Dana Wilde

1 month ago | maineboats.com | Dana Wilde |Greg Latimer |Roger A. Moody |Kate Hotchkiss

A Backyard Book of Spiders in Maineby Dana Wilde, North Country Press, Unity, Maine. 2020. $26.95From the origins of spider names to spider biology, this paperback guide is full of interesting facts about many of the spiders you are most likely to see in Maine (a group of spiders, by the way, is a gaggle and I hope I never see one). Once you get past the “eek” factor of all the close-up photos, Wilde’s book is both a great reference and an entertaining read.

Dec 6, 2024 | centralmaine.com | Dana Wilde

For several reasons, most of them beyond my control — including the fact that this morning I could not for the life of me think of the English word “fennel” but easily came up with the Italian word “finocchio” — this is going to be the final Off Radar column. No cause for alarm. What leads to this is the perfectly natural, normal process of time grinding things down. Friends of my same uncertain age report the same word retrieval and other, more external issues I do.

Oct 31, 2024 | centralmaine.com | Dana Wilde

Jane Flanagan, the main character in J. Courtney Sullivan’s novel “The Cliffs,” made her way up from a pretty chaotic home. Her single mother devoted most of her life to booze and men, and toward the end of it, to trading in secondhand goods. Jane’s sister did not exactly follow in their mom’s footsteps, but pretty close.

Oct 3, 2024 | centralmaine.com | Dana Wilde

Soon after Russia launched its military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, there began to be reports from inside the country about how the people were coping with it. One theme was that the Ukrainians could barely process the fact that an invasion had even happened. They knew Russia had forcibly, illegally annexed Crimea in 2014. They knew shooting had been going on since then in the Donbas region along the border with Russia. They knew Russian forces late in 2021 had massed along the border.

Oct 2, 2024 | islandinstitute.org | Dana Wilde

Bedtime Stories: Poems by Steve LanganLittoral Books (2024)Steve Langan, the author of the poetry collection Bedtime Stories, keeps a residence on Cliff Island. This is helpful to know when you read his book, because the best poem in the collection, for my money, is “Island,” which is helped if you can picture a day visit to a Casco Bay island.