No sooner did I post the last entry than into my e-mail box came a copy of the latest newsletter from Robert Bickler, the general manager of the Blethen Maine Newspapers, leading with this little gem:

General Manager’s Update:
Owing to a continuation of significant declines and advertising volumes coupled with rising business costs, the executive management team has been working aggressively to develop a plan that will provide additional non-payroll savings including newsprint, travel, supplies, postage and other costs.

Crosscut Seattle is reporting some fascinating info on the prospects for a buyer of the Blethen Maine Newspapers (the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram, Central Maine Morning Sentinel, and Kennebec Journal, plus mainetoday.com and ancillary related properties, including real-estate holdings in Portland, South Portland and elsewhere).

The MoveOn.org folks are out in Post Office Park right now, asking people to take the "Bush-McCain Challenge," in which you attempt to determine whether Bush, McCain, or both of them said or did something.

Turns out, as you might have suspected, it's hard to tell the difference on the questions they've chosen - which cover a lot of ground.

Portland's rockingest air-guitarist, McNallica, will defend her New England title next week, in a bid to return to the US Air Guitar national championships, to be held August 8 in San Francisco.

The show is at the Middle East in Cambridge, Mass., on Thursday, June 5. Doors are at 8; air-guitaring begins at 9. Get your tickets ($15) now, via Ticketmaster - the show will sell out.

What's this about?

“I am initiating a recall of District 1 Portland City Councilor, Kevin Donoghue, because of his general lack of sympathy for the needs and concerns of the people of District 1 and the city of Portland. I have my own particular set of specifics and the more people I talk to the more I find that others have their own set of specifics.

Look, we know that the latest Mars lander wasn't named for our newspaper. But we're partial to things that share our name, even if they weren't named after us. (This baby wasn't, but we wrote about him, too.)

So here's a link to some pretty impressive images, which are zoomable, downloadable, and generally fascinating.

Some of the fiddleheads around are actually starting to open, but there are still plenty to be found. It's a great wild, local, organic food. Pickled fiddleheads are my faves, but boiled and steamed are OK. (If they have to be hot, I'll take steamed, thank you.)

Here are a couple places you can get recipes on preparing fiddleheads: The Heart of New England, and Wild Harvest Gourmet

When Portland's city councilors passed the $185 million 2008-09 budget on Monday evening, they saved the Reiche branch of the Public Library (at least for now), but slashed 10 of the city's polling places. This will save approximately $15,000. The cuts will NOT affect voters on June 10 (the upcoming primary election), but the impact may be felt in November.

Roger Leisner of Radio Free Maine does a pretty impressive job getting his video and audio recordings of progressive thinkers' talks out to the people of Maine. For many years he has offered his videos and audios for rent at Videoport - and adds more on a pretty regular basis. So head down there and check them out.

He also lets people download (for a few bucks) recordings from his pages on LearnOutLoud.

UPDATED 3:10 pm May 15: The governor, through his spokesman, David Farmer, has said he supports the decision of the Corrections Department and the Attorney General's Office to depart from previous executive-branch practices and charge the news media to fulfill a public-records request.

I went to see The Passion of the Hausfrau at Portland Stage Company last night. To be honest, I was kinda not looking forward to it ahead of time, and for the first 10 minutes or so, I thought to myself, “This would be funnier if I had kids.” (The raucous laughter of most women in the audience supported my theory.)

But as the evening wore on, Bess Welden made it impossible not to laugh, as she dramatized the trials and hysterical tribulations of motherhood over the course of an hour and a half.

The art world has lost a familiar presence with the recent death of Ed Groome. Ed and his wife, the painter Martha Groome, were always present at every art opening of note, and many that were pretty obscure. They would travel sometimes enormous distances to be part of an opening. It was not unusual to go to see a friend’s show at some little gallery at the end of the last road on a peninsula and find Ed and Martha already there.