One Man’s Crusade Against the Term “Nor’easter”
Do you call the storms that so often hit New England “nor’easters?” The late Maine reporter Edgar A. Comee would have wanted a word with you.
Powerful storm waves hitting Wells, Maine.
Photo Credit : Arthur VillatorDuring Hurricane Lee’s recent visit to New England, one of the major stories across local news outlets was how strong the winds would be, and how much damage an already-rain-exhausted region would endure. As the storm weakened and veered away toward Atlantic Canada over the weekend of September 16-17, I noticed comments like this one, from a Fox News weather report: “Hurricane Lee will behave like a giant nor’easter, which New England should be able to deal with.” And a News Center Maine weather broadcast added that the storm was now “viewed as a nor’easter.”
This reminded me of a story in Yankee’s January/February 2023 issue. It was an excerpt from Northeaster, a book by Maine author Cathie Pelletier about a fierce storm in February 1952 that claimed 40 lives throughout the region. I moderated a book event for Cathie in Portland, and among the audience questions was why she had titled the book Northeaster and not Nor’easter, as is more commonly used throughout the country today.
Cathie explained that when she was growing up in northern Maine, she’d never heard anyone say “nor’easter”; many people in the audience agreed. She also said she included an explanation at the end of her book that says, in part: “I must mention the late Edgar A. Comee (1917-2005) of Brunswick, Maine, a man I wish I had known. He declared himself chairman of the ‘Ad Hoc Committee for Stamping Out Nor’easter,’ believing it to be an affectation of ‘non-sailors who wish to appear salty.’ … I have never used the term myself because I thought it sounded like how Hollywood has Mainers talk in movies. When I discovered the late Mr. Comee, I found vindication. At least I knew I wasn’t alone.”
Cathie mentioned that Comee’s quest to rid “nor’easter”from the lexicon made him the subject of a New Yorker “Talk of the Town” item in September 2005 … which immediately sent me looking for it.
Under the heading “Tsk-Tsk Dept.” staff writer Ben McGrath notes: “It won’t be long now before the hurricane season has passed, and, with it, the volatility of coastal winds…. For Edgar Comee, of Brunswick, Maine, this transition marks a heightened alert in his self-appointed role of storm-watch monitor. His ears prick, his eyes narrow, the better to flag inexcusable mentions of that most unfortunate contraction: nor’easter. When he comes across the word, while watching a ‘cruddy local ABC news anchor,’ as he puts it, or in the pages of a national magazine… he dispatches a ready-made blue postcard (of complaint) … and concludes, ‘You will of course accept my view in this matter … and will never again use nor’easter, at least in public, and thus oblige.’ The card is signed, ‘Your most humble petitioner, Edgar Comee, Chairman, Ad Hoc Committee for Stamping Out Nor’easter.’”
McGrath observes that Comee, a former Navy ship captain in World War II and later a Portland PressHerald reporter whose beat was the waterfront, was not alone in his disdain. “For instance, there was the seafood entrepreneur Ed Myers (now deceased), who, while writing for a publication called The Working Waterfront more than a decade ago, identified the frequent use of ‘nor’easter’ as a ‘festering sore in today’s marine and weather journalism.’”
A bit more searching led me to a 2018 letter to the Press Herald by Comee’s daughter, Elizabeth Comee Bouvè. She titled it “Nor’easter’? Edgar found it lamentable.”
And she picked up her father’s cause, as she wrote in part: “It’s a term that would never be uttered by true sailors, according to a man who would know. No more nor’easters! For most people, this statement means ‘no more windy snowstorms.’ To my deceased father, Edgar A. Comee, and now to me, it means ‘stop using the version from away: ‘nor’easter.’’ Let’s get rid of this cussed intrusion on our regional dialect.”
Whether or not meteorologists and media reporters will take note of the Comees’ (and Cathie Pelletier’s) mission to set us straight on what to call the weather phenomenon — well, it remains to be seen. But now, readers, you know if you find yourself in northern Maine or in a Down East village full of fishermen, you might want to earn their respect and ask if they are ready for the pending northeaster.
Do you call these storms “nor’easters?” Let us know in the comments below!
Mel Allen
Mel Allen is the fifth editor of Yankee Magazine since its beginning in 1935. His first byline in Yankee appeared in 1977 and he joined the staff in 1979 as a senior editor. Eventually he became executive editor and in the summer of 2006 became editor. During his career he has edited and written for every section of the magazine, including home, food, and travel, while his pursuit of long form story telling has always been vital to his mission as well. He has raced a sled dog team, crawled into the dens of black bears, fished with the legendary Ted Williams, profiled astronaut Alan Shephard, and stood beneath a battleship before it was launched. He also once helped author Stephen King round up his pigs for market, but that story is for another day. Mel taught fourth grade in Maine for three years and believes that his education as a writer began when he had to hold the attention of 29 children through months of Maine winters. He learned you had to grab their attention and hold it. After 12 years teaching magazine writing at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he now teaches in the MFA creative nonfiction program at Bay Path University in Longmeadow, Massachusetts. Like all editors, his greatest joy is finding new talent and bringing their work to light.
More by Mel Allen