Around the time we were working on this issue, I sat down at a dinner next to Congressman Jared Golden, who represents Maine’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives. The occasion was the third anniversary party for Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, held outside Millinocket, and because Congressman Golden was scheduled to say a few words, he got a crack at the buffet line before his tablemates. He suggested that, when my turn came, I scoop generously from a tray full of bacon-and-jalapeño macaroni and cheese, and it turned out to be one of the shrewder proposals I’ve heard from a politician all year.

Golden was later kind enough to chat for this month’s My Favorite Place (page 152). A back-page concept we introduced nearly two years ago, My Favorite Place has become one of my favorite parts of the magazine because its subjects are the sort of people I might like to be seated next to at a dinner table: brilliant scientists and entrepreneurs, accomplished actors and authors, passionate artists and athletes. Some are native Mainers and others adopted, but they have in common a deep love for this place — and that love in some way drives or undergirds their pursuits.

This issue is full of such people, our second (perhaps annual?) issue devoted to Mainers who lend their time, talents, and resources to the betterment of their home state. I’d love to sit down to a buffet with the volunteers and do-gooders profiled in “Maine Gives Back” (page 94), to attack a platter of moeche with the marine ecologists who want you to start eating green crabs (page 80), or to tuck into some venison steaks with George Smith, the prolific columnist and celebrated advocate of Maine’s outdoor heritage (page 88).

If I did have dinner with Smith, he might tell me about having grown up in Winthrop with his friend Joe Golden, Jared’s father — because, of course, Maine is one giant small town, where we are always tracing the connections among our relationships, learning how the webs of our acquaintance can be navigated full-circle.

I’ve been writing this editor’s note for a year now, and as I head into 2020, I would like to do something bad mannered and invite myself over to dinner at your place. Next year, I’m hoping to have a dinner a month with readers of Down East from all across the state. I’d like to sit down with you and hear about your relationship to Maine and to this magazine — and about what you’d like to see from each of them as Maine heads into its bicentennial and beyond. If you have an extra chair in your dining room and would welcome the company, visit downeast.com/dinnerwithbrian to learn more. It would be a privilege to have a seat at your table.

Off the Chain!

It’s the time of year when many Mainers’ thoughts are on their woodpiles, and apparently we are no exception — we ended up with four separate chainsaw-centric stories in this issue. From providing fuel (page 23) to thinning woods (pages 99 and 102) to terrorizing children (page 68), is there anything Mainers’ trustiest appliance can’t do?

Brian Kevin
Editor in chief
bkevin@downeast.com.