Edgar Allen Beem

Maine

Writer at Freelance

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Articles

Opinion: All this governing by vendetta may not last that long

2 months ago | pressherald.com | Edgar Allen Beem

The majority of people where we live do not approve of Donald J. Trump. That’s one reason it’s hard for us in southern Maine to take seriously the idea that Trump won any kind of a victory back in November, let alone a mandate. Nationally, Trump won a narrow victory over Kamala Harris, beating the vice president by a mere 1.6%. Nor did Trump win a majority or any kind of mandate. In Maine, Harris won with 52% of the vote. Here in the 1st District, she polled 59.8%.
Racisms

Nov 11, 2024 | thebollard.com | Samuel James |Al Diamon |Edgar Allen Beem |Katy Finch

Who Angus thinks is a hero “We’re a nation of immigrants,” said Senator Angus King. I’m standing in the audience when I hear him say this and I am so confused. Surely he knows that immigrants are people who choose to live in a foreign country. Does he know there were indigenous people living on this land roughly 5,000 years before the concept of a country existed anywhere in the world? Obviously their descendants living here cannot be immigrants.
Politics & Other Mistakes

Nov 11, 2024 | thebollard.com | Al Diamon |Samuel James |Edgar Allen Beem |Katy Finch

Golden showersEverybody is pissing on Jared Golden. He must be doing something right. Golden is the incumbent congressman from Maine’s 2nd District, which comprises those parts of the state where economic development mostly consists of black-market Chinese pot facilities. He’s a Democrat if you use that word loosely, and given the divided nature of a country where one can’t be too choosy about one’s allies, loosely is the only reasonable way to use it.
My not-so-brilliant career in Maine journalism

Nov 11, 2024 | thebollard.com | Edgar Allen Beem |Samuel James |Al Diamon |Katy Finch

illustration/Larry Hayden, courtesy BeemAn op-ed by Edgar Allen BeemMy checkered journalism career came to an abrupt end in the summer of 2023 when the weekly Portland Phoenix ceased publication. I started writing for Maine newspapers as a 16-year-old high school student in 1965, so it is a little strange to be put out to pasture at 75.
Kid #2

Nov 11, 2024 | thebollard.com | Phoebe Kolbert |Samuel James |Al Diamon |Edgar Allen Beem

Scent MemoriesThere are lots of interesting, exciting, and incredibly scary things going on in the world, and I have benign opinions on them all. At one point I would’ve shared those opinions with you, but — and I’m choosing to view this as progress rather than laziness — I now know I have nothing to add.
Art Seen: Photo fest at Bowdoin College and the Portland Museum of Art

Jul 25, 2023 | portlandphoenix.me | Edgar Allen Beem

A pair of large, captivating survey shows are currently giving Maine viewers an unparalleled opportunity to go sightseeing through the past 50 to 60 years of contemporary photography. “Drawn to the Light: 50 Years of Photography at Maine Media Workshops + College” at the Portland Museum of Art (through Sep. 10) features about 100 works by photographers who have worked at the Rockport workshop since its founding 1973.
The Universal Notebook: Maine slips south

Jul 25, 2023 | portlandphoenix.me | Edgar Allen Beem

advertisementDriving into Portland last week I was struck by how the traffic was clogging I-95 for no other reason than too many cars. When the speed resumed, drivers were weaving in and out, changing lanes without signaling and, once in the city, routinely running red lights. What’s going on here, I wondered? Then it occurred to me that what I was witnessing was Maine turning into Massachusetts, I-95 turning into Route 128.
The Universal Notebook: An end to affirmative action

Jul 18, 2023 | portlandphoenix.me | Edgar Allen Beem

advertisementBased solely on academic merit as reflected in GPA and SAT scores, next year’s entering class at Harvard may consist entirely of valedictorians, the majority of them women, since 70 percent of American high school valedictorians are female. That’s what the Supreme Court has mandated with its wrong-headed decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.
Art Seen: Rose Marasco, artist of ‘the hidden lives of women’, gets retrospective

Jul 18, 2023 | portlandphoenix.me | Edgar Allen Beem

Rose Marasco has been a positive presence on the Maine art scene for at least four decades, as a photographer, a champion of the arts and a professor of photography at the University of Southern Maine from 1979 to 2014. She has been the embodiment of a photo artist who makes photographs rather than takes photographs. Her retrospective at the University of New England Art Gallery, “Rose Marasco: Camera Lucida” (through Oct.
The Universal Notebook: Ken Murphy remade Yarmouth schools

Jul 11, 2023 | portlandphoenix.me | Edgar Allen Beem