Author. Educator. Musician.
Like many Americans, I’m mystified by Evangelical Christians—or any Christians for that matter—who support President Trump. Evangelicals make up a key component of this president’s base, despite the fact that Donald J. Trump of Queens has little in common with Jesus Christ of Nazareth. At this point in his presidency, we’ve heard it so many …
Continue reading "Why So Many Evangelicals Worship at the Altar of Donald Trump"
Last April I published a novel. It was the big dream of my entire adult life. In part, blogging helped that dream come to fruition. My blog was eventually turned into a weekly column for the Portland Press Herald. In the yearlong process of editing my novel with first my agent and then my editor …
Continue reading "Why I Stopped Blogging (and Should Start Again)"
When I decided to become a writer with a serious writing habit in my early 30's, I had a naive sense of what writing was. Here's what my list of a writer's tasks might have looked like then: write sentences that make readers think you're smart, create characters who will make readers think you're smart, …
Remember when Jason Varitek mashed his catcher's mitt into A-Rod's too-cute-for-baseball face? Or when the weaselly Pedro Martinez slammed a then 72-year-old Don Zimmer into the Fenway turf? All this punctuated by the exclamation points of Aaron Boone's home run in '03 and the Red Sox 0-3 comeback in '04. Yankees-Red Sox hatred threatened to …
Continue reading "A Call for Incivility in the Yankees-Red Sox Rivalry"
Here is the list of beers for the 4th Annual Maine Madness Beer Tournament. We put a lot of thought and discussion into the beers included below. This is not a task we take lightly. There are many solid beers that didn't make it into the tournament, and don't think it didn't break our beer-loving …
Continue reading "2017 Maine Madness Beer Tournament Beer List"
Here is the official list of the beers for the 3rd Annual Maine Madness tournament. Much discussion goes into crafting this list of Maine beers. We tried to include brews that are brilliantly crafted, available to try during the tournament, and/or popular in Maine and New England. It's a tough job, and we had to …
Continue reading "2016 Maine Madness Beer Tournament Beer List"
To My Son Last winter as snow banks rose high above us and we clutched our coats tight against our necks to fight off the cold, you were cradled in the warmth of your mother’s belly. Sinew formed, bones calcified, fingers sprouted at the ends of your tiny arms, and the synapses in …
We present to you the official 2015 Maine Madness Beer Tournament Bracket. Click on the document to get a better look at the match-ups. It's clear that the early rounds are going to be tight with some amazing brews in head to head battles early on. Remember, the purpose of this tournament is to celebrate …
Continue reading "Official 2015 Maine Madness Beer Tournament Bracket"
We are so happy to announce the participants in the 2015 Maine Madness Beer Tournament. What we'd like to ask of you is that you peruse this list and see if there are any Maine beers you dearly love that are not on this list. We are going to finalize the list in the next …
Continue reading "The Official List of Beers for the Maine Madness Beer Tournament"
Here is a comment a reader recently left on my post 'Always Remember, It's Just Beer.' In my post, I lament the oft nauseating approach some beer drinkers take to craft beer. There is a reverence given to certain bottles and cans of beer that makes us forget that it's just friggin' beer. I, too, …
Continue reading "A Reader Demands that We Stop Being Beer Elitists"
DAVE PATTERSON 