{"id":14023,"date":"2017-10-26T17:22:42","date_gmt":"2017-10-26T21:22:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=14023"},"modified":"2017-10-27T10:57:42","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T14:57:42","slug":"maines-ten-most-intriguing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/maines-ten-most-intriguing\/","title":{"rendered":"Maine\u2019s Ten Most Intriguing"},"content":{"rendered":"

November 2017 | view this story as a .pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

1 & 2. Earth Angels<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Mother and daughter Hawa Ibrahim <\/strong>and Khadija Hussein<\/strong> cultivate a new life in Maine.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Sarah Moore<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-Hawa-+-Kadija\"Khadija Hussein, 22, sits in the long grass beside rows of colorful chard and heads of lettuce, neatly planted over this slice of the Packard-Littlefield Farm in Lisbon. The sun is bright, and the morning is already hot, though the yellowing corn warns of the season\u2019s end. This farmland is owned by Cultivating Community and farmed by members of the New American Sustainable Agriculture Project. Khadija\u2019s mother, Hawa Ibrahim, 56, was one of the first to join the program in 2006, after leaving Kenya with Khadija and her six other children for a new life in America. The family arrived in Dallas, Texas, at the end of 2005, where they stayed for a short time with the support of the International Rescue Committee. \u201cAfter four months, we were on our own,\u201d Khadijah says. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know what to do. We didn\u2019t have a car or even a driving license, so how could my mom get a job? A relative told us to come and join them in Maine.\u201d She shakes her head, then laughs. \u201cWe traveled for three days to get here. Dallas was hot, so we arrived in flip-flops. It was early March. The snow was so<\/em> high<\/em>. I cried and cried to my mum: \u2018You made me take the bus for three days to torture me like this?\u2019 I\u2019d never seen snow like this before.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Hawa had farmed the family\u2019s land in Africa until war and persecution of Somalis drove them out. \u201cWe had a farm there. Animals, land, a cool lake to jump in when it got too hot. We left all that behind. Soon after our arrival, my mom attended a meeting at Lewiston City Hall,\u201d where applications to a farming program were circulated. <\/span><\/p>\n

Hawa was one of the only refugees not to throw the application away immediately. \u201cEveryone else was too scared to sign up,\u201d Khadija says. \u201cThey thought it was dangerous. That we\u2019d be taken out into the fields and killed or something.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Khadijah and her siblings, who are now scattered across the country from Ohio to Texas, went to the local elementary and then to middle school. \u201cI had a teacher in Texas for a couple of months who helped me learn some English, but no one knew what to do with us at my new school. I spent two years coloring and watching TV.\u201d She was eleven. \u201cOne day, I turned to my mom and told her I hated waking up to do nothing every day. I slept all the time; I had no purpose. My mom was furious. She drove to the school and screamed at the teachers, the principal. She wouldn\u2019t stop until they got a translator and listened to what she had to say. She came here for a better life for her children. She wasn\u2019t going to let us sit and watch TV all day.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

By the end of sixth grade, Khadija was finally getting support. \u201cOnce I started to learn, I started to enjoy it.\u201d She began taking after-school homework groups and staying in the library to catch up. By sophomore year she was in mainstream classes. But her ESL classes at Lewiston Middle School showed her the challenges kids like her faced in the system. \u201cOne teacher gave us a ten-page book and made us read the same sentences over and over for the whole year. We were teenagers. We weren\u2019t learning anything! The parents complained. The head of the department came in one day, furious. She slammed a big, complicated book on the table and said, \u2018You want a challenge? Here you go.\u2019\u201d Like Hawa, Khadija wasn\u2019t afraid of making her voice heard. \u201cI told her I just wanted to learn. I wanted someone to actually teach us something.\u201d Despite a late start and significant interruptions, in 2013, Khadija graduated with her year group. That summer, she attended a career course for teaching and enrolled at Central Maine Community College. <\/span><\/p>\n

As she talks, a flying figure leaps over her shoulder, catapulting into her lap with a roar. Her sons Muhammed Aden, 4, and Iiyase Aden, 3, are tireless, capering balls of energy. They dance among the rows of vegetables, springing back to show off a handful of milkweed or field daisies. Now that she\u2019s put down roots, does Maine feel like home? \u201cYes and no. I\u2019ve been here a while, and I know it well. I know where to turn if I need help. But at the same time, there\u2019s always someone to remind you this is not your home.\u201d<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

She recalls a class vacation in high school, when she and a friend walked into a grocery store. They both wore hijabs. The store fell silent as the girls entered. \u201cMy friend told me we should just run, leave. I said, \u2018Why should I? I haven\u2019t stolen anything. Why are they staring like we\u2019re aliens?\u2019\u201d This same streak of courage would make Khadija turn to confront hostile children at school who\u2019d tell her she didn\u2019t belong and that her family was just here to collect food stamps. \u201cI\u2019d say, \u2018Yes we do belong. And you\u2019re taking food stamps, too. But we\u2019re here because war drove us from our country.\u2019\u201d Despite her youth, you get the impression you\u2019re in the presence of a tireless force of will. <\/span><\/p>\n

Khadija will go back to CMCC to finish her degree this winter. She\u2019ll continue to help Hawa with the farm, selling the last of the fall harvest. Mother and daughter sell their produce at farmers\u2019 markets, pantries, schools, restaurants, and CSA shares through Fresh Start Farm food hub. She\u2019ll also cook for Viles Arboretum, the Augusta market stand where she and a group of women sell Somali food. Looking ahead, Hawa dreams of a farm and land of their own where she can raise animals and crops. \u201cWe\u2019re trying to save for a home and some land,\u201d Khadija says. \u201cI hope for more than we have now. More for my boys.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

3. Arctic Star <\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The climate change Angus King<\/strong> fears is the very reason behind an emerging Northwest Passage. The risk-taker in him is ready\u00a0 <\/span>to jump at the opportunity. <\/span><\/h3>\n

By Sarah Moore<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-King\"Even when he\u2019s in Washington D.C., Senator Angus King has one foot in Maine and his eyes on the Arctic Circle. The former governor and Maine’s first Independent U.S. Senator believes melting ice caps could open the way for Maine to become the U.S. gateway to the Arctic and the Far East beyond. We caught up with King during his travels around the state to discover what lies beyond the horizon for Maine and the Arctic.<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s been a year since Portland hosted a meeting of the Arctic Council. Did it break any ice?<\/span><\/p>\n

It was a big deal because it literally put us on the map in matters of the Arctic. Heretofore, nearly all these meetings had taken place in Scandinavia, Alaska, or Canada. There\u2019d never been anything on the East Coast of the U.S. It was a symbolic recognition by this multinational organization that Maine is now a part of the Arctic discussion. <\/span><\/p>\n

Did it change things in Maine?<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re already seeing the most tangible effect of this engagement in our relationship with Eimskip. [The number of containers passing through Portland\u2019s ports has tripled since 2013, and Eimskip plans to introduce a weekly shipment by 2020.] I saw Eimskip trucks out on the road during my motorcycle trip in central Maine this summer. That felt significant for me. I think a wonderful symbolic gesture of this burgeoning relationship came when the Maine Brewers\u2019 Guild sent a container load of beer up to Iceland. So many people asked me about Arctic development during my travels throughout Maine. I\u2019ve seen a deepening interest in this issue among the Maine public.<\/span><\/p>\n

Does this mean we really are \u201cthe gateway to the
\nFar North?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Realistically, we\u2019re talking about progress that will take place over the course of decades\u2013anything from 15 to 30 years to develop the infrastructure and work out the insurance and trade details. That being said, the melt is happening faster than we predicted. The volume of ice in the Arctic Ocean has declined by two thirds since 1979. <\/span><\/p>\n

How do you align your two perspectives as an advocate of Arctic opportunities but also an environmentalist? Is it bittersweet?<\/span><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve spent a great deal of time working on climate-change issues, trying to alert people to the risks. There\u2019s no doubt most of the effects of climate change will be negative. And, of course, a sea-level rise is going to have a huge impact on a coastal state like Maine. But one of my main principles in life is that you have to play the hand that\u2019s dealt to you. The reality is, of all these negative effects, the opening up of the Arctic creates new opportunities. We\u2019re facing an extraordinary moment in human history. I\u2019ve likened it to the discovery of the Mediterranean Sea: A body of water that has been completely closed to major human activity throughout history is suddenly available for transit, for energy, commerce, and recreation. I don\u2019t feel like I\u2019m betraying my concern over climate change by engaging with this. I think, if this is happening, what are the implications\u2013good and bad\u2013for Maine?<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes us so perfectly poised to lead the U.S. into the Arctic?<\/span><\/p>\n

Eastport, Searsport, and Portland are the three closest U.S. ports to the Arctic. Eastport has around 65 feet of depth just a few feet from shore. New York would kill for that!<\/span><\/p>\n

What are the challenges we face on a national level? You\u2019ve spoken with conviction of the need for more heavy icebreakers.<\/span><\/p>\n

The icebreaker is essential infrastructure, and we\u2019ve just woefully neglected it. The best way to think of it? Icebreakers are like the interstate highway of the Arctic. Right now, we\u2019ve only got one and a half. The half is a ship that we\u2019re using for parts! It\u2019s embarrassing. Meanwhile, the Russians have an estimated 17 to 40, including several nuclear-powered ships. It\u2019s like we\u2019re traveling on old country roads, and they\u2019re zooming along highways.<\/span><\/p>\n

So this is the new Space Race? The Arctic Race?<\/span><\/p>\n

Well, if we\u2019re talking about transit and commerce opportunities, infrastructure makes a huge difference. And there\u2019s an issue of security. Without getting into anything classified, the Russians have made significant steps into the militarization of their Arctic fleet in terms of bases, ports, and assets. I should say that the Arctic is one area where we have actually been able to work cooperatively with the Russians! It\u2019s a bright spot in our relationship.<\/span><\/p>\n

How soon will we see results? Will Bath Irons Works stand a chance of winning the contract?<\/span><\/p>\n

[The Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee added $1 billion to fund the creation of a new icebreaker in 2016. China, a non-Arctic Nation, recently allocated $300M toward its second icebreaker, according to Global Trade Magazine.] I think there are going to be serious steps toward creating icebreakers in the next few years. We really need a multiple procurement, and it needs to happen soon. The major issue is how much it\u2019ll cost. We\u2019re trying to get to the bottom of how countries like Finland are doing it for half a billion. As for Bath Iron Works\u2013perhaps.<\/span><\/p>\n

You were the only Congress member to join a fact-finding mission to Greenland in 2016. What did you learn on the trip?<\/span><\/p>\n

Yes, that\u2019s right. On a previous Congressional trip to Pakistan, I met a very old man who took my hand and said, \u201cI know why you\u2019re here. You\u2019re here because you understand that a day of seeing is worth more than a month of reading.\u201d I found that to be very profound and quite true. I went to Greenland with the Commandant of the Coast Guard to conduct research in national security and climate change. We met with the Danish Navy, who run Greenland\u2019s military and foreign affairs, and went out on their frigate with two American climate scientists, John Englander and Bob Corell\u2013who actually summers in Maine. Corell was visibly shaken by what we saw. It\u2019d changed so much in the two years since he\u2019d last visited. But like I said, you play the hand that\u2019s dealt. Greenlanders are gaining land for farming and grazing from the retreating ice sheets, while also losing their old ways of life. They feel it\u2019s a double-edged sword. <\/span><\/p>\n

In your opinion, what are the chances of an Independent President of the United States?<\/span><\/p>\n

[Laughs] I think it would be very difficult. The time may come, but it\u2019d be very, very difficult! <\/span><\/p>\n

4. The Look<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

The camera loves Maine\u2019s emerging star\u00a0<\/span>Yamilah Saravong<\/strong> in the holiday hit\u00a0<\/span>movie Daddy\u2019s Home 2.<\/em><\/span><\/h3>\n

By Jeanee Dudley<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-Yamilah\"Actress, model, honorary member of Mark Wahlberg\u2019s entourage\u2013these are unexpected aliases for a small 11-year-old bouncing a soccer ball around a field in her white-and-blue uniform.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yamilah Saravong lives in York with her parents, brother, and two dogs. Earlier this year, she spent two weeks in Western Massachusetts filming Daddy\u2019s Home 2 <\/em>with co-stars Wahlberg, Will Ferrell, Mel Gibson, John Cena, and John Lithgow.<\/span><\/p>\n

Yamilah\u2019s first gig came when she was five years old, appearing in Miss Saigon<\/em> at Ogunquit Playhouse, where she continues to act year after year. \u201cEvery summer I do a kid\u2019s camp there.\u201d She still remembers her first speaking part. \u201cSouth Pacific. It was \u2018The boat!\u2019 four times before running across the stage.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Before Daddy\u2019s Home 2<\/em>, she\u2019d only acted on camera for a Lifespan Health commercial and a PSA. Jill Saravong, Yamilah\u2019s mother, says luck played a hand in her audition. \u201cMovie work is so competitive,\u201d Jill says. \u201cThe filmmakers were very specific. They wanted someone already living in New England, of a certain age, height, and look.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yamilah got a callback. After the second round of auditions, her mom received an email from their agent saying the filmmakers wanted her for the role and were awaiting final approval from Paramount Pictures.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cShe printed the email out and told my dad first, so they could film my reaction,\u201d Yamilah says. \u201cThey gave me the paper. I started reading and didn\u2019t get what it said at all, so I didn\u2019t get excited. I was like, \u2018So\u2026yes?\u2019 My mom was like, \u2018You got it!\u2019 And I was like, \u2018Cool!\u2019 Then I called all my friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her favorite scene is one she filmed with Will Ferrell. \u201cI memorized the whole script\u2013that\u2019s part of what I had to do for the audition\u2013but then Will Ferrell started doing improv, and I didn\u2019t know what to say at all! It was only my second day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Yamilah loved life on set. She waxes lyrical about a food truck with drawers full of candy and gum, and a magical catering company that would prepare anything she wanted for breakfast. The crew made her feel important, but more surprisingly, the stars were warm and friendly. \u201cMark [Wahlberg] was great with the kids,\u201d Jill says. \u201cWhen Yamilah would slip away from the set and return, he\u2019d notice and say, \u2018Hey, you\u2019re back!\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHe gave me a \u2018Wahlberger\u2019 hat,\u201d Yamilah says, referring to the uniform of Wahlberg\u2019s entourage, which includes \u201cRasta Phil\u201d and a stuntman named Cowboy.<\/span><\/p>\n

Between scenes, Mel Gibson told the kids jokes, and John Cena signed autographs for the young actors and all of their friends and siblings back home.<\/span><\/p>\n

As for the future, Yamilah shrugs. \u201cI\u2019d have to think about that,\u201d she says. \u201cI don\u2019t really know. I hope to do another movie because they\u2019re really fun. I just want to see where it takes me. It\u2019s a different road every week!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

She\u2019d like to visit Los Angeles and Bora Bora, but she doesn\u2019t want to move out of Maine. \u201cI recently did an audition for Nickelodeon. If I got it, we\u2019d go there just to film, then come back if they need us a couple weeks later,\u201d she says. \u201cI could still be with my friends, be home, go to my school.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Daddy\u2019s Home 2<\/em> is playing now in movie theaters. <\/span><\/p>\n

5. Undaunted<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

There are five quadruple amputees who survived their injuries from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars\u2013 Travis Mills is one of them.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Julia Tolstrup<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-Travis-Mills\"If you ask Travis Mills about the word hero, he\u2019ll tell you that it doesn\u2019t apply to what happened to him. \u201cI just had a bad day at work.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

That bad day came on April 10, 2012, during his third tour in Afghanistan. Mills dropped a bag on the ground by his side, setting off an Improvised Explosive Device (IED). In that moment, his life changed forever. There are five quadruple-amputees who survived their injuries from the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars\u2013Travis Mills is one of them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the next 19 months, Mills relearned how to live. Returning to the U.S., he faced the long road to recovery at Walter Reed Military Medical Center in Maryland with his wife, Kelsey, and daughter, Chloe, by his side. Those early days were dark and difficult. Mills suffered from severe phantom limb pain as he healed and then learned to adjust to life with four prosthetic limbs. Mills told his wife to take their assets and start a new life without him. She refused. Slowly, he began to find his way. Chloe, just six months old at the time, became his guiding light.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I got injured I was pretty down on myself, unsure whether I could still be a productive father and husband. Seeing my daughter every day made life better.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mills strapped Chloe in a wheelchair with him, and the two visited other families around the hospital. He came to be known as the Mayor of Building 62.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cMy daughter is one of the biggest reasons I was able to get better. We got to learn how to walk together.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, Mills and his family were able to return to Manchester. After all the support they\u2019d received at Walter Reed, Travis and Kelsey felt compelled to pay it forward. The two considered launching a care-package charity for deployed soldiers.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople in Maine saw I went kayaking, downhill mountain biking, and snowboarding. They suggested I bring some of my friends out to Maine to try adaptive sports.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mills began hosting wounded soldiers and their families Camp Kennebec in North Belgrade. Very quickly, things outgrew the capacity of Bread of Life Ministries, the non-profit supporting them at the time<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt got too big for them to handle. My wife and I decided right then this was too important to pass up.\u201d The Travis Mills Foundation was born. <\/span><\/p>\n

There was a time when Elizabeth Arden\u2019s Maine Chance Spa brought the likes of Judy Garland and Ava Gardner to the Belgrade Lakes region. Well-heeled Manhattanites regularly attended to indulge in expensive spa treatments and dabble in hula-hooping classes. During the Depression, the spa employed hundreds, all here to pamper the rich and famous.<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, through the efforts of the Travis Mills Foundation, the former spa has undergone a $3 million renaissance to become The Maine Chance Lodge and Retreat. Here, combat-wounded veterans and their families come to relax and enjoy boating, paddle boarding, equine therapy, fishing, and more. No one is excluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe make sure that if there are veterans with a disability, they can do everything right alongside their family.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Mills has come a long way from the battlefield. He and Kelsey recently welcomed a son, Dax, whose name is a combination of Daniel and Alexander, the two medics who saved Mills\u2019s life after the bomb exploded. Chloe, now six, is a big sister and the apple of her father\u2019s eye. During Maine Chance Lodge\u2019s inaugural summer of 2017, the retreat hosted \u201c56 military families.\u201d For Mills and his family, it\u2019s the start of something new. <\/span><\/p>\n

6. Globe Trotter<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

From Maine to the Mongolian steppes, Amanda Charlton Herbert chases adventure\u2013on four legs. <\/span><\/h3>\n

By Sarah Moore<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-Amanda-Herbert\"Amanda Charlton Herbert was eight the first time she tagged along to the therapeutic horse-riding program where her mother volunteered. She remembers helping to brush and lead the horses, feeling no fear as a small child among the large creatures. By 12, she was being paid to train horses to jump. \u201cOne of my first instructors told me I was an instinctual rider, whatever that means,\u201d Herbert says. Ten years down the line, she was competing full-time on the hunter jumper circuit while juggling classes at NYU. But as her burgeoning career gained momentum, Herbert became disillusioned with the entire business. \u201cI was working so hard to get far on the circuit. The whole thing became so ego-driven and focused on winning. I lost sight of my horsemanship, of why I got into it in the first place. So I quit college and the competition circuit and moved out to Wyoming to work on a guest ranch,\u201d she says and laughs. \u201cI guess you could call it my quarter-life crisis.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Life realigned for Herbert among the mountains. \u201cI fell in love with the endless expanse of nature, the wilderness, the whole magic of it, and I realized this was how I wanted to live my entire life.\u201d In the years that followed, she traveled and worked across the Midwest for seasons at a time, always returning to her parents\u2019 home in Poland. \u201cIt\u2019s my favorite place. I see myself settling in Maine, near my family.\u201d A faint lilt in her accent and the occasional \u2018ma\u2019am\u2019 belies her time in the Wild West. <\/span><\/p>\n

It was in 2016, while working on a ranch in Colorado and living \u201cin a tiny cabin with no water or electricity,\u201d that Herbert first got the idea to enter an endurance horse race. \u201cAnother rancher told me about a girl he knew who\u2019d done the Gobi Gallop. I chose the Mongol Derby because it\u2019s the world\u2019s longest and toughest horse race. I thought, \u2018If I\u2019m going to do this, why not really go for it?\u2019\u201d She returned to Maine to prepare for the race, even running the Kennebunk Marathon \u201cto get in the mindset for endurance.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Mongol Derby, launched in 2009, recreates the infamous postal route established by Genghis Khan in 1224. Riders traverse over 600 miles of vast, uninhabited steppes, mountains, rivers, and forests. The Mongolian mounts they ride are quite different from the thoroughbred jumpers that Herbert trained and rode in competition at home. \u201cThey\u2019re semi-wild. Nine times out of ten, your horse would have a bucking fit as soon as you put the saddle on its back. Then you have to endure another round of bucking once you mount.\u201d Like Khan\u2019s postal messengers of the 13th century, riders change horses every 25 miles, camping out under the stars at night or staying with the scattered local herders. \u201cI remember sitting in a herder\u2019s hut and crying to an old Mongolian woman. She didn\u2019t speak a word of English, but she sat there and listened to me, comforted me,\u201d Herbert says. <\/span><\/p>\n

Herbert joined a field of 40 experienced riders whittled down from hundreds of applicants. Armed with GPS systems, they were released into the Mongolian wilderness to forge a path along the network of support systems that stretched across a swathe of virtually uninhabited land. \u201cSomeone told me that only one percent of Mongolia is inhabited,\u201d Herbert says. Even for this lone ranger, the vast emptiness of the Mongolian steppes was astounding in its scale and beauty. She\u2019s almost breathless recalling the nine days spent mostly in the saddle with only a backpack of possessions. Feelings of pain and uncertainty rode side-by-side with wonder and excitement. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI have memories of mounting an enormous ridge to see a vast valley spread out below. There wasn\u2019t another person in sight.\u201d The true weight of this isolation hit heavily at other times. \u201cToward the end of the journey, I was galloping across the steppes with my friend, Taylor Dolak. Suddenly I heard a death scream and looked back to see Taylor and her horse on the ground. The horse was bellowing. Then it went silent. Its legs were sticking straight out, rigamortis-style. We thought it had died. After a while, it got up again\u2013like some kind of Lazarus horse!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, after nine days and 633 miles, she made it across the finish line.<\/span><\/p>\n

Herbert will spend the next year training dressage horses in Utah and getting her equine massage therapy license. \u201cI\u2019m an artist, and I\u2019m still drawing pieces inspired by what I saw in Mongolia. I hope to save up all my money and return to Maine in a year and buy myself a secluded cabin near the sea.\u201d And after that? \u201cOh, a horse of my own, for sure!\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

7. PC Guy, Maine Guy<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

John Hodgman loves his Maine retreat, even though \u201cI know nothing about letting go.\u201d In his new book Vacationland<\/em>, the closet Mac owner\u00a0 <\/span>takes our humor in the North Woods to\u00a0 <\/span>a new level of weird.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Sarah Moore<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-John-Hodgeman\"By the end of 2012, John Hodgman<\/strong> had finished That\u2019s All<\/em>, his third book of farcical trivia and fake facts, and was awaiting the end of the world as predicted by the Mayan calendar. When the apocalypse didn\u2019t arrive, Hodgman was alive but unsure of his next move. \u201cI didn\u2019t truly believe in the end of the world, of course, but if you say it enough, it starts to feel real. I went into 2013 with a terrifyingly clean slate.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cClean slate\u201d is a relative term. Hodgman pens the weekly \u201cJudge John Hodgman\u201d advice column for The New York Times<\/em>. His podcast of the same name has broadcast for over seven years with Maximum Fun productions. He\u2019s recognized everywhere for his regular character appearances on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart<\/em>. But personal projects had stalled. \u201cI felt out of material. Like I didn\u2019t have any stories to tell. I started comedy residencies at the Union Theater and the Bell House in Brooklyn. There\u2019s nothing like knowing there\u2019s an audience waiting to hear you speak to draw out stories and ideas. Panic catalyzes creativity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

During these performances, \u201capart from a good Ayn Rand imitation,\u201d Hodgman found himself avoiding the impersonations and absurdist comedy that had characterized his previous work. He retired the \u2018Deranged Millionaire,\u2019 a beloved Daily Show <\/em>character modeled on pre-presidential Donald Trump, and dreamed of a hiatus from the nonsense trivia of his early books. \u201cIt\u2019s gone sour. I feel like the market is now so saturated with fake facts. Modern culture owes me royalties for fake facts.\u201d What tumbled out was, surprisingly, the truth: stories of family, personal incidents, \u201cand, as trite as it sounds, impending mortality.\u201d These anecdotes form the basis of Vacationland: True Stories from Painful Beaches<\/em>, Hodgman\u2019s latest book (Viking, $25).<\/span><\/p>\n

Hodgman\u2019s wife, Kathleen, is a lifelong visitor to Maine. The couple owns a \u201cless-fancy three-bedroom house on a flat, muddy bay\u201d in Brooklin. \u201cThe car is always running. She\u2019s got one foot out the door ready to leave New York for Maine in a second.\u201d Hodgman himself is originally from Brookline, Massachusetts, which provides him with the perfect perspective to examine Maine and our inhabitants with a wary fascination and respect. \u201cWe call Maine Vacationland, but it\u2019s cold and challenging. The people who come here are attuned to nature. Maine doesn\u2019t care if you live or die. I\u2019m becoming more and more comfortable with that,\u201d he says. The theme of aging and of grappling with \u201cthe dumb, awful truth\u201d of mortality forms the dark underbelly of the book\u2019s humor. <\/span><\/p>\n

As \u201ca pretentious, affected, loathsome\u201d youth, Hodgman never set out to become a multi-hyphenated actor-comedian-podcaster. \u201cI knew early on I didn\u2019t want to work for a living in the traditional sense. I wanted to do as many things as I could while also being able to nap.\u201d Writing, however, has always been \u201cas essential as breathing but not as much fun as eating.\u201d His nascent career in entertainment was propelled into the spotlight when he landed a role as \u201cPC Man\u201d in the Apple Mac adverts of the early 2000s. \u201cIt was life-changing in terms of my career and my family\u2019s finances. Some of my happiest memories are of hanging about with Justin Long and director Phil Morrison, being creative together. We\u2019re friends to this day.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

One chapter of Vacationland<\/em>, entitled \u201cMaine Humor,\u201d takes place partly in Perry\u2019s Nut House of Belfast. Hodgman stands before the merchandise, comprising \u201cmostly of men with flinty, Downeast accents giving bad directions to people from away.\u201d At the time, \u201ceven when work was going well, I feared it would all slip away,\u201d he says. \u201cThat I\u2019d end up a middle-aged man joking about Maine.\u201d With near spasms of irony he ends the chapter, \u201cPlease put this book down for a moment to appreciate my incredible mastery of literary irony. I\u2019ll just be over here curling into a ball, trying to disappear forever.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

8. Survivor<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Maine Maritime grad <\/span>Jessica Hewitt<\/span> has much to teach about loss, redemption, and the sinking of the Bounty.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Jeanee Dudley<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-Jessica-Hewitt\"Despite her education at Maine Maritime Academy and experience as a deckhand, nothing could\u2019ve prepared Jessica Hewitt<\/strong> for what she faced aboard the Bounty<\/em> at the hands of Hurricane Sandy. The Bounty<\/em>, a replica of the Royal British Navy HMS Bounty<\/em>, was built in 1962 for the MGM movie Mutiny on the Bounty<\/em> starring Marlon Brando. On October 28, 2012, as she was sailing from Connecticut to Florida, hurricane-force winds sent the 50-year-old ship below the waves of the Atlantic. Hewitt and 13 of her shipmates survived.<\/span><\/p>\n

To begin with, tall-ship work is a rough gig. \u201cSailing is miserable,\u201d Hewitt says and laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s cold or it\u2019s hot, you\u2019re always wet, there\u2019s no air-conditioning, and there\u2019s no shower. It can be brutal. You stand on deck throughout your entire watch, getting absolutely pounded by the weather.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Much has been speculated about the fateful night the Bounty<\/em> wrecked off the coast of North Carolina [See our story, \u201cMutiny on the Bounty<\/em>,\u201d April 2013]. A 2014 U.S. Coast Guard investigation blamed the Bounty<\/em>\u2019s captain, Robin Walbridge, and the ship\u2019s management company. But so often, the truth is more complicated than a single bad judgment call.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI still have some anger toward Robin Walbridge,\u201d Hewitt says. \u201cI didn\u2019t know it was such a big system. Often hurricanes downgrade to a much smaller weather pattern, and we all knew the Bounty<\/em> had been through a hurricane before in much worse shape. But here\u2019s the thing: I know he had our best interests in mind because he made sure we had immersion suits, which are expensive and aren\u2019t required on an uninspected vessel. The Bounty<\/em> wasn\u2019t required to have these on board, but we had plenty. Thank goodness we did, because not as many of us would have survived if we hadn\u2019t.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Captain Walbridge didn\u2019t survive the sinking. His body was never recovered.<\/span><\/p>\n

Deckhand Claudene Christian also perished. For months, she worked eagerly aboard Bounty<\/em> as a volunteer and, according to Hewitt, had been added to the ship\u2019s payroll only days before Bounty<\/em> set sail on her final voyage. \u201cHer first pay stub was sent to her family after her death.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of Hewitt\u2019s harrowing experience on the Bounty<\/em> stays with her\u2013the loss of her shipmates, her leap from the tilting deck, the sight of the ship\u2019s rigging crashing down on her floating crew, the feeling of being tangled in lines and pulled under. \u201cWhen I was in the water, my life felt so fragile,\u201d she says. \u201cLike a piece of string that could be cut at any moment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFor three months after the sinking, I couldn\u2019t work. Often I couldn\u2019t 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 sailors. With encouragement from the community, I went back to a life at sea. I worked on three tall ships after Bounty<\/em>, which helped me get my confidence back and manage PTSD triggers.\u201d One of her greatest points of pride is that all her surviving shipmates from Bounty<\/em> are back at work on boats.<\/span><\/p>\n

Th<\/span>ese days, she\u2019s focusing on her career, setting a course more suited to her degree from Maine Maritime Academy\u2019s Small Vessel Operations Program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to use my license and keep upgrading,\u201d she says. \u201cThe boat world is like the Boy Scouts. I had a lot of badges to collect.\u201d Hewitt currently works on an oil rig supply vessel\u2013\u201ca comparative luxury to my time on tall ships.\u201d She\u2019s offshore for long periods at a time.\u201cI don\u2019t really have a home base. I wish I could make it back to Maine more, but I\u2019m still close to my MMA classmates.\u201d She\u2019s comfortable in her current role, but she finds she faces judgment from some who learn she was a shipmate on Bounty<\/em>\u2019s last sail. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of comments from other mariners,\u201d she says. \u201cThey\u2019ll say, \u2018What were you thinking?\u2019 What was Captain Walbridge thinking?\u2019 I get defensive. I\u2019m not proud to have been on the boat for that incident. It\u2019s the most embarrassing thing of my career, and I don\u2019t want to be labeled as reckless or foolish.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The most difficult memories are still hard to shake. They visit her at the least convenient times. \u201cWhen I have bad days, I know that being honest with myself and the people around me is the best course. I remind myself, \u2018Keep breathing.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I\u2019m in that dark hole, I think, \u2018I survived that, and that was the worst,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cIn the washing machine of these 30-foot waves and 90-mile-an-hour winds, I knew if I kept breathing, I could live. In my hard moments, I know that if I keep breathing through any challenge, I\u2019ll survive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

9. Dreamer<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

After an alarming airborne incident, Wayne Davis was inspired to put Maine back on the railway map.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Olivia Kostishevskaya Gunn<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-Wayne-Davis\"During a shuttle to Washington D.C. in the mid 1980s, Maine banker Wayne Davis<\/strong> felt his life flash before his eyes. \u201cAs we landed, we blew a tire and began spinning.\u201d He turns his hand in a slow circle. Every revolution \u201cbrought us closer and closer to the terminal.\u201d Luckily, nobody was hurt on the plane, but by the time he debouched, he felt differently about his travel options. Calling back to his Maine office, he recounted his close call to the receptionist, who\u2019d just returned herself to Boston<\/span> from Washington, D.C. by train. <\/span><\/p>\n

Now there was a blast from the past. \u201cI rode the train a lot when I worked in Personnel in the Navy in the 1950s,\u201d he says. \u201cI was in uniform from 1954 to 1961.\u201d This first fling was rekindled when he started riding the Night Owl, an Amtrak train that ran between D.C. and Boston from 1972 to 1995. The friendly dimensions of a train came back to him in a rush: \u201cThere\u2019d always be a card game somewhere in the lounge car. The regulars who knew one another would pull out a deck of cards and play at a table in the caf\u00e9 car.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Next stop? A life changer, for all of us. Against insurmountable odds, Davis soon became the driving force in Maine\u2019s Amtrak expansion<\/span><\/p>\n

Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, Davis moved to Maine with his family when he was six months old, so he\u2019s a local with an asterisk. \u201cThere\u2019s a joke that a Maine native is someone who has three generations buried here and no living relatives in Massachusetts. All of my ancestors are buried in Paris Hill.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

He first took to the air regularly for work as head of Maine\u2019s Mortgage Bankers Association of America. \u201cI flew back and forth for the bank for years, but what do you see above the clouds? To be able to go through El Paso and look out onto the platform at Hopi Indians selling necklaces is memorable. Or to see the Great Hall of the St. Louis Union Station, with its chandeliers, stained glass, and artwork. It\u2019s a classic. The 1930s Spanish style train station in Los Angeles is so beautiful it\u2019s often used for commercials. Each city has something unique,\u201d says Davis, his adventurous spirit glowing as he unrolls a map of the Amtrak System, tracing the many cross-country routes. \u201cBefore Amtrak, many Maine commuters traveled on Buddliners. They were self-propelled railway cars used as a last-ditch effort to try and preserve the train service in the 1950s. The Boston and Maine railroad had one of the largest collections. Many students said they owed their Masters degrees to the Budd cars.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

In 1989, when non-profit citizens\u2019 organization TrainRiders\/Northeast, led by Davis, began pushing for the return of a passenger rail service from Boston to Maine, they were met with their fair share of naysayers. \u201cA lot of people said, \u2018It\u2019s too far. No one is going to commute.\u2019 Even my friends thought I\u2019d lost it. Today, one-third of our riders travel on passes.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

On the morning of December 15, 2001, the first Downeaster passenger train pulled out of Boston bound for Portland. Before long, the Downeaster revolutionized our urban connections. It\u2019s changed us culturally, clearing the path for those who otherwise wouldn\u2019t travel here. On one ride during the first year, Davis recalls spotting a young couple \u201cdressed to the nines.\u201d The young man was in a wheelchair. \u201cHe said to me, \u2018This is the first time I\u2019ve traveled since the accident, all because of this wonderful train,\u2019 and then he started to cry.\u201d The couple was headed to Boston to see the symphony that evening. It was the first time I realized this train is important to people we normally don\u2019t pay attention to.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Downeaster now rolls into Portland from Boston five times a day and, since 2012, provides service to Brunswick. Ask Davis, who now lives in Topsham, how many times he\u2019s commuted to Boston since the rail expansion and you\u2019ll get a hearty laugh. \u201cToo many to count!\u201d It\u2019s clear he never tires of it. Davis continues as Chairman of TrainRiders\/Northeast and works closely with the volunteers who ride the train helping passengers navigate their travels. It\u2019s been over 30 years since the flight that inspired a man to keep his feet on the ground and bring the train back to Maine.<\/p>\n

10. Off the Wall<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Patrick Corrigan doesn\u2019t just think outside the box. He thinks without the box.<\/span><\/h3>\n

By Diane Hudson<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Nov17-Ten-Most-Patrick-Corrigan\"Glance around Portland and you\u2019ll spot Patrick Corrigan\u2019s<\/strong> enigmatic creations hiding in plain sight. His handiwork dances along the bar in Local 188 and across the stage at Mayo Street Arts. It\u2019s hard to miss his studio on 107 Hanover Street. Dubbed \u201cFort Awesome\u201d when he first rented it in 2004, the exterior wall sports a proliferation of poppies. Today, it doubles as the Apohadion Theater, a music and entertainment venue.<\/span><\/p>\n

Born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, Corrigan knew early on he wanted to be an artist. \u201cI was very close to my grandfather. He helped raise me. He was a golden-age comic book artist in the 1930s and 40s. When I was about seven, I found these amazing comics of The Flame<\/em> and V-Man<\/em> in the attic. He told me he drew them. At that moment, I set my sights on art.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Corrigan earned a BFA in illustration at Massachusetts College of Art in 1993. He moved to Portland a year later. At the time, he made a living creating commercial illustrations for the likes of The New York Times, Detroit Free Press, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Magazine, Boston Magazine<\/em>, and Amazon. He also picked up corporate commissions in Maine with Bass Shoes, LL Bean, Portland Public Market, and Funtown Splashtown.<\/span><\/p>\n

Illustration was Corrigan\u2019s metier until 1998, when he teamed up with Jay and Allison Villani to launch Local 188 at 685 Congress. Corrigan created the whimsical figures and details that adorn the bar and walls. He also curated a gallery of artwork to hang in the restaurant. Rubbing shoulders with a host of fine artists, Corrigan\u2019s mind was made up: \u201cNo more illustration.\u201d He remembers resisting calls from publications at the time. \u201cI totally drowned that in the tub. I wanted more freedom. The deadline situation with illustrations is ridiculous\u2013sometimes I wouldn\u2019t sleep for two days.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Besides occasional illustration work, like a recent album cover for The Fogcutters, painting has taken center stage. Corrigan is currently represented by Great Big Artwork Gallery. In the wild, his work can be spotted at \u201cLocal 188, LFK, Salvage BBQ, Sonny\u2019s, 33 Elmwood, The Children\u2019s Museum of Maine, Blyth & Burrows, Mayo Street Arts, Speedwell Gallery, and in The Bollard<\/em>.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to painting, he became involved in music and performance art. \u201cCrank Sturgeon, a performance artist I went to school with in Boston, moved to Maine. We collaborated for ten years on various performance projects. We\u2019ve done the \u2018The Sacred and Profane\u2019 avant-garde art festival on Peaks Island for several years together. Our collaboration dovetailed into some of my painting work. He made soundtracks for my paintings, embedding a speaker in them, creating \u2018sound paintings.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Corrigan\u2019s other work for the festival includes a collaboration with craftsman Chris Wright. The pair collected handmade signs used and discarded by panhandlers around Portland and built a large airplane, which they dubbed the \u201cHoboplane.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Patrick Corrigan the musician. In addition to performing and recording with his band Plains, he\u2019s working on releasing \u201can ambient, experimental album with a band called Jesus Cactus, featuring the great jazz drummer RJ Miller of Brunswick. Striking photographs by Black Opal, a street photographer from Japan, will make up the album artwork.\u201d Jesus Cactus performed in the Apohadion Theater this summer. <\/span><\/p>\n

C<\/span>onsidering his space, referred to as \u201cthe Bayside Subterranean,\u201d Patrick reflects on the past year spent renovating the studio and performance hall. \u201cBuilding this place has taken a year\u2019s toll on my work, but it\u2019s finally come together. Now we\u2019re presenting live music from near and far, movies, lectures, plays. New York filmmaker Cory McAbee is even coming to give a lecture on \u2018deep astronomy\u2019 and transdimensional travel.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Is there anything in the creative realm he has yet to master? \u201cOh yes! Animation. I\u2019d love to set some of my stories to animation. I have an idea for a kid’s show ready to go, but the way I’d like to see it would take a <\/span>lot of time. But the kids, they deserve it.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 2017
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