We went to the Portland Pirates last night and had a great time - the tickets (and beers) are inexpensive and hey, live sports are always fun.

Sure, I don't keep up on the team as well as I should, but I've gone twice so far this year, so I'm doing my part, right?

Now I read in the Albany Times Union that the Pirates are negotiating to move to the capital of New York: "Portland CEO won't discuss Albany move"?!

Huh, that would be a bummer.

Labels: Albany, hockey, Pirates, Portland

The Portland "International" Airport is international again!

Thank you Air Canada!

"Portland-to-Toronto flights to start in May".

Labels: Maine, Portland, Portland "Internatonal" Jetport, PWM

So they're reviving the plans to expand Portland "International" Jetport.

To sell it they've made a video. With 8th grade production quality, and a score direct from a Jerry Bruckheimer movie.



I don't know much about airport security, but do you think Homeland Security would let people drive / load / unload passengers underneath one of the terminals?

Labels: Portland, Portland "Internatonal" Jetport

Liz just sent me an article from Channel 6, apparently Anthony Bourdain went to a bean supper up in Milo on Tuesday.

Milo, for those who might be geographically challenged, is smack-dab in the middle of the state:


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That's kind of awesome.

Although I hope he doesn't mock our peoples. I hope he treats us like wih the reverence that he does a newly discovered tribe in some foreign land.

Labels: Bourdain, Maine, Portland

I'd heard the rumors, and I guess they were true. Looks like Anthony Bourdain visited Portland last weekend (during the snowstorm, no less) to film an episode of his show: "Host of 'No Reservations' TV show slips into town to sample seafood".

Can't wait to see it in April ...

Labels: Bourdain, Maine, Portland

Yesterday the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, opened in Dubai. If you paid any attention to any media in the last twenty-four hours you saw something about it.

Back in my time in Dubai (Dubai photo gallery) I took a few photos of the mid-construction Burj. Here's one of my favorites:


Here's a rendering of what it would look like complete (obviously I've been home for a year and a half and don't have a good shot of the final tower):


When I returned home to Maine, I always wondered how the Burj would look in a city I'm familiar with. Drop the world's tallest building in Portland, you know?

Somewhere around then my father reminded me that the WGME Tower in Raymond was the world's tallest architectural structure back when he was a kid. How my grandfather used to eat lunch and watch the Navajo construction workers on the tip top (1,624 feet in the air) and how he was amazed and a little scared - heights are not the friend of the Edwards men.

So I got thinking - what if the world's tallest building was in Raymond, how would it stack up?

The Burj is 2,717 feet, so a thousand feet taller than the WGME tower. I didn't have any good photos of the tower (how does one get a good shot of an antenna?) but I did have a few shots of Portland and Boston, Mass.

So this is what it'd look like to plunk the Burj Khalifa in the middle of New England:

A good sight taller than the Pru

Towering over Portland's Back Bay

Labels: Boston, Burj Khalifa, Dubai, Portland

Did you read Bill Nemitz's column in the Maine Sunday Telegram this week? It's all about God, and how a good chunk of Mainers don't believe in him.

Apparently 41% of people polled in Maine don't believe in God - putting us dead last out of all of the states (46th - they combined some of the smaller states) for states who pray at least once a day.

On belief in God and weekly worship attendance we're 44th out of 46, and on mportance of religion in our lives we're 43rd.

I'm a little confused though - there're two other states that believe in God less, but pray more?

Anyway, those are the highlights, the whole article is here: "Most of us literally don't have a prayer".

Labels: Maine, Nemitz, Portland, religion

I'd never heard this (although I don't know much about Portland, OR): "Portland: The Town that was Almost Boston".

Labels: Boston, Maine, Oregon, Portland

I am so glad that we moved last weekend. Saturday night we had about four inches of snow in Portland, our steps our slippery, the lawn is white - it just would have made the move oh so much more difficult.

Man is it's nice to be all tucked away in the new place, blanketed in snow.

Labels: Portland, snow

So tonight Portland gets professional basketball - the Maine Red Claws take on the Springfield Armor tonight at the Expo.

I'm more interested in next Thursday's launch of
Red Claws Ale from Gritty McDuff's.

Labels: beer, Portland, Red Claws