Talk:Maine/Archive 2

This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

Archive 2

Maine in fiction, movies, theatre, etc (was "In Popular Culture")

It appears that popular Southern Maine sportscaster, Frank Fixaris, has either been added in the incorrect alphabetical order, or has since found his way out of alphabetically appropriate listing. Thank you in advance for giving this your attention. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 72.224.202.28 (talk) 04:57, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

User_talk:DreamGuy had some strong criticisms of this section, views which have been expressed by some other editors as well. I will therefore propose moving the Miscellaneous Topics section to a separate article, including it's three sub-sections: "State symbols", "Maine in fiction", and "Famous Mainers".--Chrisbak 18:07, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

I feel that those sections should stay within the main Maine article.

—BMRR 18:41, 28 May 2007 (UTC)

Yeah? Can you give an encyclopedic reason why they should? This is not List of random representations of Main in fiction. If you want it to stay here you should be able to give some real reason why. At the length that it was it clearly needs a separate article of some sort. Even the shorter version I made is really too long for an article on the overall topic of the state in general. DreamGuy 06:04, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I like the shortened version that you made. I was not criticizing that. I just have a feeling that if you make that section into a separate article, somebody else will immediately pipe up and say "Gee, shouldn't this be incorporated into Maine?" I guess what I'm trying to say is that "Maine in fiction" isn't particularly encyclopedic all by itself, but it does have merit as a section within an encyclopedia article about Maine. That's my opinion; I welcome yours.

—BMRR 16:39, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

I'm not going to split the article.--Chrisbak 19:49, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

On the other hand, if the "Maine in fiction" section continues to grow and grow, perhaps it does need to be made into a separate article. I'm not sure. At this point, I don't think it's unreasonably lengthy... but if it were to double in size, that might be considered excessive by some. I've been active on Wikipedia since August 2006, which means I'm still very new to all of this. ; )

—BMRR 21:59, 29 May 2007 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken, the movie with Kathy Bates "DOLORES CLAIBORNE" is also to have taken place in Maine. This can be checked and verified, and then should be added to the article. Thanks! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.214.120.175 (talk) 22:48, 7 January 2009 (UTC)

I haven't seen the movie or read the book so I don't know whether it took place in Maine or not, but I do know that it was written by Stephen King, and there is already a place in the article that says (I'm paraphrasing) "many of Stephen King's works take place in Maine." I believe the consensus was that mentioning it like that was good enough, rather than listing all of his works that took place in Maine, which would end up being a very long list indeed.

—BMRR (talk) 01:02, 8 January 2009 (UTC)

It's worth noting that novelist/activist Carolyn Chute lives in Maine and has based most of her works in the fictional town of Egypt -- including her most famous novel, "THE BEANS OF EGYPT, MAINE." —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.232.211.192 (talk) 03:56, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Should we include the fact that one of the possible locations of the town of Silent Hill is in Maine? I think we should. But I can't, since I'm a recently registered user.
—Evkaristo (talk) 12:28, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Absolutely not. The virtual realities of video games belong in video game articles only and should not ooze out (as if somehow important) to taint and pollute articles. We refer to it as cruft and remove it where we find it. They are usually distracting and have nothing to do with the subject.
⋙–Berean–Hunter—► ((⊕)) 12:47, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

Irish writer John Connolly sets much of his fiction in Maine, particularly the Charlie Parker series. It should be mentioned imo. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 203.149.77.146 (talk) 02:29, 8 September 2009 (UTC)

FA Nomination

I'm planning to nominate this article for FA status. Any fixes you all can suggest before I do? Fleetflame (talk) 02:37, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

I would suggest waiting on the FA nomination. Right now, this article's nomination will probably only result in one of those sad little failed-FA broken stars at the top of this page. For starters, this article only has 11 in-line references. The other FA state articles I've seen (like Oklahoma and Minnesota) have between 100-200 of them. I would first try and get this article up to GA status, and GA status alone will probably take quite a bit of work. AlexiusHoratius (talk) 02:52, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, so let's do it. This is already a fairly good article, with some work we can see this on the front page! Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 23:44, 7 January 2008 (UTC)

I'm serious about this, by the way. I'm kind of busy right now, but when I'm done with my current project, I'll start on this. Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 19:14, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

I'd suggest the History section needs quite a bit of work. It currently ends a decade after Maine becomes a state. Unfortunately, the appropriate sub-article History of Maine is a very poor article that is currently aspiring to Start class. GRBerry 22:00, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, lol, I see your point. Thanks for the tips! Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 22:29, 11 January 2008 (UTC)

Newspaper and Journal Websites

The current external links for newspaper and journal websites are just two: Blethen Maine Newspapers and Bangor News. The list of newspapers in Maine is ever changing and I question the utility of listing these two versus the additional hundred that exist. Most other Wiki state articles don't list any per se.

I propose the following change, consistent with other Wiki state articles (at least in New England): Link instead to the Wiki article "List of Newspapers in Maine" at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Maine. Moreover, in that Wiki article, I would propose removal of the External Link to "NewspaperLinks.com" and replace it with a Maine-only meta list: Maine Newspapers at www.maine.info/newspaper.php. (Note conflict of interest here, but still, this is the compilation cited to by universities and governments in Maine). Gckorn (talk) 13:15, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Can you prove it's the one used "by universities and governments in Maine"? It would be good to do a lot of research on this before moving so many things. Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 20:50, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

The Lewiston Sun Journal (also here) is the newspaper for everything west of Lewiston/Auburn and has been around forever, although I can't seem to find how long (and I can't call them myself). Maybe we should just link to newspapers that have established themselves as permanent. Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 21:43, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Response to Fleetflame - Per your request, small sampling of examples of use of http://www.maine.info/newspaper.php (and higher level http://www.maine.info/media.php - "Maine Newspapers" at Library of Congress,http://www.loc.gov/rr/news/lists.html, "Maine Newspapers" at University of Maine,http://www.umaine.edu/teaching/academics.htm, "Other Maine Newspapers" at Bowdoin,http://library.bowdoin.edu/eref/news.shtml, "Maine Media" at Maine.Gov, http://www.maine.gov/portal/family/moving.html, "Maine Media" at University of Maine, http://www.library.umaine.edu/virtualref/newspapers.htm, "Maine Newspapers and Magazines" at University of New England, http://www.une.edu/library/weblinks/virtref.asp, Librarians Index to the Internet, http://search.lii.org/index.jsp?tn=1title,description,publisher,creator,allTags,keywords,extra_words,searchableid&tv=maine%20newspapers&ss=1, Town of North Berwick, "Listing of Maine Newspapers",http://www.townofnorthberwick.org/pages/Information/Local%20Links.html, "Maine Newspapers" at York County Community College, http://ww.yccc.edu/library/guidedResearch/onlineNewspapers.asp, Maine.Info at Yale University, http://www.library.yale.edu/rsc/nmrr/online/main.html.

Further response to Fleetflame - I hesitate to link to any newspapers individually on the Maine page, as they do change (and change ownership) quite regularly. Consistent with other State pages (at least in New England), better form seems to be to list them on the State Newspaper page (as previously noted). Partial list perhaps, with at least 1 meta compilation. gck (talk) 13:38, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I think that proves it! If that's what all the other articles do, by all means do it. It just seemed to me to be a lot of moving and shifting. I just changed the external link in List of newspapers in Maine as you suggested. Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 03:12, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

On second thought, the List of newspapers in Maine applies a template footer for the "External Links" section. There's no way to change it without mucking everything up. I'll try to find a way, maybe removing the template and adding its own section. Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 03:22, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Okay, here is a suggestion: Under See Also section of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine add the following: (1) link to List of Maine Newspapers at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_newspapers_in_Maine, (2) link to List of Maine Radio Stations at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_radio_stations_in_Maine, and (3) link to List of Maine Television Stations at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_television_stations_in_Maine. Next, at the External Links section at the bottom of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine do the following: (1) Change title from "Newspaper and Journal web-sites" to "Maine Media Websites", (2) Remove the 2 links that are present, and (3) link to Directory of Maine Media at http://www.maine.info/media.php. That's it. Does that make sense to you Fleetflame? If so, either you or I can make the edit. I like the idea though, as it is nicely comprehensive. gck (talk) 12:40, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

That does make sense :-) I'll go ahead and do that now, but feel free to follow up and make sure I did it all right. Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 22:20, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

Looks fine Fleetfame. Appreciate the effort. gck (talk) 00:10, 20 January 2008 (UTC)

1901 Flag of Maine

Greetings. I wanted to give everyone a heads up that I just created a SVG for the 1901 Flag of Maine. Since the original description is ambigious on the size of the pine tree, I set its width as 1/3 the fly and height at 2/3 the fly. I personally hope that Maine will someday revert to their first design. - DevinCook (talk) 06:15, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Failed Good Article nomination

Per the quick-fail criteria, any article that contains cleanup banners, such as the ones presently in Education and Miscellaneous topics, must be failed immediately and does not require an in-depth review. Please remedy any issues brought up by such banners and remove them before choosing to renominate the article. Thank you for your work so far, VanTucky 00:27, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

To this, I would add:

Most of the article is unreferenced. It contains multiple "citation needed" tags and an "unrefenced" banner.
The references need consistent formatting with more information (at least title, publisher, url and accessdate).
The article needs copyediting and expansion in some parts. For example, "Maine is an Alcoholic beverage control state." cannot stand on its own as a paragraph.
Image captions need some work. The one of "booth bay Harbor" needs capitalization, "Penobscot Narrows Bridge, carrying U.S. 1" sounds awkward, and "The Downeaster" could be more descriptive.
There are several external links throughout the article where citations seem like they would be more appropriate.
The subsections in "Transportation" are small and seem like more expansion would be needed.

I urge you to continue working on it and nominate it after thorough referencing and copyediting. I also notice that it has not undergone peer review, which is not necessary but would provide some good feedback. GaryColemanFan (talk) 00:36, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

Maine was nominated by Nothing444 (coming fresh off a block) at 18:40, April 12, 2008. Fléêťflämẽ U-T-C 01:06, 13 April 2008 (UTC)

maine

my state report is on maine!! ya —Preceding unsigned comment added by 69.47.149.138 (talk) 20:34, 6 May 2008 (UTC)

Mention the secession movements by both northern and southern Mainers. I'm surprised it's not really mentioned here, it's a big topic that comes up a lot, in fact a few months ago the mayor of Portland in a speech called for the state to be split up into 2 parts (poor, rural northern; middle class, semi-urban southern). —Preceding unsigned comment added by 130.111.255.137 (talk) 06:00, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

It was the mayor of South Portland, not the mayor of Portland, who suggested that coastal southern Maine should form a new state. See the mayoral controversy section of the article. --BMRR (talk) 15:02, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Heyyyy

My changes keep getting deleted! They are helping to branch out the article through wikifiying! Curse you robot!! Curse you!!!!!!!! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.18.12.61 (talk) 14:28, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Your edits to Maine have been reverted because they are not constructive. For instance, you added "Maine has OVER 9000!!!!!!!!!! trees."

Would you really expect to see a sentence like that in an encyclopedia?

If you would like to make legitimate improvements to the article, please feel free to do so, but please remember that Wikipedia is a real encyclopedia and should be treated as such.

Also, please consider creating an account. It's quick, free, and anonymous (you don't have to give away any real-world information about yourself).

When you're logged in, you can do many things that unregistered users cannot, such as creating new pages, uploading media content, moving pages and keeping track of changes to articles you edit frequently. It helps the community, too — Wikipedians will be more likely to remember who you are when you have an account name.

If you want more information on the benefits of creating an account, click here. And once you've registered, please drop me a message and say hi! Don't forget to sign your messages on discussion pages using four tildes (~~~~).

Thanks,

—BMRR (talk) 17:04, 11 June 2008 (UTC)

Use of wrong "Capital"

Under the section history, the word "capital" as in "money" is used when the word "capitol" as in seat of government is used in the sentence describing the move of the capitol from Portland to Augusta. Since the page is semi-protected and I just created an account with the hope of correcting this error but can't edited it, I'm hoping someone else will see this and will edit it for me. GeistDesFritz (talk) 02:15, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

Capital can mean the seat of government as well as money, the spelling 'capitol' is only used for the building. In other words, unless they physically moved the Maine State House, the spelling as it is is correct. (See the first sentence of the Washington D.C. article, for instance.) AlexiusHoratius 03:15, 20 October 2008 (UTC)

The Cider House Rules

That movie takes place in Maine as well. It even includes the line "Good night you princes of Maine, kings of New England" a couple of times. Can someone add this movie to the movie section? --Herzliya (talk) 21:34, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

Both the book and the movie are mentioned in the literature section: Maine#Literature

—BMRR (talk) 23:38, 6 November 2008 (UTC)

De facto languages

File:USA_State_Languages.svg (sorry, having trouble linking without embedding) states that Maine has multiple de facto languages (presumably French?) but this page states Maine has only one. This inconsistency should be resolved. (Cross-posted to File_talk:USA_State_Languages.svg)

128.111.8.104 (talk) 00:37, 15 January 2009 (UTC)

Minor edit: typo "Hinkley Yachts"

{{editsemiprotected}}"Hinkley Yachts" in this article should be spelled "Hinckley Yachts" and link to this established Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinckley_Yachts

Not done: Couldn't find the text. —Ms2ger (talk) 13:34, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

It's in the Geography section. I went ahead and made the requested change. —BMRR (talk) 16:23, 1 February 2009 (UTC)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maine The Name of the state comes from the old name for the Port of York , ME. John Maine was one of the first white persons in Maine, coming in 1629 on the ship HMS Beaver of Boston Tea Party Fame in 1629. He settled on what was then called Maine s Point, now part of the harbor area of York Port ME. The state received its name from the fact that it was one of the earliest settlements in the state. Phillip Maine —Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.218.74.107 (talk) 11:14, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

"American Loggers" and Bob Crowley

I removed "American Loggers" from the Television section because that section is a subcategory of the "Maine in Fiction" section. "American Loggers" is not a fictional show, and therefore it shouldn't be in a category devoted to fictional shows. It would make more sense to put it either in a non-fiction TV category or to list it in some sort of general pop culture section.

As far as Bob Crowley is concerned, he was not only a reality show contestant, he was the winner, and that show was viewed by tens of millions of Americans on national television. Additionally, Crowley has been the subject of dozens of newspaper articles during and after his stint on the show. And he is a published author. If all that doesn't make someone a notable Mainer, I don't know what does.

—BMRR (talk) 23:44, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Maine only state to declare war?

{{editsemiprotected}}In the history section, there is an uncited statement that Maine is the only state to have declared war on a foreign power. Vermont (at least symbolically) declared war on Japan and Germany before the U.S. Congress did so, and Texas warred with Mexico. Lpiep316 (talk) 05:20, 16 June 2009 (UTC)lpiep316

Good catch. If you can provide a reputable outside source for these others, I'll make the change. Qqqqqq (talk) 05:53, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

This article has been protected since March. Maybe we can try removing it now? — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 11:44, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

The statement is clearly hyperbole, since only the Federal Legislative Branch can actually declare war, and the statements have been tagged as needing a reference for almost two years. How about we simply remove the portion of the paragraph starting with the "(Indeed, in 1839..." until someone comes up with a reference for that parenthetical? Celestra (talk) 14:35, 16 June 2009 (UTC)

Yes particularly since the article about this "war" starts by calling it an undeclared war! - DavidWBrooks (talk)

Done Removed unsourced claim. Celestra (talk) 13:03, 17 June 2009 (UTC)

Politics

Pat LaMarche no longer lives in Yarmouth. she recently left Maine to work for the Salvation army as a coordinator for distributing charitable funds. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.221.205.225 (talk) 16:37, 6 August 2009 (UTC)

Janet Mills is now the attorney general. Epsilon460 (talk) 03:09, 1 February 2010 (UTC)epsilon460

Race, ancestry, and language

According to the U.S. Census Bureau of 2000, French Americans (of French and French-Canadian ancestry) made up close to, or more than, 10% of the population of:

New Hampshire 25.2%, Vermont 23.3% , Maine 22.8%, Rhode Island 17.2%, Louisiana 16.2%, Massachusetts 12.9% &, Connecticut 9.9%.

The article states that that the state has the second largest population of French Americans. The reality is that it comes 3rd. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.107.194.166 (talk) 18:18, 16 September 2009 (UTC)

State of Maine information box, right hand column

{{editsemiprotected}} Total square miles are listed as 35,385. Total square kilometers are listed as 86,542. Google search indicates that the multiplier to use is (2.58998811). If that's correct, then total square kilometers is actually 91,646.729, or 91,647. I noted that the National Geographic web site [1] did not round up, and they are using the figure 91646. 71.111.223.238 (talk) 04:50, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Done. Thanks for spotting this error. I went ahead and changed it to the number in the National Geographic article. (I consider NG a reliable source!) —BMRR (talk) 05:05, 21 September 2009 (UTC)

Misspelling of Family Name

Under State of Maine, heading of SHIPBUILDING: Skofield family is listed, please CORRECT to proper spelling of SKOLFIELD. Reference: A Singleness of Purpose, The Skolfield's and Their Ships, copyright 1987, Maine Maritime Museum, Bath, Maine. Authors, Erminie S. Reynolds and Kenneth R. Martin. Moatmopper (talk) 06:00, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Fixed it. Thanks for spotting the error! –BMRR (talk) 15:09, 15 November 2009 (UTC)

Jamestown colony unrelated to Maine history

The below section of the Maine history entry deals with unrelated settlements hundreds of miles away from Maine, with no relevance to the history of the state at hand. Discussions of English-speaking colonies in this context should remain focused on the early settlement of New England, not the early Virginia colonies.

"The French named the entire area, including the portion that later became the State of Maine, Acadia. The first English settlement in Maine was established by the Plymouth Company at Popham in 1607, the same year as the settlement at Jamestown, Virginia. Both colonies were predated by the Roanoke Colony by 22 years.

"Because the Popham Colony did not survive the harsh Maine winters and the Roanoke Colony was lost, Jamestown enjoys the distinction of being regarded as America's first permanent English-speaking settlement."

I would recommend an abridgment to:

"The French named the entire area, including the portion that later became the State of Maine, Acadia. The first English settlement in Maine was established by the Plymouth Company at Popham in 1607, but the Popham Colony did not survive the harsh Maine winters."

Better yet, please find a reference for the exact demise of the Popham Colony, rather than the ambiguous "winters." How many winters? Who exactly founded it, how many settlers, when did they leave, and where did they go?

The assertion of Jamestown's "distinction" as having survived while Popham failed detracts from an otherwise well-written section of the article.17:30, 9 March 2010 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mlvhl (talk • contribs)

Edit request from 65.18.22.105, 30 March 2010

{{editsemiprotected}} The population in Northwest Aroostook is far more than 27 people as of now. Being a resident in the state of Maine, I would like this to be updated.

65.18.22.105 (talk) 14:10, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Hi. Do you have any sources to verify this? If you do, please post them here and we'll be glad to update the info. Bejinhan Talk 14:33, 30 March 2010 (UTC)

Verification, how Passe! —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.142.172.23 (talk) 18:17, 28 June 2010 (UTC)

Demonym

I notice that there's a little edit war over whether the term for a resident of Maine is "Mainer" or "Mainah". Now, "Mainah" sounds to me like eye dialect that one wouldn't actually find in written matter, but I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt. Can we establish which of these terms is/are correct? --Tanner Swett (talk) 16:41, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

"Mainer" is correct, but most Mainahs probably wouldn't correct it if it were written the other way. :-) --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 16:48, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

See also http://webpages.charter.net/lorilady/glossary.html#M --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 16:52, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

And, more usefully, http://www.wcsh6.com/life/programming/local/bill_greens_maine/story.aspx?storyid=121148&catid=10 -- "We'll talk to the only Mainer in the National Collegiate Hall of Fame, former Patriot Coach, Dick MacPherson."--SarekOfVulcan (talk) 16:54, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

I'm not a Mainer but I would imagine that they, like folks with an upper-crust Boston accent facing similar pahk-cah-hahvahd-yahd situations, find the fake spelling an annoyingly cutesy way for outsiders to pretend local knowledge. (I had not encountered eye dialect before - great phrase). - DavidWBrooks (talk) 17:04, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

The correct spelling of the word is Mainer. Some people from Maine may pronounce it as Mainah (as well as folks "from away" who think they're being funny by trying to put on a Maine accent — pardon me while I vomit), but that doesn't change the fact that the correct spelling is still Mainer. Sincerely, a lifelong Mainer. –BMRR (talk) 17:05, 21 July 2010 (UTC)

How do you feel about 'Mainiac'? —WWoods (talk) 21:41, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

I don't have a problem with Mainiac, but I'm not sure how official it is. I think it's more of a nickname than an actual demonym. Most Mainers wear Mainiac as a badge of honor — the same way some folks from Massachusetts feel about Masshole. –BMRR (talk) 21:53, 15 August 2010 (UTC)

Tribe presence?

Shouldn't there be a section about the tribal governments in Maine? IE the Passamaquoddy? After all in the mid 1900's they sold a huge chunk of land to the state. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.7.201.91 (talk) 06:12, 26 August 2010 (UTC)

Notables and Literature

Really need to get rid (fork) all notables and either ger rid of or fork "literature". The state of Maine is "bigger" than these folks. The literature is mainly WP:PR for the books. Doesn't help the article. Both are really "trivia" sections. BTW, most other state articles have done the same. Student7 (talk) 12:02, 15 September 2010 (UTC)

Most states have long since forked these folks. Shouldn't be allowed here at all after that. How can we decide who is "more" notable than someone else? Once forked, we don't have to worry. Student7 (talk) 22:49, 13 January 2011 (UTC)

Shoreline

"almost 3,500 miles (5,600 km) of shoreline" - sounds a bit to long to me, of course US is always the biggest and I'm from Europe, but... - I tried to remove the last zero but that didn't work out well —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dhulmann (talk • contribs) 23:10, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

3,500 miles does sound a bit long, but it's correct. Granted, the length of the coast is more like 300 miles if measured "as the crow flies," but if measured completely from end to end, including all the jagged little zig-zags, it is much, much longer. Source: Maine.gov: Facts About Maine –BMRR (talk) 23:30, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

ok, you have the ruler —Preceding unsigned comment added by Dhulmann (talk • contribs) 23:39, 17 September 2010 (UTC)

For this type of work I prefer a tape measure! –BMRR (talk) 00:34, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

How Long Is the Coast of Britain? Statistical Self-Similarity and Fractional Dimension seems an appropriate wikilink at this point. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 21:04, 18 September 2010 (UTC)

I sympathize with Dhulmann. I would have thought something shorter. There's a ref in the article for the 3,500 which I am happy to leave alone. This one is even greater but don't quite trust it. http://searsportshores.com/2008/02/23/facts-and-figures-maines-shoreline. Student7 (talk) 22:03, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

Interesting, but I don't quite trust it either. As a blog on a commercial web site, I'm sure it wouldn't meet Wikipedia's reliable source guidelines. Thanks for sharing it, though! –BMRR (talk) 22:34, 19 September 2010 (UTC)

(unindent-ify) Our own List of countries by length of coastline says the US coastline is a total of 20,000 km, approximately, so implying that Maine takes up more than a quarter of that is ridiculous. They're obviously measured at different scales. Which just goes to show that coastal length is, indeed, a fractal property. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 00:46, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

Here's the explanation: the Maine figure is "tidal" coastline, which includes estuaries up to the highest point of tidal headwaters - and which can be much, much bigger than the general coastline. You'll see here [2] that Maine's general coastline is 228 miles and its tidal coastline almost 3,500. The first figure, about 1.1 percent of the US total, seems reasonable. I'm changing the reference. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 00:52, 20 September 2010 (UTC)

A number of state articles seem to be doing this. Alaska's is half the US (maybe it is anyway without "tidal"!). Florida's is large. It needs to be either standardized or correctly labeled IMO. Student7 (talk) 11:52, 22 September 2010 (UTC)

Media references

I think most of these should be deleted. It is essentially WP:SPAM for the media and doesn't "help" the article, or Maine for that matter. It is simply WP:TRIVIA. Some of it okay in towns. Just not at this level. It demeans the article rather than helps it. Student7 (talk) 22:43, 15 November 2010 (UTC)

Maine in fiction

It is written in this Article that the Disney film 'Lady and the Tramp' took place in Maine, but the film's own page states it's fictitious location as Connecticut. Should it be removed from the list, or is there a different version of the film or similar work in which this is accurate? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.39.43.3 (talk) 04:41, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Previous versions of the Lady and the Tramp article stated Augusta, Maine as the setting for the story. Semidriver214 changed it to Norwalk, Connecticut but did not provide a reference or source. I'm not sure which one is correct. I've added a "citation needed" tag to that article. –BMRR (talk) 20:31, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

So, numerous people say it took place in Paris and multiple people have said somewhere in Connecticut. I also read it was based on walt disney's hometown in Missouri. People have said Boston, London, new york or "somewhere in new england". From googleing for it's plot, people have written both:

"On Christmas morning in 1909, in Augusta, Maine, Jim Dear (Lee Millar) gives his wife Darling a cocker spaniel puppy that they name..."

"On Christmas morning in 1909, in Norwalk, Connecticut, Jim Dear gives his wife Darling a cocker spaniel puppy that they name Lady."

But, the most common, reliable answer i found is it "is not stated". I think we ought to go with that until there is a reliable source. the most reliable information is what the op said about connecticut being on the official site, so I'm going to remove it from the list for now until it's cleared up --Lerikson (talk) 20:58, 22 January 2011 (UTC)

Averages or records

If we're going to go by ranges of records instead of averages, the record high for Portland in January was 67, not 32, as the article now states, according to weather.com. AlexiusHoratius 19:47, 6 November 2011 (UTC)

potential resource

Federal Cuts Give Maine a Chill as Winter Approaches by ABBY GOODNOUGH published November 27, 2011, excerpt ...

Michele Hodges works six days a week but still cannot afford a Maine winter’s worth of heat for her trailer in Corinth, a tiny town where snowmobiles can outnumber cars.

99.181.141.143 (talk) 02:08, 12 December 2011 (UTC)

Trivia

Do we really need "Maine is the only state in the United States whose name only has one syllable" in this article? Should we also include a list of anagrams for Maine? OhNoitsJamie ^Talk 13:24, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

I think it's a perfectly reasonable sentence to include; hardly earthshaking but intriguing. The anagram parallel isn't too good: every state has anagrams but only Maine is monosyllabic. (Although what would an anagram of Maine be, come to think of it? There aren't many letters to play with.) It's no more trivial than the fact that it only borders one other state, another amusing but non-significant tidbit. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 13:31, 7 September 2012 (UTC)

I agree with David; it's intriguing, and it might be something that readers haven't considered, in which case we did our job in educating them. 331dot (talk) 00:11, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

No. Unless some WP:RS has commented on that bit of trivia and established notability. Removed. Vsmith (talk) 00:20, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

Sorry, but methinks you've gone a little overboard on wikipedia editing. You might as well demand a notability reference for the fact that it's the only state bordering a single other state, or has the easternmost point, or a zillion other interesting items. Returned! - DavidWBrooks (talk) 00:28, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

It's trivial information that has nothing to do with the subject, but would be something some know it all cousin would bring up at Thanksgiving. --JOJ ^Hutton 01:02, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

One can argue its notability, but it has everything to do with the subject. 331dot (talk) 02:01, 8 September 2012 (UTC)

This is just absurd trivia. How about we start counting usage of letters? Adding the ASCII value of all letters to get the highest and lowest? tedder (talk) 04:57, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

One doesn't need to perform complex calculations to arrive at the statement; it's something unique among the states, it's not "absurd trivia" any more than numerous other bits of information all across WP. 331dot (talk) 11:15, 9 September 2012 (UTC)

Well ... much ado 'bout nothing per'aps, but this bit of trivia tacked onto the end of the etymology section sure appears absurd to me. It has nothing to do with etymology and - really nothing to do with anything, purely trivial. Who says this factoid is significant enough for inclusion? As others above seem to have doubts about it, I've added a cite needed tag to it. Yes, it is a trivialy obvious factoid, but seems we need a reference to back up the inclusion with a reason why it is significant. Then we can decide where it belongs - as it is not related to etymology. Vsmith (talk) 01:25, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Several editors think it's significant enough for inclusion, which is the only reason that anything ever gets put into any wikipedia article. It's not like we merely crank through an algorithm that says "yea" or "nay"! - DavidWBrooks (talk) 10:58, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

It's one of five states ending in "E", tied as the third shortest state name, one of eight starting with M, and the only one containing one instance of A, I, and E. Helping. tedder (talk) 02:25, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Except for the last one, none of those are the "only" instance of something. As for the last one, I wouldn't mind it's inclusion. :) 331dot (talk) 09:26, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

Let's remove "It is the only state that doesn't have any buildings taller than 150 feet (46 m)" from the Vermont page, or the fact that Rhode Island and Providence Plantations has the longest official name of a state, or that New Jersey is only the third wealthiest by median income. Just useless trivia.... 331dot (talk) 09:41, 10 September 2012 (UTC)

The buildings and median income are factoids about the state itself, whereas monosyllabic Maine and multi-word RI&PP are factoids about the name of the state. Etymology is also about the name of the state, but etymology is often closely related to the history of the state, and so less likely to be objected to. I happen to like trivia, and find monosyllabic Maine and polyword RI&PP fascinating factoids ... but I don't think they belong in an encyclopedia article about the individual states. I would, however, enjoy an article that gathered together these two factoids along with other interesting bits of trivia about the state names in a separate state name trivia article. But banish them from the main encyclopedia article unless we can find a RS that would indicate notability. YBG (talk) 07:08, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

There are pages of Google results if you query "Maine name one syllable" - but they're trivia sites. (I don't county wikianswers or ask.com). So how about Snapple - that's a real company; this is one of their "real facts" from the label: [[3]]. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 11:38, 11 September 2012 (UTC)

Dutch settlement

This map being used by Dutch Empire includes a Dutch settlement in Maine. Any idea what they're talking about? 101.229.93.255 (talk) 15:35, 23 November 2012 (UTC)

Portland metropolitan area - OR/ME?

You may wish to join the conversation at Talk:Portland metropolitan area#Requested move. Buaidh 20:59, 10 April 2013 (UTC)

Coastal section names

Hello all- I changed the terms "midcoast" and "downeast" to Mid Coast and Down East so they would link to and be spelled the same as their respective articles. Note that the former, which is more of a town listing than an article, spells the term "midcoast" in the body despite the article name. I have no strong feeling re the most correct/accepted way to spell these terms--just wanted to make them consistent with the articles for now. Note: also left a note at Talk:Mid_Coast#Name_change. Eric ^talk 20:38, 11 June 2013 (UTC)

Conflating French and French-Canadian ancestry

Though I now see the justification for claiming that Maine has a French-American plurality population, I strongly object to the conflation of French-Americans and French-Canadian Americans. The French, Quebecois, Acadians, and Louisiana Cajuns are distinct ethnic groups (though in New England the Quebecois and Acadians tended to mix into a "French-Canadian" identity).

Using my own family as an example: Nearly all of my father's ancestors' presence on the continent predates the Revolutionary War, whether in Quebec or New England. I refer to my father's ancestors (as does he), simply as "American." If I need to identify more specifically, I call the New England ancestors "WASP"s (even though some of the Irish were probably Catholic), and the French-Canadian ancestors "Quebecois." However I identify my mother's ancestors, who came around the time of WWI, by their European countries of origin.

My Quebecois ancestors didn't just come from France, but also from Denmark. I identify all of these ancestors as Quebecois, and would never consider myself "Franco-American" or "Danish-American." (I believe that the Danish ancestor is the only one my genealogy-obsessed grandfather was able to trace back to Europe; for the rest of his Quebecois ancestors he lost the trail in New France.) Many Quebecois have Irish ancestry and other sundry European anscestors, and many of both Quebecois and Acadians have the First Nations somewhere back in their family tree. And the culture and language is quite different. My surname is an archaic French-Canadian word, and is fairly common in Quebec but almost unheard of in France. My grandfather jokingly called himself a "Frenchman," but always identified his ethnicity as "French-Canadian," while his American nationality was first and foremost.

It's true that most Mainers who identify as French ancestry are probably actually French Canadian, but they don't identify that way (and some of them are almost certainly of direct French descent). French-Canadians however make a very conscious choice not to identify as "French." Ethnicity in the US is a complex issue, and the Census Bureau takes people's self-identifications at face value. We should do the same, doing otherwise is a disservice to those who do self-identify as French Canadian. —Quintucket (talk) 16:34, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

My reasoning is in line with the article French American, which includes all of the above groups. However, I cannot speak for User:Midlothian09, who started the category "Populated places in the United States with French-American plurality populations". --Ken Gallager (talk) 18:23, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Given that the French-American article deals with precisely the issues I've noted (assimilation and identification with New World ethnic groups), I suppose I don't really object to classifying these states as plurality French-American, as long as it's understood that according to the Census Bureau data those states are either plurality English-American (Maine and Vermont) or Irish-American (New Hampshire). However I still dislike grouping French and French-Canadian as one ancestry in states that have large populations I'll have both. (Though I'll admit I hadn't noticed until you point it out.) I'm not sure if doing that is quite synthesis given that it's simple addition, but it does imply something that's not in the source. Since the Census separates them, so should we; users are capable of doing addition. —Quintucket (talk) 18:40, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

To Quintucket, I by no means wished to make an offense, as the ancestors on my mother's side were descendants from Acadians who came to the United States and never settled in New England or Louisiana. Thus as to my assertion, that they in a way maintained the right to claim that as their ancestry. When they came (or where in) France they came from I do not know. I simply was categorizing it in a broader sense along with the German populated category knowing that some could also be of German Russian descent. I believed that still maintaining a link to the French American page would be suffice to help a reader to know that there are certain distinctions within the group. Again I apologize for any misunderstanding or not making myself clearer earlier. — Midlothian09 (talk) 18:57, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

Your contribution doesn't offend me; though I initially thought it was inaccurate. However it brought to my attention the fact that we combine "French" and "French-Canadian" in our discussions of demographics, and that's what I'm objecting to. German-American is another vague category, dependent on self-identification. My mother's paternal grandparents were an Austrian and a Danube Swabian, both from Austria-Hungary, and they always identified as "Austrians" and later "Austrian-Americans." They never identified as German-American, even though many Austrian Americans do. Hispanic/Latino is another confusing category. (I know people of Brazilian, Spanish, and Portuguese descent who embrace it, and actual Brazilian and Portuguese immigrants who insist they're not Hispanic.) Dutch-American might be too, as increasing numbers of Afrikaaners and Surinamese come to the US. All of this is why I think we should stick to the data that people have self-identified in the census, rather than trying to decide the best way to add them together. —Quintucket (talk) 19:21, 18 June 2013 (UTC)

French Language

Previously, the French language was listed in the infobox as de facto official, with no citation. The current revision lists it as a "spoken language." That's preferable, but I question the 5% statistic. That stat is mentioned in the article and cites to this link: [4]. When I go to the drop down menu under "US, State, Region, or Division" click the "State" tab, choose Maine and 2010, what comes back for French speakers is 49,345 and 3.93%, not 5.28% as the article claims. Is this really a percentage worth mentioning in the infobox? This isn't a situation similar to Spanish in Texas and California, where it is spoken by over 25% of the population, or even Louisiana which might have a smaller percentage of total French speakers but can claim de facto status because there are actually laws and institutions which preserve a special status for French. TempDog123 (talk) 17:38, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Animated Obamacare Gif in Wikipedia Article - Semi-protected edit request on 30 December 2013

This edit request has been answered. Set the |answered= or |ans= parameter to no to reactivate your request.

In the Wikipedia article for Maine, there is an animated anti-obamacare advertisement that is considerably offensive. It appears as though the offending post is disguised somehow as a hyperlink to a non-existing wikipedia article that lists all the US Senators. It would be helpful if someone could removed the biased and offending material from the State of Maine's Wikipedia page as it doesn't belong there. Thank you. 148.168.96.24 (talk) 07:19, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

Where exactly is it located? 331dot (talk) 11:08, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

I can find no evidence of the original IP's claim; I've checked the source based on .gif, obama, health, list, etc, and found nothing that correlates with the claim. Barring any evidence to the contrary, I'm considering this closed.Human.v2.0 (talk) 22:50, 30 December 2013 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just added archive links to 8 external links on Maine. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add {{cbignore}} after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}} to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers. —^{cyberbot II}_{Talk to my owner:Online} 05:36, 27 August 2015 (UTC)

Please remove the Meaningless sentence

Why is the following sentence part of this? "For thousands of years, indigenous peoples were the only inhabitants of the territory ."

Yes, for thousands of years native americans were the only inhabitants of Maine. If there was some information about WHEN Native americans arrived in the area - that would be worth putting in BUT there is not. Therefore "thousands of years" is also meaningless. (1000? 2000? 25000? How long?) That Native americans were there when the Europeans arrived is covered by the next sentence.

Bottom line - the sentence is meaningless.

71.96.49.85 (talk) 14:37, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

It is not meaningless to people who know nothing of North America. Wikipedia has a global audience. 331dot (talk) 14:47, 25 November 2015 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Maine. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.maine.gov/msl/services/reference/meorigin.htm
Added {{dead link}} tag to http://realfacts.snapple.com/proudtobemonosyllabic/'
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20111028064539/http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-pop-text.php to http://2010.census.gov/2010census/data/apportionment-pop-text.php
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20140814025258/https://www.ymcaofsouthernmaine.org/mainiactri to http://www.ymcaofsouthernmaine.org/mainiactri

When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true or failed to let others know (documentation at {{Sourcecheck}}).

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 22:21, 12 September 2016 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 7 external links on Maine. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 14:42, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

Penobscot River expedition

Should there be a link to the page about the Penobscot River expedition? The destruction of a revolutionary fleet seems like a big thing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dean1954 (talk • contribs) 13:08, 29 May 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 4 external links on Maine. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 16:33, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

IP user edit

I invite 184.0.142.164 to discuss the matter of how the population ranking line should be worded here. 331dot (talk) 21:09, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

FWIW, I think "9th least" is vastly better than "41st most" populous - the point is that Maine has relatively few people compared to most states, and the former wording makes that much clearer. (By the way, New Hampshire also claims it is the 9th least-populous - because in the 2010 census it was, but since then NH has passed Maine in population.)

As far as area goes, Maine is so near the mid-point that I don't think it matters. - DavidWBrooks (talk) 21:43, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

I think that the point I would have made to the IP user would be that we should be consistent across the articles on the 50 states with how this point of information is worded. I haven't examined every state article (NY doesn't mention the state's population in the opening) but the ones I have seen discuss ranking in terms of "most populous". 331dot (talk) 22:05, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

External links modified

Hello fellow Wikipedians,

I have just modified 3 external links on Maine. Please take a moment to review my edit. If you have any questions, or need the bot to ignore the links, or the page altogether, please visit this simple FaQ for additional information. I made the following changes:

Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20130829135802/http://archive.bangordailynews.com/2002/02/26/who-really-named-maine/ to http://archive.bangordailynews.com/2002/02/26/who-really-named-maine/
Added archive https://web.archive.org/web/20100411025556/http://www.tolatsga.org/aben.html to http://tolatsga.org/aben.html
Corrected formatting/usage for http://www.census.gov/population/www/documentation/twps0056/twps0056.html

When you have finished reviewing my changes, you may follow the instructions on the template below to fix any issues with the URLs.

This message was posted before February 2018. After February 2018, "External links modified" talk page sections are no longer generated or monitored by InternetArchiveBot. No special action is required regarding these talk page notices, other than regular verification using the archive tool instructions below. Editors have permission to delete these "External links modified" talk page sections if they want to de-clutter talk pages, but see the RfC before doing mass systematic removals. This message is updated dynamically through the template {{source check}} (last update: 18 January 2022).

If you have discovered URLs which were erroneously considered dead by the bot, you can report them with this tool.
If you found an error with any archives or the URLs themselves, you can fix them with this tool.

Cheers.—InternetArchiveBot (Report bug) 15:19, 22 December 2017 (UTC)

This page is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.