Mark LaFlamme: My secret newsroom weapon

Street Talk: I have Cathy to thank for the fact that I am married; that I ride a dual sport motorcycle; that I no longer waste my moolah on vile cigarettes. And that's not to mention the contributions she made to the craft of news gathering.

Mark LaFlamme: Things got weird last week at the Auburn Burger King

Street Talk: Words like 'overturned' and 'into the building' and 'upside down' were used.

Mark LaFlamme: The bat is back!

Talk of the town: Riverside buffiness, tag-less T-shirts, mustard memos and more.

Mark LaFlamme: Talk of the town — Spiders, ducks and Tommy Lee

‘Get dirty going fast:’ Grown-up toys and the ‘kids’ who play with them

More adults have toys, or at least admit to it. One possible reason: With calamity seemingly just around the next corner, if we don't have something to occupy our minds now and then, why we might go collectively mad, and there's no fun in that at all. 

Mark LaFlamme: Slow down, cowboy

Maine veterinarian crisis hurts pets, their owners and caregivers

Animal clinics across Maine have been trying to keep up with the number of sick animals coming their way, but waits are long just about everywhere.

Mark LaFlamme: The unvarnished truth about the haunted well of Sabattus

Street Talk: The boy never spoke a coherent word again in his lifetime, as the story goes. When he spoke at all, he spoke in terrified gibberish of things no sane human mind could comprehend. 

Mark LaFlamme: Talk of the town: What’s that scent you’re wearing?

When it comes to gauging fluctuations in the economy and preparing for potential recessions, I use the price of aerosol cheese to dictate my level of panic. Well, it's freak-out time, friends.

Mark LaFlamme: How NOT to remove a bat from your house

Street Talk: By the time I pulled myself up and scraped the potting soil out of my ears, the bat was in the kitchen, flitting about in those crazy parabolas bats like so much.