (eldest son Billy died in a barge accident in 1985), Brian Fournier used to work with his father. In 2001, the senior Fournier says he sold his Portland tugboat assets for $9 million to McAllister Towing, which operates Portland Tugboat, LLC. He emphasizes that McAllister didn\u2019t buy his business. \u201cIt was never the sale of the company. They bought the tugboat assets, which included four tugboats, a barge, and a pick-up truck. That\u2019s what they bought.\u201d At the same time, Brian Fournier was named president of Portland Tugboat, which took over guiding the majority of ship traffic in and out of Portland Harbor.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this summer, several years after a no-compete clause expired, Arthur and his two younger sons, Patrick and Doug, steamed back into Portland Harbor and began offering lower rates for moving and docking ships. On July 31, Portland Tugboat filed suit against him alleging trademark infringement related to use of what it considers a nearly identical business name, Portland Towing and Ship Service, Inc. Fournier has filed a suit against his son, charging defamation of character for statements he says Brian made to customers. When asked if it\u2019s distressing to be locked in a legal battle with Brian, Fournier replies shortly, \u201cNot in the least. He decided his best interests are with McAllister. So that\u2019s the way it is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arthur Fournier never has been one to back away from a fight, and anyone who would take him on should be warned: He always carries a pistol in his pocket. \u201cI was shot in a hold-up by three pisanos on January 22, 1972, at my office in Charlestown, Massachusetts,\u201d he says. \u201cThree guys were waiting for me in my office trailer, and when I come in, they started shooting. I was shot 12 times in probably 8 seconds. They didn\u2019t know I had a permit to carry and that I will never allow myself to be taken by anybody for any reason, for any thing.\u201d As he\u2019s told the <em>Maine Sunday Telegram<\/em>, \u201cI die hard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He details his injuries: \u201cThree in the center of the chest, center of the belly, and lower right abdomen; three in the right leg; one in the left leg; one in the left arm; one in the left shoulder; three in the right hand; and one in the ass.\u201d He provides photos of himself, skinny and naked except for briefs and bandages, with scars plainly visible.<\/p>\n<p>He apparently is more forgiving of the men who shot him than the son who worked side-by-side with him from a young age. Fournier later encountered one of his assailants at the Massachusetts General Hospital, where they both were undergoing rehabilitation for the injuries they received in the shoot-out. For Fournier, there were no hard feelings. When a blizzard kept the assailant from getting a ride home, Fournier drove him. \u201cIt was only a fight. Let sleeping dogs lie. It was over.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He tells the story of the shoot-out as part of what he calls his gig, a one-hour slide show on his life that he\u2019s given to Propeller Clubs in Boston, Portland, and Providence. \u201cI could do my comedy show right down at the Comedy Connection,\u201d he claims unabashedly. See it, and you\u2019ll see his scars, too. \u201cIf you see my comedy show, I have my leopard thong, and that\u2019s how I end it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Through the last 20 years, Fournier has kept his South Portland residence at 1 Bay Road, with a stone patio overlooking the shipping channel and Spring Point Light, with private access to Willard Beach. While negotiating for the house early on, he says, \u201cMy real estate agent told me, \u2018Now you can sit in this house and watch the boats go by,\u2019 and I said, \u2018For $850,000, I can sit in my boat and watch the houses go by.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Roxanne Quimby<\/h2>\n<p>The Burt&#8217;s Bees philanthropist drops some sweet honey in Portland<\/p>\n<p>Burt\u2019s Bees co-founder Roxanne Quimby\u2019s deft purchase of 658 Congress Street as an artists\u2019 residency and studio center for just $350,000 has everyone buzzing in Longfellow Square. Most recently the site of Zinnia\u2019s Antiques\u2013and before that a haberdashery\u2013the three-story brick and slate Queen Anne landmark across the street from Joe\u2019s Smoke Shop will provide an urban oasis for the downtown arts colony Quimby, 58, hopes to sustain here with the help of incentives from the city, such as a requested $100,000 ceiling on fees related to reduction of housing space.<\/p>\n<p>After restoration, the structure\u2019s Arts &amp; Crafts interior is sure to sparkle with new studio and exhibition opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s yet another signal that Longfellow Square, with its new restaurants and performance spaces, is regaining its long-lost status a tony part of town.<\/p>\n<p>Though 658 Congress Street isn\u2019t quite ready for the First Friday Art Walk.<\/p>\n<p>Via daughter Hannah Quimby, who directs many of Quimby Family Foundation\u2018s good deeds, Quimby tells us, \u201cAt this point [we] are not prepared to discuss the art program [as we] have not cleared the regulatory hurdles presented by the city of Portland. Once [we] have the green light from the city to proceed,\u201d more specifics will emerge \u201c\u2026after a series of meetings with the city council.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We can\u2019t wait to see you turn on the green light, Roxanne.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h2>Felicia\u00a0 Knight<\/h2>\n<p>Knight moves<\/p>\n<p><strong>By Laura Paine<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Step 1. Reconsider your career in musical theater. Step 2. As the most respected news anchor in Maine, make on-air glasses cool years before Ashleigh Banfield. Step 3. Head down to Washington for a fun career as Sen. Susan Collins\u2019s spokesperson\u2026just in time for 9\/11. Hey, it\u2019s all about timing.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSeptember 11, 2001, gave me a whole new appreciation for where I was and what I was doing. I remember a reporter in Portland asking me soon after if I was afraid to be working in Washington, specifically in the Capitol. (Security was extremely tight then, no planes were flying, there were armed soldiers on every corner near the Capitol building, outside all the Senate and House office buildings, and all federal agency buildings.) I replied something to the effect that I was not fearful and refused to live in fear because that was precisely the aim of the attacks. I added that two of the terrorists got a plane in Portland, Maine. Should people in Portland live in fear too? Everyone on Capitol Hill felt a firm resolve to keep working and remain strong. An attitude that served us very well, since a month later D.C., and specifically some Senate office buildings, were hit with the anthrax attacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the time, Sen. Collins was a senior member of the then Governmental Affairs Committee, now the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee (of which she is currently the Ranking Member). She immediately grasped the long-term effects these attacks would have on our country and our security. In the intervening years, she\u2019s dealt with everything from co-authoring the most sweeping overhaul of the nation\u2019s intelligence community in more than 50 years on a national scale, to securing more funding for local first responders to have the equipment they need to respond to a terrorist attack on the local level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Dreaming of one day returning to Maine and catching a good night\u2019s sleep, Knight left Senator Collins\u2019s office in March of 2003\u2013only to accept a position as Director of Communications for the National Endowment for the Arts. No pressure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy first real test of being under fire happened about six months after my arrival. It was announced that we had given a grant to the La Jolla Playhouse, one of the premier incubator theatres in the country, in California, for the commissioning of a new musical, \u2018loosely based on the life of Andrew Cunanan.\u2019 Cunanan was the man who, in 1997, killed several people, including fashion designer Gianni Versace. The artistic director for La Jolla at that time was Des McAnuff \u2013 a highly respected leader in American theatre with a solid reputation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe play had been commissioned but not a word had yet been written. There was, however, an outcry from the right who declared that we were \u2018glorifying murder and homosexuality\u2019 (Cunanan was gay) and denunciation from the gay community that we were focusing \u2018a spotlight on a gay killer.\u2019 The story was beginning to gain traction in the conservative press\u2013editorials in some newspapers around the country and on the web\u2013and was beginning to get the attention of some conservative members of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnderstanding how quickly something like this can become a \u2018cause\u2019 and fuel for the high octane world of cable shouting matches, we moved on this very quickly to shut the argument down, beginning with the fact that the play hadn\u2019t been written yet. All this vitriol for a play that didn\u2019t exist? I did many interviews, and wrote some op-ed pieces making the point that far from glorifying the life of a troubled and dangerously delusional young man, the play was planned instead as an examination \u2018of a culture obsessed with money, power, and fame\u2026an investigation of obsession with celebrity and wealth\u2026with unattainable desires.\u2019 Cunanan himself wasn\u2019t even a character in the proposed play. In one column, I argued that \u201cartistic renderings of actual crime and violence have been the subject of art throughout history, among them the Passion and Crucifixion of Christ. From Socrates to Santayana, we have been warned about unexamined lives and condemnations of repeating the past. Artistic examinations and remembrances of the past have existed throughout civilization, whether interpreting the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, or the tragic story of a sociopath who terrorized a nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The play eventually was written and workshopped and got generally favorable reviews.<\/p>\n<p>Then there\u2019s the Andy Garcia story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhile I was with the NEA, I was invited to attend a conference in California held by the President\u2019s Committee on the Arts and Humanities. As part of the conference, Andy Garcia was going to be speaking about his Cuban heritage and a new movie he had directed [<em>The Lost City<\/em>] which was set in Cuba. Because of my journalism background, I was invited to conduct an \u2018Interview with Andy Garcia\u2019 in front of the conferees.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m a huge Andy Garcia fan, so I readily accepted this. This was a crowd of major league movers and shakers. This was an assignment that I wanted to hit out of the park.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt was a conference, and you know how boring things can get when you\u2019re in a big room listening to panels and speakers all day, so I also wanted to bust up the routine a little.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen it came time to begin, it was announced to the crowd that this discussion was being videotaped for the UCLA archives. So, I began by looking into the camera, out at the crowd and saying, \u2018In tenth grade, my boyfriend dumped me for a cheerleader. Well, now I\u2019m on stage with Andy Garcia, and she\u2019s not!\u2019 At that moment, Andy Garcia leaned over and kissed me, and the crowd roared. I really don\u2019t remember much beyond Andy Garcia kissing me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What was it like, hanging out at the Kennedy Center and plumbing the mysteries of Foggy Bottom?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMy husband [Towle Tompkins, director of TV operations at Resort Sports Network] and I were there for New Year\u2019s Eve 1999 to see Martin Guerre. It wasn\u2019t very good, but we had a lovely time dancing in the grand foyer greeting the new millennium!<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe most fun, though, is to be in the President\u2019s box, [where I found myself] three or four times over my ten years in D.C.\u201d Even on nights when the president\u2019s not there, [you still] \u201cget the Presidential M&amp;Ms and little bottles of champagne. No one ever eats the candy, though. They bring it home to their kids. Not having kids, I ate the candy and drank the champagne.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>For 8\u00bd years, Knight lived \u201cin Cleveland Park, off Connecticut Avenue on Porter Street, walking distance to the Uptown Theatre and the National Zoo. The last year and a half I lived in Southeast, on New Jersey Avenue in a brand new building about three blocks from the new Nationals\u2019 ballpark and within easy biking distance of Eastern Market and Capitol Hill. Two great neighborhoods.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI didn\u2019t do much nightclubbing\u2013but I\u2019ll admit to having some favorite bars. In my Capitol Hill days, we frequented a place on the Hill called Bistro Bis, in the Hotel George V. Great martinis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m also a fan of Bardeo up in Cleveland Park, the bar at Oceanaire downtown. An Arts Endowment colleague and I have had some very late nights at the Oceanaire. Also, Zaytinya and Jaleo, both Jos\u00e9 Andr\u00e9s restaurants. A very little known gem is the bar in the Henley Park Hotel on [926 Mass Ave. NW]. The bar at the Mayflower is cozy, as is Le Bar in the Sofitel. I also like Urbana at the Palomar Hotel. If I make this list of bars much longer, it will be incriminating. A great restaurant about 70 miles outside D.C. is The Inn at Little Washington in Washington, Virginia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Knight\u2019s tenure at the NEA ended in April of 2008 she immediately joined Collins for Senator as the Deputy Campaign Manager. After closing the campaign office at the end of November, she decided to take December off before starting on her latest adventure: opening a media consulting company, Knight Vision International.<\/p>\n<p>The elephant in the living room: <em>Why not continue working with Senator Collins?<\/em> \u201cTo everything there is a season. I spent five years on the Senator\u2019s staff six years ago, and also worked on her first re-election campaign.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I returned to Maine last year, it was with the idea of starting my own media-consulting firm. But I was invited to work on Senator Collins\u2019s re-election campaign as Deputy Campaign Manager. I have great admiration for her and for her Chief of Staff, Steve Abbott, and so I joined up. I\u2019m grateful she gave me the opportunity to be part of one of the best-executed campaigns in the country in 2008. But it was always with the understanding that after the campaign I was going to start my own firm. And now I\u2019m enjoying this new adventure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can find almost everything you want in Maine. If you want the splendor of the ocean you have it; if you want the solitude of the Maine woods you have it; if you want mountains, go climb a mountain; if you want a lake, it\u2019s there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLast winter was my reintroduction to shoveling and running a snow blower. It was fine. Besides, I just told myself to be patient because a nice, long, sunny, summer was coming. Oops.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When Knight first started studying theater, she never thought her path would change so drastically, taking her everywhere from Washington to Brussels, allowing her to interview everyone from President Clinton to the late Walter Cronkite.<\/p>\n<p>Asked how her abortive pursuit of musical theater and the roles she played might relate to her life today, Knight quickly hones in on one particular experience. \u201cMadame Armfeldt in <em>A Little Night Music<\/em> at school in New York City. I was 20 at the time, playing a 60-something former courtesan wise in the ways of power and how the world works, and who spent much of her time lamenting an overall decline in society. At that time, I didn\u2019t really understand that world-view.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I brought to the role was probably little more than a dead-on impersonation of Hermione Gingold (the actress who originated the role on Broadway) Now, at 52, I\u2019ve seen a lot of the world, spent a good deal of my adult life around powerful people, and am able to appreciate that character\u2019s life experience, views on decorum, and overall nostalgia for the past. I relate it to my life now by appreciating the wisdom and perspective that can come only with a lifetime of varied experiences.<\/p>\n<p>As they say, \u2018The story doesn\u2019t always take you where you think it\u2019s going to,\u2019 and I had this fabulous life and career.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.addthis.com\/bookmark.php?v=250&amp;pub=portmag\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" style=\"border: 0;\" src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/static\/btn\/lg-share-en.gif\" alt=\"Bookmark and Share\" width=\"125\" height=\"16\" \/><\/a><script src=\"http:\/\/s7.addthis.com\/js\/250\/addthis_widget.js?pub=portmag\" type=\"text\/javascript\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/about\/contact-us\">send us your comments<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>November 2009<\/p>\n<p>Portland\u2019s new police chief is 3,000 miles from southern California, his home of 28 years, and staring down the barrel of his first Maine winter. \u201cI am concerned about the climate, not having gone through a good Maine winter,\u201d jokes Chief James Craig. \u201cThat could be a deciding factor.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1240","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1240"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17103,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1240\/revisions\/17103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}