A little comment(ary)...

Flea market attracts an optimistic breed
By BILL NEMITZ
Portland Press Herald

SOUTH PORTLAND — Travis Jordan stood at his booth Saturday morning inside the fledgling South Portland Flea Market, surrounded by the stained-glass artistry of his twin sister, Tracy.

"We want to get our business out there," Jordan said when asked why, in this barely sputtering economy, he was here on this frigid February morning. "We're setting up a Web site that should be up and running by next week."

Jordan figures he's sent out close to 70 resumes since losing his job last fall as a manager for American General Financial Services in Auburn. And like so many out-of-work Mainers, he's still looking.

"It's horrible out there right now," he said.

Hence, the debut of 1 of a Kind Designz, featuring stained-glass pictures, jewelry and even a table with a spiraling, stained-glass mosaic top. Now all Jordan needed was a customer.

"You've got to stay positive about it," he said, managing an optimistic smile.

It's too soon to tell whether this indoor flea market, launched last weekend by Louis Maietta, will ever fly.

Its location, inside a former lawn-and-garden equipment dealership at 753 Broadway, has high traffic volume written all over it. But its timing – well, let's just say there aren't a lot of people out there looking to spend money these days.

Yet there they sat at the market's 8 a.m. opening, nine vendors hoping against hope that someone, anyone, might wander in and plunk down a buck or two for ...

"They're all salt and pepper shakers," said Wayne Gray, 71, of South Portland. "They're not the type you put on the table with salt and pepper in 'em. These are collector's items."

The shakers, mostly sets of animal figurines, belonged to Gray's mother before she passed away last month. He sold the more valuable ones to a dealer a few weeks ago and now looked to unload the rest for anywhere from $2 to $6 a pair.

And if shakers weren't your thing, Gray had several pairs of handmade, double-bottom moccasins (he made them himself), embroidered pillows and ceramic horses. He even had a pile of videos that he bought for 25 cents each and hoped to flip for a buck apiece (with a little prodding, he'll do 75 cents).

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=237770&ac=PHnws

NXT: THE NEXT GENERATION - Time to jump off the merry-go-round with bar owner
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

Stop me if you've heard this one: The Portland City Council is planning to nuke the liquor license of a bar owned by Thomas Manning.

Unless things shift on the council before its next meeting Feb. 18, it would be the third time the city has pulled the license on one of Manning's bars.

It's like deja vu all over again.

According to Portland police, The Cactus Club on Fore Street in the Old Port (formerly known as The Lava Lounge, formerly known as The Mercury) has been the scene of many a disturbance over the past year, from underage drinking to fistfights.

If this sounds familiar, it's because police reported similar incidents in connection with Manning's former bars, Digger's/Liquid Blue on Wharf Street, and Metropolis on Forest Avenue, when the city pulled their licenses.

We've been on this merry-go-round before, but the outcome always seems to be the same: Manning somehow stays in business.

Maybe it's time to find out why so we can all move on. We need to decide whether Manning is an entrepreneur or a villain.

Is he another Portland businessman trying to stay afloat in a bad economy, pay his employees and provide the city with a much-needed service?

Or is he the sinister, shadowy figure who stalks Wharf Street, enticing young children to sip tequila and luring wholesome and unsuspecting girls to dance on tables for tips?

The truth – or something like it – is probably far different, or something in between. But it's hard to know. Neither Manning nor his attorney returned repeated phone calls.

When police came to the council to recommend denying the license, they cited 52 calls for service from December 2007 to last November. The calls involved a shooting and several fights, as well as citations for selling alcohol to minors. Conversely, from December 2006 to November 2007, police had only seven calls and no liquor license violations at The Cactus Club.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=238118&ac=PHnws


2009 Press Herald file

SOS goes right to town's heart
By BILL NEMITZ
Portland Press Herald

NEWFIELD — They don't have time to wait for the federal stimulus package to trickle its way into their tiny town on the western Maine border. So this afternoon they'll try to put together one of their own.

"When that store closes – if it closes – there will be no more cohesiveness in this town," local resident Joe Cause said Friday. "Where am I going to get my newspaper? What's left?"

He's talking about the West Newfield General Store, also known as West Newfield's only store. And while owner Tina Crowley-Colwell prepares to close it down this week after months of hanging by a financial thread, there's one last ray of hope.

From 3 to 7 p.m. today at the Old Town Hall, members of this community will donate whatever they can – items for a raffle, food, their time and even their hard-earned money – to try to keep their store afloat.

It's enough to make the owner cry – and yes, she's been doing her share of that lately.

"I'm beside myself that people care this much," she said, blinking back the tears as her morning regulars came and went. "It's very touching and ... I don't know ... I can't really explain it."

It's actually quite simple.

As far back as the late 1800s, one store or another has operated at the intersection of Wakefield, Garland and Maplewood roads in this village just 3 miles from the New Hampshire border.

The current West Newfield General Store, where you can eat breakfast, buy groceries, pick up a new sweat shirt or hand-knit scarf and even tag a freshly shot deer or moose, goes all the way back to 1954.

The store's cluttered bulletin board, a collage of business cards and fliers promoting everything from landscaping and wood cutting to hairdressing and butchering, is the nerve center of the local economy.

The small dining area is more than just a place to grab a hot meal – it's where you find out who just had a baby, who broke a leg and, these days, who was the latest to get laid off.

In short, the general store is the heart and soul of West Newfield. And when it goes, its loyal customers fear, so will go their sense of community.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=247682&ac=PHnws




Photos By Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer

Departing Blom made us better
By JEANNINE GUTTMAN
Portland Press Herald

When I joined the newspaper 15 years ago, he was one of this institution's star reporters.

Not that he would ever have referred to himself that way. In our profession, it's a sign of utmost respect when your peers give you that distinction. And Eric Blom won that coveted honor at an early age.

At the time, in the early 1990s, he was in his late 20s and spearheading an investigation into the state's workers' compensation program. His in-depth, five-part series, which required him to spend five months immersed in Maine's complicated workers' compensation bureaucracy, found an ineffective system that cost millions in taxpayer dollars, stunted business growth and created an adversarial employer versus employee environment.

As the editor at the time, Lou Ureneck, wrote: "Blom's articles on workers' comp transformed the debate in Maine and led to major reform."

For a journalist, it doesn't get much better than that. In 1992, Blom's work won a prestigious national John Hancock award for excellence in business and financial journalism.

As the years went on, Blom continued to showcase his enormous reporting talents. Later, as city editor and business editor, he helped reporters hone their craft and taught younger journalists the fine arts of interviewing, distilling complex information and writing compelling stories.

Among his top editing assignments: directing coverage of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and learning everything we could about the two terrorists who traveled to New York via the Portland jetport.

Now, after 21 years at the Press Herald/Telegram, Blom is leaving journalism to join a public relations firm in Yarmouth.

He is wistful about his departure but excited about this next phase of his career, saying it is time to blaze new trails. "When I first got here, I used to joke that I was one of the youngest people in the newsroom," he said. If you measure youth by idealism, an energetic demeanor, constant optimism and an unfailingly positive outlook on life, then Blom still is a very young man.

His last day was Friday. Given the impact of his work at our newspaper, I wanted to tell readers a bit more about Blom, who most recently was our Money and Resources editor.

Said reporter Dieter Bradbury: "Eric's work on the workman's compensation issue was some of the most focused and effective journalism I've seen in 29 years at this newspaper.

"Not only did it have a tangible impact on state policy, but it was also highly readable, thanks to Eric's strong writing skills.

"That was no small feat, given the technical nature of the subject," Bradbury said. "Eric is a master of taking arcane, complex subjects and turning them into digestible, interesting stories. He developed that skill as a reporter and, as an editor, has shared his knowledge with others on the staff."

It is said that the best reporters make the best editors because those folks truly can appreciate all the work that goes into the crafting of a news story. They have been there; done that. Who better to help make your copy sing?

"Eric is a rare breed of manager," said reporter Tux Turkel. "Reporters are very independent-minded. Eric was able to elevate the performance of his staff by giving his reporters enough freedom to explore their beats while providing an overall direction."

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=248746&ac=Insight

Holy pulp fiction! A new comic shop
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

PORTLAND — Fanaticism is a funny thing. It can push the limits of reason, test the bonds of friendship and drive people to acts of madness and destruction.

Then again, it can also cause you to open up your own comic shop during an economy that has claimed many a business.

So, you know, it could go either way.

That applies to Gerald von Stoddard and Antoine Malaab, owners of the recently opened Coast City Comics.

Since "The Economy" never seems to pose quite the same threat to Metropolis or Gotham City as supervillains hellbent on chaos, maybe Coast City is safe.

But it wouldn't matter if it were boom times or the end of days for the duo, who were looking to create a space that's equal parts lounge, gallery and fun house.

"I'm hoping our store is also about inspiring kids or people in their 40s to draw or write and draw back the veil from comics," von Stoddard said.

Coast City started as a conversation and series of "what if's" between Malaab and von Stoddard, both of whom had worked in comics shops.

One of the appeals of comic book shops is that for fans, who can at times lead an isolated existence, stores offer a de facto clubhouse, a place for them to meet up with people who speak the same language, Malaab said.

Coast City in a way offers a two-for-one deal, because it shares space with The Fun Box Monster Emporium. When von Stoddard and Malaab found the space at 656 Congress St., they approached Tristan Gallagher, owner of the Fun Box, about becoming neighbors. The one-of-a-kind repository of comic and pop culture collectibles, from books to action figures and everything in between, soon relocated from High Street.

Look around Coast City and you'll see the typical rows of new comics featuring Batman, Superman, Iron Man and Captain America as well as T-shirts and statuettes.

But you'll also find things like a small reading lounge, a used graphic-novel lending library and ample wall space devoted to comic art.

Yes, that's right, comic art. Just like anyone else who starts with a blank canvas, comic artists deserve to be celebrated, von Stoddard said.

And here in Maine, there are more than a few comic artists working under the radar, he said.

"I think people are excited knowing there are comic book artists living around the corner," he said.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=262309&ac=PHnws

A message from the publisher
BY RICHARD L. CONNOR
Editor and Publisher
Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel

Good morning, central Maine.

You are holding the first edition of your Morning Sentinel published by a new owner and my new company, MaineToday Media Inc.

Much has been written about this acquisition over the past year. Too much for my liking, but those of us in the press love to write about ourselves. My preference is that we find news and report it, not make it.

The Maine newspapers -- the Morning Sentinel in Waterville, the Kennebec Journal in Augusta, the Portland Press Herald and the Maine Sunday Telegram -- all share deep traditions of providing quality newspapers to their audiences. Collectively, they also are the dominant online news source in the state.

Our challenge will be to maintain the best practices of these newspapers and their online components. Once we have done that, we plan to grow them in print and online.

I know Frank Blethen and I've known his associates here. I've known members of the Guy Gannett family for many, many years. I consider them friends and great members of our newspaper fraternity. We all hold some things in common. We love newspapers and still believe in them. We love Maine, too. MaineToday Media Inc. will work hard to be worthy stewards of the foundation they have built.

Frank Blethen phoned me late on Monday to congratulate me. It was a kind and generous gesture. As I told him, timing is everything. We believe we have been allowed a great opportunity to buy a newspaper when others are not buying them. Our newspaper business in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., is growing. Last year was a record for us in profitability, despite having a direct competitor in our market.

Our combined audience of print and online is the fourth-fastest growing of any newspaper in the country. And our experience in Wilkes-Barre -- although the two companies will be separate -- gives us confidence that we can grow here, as well.

http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/6480013.html

WeClick is aiming to save world, one date at a time
By JUSTIN ELLIS
Portland Press Herald

The odds are pretty solid that if you pick someone up around last call at a bar, no one will be making a donation to an impoverished orphanage in Africa.

Bars make their money in Miller Lite wishes and Jager bomb dreams, not charitable giving. Matchmaking, no matter how brief, is just a bonus.

But the heart, as much as it can be fickle (or clouded by cocktails), can also be kind. If love and compassion for others reside somewhere in the same place, then maybe WeClick stands a chance.

A Portland-based speed-dating service, WeClick is hoping to combine those two impulses in the hopes of finding the best of the best. After all, if someone has an interest in society's well-being, they might make for a suitable coffee date.

Starting with the first WeClick event on July 8, the company will donate a portion of the proceeds to groups doing charitable work in the United States and abroad.

They're calling it "ethical speed dating," and it's possible they're breaking new ground.

But hey, the world's always going to need fixing, and somewhere, someone will always need to be fixed up. So maybe it could work.

"You have the ability to create income and say from the beginning, 'This is who we are, we're not just here to receive, we're here to help people,'" said WeClick CEO April LaFrance. "You have a chance to create positive social change around the globe."

The concept of speed dating is no longer a new or, at least some may say, strange one. Singles mingle at a track meet's pace in hopes of finding a soul mate, or at least a short-term improvement.

In the case of WeClick, the potential lovebirds pay $15 to enter and meet each other in five-minute intervals, keeping tabs on potential dates with scorecards.

When the meet is over, WeClick gathers the cards, tallies the matches and sends e-mails with contact information for possible love connections.

Creating an ethical speed-dating agency was a special kind of mash-up for LaFrance and her husband, Josh, who is the liaison to the charities WeClick supports.

"The idea came from the discouragement among the singles in Portland," she said.

They are not cupids by trade. They own a construction business, Heritage Fine Homes, and April is a licensed nurse. But like any couple with a single friend, the urge to play yenta was strong. They scouted speed-dating nights and found it all comes down to good people, good conversation and a safe atmosphere.

http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=265101&ac=PHnws