I was at the park with my dog yesterday and found A NEEDLE lying in the grass. I don’t much care for litter, so you know what I did? I picked it up, and I threw it in the trash! It was crazy! There was also dog poop at the park and I picked that up too!!!! Do I enjoy cleaning up other people’s messes? Not exactly. Do I enjoy having free will, a sense of personal responsibility, and the physical capacity to do things that benefit the community? Absolutely.

Editing to say: I recognize this situation wasn’t ideal and that there are definitely better, safer ways to dispose of hypodermics. Of course properly disposing of a potential biohazard risk would require stick resistant gloves, a grabber, and an allotted receptacle. That is absolutely correct. And folks have some great suggestions in the comments, like substituting a detergent bottle when needle drops aren’t around. In this case I just wanted the needle off the ground, as people let their dogs run off leash there. I did contact the city about putting receptacles in the park! And I suggest more people do that in general.

Also, it is exceedingly rare for someone to get stuck by a needle in public, and even rarer to contract a disease that way. It’s not impossible! But there are very few such cases. It’s actually far more common for medical professionals to accidentally get stuck in a medical setting. https://www.aidsmap.com/about-hiv/needlestick-injuries-discarded-needles-and-risk-hiv-transmission

Did anyone else eat at Jaffa in the mall on Sunday and get sick on Monday?

When is Portland going to stop the obvious drug activities on Preble St and Congress? Dude is wearing a bandito mask and a hoodie with five junkies gathered around him. The police are sitting half a block away. Do the PPD even enforce laws anymore? Zombies everywhere. Trash everywhere. Needles everywhere. In the park, on the street. Is this how we want to live? There is a huge amount of money flowing through Portland but we are not allowed to live in a city without the lowest element of society given free reign to do whatever they want.

Solved!

Hello all. Seven years ago I went to Portland to pick up a puppy and spent a whirlwind Saturday eating lobster and seeing the sights. I’m heading back and I really want to find this one place we went to. It was a beach, on an inlet, there were several wind surfers, and the drive in was a quiet street with lots houses along the way. The parking lot was small, a short walk to a bench where we picnicked, and then down a few steps to the beach. I’m including a couple pics that show some of the background, and a bonus pic of my pup then and now. I would recognize it from Google Maps, but need to narrow it down a bit.

Ring any bells? Thank you!

I spent a lot of time there and I remember it being a vibrant and fun community.

Trying to get back into playing violin. Been several years. Anyone know of a music shop that can tune up my violin after a few years of sitting? Also interested in weekly lessons if anyone has recommendations

She was stolen over the weekend Cash reward for her safe return, no questions asked. Get in touch with the Bar through their Instagram account

I am MILDLY okay at playing chess, but now I wanna be outside and talk to people while I play lol

Is there any public spot where y’all already do this?

Actually, to kinda broaden that idea, maybe we can work on a list of hobby meetups? Like I enjoy chess, history, fishing, comics, but I’m a little out of the loop on events for any of those things. I know the Maine Historical Society exists but i dunno, maybe a “if you like [insert hobby here] you should go to [insert place here]” section might be nice.

You might have known Bill, because he knew everybody. Or you might know him from the recent profile that appeared in the Bollard. Bill was the first friend I made when I moved to Portland seven years ago. He was a jack-of-all trades, expert carpenter; he was a terrible driver, but insisted on driving, and I went along because when we’d go out to breakfast at the Q Street Diner in S. Portland, Bill would loudly and abrasively talk shit about Donald Trump. He was a favorite of every bartender and server in town. He taught me how to use a table saw, and how - with an old house - you can never assume that what’s hidden behind walls is what you’d expect, and in fact it usually isn’t. As I said in another post, I called him “Mr. 95%,” because he never could completely finish a job. I’d like to think that’s because he liked my company. I certainly liked his. RIP to a true Portland salty dog, and condolences to his partner of 40 years, Donna.

The Bollard

MIAMI BLUES (1990)

Starring Alec Baldwin

WEDNESDAY September 2nd 7PM

SATURDAY September 5th 2PM / 7PM

For nine days this August, an entrepreneur going by “Cyberleek” dripped stolen footage of the year's most anticipated video game onto the internet, one clip at a time. Each leak carried a QR code and the ticker for a cryptocurrency they’d minted for the occasion. Buy the coin, they suggested, and more leaks would follow. They wrapped the enterprise in a manifesto about corporate greed and the death of physical media. Then, hours before the studio's big tickertape reveal, they sold their entire position for a quarter of a million dollars, the coin cratered, and they vanished.

We are, of course, living in the golden age of such grifts. Cyberleek didn't invent it, they were simply aping the national style at modest scale: when the head of state runs a series of rug pulls from the Resolute Desk, marching to his drumbeat is just showing initiative.

Alec Baldwin's Junior Frenger, in his first leading role, is a man who understands that in America a role is as good as a self. He steals Fred Ward’s gun and badge and then simply becomes a cop — fighting crime, shaking down dealers, playing house with Jennifer Jason Leigh in a rented bungalow of Jiffy Pop domesticity. Junior’s discovered that pretending is the only game anyone is playing, and the rules are made of Swiss cheese when you’re the main character.

Which brings us to what Cyberleek actually stole: Grand Theft Auto VI, the most lucrative entertainment property of the century. The series has always been sharp social commentary downstream from films like Falling Down, Repo Man, Something Wild… the whole strain of sunburned American black comedy where the joke is that the country itself is the crime scene. The games invite you to enjoy taking whatever isn't nailed down, and the enjoyment is the indictment. Which is to say: not unlike Miami Blues.

George Armitage got there in 1990, thirteen years before the first game. He makes you like Junior despite his awfulness, and then declines to tell you how to feel about it. The film never adjudicates. It just lets Baldwin radiate (boy howdy does he radiate) and leaves you holding your own delight — and that delight is the whole enchilada: comedy and violence in the same microwave entrée, each bite an absolutely delicious and prescient satire

BYO butt pillow 🛼

Maine Improv Studio's next Intro to Longform Improv class starts THIS SUNDAY!!! Learn the ins and outs of Longform Improv, perfect for beginners looking to learn the art and advanced performers looking to hone the craft. Classes take place on Sundays from 6-8pm for 8 weeks at the Portland Media Center