April 2011

“The past is a foreign country;
they do things differently there.”*

“Those who believe in telekinetics,
raise my hand.”**

To celebrate the silver anniversary of Portland Magazine’s April 1986 debut–for which I’m so deeply grateful to our readers, writers, photographers, artists, advertisers, and staff members past and present–we’re now prepared to offer guided tours into this ‘foreign country’ as a result of the completion of a year-long archive project.

The past and the future eloquently inform the present. Feel welcome to visit us at our 165 State Street headquarters–one of the oldest buildings in Portland and a true landmark–to test-drive our new electronic vault.

Now, along with our glossy print version, online readers will have a chance to travel more deeply into our quirky, extraordinary perspectives across the years and ever forward–thanks to our new “Classic Maine Stories” section at portlandmagazine.com.

• Through this portal, we can experience anew how astonishing it was that the brilliant W. E. B. DuBois, founder of the NAACP, disappeared many summers for rest and relaxation with a coterie of intellectuals on the shore of Lake Cobbosseecontee at the Cambridge Gun & Rod Club.

• We’re still getting requests for “Shudder Island,” the heart-wrenching story featured in our October 2004 issue on the residents of Malaga Island.

• Was Barbara DiNinno pushed from the stern of a ship after she left Maine Maritime Academy? Come with us to see what happens when you dare to make waves.

• Or time-travel to the ending of the Cold War. Lonely crew members aboard Soviet fishing trawlers off the coast of Maine had spent decades looking across the darkness from the six-mile limit for a glimpse of the lights dancing along U.S. Route 1, but as Perestroika unfolded, the crews grew bolder and friendlier, sending zodiacs in the dark of night to Rockland to order…pizza! The story so bewitched Nobel laureate Czeslaw Milosz that he called to say I love you. “Pizza Diplomacy” is available, fresh from the oven, at “Classic Maine Stories” on portlandmagazine.com. Try a slice.

*L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between, 1953

**Kurt Vonnegut, Whenever

Join the ’80s party! Send your favorite photo from your St. Elmo’s Fire days to staff@portlandmonthly.com and win a Portland Magazine silver anniversary coffee mug, guaranteed to become a valuable collector’s item. The winner will be chosen by a discerning jury of impeccable taste.