FOR YOUR HEALTH: Use Personal Health Records to Take Control of Your Own Health

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By using a new app, you can take charge of your well-being, make more informed choices, and stay on top of your health with ease.

(NAPSI)—Technology is making it easier for people to manage their health – in ways that may surprise you. Wearables in conjunction with health apps are transforming how people manage their health. These tools enable users to monitor vital signs, track healthcare activities, and manage chronic conditions with ease. By providing access to medical information, millions are making informed decisions about their well-being, improving their quality of life, and taking active steps toward a healthier lifestyle.

An Example

One easy-to-use app helps millions of people understand their health by tracking activity levels, sleep, exercise, heart rate, stress, and even what you eat. Called Samsung Health, it also offers challenges, tips, and coaching to help users set and meet their health goals.

By better understanding your personal health data, you can be in better control of your health and wellness goals. That’s why Samsung Health introduced Health Records, a new feature that gives users easy access to their medical records from clinics, hospitals and major health networks.

The new Health Records feature in the app guides users toward preventive care by offering meaningful insights and alerts that suggest proactive care steps, such as recommending medical tests or actions like scheduling your annual exam. Instead of relying on the hospital for your records, you have easy access to important data such as lab results, prescription records, list of medications, and past hospital visits.

One of the main reasons people use Health Records is because having all health information in one place makes it easy to stay in control of their health. Whether you’re tracking daily steps or managing a long-term health condition, having your health data in the app makes it simple to stay on top of things. And, with a holistic view of your health records, readily available at your fingertips, you can more effectively engage with providers.

With the ability to track everything from exercise to doctor’s appointments, medications, or test results, Samsung Health gives users more control over their health than ever before.

Learn More

To learn more visit https://www.samsung.com/us/support/owners/app/samsung-health.

COMMUNITY COMMENTARY: Open meeting vs. secret ballot

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by Sheldon Goodine
China resident

There’s a lot of talk around town about having a traditional town meeting with a moderator, with a required quorum in attendance to conduct business, or a day-long secret ballot meeting. Each has its pros and cons. Since I have been a resident of China for more than 60 years, during which the town has grown from less than 2,000 residents to more than 4,000, my perspective may or may not muddy the waters.

In those early years, town meetings were important social events where community business was conducted. Folks looked forward to getting together each spring at the end of a long winter. They could “catch up” with old friends as well as greet new neighbors. They discussed and decided warrant articles until lunch time, then recessed and enjoyed sharing a great lunch prepared by the ladies. After the meal, they completed the warrant articles to end the day. The meeting closed in peace and harmony, and everyone left happy.

At this time, town business was managed by a select board, which met at the home of town clerk Mary Washburn. As the town grew, the brick portion of the town office was built and the select board increased from three to five members. Soon thereafter, a town manager was hired, and the annual town meeting gradually became less important. Fewer voters turned out to conduct the community’s business, and many became upset that only a few people were making the decisions. even though these same people didn’t take the time to participate.

Although I was not in agreement to legislating participation, an article was approved that required 10 percent of town voters (quorum) to be in attendance to both open and conduct the annual meeting. For many years the town met in the multi-purpose room at the China Middle School. When the current RSU (Regional School Union) was created this venue was no longer used since many felt that it was too much of a disruption for the children.

As a result the current secret ballot form of conducting town business was instituted, resulting in many more residents voting on both the warrant articles and the election of town officers. I have been a regular annual participant in each of these legislative methods. During much of this time, it was difficult to stay informed of the ever increasing number of expense of managing town affairs. Fortunately, with new technology this information is now available to all in a variety of ways. Select board meetings are televised, with an opportunity for the public to participate. These are also recorded for anyone to access after the fact. The Town Line newspaper is printed and distributed weekly with excellent articles of each business meeting, prepared by Mary Grow, which are both accurate and comprehensive. The town manager has created a monthly newsletter with other details of town activities.

My question is how many voters are in favor of each of these most recent forms of conducting town business:

a) Return to the in-person annual town meeting, requiring a minimum number of voters in attendance and, possibly, the construction of a building large enough to accommodate the growing number of participants; or
b) Continue with the current system of voting by secret ballot during the day at the town office.

I hope this is useful and, at the very least, encourage more discussion on this topic and a form of government that will best meet the needs of our ever growing and changing community.

With my thanks to all.

CRITTER CHATTER: More of Carleen Cote’s past articles

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by Jayne Winters

I continue to share more of Carleen Cote’s past articles because Duck Pond Wildlife Care Center isn’t accepting any wildlife or phone inquiries right now. I found several about the generous efforts of local students to help support the rehab center.

From August 2005:

“For two years, China Primary School students have selected the Wildlife Care Center as the recipient organization to benefit from their community service requirements. Lisa Jones called to tell me that the students were very enthusiastically looking forward to collecting supplies for the wildlife. What could we use? My suggestions included dry and canned dog food, dog biscuits, towels, whole corn for deer, shavings. In June, the students and chaperones arrived to deliver their bounty – dog food, cat food, biscuits, whole corn, towels and shavings. All that we could hope for. How proud these youngsters were, to know that they were contributing to the care of Maine’s wildlife. Thank you, students, for thinking about the wildlife at our center. Your generosity is truly appreciated.”

However, China Primary School students’ generosity didn’t end there: “In November, Lisa Jones called to tell me that third grade students would hold a bake sale on December 5, with the proceeds benefitting the wildlife at our center. I attended the bake sale to meet and thank the students for remembering the wildlife. This is the first time students have held a bake sale to benefit the Wildlife Care Center; Mrs. Vivarelli’s third grade class raised $100. Thanks also to moms, dads and the student cooks for preparing all the goodies. Thanks to all who purchased these goodies.”

Student fundraising efforts haven’t been limited to Windsor and China:

“In December [2005], I was contacted by Lynn Durost, Vassalboro Community School, and she told me her fifth-grade students had a donation for the Wildlife Care Center. She would like for me to come to the school to answer questions the students had about the work we do with the wildlife and to accept their donation.

On December 22, I visited with the students. Mrs. Durost read a letter the students had written to the principal asking if they could make a donation to our Center rather than exchange Christmas gifts. Mrs. Durost explained that any fundraiser money is usually donated to a fund to replace playground equipment. The principal granted permission and also said the school would match any money raised. The students asked many interesting questions and graciously invited me to stay and partake of their Christmas goodies – desserts and punch.

Thank you to these fifth grade students for generously foregoing their gifts to make a gift to the wildlife, and to the school for matching their gift. A donation of $62 was received.”

I hope you find these thoughtful, kind and generous acts of giving as inspiring as I do. Teaching younger generations to care about animal welfare, whether domestic or wildlife, is vital to developing and maintaining a compassionate community. In my humble opinion, something we all could use more of.

Wildlife rehab facilities are typically non-profits that primarily depend on personal resources and outside donations. For any students who would like to help fundraise for such an important cause, please be advised that Duck Pond has been working with Wilderness Miracles Rehab, in Bowdoin (Kathi at 207-720-0074), Misfits Rehab, in Auburn (Jen at 207-212-1039), Bridget Green, in Wiscasset (207-631-0874), Critterville Wildlife, in Brooklin (845-549-2407), and Saco River Wildlife (207-702-1405). Pam Meier at Mid-coast Maine is a turtle rehabber and can be reached at The Turtle’s Back (203-903-2708). Please check these websites for a rehabber close to you: https://www.mainevetmed.org/wildlife-rehabilitation or https://www.maine.gov/ifw/fish-wildlife/wildlife/living-with-wildlife/orphaned-injured-wildlife/index.html. In addition, you can contact your local Animal Control Officer through your town office. PHONE MESSAGES & EMAILS ARE NOT BEING MONITORED AT THIS TIME.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: The elusive pileated woodpecker

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Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

You must remember the cartoon character of a bird with an innate chutzpah and brash demeanor that would fly into our living rooms during cartoon Saturdays in the 1950s and 1960s. He possessed a fluffy red crest and a laugh that bordered on insanity. He was Woody Woodpecker, the 1940 creation of Walter Lantz at Universial Studios, whose character and design would evolve over the years from an insane bird with an unusually garish design to a more refined looking and acting character in the vein of Bugs Bunny.

Why am I bringing this up? Recently, a local resident sent a photo along to us about seeing one by Sheepscot Lake. While they are not a rare bird, they can be quite shy and wary. I have seen a few of them at camp, but usually from relatively long distances. I even had one sitting on an old apple tree stump in my backyard at home, in Waterville, a few years back.

Pileated woodpeckers are a very large North American woodpecker, almost crow sized, inhabiting deciduous forests in eastern North America, the Great Lakes region, the boreal forests of Canada, and into parts of the Pacific Northwest. They are considered the largest North American woodpecker, although the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is larger; its numbers are such that it is considered near or at extinction, although one has been sighted in Maine in recent years.

When Europeans first arrived in North America, they found a land blanketed with mature woods that were the favorite haunts of pileated woodpeckers. During the 18th and 19th centuries, much of this great forest was cut, and the pileateds became rare over much of their range. Changes in lumbering practices and the abandonment of many eastern farms have allowed much of the forest to regenerate. They still need large tracts of woodlands, but they have adapted well to younger trees.

They measure 16-19 inches in length with a red crest and black bill. You’ll find these birds in mature forests with large trees. The territory of these birds can range from 150 – 200 acres. Signs of their presence can be detected by looking for 3 x 6 inch holes in trees. Using suet feeders can bring them close up, at times.

The call is a wild laugh, similar to the Northern Flicker. Its drumming can be very loud, often sounding like someone striking a tree with a hammer. The bird favors mature forests, but has adapted to use second-growth stands and heavily wooded parks as well.

Since these birds eat carpenter ants and wood-boring beetle larvae that tunnel deep into the wood, the birds will excavate a long gash, roughly rectangular, in a tree to retrieve ants.

Pileated woodpeckers raise their young every year in a hole in a tree. In April, the hole made by the male attracts a female for mating and raising their young. Once the brood is raised the woodpeckers abandon the hole and will not use it the next year.

The females will lay three to five white eggs which are incubated for 15-16 days by both the male and female birds. Both male and female will also feed the nestlings. The young woodpeckers will fledge the nest in 24-28 days. The adults and the young will stay together until fall. During this time, the adult birds will continue to feed them and teach them how to find their own food. Around September, the family will break up and the young will find territories of their own.

Pileated woodpeckers have been observed to move eggs that have fallen out of the nest to another site, a rare habit in birds.

Common predators of the pileated woodpecker are Black snakes, Coopers Hawks, Northern Goshawks, Red-tailed Hawks, Great Horned owls and squirrels.

So, pay attention, listen for a low-pitched drumming that trails off in speed and volume at the end. Follow the sound, and you just may find one.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

How many MLB teams have retired Nolan Ryan’s number?

Answer
Three. California (Los Angeles) Angels, Houston Astros and Texas Rangers.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Listening to a pile of 78s

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Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Listening to a pile of 78s

After listening to a pile of 78s that are both long forgotten and musically captivating, I wish I could write about each and every one of them, but, for reasons of time and space, can only pick a few; hopefully they can be heard via YouTube.

Ella Mae Morse

1. Capitol – #1922 – from the early ‘50s featured jazz/pop vocalist Ella Mae Morse performing Blacksmith Blues; and Love Me or Leave Me, the latter a 1920s hit for Ruth Etting and the title of a 1955 semi-fictionalized biopic with Doris Day portraying Miss Etting and co-stars James Cagney and Cameron Mitchell.

Morse was one of the several artists whom Johnny Mercer and Buddy De Sylva signed up in 1942 when they started Capitol Records and quickly earned a reputation for high quality music among collectors.

She sang with verve and had the pulsating arrangements of conductor Nelson Riddle who was kept busy at Capitol recording with Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra.

2. Decca – #28736 – had the Mills Brothers utilizing their uniquely smooth harmonies on Don’t Let Me Dream; and Pretty Butterfly, with lyrics by Sunny Skylar set to the tune of Antonin Dvorak’s Humoresque (Skylar, who died at 95 in 2009, supplied the English lyrics for the 1940s Latin American pop classics Besame Mucho; and Amor.).

The disc was recorded in 1953 and had superb big band arrangements from Owen Bradley, who usually oversaw country singers in Nashville such as Red Foley, Ernest Tubb, Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty and Brenda Lee.

Donald Novis

3. Decca – #1833 – recorded 1939, had British tenor Donald Novis (1906-1966) singing Charmaine; and Angela Mia in a style best described as an especially syrupy imitation of Irish tenor John McCormack without McCormack’s distinctive vocalism.

Novis was accompanied by organist Eddie Dunstedter (1897-1974). Despite misgivings about Novis’s singing, I did enjoy this blue label Decca 78, which retailed for 35 cents.

Charmaine later became more famous as an early ‘50s hit record for Mantovani and his Orchestra and the theme song for his syndicated early ‘60s TV show .

4. Victor – #27869 – recorded 1943, had the phenomenal Tommy Dorsey (1905-1956) and his Orchestra in two selections.

Tulullah Bankhead

Side One’s I’ll Take Tallulah was a topic of the day roll call of then-famous movie actresses, Tallulah Bankhead being the honoree, and was written by the songwriting team of Yip Harburg and Burton Lane for the MGM musical Ship Ahoy; in 1947, Harburg and Lane would write the Broadway musical masterpiece Finian’s Rainbow. Dorsey’s lead singers Frank Sinatra and the Pied Pipers did the vocals.

The second side, Not So Quiet Please, was, for me, the main attraction, and a very exciting instrumental showcase for Dorsey’s young drummer Buddy Rich by composer Sy Oliver.

Rich also had a bad temper and, for some strange reason, started badgering the already bad tempered Sinatra who responded by throwing a glass pitcher of ice water at the drummer, which missed him by less than an inch. Later the two kissed and made up, even sharing an apartment for a brief period.

Frank Munn

5. A late 1920s dime store label Supertone – #S2113 – had tenor Frank Munn (1894-1953) giving sublime renditions of two classic songs from the very old days of the 1890s to early 1900s – the especially exquisite Silver Threads Among the Gold; and When You and I Were Young, Maggie. Munn was listed as the pseudonymous Frank Whalen. His singing had the phrasing, delivery, conviction and eloquence, qualities that were lacking in the previously mentioned tenor Donald Novis.

6. Victrola Red Seal – #87571– acoustically recorded in April 1920, on a one-sided ten-inch shellac, had the great Irish tenor John McCormack (1884-1945) and violinist Fritz Kreisler (1875-1962) collaborating in a very powerful song, When Night Descends, by composer Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). A quite exceptional disc from more than 100 years ago.

FOR YOUR HEALTH: What to Know Now to Help Protect Your Newborn from RSV

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You can protect your baby even before he or she is born by getting vaccinated against RSV while pregnant.

by Rebecca Norwick,
National Association of Nurse
Practitioners in Women’s Health

When I first started my career as a nurse practitioner, I saw pediatric wards fill each winter with children suffering from common infections that cause rotavirus diarrhea and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Since then and following the introduction of the rotavirus vaccine nearly two decades ago, hospital visits for rotavirus have notably decreased.

Protecting Newborns Now

Today, we are in a similar position to help prevent RSV through a maternal vaccine given to protect infants at birth. Getting vaccinated while pregnant helps your body create protective antibodies that you can pass on to your baby. These antibodies can help protect your baby from diseases such as RSV during the first few months of life when they are most vulnerable.

While RSV can cause cold-like symptoms most of the time, it can be dangerous in infants and young children—and is the leading cause of infant hospitalization in the United States. RSV season usually starts in the fall and peaks in the winter in most regions, which is why the vaccine is typically given from September through January. Because the RSV vaccine is administered seasonally, the protection passed to the baby will last for their first RSV season.

The good news is that if you or a loved one is pregnant, the maternal RSV vaccine is available now at no out-of-pocket cost to you through almost all insurance plans, including Medicaid and employer-sponsored plans. You should receive the maternal RSV vaccine during weeks 32 through 36 of pregnancy if you are pregnant between September and January.

Vaccines have been recommended during pregnancy for decades and are our most effective tool against preventable respiratory diseases. They are also a critical part of routine prenatal care, adding an important line of defense against severe respiratory diseases that can leave pregnant people and their babies at an increased risk of complications. The maternal RSV vaccine can be administered during the same visit that you may receive other vaccines during pregnancy, including Tdap, flu, or COVID-19 vaccines.

All recommended vaccines are held to the highest standards of safety – meaning they are carefully studied and monitored for side effects. Having worked for 20 years in community health centers in underserved areas, I have witnessed firsthand the protection that maternal vaccinations provide. At one clinic, we even implemented a “cocooning” approach, vaccinating the entire family against flu to help protect newborns who are too young for vaccines. By ensuring the pregnant mother, father, siblings, and grandparents received their flu shots, we worked to minimize the risk of influenza spreading within families.

These days we can go a step further by providing early RSV protection to newborns during their first months of life. If you or a loved one is pregnant, ask your healthcare provider about the maternal RSV vaccine, along with other recommended maternal vaccines. Maternal vaccination is a powerful way to help strengthen your baby’s immunity and share protection before they are even born.

Learn More

For more information on maternal vaccines and their importance, visit www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pregnancy.

AARP NEWS YOU CAN USE: February one of Maine’s most beautiful time of the year

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by Joyce Bucciantini

February is one of the most beautiful times in Maine. Gone are the super short days of early winter, leaving us with more daylight to enjoy the great outdoors in Maine. Many cities and towns have winter-themed celebrations which might include snow sports, ice fishing, or maybe an opportunity for hot cocoa. These are great ways to fight off cabin fever and reconnect with our neighbors and friends. For those who enjoy warmer activities, there is always excitement to be found at the state high school basketball tournaments during the February school vacation week.

In between enjoying the bright winter weather and fresh air, we must also keep in mind a yearly task that we all must do, but few enjoy: get our taxes done! Yes, as surely as the new year moves forward, it is important to start making a plan for gathering our financial information and completing our tax forms. However, there is good news! The AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program offers free tax preparation services in 47 locations in Maine. Last year, 240 Tax-Aide volunteers filed 13,671 Federal returns helping Maine taxpayers receive $10.4 million in Federal refunds. They also filed thousands of state tax returns, all at no cost!

This remarkable program offers free tax preparation services, focusing on taxpayers who are over 50 years old and have low to moderate incomes. AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is offered by AARP Foundation in partnership with the Internal Revenue Service. All Tax-Aide volunteer counselors are IRS-trained and certified to prepare and file most types of federal and state tax returns for Maine taxpayers.

The online Tax-Aide Site Locator tool will help you find the Tax-Aide location nearest to you. This website provides the locations, the operating schedules and who to contact for making tax preparation appointments. Visit
https://www.aarp.org/money/taxes/aarp_taxaide/locations/ or call 1-888-227-7669 for more information.

AARP Foundation Tax-Aide appointments fill up fast. It is a good idea to make your appointment early in the tax season. Then you can rest easy and enjoy all that the great Maine outdoors has to offer, or for indoors fun, check out an AARP Maine coffee social near you. Perhaps I’ll see you there!

Joyce Bucciantini is a retired middle school educator. She currently coordinates Delta Kappa Gamma’s Read to Me program, is a tutor with Literacy Volunteers-Androscoggin, and is an active AARP Maine volunteer. In her spare time, she enjoys her gardens, being outdoors and traveling.

THE BEST VIEW: If at first you don’t succeed…

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by Norma Best Boucher

I was never a good swimmer. Neither of my parents could swim, so I wore a life jacket throughout my early years. Of course, later on I was embarrassed wearing the jacket, so I figured I should learn to swim, but how?

The answer came during the summer I turned 10 years old – Girl Scout Day Camp.

What a blast! There were crafts, archery, songs, and swimming. The fun began when we got on the bus. Whoever said that singing “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” was boring was never on the bus with 35 10- to 12-year-old giggly girls loving to say the word “beer.”

After crafts and lunch came swimming. I was prepared. Even before visualization was in my vocabulary, I was practicing it. I imagined myself walking into the cold lake water and swimming gracefully from one dock to the other and back again.

I went up to the swimming instructor. All the girls were yelling and jumping off the dock. Mrs. Tobey was taking names, talking with the girls individually, and shouting instructions to the crowd. I finally managed to reach her and said, “Mrs. Tobey, I don’t know how to swim. What do I do?”

She said, “Jump in.”

“Jump in?” I thought. No, that was not part of my visualization.

I asked again. “Mrs. Tobey, I don’t know how to swim. What do I do?”

Without even so much as a look at me, she gently touched my back and not so gently pushed me off the wharf into the water.

“Help!” I yelled spitting out water.

I heard Mrs. Tobey yell something to me, but I was too busy flailing my arms and trying not to sink to hear what she was saying.

“Help!” I yelled again.

This time I heard what she was saying.

“Stand up!” she yelled.

What did she say? “Stand up!”

Oh, yeah. Stand up and go directly to the bottom where no one will hear my screams for help.

“Stand up!” she yelled again.

That was it. I was too exhausted to continue, so I put my feet down hard deciding to go straight down and to disappear. Everyone would see that she had drowned me when my dead body floated up to the top.

I pushed down really hard, and my feet hit the ground. The next thing I knew I was standing straight up with the water reaching up to my chest.

Although I never really forgave Mrs. Tobey for trying to drown me, she did teach me to swim the dog paddle that summer. I was on my way.

I didn’t see Mrs. Tobey again until my tenth-grade year when my girlfriends decided to take a Junior Life Saving course at the local Boys Club. By then I could do the side stroke, so I thought, “What the heck? I can do this.”

In a matter of weeks I had forgiven Mrs. Tobey for trying to drown me, and I had learned how to swim the breaststroke and the crawl. I did everything she taught us, but apparently, I didn’t do any of it very well. When I tried to save my friend with the tired swimmer’s carry, I was totally submerged under water and so was she. This did not look good.

I passed the written test with a 100, but I failed the swimming/ saving a person’s life part. My friends all passed and moved on to the next level, but I decided to persevere and do this level one more time.

Again, I scored a 100 on the written test, but this time Mrs. Tobey sat me down to say, “Norma, you did very well on the written exam, but you did not pass the swimming test again. You should not try to save anyone else’s life. Just be happy that you can save yourself. Oh, and please do not take this Junior Life Saving course again.”

I was devastated. I knew that I would never be a real lifeguard, but I wanted to be able to say that I had passed that junior course. I mean I had forgiven Mrs. Tobey for trying to drown me when I was 10 but forgive her for failing me two times at junior lifesaving? I had to think about that.

The semester ended at school, and as youth would have it, I forgot about my humiliation of failure and wanted to try something new.

I forgave Mrs. Tobey one more time, and in my youthful delusions I decided to remember the positive parts of her speech to me. “You got a 100 on the written test…you can save yourself…don’t take that swimming course again.”

I had been hearing my girlfriends discussing a new swimming course at the Boys Club. Again, Mrs. Tobey was the instructor. I mulled over the pros and cons. There was no testing involved. I would learn new swimming strokes. I would improve and maybe pass Junior Life Saving next time. I found no cons to the class.

I was about three minutes late to the first class. Mrs. Tobey was giving instructions to the girls who were standing next to the pool. I walked in. There was a low suction noise as the door to the pool closed. Instinctively, Mrs. Tobey turned to acknowledge the sound.

I smiled to say non-verbally, “Sorry I’m late.” and “Here I am, again.”

I wish I could describe accurately the expression on her face, but it would take a better writer than I.

Suffice it to say there was one second of pure horror in her facial expression when she realized that I was going to be in her newest swimming class – water ballet.

SCORES & OUTDOORS: Fruit flies have some benefits

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Fruit fly

Roland D. Halleeby Roland D. Hallee

Now, you’re very familiar with Drosophila melanogasters aren’t you? They usually show up in your kitchen at the most inopportune time.

They are called fruit flies, also known as vinegar flies. Those pesky little bugs that annoy the dickens out of you, but are actually very beneficial to humans.

This species is one of the most commonly used model organisms in biology, including studies in genetics, physiology, microbial pathogenesis, and life history evolution because they are easy to take care of, breed quickly, and lay many eggs.

About 75 percent of known human disease genes have a recognizable match in the genetic code of fruit flies, and 50 percent of fly protein sequences have mammal tendencies. These flies are being used as a genetic model for several human diseases including Parkinson’s, Huntington’s, and Alzheimer’s disease. The fly is also being used to study mechanisms underling aging and oxidative stress, immunity, diabetes, and cancer, as well as drug abuse.

As important as they are in the laboratory, I don’t need them in my kitchen. So, first, how to identify the source of the fruit flies, and what you can do to get rid of them.

The developmental period of the fruit flies varies with temperature. The shortest development time (egg to adult), seven days, is achieved at 82°F. Development times increase at higher temperatures due to heat stress. Females lay up to 400 eggs into rotting fruit or other suitable material such as decaying mushrooms. They hatch after 12-15 hours. The resulting larvae grow for about four days while molting twice, at about 24 and 48 hours after hatching. During this time, they feed on the microorganisms that decompose the fruit, as well as on the sugar of the fruit itself. Then the larvae undergo a four-day-long metamorphosis after which the adults emerge.

Fruit flies can be spotted around fresh fruits/vegetables, rotting fruits and vegetables, drains, garbage and damp organic materials.

Populations tend to be greatest in late summer and early fall as they infest fruits during the harvest season. With the end of summer season, many homeowners often encounter fruit flies in and about their kitchens and near garbage storage areas.

Occasionally, pomace flies, similar in appearance to fruit flies, may infest the home from standing water, like a forgotten mop pail or an open sewer drain.

Newly-emerged fruit fly adults are attracted to lights, but egg laying females will not leave fermenting materials.

How to get rid of them? Sanitation is the first measure of defense, even though there are various traps and sprays that are used to kill fruit flies, it is necessary to eliminate the source in order to eliminate them.

Look first in areas where vegetables and fruits are stored outside refrigeration. Also look for fruit fly sources in garbage cans, under appliances and recycling bins. Remember the larvae can only survive in decaying organic matter that is moist. Also, fruit fly larvae may feed on the sides of the drain and in the drain trap if there is an accumulation of organic debris there.

A space spray such as CB80 Pyrethrin can be used as a quick kill, reducing populations of flying insects.

If you can eliminate the source, don’t allow them to get established, you won’t have to worry about eradicating them.

Roland’s trivia question of the week:

What is the historical significance of the number 12 for the Boston Red Sox?

Answer
It was the number worn by Elijah “Pumpsie” Green, the first black player to play for the Boston Red Sox, the last team in major league baseball to integrate.

REVIEW POTPOURRI: Maine Speaks anthology

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Peter Catesby Peter Cates

Maine Speaks anthology

Lawrence S. Hall

The 1987 Maine Speaks anthology contains what has elsewhere been often considered the most famous 20th century short story from our Pine Tree State – The Ledge, by Lawrence Sargent Hall (1915-1993).

However, before today (February 2, 2025), I was totally unfamiliar with the story, and the writer, let alone the resulting popularity after it was first published in 1959; I simply started reading it out of curiosity and became sucked into its skillfully drawn atmosphere of suspense and dread.

The plot depicts a fisherman taking his 13 year-old-son and 15-year-old nephew out early one Christmas morning to a rock ledge off the Maine coast to shoot ducks. His boat is moored at an outlying island where the three take a skiff roughly 300 yards further to the ledge.

They are bagging birds by the dozens, highly anticipating the delicious eating; in the excitement of the moment, they don’t notice that the skiff has loosened and floated dangerously far away until only visible in the distance and they are now stuck on the ledge with no means of getting off before high tides.

Meanwhile, the freezing cold waves are rising around the ledge. I am not going to reveal the ending.

But I will provide a couple of passages conveying the situation, atmosphere and attitude, sometimes simultaneously, as in the first example:

“They had it figured exactly right for today. The ledge would not be going under until after the gunning was over, and they would be home for supper in good season. With a little luck the boys would have a skiff-load of birds to show for their first time outside. Well beyond the legal limit, which was no matter. You took what you could get in this life, or the next man made out and you didn’t. ”

As can be seen, with situation, the preceding quote conveys the seemingly careful planning of every detail in this venture, leaving little to chance – “They had it figured exactly right”; with atmosphere, the imminent danger – “the ledge would not be going under”; and with attitude, the rationalizing dishonesty of the fisherman in taking “what you could get in this life. ”

The second quote hints at the possibility of a lurking bombshell in one otherwise perfectly nice day:

“This could be one of those days where all the right conditions masked an incalculable flaw.”

One of Hall’s beliefs was that he considered great fiction more true to life and fact to be mere fact because great fiction seeks out the truth behind mere facts. “Fiction….reveals beyond what perhaps happened what could, or would, or should happen.”

Elsewhere, he stated that he wrote “out of fascination with the experience of humankind living on this planet.”

Hall got his undergraduate degree from Bowdoin College, in Brunswick, in 1936 and a Ph.D from Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, in 1943, doing his thesis on another Bowdoin alumnus, Nathaniel Hawthorne, which he later published.

During World War II, Hall worked for the Office of Strategic Services, better known as the OSS, an earlier incarnation of the CIA where he ran a censorship unit.

From 1946 to 1986, he was an English professor at Bowdoin and resided on Orr’s Island, near Harpswell, where for a few years he also ran a boat yard.

In 1999, novelist John Updike included The Ledge when he edited The Best American Short Stories of the Century, praising it as “timeless – a naturalistic anecdote terrible in its tidal simplicity and inexorability fatally weighted in every detail.”