Margery Niblock

Kudos for Brenda

[Only the first name is being used for the subject of this article, at her request.]

Brenda was in her twenties when she began using drugs heavily. Crack cocaine was her drug of choice because it was the "in" thing and because of the high that it gave. She both used and sold drugs, saying, "I was a runner. I’m a drug felon." She continued, "I got four years and I served 32 months. It was terrible. I would never go back again!" Extending her arms outward, she exclaimed, "My rap sheet’s like this. I’m not proud of it."

When asked whether it was the money for drugs that caused her to become a prostitute, she stated that she’d been a prostitute before her use of drugs began.

For a period of time she had a pimp. But after a while she realized that he wasn’t doing anything for her except taking her money, so she parted company with the man. Then she says, "I started doing it just for me."

A terrifying experience made Brenda realize just how dangerous things could get. She had relied on her instincts regarding her "clients." On one occasion she got into a vehicle with a man who "was talking nice to me and all that." After he’d driven for a distance much longer than Brenda thought was necessary, he pulled out a gun. He held her at gunpoint, kidnapped her, took her to Dayton, Maine, and raped her. After the attack he threw her out of the car and told her to walk back.

There was no particular time of day or evening when Brenda worked. She said, "Whenever I needed money I went out. I never knew when the end of a working day was going to be, but I could honestly say I was out there probably every day." Condoms were always used, as a precaution against pregnancy and disease.

This was the era before cell phones, but there were pagers then, and Brenda had one of those. She had "regulars" who could call her. "I was very choosy with my regulars. Trust me on that."

Her routine was to get money from hustling, then go to the dealer, get the drugs, use them, and then go back out on the street. "That became a pattern," says Brenda.

She was arrested numerous times for prostitution, spending some overnights in jail, but mostly paying fines. "I’d get picked up, fined, and be back on the street to make the money to pay the fine."

Brenda’s favorite corner was Cumberland Avenue and Mellon Street. She laughingly talks about one of the officers who used to see her a lot in Parkside. He’d say "Brenda, you’re making the neighborhood look bad. Please move along."

Brenda and many of the cops who arrested her years ago now have quite a friendly relationship, with their conversations interspersed with a lot of humor. She said "They’ve seen that I’ve become a respected member of the community." When several of them began to patronize the store where she worked, they asked her: "You’re not going to spit in our food, are you?"

The people who arrested her years ago are now very proud of her. They don’t see too many success stories in their daily routines and they get a big kick out of Brenda the Mommy.

She says "I don’t hold no grudges. They were doing their jobs just like I had to do mine." Brenda said, "It took me having a baby to turn my life around." This was a baby she very much wanted to have. And she didn’t want to lose this one because of her lifestyle. Brenda, who was one of 13 children, basically has no memory of her childhood. She was in foster care and adopted at age three. At 16 she went back to her biological mother and that was also when she began to sell herself on the streets.

Brenda’s first daughter was taken away from her by DHHS. She is now 27. Brenda says, "Since I got off drugs I have a relationship with her."

Brenda had been in and out of rehab more than once. "I wanted to get off drugs," she says, "but I wasn’t ready until I got pregnant."

At age 43 Brenda was pregnant for the second time. "I wanted this baby," she said. It was my ‘way out.’" She went to Crossroads, in Windham, which she said is a very good program. She was an inpatient at the facility. It was there that she weaned herself off the drugs. "It took me having a baby to turn my life around."

That baby, Gigi, is now a beautiful four-year-old. "We all love Gigi," says Mary-Ellen Welch. "She’s the neighborhood child." There are photos of Brenda and Gigi posted in the Midtown Community Policing Center, of which Welch is the Community Policing Coordinator. Welch refers to Brenda as a "spitfire." She says, "She tells it like it is." Welch remembers seeing Brenda wheeling her baby around the neighborhood and says she was always impressed with the obvious care and love that was showered on the child. "She always looked beautiful, clean, and happy," says Welch. And she had seen too many babies that didn’t fall into that category when she had been a caseworker at DHHS in the Child Protective Division.

Senior Lead Officer Dan Knight also has a desk in the Midtown office and it serves as his base of operations. He does a lot of patrolling around the Bayside neighborhood on his bicycle, which is often seen parked right out front.

Knight is very proud of Brenda’s accomplishments and enjoys when she brings Gigi in to say hello. He said of his former interactions with Brenda, "She was one of the most challenging persons I’ve dealt with in my career." Knight sees Brenda almost every day that he works. "We have a friendly relationship, and I’m so happy to see where Brenda is now."

[Mary-Ellen Welch and Senior Lead Officer Dan Knight]

David Norberg owns Dyer’s Variety on Portland Street. He is Brenda’s employer and also rents an apartment to her in one of his nearby buildings. He said, "She keeps her place immaculate. She works for me also and is very reliable."

Brenda lives in a neighborhood where drugs are all around her. She says, "Sometimes I’ll see people doing drug deals and I flip out. I saw a deal right in front of my daughter’s day care recently, and I yelled at them." They said they were just exchanging vitamins. Brenda said to them "Vitamins aren’t blue!"

She knows what’s going on in the neighborhood, who’s dealing, who’s buying, who’s using. But this is where Brenda lives. She says, "I’d like to move but it’s close to work and Gigi’s day care."

"I know I’ve come from where they’re at and I don’t judge them."

Brenda knows what she wants for her daughter: "I want her to have an education. I want her to have a good job."

Brenda now has a large support group of friends she can count on. Her longtime friend Bobby and his cousin Mike are part of this group, and they serve as beloved uncles to Brenda’s little girl. Brenda says, "They’ll babysit for Gigi. She loves them!"

Looking back at her former life, Brenda says, "I’d never want to go back. I like what I have now. Now I got a job, a license, a car, and money in the bank." And she has her precious daughter, the most important part of her new life.

When asked if she has any advice to pass along to people who are in the position she used to be in, she says, "Get out when you can. You could be dead, or in jail. If you’re into it, get out!"

 

Unsolved missing person case still haunts Portland detectives

 

 

On March 17, 1996, Officer Dean Goodale, now a Detective Sergeant in charge of crimes against property, took a report of a missing person at the Portland Police Department’s front desk.

Archie Tevanian was reporting the disappearance of his 65-year-old wife, Margaret, whom he had discovered was not in the house when he looked for her at 7 a.m. that morning.

Margaret Tevanian was described as weighing 110 pounds, five feet three inches tall, with brown eyes, and shoulder-length gray hair.

When she was last seen she had been wearing a white housecoat, pajamas, a blue kerchief, and brown shoes.

According to family reports, she was suffering from mental illness and hadn’t left the house for several months. Margaret Tevanian had graduated from nursing school as a young woman. She lived in the family home at 50 Cedar Street with her husband and her son Robert, who was 31 at the time. A daughter Laura was married and not living at that address, but another daughter Robin, who had a disability, lived next door with Archie’s brother Leon, his wife Mary, and Mary’s sister. Cedar Street is in Bayside, in the center of Portland’s busy peninsula.

Mary Tevanian had made dinner the night before, at 44 Cedar Street, where Archie had eaten with his relatives, before taking food home for Margaret. Archie’s primary responsibility was taking care of his wife at that time, and Archie and Margaret had been married for over 30 years.

Margaret Tevanian had wandered away from her house on several occasions, when she had been found in Deering Oaks, the area around the post office on Forest Avenue, and Franklin Towers.

As of 5:17 p.m. on that Saint Patrick’s Day in 1996, Margaret Tevanian was officially listed as missing with the National Crime Information Center (NCIC). The NCIC is referred to as "the lifeline of law enforcement." It is an electronic clearinghouse of crime data that all agencies nationwide are able to use at all times.

The next day the case was assigned to a detective. A meeting with the family was held and the preliminary investigation began.

Police did a lot of interviews; they knocked on doors and spoke with neighbors, but did not determine any significant leads as to the whereabouts of Mrs. Tevanian.

Archie Tevanian died June 30, 1996, just three months after his wife’s mysterious disappearance. He had difficulty breathing and collapsed while at home with his son, suffering possible cardiac arrest. After being transported to a hospital, he didn’t recover. He was 72 at the time.

In July 2002, Detective Paul Murphy was assigned the case and has had it ever since that point. Murphy stated that the police department got Mrs. Tevanian’s dental records and that the Medical Examiner’s Office in Augusta has duplicates of all physical evidence.

Police received consent to search the Cedar Street home and nothing out of the ordinary was discovered.

In March 2003 Murphy said a group of detectives began working on some old cases. Each group had seven or eight detectives with one of them serving as a primary. There was also an evidence technician assigned to each group. "We were able to go back and speak with previous investigators," said Murphy.

In May 2003 Detective Murphy asked Robert Tevanian if he would give permission for dogs to be brought to the home, which he allowed. Murphy said Robert Tevanian was "very receptive" to the dogs and he was disturbed that his father wasn’t able to live to see closure to the case. Murphy said "It was one more angle, one more way to possibly develop a lead. It didn’t give us anything else to work on." He stated that he said to Robert Tevanian: "We are using whatever methods are available to us—so many years later—to do whatever we can to solve your mother’s disappearance."

Two dogs from the Medical Examiner’s Office were used, human remains detection dogs, sometimes referred to as "cadaver dogs."

Murphy said "Robert Tevanian was always friendly, cooperative, and appreciative." He continued, "The lack of investigative leads makes it difficult to find a direction."

Commander Vern Malloch was the lieutenant in charge of the detective division in 1996 and he remembers the case because of its unusual aspects. He stated "There was no sighting of her ever. The question we’ve struggled with is whether or not there was foul play involved, and we’ve never been able to say definitively one way or the other."

Malloch said the presumption of the police department is that she’s dead. He said "The likelihood of her being alive is pretty remote, due to her age, and the fact she’s had no contact with family or friends."

On April 23, 2004, Judge William Childs signed an order declaring Margaret Tevanian deceased.

However, it is still an active missing person case to the Portland Police Department, which has spent so many hours over the years, working to try to solve this disappearance.

Murder of Patrolman Michael T. Connolly—Still a Mystery

Since the establishment of the Portland Police Department in 1848 two officers were killed during the performance of their duties. The first member of the department to die that way was Charles E. McIntosh, in 1915, when he was shot and stabbed by two felons who were apprehended later.

The second was Patrolman Michael T. Connolly, and the 81-year-old mystery of his death remains unsolved. Whoever killed Officer Michael T. Connolly literally got away with murder.

Connolly’s lifeless body was found not far from "a sinister squatters’ colony beneath the brow of Eastern Promenade . . . near Fish Point." That grim discovery was made on the morning of August 15, 1930, and bold headlines to that effect emblazoned the first page of that day’s Portland Evening Express.

       [Michael T. Connolly]

Longshoreman John Lee discovered the body in the sand while gathering driftwood on the beach at about 8:15 a.m. Connolly was lying face down and had been shackled with his own handcuffs. The officer’s fully-loaded service revolver was in his right-hand pants pocket, raising many questions. According to newspaper accounts, Connolly’s gun holster was carried on his left hip because he was left-handed.

Patrolman Connolly was considered to be "an efficient and faithful officer," and was described as having a strong physique, weighing approximately 190 pounds. He left behind his wife Mary N. Connolly and five minor children, James, Edward, Catherine, Margaret, and John, ranging in age from 3 to 11.

The autopsy verdict was cause of death due to drowning, with no marks of violence on Connolly’s body. There was an embarrassing delay before the arrival of a medical examiner, causing strong criticism by police and County officials, as reported in the paper that day. It was more than three hours before a medical examiner came to the scene. There had been a "drenching rain" during that period of time. The medical examiner concluded that the officer was alive when thrown into the water.

Officer Connolly’s key for pulling the call boxes was around his neck on a string, but his uniform hat was missing. Connolly’s watch stopped at 4:07. He had called headquarters from a box at Congress and Mountfort at 5:09, and the time for him to pull the next box on his foot beat would have been at 6:07 at India and Commercial Streets.

Fifty-one new call boxes had been placed throughout the city in the early 1920s, replacing the old ones from the late 1800s. There was a phone inside each box, allowing officers to speak directly to police headquarters, located at 132 Federal Street at that time. After making an arrest, prisoners were walked to the closest call box. The boxes had two keyholes, with the one on top marked as "wagon call," used when an arrest was made. Headquarters would then send a wagon to that location. Officers also left notes in these boxes at the ends of their shifts, to alert the next person on duty to any special circumstances that might warrant their attention. The use of call boxes ended in 1972.

There was a 15-minute grace period allowed to officers in pulling boxes, so police began searching for Officer Connolly around 6:25.

Connolly had been appointed to the force in 1918. For many years he had patrolled along the Western Promenade, but six weeks prior local beats were changed and he was assigned to the Eastern Promenade area.

There were several possible theories involving bootleggers bringing in a shipment of liquor. The County Attorney ordered police to question all sailors from three battle cruisers that were docked in the harbor who may have gone ashore overnight.

This was the era of Prohibition, with smuggling of alcohol was big business, and many bootleggers’ boats carrying the illegal cargo pulled in near the shore of the city’s East End to unload their goods. The docks and warehouses on Portland’s waterfront held many secrets during that era.

Connolly’s badge number 71 was officially retired shortly after the tragic incident.

On June 28, 1985, a ceremony was held to celebrate the christening of a new police boat, the Michael T. Connolly. A rendition of that badge was painted on the vessel’s side. Numerous Connolly family members were in attendance, along with Senator George J. Mitchell, Police Chief Francis Amoroso, and Mayor Joseph D. Casale. The 31-foot boat served the department until August 1, 1992, when it was retired from service. The department never has gotten another boat.

Evidence technician Kevin MacDonald, who has been in that job longer than anyone else in the unit, stated "Water complicates things due to rinsing effect." He said under the circumstances that existed on that particular rainy day, and a body that had been immersed in water for many hours, "the transfer of hairs and fibers would be much less likely."

MacDonald stated "If it happened today, we’d take the handcuffs, swab for DNA, and check for fingerprints." He also felt there might be some significance connected to the officer’s missing hat, which was never found. "A lot of times guys would keep papers and information in their hats," noted MacDonald.

Sadly, this remains a cold case that the passage of time has not helped to solve.

*****************************************************************************************************

Suzan Roberts Norton did a great deal of research, which is on her Web site, likes2write.

New Team in K-9 Unit

 

Officer Tom Reagan, at age 31, will mark his sixth anniversary with the Portland Police Department in mid-August. Reagan is a member of the K-9 Unit and is anticipating his dog Trixie’s certification by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) some time in April after a 10-day training period with one of their handlers. Then Trixie will be able to officially work as an explosives detection dog here in Portland. After that there will be a yearly evaluation, when the trainer and Reagan will do scenarios at the airport, bus station, and other areas.

Tom Reagan always had an interest in dogs and had a German shepherd while growing up. Sergeant Rob Johnsey became a mentor and also a good friend, and Reagan expressed an interest in becoming a member of the canine unit. Johnsey said he’d help him achieve that goal. Johnsey had been a canine officer before being promoted to sergeant.

 
                    [Sergeant Rob Johnsey]

Rob Johnsey suffered a tragic death in May of 2008 at age 37, after an accidental discharge of his service weapon, leaving his wife, two children, and a grief-stricken department to cope with his loss.

Reagan didn’t swerve from his goal to be a canine officer and was able to join the canine unit when an opening became available. Since the loss of Sergeant Johnsey, Reagan has become like a big brother to Johnsey’s son A. J., who just celebrated his 14th birthday. They spend time together on a regular basis.

Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio is where Reagan was sent for his specialized training course, which lasted for 10 weeks. He went down last fall and returned around

Christmas. This is where dogs are trained for military work and the Department of Defense training school is there.

Technically, the U.S. government owns Trixie, through a Homeland Security grant given to our police department by the Department of Defense.

The TSA canine programbrings experienced canines to airports. TSA sponsors different teams around the nation. The official name of the program is TSA’s National Explosives Detection Canine Team Program.

According to the TSA Web site, "training includes search techniques for aircraft, baggage, vehicles and transportation structures, as well as procedures for identifying dangerous materials and ‘alerting’ or letting the handler know when these materials are present."

At Lackland there are airplanes, two railroad cars, and warehouses that are set up as training laboratories. There’s also a giant car lot with hundreds of cars and buses used for training. In part of the facility there’s an area that looks like an airport terminal.

The Texas training pertained to dog health and handling of explosives and consisted of the various search techniques for finding the explosives.

Handlers try to match the dog to the personality and home life of the person who will be working with the animal.

Buddy was the first dog that Reagan had in Texas but that situation didn’t work out since Buddy had "environmental issues, being too timid and skittish." Reagan says "If you raised your hand, he’d duck. They were afraid he might become a fear biter."

Then Trixie was assigned to Reagan. Trixie is two years old; part Belgian Malinois and part German shepherd. She came from the Netherlands and she’s a small dog. Reagan says: "Trixie is playful, isn’t aggressive to people, and has a soft bite. She’s a good dog for bomb work because she has a good play drive, and is reward-oriented." Her favorite toy (a Kong) which is a piece of hard black rubber, is shaped like a thick round bone, that’s attached to a heavy cord. Playing with the Kong is Trixie’s reward for locating an odor that she’s been asked to find. During a workout on airport property she was allowed to sniff an explosive substance, which was then hidden in a field quite a distance away. She found it! The names of the explosive materials that the dogs deal with are not mentioned because that’s "classified information." When the dog detects the highest concentration of the explosive odor present, the animal indicates this find by sitting.

 

                          [Officer Tom Reagan and Trixie]

Trixie has been going through a familiarization and acclimatization process since coming to Portland with Reagan. She now lives with him at his condo, which is a very different type of setting than the kennel she had dwelled in all her life. Reagan says "Trixie is getting used to her home environment." Trixie is a multimodal dog and she’ll work the waterfront, train and bus stations, and the airport.

Quite visible, if you happen to look up to the ceiling of Officer Reagan’s police car, slipped under a light fixture, is a laminated newspaper clipping. It’s a loving gesture by Tom Reagan that was placed in memoriam to the sergeant who is "gone but never forgotten."

He would be quite proud of the young police officer whom he nurtured, who is now spending time with his son, and becoming an integral part of Portland’s K-9 team.

 

 

 

Memorial Walk Becomes Fund-Raiser

 

                         [Paul Lauzier]

Paul Lauzier will begin a memorial walk on March 9, from St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston, the date of his daughter Tina’s birthday. Tina was born in that hospital 44 years ago. Lauzier’s destination will be the home of his son who lives in Sebastian, Florida, which is 1,505 miles away, according to his calculations. He also plans on walking back to Maine and Portland will be his finishing point, intending to arrive here on August 6, the day his daughter jumped to her death from the Casco Bay Bridge in 2010.

Lauzier says "Tina belonged to Amistad," the agency in Portland that helps people suffering from mental illness. Amistad held a fund-raising breakfast on Thursday, February 10, to kick off the walk. They raised $600 that morning. Lauzier plans to donate the money collected along his walk to three organizations: the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), Alzheimer’s Foundation of America, and the American Cancer Society. All of these agencies were closely involved with the women in Paul Lauzier’s life; his mother had Alzheimer’s; his first wife died of cancer; and his daughter battled mental illness.

Tina Lauzier attempted suicide previously by jumping from the old Million Dollar Bridge in 1996. Amazingly, she survived that fall. But she couldn’t win the battle with her mental illness.

Officer Daniel Knight had talked her out of jumping from the Casco Bay Bridge only one month previous to her fatal jump. Sadly, he was also one of the officers who responded to the call when a woman walking a dog saw a body under the bridge.

Paul Lauzier, who will turn 67 soon, is hoping to walk approximately 30 miles a day and he’s anxious to get started.

 

 

 

Cops Judge Chili & Chowder

 The great Chili & Chowder Challenge of 2011 was held at the Holiday Inn by the Bay and sponsored by Altrusa International, Inc. of Portland, Maine. The organization is comprised of diverse professionals dedicated to providing service to their communities, focusing on literacy, fellowship, and leadership development.

 
Judges from the Portland Police Department were Sergeant Robert J. Doherty, Jr. and Commander Vern Malloch. Many other local dignitaries served as judges, including Portland's Mayor Nick Mavodones and Cumberland County Sheriff Kevin Joyce.

[Sheriff Kevin Joyce] 

 

 [Sergeant Robert J. Doherty, Jr. and Mayor Nick Mavodones]

This is Commander Vern Malloch. He's just raring to go to taste those delicious dishes. This is probably one of the most delightful assignments he's had.

 

[Commander Vern Malloch]

Many area restaurants were vying for top honors, among them: Silly's Restaurant; Kamasouptra; Bruno's; Gilbert's Chowder House; Eastland Park Hotel; Holiday Inn By the Bay, which sponsored the event.

The event was officially opened to the public at 12:30, and people—lots of them—came rushing in. The tables seemed to fill up immediately with ticket holders. 

 Joanne Doherty, the group's Parliamentarian, took a five-minute break before the big rush. She put a lot of effort into this event and I'm sure it was going to be a very long—but exhilarating—day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Entertainment was provided by Dick Clark and Curtis (Motown) Haines. 

There were two categories of winners; Judges' Awards and People's Choice Awards.

Here's how the voting went for the judges in the chowder category: DiMillo's on the Water came in first, Gilbert's was second, and Mac's Deli & Catering was third.

The judges' chili choices were: Fire and Water Fish and Chop House was first, 157 Cafe at the Eastland Hotel was second, and Gilbert's came in third.

The People's Choice Awards gave first place to Gilbert's in both the chowder and chile category. Bruno's came in second in the chowder category and Fire and Water Fish and Chop House was third.

People's Choice gave Blue Burrito Cafe the second spot for chili and Fire and Water Fish and Chop House took third place.

 Sergeant Doherty said "There wasn't a bad meal presented by any of the participants. Everything was really good!"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lovely Summer Days

Tim Burton on Loco, Reading the West End NEWS 

Here's our former Police Chief Tim Burton. He's now the head of the police department in Odessa, Texas, of all places for a Maine boy to be. 

After rising through the ranks in the Portland Police Department, Burton served as chief from 2005 to 2008. Many in the force remember him fondly and miss him.

He's looking very jovial riding his horse Loco. That's a pump jack in the background and it's a working oil well.

 

Street Party

 

Last Saturday the Bayside community had an outdoor party. One of the attractions was a walking puppet show.

 
The man in the picture had nothing to do with the puppet show. I could have cropped him out but I decided to leave him, since he looks so pleased with what he's doing.

When I snapped the picture I was trying to get the dog's face and I didn't even remember that someone was right there. When I uploaded the photo onto my computer, there he was! And there he remains.

Midtown Community Policing Center

Many times when I'm downtown, I stop in to the Midtown Community Policing Center, run by the extremely capable and personable Mary-Ellen Welch.

I never know who I may come across there or what interesting thing I'll see. Yesterday was one of those days. A young woman came in with a little sparrow that she said was unable to fly. It seemed perfectly content to be with her, and she said that she'd called Animal Control.

 

  Soon to Be for Sale

I came across Lisa Peñalver (editor of the Munjoy Hill Observer) and Christina Feller (president of the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization) when I ambled around the Hill on Saturday morning.

They were taking photographs of these two panels, which they're going to be putting up for sale for $500 to raise money for the organization's use.

Artist Tim Clorius created this for the Munjoy Hill Neighborhood Organization several years ago. It consists of a pair of panels 4' x 8' painted by Clorius under the name "SUBONE."

SUBONE stands for supplying urban beautification offering new experiences. Clorius is the founder and director of SUBONE Mural Workships.

Someone with a large space would do very well to purchse this painting.

Hardy Flower

I really enjoy seeing flowers that somehow grow right in the street next to the curb. This is one of those special little plants, a tough petunia that didn't want to stay in the planted area on the sidewalk.

It was doing quite well, as you can see, and there's even another bud about to open. 

Exciting Things Next Door

I love these colors! Can't wait to see the finished product.

And that space under the porch is going to have a very exciting addition to it.

When these apple trees get planted at the front of the house, they will eventually bear fruit—and will look like these espaliered apple trees at Wimpole Hall Gardens in England.

That will be pretty nifty, don't you think? Well worth waiting for!

Hey, Scott, here's your lunch box! (This time it's for real!)

What you've been waiting for . . . Scott's lunch box. Here it is.

And here's another view.

And I know what you're saying now: You want to see Scott and find out what this is all about.

Okay. Here's Scott. As you can see from those three stripes, he's a sergeant, a distinguished member of the Portland Police Department (that's the one in Maine). He was at the Midtown Community Policing Center when this picture was snapped, which is a central location of the area he supervises.

Scott not only has a great sense of humor, he also is a great cop. He makes lots of arrests and he has the distinction of deploying the first Taser in Portland, thereby preventing a man from committing suicide. That's a very good use of the weapon.

The Midtown office is a very active place because there are many social service agencies nearby and a lot of the clients they serve stop in to talk to Mary-Ellen Welch, the civilian coordinator who runs the office.

People come to see Mary-Ellen because they love her! She'll listen to anyone's problem and try to help. She refused to allow me to take her photograph for this article though, and that's too bad.

I realized that I already had a picture of her, taken last summer at a Bayside block party, which was a huge success. Here's that marvelous lady with two of her other "boys" who are in the office a lot. That's Karl Geib on the left and Dan Knight on the right.   

When I first saw the lunch box it seemed as though it might have a story to tell. I'm very intuitive about things like that, so I asked about the container. Scott said he got out of the army in 1986 and then got a construction job. He needed a lunch box, and he still has the one he bought back then—this one—which makes it quite special.

And then we come to the various fruit labels on Scott's lunch box. Can you imagine that there's a Web site devoted to the thousands of fruit labels that exist? Check it out; there is such a thing. Here are some photos of those things.

I must tell you that these are not bananas from my kitchen. No sir! If I had these, they would have been eaten long before they got so many brown marks on them. But I don't choose my friends according to their banana likes and dislikes. Kevin likes bananas with brown spots on them. Yikes! I find it hard to even imagine such a thing. I've never asked Megan if she feels the same way about bananas. I'd have to assume so because their marriage seems to be solid.

I find labels on fruit and vegetables to be extremely annoying. Evidently Scott and I have similar feelings on this topic. That's how all of the labels got onto his lunch box.

He has a wonderful philosophy, which is: "I don't eat labels on fruit." I thought that was so nicely phrased. I was able to immediately relate to that statement. Scott peels labels off fruit and pastes them on his lunch box. Perhaps it would do me good to get one of those because I peel them off, while cursing, and then try to unstick them from my fingertips so that I can place them where they belong: in the trash!

Hey, Scott, here's your lunch box!

Hold on, everybody, and especially Scott. Don't think you should be seeing a photo of the lunch box just because that's the title of the article.

You're going to have to wait a bit, until I get some other things taken care of. But I do promise that Scott's wonderful and very special lunch box will definitely make an appearance. And I'm going to make sure that it's nice and big, as befits a unique object.

Pecha Kucha

But first I'd like to tell you about a pecha kucha presentation at the Space Gallery in Portland, Maine, that was done by Dave Poole in May 2009. It's been preserved on YouTube and it may be the funniest thing I've ever seen, and it's incredibly clever also.

I hadn't ever met Dave Poole, although I wish I'd been able to know him. He died in January 2010 at the age of 49, which is quite a tragedy.

These presentations are composed of 20 slides, where the person is permitted to speak for 20 seconds on each one. Poole started out with some hilarious architecture, including a housing project done on the planet Pluto. He said he never got paid for that one, but "that was okay because it was done with federal money." We all know that federal money doesn't count, so all was well.

There was a section about different robots that he'd made. Very funny robots that had different tasks they were created for. One of these was a little yellow one that looked very similar to a fire hydrant. It didn't have a specific job to do.

This robot was attracted to fire hydrants because they looked like him. He had that much awareness. So it would walk over to a hydrant and say "Where'd you get that balloon?"

Here's the robot trying to find out how he might get one of these balloons. If he weren't so sweet, he could just break it off with his hands. Look at them. They could certainly do the job. But he doesn't have that kind of personality. It gives him a tinge of sadness and a dash of vulnerability that is attractive. (I like those characteristics in men also.) It seems like he'd make a good pet. I found myself "bonding" with this yellow guy.

Here's  one of those hydrants with a balloon. This guy's balloon "string" is a bit twisted, but hey, that only adds interest, doesn't it? And its location on the block is so colorful.

The next hydrant picture is very sweet because that one is wearing a knitted hat. And it has a balloon also.

Now I feel sorry for all the hydrants in the city that don't have balloons. Then I wonder why they don't. I had to ask at the fire station how they choose which hydrants are denied balloons.

I was told that every hydrant is supposed to have its own balloon, which the fireman referred to as a "flag." The reason for it is to be able to locate hydrants when there's a lot of snow around. That I was aware of, but I had no idea that the Portland Water District owns the hydrants, which are rented by the Portland Fire Department.

Who knew? Does anyone know this? And does anyone care? I find facts like this interesting. The balloons come from the Water District, but the firefighters are responsible for shoveling the snow away during the winter.

It's a good balance: fire and water working together. 

 

Isn't he darling? He has a hat! and a balloon. Lucky.

 

 

 

The Sunday Best

Natalie Conn and Peter Smith have a Web site entitled The Sunday Best. I felt quite honored when Natalie asked whether she could interview me and take some photographs.

This is Natalie last July Fourth, on the Eastern Promenade, chatting with another photographer. I told her I think of her as being "sleek," and she'd said that she never heard that word used to describe a person. That may be true, but that's how I think of her. She has her very own style and look about her. She's also an extremely talented documentary photographer.

Peter is a fine writer, who is now an editor at Maine. The magazine. It's a beautiful magazine and it should do very well.

This is an excellent likeness of Peter. It seems as though I always used to run into him when he was pedaling up or down Congress Street, but it's been a long time since that has happened. Perhaps now that spring is here I'll see him once again.
 

Street Talk

As I was walking, I noticed an interesting shape in the street and bent down to check it out. I then heard a man's voice shouting "Don't touch that! It's probably dead."

  I didn't heed this warning, as I picked the object up and turned to the man. I showed it to him and told him it was a tile of some sort.

When I checked the other side I saw that it had a somewhat faded design on it. I could tell that it wasn't a mah-jongg tile but I had no idea what it might be.

I showed it to the man and he said he thought it was a Chinese domino. Then he said "One day you'll see that somewhere and say 'I wonder where the hell that came from.'"

I looked up photos of Chinese dominoes on the Internet and there was nothing that seemed comparable to this. It's too bad that the image doesn't have more clarity to it. That would help.

That man doesn't know that it will go into one of the vases holding the money and other objects found on the street. I didn't bother telling him that because I really had no desire to engage him in conversation. 

I don't mind when men smile and say hello to me when I'm walking but there's no need for them to talk to me. It's my private time for reflection. That sounds pretty good, doesn't it? It's bull!

I have all the time in the world for reflection, since I work at home and live alone (by choice). Nobody bothers me and I seek out friends and conversation when I choose to. I'm spoiled these days. And I love it!

Police Happenings

New Vest for Police Dog

Two-year-old Taz, a German shepherd in Portland’s canine unit was brought down to police headquarters by the man he works and lives with, Officer Christian Stickney. They arrived around 4:30 PM on December 16 so he could receive a wonderful gift from the Robichaud family of Oxford, Maine.

Last January Jennifer Robichaud decided to raise money to purchase a vest for a police dog as a high school senior project. The Robichauds have now turned her project into a family one, and raise money through donations to accumulate the approximately $800 needed for each vest.

The vest Taz has now is a military one of recycled fabric, which has a shelf life. The new vest brought down by the Oxford family is much lighter weight, and it is bullet-proof and blade-resistant.

Officer Stickney says of his dog: "We’re partners. We take care of each other." They are on call 24 hours a day. Taz came from Slovakia and was described by his partner as "a perfect dog, working very well." He’d had another dog that wasn’t able to be used in police work because he was too skittish.

The Stickneys have two children and another dog, a boxer, and Taz is part of the family. Stickney says when they’re home the dog knows that’s his down time, and he rarely barks. But his personality changes when he goes to work. He’s "attentive for the entire time." He’s very attuned to everything that’s happening. He knows when the blue lights of the cruiser are activated that means he may be starting to work. He barks a lot in the police car.

All of the dog’s training has been done with positive reinforcement. "The dog wants to please," Stickney says, and Taz is toy-driven. His reward for work is a toy, and he has different toys for the different types of jobs he does; tracking; drug work; and play.

Stickney stated "It’s much more work than I realized but I love it!"

Owner Catches Man in His Stolen Truck

On November 18, at about 1:30 PM, police apprehended a suspect who had been driving a stolen truck on Congress Street near North.

Kevin Tardiff, who owns AC Brake and Exhaust at 1020 Congress Street, had one of his trucks parked in his lot. When he came out of the office the truck was missing. He reported its disappearance to police and began driving around in another truck, looking for the stolen one.

Tardiff saw the truck as he was driving east on Congress Street, right in front of the Portland Observatory. He blocked the truck in and ran up to the driver of the vehicle that had been taken, shouting "What are you doing? You stole my truck. That’s my truck." He then shouted for people nearby to call the police, and he called from his cell phone.

The man in the truck began walking away, with Tardiff following him. Tardiff managed to stay right near him and detain him without placing a hand on him.

Aside from the fact that a truck had been taken from his lot, Tardiff was concerned because the sander on the truck, which is quite heavy, wasn’t tied down. It could have fallen off and caused a serious accident. The truck shouldn’t have been driven in that condition.

When police arrived, they took a 38-year-old man into custody and charged him with unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.

Tardiff quoted the man as telling him: "It runs pretty good for a Chevvie."