Calling All Mainers!

Here's a new one: a Boston casting company is looking for residents of Maine, aged 20 - 70 who are active and love outdoor recreation. Sounds like me! Unfortunately I am not available on that day. But Maybe you are? You might find yourself in a commercial!

Interested parties should email a photo & phone number to SlateRealPeopleCasting@gmail.com 

See ya in the pictures! 

Moose on the Bridge: Just Another Day in Maine

From the Bangor Daily News:

BELFAST, Maine — An unusual jaywalker briefly tied up traffic on a busy Belfast bridge Wednesday morning.
Belfast police Sgt. John Gibbs said a moose crossed the Veteran’s Memorial Bridge, which carries Route 1 over the Passagassawakeag River, shortly before 8 a.m. The lanky-legged animal jaunted over the bridge from Belfast’s East Side before continuing his trek south down Route 1.
People heading into work captured the moose on camera as it swerved from one lane to another, slowly making its way across the span. 

Woolie Bear Wisdom

I'm not much of a believer in folklore, horoscopes, fortune cookies, or any other woo-woo - unless it tells me something I want to hear! In this case, this woolie bear is telling me to prepare for the mildest winter ever.

The wives' tale tells us that the broader the brown band in the caterpillar's middle, the warmer out winter will be. I have never seen a wider brown stripe on a woolie bear, ever! Gentle January, here we come.

In actual fact, the brown strip is wider when the previous spring was earlier. But what fun is that? Even the easiest winters in Maine are hard, and long. It's good to have something to give us some hope!

Hartland, Maine

So many questions.

Big Night

An amazing thing happens on the first warm, rainy night of spring: it's called Big Night, and it's the time when frogs, salamanders, and other amphibians creep out from under the rocks and leaves they've been sheltering in for the winter, or from the dirt they've dug themselves into, and make their way to vernal pools.

The ground must be softened by thawing tempertures, around 40 or so. Most of the ground must be free of snowcover. There must be pools of water in low areas left by the melting snow. Rain is necessary to prevent the drying of fragile amphibian skin. And Big Night? is coming to Maine, soon. The next warm rainy night is likely to be the night.

Why am I telling you this? Well, you might want to venture out to see it, especially if you have kids: it's pretty magical. But even if you don't fancy an adventure in the 40-degree rain, it's good to know to be careful driving.

It's hard being an amphibian these days. Choosing vernal pools keeps eggs safe from fish that might eat them (vernal pools are temporary, hence the name, so fish can't make their homes there) nad night travel helps avoid predation on the adults as they travel. But evolution couldn't have accounted for vehicular traffic, and many routes to safety take the amphibians across roads and highways.

To learn more about Big Night in Maine, or to be a part of an organization helping to protect these creatures in their vulnerable crossing, check out the Maine Lakes Association. 

Yeti Sighting Reported in Litchfield

According to the KJ: a Litchfield man has reported seeing a "white bigfoot," sometimes called a Yeti, near his home.

A single man identified only as “M.P.” told Cryptozoology News that he was walking his dog outside his Litchfield home in December when the dog started barking and pulling him as he had never done before.
He said he looked up and saw a huge, fat, white-haired beast, which stopped in

Not the Litchfield Yeti

front of them, looked at them and growled before screaming and running away into the woods.
“I couldn’t see his eyes well, but they looked brown to me, but very, very dark, almost black,” M.P. told the website. “Big mouth, like a monkey, with big sharp teeth. I tell you, a freak. I’ve always laughed at all these bigfoot nuts. Now I guess I’m the crazy one here. Unless it was a very good hoax played on me, that could be, but I tell you again it ain’t easy for a man to make those kinds of moves. That didn’t look human to me.”

Well. Hard tellin not knowin, I guess.