{"quotes":[{"text":"Susan Margaret Collins was born on December 7, 1952 in Caribou, Maine and is presently the senior United States Senator from Maine. Senator Collins has served in the Senate since 1997 and chaired the Senate Committee on Homeland Security from 2003 to 2007. She now is the Chairwoman of the Senate Special Committee on Aging. Collins is a graduate of St. Lawrence University, a liberal arts college, in Canton, New York. Considered a moderate Republican, she became the only Republican in the U.S. Senate currently representing a state in New England. Her vote was one of three republican votes in the Senate that helped to defeat a bill designed to destroy the Affordable Health Care Program presently in effect. John McCain's heroic stand only mattered because Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski bravely stood by him! It was their courage that saved health care for approximately 22 million people.","author":"Captain Hank Bracker","tags":["american-history","government","maine","us-senate","womens-strength"],"id":27736,"author_id":"Captain+Hank+Bracker"},{"text":"My mother always wanted to live near the water,' she said. 'She said it's the one thing that brings us all together. That I can have my toe in the ocean off the coast of Maine, and a girl my age can have her toe in the ocean off the coast of Africa, and we would be touching. On opposite sides of the world.","author":"Megan Miranda","tags":["africa","beautiful","coast","connect","connection","contact","country","death","distance","distances","foot","girl","inspirational","knowing","lake","linking","links","living","maine","mom","mother","mum","near","ocean","opposite","oppressive","proximity","relationship","sad","sea","shore","sides","thinking","thoughts","toe","together","true","truth","water","wisdom","wise","world"],"id":58703,"author_id":"Megan+Miranda"},{"text":"A postcard and I'm pining for New England. . .","author":"Amy Ballard","tags":["communication","homesickness","maine","new-england","postcards"],"id":73389,"author_id":"Amy+Ballard"},{"text":"These steel monstrosities screamed night and day, blotted out the starlit skies and Northern Lights with flashing red strobes, slaughtered thousands of bats and entire flocks of birds banished tourism and wildlife, made people sick and drove them from their now-valueless homes.","author":"Mike Bond","tags":["bats","birds","conservation","day","environment","home","killing-maine","maine","new-england","night","northern-lights","sustainability","tourism","wildlife","wind-turbines"],"id":79570,"author_id":"Mike+Bond"},{"text":"My grandfather once told her if you couldn't read with cold feet, there wouldn't be a literate soul in the state of Maine.","author":"Marilynne Robinson","tags":["gilead","maine","reading"],"id":86889,"author_id":"Marilynne+Robinson"},{"text":"There, on the far side of of the Atlantic, would be Maine, but despite the shared ocean, her island and this one were worlds apart. Where Inishmaan was gray and brown, its fragile man-made soil supporting only the hardiest of low-growing plants, the fertile Quinnipeague invited tall pines in droves, not to mention vegetables, flowers, and improbable, irrepressible herbs. Lifting her head, eyes closed now, she breathed in the damp Irish air and the bit of wood smoke that drifted on the cold ocean wind. Quinnipeague smelled of wood smoke, too, since early mornings there could be chilly, even in summer. But the wood smoke would clear by noon, giving way to the smell of lavender, balsam, and grass. If the winds were from the west, there would be fry smells from the Chowder House; if from the south, the earthiness of the clam flats; if from the northeast, the purity of sweet salt air.","author":"Barbara Delinsky","tags":["atlantic","charlotte-evans","maine","maine-woods","nature","quinnipeague","scents","summer","weather"],"id":99747,"author_id":"Barbara+Delinsky"},{"text":"Though at opposite ends of our country, Maine and Hawaii are, other than climate, much alike. Places where you say who you are, be who you are, keep your word, and don't cheat or lie to take advantage of each other. Where you protect other folks because they are your tribe.","author":"Mike Bond","tags":["advantage","cheat","climate","community","hawaii","individual","lie","maine","mind","neighbor","protect","tribe"],"id":148686,"author_id":"Mike+Bond"},{"text":"What do you mean 'has to be?' and what are you smiling at?' I stopped contributing to this ridiculous dance. I grabbed the teapot and began to fill it with water in the sink.Suddenly I felt the slight weight go this body against my back and the corner of his mouth brushed adjacent my ear.'How human you are,' he whispered.","author":"Jes Dory","tags":["abilities","arcadia","book","daemon","dark-fantasy","hunger","hunger-games","isle","lady-midnight","love","love-life","magic","maine","maine-woods","mermaids","mythology-fiction","new-adult","new-adult-paranormal-romance","page-turner","paranormal-romance","read","reading-books","reading","romance-novels","romance","shadows","shapeshifter","shapeshifter-romance","shapeshifters","siren","sirens","suspense","twilight","young-adult","young-adult-fantasy-romance","young-adult-fiction","young-adult-paranormal","young-adult-romance-fiction","young-adult-series"],"id":218524,"author_id":"Jes+Dory"},{"text":"I dream dark dreams. I dream of a figure moving through the forest, of children flying from his path, of young women crying at his coming. I dream of snow and ice, of bare branches and moon-cast shadows. I dream of dancers floating in the air, stepping lightly even in death, and my own pain is but a faint echo of their suffering as I run. My blood is black on the snow, and the edges of the world are silvered with moonlight. I run into the darkness, and he is waiting. I dream in black and white, and I dream of him. I dream of Caleb, who does not exist, and I am afraid.","author":"John Connolly","tags":["afraid","dreams","maine"],"id":238368,"author_id":"John+Connolly"},{"text":"On March 12, 2015, the AIM Development Company, that deals in scrap metal, met to discuss demolishing the now defunct Verso Paper Mill in Bucksport, located at the head of Penobscot Bay. The paper mill was first built by the Maine Seaboard Paper Company in 1930. Demolition of the mill is expected to be completed in 2016. However, company representatives and town officials did not discuss what AIM might do with the 250-acre waterfront site once the demolition work is complete. Originally it was believed that a recycling facility, using the deep-water port access to export salvaged metals, would be the most likely thing to be built on this site; however this plan has now been scrapped. In 1980 this mill employed more than 1,350 workers and was the largest employer in Bucksport, a town of about 5,000 residents.The demolition and removal took much longer than anyone expected and as salvage crews continued working, a fire broke out on March 19, 2017. Apparently the fire erupted at about 8:30 a,m. As workers using cutting torches, cut into the metal exterior wall of the mill. Spreading to the roof of the building, it was debated as to the feasibility of allowing the fire to destroy the remaining structure. Considering the safety involved firefighters from Bucksport and surrounding towns extinguished the fire. It is expected that the remaining remnants will be demolished by the middle of 2017 in fact the company has open rail cars in position, waiting to remove whatever is left of the mill.","author":"Captain Hank Bracker","tags":["history","maine","north-america","our-changing-world"],"id":251349,"author_id":"Captain+Hank+Bracker"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":17,"pages":2,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}