The big news in Maine today is the seizure U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts suffered after taking a tumble at his summer house on Hupper Island, off Port Clyde. The chief justice spent the night about a mile down the road from the Down East offices at Pen Bay Medical Center, a place I know all too well.

We'd heard that Justice Roberts had a summer place on the Midcoast, but in truth we hadn't given him a whole lot of thought lately, and so the news that he was staying nearby came as more of a surprise than it should have. It's one of the odd aspects to living in Maine. Unlike some retreats of the rich and famous, Maine is a place where prominent people go to escape the limelight. Certain celebrities (John Travolta, Martha Stewart) embrace their identities as seasonal Mainers, but most don't want anyone to know they're here. At Down East, we constantly hear rumors about some TV star buying a cottage on a nearby lake or a faded rocker scouting for island property via helicopter, but we don't bother tracking these stories down. Honoring privacy is one of the cardinal Maine values, after all.

Of course, celebrities sell magazines, and we're not above dropping a famous name or two to goose our newsstand sales. But Chief Justice Roberts needn't worry about any photographers from Down East lurking outside his hospital window. We hope he gets well and returns soon to his island retreat, at which point I'm sure we'll forget again that he's even there.

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