Welcome to the December 2007 edition of “Jud’s New England Journal,” the rather curious monthly musings of Judson Hale, editor-in-chief of Yankee Magazine, published for over 70 years in Dublin, NH. The Three Most-Asked Questions About New England 1. Where’s ‘Down East’ begin? 2. Why were bridges covered? 3. Were spring dance floors built to […]
portland
Flat. It’s a word not often associated with beauty or talent. Rather, it conjures up far less remarkable images: flat tire; flat broke; flat as a pancake. But in the world of folk art portraiture, flatness is so desirable, even transcendent, that it practically defines the genre itself. Folk art portraiture, often called “naive” portraiture, […]
Lisa Saffer is a 47-year-old diva. She received her master’s degree from Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music in 1984, and today makes her home in Portland, Maine. In the great opera houses and concert halls of the world, she sings in many languages, her small frame launching glorious sounds that reach to the farthest […]
Antiques: Federal Furniture
Americans are a loud bunch. We talk big. We act out. We don’t truly embrace the “less is more” mentality. Our heroes are risk takers, and we value action over restraint, boldness over subtlety. I suppose it’s inevitable that a country spawned from revolution would embrace boisterous ideals, but I fear that in doing so, […]
Sail Away
Maine natives Hannah Kubiak and Beth Shissler have created an innovative recycling program — turning retired sails into hip tote bags. “We like the ones where you can taste the salt on the outside,” says Beth. Sea Bags, sewn in Portland, Maine, can weather rough handling, thanks to the extremely durable fabric and hand-spliced rope […]
Wyeth Art Works in New England
While the public cannot personally visit Allen Island and the neighboring Georges Islands, you can see some of Andrew Wyeth’s Maine paintings, watercolors, and drawings at over a dozen New England art museums. Start with the Farnsworth Art Museum & Wyeth Center in Rockland, Maine. The Farnsworth has the region’s largest collection: 26 (compared with […]
Dear Yankee
We heard from many readers in response to our September story “The Maine Connection” about the Portland ticket agent who checked in two of the hijackers on September 11, 2001. These are excerpts from some of the letters we received. I just read your article on the man at the US Airways counter on 9/11. […]
14 Maine communities boasting dog-friendly beaches: Bar Harbor, Biddeford, Kennebunk, Kennebunkport, Kittery, Ogunquit, Old Orchard Beach, Portland, Saco, Scarborough, South Portland, Stockton Springs, Wells, and York 6 number of the nation’s 28 most important estuaries that are located in New England 1,530 weight in pounds of a shortfin mako shark harpooned 13 miles off the […]
As dawn broke over the lake this morning, your daughter caught her first perch. A few hours later, your son paddled to Loon Island with a new friend while you read several chapters (in one sitting!) of a novel you’d been meaning to start for years. At dusk, after a gourmet lobster bake, you and […]
$71,000 amount generated by traffic tickets last year in Brighton, Vermont (pop. 1,200). Can you say “speed trap”? 4,180 cows now enrolled in Vermont’s “Cow Power” program, producing enough methane to power 1,229 Vermont homes 250 works of art in the permanent collection of the Museum of Bad Art (MOBA), located in Dedham, MA 216 […]
For four precious weeks in early summer, strawberries by the ton come up out of Maxwell’s strawberry fields, which lie across Cape Elizabeth like random quilt squares. They come by the truckload to the Maxwell farm market, to Maine supermarkets, and into Elsie Maxwell’s kitchen and freezer. Ken and Elsie Maxwell are the fifth generation […]
Our March/April issue is now on sale where magazines are sold, and subscribers have had a head start in reading the issue — so it is time to open the mail and see what readers think: Can you stand more feedback about Yankee‘s new format? I was first introduced to Yankee Magazine when I was […]