October 2024

Lewiston Auburn Senior College presents 

The Forest and the Trees

$25

with Catherine Hunter

Oct 24, 2024 at 10 am, runs for 4 weeks

ZOOM

A forest of trees is more than a monochromatic green landscape in spring and summer, more than a riot of color in autumn, more than a blur of browns and grays in winter. A forest is more than what you can see. We will examine deciduous trees through the lens of science and art. Topics include the Natural Science of Trees, Tree Portraits, Tree Identification, and artists who focus on trees. International artists work with life-size trees and the parts of trees including leaves, growth rings and bark. Artwork is effective as it enhances scientific study and comments on our relationship with the natural world. This class will not be recorded.

Catherine Hunter was museum curator, educator, and consultant for over twenty years. She received her Bachelor of Arts in History of Art from Cornell University and began her career as a curator in the Department of Textiles at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Catherine has a lifelong interest in studying the intersection of art, art history, science, and culture. Catherine lives in Massachusetts.

Registration fee $25

Click here to Register

Lewiston Auburn Senior College

Autumn leaves on trees with pathway

by Maritess Sulcer (2018)

SAGE at UMPI

The Amazing Planets on ZOOM

with James Stepp

Oct 22 - Nov 12th, 2024

Tuesdays for 4 weeks from 6:30 - 8:00 pm

The Amazing Planets on ZOOM will look at the information and images gathered by various space probes flown to the planets in our solar system since the 1960’s. Time will be spent looking at key planetary features on each planet and whether life could exist on these planets. During the last class we will look at the possibility of life on one of the thousand non-solar system planets known to exist. Instructor: Jim Stepp, Volunteers with the Francis Malcolm Science Center as a planetarium specialist.

Instructor: Jim Stepp, Volunteers with the Francis Malcolm Science Center as a planetarium specialist.

Registration is free for members of Maine's Senior Colleges!

Click Here to Register

Seniors Achieving Greater Education (SAGE)

University of Maine at Presque Isle

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Fomalhaut Planet

Midcoast Senior College presents

Elemental, Part I: Earth

with Barbara Snapp

5-week course begins November 4th.

1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Zoom - $60

Elemental, Part I: Earth

This course is the first in a series to explore the scientific, historical, and cultural impacts of Aristotle’s classic elements: earth, air, fire, and water – and a 5th element added to the Daoist tradition – wood. In Earth, we will cover the science of the formation of Earth and its ongoing changes, major Earth events that shaped history, the multiple ways that humans have used Earth to support their lives, and the roles that Earth has played in cultural traditions across the globe. Reading: Suggested readings will be from articles posted on the course website.

Barbara Snapp received her PhD in biology from Cornell University, where her research focused on the ecological adaptiveness of behavior. Her passion is teaching science, especially broad survey courses where she can interweave science themes with culture and history to build multidimensional understanding.

5-week course begins 11/4 - $60

This class is offered in-person and on Zoom

Mondays

In-Person: 9:30-11:30 a.m.

Zoom: 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.

Members of sister senior colleges should contact Midcoast SC to register.

Call 207-7725-4900

Or send an email

Visit Midcoast Senior College for their Fall II catalog

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Isidore of Seville Four elements.jpg

Acadia Senior College presents

The Story of a Whiskey Bottle and its Ties to Bangor Maine, Hamilton College, The Pure Food and Drug Act, and Hollywood

October 25, 2024

11:30 am - 1:00 pm

While walking his dog and poking around in a wooded area near his home in Central New York, Dave found a brown bottle in an old trash heap. The raised glass label read “The Duffy Malt Whiskey Company, Rochester, N.Y. U.S.A., Patented 1886.” Dave set out to investigate and found that Duffy’s Pure Malt Whiskey was emblematic of the age of patent medicines that flourished from the second half of the 19th century until the first several decades of the 20th century. Anyone could create a concoction of any number of uncontrolled ingredients and make claims for its efficacy without verification. You might also remember another patent medicine, Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup, which was made from a recipe developed by Mrs. Charlotte Winslow, a nurse from Bangor, Maine. Mrs. Winslow’s Soothing Syrup (alcohol and morphine) was a massively popular medicine for children’s ailments such as teething, constipation, and more. 

Continuing his research, Dave learned about efforts by Samuel Hopkins Adams, a Hamilton College alumnus, to expose "the Great American Fraud" of patent medicines such as Duffy's and Mrs. Winslow's. Together with the efforts of other activists of the time, the Pure Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906. There's more to this story, but you'll have to join us to find out!

October 25th

The luncheon at Birch Bay Village in Hulls Cove costs $15 and is from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. The presentation is from noon to 1:00 p.m.

The Zoom presentation is free and begins at noon. If you register for the online talk, you will receive the link the day before the event.

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Instructor: David Gapp has a BS and MA in Biology from College of William and Mary, received his PhD from Boston University, and conducted postdoctoral research at the Jackson Laboratory. David was a Biology Professor at Hamilton College where he taught Biology of Reproduction, Food for Thought, Vertebrate Physiology, General Endocrinology, and Integrative Animal Biology courses for 40 years. David has taught several courses through the Acadia Senior College.

FMI Contact Acadia Senior College

Phone: 207-288-9500

Send an Email

Acadia Senior College

And the award for this month's most unique class

in the Maine Senior College Network goes to :

Lewiston Auburn Senior College's

Awesome Sauces

with Larry Canepa

LASC Free Zoom Class!

Sauces are the pinnacle of a chef’s achievement requiring study and practice to master. A great saucier must have a discriminating palate and the ability to understand how to build depth and harmony into a sauce. The formal study of sauces usually begins with the classic French sauces. Today, however, world influences from Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Mediterranean, along with the public’s appetite for new and exciting tastes, have driven sauces in many different directions and brought an array of flavors and endless possibilities to their preparation and pairing. Explore the history of the World’s Greatest sauces, the basics of sauce making and everyday uses.

Chef Larry P. Canepa is a certified culinary educator and Le Cordon Bleu chef, author, researcher, food historian, and lecturer on culinary topics. Chef Larry has a dynamic, innovative, and engaging style that incorporates food history, culinary arts, education, and 'food-tainment' into every class and event.

Click here to register for this free class.

Lewiston Auburn Senior College website.

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Gold medal from the 1948 Winter Olympics

AARP Maine Invitation

Join Moving Maine for Community Forums & Listening Sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to share experiences and concerns, learn, and prepare to take action on transportation services in Maine.

Multiple sessions are being held October 15-17th over Zoom.

What are the policy changes needed in Maine regarding transportation services? You could be part of the solution.



For more information and to register with AARP, please see the attached flyer.

The Third Man; A Medical Thriller

by Geoffrey Cooper

Pub. Maine Authors Publishing 2024

Pages 279 Price paperback $18.95

Reviewed by Pat Davison Reef

The Third Man; A Medical Thriller by Geoffrey Cooper opens in 1944 and extends to the present. This modern fictional story is based partially on the historical events of World War II. It touches on the true story of two German spies who landed in a submarine off the shore of Maine, where they were eventually caught. At the same time, it explores historical events taking place in Germany during World War II, where the vision of a pure German Aryan race was being explored in the field of genetics. The author, Geoffrey Cooper, examines how history can repeat itself while revealing the importance of fighting for democracy. He shows that dictatorships are dangerous, yet they have appeared repeatedly throughout history. Against this backdrop, Cooper's amazing mystery has many unusual twists and turns and is believable from page ONE to the END.

In the novel, the action begins in 1944 when Germany knew they were losing the war. A German commander decides to place three spies in America to live in disguise and become a part of American communities to help Germany regroup and rise again after the war. The spies are warned that it may take 10 or 15 years to support Germany again in the future while they live in America as part of its culture. Three spies were landed in Northern Maine, and one was NOT caught. They were posted to different coastal areas and did not know each other.

The book frightened me because recently, in real life, there was a Neo-Nazi group that lived and trained in Northern Maine and marched in front of the City Hall in Portland, Maine. On April 12, 2024, Governor Janet Mills signed into law a ban on paramilitary training camps in Maine in response to the Neo-Nazi group that appeared in the Penobscot County town of Springfield.

Returning to the book The Third Man: A Medical Thriller, this haunting fictional mystery introduces Walter Muller (under the cover name David Franklin) when he reaches America. He is the third German spy instructed to look for a female spy named Catherine Freeman after he lands. Both spies believed in the importance of German genetic superiority in developing the perfect individual, the goal of Nazi culture. Decades go by in the story, yet the spies remain in an isolated time warp even though Germany has lost World War II, abandoned the idea of German genetic superiority, and has become a democracy… 

As the story progresses, we learn more about the spy Catherine, now aged 90, still living in America, and still locked into the mission she learned in her youth. She has established a camp with her young assistant. The camp is hidden in northern Maine’s beautiful natural environment, and its purpose is to produce pure Aryan children for Germany.

We then meet Mark Carlson, a 90-year-old retired FBI agent who once trained as a German Intelligence officer in Europe. He is now living in peace on the shores of Sebago Lake in Maine. Nearing the end of his life, Carlson is searching for his lost love, Catherine, a German woman who trained with him in Europe. Carlson contacts Karen Richmond, an official of the Maine State Police, and her lover Brad Parker, a PH.D in biology and director at an imaginary Maine Medical Research Institute. Carlson is seeking help to find his old lost love, who might have immigrated to Maine. 

The Third Man; A Medical Thriller is one of seven books written by Geoffrey Cooper a retired cancer research specialist and former administrator at Harvard Medical School and Boston University who now lives in Ogunquit, Maine. Karen Richmond and Brad Parker, who represent good fighting evil, are stock characters in Cooper's mysteries. Each mystery is a different story, and you don't need to read the books in consecutive order. Cooper's dialogue is believable and fast. The description of the characters, as well as the beauty of Maine, is outstanding in this haunting tale. I highly recommend The Third Man; A Medical Thriller to history buffs and mystery lovers.