{"id":20635,"date":"2021-10-28T11:41:04","date_gmt":"2021-10-28T15:41:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/?p=20635"},"modified":"2021-10-28T11:41:04","modified_gmt":"2021-10-28T15:41:04","slug":"intriguing-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/intriguing-101\/","title":{"rendered":"Intriguing 101"},"content":{"rendered":"

We feature the Ten Most Intriguing People in Maine<\/strong> in this issue, a reader
\nfavorite for more than three decades. Hey, and by the way, our city is no slouch when it comes to being intriguing.<\/span><\/h3>\n

Dazzlers RE: our Magnetic Metropole<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Stephen King<\/strong> was born in the Maine Eye and Ear Infirmary<\/strong> on Congress Street. He is the most popular contemporary fiction writer in America today, according to a YouGovAmerica<\/strong> survey that marvels at the depth of his appeal and considers it with the following filters: He\u2019s No. 1 with Millennials, No. 1 with Gen X, No. 1 with Baby Boomers, No. 1 with women, No. 1 with men. A thousand years from now, people will know King springs from Portland<\/strong>. Which probably really scares him.<\/span><\/p>\n

Anna Kendrick<\/strong> and Victoria Rowell<\/strong> were born here. Liv Tyler<\/strong> grew up here. Breakthrough Portland novelist Ann S. Stephens<\/strong> invented the dime novel<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<\/strong> was born here when Portland was still part of Massachusetts<\/strong>. The Bearded One\u2019s translation of Dante<\/strong>\u2019s Inferno<\/em> echoes through eternity: \u201cMidway upon the journey of our life\/ I found myself within a forest dark,\/For the straightforward pathway had been lost.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Portland Head Light<\/strong> hypnotizes the globe. Everything else is just a lighthouse. It lights the way to the city Redfin just named No. 1 of the \u201cTop 10 Small Towns in America Worth Moving To Today<\/strong>\u201d\u2014with a photo of You Know Who. Though it\u2019s not actually in Portland, even the most well-intentioned revisionist wouldn\u2019t dare to suggest calling it Cape Elizabeth Light.<\/span><\/p>\n

We champion the extraordinary and the misunderstood. We are daring. Portlander N. P. Willis<\/strong> was the first to publish Edgar Allan Poe<\/strong>\u2019s \u201cThe Raven.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Instagram precursor postcards<\/strong> were invented here. Suddenly we could share our travels around the world with our loved ones with a photo on a 4 x 6 card. <\/span><\/p>\n

We have at least five inhabited urban islands<\/strong> within our city limits. Intriguing geography.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before the North Atlantic Fleet<\/strong> sailed off to win World War II<\/strong>, it refueled in Portland Harbor <\/strong>(anchoring in Long Island Sound).<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re the lobster<\/strong> capital of the universe. Because of this we walk the streets with an air of cosmic cool.<\/span><\/p>\n

Funny, Tony-winning Andrea Martin<\/strong> keeps the world in stitches.<\/span><\/p>\n

We\u2019re \u201cthe closest transatlantic U. S. port to Europe.\u201d *<\/span><\/p>\n

Two words: Italian Sandwich<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two catchphrases we invented: \u201cWicked\u201d and \u201cJust sayin\u2019.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

November 2021<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20249,"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":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20635","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=20635"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20635\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20637,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20635\/revisions\/20637"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20249"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.portlandmonthly.com\/portmag\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}