Mark LaFlamme is a Sun Journal reporter and weekly columnist. He's been on the nighttime police beat since 1994, which is just grand because he doesn't like getting out of bed before noon. Mark is the author of eight published novels and rides a dual sport motorcycle everywhere he goes. Unless it's winter, in which case he just sulks a lot.
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PublishedNovember 9, 2018
Speaker’s Variety: 83-year-old store owner attacked
LEWISTON — An 83-year-old store proprietor was back at work Friday night, nearly a week after her arm was broken during a scuffle with a shoplifter. At Speaker’s Variety on Spruce Street, Patricia Speaker was behind the counter, working alone in the store she’s run for nearly four decades. “I’m sorry I can’t make any hot […]
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PublishedOctober 16, 2018
Mark LaFlamme: The rise and fall of George Stanley’s empire of stuff
For about a week, I talked to George Stanley just about every day. On the first day, as we discussed the Craigslist scam that led to a frenzy of scavenging on his property, Stanley quoted a line of Latin to describe his plight. A day or two later, he offered Thomas Wolfe’s most famous line, […]
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PublishedOctober 11, 2018
George Stanley assesses the devastation after bogus Craigslist ad prompted a frenzy of looting
GREENE — At George Stanley’s place on Route 202, there are almost too many doors to count: garage doors, doors made of fencing and doors constructed of plywood and nails. On Thursday, working in the driving rain, the 71-year-old Stanley moved from one door to the next, assessing the damage and the losses. “This […]
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PublishedOctober 4, 2018
Bogus Craigslist ad leads people to loot Greene property
“Free!” the Craigslist ad read. “Come one, come all, everything on the lot is free!” So enthusiastic was the advertisement it used the word “free” five times in the headline alone. The problem: The ad was bogus. The lot in question, a sprawling building surrounded by a mad jumble of free-floating items on Route […]
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PublishedDecember 17, 2017
Staying warm: What’s in YOUR underwear drawer?
I have to confess: Last weekend, I spent a considerable chunk of time running around in a pair of my wife’s nylons. Pantyhose, that is. I squeezed into those suckers with grim determination, like a man trying to shove 10 pounds of raw meat into a 5-gallon bag. Worth it? Hardly. All day, I was […]
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PublishedMarch 12, 2017
Coffee complexities: Have we gone too farruccino?
Somewhere, at some point in time, an unknown person walked into a Starbucks coffee shop and placed the following order: “I would like a double ristretto venti half-soy nonfat decaf organic chocolate brownie iced vanilla double-shot gingerbread frappuccino with foam whipped cream upside down double blended, one sweet’n low and one nutrasweet. Light ice, please.” […]
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PublishedOctober 25, 2012
Ghosts are running wild among the books at the Auburn library, says local ghost hunter
AUBURN — If Howard Labbe’s observations are correct, our community is crawling with ghosts. They teem in vacant houses. They run rampant in downtown apartments and pretty much rule attics everywhere. Ghosts are all over the place, according to Labbe’s research, and the Auburn Public Library is no exception. The operator of Restless Spirits Investigations […]
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PublishedDecember 28, 2009
Ruth Slovenski rides again
LEWISTON — All summer long, Ruth Slovenski rode her bicycle, a classic Huffy she had been riding for more than 60 years. Earlier, in the spring, it looked like she might never ride it again. In early April, someone stole the bike after the 83-year-old Slovenski parked it by her favorite eatery near Bates College. […]
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PublishedAugust 6, 2009
Spectral lady hitches ride one night on Route 26, then vanishes
One moment the hitchhiker was making small talk with her teen driver, then she disappeared.
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