I love my bicycle.
Maybe love is a strong word. I mean, I love sleeping in, bacon, and disc golf, but I feel really, really strongly for my bicycle.
I would drag that sucker into bed with me if I wasn’t so sure that it would leave my sheets looking like a mechanic’s shop rag, and besides, the thing has no idea how to share the covers.
On Sunday, Sept 20, USM had a visit from Sherry Wolf, a socialist, gay rights activist, and author of Sexuality and Socialism. On the seventh floor of the Glickman Library, Wolf came to talk about her book, and about roots of LGBT discrimination.
I used to live in Maine and frequented Popham Beach, topless. I wanted to start my topless journey to the beach from the parking lot but I was concerned other beach goers would freak so I would wait until I found a section where there were few people and then off came the uncomfortable top.
Sound a little far-fetched? I know it did to me when the editor at my summer internship pitched this story idea to me three weeks ago.
Sure Portland has a world-class bar scene, a vibrant music community, and more burrito joints than you can shake a sustainably-harvested stick at, but it hardly has that Columbus, Boston, or Gainesville vibe that people normally associate with a college town.
In countries across the globe, and even in various states, women have the legal right to go topless. But just because women can, doesn’t mean women do. There is a strong sort of taboo against the naked chest of a woman being visible in public. Here in Maine women can go topless, but do we? I’ve lived in Maine for ten years, I’ve been to multiple beaches, countless times, and I have yet to see even one topless woman in public.
At my summer job I am surrounded by a lot of girls. They work with me or come in as customers- they are everywhere. and they teach me things. They have continued to prove to me how society distorts their views of themselves. This big concern came out one day when I was doing what I often do, people-watching through the window.
This past Saturday, USM held the formal inauguration of its tenth President, Selma Botman.
For me personally, Botman’s inauguration capped a process of installing a new president that has been in the works for over a year.
When I first came to The Free Press last winter, the search for USM’s new administrator-in-chief was just starting in earnest.
I currently watch all my TV online as many young people do today. Lets face it there’s no or hardly any commercials and you have complete control over what you watch. I mainly used the most popular site that was surf the channel.
Surf the channel started getting threats and legal notices.
Some anniversaries can’t be celebrated. Monday, April 20 is one of these days. It marks the tenth anniversary of the Columbine shootings. Last week, April 16, was the two year anniversary of the Virginia Tech massacre. These highly publicized tragedies have spurred change around the country, but how has Maine been affected?
Because of these harrowing events, the city of Portland has taken initiative and declared April, “Gun Violence Prevention Month.
It’s difficult to not be enthusiastic while waiting for the seventh and final season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” I find myself scouring discussion boards for hints on what to expect; but no dice. It’s been kept so top secret that Shelby Woo would need to team up with Harriet the Spy to find out some sort of plot line for this season.
Around the Free Press office, terms like “uncertain economic times” and “excruciating decisions” have been popping up with such startling frequency that we started to keep a list of these and other economy related clichés on the white board in our production room.
In the past couple weeks there have been major steps forward for equal rights advocates around the nation-namely Iowa and Vermont. We now have four states that grant full same-sex marriages: Massachusetts, Connecticut, Iowa and Vermont. The D.C. council also recently voted to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples in the nation’s capital who have married elsewhere.
Imagine solar photovoltaic collectors on the roof of every major USM building in Portland, Gorham and Lewiston-Auburn, providing enough electricity to meet USM’s needs and often enough to sell to Central Maine Power Co.Imagine the PV collectors get put there without any significant outlay of funds by USM, and provide electricity at a fixed price for the next ten to twenty years that is competitive with what USM pays today to CMP for our electricity.
I am writing in response to the letter to the editor in the March 9th Free Press by “Hourly Employees.” Believe me, I know first hand the impact of USM’s financial situation and can empathize with the “author” regarding some of the decisions that have been made.
A lot has been accomplished in the past several decades regarding women’s rights, but there is still much to be done. In countries across the globe women struggle to be viewed as equals, and a recent event in Israel illustrates what we still have to overcome.
It has been quite some time since the creation of the World War II icon Rosie the Riveter. Rosie is one of the more well known ways that women started to gain independence from the ‘everyday normality.’ With her help, women began to become an increasing part of the work force.
Last weekend’s short snap of spring weather was a godsend at my East End apartment. Just a couple blocks up from the waterfront, I’ve had the placed shuttered up pretty tight for the last five months to protect against the chilling winds that whip off the ocean.
Do you know Nestle? Maine does. Nestle bought Poland Spring in 1980. Now municipalities across the state are struggling for sovereignty against this billion dollar foreign corporation that wants their water.
The town of Fryeburg has been defending itself through 43 months of legal appeals.
With April 15th just around the corner, gay and lesbian people are outraged. This day brings much discrimination upon same-sex partners. There are 1138 benefits of marriage that LGBTQ people do not receive, even if they are “legally married.” Although a gay or lesbian couple can officially marry in one of the (only two!) gay-marriage-friendly states, their relationship is not recognized by the federal government as that of two spouses.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer shut down its presses last week after 146 years in operation, and moved it daily newspaper to a web-only format.
The New York Times is currently over one billion dollars in debt. With New York and the world’s economy still cowering under the specter of a prolonged recession, advertising rates just aren’t what they use to be.
On the evening of Wednesday, March 4, a group of people gathered in USM’s Woodbury Campus Center to discuss the Marriage Bill for same-sex couples in Maine. Representatives from Equality Maine and the Maine Freedom to Marry Coalition came to share some information about legitimizing same-sex marriage in Maine and what we can do to support the cause and the bill.
The average student working fast food might be able to pull down $8 an hour. Add a couple bucks to that pay rate if you are toiling away in retail at the Mall. Waiters might make off with some hefty tips, but there is an easier way to dent that USM tuition bill than flipping burgers, folding clothes, or balancing trays.
AmeriCorps Service Leader Rachel Church is wielding the power of creative expression as a tool for community work.
This year, she has launched the USM Community Arts Initiative (CAI). The CAI mobilizes students of the arts to take on community issues of Greater Portland with their paintbrushes, cameras, voices, choreography and other media.
You know how it seems as if some lectures end way too quickly? Yeah well, me either, but if you feel like a little extracurricular mind-expansion, your options are not limited to the fine USM faculty, or schedule one narcotics.
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an annual conference, being held this week in southern California.