the portland daily sun, saturday, november 26, 2011

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2011 VOL. 3 NO. 210 PORTLAND, ME PORTLAND’S DAILY NEWSPAPER 699-5801 FREE

Local holiday book roundup See Bob Higgins on page 4

Portland lights its Christmas tree See the story and photos, page 11

Victim, witness advocate works ‘under the radar’ See the story on page 7

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Are you black and blue from Black Friday?

ABOVE LEFT: Roseann Wenzler and 12-year-old Zach Wenzler of Durham camp out in front of the Best Buy big-box store in Topsham on Thanksgiving evening in anticipation of a midnight opening for Black Friday. ABOVE RIGHT: Dennis Hare, an artist painting in Monument Square on Black Friday, said customer traffi c for his paintings was poor, but he loved the artistic environment. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTOS)

Hardy shoppers camp outside big boxes; others crave a slower pace

BY DAVID CARKHUFFTHE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

Old Port buildings slow-dance atop Hitchcock muck

The Old Port has long been a great place for a slow dance.

Especially among its buildings.And for one of its more interesting

waltzes, check out the cracked facade and loose bricks around Gilbert’s Chowder House at 92 Commercial St., just around the corner from Custom House Wharf. There, a four-story brick building leans hard against its one-story neighbor.

BY CURTIS ROBINSONTHE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

see GILBERT’S page 5

Gilbert’s Chowder

House bears the brunt of a neighbor-ing build-

ing, which leans on

this smaller Old Port denizen. Cracks

have appeared,

and offi cials

continue to keep an eye on the situation.

(CURTIS ROBINSON

PHOTO)

see BLACK FRIDAY page 20

One person was hospitalized and fi ve people were arrested after a series of unrelated incidents at OccupyMaine’s Lincoln Park camp between Thursday and Friday, accord-ing to Portland police.

The arrests come at a time when city offi cials have shown an increasing wariness of the anti-Wall Street protesters, which fi rst took up residence

in the park about seven weeks ago.

The disturbances began at about 5 a.m. Thursday when a 20-year-old Portland man told police an OccupyMaine member beat him for refus-ing to leave Lincoln Park. The victim said he was told to leave the park because he is not a member and was knocked to the ground and punched and kicked when he refused, police

The phrase “starving artist” may not exactly describe Dennis Hare, so he was taken aback when potential cus-tomers threw change at the foot of his easel.

Hare, an artist painting landscapes in Monument Square on Black Friday, said he planned to return today if the weather allows, despite some unintended insults he withstood.

“I’m new to Portland, I’ve lived here for six months, all summer long I painted Fort Williams Park, and now

see ARRESTS page 8

BY CASEY CONLEYTHE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

Five more arrests at OccupyMaine campProtest group blames outsiders to movement

— THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Saturday, November 26, 2011

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Testament: For Jews, by Jews

SAYWHAT...The Bible is litera-ture, not dogma.”—George Santayana

SAN FRANCISCO (NY Times) — As a little Jewish girl in North Dartmouth, Mass., Amy-Jill Levine loved Christianity.

“I grew up in a neigh-borhood that was almost entirely Portuguese and Roman Catholic,” Dr. Levine said Sunday at her book party here during the annual American Academy of Reli-gion conference.

Christianity might have stayed just a fascination, but for an unfortunate episode in second grade: “When I was 7 years old, one girl said to me on the school bus, ‘You killed our lord.’ I couldn’t fathom how this religion that was so beautiful was saying such a dreadful thing.”

That encounter with the dark side of her friends’ reli-gion sent Dr. Levine on a quest, one that took her to graduate school in New Tes-tament studies and eventu-ally to Vanderbilt University, where she has taught since 1994. Dr. Levine is still a com-mitted Jew but she is a lead-ing New Testament scholar.

And she is not alone. The book she has just co-edited with a Brandeis University professor, Marc Zvi Brettler, “The Jewish Annotated New Testament,” is an unusual scholarly experiment: an edition of the Christian holy book edited entirely by Jews. The volume includes notes and explanatory essays by 50 leading Jewish scholars including Susannah Hes-chel, a historian and the daughter of the great theolo-gian Abraham Joshua Hes-chel; the Talmudist Daniel Boyarin; and Shaye J. D. Cohen, who teaches ancient Judaism at Harvard.

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CAIRO (NY Times) — The White House on Friday threw its weight behind Egypt’s resur-gent protest movement, urging for the fi rst time the handover of power by the interim military rulers in the Obama administration’s most public effort yet to steer Egypt toward democracy.

The White House released the statement supporting the transfer of power to a civil-ian government “as soon as possible” as tens of thousands of demonstrators poured into Tahrir Square for what may be the biggest dis-play of anger in a week of protests against the military’s intention to retain power even after parliamentary elections that are scheduled to begin on Monday. On Thursday, the ruling coun-

cil announcing that it would appoint a 77-year-old former prime minister, Kamal el-Ganzoury, as the caretaker prime minister of a new gov-ernment to serve under the generals, despite near-universal public criticism of his selection and demands for of a more empowered civilian government accountable to the public.

“The United States strongly believes that the new Egyptian government must be empowered with real authority immediately,” the White House said in a statement.

“Most importantly, we believe that the full transfer of power to a civilian government must take place in a just and inclusive manner that responds to the legitimate aspirations of the Egyptian people, as soon as possible.”

U.S. urges Egypt’s military to yield power

(NY Times) — By Friday after-noon, shoppers continued to fl ood stores despite several incidences of shopping-related violence and some opposition from Occupy Wall Street protesters.

At the Westfi eld Shopping Plaza in West Covina, Calif., the lines at the Sears cash registers were 30 people deep, while the display shelves at J. C. Penney were as disheveled as a messy teenager’s bedroom. At the entrance to Macy’s, paramedics checked the blood pressure of a young woman

who was sitting in a chair, then rolled her out on a gurney.

Some holiday shoppers were on alert Friday after hearing about an incident where a Wal-Mart customer in Los Angeles pepper-sprayed rival shoppers who were trying to grab discounted elec-tronics. But shopping in most of the nation was calm, if busy.

In addition to discounts, sev-eral retailers were offering lay-away as a new option this year, allowing people to pay for pur-chases over time. At Sears and Kmart, which have long offered

a layaway service, more were using it this Thanksgiving and Black Friday versus a year ago, a spokesman, Tom Aiello, said.

“Layaway really picked up yesterday,” he said on Friday.

Some more expensive, and heavily promoted, items remained on shelves hours after retailers had opened.

Eight hours after a midnight opening, two fi rst-time Black Friday shoppers at a Target store in East Hanover, N.J., said they were surprised by how thin the crowds were.

Black Friday is busy, but are holiday shoppers spending?

Banks prepare for the Plan B Europe won’t even consider

PARIS (NY Times) — For the growing chorus of observers who fear that a breakup of the euro zone might be at hand, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany has a pointed rebuke: It’s never going to happen. But some banks are no longer so sure, especially as the sovereign debt crisis threatened to ensnare Germany itself this week, when investors began to question the nation’s stature as Europe’s main pillar of stability.

On Friday, Standard & Poor’s downgraded Belgium’s credit standing to AA from AA+, saying it might not be able to cut its tower-ing debt load any time soon. Rat-ings agencies this week cautioned that France could lose its AAA rating if the crisis grew. On Thurs-day, agencies lowered the ratings of Portugal and Hungary to junk.

While European leaders still say there is no need to draw up a Plan B, some of the world’s big-gest banks, and their supervisors, are doing just that.

“We cannot be, and are not, complacent on this front,” Andrew Bailey, a regulator at Britain’s Financial Services Authority, said this week. “We must not ignore the prospect of a disor-derly departure of some countries from the euro zone,” he said.

TODAY’SJOKE“I think that Vanna White got the best job ever. Is that not the best job? If I were a woman, I would want that job so bad. Like, that’s her job! What a country — she just turns letters. ‘I turn letters, but only when they glow. I’m not stupid.’”

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THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, Saturday, November 26, 2011—


Black Friday is now but a vague memory, a tale of staying in the Mall parking lot waiting for the door buster deals, of post turkey-day sandwiches and soups, fi n-ishing that last slice of pie.

Today is being touted as small business Saturday, a day when holiday shoppers should at least make the attempt to “Buy Local” and support the folks down the street who keep their neighbors employed.

That is all well and good, for the weekend. But come “Cyber Monday” we’re all supposed to turn on, tune in, and max those credit cards out with the online merchants.

I keep it as simple as I can. I like giving books.

The printed page is evolving, with the e-book, the kindle reader and all the assorted rot. But the reason for me to give books is simple. People get sick, and sooner or later realize one simple fact. Television sucks when you’re sick.

When you climb into bed with a trashy paperback, a murder mys-tery, some pot-boiler thriller or historical tome, you fi nd that a lot of the nastiness of being sick just sort of disappears in that word fog. Your brain has been given a high-gravity shot of “Ignore it all”

Local holiday book roundup

while your body recovers.So this year, kicking off the

whole “buy stuff for Christmas” series of columns, the best idea I could come up with after the post-turkey sandwich coma would be to pass along a couple of books by a few locals.

Local writer Crash Barry sent along a copy of his latest, “Tough Island — True Stories From Matinicus, Maine.” Crash has a talent for capturing con-versations, for tapping into the patter of everyday back-and-forth that lets the story sort of creep up on the reader. His last book, “Sex, Drugs, And Blueber-ries” captured the tale of a guy down on his luck, taking a job in the blueberry harvest, and get-ting sucked into a web of local drug intrigue. He manages to capture in both this one simple fact. Life sort of just happens to people, bad things and good both sneak up on you and whale on you without mercy when you

least expect it.Both are good reads, so hit a

local bookseller and double down with the local purchase.

Colin Woodard’s “American Nations” has been picking up some serious national attention. On Thanksgiving night, PBS even had an interview about the book. His premise that a nation of frac-tured mini-nations and regional ethnic groupings are the basis for the differences across America is insightful, and proof of its logic came in one online incident a couple of weeks ago.

His book had been reviewed, but a local writer out west nagged at what he felt was a misunderstanding of the differ-ing Germanic cooking cultures. Woodard forwarded him some stuff on the whole Maine/Penn-sylvania whoopie-pie debate of last year, with some anecdotal cheese-or-gravy on your fries stuff of Maine cooking culture. It

see HIGGINS page 5

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– COLUMN ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

––––––––––––– LETTERS TO THE EDITOR –––––––––––––

BobHiggins–––––

Daily Sun Columnist

Portland’s FREE DAILY NewspaperDavid Carkhuff, Editor

Casey Conley, City Editor Matthew Arco, Reporter

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The printed page is evolving, with the e-book, the kindle reader and all the assorted rot. But the reason for me to give books is simple. People get sick, and sooner or later realize one simple

fact. Television sucks when you’re sick.

All letters columns and editorial cartoons are the opinion of the writer or artists and do not refl ect the opinions of the staff, editors or pub-lisher of The Portland Daily Sun.

We welcome your ideas and opinions on all topics and consider every signed letter for publication. Limit letters to 300 words and include your address and phone number. Longer letters will only be published as space allows and may be edited. Anonymous letters, letters without full names and generic letters will not be published. Please send your letters to: THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN, [email protected].

We want your opinions

Holiday meals can forego those unhealthy items that make us feel ill

Editor,With the Christmas holiday approaching, many

Americans are rushing to pull together the perfect meal. As a dietitian, I want to offer tips for how to create a memorable — and healthful — feast.

The secret is forgoing the turkey — and instead fi lling your table with a lentil roast, stuffed winter squash, or perhaps a soy- or wheat-based “turkey,” and the usual vegetable sides. Studies show that people who eat more plant-based foods are health-ier and feel better all around. Vegetarians have signifi cantly lower blood pressure, waist circum-ference, body mass index, blood sugar, and triglycer-ides, compared with nonvegetarians, according to a recent study published in Diabetes Care.

You’ll be surprised by how open your guests will be to a table fi lled with fresh vegetables and cre-ative, healthful twists on the worn-out foods that left everyone feeling ill. Give your family members an extra reason to be thankful this year — a meal that satisfi es the taste buds without leaving them feeling overloaded and sick.

Sincerely,Susan Levin, M.S., R.D.Director of Nutrition EducationPhysicians Committee for Responsible MedicineWashington, D.C.

Find us on...


all got sorted out.In all that time between commercials over the

years, Chuck Igo over at WYNZ 100.9 radio man-aged to put out a political thriller, “Taken Identity,”

a story of a President in crisis and his aides that surround and protect him. I’ve perused it, but am saving it for that long extended fl u that invariably puts me down for almost a week, just after the fi rst of the year.

Alas, sufferers of my columns, no book from me

yet. Perhaps next year, as the brain staggers under the weight of all that turkey.

(Bob Higgins is a regular contributor to The Port-land Daily Sun. Email him at [email protected].)

HIGGINS from page 4

Crash Barry again amuses us with a collection of incidents

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– OPINION ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Curtis Robinson

–––––Usually

Reserved

Cracks have appeared in the Gil-bert’s building facade, and around back, bricks appear to be separating from the larger building several sto-ries up.

The leaning is obvious enough to have become a regular conversation topic.

“Sure, people ask about it,” said Marie Brushaber, one of Gilbert’s vet-eran wait staff members. “It’s been checked and it’s safe ... you know, this building is built over water that goes right to the front.”

But other staffers point out that the back of the building is where the pressure shows more, and to casual inspection bricks are pulling away from the larger building amid an array of patchwork.

“I hope I’m not here when it goes,” quips one staffer.

“Just a matter of time,” says another who declines to give a name.

Overhearing the conversation, a customer in the back of the cafe quips that the area underneath Gilbert’s is “more surf than turf.” Workers in the area back that up, describing the “ground” under the buildings as mostly muck.

“You’d think you’re in an Alfred Hitchcock movie down there,” says Maggie Donovan, who owns the larger building that houses her vari-ety store along with Andy’s Old Port Tavern and several other offi ces and retailers.

While she might agree about the “more surf than turf” under the buildings, Donovan seems less concerned about any movement in the building she’s owned since the 1990s. It was built in 1871, not long after Portland’s “Great Fire” of 1866.

She should know. Donovan is one Commercial Street proprietor who knows the neighborhood’s underworld fi rst hand. She’s helped dig in the muck, reinforcing the building while discovering “tons” of what were likely Depression-era liquor bottles there.

“It’s kinda cool,” she adds from behind the variety store counter where she can be found most early mornings.

First, she explains, her building likely does not shift more than other brick structures along Commercial, but might be more noticeable because of large windows and because the bottom has shifted, but not the top.

While some observers say things have gotten worse recently, and city

offi cials did not return multiple calls seeking comment for this report, Donovan says not to worry. Besides her feeling that any new façade cracks could be from the shifting pilings that support the buildings, her building is actually being “shot” by surveyors every two months to track any pos-sible movement.

“You see a shift of it seasonally,” she explains, adding that the support pilings interact with granite blocks that are part of the building founda-tions. That can create a slight “marble effect” she says – nothing dangerous, but certainly part of the buildings' character.

The interaction between the build-ings, she says, is just part of their his-tory.

That part of Gilbert’s that abuts her building? She recalls that used to be the Casco Bay Lines walkway and eventually became part of the res-taurant — the Gilbert’s kitchen, she explains, is actually in the old walk-way.

Part of the building dance – and in some measure, part of the concern

– no doubt comes from how Commer-cial Street came to exist in the fi rst place.

They may look just like other urban landscapes, all solid side-walks and paved spaces, but much of the street and its immediate envi-

rons rest on pilings – “aging pilings,” folks say, as though there might be another kind.

Like much of Portland, includ-ing swaths of Back Cove, the ground includes lots of infi ll and there’s no real record of what went into creat-ing the fi ll. The modern street project began in the 1850s when Portland was among the nation’s busiest ports, being one day closer to Europe by sail and still the winter wheat harbor for Canada, according to documents at the Maine Historical Society.

“The city wanted a modern water-front,” explains William Barry, a his-torical librarian at the Society. “And it got one.”

How it got there, and what got dumped into the city’s various fi ll-in projects has long been the stuff of

urban legend, and Barry says that certainly a good portion of Munjoy Hill went into the project along with ship ballast, garbage and the occa-sional garbage.

“It was a huge engineering project,” said Barry, and not unlike the process that created much of modern Boston, like Beantown’s Back Bay community.

“We’re like a little Boston, in that we fi lled in much of the [current] city,” said Barry.

In the process, small streams were obliterated and the city’s waterfront pushed out from what is now Fore Street to current boundaries.

Probably the most signifi cant part of the $80,000 project (in 1852 dollars) was to connect two railroad termi-nals at opposite ends of the city. The eventual fi ll created a 5,883-feet-long swath complete with a 26-foot center area for the rail lines that, of course, gives Commercial its current driver-

confusing confi guration.As for the buildings, Barry offered

what might be construed as some com-fort, “... well, they've been there a long time.”

Donovan smiles when she describes her shape-shifting (at least season-ally) building, looking around at each story-laden detail. It’s been crooked since at least 1924, she knows, and admits that the “best thing” might have been to simply tear it down and start anew.

“As they say,” she says. “It’s got great old bones.”

In the ground fl oor next door, the lean toward Gilbert’s is pronounced enough to give large picture win-dows a slightly surreal slant, and the staff notes that anything spilled runs quickly downhill toward the bar-side.

(Curtis Robinson is founding editor of The Portland Daily Sun.)

GILBERT’S from page one

‘I hope I’m not here when it goes,’ quips one staffer

In the ground fl oor next door to Gilbert’s Chowder House, the lean toward Gilbert’s is pronounced enough to give large picture windows a slightly surreal slant, and the staff notes that anything spilled runs quickly downhill toward the bar-side. (CURTIS ROBINSON PHOTO)

“You’d think you’re in an Alfred Hitchcock movie down there,”

says Maggie Donovan, who owns the larger building that houses her variety store along with

Andy’s Old Port Tavern and sev-eral other offi ces and retailers.


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–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– MUSIC CALENDAR –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Saturday, Nov. 26

‘The Nutcracker’2 p.m. The Maine State Ballet brings the classic holiday story of Clara, the Nutcracker Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy to Merrill Auditorium. Maine State Ballet’s production of “The Nutcracker,” with the live musical accompaniment by the Maine State Ballet Orchestra conducted by Karla Kelley, is a perennial favorite of Portland’s holiday season. Through Sunday, Dec. 4. http://www.mainestateballet.org

‘The Last Waltz’ screening at the Statewith Dominic & The Lucid performing 7:30 p.m. It started as a concert. It became a celebra-tion. Join an unparalleled lineup of rock superstars as they celebrate The Band’s historic 1976 farewell per-formance. Directed by Martin Scorsese (Raging Bull, Goodfellas), The Last Waltz is not only “the most beau-tiful rock film ever made” (New York Times) it’s “one of the most important cultural events of the last two decades” (Rolling Stone). Immediately following the movie, Portland’s own The Lucid will play a set of live music featuring songs of the Band. www.statetheatre-portland.com

Erica Brown’s Bluegrass Connection7:30 p.m. The Saco River Grange Hall, 29 Salmon Falls Road, Bar Mills. Fiddle prodigy Erica was competing at seven, touring at 9 and recording at 15, when she made her SRGH debut with the Old Time Radio Gang. Now her own fi ve piece Bluegrass Band is enjoying great popularity and returns for their annual post-Thanksgiving Bluegrass/coun-try/ folk musical hoedown, with Matt Shipman on guitar and vocals, Ken Taylor on bass, Steve Roy on Mandolin and vocals, and Read McNamara on Banjo. Adm. $14, students and seniors $12 or by donation. Children 12 and under free. Family maximum $30. Call 929-6472 for reservations.

Jago Thorne CD Release8 p.m. For his debut album, artist Jago Thorne presents Fire in the Wake, a densely packed collection of lyrical unveiling and musical moxie. Chiseled from bedrock auto-biography, the album balances the familiar territory of the singer-songwriter with a surprising collision of pan-genre compositions and stark narratives. One Longfellow Square. www.onelongfellowsquare.com

Dead Prez at Port City8 p.m. Continuing on the path of politically minded artists like Public Enemy, 2pac and KRS-One, the Floridaformed- New York based outfi t known as Dead Prez has been craft-ing revolutionary but gangsta hip-hop since the late 1990s. Advance: $15; door: $18; VIP: $25. Continuing on the path of politically minded artists like Public Enemy, 2pac and KRS-One, the Floridaformed- New York based outfi t known as Dead Prez has been crafting revolutionary but gangsta hip-hop since the late 1990s. www.portcitymusichall.com/events/dead-prez

Sunday, Nov. 27

WCLZ Presents Gillian Welch at the State7:30 p.m. SOLD OUT. Gillian Welch at the State Theatre. Gillian and Dave met at Berklee College of Music; Gillian

was studying songwriting, while Dave studied guitar; they met at an audition for a country band. Together, they moved to Nashville, Tenn., where most of their work together has been produced. Since then they have infl uenced and inspired new generations of country and folk singers, song-writers and players.

Thursday, Dec. 1

Assembly of Dust & Ryan Montbleau at Port City7 p.m. Assembly of Dust, Ryan Montbleau Band, at Port City Music Hall. Advance: $20; door: $25; VIP: $30; 18 plus. http://portcitymusichall.com/events

Jeffrey Foucault & Mark Erelli8 p.m. Jeffrey Foucault & Mark Erelli, Seven Curses. On their CD “Seven Curses,” songwriters Mark Erelli and Jeffrey Fou-cault match an elemental approach with the elemental sub-jects: love and death. Under the banner of the Murder Ballad, Foucault and Erelli execute uncanny harmony arrangements

with a list of songs that decidedly expands the genre. One Longfellow Square. www.onelongfellowsquare.com

Friday, Dec. 2

The Fogcutters present Big Band Syndrome7 p.m. State Theatre, Maine’s biggest acts with The Fogcut-ters’ twist. Featuring Dave Gutter (Rustic Overtones/Para-noid Social Club); Spose; Darien Brahms; Jacob Augustine (Jacob and the House of Fire); Zach Jones; Dominic Lavoie (The Lucid); The Mallett Brothers; Lyle Divinsky; Sly-Chi. The Fogcutters will present original arrangements of Maine’s big-gest musical acts — accompanied on-stage by these musi-cians themselves — as well as the band’s original material.

Tom Rush at One Longfellow Square8 p.m. Tom Rush’s impact on the American music scene has been profound. He helped shape the folk revival in the ’60s and the renaissance of the ’80s and ’90s. One Longfellow Square. www.onelongfellowsquare.com

Erica Brown’s Bluegrass Connection will perform tonight at 7:30 p.m. at the Saco River Grange Hall, 29 Salmon Falls Road, Bar Mills. A fi ddle prodigy, Brown was competing at 7, touring at 9 and recording at 15, when she made her Saco River Grange Hall debut with the Old Time Radio Gang. Now her own fi ve-piece Bluegrass Band is enjoying great popularity and returns for their annual post-Thanksgiving Bluegrass/country/folk musical hoedown, with Matt Shipman on guitar and vocals, Ken Taylor on bass, Steve Roy on mandolin and vocals, and Read McNamara on banjo. Please call 929-6472 for reservations. (COURTESY PHOTO)


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Victim, witness advocate works ‘under the radar’

When an upcoming trial for murder was canceled because defendant Shawn Garland, 26, changed his mind and decided to plead guilty, Janice Hackett had to react to the news and change her approach.

Hackett is a victim and witness advocate. She followed the case against Garland, who is accused in the stabbing death of Richard Meyers, 58, on Aug. 12, 2010, in a third-fl oor Grant Street apartment, where Gar-land resided.

Portland’s Police Department is the only one in Maine with an in-house advocate for victims, and Hackett has served for almost 12 years in the grant-funded victim witness advocate position.

In the Garland case, Hackett had been in touch with the victim’s par-ents and a brother, all of whom live in other states. She’d attended every court hearing pertaining to the case and then notifi ed the relatives of Meyers as to what had transpired.

Hackett will now be discussing the upcoming sentencing in mid-January to see whether any family members want to participate in some way. She will make them aware that they are permitted to write victim impact statements, which she will assure that the judge receives. If they wish to come into the courtroom and speak at the time of sentencing, she’ll also make the judge aware of that.

Homicides probably take most of the time in Hackett’s busy job. When asked if she had a “worst” case of her career, she showed no hesitation and said there were two. The Amy St. Laurent case was the fi rst homi-cide that she’d dealt with. St. Laurent was a lovely, responsible woman, 25 years old, who had last been seen in the Old Port on a Saturday night, Oct. 21, 2001. Her body wasn’t found until early December, just as the fi rst snowfall began.

The Amy St. Laurent Foundation is named for the South Portland High School graduate, whose body was found in Scarborough. Her killer, Jef-fery Gorman, was arrested and con-victed in the murder.

The murder of Zoe Sarnacki was also very diffi cult, but for different reasons, Hackett noted. People asso-ciated with that case were so upset by the circumstances that it was dif-fi cult for them to even talk about it. The body of the beautiful 18-year-old had been decapitated and set on fi re May 25, 2009.

Chad Gurney of Portland man was convicted of murder and arson after he strangled his girlfriend, cut off her head and set her body on fi re.

Hackett and Det. Karl Rybeck pro-vided the death notifi cations, and since the parents were divorced, each one was done separately, a heartbreaking situation for a parent to be confronted with, and an awful position to be in, for the bearers of such tragic news.

“I’ve dealt with so many parents who’ve lost kids. They are always so well behaved and respectful, although broken,” Hackett said. She said it is important to have the same person consistently there. She’ll say to people, “I can promise you the detective and I will be there.” She says her presence is “a very quiet, under-the-radar type of thing.” She is adamant about not having her picture appear with any article, saying, “I want to remain under the radar.”

Hackett has no doubt put on many miles walking back and forth from police headquarters to the courthouse. Luckily for her, the two buildings are just a block away, and on many days she’ll be at the courthouse both morn-ing and afternoon.

Hackett has a degree in criminology and had previously worked in agencies that deal with domestic violence. She’s also worked on a domestic violence hot-line and at a shelter.

Hackett gets copies of police reports and meets with detectives, who are the ones who call for her aid and initiate the contact. On occa-sion she goes with detectives to meet with victims’ relatives. She answers questions about the court process and may sometimes also help with funeral arrangements.

“I do a lot of listening. The hope is it frees up the detectives to do what they need to do.” Hackett says of those she works with. “We have good offi cers and detectives who do some wonder-ful advocating themselves.”

Hackett also becomes the conduit for giving out written materials. She hands out pamphlets and makes referrals to other agencies that help victims. There’s also a fund for vic-tims without insurance. The Maine crime victims’ compensation program falls under the purview of the Attor-ney General’s Offi ce, whereby indi-viduals may be reimbursed for certain expenses and losses up to a maximum of $15,000. The costs of the program are not paid by Maine taxpayers, but come entirely from criminal fi nes. Hackett passes these materi-als along to victims and gives them

a full explanation.She does whatever is needed and

appropriate to help people. Hackett works together with the DA’s offi ce to ensure the victim has as much infor-mation as possible.

Det. Maryann Bailey describes Hackett’s job succinctly: “She fi lls a critical role between victims, detec-tives and prosecutors.”

The satisfaction gleaned from Hack-

ett’s job comes from knowing it was important to the vic-tims that she was there. The challenges consist mostly of gaining trust. Hackett says, “There are always trust issues. I’ve spent the entire 12 years trying to build trust with people.” Some of these relationships can go on for a long time, depend-ing on appeals.

“Advocates are also in the District Attorney’s Offi ce, but I can get to people more quickly because I hear about major things that day.” Hackett said she tries to establish a relationship early on.

A lot of plea bargaining goes on in court, but murder trials usually last a week or two and Hackett attends court every day for those cases.

Hackett used to be called to scenes but now trained volunteers from the Trauma Intervention Program (TIP)

are called out and stay as long as nec-essary.

Sgt. Robert Doherty says, “To take on other people’s troubles is taxing and requires a resilient personal-ity, and Janice Hackett is just that.” Hackett says “Some people need a lot more help than others.” But whatever amount of help they may need, she’s ready to provide it to them.

Hackett: ‘I do a lot of listening. The hope is it frees up the detectives to do what they need to do’BY MARGE NIBLOCK

SPECIAL TO THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

Janice Hackett has no doubt put on many miles walking back and forth from police headquarters to the Cumberland County Courthouse (above). (MARGE NIBLOCK PHOTO)


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said in a news release.Authorities later arrested Peter

Wing, 49, with no fi xed address, on charges of assault and violation of bail conditions, according to Cmdr. Vern Malloch. It wasn’t immediately clear what charges were pending against Wing that resulted in bail conditions.

At about 6:10 p.m. Thursday, a 40-year-old man walked into police headquarters at 109 Middle St. with what police described as “sig-nifi cant facial inju-ries.” The man was later transported by ambulance to Maine Medical Center with head injuries that are not considered to be life-threatening.

The victim, who was not identifi ed, told police he had been drinking beer in a tent with sev-eral others when an argument broke out. The victim said he was thrown to the ground outside the tent and punched and kicked by several people. No arrests have been made, and the case remains under investigation, police said.

At about 11 p.m. Thursday, police responded to a domestic assault in Lincoln Park after witnesses saw a man and a woman punching and slap-ping each other in the camp’s kitchen tent. Alyssa Brame, 30, and Gabriel Williams, 33, were charged with domestic assault. The couple has no fi xed address.

Williams was also charged with pos-session of cocaine, police said.

At about 2 a.m. Friday, police responded to another domestic vio-lence report in Lincoln Park after wit-nesses reported hearing a woman in a tent screaming for help, police said. Offi cers later learned that the couple was arguing when the man allegedly started choking her.

Jason Carr, 25, was charged with domestic assault in the incident, and 18-year-old Melissa Ciaramitaro was charged with disorderly conduct after police said she became upset Carr was being arrested and “would not stop screaming.” OccupyMaine mem-bers complained about Ciaramitaro’s behavior to offi cers, causing her to be arrested, police said.

Carr was also arrested on Nov. 17 on a disorderly conduct charge after he reportedly got into a confronta-tion with another man in the park. Although Carr’s apparent victim declined to press charges, police later charged a “highly intoxicated” Carr with disorderly conduct because he was being “confrontational and unco-operative” with police.

According to city documents, police have responded to at least a dozen calls in Lincoln Park since the protest-ers arrived, many of which resulted in arrests. On Nov. 19, police have arrested a fugitive from New York in the park, and a day earlier, police charged two other people in connec-tion with a hammer attack that sent another protester to the hospital.

OccupyMaine members have main-tained for much of the past month that violence and drug and alcohol abuse taking place inside the camp was caused by outsiders.

It’s not clear if the incidents from Thursday and Friday will affect a tentative deal struck between the pro-testers and the city on Monday that would allow OccupyMaine members to remain in the park indefi nitely.

That agreement, which needs city council approval, would require OccupyMaine to apply for a permit to camp in Lincoln Park. In return for a permit, the city could set limits around how many people can camp in the park overnight and how many tents are allowed.

Acting Police Chief Sauschuck, who this week said the city was calibrat-ing its response to OccupyMaine on a daily basis, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

ARRESTS from page one

Sauschuck

Police have responded to at least a dozen calls in Lincoln Park

GARDINER — With consumers turning their attention to holiday gift purchases, the Department of Professional and Financial Regu-lation is encouraging shoppers to protect their credit this season and review the fi ne print when making bank or gift card purchases.

“The holiday shopping season is a prime time for credit and debit card problems — from unauthorized charges to overcharges and identity theft,” Commissioner Anne L. Head said in an agency press release. “Additionally, some consumers are unaware of fees and limitations associated with many bank and gift cards.”

Head emphasized that state and federal laws provide many protec-tions for consumers, but only if they learn to protect themselves and act

quickly. “Save your receipts, and check your monthly statements care-fully,” she stated. “Generally, banks and credit unions must refund you for overcharges, unauthorized pur-chases or unauthorized debit with-drawals, but only if you notify the fi nancial institution promptly and dispute the validity of the charge.”

The agency encouraged consum-ers to call their credit card company or fi nancial institution as soon as possible after noticing an unauthor-ized charge. Maine consumers who believe they are the victims of unau-thorized charges or identity theft can contact the Bureau of Consumer Credit Protection at 1-800-332-8529 (1-800-DEBT-LAW), or can fi le a complaint electronically at www.Credit.Maine.gov.

— Staff Report

Shoppers urged to protect their credit


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Tis' the season to see theatre — fa la la la la, la la, la, la! The holidays are offi cially here, and Santa's list of shows is long, his bag packed with a variety of entertainment for the entire to family to enjoy.

"The Gift Of The Magi" is a musical adaptation of O'Henry's classic story, pro-duced by CoveLight Productions. Set in 1940s Maine, it tells the tale of two people willing to sacri-fi ce their most valued possessions for the greater joy of giving and love. This holiday postcard come to life stars Leslie Trentalange, Mark Calkins, Gretchen G. Wood and Michael J. Tobin. Magi will play at Williston-Immanuel United Church, 156 High St., Portland on Friday, Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. and Saturday, Dec. 10 at 2 p.m. and 8 p.m. Tickets are $15 and $10. For more information and reservations, go to cov-elight2011.com or call (603) 953-3640.

"The Snow Queen," based on the Hans Christian Anderson story, will warm your heart as this new adaptation by PSC Artistic Director, Anita Stewart, brings the family fairy tale of devotion, bravery and triumph of love to the stage. Portland Stage Com-pany is located at 25A Forest Ave. in Portland. For more information and to make reservations, go to portlandstage.org or call 774-0465.

"The Christmas Bride" opens Dec. 15 at Lucid Stage and runs through Dec. 21. This will be Snowl-ion Rep's inaugural production, the New England premiere of this charming Charles Dickens holiday musical. Visit www.snowlionrep.org.

"Santaland Diaries," for mature elfs only, is a hilarious look at Crumpet, one of Santa's little help-ers during the holiday rush at Macy's. Starring local favorite, Dustin Tucker, and fi lled with whacked out, wicked wit. Now through Dec. 18 at Portland Stage Company Studio Theater, located at 25A Forest Ave. in Portland. For more information and to make res-ervations, go to portlandstage.org or call 774-0465.

"Meet Me In St. Louis," based on the 1944 fi lm that starred Judy Garland, takes you back in time to the 1904 World's Fair, in St. Louis, Mo. It spar-kles with optimism and good tunes including "Have

Yourself a Merry Little Christmas." Now playing at the Lyric Music Theater, 176 Sawyer St. in South Portland, through Dec. 3, Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m., Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. For more information and reser-vations, go to lyricmusicthe-ater.org or call 799-1421.

"White Christmas" chronicles the trials and tra-vails of two army buddies as they attempt to save the country inn of their old army commander. Irving

Berlin's most well known music and lyrics will light up the Portland Players stage at 420 Cottage Road in South Portland through Dec. 11, Fridays and Sat-urdays ar 8 p.m., Sunday matinees at 2:30 p.m. For more information and reservations, go to portland-players.org or call 799-7337.

"A Celtic Christmas," presented by American Irish Repertory Ensemble, brings fi ddlers, Irish step dancers and a juggler to the merriment of AIRE audiences. As part of the show, AIRE introduces a new piece, "The Legend of the Wren," an original

Theater shows evoke holiday cheerMichael J.

Tobin–––––

Theatre Talk

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– THEATER REVIEW–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

see TOBIN page 10

“The Nutcracker,” a classic holiday favorite presented annually by the Maine State Ballet, opens today and features seven performances through Sunday, Dec. 4. (COURTESY PHOTO)


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Irish Christmas tale featuring live music and dancers from the Stillson School of Irish Dance. Playing through Dec. 11, at Lucid Stage, 29 Baxter Blvd., Portland. For information and res-ervations go to airtheater.com or call 799-5327.

"The Wandering Beggar" or the Adventures of Simple Shmerel, will play through Dec. 18. An Acorn Production, this adaptation by local playwright Howard Rosenfi eld includes a series of vignettes in which the title character encoun-ters a series of dishonest servants and greedy kings, overcoming each obstacle with a direct and honest approach. Harlan Baker directs this ensemble of 11 at the Dana Warp Mill in West-brook. For more information and reservations, go to acorn-productions.org or call 854-0065.

"The Nutcracker," a traditional version of the popular ballet by Maine State Ballet, comes to life with nearly 300 dancers from Maine State Ballet and other dance schools. "The Nut-cracker" features music by the Maine State Ballet Orchestra, the Musica de Filia Girlchoir and the Westcustogo Youth Chorale. Dancing its way to the Merrill Auditorium with seven shows through Dec. 4. For information and to reserve tickets go to porttix.com or call 842-0800.

The best present you can give this season, is showing your support to the many wonderful Arts groups in the community and attend sev-eral shows with your family and friends.

(Michael J. Tobin has been a professional actor, director, theatre administrator and edu-cator for 30 years in theaters throughout New England and around the country. Mr. Tobin has performed and directed in 350-plus shows Off-Broadway, National Tours, Regional The-atre, Summer Stock, Children’s Theatre and Community Theatre. Mr. Tobin lives in South Portland.)

Brian McAloon appears as Michael, Marissa Sheltra as Marion, and Fran Page as Alfred in the show “The Christ-mas Bride” which opens Dec. 15 at Lucid Stage. (Photo by Michael Eric Berube, GoodPhotos.com)

TOBIN from page 9

Nearly 300 dancers from the Maine State Ballet bring ‘Nutcracker’ to life

On Sunday, Dec. 4, Cheverus High School will host a ceremony in the Keegan Gym-nasium beginning at 4 p.m. to welcome the Wreaths Across America Project convoy. Those joining the convoy will include the Patriot Guard Riders, and other motorcycle and motor vehicle groups and state and municipal law enforcement who help escort the Wreaths Across America Project across the country. (COURTESY PHOTO)

Wreaths Across America


ABOVE LEFT: Thousands of people gathered in Monument Square Friday night for the annual Christmas Tree Lighting, which featured performances by Maine State Ballet and Rick Charette and the Bubblegum Band. ABOVE RIGHT: Santa Claus made a special appearance at Friday’s Tree Lighting Ceremony in Monument Square. Here he is getting out of his sleigh for the day, a city fi re truck. (CASEY CONLEY PHOTOS)

Portland’s holiday season kicked off last night in Monument Square with the annual Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony.

Thousands of people attended the ceremony, which began at 5:30 p.m. and included performances from the Maine State Ballet and Rick Charette and the Bubblegum Band. Santa Claus arrived at about 6 p.m. in a City of Portland fi re truck to sing a few songs.

The 55-foot blue spruce tree was selected by City of Portland forestry crews and donated by Lori and Allan Huff of South Portland. Over 2,500 multi-color LED lights were donated by Effi ciency Maine.

After about 45 minutes of music and performances, Hannah Storey, 11, from Cumberland, lit the tree. Hannah has been diagnosed with cystic fi brosis and her wish is to go to Atlantis Resort, which will

happen in January, the Make A Wish Foundation announced.

The tree will remain in Monument Square through the holidays.

BY CASEY CONLEYTHE PORTLAND DAILY SUN

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BLACK FRIDAY / SMALL BUSINESS SAT. SPECIAL

HURRY IN !

Oren Etzioni writes articles about artifi cial intelligence for scholarly journals, is a renowned expert on data mining and gained fame when Micro-soft paid $115 million for Farecast, an airline-ticket price predictor he founded.

Now, Professor Etzioni, who teaches computer science at the University of Washington, has directed his consider-able intellect at the American ritual of shopping for bargains on Black Friday. After examining billions of prices of consumer electronics, he has decided to spend the busiest shopping day of the year scuba-diving in Bali.

Why? It is not until early December, Professor Etzioni’s research shows, that prices are likely to be the lowest for electronics, products that are among the biggest sellers on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

“The bottom line is, Black Friday is for the retailers to go from the red into the black,” he said. “It’s not really for people to get great deals on the most popular products.”

What the professor has determined with a complex computer algorithm for consumer electronics, others have found through less scientifi cally rigor-ous means for other products, includ-ing clothing and toys: despite all the ads that suggest otherwise, the lowest prices tend to come at other times of the year.

In the case of toys, stores actually offer the steepest discounts in the weeks immediately following Thanks-giving because they want to unload the inventory not swept up on Black Friday, said Dan de Grandpre, who has tracked deals for 15 years at Dealnews.com.

“Toys have a very short shelf life,” he said. “On Dec. 26, they’re not really useful to retailers anymore, so they have to get rid of it and start slashing prices early in December.”

And it is a precise window of oppor-tunity. In the week or so before Christ-mas, toy prices shoot back up, Mr. de Grandpre’s tracking shows, as last-minute shoppers come stampeding for Barbies and Lego sets and stores are less desperate “because they’ve been able to reduce their inventory.”

The added value Professor Etzioni brings to price discussions is the com-puter crunching of the trove of data provided by online prices — and spe-cifi c recommendations about when to make a purchase.

Following the approach of Farecast, now part of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, the professor’s start-up com-pany, Decide.com, studies current and historical prices, information about new models and rumors about new product introductions to fi gure out the best time to buy.

Type in the name of a product — a Soundcast SurroundCast speaker system, for instance. Decide.com will pull prices from around the Web, and tell you to buy or wait. In the Surround-Cast case, it showed this week that prices were at $150 in early September and had now gone up to $160.

The verdict: wait. Decide.com said it was 96 percent confi dent that prices for the speaker system would drop within two weeks.

Introduced this summer, the Web site predicts prices for consumer electron-

ics only, though Professor Etzioni says there are plans to expand to categories like cars and potentially even clothing in a couple of years. In the meantime, others are making educated guesses about when it is best to spend money on variety of products.

James C. Bieri, who heads a Detroit-based real estate fi rm that leases to retailers, has determined there are far better times than the Friday after Thanksgiving to make most apparel purchases. Many stores offer steep dis-counts on products other than cloth-ing, he said, to get shoppers into their stores.

“They’re going to use apparel to get some of the margins back on the stuff they’re giving away,” he said. Better times to make apparel purchases include back-to-school and post-holiday clearance sales, and it is an area where coupons, friends-and-family discounts and the like are big money-savers.

Assuming fruitcake and candy canes still sound good after the holidays, sales of gourmet food and candy should be postponed until then, advised Brad Wilson, of BradsDeals.com, because prices drop drastically.

As for appliances, major retailers like Sears tend to discount those at the end of their fi scal quarters (Sears’s next quarter ends Jan. 31.) But Mr. de Grandpre said that this year, the deals in the weeks before Thanksgiving had been as good as he could remember, especially from retailers like Lowe’s and Home Depot, and brands like LG and Samsung.

Retailers do discount smaller appli-ances on the Friday after Thanksgiv-ing. “You’ll see small kitchen electronics under $20, sometimes under $10 — blenders, toasters,” he said. “But it’s low-end, cheap Chinese knockoffs that are heavily discounted — often there’s a mail-in rebate hassle that goes with it — but it’s a very, very low price.”

That is true of most of the biggest deals on that Friday, he said. Because retailers want to impress shoppers with very low prices, the quality of the discounted items can be low.

For higher-end electronics, Mr. de Grandpre’s trends show, shop-pers should wait until the week after Thanksgiving.

“Black Friday is about cheap stuff at cheap prices, and I mean cheap in every connotation of the word,” Mr. de Grand-pre said. Manufacturers like Dell or HP will allow their cheap laptops to be dis-counted via retailers on that Friday, but they will reserve markdowns through their own sites for later.

“Their best promotions happen during Cyber Monday week,” he said, referring to the marketing name drummed up by online retailers for the Monday after Thanksgiving.

Did Decide.com agree with the laptop advice? It did. A low-end Dell laptop had dropped to $249 at Amazon this week, and Decide said to buy it now. But for a more feature-heavy laptop, priced at $1,528 at Sears and $1,541 at PCNation, Decide said to wait, as it expected prices to stay fl at or decline by up to $339 within two weeks.

On Friday, “there will be big sales, but are they big sale on the items you want?” Professor Etzioni said, over his remarkably clear cellphone connection from Bali. “Look at all the amazing volatility, and wait for the price drops.”

Missed Black Friday? No problem: the best shopping deals still to come

BY STEPHANIE CLIFFORDTHE NEW YORK TIMES


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HOROSCOPE By Holiday Mathis

ARIES (March 21-April 19). You will maintain your solid stance at the calm center of a swirl of activity. You’ll love the show. It’s like there’s a parade going by just for your entertainment. TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Mes-sages get mixed up, but that doesn’t have to stop you. A surge of creativ-ity will help you do what traditional methods of communication will fail to accomplish. GEMINI (May 21-June 21). You are sincerely invigorated by the presence of others. Be bold enough to show just how thrilled you are to interact with people, and they’ll be charmed by your enthusiasm. You will make them feel important. CANCER (June 22-July 22). You are receptive to trying new things, though you want to know that the risk will be worthwhile. You’ll take steps to avoid feeling “ripped off,” such as investigat-ing further, reading testimonials and looking out for bad reviews. LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). There are family members you would love to con-nect with more often, but life and dis-tance stand between you. Bridging the gap is a matter of planning. Set aside some time to sort out the details of your next visit. VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). You want a person to possess certain quali-ties so badly that you may see these qualities regardless of whether they really exist. There’s a chance the indi-vidual in question will grow into the role you’ve cast. LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). In spite of Mercury’s retrograde, you have “mad-skills” in the conversation depart-ment, and you’re determined to use them. You’ll engage in the kind of talks

that will stir your soul and nourish your imagination. SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). Though a big project is now satisfac-torily “in the can,” you still have a great deal ahead of you that needs tending. You’ll gather up your forces and look to the future. SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). Because you are so honest with your-self, you’ll see through the facade that people try to present and into the way they actually are. You’ll note the frailty all around and turn your tender atten-tion where it’s needed most. CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). When you are specifi c and unambigu-ous, you will get the results you seek. Also, make it easy for others to help you. A simple question will get a simple answer. A compound question will get no answer. AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). Much is going unsaid that could com-plicate matters. Identify and verbalize what you need to get out of a transac-tion to make you consider it a success. PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). There will be a bit of a mystery to solve, and it will come together like a puzzle, one piece at a time. Your persistence and a willingness to experiment will be key to resolving this one. TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (Nov. 26). What has been trying in the past will now be much easier for you to accom-plish. Next month, you’ll be shown favor by those who are diffi cult to impress. January brings important fi nancial transactions. You’ll shift your business strategy in February. Lifestyle upgrades come in May. Gemini and Virgo people contribute generously to your life. Your lucky numbers are: 20, 1, 4, 44 and 18.

ACROSS 1 Russian ruler’s title

of old 5 Happen 10 Closed sac 14 Astronaut Sally 15 Steam bath 16 Thick cord 17 Perched __; upon 18 Top of a wave 19 Part of the eye 20 Delude 22 Disease 24 Hearing organ 25 Prayerful 26 Olympic skater __

Hamilton 29 Depressed 30 Gallant 34 Sheltered bay 35 Chum 36 Spreading tree 37 __ bandage;

elastic wrap 38 Superintendent 40 Fib 41 Artist Rockwell

43 Compete 44 Land devoted to

agriculture 45 Hell’s ruler 46 Franklin or

Gazzara 47 Full of interesting

info 48 One with a never-

ending sentence 50 Source of light

and heat 51 A, an or the 54 Tying up 58 Glacier breakaway 59 Signifi cant __;

special partner 61 At any time 62 Tilt 63 Blackboard 64 Seldom seen 65 Lawn trees 66 Family car 67 Winter weather

DOWN 1 Stuff

2 Tubular pasta 3 Turmoils 4 __ with; full of 5 Movie award 6 Jack or deuce 7 Actor’s hint 8 Left __; never

verbalized 9 Numerical

comparison 10 Deep purplish red 11 Days of __;

yesteryear 12 Twirl 13 Examination 21 Have a feast 23 Of the moon 25 Idle talk 26 Reads over

quickly 27 Warm drink 28 Obvious 29 __ Antonio, TX 31 Regulation 32 Lions’ dens 33 Foe 35 “Peter __”

DAILY CROSSWORDTRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES

36 Buzzing insect 38 __-depressive;

bipolar 39 __ rummy; card

game 42 Speaks evil of 44 Wheel guards 46 Hard-shelled bug 47 Religious sister 49 Dentist’s advice

50 Blaring alarm 51 Competent 52 Become dizzy 53 Mine car 54 Fraternity letter 55 Lendl of tennis 56 Fiddling Roman

emperor 57 Became larger 60 Owned

Fill in the grid so that every row, every column, and every 3x3 box contains the digits 1 thru 9.

Solution and tips at

www.sudoku.com

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Yesterday’s Answer


SATURDAY PRIME TIME NOVEMBER 26, 2011 Dial 8:00 8:30 9:00 9:30 10:00 10:30 11:00 11:30 5 CTN 5 Alternate Route TV Just Coolin Minutes Teen TV Chatting with History

6 WCSHThe 85th Anniversary of the Macy’s Thanksgiv-ing Day Parade

Movie: ››‡ “Bee Movie” (2007) Voices of Jerry Sein-feld. Animated. A bee decides to sue the human race for the theft of honey. Å

News Saturday Night Live Å

7 WPFOCops “Coast to Coast” (N)

Cops “Ar-rests With a Twist”

Terra Nova “The Run-away” An orphan seeks asylum at the colony.

News 13 on FOX

The Big Bang Theory

Hell’s Kitchen “8 Chefs Compete” Contestants take part in challenges.

8 WMTWCollege Football Notre Dame at Stanford. (N) (Live) News 8

WMTW at 11 (N)

10 MPBNAmerican Masters Chronicle of Lucille Ball’s career. Å

John Sebastian Presents: Folk Rewind (My Mu-sic) Artists of the 1950s and ’60s. (In Stereo) Å

3 Steps to Incred-ible Health! With Joel Fuhrman, M.D. Å

11 WENHSaving Songbirds Researchers track and assess songbirds. Å

Heirloom Meals’ Thanksgiving Family recipes for the holidays. (In Stereo) Å

The Red Green Show

Globe Trekker (In Stereo)

12 WPXTFamily Guy “PTV” Å

Family Guy Å

Community Auditions

Kickstart Nite Show with Danny Cashman

It’s Always Sunny in Phila.

It’s Always Sunny in Phila.

Futurama “Lesser of Two Evils”

13 WGMERules of Engage-ment Å

Rules of Engage-ment Å

Unforgettable “Heroes” Carrie helps a boy who saw a murder.

48 Hours Mystery Inves-tigating a savage murder. (N) Å

WGME News 13 at 11:00

Ring of Honor Wrestling

17 WPME Criminal Minds Å The Unit “Hero” Å Law & Order Å Sports Raymond

24 DISC Deadliest Catch Å Punkin Chunkin 2011 Gold Rush Å Punkin Chunkin 2011

25 FAM Movie: ››‡ “Home Alone 2: Lost in New York” (1992) Movie: ››› “Love Actually” (2003)

26 USA Movie: ››› “Elf” (2003) Will Ferrell. Å Movie: ›‡ “Land of the Lost” (2009) Å

27 NESN NHL Hockey: Jets at Bruins Bruins Daily College Football

28 CSNE Patriots Quick Patriots Patriots Quick SportsNet College Football

30 ESPN College Football Clemson at South Carolina. (N) (Live) SportsCenter (N) (Live) Å

31 ESPN2 College Football Florida State at Florida. (N) Score College Basketball

33 ION “Starsky & Hutch” Psych (In Stereo) Å Psych “Psy vs. Psy” Psych (In Stereo) Å

34 DISN Movie: “Geek Charming” (2011) Sarah Hyland. Good Luck Jessie Shake It Shake It

35 TOON “Open Season 3” Oblongs King of Hill King of Hill Fam. Guy Boondocks Boondocks

36 NICK Kung Fu Kung Fu Kung Fu Kung Fu Friends Friends Friends Friends

37 MSNBC Lockup Boston Lockup Boston Lockup Wabash Lockup: Raw

38 CNN Gerry-Rigged Piers Morgan Tonight CNN Newsroom (N) Gerry-Rigged

40 CNBC Til Debt Do Us Part The Suze Orman Show Debt/Part Debt/Part American Greed

41 FNC Huckabee (N) Justice With Jeanine The Five Jour. FOX News

43 TNT Movie: ››› “A Time to Kill” (1996, Drama) Sandra Bullock. Å “The Da Vinci Code”

44 LIFE Movie: “Dear Santa” (2011) Amy Acker. Å Movie: “An Accidental Christmas” (2007) Å

46 TLC 48 Hours: Left 48 Hours: Hard Evid. 48 Hours: Hard Evid. 48 Hours: Left

47 AMC Movie: ››› “The Outlaw Josey Wales” (1976) Hell on Wheels Å “Outlaw Josey”

48 HGTV Holiday Block Party Celebrity Holiday Hunters Hunters Hunters Hunters

49 TRAV Ghost Adventures Ghost Adventures Ghost Adventures Ghost Adventures

50 A&E Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage Storage

52 BRAVO “The School of Rock” Movie: ››› “Meet the Parents” (2000) “Meet the Parents”

55 HALL “Debbie Macomber’s Trading Christmas” Å “Debbie Macomber’s Trading Christmas” Å

56 SYFY “Stonehenge” Movie: “Storm War” (2011) Stacy Keach. Movie: “Meteor Storm”

57 ANIM America’s Cutest Cat America’s Cutest Pet Pit Bulls and Parolees America’s Cutest Pet

58 HIST Pawn Pawn Pawn Pawn Pawn Pawn Big Shrimpin’ Å

60 BET Movie: ›› “Not Easily Broken” Movie: ››‡ “Notorious” (2009) Angela Bassett. Å

61 COM Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Tosh.0 Movie: ›› “Fanboys”

62 FX Movie: “27 Dresses” Movie: ›‡ “Bride Wars” (2009, Comedy) Kate Hudson. Sunny

67 TVLND Cleveland Cleveland Raymond Raymond Raymond Raymond King King

68 TBS Big Bang Big Bang Big Bang Big Bang Movie: ››› “Pretty Woman” (1990) Å

76 SPIKE Movie: ››‡ “Star Wars: Episode II -- Attack of the Clones” (2002) “Star Wars: Ep. III”

78 OXY Movie: ›› “Enough” (2002) Jennifer Lopez. Movie: ››› “Erin Brockovich” (2000) Å

146 TCM Movie: ›››› “Dodsworth” (1936, Drama) Å Movie: “The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp”

––––––– ALMANAC –––––––

Today is Saturday, Nov. 26, the 330th day of 2011. There are 35 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:On Nov. 26, 1941, U.S. Secretary of State

Cordell Hull delivered a note to Japan’s ambassador to the United States, Kichis-aburo Nomura, proposing an agreement for “lasting and extensive peace throughout the Pacifi c area.” The same day, a Japanese naval task force consisting of six aircraft car-riers left the Kuril Islands, headed toward Hawaii.

On this date:In 1789, this was a day of thanksgiving

set aside by President George Washington to observe the adoption of the Constitution of the United States.

In 1842, the founders of the University of Notre Dame arrived at the school’s present-day site near South Bend, Ind.

In 1910, two dozen young women were killed when fi re broke out at a muslin factory in Newark, N.J.

In 1933, a judge in New York decided the James Joyce book “Ulysses” was not obscene and could be published in the United States.

In 1943, during World War II, the HMT Rohna, a British transport ship carrying American soldiers, was hit by a German missile off Algeria; 1,138 men were killed.

In 1965, France launched its fi rst satellite, sending a 92-pound capsule into orbit.

In 1986, President Ronald Reagan appointed a commission headed by former Senator John Tower to investigate his National Security Council staff in the wake of the Iran-Contra affair.

One year ago: Nineteen-year-old Somali-born Mohamed Osman Mohamud was arrested by federal agents during a sting in Portland, Ore., accused of planning to deto-nate van of explosives during Christmas tree lighting ceremony. President Barack Obama received 12 stitches in his upper lip after taking an errant elbow during a pickup bas-ketball game with family and friends visiting for the Thanksgiving holiday.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Ellen Alber-tini Dow is 98. Impressionist Rich Little is 73. Singer Tina Turner is 72. Singer Jean Terrell is 67. Pop musician John McVie is 66. Actress Marianne Muellerleile is 63. Actor Scott Jacoby is 55. Actress Jamie Rose is 52. Country singer Linda Davis is 49. Blues singer-musician Bernard Alli-son is 46. Country singer-musician Steve Grisaffe is 46. Actress Kristin Bauer is 38. Actor Peter Facinelli is 38. Actress Tammy Lynn Michaels Etheridge is 37. Actress Maia Campbell is 35. Country singer Joe Nichols is 35. Contemporary Christian musicians Anthony and Randy Armstrong (Red) are 33. Actress Jessica Bowman is 31. Pop singer Natasha Bedingfi eld is 30. Rock musician Ben Wysocki (The Fray) is 27.

ACROSS 1 Organisms

requiring oxygen 8 Falls down, as if

collapsing 15 High-fl ying

performer’s swing 16 Concubine in a

harem 17 Oriental 18 Occupant’s

duration 19 Add breath to

pronunciation 21 Darn tootin’! 22 So it would __

(apparently) 23 Wave rider 27 Theater-sign

letters 28 Van Halen or

Arcaro 30 Lying on one’s

stomach 31 Dairy farm sound 32 Use a phaser 34 Pedestrian’s path 36 Went in 40 Joseph E. and

James 41 Eminent

conductors 43 Winter quarters 44 Letters for little

green men 45 Blows one’s horn 47 Sudden painful

feelings 51 Louse-to-be 52 Lofty rooms 54 Figure-skater

Lysacek 55 Medical pers. 57 Fiesta hat 59 Very angry 63 Make a

connection with 64 More mean 65 Sounded like a

trolley 66 Star of “The

Honeymooners” 67 Those avoiding

straight answers

DOWN 1 Command to the

troops

2 Rubbed out 3 Spoke roughly 4 Gets the most out

of 5 Boilermaker

ingredient 6 Pound and Stone 7 Made a parody of 8 Little ‘un 9 Poem of tribute 10 Trash in a review 11 Dramatic

composition 12 Tennis offi cial 13 Endive 14 Helicopter

adjuncts 20 Slips up 24 Dueling sword 25 Concluded 26 Keanu of “My Own

Private Idaho” 29 Singer Kitt 33 EDS founder 35 Laying over until

the spring thaw 36 Making

corrections to

37 Elizabeth Taylor fi lm, “__ Velvet”

38 Trial balloon 39 Refrain from 42 Downhill runners 46 Word with pine or

tape 48 Get even for 49 Cashless

exchange

50 Old-fashioned netlike caps

53 Funt’s “Candid Camera” request

56 Mlle. from Madrid 58 Droplet 60 South American

sloths 61 Earth: pref. 62 Locational suffi x

Yesterday’s Answer

DAILY CROSSWORDBY WAYNE ROBERT WILLIAMS


DOLLAR-A-DAY CLASSIFIEDS: Ads must be 15 words or less and run a minimum of 5 consecutive days. Ads that run less than 5 days or nonconsecutive days are $2 per day. Ads over 15 words add 10¢ per word per day. PREMIUMS: First word caps no charge. Additional caps 10¢ per word per day. Centered bold heading: 9 pt. caps 40¢ per line, per day (2 lines maximum) TYPOS: Check your ad the fi rst day of publication. Sorry, we will not issue credit after an ad has run once. DEADLINES: noon, one business day prior to the day of publication. PAYMENT: All private party ads must be pre-paid. We accept checks, Visa and Mastercard credit cards and, of course, cash. There is a $10 minimum order for credit cards. CORRESPONDENCE: To place your ad call our offi ces 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Mon-day through Friday, 699-5807; or send a check or money order with ad copy to The Conway Daily Sun, P.O. Box 1940, North Conway, NH 03860. OTHER RATES:

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ANNIE’S MAILBOX Dear Annie: My husband and I have a small online stock trading account. Several months ago, he mentioned that he was thinking of giving our son and daughter-in-law money to open their own stock account. I immediately told him I was against it. I then left to go to the store and thought that was the end of it. When I arrived home, I found my husband signing a check for $25,000 to our daughter-in-law. We have no agreement that the money will be repaid or that we will be informed as to what happens to it. If I hadn’t returned home when I did, I never even would have known about it. My husband doesn’t think he did anything wrong. How am I supposed to trust or respect him when he does things like this? Am I justifi ed to feel resentful and betrayed? -- Floored Dear Floored: Your husband should not be making uni-lateral decisions that affect both of you. But by telling him “no” and assuming the matter was settled, you did the same thing. It sounds like this is not so much about the money as it is about who controls it. Giving a large sum to anyone, in-cluding a child, requires the cooperation and agreement of all involved parties. You and your husband need to stop the power plays and talk about this calmly. Admit your own part in creating the problem, and explain how hurt you were that he didn’t take your feelings into account. We don’t know if this money was a gift or a loan or how you want to handle it, but the discus-sion should end with the agreement that neither of you will do this again without the consent of the other. Dear Annie: My wife and I have no children, so we try to reach out to the nieces and nephews on both sides of the fam-ily. We always make the effort to visit them when we are in their area, and for the most part, they reciprocate the love we

extend. However, we are perplexed about the total lack of social graces of one nephew’s wife. To our knowledge, we have never given this young woman any reason to treat us in the manner she does. We dread future visits for fear one of us may be tempted to say something to her about her lack of civility. What do we do when she behaves like this again? -- Confused in West Virginia Dear Confused: Talk to the nephew. Ask as sweetly as possible whether you have done something unintentionally offensive to his wife, because she seems to dislike you. Ask how to make the relationship better. She simply may be so-cially inept and covering it with what appears to be rudeness but is in reality shyness or discomfort. Give your nephew the opportunity to address it with his wife and work on it. Dear Annie: I read the letter from “Daughter-in-Law in Dis-tress,” whose husband is verbally abused by his father and sisters. This woman needs to give her husband a great big hug! His father is a mean and calculating bully who enjoys watching others, including his own grandchildren, squirm. When I was a child, I had adult relatives who found plea-sure and power in making fun of us for everything from the pimples on our faces to whether or not we could hit a ball. Our parents taught us to be seen and not heard, so we did not respond to these thoughtless, painful remarks. Neither did our parents. I am now 58 years old and a strong individual. To this day, however, when there is a family gathering, I am so fi lled with anxiety that I have diffi culty breathing. I love these people, but they have no idea at what cost. I commend this dad for protecting his children and putting them fi rst. They are richly blessed. -- Made it Through

Annie’s Mailbox is written by Kathy Mitchell and Marcy Sugar, longtime editors of the Ann Landers column. Please e-mail your questions to: [email protected], or write to: Annie’s Mailbox, c/o Creators Syndicate, 5777 W. Century Blvd., Ste. 700, Los Angeles, CA 90045.

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–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– EVENTS CALENDAR–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

see next page

Saturday, Nov. 26

Down East Ski Sale8 a.m. to 5 p.m. The next Down East Ski Sale will be held Saturday, after Thanksgiving at the Portland Expo Building on Park Avenue near the ballpark. Admission is free. “For many, standing in line waiting for the sale to open is a tra-dition, but with over over 10,000 pieces of ski equipment: boots, skis, snowboards, bindings, helmets, clothing and poles, great deals can be found all day long! The general public may bring their ski related items to enter into the sale Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, from noon to 6 p.m. There is a $1 registration fee per item, and 20 percent com-mission is charged if the item is sold.”

Effi ngham Holiday Craft Festival9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Effi ngham Holiday Craft Festival will once again be held at the Effi ngham Elementary School. “This is the eighth year for the show, and has a very strong fol-lowing. The artists and craftsmen come from all over New Hampshire, Maine and other New England states. Come see regular favorites as well as some new and unique ven-dors soon to become new favorites.” For directions to the show or for more information, please visit www.magnetic-moon.com. Call (603) 539-9090.

Lucid Stage Holiday Arts & Crafts Show9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lucid Stage’s second annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Show, “Join us for Lucid Stage’s second annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Show, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. We’ll have all sorts of locally made arts and crafts, plus caricatures by Ed King, which make memorable gifts!” 29 Baxter Blvd, Portland. Also Sunday.

Music in the House1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Longfellow House, In June 2002, the Maine Historical Society celebrated the centennial of the Wad-sworth–Longfellow House as Maine’s fi rst house museum open to the public. “Come visit Maine Historical Society this holiday season for an exciting array of activities and pro-grams scheduled from Nov. 19-Dec. 31.” www.mainehis-tory.org/holidays.shtml

‘The Nutcracker’ 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Nov. 26 to Dec. 4. Presented by Maine State Ballet. Tickets are $20-$60. “The Maine State Ballet brings the classic holiday story of Clara, the Nutcracker Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy to Merrill Auditorium. Maine State Ballet’s production of ‘The Nutcracker,’ with the live musical accompaniment by the Maine State Ballet Orchestra conducted by Karla Kelley, is a perennial favorite of Portland’s holiday season.” https://tickets.porttix.com/public/show_events_list.asp

Contra Dance at Mayo Street8 p.m. to 11 p.m. Contra Dance at Mayo Street Arts. $7 admission. Mayo Street Arts, 10 Mayo St., Portland. Live music by Soupbone, Kathryn Larsen calling. All dances taught. Bring clean shoes for dancing. http://mayostree-tarts.org/calendar/

Sunday, Nov. 27

Lucid Stage Holiday Arts & Crafts Show9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Lucid Stage’s second annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Show, “Join us for Lucid Stage’s second annual Holiday Arts & Crafts Show, Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. We’ll have all sorts of locally made arts and crafts, plus caricatures by Ed King, which make memorable gifts!” 29 Baxter Blvd, Portland.

‘The Nutcracker’ 2 p.m. Nov. 26 to Dec. 4. Presented by Maine State Ballet. Tickets are $20-$60. “The Maine State Ballet brings the classic holiday story of Clara, the Nutcracker Prince and the Sugar Plum Fairy to Merrill Auditorium. Maine State Ballet’s production of ‘The Nutcracker,’ with the live musi-cal accompaniment by the Maine State Ballet Orchestra conducted by Karla Kelley, is a perennial favorite of Port-land’s holiday season.” https://tickets.porttix.com/public/show_events_list.asp

Deck the Fort Allen Park bandstand2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Fort Allen Park. “Join those energetic Elves of the Eastern Promenade as they deck the Fort Allen Park bandstand with boughs of evergreen and holiday lights. We’ll provide the garland and the lights — just bring your gloves, warm clothes and good cheer. When the job is done, we’ll fl ip the switch and admire our work!” http://easternpromenade.org

Ryann Chamberlain fundraising benefi tat Casa Novello in Westbrook2 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. “Thanks for Giving” fundraising benefi t for Ryann Chamberlain, Casa Novello, 649 Main St., West-brook. Silent auction raffl e, call for reservations. 854-9909. Please email Melissa at melissa.lefl [email protected].

‘Chefs and Musicians for Safe Harbor’4 p.m. to 7 p.m. First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church Portland is launching a new program Safe Harbor — a legal assistance fund to address the increase in requests the church receives by asylum seekers who need legal assistance. The church is kicking off this program with a benefit event concert “Chefs and Musicians for Safe Harbor,” on Sunday, Nov. 27, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at First Parish, 425 Congress St., Portland. “The Rev. Christina Sillari has stretched her discretionary funds as far as they will go to help asylum seekers who come to her for help at First Parish Unitarian Universalist. Rev. Sillari says ‘our many friends who provide pro bono and low cost legal assistance to asylum seek-ers are so backlogged with requests, that many asylum applicants must look elsewhere to find low-fee legal representation. These individuals endure a dilemma with a deadline: they must engage a lawyer’s services even before they have been granted a work permit to raise the fees for one. The stress is unimaginable; these asylum seekers must prove their lives are at risk and that worse perils face them if they are sent back to their home countries. Three people our church recently helped are talented, educated people who share our values, and for that they have already paid a high price — flight from their jobs and families.”

Monday, Nov. 28

‘Exit Strategies for Political (and Academic) Warfare’6 p.m. The University of New England’s Center for Global Humanities will host a presentation by Colby professor Dan Cohen on, “How To Lose an Argument — And Why: Exit Strategies for Political (and Academic) Warfare” at the WCHP Lecture Hall on the Portland Campus. Prior to the lecture, there will be a reception at the UNE Art Gallery at 5 p.m. Both the lecture and reception are free and open to the public. Professor Cohen has taught Philosophy at universi-ties on three different continents, published in journals on four continents, and lectured on a total of fi ve to date. He is the author of, Argument is War . . . and War is Hell: Philoso-phy, Education, and Metaphors for Argumentation.” UNE’s Center for Global Humanities is a public forum dedicated to the study of human destiny in the 21st century. For more information, visit www.une.edu/cgh.

Muslims in America7:30 p.m. Andrea Elliott, a New York Times reporter who has reported on Muslims in America since 2005, offers her perspective on the topic at, in the Benjamin Mays Center,

95 Russell St. Presented by the Offi ce of Intercultural Edu-cation, the event is open to the public at no cost. For more information, please contact 755-5980. Elliott has been an investigative reporter for the Times since 2003. In 2005, she began covering Islam in America. Her series “An Imam in America,” which won Elliott the 2007 Pulitzer Prize, chron-icled the life of Sheik Reda Shata, an immigrant Muslim leader in Brooklyn. 615.3609. [email protected], www.mayostreetarts.org

Tuesday, Nov. 29

Vein Healthcare Center free screenings9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Vein Healthcare Center will be giving free leg screenings from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Patient visits will include a venous exam of both legs, an overview of treatment options, and an opportunity to have questions answered by Dr. Cindy Asbjornsen, one of the leading phle-bology (vein health) specialists in Maine. Though the leg screening is free, an appointment is required. Call the Vein Healthcare Center at 221-7799 to make an appointment, or visit www.veinhealthcarecenter.com for more information. The Vein Healthcare Center is located in South Portland at 100 Foden Road, Suite 307.

Cheverus Toy Drive4 p.m. “Over the next few weeks, the Cheverus High School community will be collecting unwrapped gifts, toys and cash from alumni, faculty, staff, parents and friends of the school, and the local community for its second annual holiday Toy Drive. This year Cheverus High School will be partner-ing with The Sharing Sleigh, a volunteer holiday program which will coordinate donations from the Toy Drive and of food, gifts and clothing to those who are less fortu-nate or homeless in our community. Donations are wel-come! Please deliver your unwrapped toy or donation of cash or check during school hours to the Guidance Department (next to the main offi ce) at Cheverus High School, 267 Ocean Ave., Portland, Maine. Donations will be accepted until Dec. 16. Your generous donation will help those who might otherwise not share in the joys of this holiday season. You may also drop off your donation at the Cheverus High School Tree Lighting ceremony on Nov. 29, at 4 p.m. Come join in the fun as we light our Christmas tree, enjoy a visit with Santa, sing along with carolers and share hot chocolate and sweet treats. For more information or to donate to the Cheverus Toy Drive, contact [email protected].

Portland Ballet Company brings its own unique New England version of the Nutcracker to Merrill Auditorium with “The Victorian Nutcracker.” The show, which takes the classic Nutcracker story and sets it in historical Portland, Maine, with sets, costumes, and characters inspired by historical fi gures, will be performed twice at Merrill Auditorium on Friday, Dec. 23 at 2 p.m. and 7.30 p.m. (COURTESY PHOTO)


DownEast Pride Alliance ‘Business After Hours’5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. Networking event at Pat’s Pizza Old Port, 30 Free St., Portland. “Cash bar, lite food and media table. Bring business cards to share. See you there for ‘cocktails and conversation!’” The DownEast Pride Alliance (DEPA) is a GLBTQ business networking group in Southern Maine meeting monthly at local establishments for “Busi-ness After Hours” events that provide a safe forum for, and help strengthen, the local gay & gay-friendly business com-munity. Bring business cards to share on our Media Table. No fees or RSVP to attend. All in the community are wel-come to come for “cocktails & conversation.” Find DEPA on Facebook and www.depabusiness.com

Lewiston/Auburn Community Little Theatre auditions7 p.m. Lewiston/Auburn Community Little Theatre will hold auditions for “Almost Maine” by Maine playwright John Cariani on Nov. 29 and 30 at 7 p.m. at Great Falls Art Center 30 Academy St., Auburn. Ensemble piece for four women and four men, age not a factor. Katie St. Pierre directs. Perfor-mances are Feb. 10-19, 2012. FMI, 783-0958 or laclt.com.

Wednesday, Nov. 30

Maine’s Museums: Art, Oddities and Artifactsnoon. Janet Mendelshon at the Maine Maritime Museum Bath. Free admission. “The fi rst book devoted solely to the diverse and often unexpected museums in the Pine Tree State. Whether you want to see great works of art or truly unique collections — from umbrella covers to strange creatures — you’ll fi nd it in Maine and you’ll fi nd it in Maine’s Museums.” For information or to register visit www.MaineMaritimeMuseum.org or call 443-1316 during business hours.

Victoria Mansion Christmas Gala6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Victoria Mansion Christmas Gala Join us for a festive evening to benefi t Victoria Mansion. Tour the elegantly decorated Mansion * Meet the design-ers * Enjoy fabulous food and drink in luxurious Mansion spaces and the enclosed heated porch and courtyard * 10 percent discount in the Carriage House Museum Shop * Preview exclusive new Christmas gifts. www.victoriaman-sion.org/events_rentals/events.aspx

Councilor John Coyne district meeting7 p.m. City Councilors and staff will be available to dis-cuss neighborhood issues and answer questions from the public. These meetings are the public’s opportunity to meet their district councilor, the mayor and representatives from the various departments within the city. District 5 Meet-ing hosted by Councilor John Coyne, Riverton Commu-nity Center, 1600 Forest Ave. For more information about these meetings, contact Mike Murray, the city’s Island and Neighborhood Administrator at 756-8288, or [email protected].

Thursday, Dec. 1

World AIDS Day reception and vigil5 p.m. to 7 p.m. In a unique collaboration, Frannie Pea-body Center will partner with one of Portland’s most historic landmarks, Victoria Mansion, to hold its annual World AIDS Day reception and vigil. The event will be highlighted by a reading and talk from John-Manuel Andriote, author of the recently re-released Victory Deferred: How AIDS Changed Gay Life in America and culminate in a candlelight vigil on the mansion steps, weather permitting. Each year clients, supporters, volunteers and community leaders around the world gather in a variety of ceremonies and special events to recognize World AIDS Day, a day marked for remember-ing those lost to the epidemic and honoring the progress made in the thirty years since the epidemic began. This will be the fi rst time Frannie Peabody Center has held World AIDS Day at Victoria Mansion, which will be completely decorated for the holidays.

Good Theater Broadway hits, holiday favorites7 p.m. Good Theater’s annual concerts featuring Broadway hits and holiday favorites Dec. 1-4. Good Theater presents Broadway leading man Kevin Earley joined by a cast of 17 singers including Marva Pittman, Kelly Caufi eld, Lynne McGhee and Stephen Underwood. Directed by Brian P. Allen with musical direction by Victoria Stubbs who leads the three-piece band. Performance times are Thursday at 7 p.m. ($25), Friday at 7:30 ($25), Saturday matinee at 3 p.m. ($25) and Saturday evening at 7:30 p.m. ($30), and Sunday matinee at 2 p.m. ($30). At the St. Lawrence Arts Center, 76 Congress St., Portland. Call 885-5883 for reservations and information. www.goodtheater.com

Portland’s fi rst annual Palestinian Film Festival7:30 p.m. Dec. 1— “‘Jenin Jenin.’ A documentary of the

city and refugee camp destroyed by Israeli forces in April 2002 and the indomitable spirit of the Palestinians in their struggle for human rights and statehood.” SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St., Portland. 7:30 p.m. $7/5 for Space and MVPR members and students with ID. Dec. 2 — “‘Eyewit-ness Gaza.’ A documentary of life in Gaza following Israel’s attack in the winter of 2008-09. Focus is on Gazan youths’ ability to survive a siege and marginalization by the world community. Director Tom Jackson will attend.” Meg Perry Center, 644 Congress St. 8 p.m. $7/5 for MVPR & Peace Action Maine members & students w/ID. Dec. 3 — “‘Salt of This Sea.’ Feature-length fi lm, starring noted Palestinian poet Suheir Hammad, at SPACE Gallery, 538 Congress St. 7:30 p.m. $7/5 for SPACE and Maine Voices for Palestin-ian Rights members and students with ID. Sponsored and organized by MVPR. Net proceeds will go to the Middle East Children’s Alliance water project to bring clean, safe water to the children of Gaza. Robert Schaible, 239-8060; [email protected].

Friday, Dec. 2

Exhibit: Port of Portland: A Ship-Shaped History5 p.m. Portland Public Library, Lewis Gallery, free admis-sion. Friday, Dec. 2 through Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2012. Open-ing event, 5 p.m., Friday Dec. 2 – Director’s Remarks and Meet the Curator. “Maine Maritime Museum’s latest exhibit presents a vision of the history of Maine’s Gateway City as portrayed by the ships that have transited Portland Head to clear Spring Point Ledge, a series of vessels as diverse as the different eras they represent; vessels that have brought hope, grief, sustenance, prosperity, disappointment, and a good day’s work to its people.” For more information visit www.MaineMaritimeMuseum.org or call 443-1316 during business hours.

Five Dollar First Friday5 p.m. “On the fi rst Friday of December, Victoria Mansion will extend its hours until 8:30 p.m. and all admissions after 5 p.m. are only $5. There will be holiday refreshments in the Carriage House Museum Shop’s Loft for our guests! Do not miss out on the only time to tour the Mansion after dark this Christmas Season!”

The Gallery at Harmon’s & Barton’s First Friday5 p.m. to 8 p.m. “Bringing Art Home for the Holidays” fea-turing four inspired craft artists in fi ber, metal, wood and clay. “Join us for our Holiday Celebration, First Friday Art Walk, Dec. 2, 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., 584 Congress St., Portland. Exhibit and sale through December during gallery hours, Mon.–Fri., 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sat., 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. 774-5948. www.harmonsbartons.com

Beauty of Spain and Portugal5 p.m. to 8 p.m. For First Friday Art Walk, experience the beauty of Spain and Portugal with a library photo slide pre-

sentation at the Maine Charitable Mechanic Association in Portland. The “Back Cove Artist Group” will be exhib-iting their watercolors and there will be handmade items for sale with proceeds going to the library fund.Note cards made from a 1859 wood engraving by Bircher & Russell of Boston and being printed again today locally by David Wolfe of Wolfe Editions in Portland will also be available for purchase. http://www.mainecharitablemechanicassocia-tion.com

‘In The Forest By The Sea’5 p.m. to 8 p.m. First Friday Art Walk opening of “In The Forest By The Sea,” paintings by Jada Fitch, at the Green Hand Bookshop, 661 Congress St., Portland. On display through the month of January. Contact Michelle Souliere at 253-6808 or [email protected]. “Each canvas allows visitors to catch a glimpse of the curious goings-on in a mysterious seaside forest world few have seen before,” reports the Green Hand bookstore.

Goodwill Industries art sale5 p.m. to 8 p.m. “Goodwill Industries of Northern New England will hold its sixth bi-annual ‘Art for Everyone: A Collection of Donated Art,’ on Friday, December 2, from, at Goodwill’s Headquarters (353 Cumberland Ave., Port-land). The sale will feature over 250 drawings, oils, pastels, posters, prints and watercolors donated to Goodwill stores in the local community. All pieces of art will be affordably priced just in time for the holidays. ... Proceeds from the fundraiser will benefi t Goodwill’s job training and support services in the northern New England community.”

Bob Tkacik at Geno’s Rock Club5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. At Geno’s Rock Club, Bob Tkacik will be opening his month-long exhibit in the lobby. “Bob lives in Portland, and went to art school once (although he claims you won’t be able to tell based on this particu-lar exhibit). He has a penchant for attracting piles of skel-etal remains and rusted things, simply by stepping out of his house, and because of this he has decided to adhere said items to other inanimate bits of detritus and display it for all to see. He will also display works revolving around geometric repetition and spiraling colors. Most recently, he has been involved with a collaborative mural at the Octopi Gallery on Congress Street in Portland. Art Walk in Geno’s lobby is open to all, refreshments provided, for free.“

2011 SEA Holiday Art Sale6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Over 80 artists bringing you blown glass, jewelry, journals, paintings, textiles, sculptures, photogra-phy, paper crafts, pottery, magnets, cards, bags, children’s soft toys, and more. Also Saturday, Dec. 3 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; Sunday, Dec. 4, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. East End Community School Center, 195 North St., Portland. Free admission; light food available in PTO Café.

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from preceding page

Roger Merrow works to attach LED Christmas lights on a car at the Maine Narrow Gauge Railroad in anticipation of the Polar Express event. This year the ride returns; trains depart from Ocean Gateway for the North Pole now through Christmas. (DAVID CARKHUFF FILE PHOTO)

see next page


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Open Sky Fund event6 p.m. “Two nights of ‘FUN’draising or the Open Sky Fund, a registered nonprofi t organization providing Musical Instru-ments and Opportunities to children in Maine. At this event, Friday and Saturday, Dec. 2 and 3 at the Big Easy there will be live music by local bands who are donating their time, food from Divided Sky Café, and some very special guests including a 12-year-old guitar player from the area. The Open Sky Faery will present an instrument to a child each night. There will be a silent auction with items from local businesses. Doors will open at 6 p.m. and music will begin at 7 p.m. Come early as space is limited, and these shows will sell out. Open Sky Fund has been providing instruments to children in Maine since 2009, in memory of Van Lawton of Oxford County, a magickal musician who left to his closest friends, his last song titled ‘Open Sky.’ More information about the Open Sky Fund is available at www.openskyfund.org.” Tickets for Kimmy’s Odd Ball are $10 each night and all proceeds benefi t the fund. Tickets are on sale now at www.openskyfund.org. Donations of gently used instruments are always welcome. Guests are encour-aged to dress in costume and prepare to dance.

Portland Playback Theater7:30 p.m. First Friday, Dec. 2, Theme: Holidays from Heaven and Hell. “Portland Playback performs its very popular holi-day offering next month: Holidays from Heaven and Hell. We all know how rich and emotionally complex the holiday season is. Everyone’s expectations are so high; there’s the commercial aspect, family relationships, friendships. Some of our happiest and some of our saddest stories are told and ‘played back’ at this event.” Every month, Portland Playback puts fi ve actors at your disposal to reenact true stories from your life with improvisation. $5 at the door, CTN5 studio, 516 Congress St., Portland. FMI, email [email protected] or call 671-9481. Find out more at www.portlandplayback.com.

‘The Wandering Beggar’7:30 p.m. Acorn Productions, a nonprofi t company based in the Dana Warp Mill in downtown Westbrook, continues its second season of Studio Series presentations with an adaptation by local playwright Howard Rosenfi eld of the book “The Wandering Beggar … or The Adventures of Simple Shmerel” by Solomon Simon. The book was writ-ten originally in Yiddish and fi rst published in 1931. It was then translated, by the author and his son, David Simon, and published in English in 1942. “The Wandering Beggar” is comprised of a charming series of vignettes, in which the title character encounters a series of dishonest ser-vants and greedy kings, overcoming each obstacle with a direct and honest approach. By the end of the play, the simple beggar has proven to have more wisdom than the rabbis. This adaptation was commissioned by Acorn and is being performed with the good wishes of the author’s family. Acorn’s production is directed by veteran theater artist Harlan Baker, and features an ensemble of 11 actors, including returning faces from previous Acorn shows along with several newcomers to the theater scene. The show runs from Dec. 2 through Dec. 18, with performances Friday and Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for students and seniors, and may be purchased on-line at www.acorn-productions.org or by calling 854-0065.

The WFCP Home Time Radio Hour7:30 p.m. Freeport Players present The WFCP Home Time Radio Hour 2011, Dec. 2-4, Fri./Sat. at 7:30 p.m., Sunday at 2 p.m. Freeport Performing Arts Center, Holbrook Street, $10 in advance, $15 at the door. “Be in the audience for this year’s ‘broadcast’ — each year our Sparkle Weekend show simply gets better and more fun. We never get tired of all the great music of the ‘40s/’50s (and early ‘60s this year!), we still get a kick out of writing sketches and jingles in the style of the great old-time radio shows, and we know you can’t wait to see what the sound effects team brings to the table. Save $5! Get your tickets in advance at Freeport Community Center Thrift Store (43 Depot St.) or online at http://www.fcponline.org.”

Saturday, Dec. 3

The Big Thaw Craft Fair10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The Big Thaw Craft Fair at Mayo Street Arts. Free admission. Mayo Street Arts, 10 Mayo St., Port-land. http://mayostreetarts.org/calendar

Oak Street Lofts open housenoon to 2 p.m. Avesta Housing will offer tours of a new affordable housing complex, the Oak Street Lofts, from noon to 2 p.m. “Located at 72 Oak St., Oak Street Lofts is a new community located in the heart of Portland’s Arts District featuring affordable, artist-friendly effi ciency apartments. Indi-vidual units feature high ceilings, natural light, and deep stor-age. Common spaces allow for work and exhibition spaces. Income limits apply. Add your name to the interest list at www.avestahousing.org/properties/60/Oak-Street-Lofts or call (207) 553-7780 ext. 253 for more information.”

Christmas at the Cathedralnoon and 8 p.m. The Choral Art Society’s Christmas at the Cathedral is scheduled for Saturday, Dec. 3, at 8 p.m. and on Sunday, Dec. 4 at 2:30 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. There is also a noon preview concert on Saturday, Dec. 3. Audiences can expect to hear traditional holiday songs, concluding with a candle lit procession to “Silent Night.” The concerts are held at the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception, Portland, 307 Congress St. Tickets price range from $10-$30 and are sold (check or cash only) at Starbird Music, Longfellow Books, the Book Review (Falmouth), Nonesuch Books (Mill Creek Shopping Center, South Portland), and Gulf of Maine Books in Brunswick. www.choralart.org

Tour of the Longfellow House1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Dec. 3, 10, 17, Listen to pianist David Max-well play the 1843 piano while taking a tour of the Longfel-low House. Carols in the Library, Dec. 11 and 18, 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Listen to the Choral Art Society sing Christ-mas carols from the balcony of the Brown Library (directly behind the Longfellow House). Enjoy refreshments in the Library library following the concert. Reservations required. Call 774-1822, ext. 206 or [email protected]. Adult $12. Seniors, Students with IDs, AAA Members $10.

Maine Red Claws opening weekend7 p.m. The Maine Red Claws announced that their two home opener weekend games will feature some entertain-ment acts well-known to NBA fans. For the home opener on Saturday, Dec. 3, the Skyriders! will perform a special halftime act in their fi rst performance in Maine. The Skyrid-ers!, one of the top trampoline acts in the country for over 15 years and featuring Guinness World Record holders and international trampoline champions, have entertained mil-lions of people all around the world and have performed for every NBA team. The Red Claws will host arch rival Spring-fi eld in the 7 p.m. contest, and all fans in attendance will receive a 2011-12 Red Claws magnetic schedule, courtesy of Norway Savings Bank. On Sunday, Dec. 4, the Red Claws will welcome popular Boston Celtics mascot Lucky to Maine. The irrepressible leprechaun will join Red Claws mascot Crusher in entertaining the crowd. The Dec. 4 game vs. the Fort Wayne Mad Ants, which is presented by Hannaford Supermarkets, will also feature a food drive to benefi t the Good Shepherd Food Bank. All fans bringing a canned good or other non-perishable food item will be entered to win great Red Claws prizes. Tip off for the Sunday contest is at 5 p.m.

Viva Lebowski 2011 9 p.m. Bayside Bowl will host Viva Lebowski 2011, a trib-ute to the Coen Brothers’ cult classic, “The Big Lebowski.” The event will feature an evening of bowling, trivia and cos-tume contests, and will also include a screening of the Coen Brothers’ fi lm. In its inaugural year, proceeds went to benefi t local business owner Nicholas Stevens, a Portland resident who has been struggling with the cost of treatment for Multiple Sclerosis since opening his bakery, 13th Cookie. Over $2,500 was raised and 150 tickets were sold for the evening’s event. For 2011, all ticket sales will be donated to the American Heart Association — Maine. “We’re so pleased to bring VIva Leb-owski back again this year, and the number of businesses which have offered sponsorships has been a tremendous help,” said event coordinator Dave Cousins.

from preceding page

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– EVENTS CALENDAR –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––


ABOVE: For nearly 18 hours on Thanksgiving Day, Rob Tieman of Brunswick and dozens of other diehard shoppers staked out the Best Buy big-box store in Topsham, waiting for a midnight opening of Black Friday sales. LEFT: Chris Bowe, an owner of Longfellow Books near Monument Square in Portland, tidies shelves during Black Friday shopping. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTOS)

that it’s winter I’m moving into the city to get city scenes,” Hare explained.

But Monument Square may not have been the best place to sell paintings, even on what’s consid-ered to be one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Black Friday earns its name because retail-ers typically see their sales go into the black once the post-Thanksgiving sales frenzy kicks in. But for Hare, Monument Square didn’t provide any Black Friday magic.

“I have tried this, and I feel like a beggar,” he said Friday afternoon. “There are people out, but people throw money, I’m out here trying to sell my art, and they turn their head like I’m begging.”

Not everyone suffered this kind of sales rebuff, of course. Yet there were mixed reviews about how best to experience Black Friday — and whether to expe-rience the shopping extravaganza at all.

Evidently, not everyone was in the buying mood yesterday, based on one observer at a Black Friday hub — the Maine Mall in South Portland.

Peter Warren, manager of the Select Comfort airbed store at the Maine Mall, said the level of foot traffi c in the mall was not as high as it’s been in years past, based on his observations yesterday.

Vehicular traffi c seemed lighter around the Maine Mall, as well, although, paradoxically, parking still seemed congested, Warren said. And the downturn in foot traffi c inside the mall didn’t hurt the Select Comfort store’s bottom line.

“Conversely, our store itself has done better than it did last year at this time even with less traffi c,” Warren said. “I cannot complain about the level of business we’ve had at this point.”

Today, the Portland Downtown District is support-ing the American Express-sponsored Small Business Saturday, reminding holiday shop-pers that small and local can be better.

Chris Bowe, one of the owners of Longfel-low Books, an independent bookstore located near Monument Square in Portland, said he preferred to see customers buying books in an unfrenzied, relaxed atmosphere.

“The American Express campaign, it’s huge, we’ll have a great day (Saturday), but we’re in the thick of it right now,” Bowe said Friday. “I like this day because it gets busy but we’re still able to do what we do, which is hand sell and talk to customers. I don’t like it when it gets so crazy that it’s just tension.”

Bowe described an atmosphere of conge-nial browsing rather than rushing and dodg-ing.

“You can go grab some books and then go have lunch at a nice place, that’s quite a difference from fi ghting to get into Best Buy to save $11. It’s not worth it,” Bowe said. “I think a lot of people will buy less and buy more thoughtfully, and avoid that. If that’s how you kick off Christmas, God, I’d rather not celebrate it. Getting up at 2 in the morning to go to Wal-Mart, that’s a slice of hell. This is much better.”

Yet, for others, standing outside waiting for a midnight sale was not only worth it but enjoyable. For nearly 18 hours, Rob Tieman of Brunswick and dozens of other diehard shoppers staked out the Best Buy big-box store in Topsham. They were not worrying about the small-vs.-big argument as much as the potential savings on electronics.

The long wait was partially a function of Maine state law. No early sales here. A state “blue law” pro-hibits big-box stores from opening on Thanksgiving as well as a handful of other holidays, so shoppers like Tieman had to wait for Friday to offi cially arrive.

Camping outside a big-box store from 3 a.m. until midnight on Thanksgiving Day may seem like a needless sacrifi ce to some, but if you’re a committed Black Friday shopper, it’s a fun way to shake up the holiday. And there are the savings.

Asked why he would stand in line in the cold for a midnight opening, Tieman said, “Money. We want to put it in our pocket, not theirs because we’re going to spend it anyway.”

Tieman gestured down a line of people, many wrapped in sleeping bags, at the entrance to the big-box store.

“Three a.m., six a.m., seven a.m., seven thirty a.m.,” he recited. “It’s called deciding what’s worth it. That’s the times that we were here. That’s how you get to the beginning of the line.”

But is camping out in sleeping bags a sign that Black Friday has gone too far?

“If you’re a Mainer, you dress for the weather,” Tieman said.

Roseann Wenzler of Durham was another cus-tomer camping outside the Best Buy store in Top-sham with 12-year-old Zach Wenzler. Roseann explained, “This place has the best sales.”

And the experience was fun, the Wenzlers agreed.“It’s like a big tailgate party,” Roseann said.Zach said, “It’s been fun staying here, I brought

a basketball and there’s a basketball hoop over there.” And while in his sleeping bag, Zach said he caught up on something that would warm the heart of any parent: “I’ve been reading my book. I’m on chapter 16.”

BLACK FRIDAY from page one

‘I think a lot of people will buy less and buy more thoughtfully’

the portland daily sun, saturday, november 26, 2011

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