319 Comments

Magical in Maine...you and our next and first Madam President have both earned a rest after this week

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One can yell that one, Jonathan, from the roof-tops.

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You have to be the hardest-working historian/blogger in America, and we thank you for that. If the shift in mood lasts, it will be a glorious fall. My 75 year-old barber in a working-class neighborhood is a red-blooded conservative. However, this week, he said, unprovoked, Trump has lost it. We are going to lose, with no disparagement of Kamala. It is on the anniversary of Nixon's departure and the birth of my first child. An omen worth having.

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Aug 11·edited Aug 11

I truly sense that people are fed up with the former President's trumper tantrums.

EDIT: agreed 111% on Dr Cox Richardson's work-ethic; frankly it worries me.

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P.S., Kenneth, happy birthday to your child.

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This is the time. It is the time for the females in this country to ROAR. This has been a long, long, long time coming - generation after generation, centuries and longer. This is the moment that we need to soar to heights never before reached in this country. I will vote for Kamala and Tim for the benefit of my daughters, my granddaughter, my sisters, my female cousins, my female friends and the memory of my mother. This has to be the moment, not only for females but for Black Americans, Hispanics, Asians, Native Americans, and others. And in the process, we preserve democracy in America.

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Women already are roaring. They are telling the former President that he is fired. Call it a 'Roar-Sack' test. 🤭Bad, Neddy. 😉 Very bad.🤫

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Agreed about HCR. Beau of the Fifth Column stepped away from his YouTube channels to let his wife helm his team. I think he got tired of saying "today we're going to talk about Trump" after about a thousand times. :(

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I think Mrs Beau -- ¿why not 'Belle'? -- is quite good, too.

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She is, but for my own mental health I've quit following much politics. I do run her clips without watching, just to maintain their viewership levels.

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Aug 12·edited Aug 12

By the way, I just saw a vid. with and she referred to herself as 'Belle'. So I made the only chivalrous remark possible: "You are not only Beau's 'Belle' of the ball, but also a belle ON the ball!"

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Yeah, I am rather burned up and burned out -- not bummed out -- too.

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See https://www.rsn.org/001/trumps-obvious-emotional-instability-is-frightening-not-funny.html

"...Trump's Obvious Emotional Instability Is Frightening, Not Funny.

Tom Nichols / The Atlantic...'

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Interesting article. Thank you. I did not watch any of that bloviation of the vanities. This statement says it all, at least to me: "In any case, trying to untangle the half-cooked pasta of a Trump story isn’t really worth the effort."

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Kenneth, one has to wonder why your barber was 'for Trump' And regarding Heather's photo of the Maine lobster boats on the moorings in that idyllic cove, I'd be willing to bet you $20 bucks The Lobstermen (male & female) who bait those traps and haul them, are Trumpers! So.., let's you and me meet down at Round Pond, on the deck of the Muscongus Bay Lobster dock, have a beer, a lobster roll with some of their great potato salad, and just 'chew-the-rag' for a while. Maybe we can make some sense of it. And if not... to heck with it. We'll enjoy the view.

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Fox is the reason for much of the treason

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Oh for goodness sake. The improbable couple to whom she refers is Buddy and her.

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My Grandmother was from “away” and lived on an island. She married a fisherman from “the mainland” (Maine coast).

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That's what I thought!!! Now I want to watch that movie!!!

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Yes!

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I bet Ginny would be glad to “chew-the-rag for a while” !🦞

“Woman, 104, still works trapping lobsters, shares simple tips for a long life”

https://www.today.com/health/womens-health/104-year-old-lobster-lady-rcna159923

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Name the time and date. I want to be in on that!

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Let the Trumper cry his crocodile tears.....it took him this long to realize the diaper clad rapist -34 count felon is a threat to Mother Earth?? That climate change or a nuclear war would turn that amazing picture into ashes???

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He just might be outFoxed.

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I think America is Foxed-out. The damage that one entertainment organization has done is incalculable.

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Congratulations! Good omen indeed!

Thank you for sharing your barber's comment.

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I was the woman from away who fell in love (for the first time) on an island in Maine. ❤️

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“ 1922 film The Seventh Day— which has the crazy unrealistic plot of a woman from away and a local Maine mariner falling in love—”

This native New England-uh loves Dr. Heather’s sense of humor!

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But Heather wasn't born yet! She arrived on planet earth in the 1960s I think, maybe even the 70s!!!

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Hahahaaa.., welp, I was "a young GI (from ME), who drove from Lockbourne AFB in Ohio with a nice girl, who borrowed a buddies boat, found a secluded rocky spot on the Kennebec River, one hot sticky summer day, while on leave from a garden-spot in SEA. Fell in love, but it was not to be. Back to SEA I went. That was probably in 71 and we were bombing the crap out of the 'yellow man'. That's one of my "memories" from 55 years ago.., no book though. Life is so short. There's no place like the Maine coast or the USA to wind things up.

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Didn't fall in love on an island in Maine, but was taken to an island I fell in love with by my second husband, who happens to have a cabin in Maine with a view of Monhegan. So, I fell in love with Maine. Before that, I was a NH chick through and through.

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I love those days when all you can see of Monhegan is the lighthouse.

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I love the hot shimmering days when Monhegan looks like it’s floating.

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I remember those days! I don’t like to visit Maine in the summer anymore though. I like the cooler days with fewer tourists. This past spring was a late visit for me. (Almost Memorial Day!) I left some flowers at the Salt Pond in advance of Rachel Carson’s birthday.

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We are hear now, and today is one of those days

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Here…

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I fell in love on an island in Maine, and it lasted for the rest of his life. And it will continue to last the rest of mine, too.

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Wow! Really? How did that love work out? (No need to answer that. Just curious.)

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It didn’t last forever, but led to great adventures that changed the trajectory of my life.

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Beautifully said.

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So was HCR

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Me too.

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Reminds me of the play “Come from away” — which I loved (as well as the phrase)—though that was about Newfoundland.

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Ooh, which island? I just got back from Vinalhaven. I know there are lots of islands out there, I just always wonder if it's Vinalhaven when people talk about a Maine island. I fell in love with that island 10 years ago.

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Deer Isle. We could see Vinalhaven, esp on a clear day.

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PRESIDENTIAL MISMATCH

Kamala & Coach vs. Duplicitous Donald & Vacuous Vance

As Coach said ‘The varsity against the JV.’

HOPE/JOY vs. HATE/WEIRD

Happy Days are here again, IF WE FIGHT TO WIN.

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We have to keep the Proud Boys, Three Percenters, Putin’s crowd in whatever form it shows up, and a gaggle of automatic rifle carriers of many stripes at bay. Then there are the groupies of Putin in Congress, some of whom may be voted out in November. Before that we have to secure polling places and vote counting. I hope Tim Walz can assure the loyalty of the National Guard.

The enemy within cannot be ignored.

Meanwhile I’m just writing GOTV postcards to all sorts of lists of Democrats.

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I’m a postcard writer too ✍️😊

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Virginia We can’t play Marquis of Queensbury rules against gun toting thugs.

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Have been listening to breakdown of Project 2025. It’s a combination of “1984” and “The Handmaid’s Tale” about US, both sickening (Stephen Miller on “The Beat” last week) and terrifying.

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Virginia Project 2025 reads like a modern version of MEIN KAMPF, as Stephen Miller well knows.

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Missed that, having repressed whatever part of “Mein Kampf” I was required to read, but remembering newsreels of the late thirties and Miller’s policy on immigrants, not surprised.

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No we cannot. My question at this point: will Governor Pritzker call out the National Guard BEFORE there is an incident at the Democratic convention. I don’t dare even wonder what will happen in polling places in November, fearing it will make the harassment of the Georgia ladies mild by comparison. Will we need guardsmen in every polling place in the country? How many can Trump and CO organize? May we voters not be surprised, but prepared in every instance!

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Virginia, I am adding the following link to your comment, concerning the hate-and-conspiracy group "True the Vote" and their plans to disrupt and interfere with the 2024 election by intimidating voters at polling places and drop boxes: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/maga-group-true-the-vote-is-working-with-sheriffs-to-monitor-drop-boxes?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email.

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Wonderful picture!!

And thank you for consistently taking an evening off!! It's a great reminder to me to do the same . . .

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Quaint, magical scene. Sleep well. See you tomorrow ✌️

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I googled the trailer. The Seventh Day 1922. "Where's the hotel?" "There's no hotel." "Railroad?" "There's no railroad." Saw up to where she says "Let's get out of this hole!" I think that's Heather's inlet that you can see behind them.

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The “railroad” is what they haul the boats up out of the water on

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And in fact, there isn't one. They have to climb up a ladder, and then everyone flops on the jetty.

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Beautiful summer pic. BUT now we must STOP TIME. The summer is silently slipping away. I wait all year to sit in such a spot and make sure the tide comes in on time — and it usually does. But time keeps on slipping into the future and I don’t want my future to be past. But, what can I do? Send $ to Democratic candidates so that all of our futures and our kids futures will be better. The tide will take care of itself.

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Wish I had more to send, IRS got most of mine thanks to Elon’s tax loopholes. Yes, I can blame him…

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"...make sure the tide comes in on time." What a word picture. i have been there also.

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It is lovely to know that history, if only from a fictional film, can repeat itself in the best of real life situations. I'm always happy thinking about you and Buddy finding each other!

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So romantic, your movie reference. This is a beautiful, unique hidden nook. Thank you for this. Rest well. See you tomorrow.

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Have a good laugh 😎😎😎😎😎😎🎥🎬📽️🎞️🎥🎬📽️🎞️🎥🎬📽️🎥🎬📽️🎞️

Boy have I got a film for you. Sitting down got your popcorn 🍿 ITS REALLY GOOD 👍🏾

https://youtu.be/WiEO9p8OVMQ?si=UnDqSZIAwwjkIG1n

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Der Untergang rides again! That deadly serious film that's given us so many laughs.

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Laugh out loud, over and over.

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This is hilarious!!! Love it!

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YES! Not just b4 bed.

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WOW!😂😂😂

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Aug 11·edited Aug 11

That lovely, evocative picture reminded me of a series of delightful books by a Maine author and illustrator, Robert McCloskey, I read to my sons when they were young. That picture could be out of Time of Wonder, or One Morning in Maine. Our favorite was Blueberries for Sal. The books featured McCloskey’s wife and daughters. Thank you Heather.

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Blueberries for Sal is my favorite. I am giving a copy to my granddaughter this week. She is a little younger than Sal but has similar hairstyle.

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Who would ever believe a plot in which a woman from away falls in love with a local Maine mariner?? :-)

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Ridiculous! Way too far-fetched to be credible 😁

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Extraordinary political insights, historical context and amazing photography from Buddy, who could ask for anything more.

Thank you so very much and by the way we are going to crush them ( old orange haired draft dodging monster from MAL and his hirsute partner who carried a typewriter not a rifle in Iraq for six months and got a senate seat in Ohio bought paid for by crypto investor Peter Thiel ) in November.

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Really crazy and totally unrealistic, for sure. Absolutely. How did you ever find that 1922 movie?

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Dr. Richardson: enjoy every moment you are on the water. I've spent hours free diving the Pacific Ocean up and down the coast of California and never felt so alive and one with nature. To ride up and down on the swells seemed to transfer the enormous energy of the waves to one's body as you lay on the surface and gaze into the depths, the kelp pumping up and down with each swell. After free diving for abalone we'd strap on tanks and dive to a comfortable 60 feet to spear fish and observe the wonders of the underwater world. Weightlessly kicking with fins to look into cracks and spy flora and fauna not found on land: like a mountain of snow white metridians that took my breath away. Then, there was the day we spotted a "fin" some 50 yards from our rubber raft and me telling my mate that it was a sunfish and upon his insistence we quietly motored in a wide arc and drifted to the FISH. It was swallowing a seal and was as long as our 12 foot dingy! As we approached, without apparently moving a muscle the enormous carnivore sunk down into the depth and disappeared. I jokingly told Chester that it might have been a basking shark (a plankton feeder) he looked at me and said, "Bob, it had a shark's mouth!" We motored away about 100 yards, threw the anchor in and had our scuba dive. Surely, it was full and wouldn't be looking for another meal any time soon. Moral of the story: enjoy the sea while you're young and fit enough to. At eighty years I just have my memories.

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Lucky you are to be eighty. Enjoy those memories at no risk

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Thanks for sharing. I too miss diving but cherish the memories.

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Unrealistic, huh? HA! It’s a beautiful pic, Heather. See ya’ tomorrow.

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