Featured Maine Author:

John McDonald

John is a Maine humorist and storyteller. He also hosts a popular weekend talk show on WGAN in Portland, ME and writes an award-winning weekly newspaper column. John is the author of The Maine Dictionary, A Moose and a Lobster Walk into a Bar..., Down the Road a Piece, Nothin' but Puffins and is the founder of the Maine Storytellers Festival.

You Know You're in Maine:

If you own more than four pair of gloves.

If, when the sun goes down, you start looking for your coat.

If you leave your keys in your car and the next morning your car is still there.

If people drive 100 miles to shop in a real mall.

If you got a set of new snow tires for Valentines day.

If more than 1/2 the meat in your freezer is moose.

If you don't use your blinker because everyone already knows where you're going.

Maineisms

(from John Gould's Maine Lingo)

BAGGIN' THE BOWLINE: Tying a knot in the wrong way; botching the job. All useful seafaring knots had a double function- to hold fast as desired, but to come undone quickly and easily when required. The reef, or square knot, can be mis-tied into a granny, and a bowline can be bagged. Neither comes apart smoothly if improperly made. Another explanation of this phrase is that the bowline holding the weather edge of a sail must be rightly set or the sail will bag, making for sloppy sailing. Thus, a man who doesn't know what he's talking about, or tries to do something he can't, is baggin' his bowlines. The expression can be a way of calling somebody a liar.

HUNG DOWN: Said of a trawl, lobster pot, and anchor which has caught somehow on the ocean floor. Since in this situation it hardly seems "hung up", it is hung down.

Shipwrecks & News Stories

Storm Demolishes Boat, Downs Trees

Maine Authors