If a newspaper had information that indicated a member of Congress had taken part in burning the U.S. flag to protest the war in Iraq, you'd think that would be big news. Front page. Above the fold. Giant headline.

But that's not the way things are done at the Morning Sentinel in Waterville.

The word happily goes around the island each time the Sunbeam is in, tied up alongside the Steamboat Wharf. People begin wandering down aboard for a cup of coffee or a look at what Felicia's got there on the counter for cakes and cookies; perhaps Mike the captain has made a gingerbread again. It beats just collecting your mail and heading directly back to the woodpile or the laundry or the paperwork.

The Sunbeam has been coming to Matinicus and to many of the other islands

Pressure's off: The Portland Press Herald will get a break from the withering criticism leveled at it almost every day by PressingTheHerald, the on-line outlet for pseudonymous blogger "T. Cushing Munjoy" (www.pressingtheherald.blogspot.com).

The numbers look bad for the Seattle Times Co., corporate parent of the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal in Augusta and Morning Sentinel in Waterville. According to a story in the Jan. 9 edition of the Seattle

Filed 12/28/07

Members of the Portland Newspaper Guild local at the Morning Sentinel in Waterville have been working without a contract since Jan. 31, 2006. As negotiations have bogged down, the dispute has gotten …

Anonymous.

Guild members are protesting by withholding

It's mid-December and we've made it through Chanukah and still have the solstice and Christmas to go. So far my most memorable holiday moment involves a teenage girl, several pounds of butter and sugar, huge blocks of chocolate, and a bunch of walnuts.