The Year That Is Going To Be
If you could know in advance what 2026 was going to be like, would you want to?
I thought so!
Hey, so here’s a loud shout out to all my readers with heartfelt thanks to those of you who pay for your subscriptions to The Pawned Accordion! I am very grateful for your support and aim to keep cartooning and writing. Please share what you like with others and if you follow my Substack, please subscribe (you can for free) and if you do, encourage someone else to as well.
I began doing cartoons on April 1,2020. The COVID pandemic had just started to isolate us physically from each other and for 365 straight days I did cartoons and also began adding stories and observations. I called my stuff Homemade Cartoons and created my Substack in the summer of 2024 and Homemade Cartoons became The Pawned Accordion.
I can predict two things for sure about 2026. The first is that it won’t be hard to find fresh material for The Pawned Accordion. The other… Wait! I’m sorry, I forgot what it was. Hey, I guess that’s one of the benefits of being another year older. For example take my New Year’s resolutions. I already don’t remember what they were!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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What’s Next?
“Speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far.” — Theodore Roosevelt
Speak loudly, swing often, and lie that you’ve scored a par. —Trump golf
“You break it, you own it.” —The Pottery Barn Rule
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Lest We Forget
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Remember this day forever!” —Donald Trump’s tweet on January 6, 2021
However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion. —George Washington’s Farewell Address to the Nation published on September 19, 1796
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Weather Thou Goest… South! Reflections on living in Maine
A few miles after you drive north across the Piscataqua River Bridge from Portsmouth, New Hampshire to Kittery, Maine on I 95, there’s a sign on the side of the highway that reads: Maine—Welcome Home—The Way Life Should Be.
When you leave the state before you cross the same bridge from the other direction, there’s another: Maine—Worth a visit. Worth a Lifetime.
For state hello and goodbye signs I think Maine has its other 49 competitors beaten handily. But there’s also a quote attributed to the travel writer Paul Theroux that presents a different context in which to evaluate this place— “Maine is a joy in summer. But the soul of Maine is more apparent in winter.”
Theroux, who attended the University of Maine, hasn’t lived here since and apparently is implanted with a rubber soul because these days he bounces between winters in Hawaii and summers on Cape Cod. So I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised when I heard Jo say…
“You know, Lou McNally isn’t here in Maine.”
If you’re a listener to Maine Public, which is our state’s broadcasting affiliate with NPR and PBS, there’s a good chance you know Lou McNally. He does the weather report on the radio most mornings and he’s good at his gig.
McNally’s signature signoff line is “That’s the way it looks from here” but as I’ve now learned, he’s not HERE! He’s like the guy I have relaxing on the beach in the cartoon and when he’s telling us listeners in Maine how cold it’s going to be, he does it from Florida where he lives in the winter, if not most of the year, and his outdoor thermometer will reach 70 degrees today.
A more fair weather weatherman might be hard, if not impossible, to caricature. But in fairness McNally’s long broadcasting career did begin in Maine and he was once widely seen and heard on local TV and radio. Full disclosure also requires that I reveal that McNally came up with his sign off long ago and used it first when he was still working in Maine and before he split the year between here and Florida. Still, Lou’s signoff has now transitioned from iconic to ironic.
Florida might almost be called Maine South. Lots of people who live here for part of the year go there for the other part or is it the opposite? It’s where our ex governor Paul LePage bolted immediately after losing an attempt to get re-elected and became a Florida resident. He’s running again and this time it’s for the United States House of Representatives. His whereabouts at the moment as I sit next a whirling space heater are not known to me.
Oh, here’s something we just received in the mail that made me chuckle and frown simultaneously. Below is the envelope that contained the bill from the guy we hire to plow our driveway. The return address says Rockland, ME but take a look at the postmark…
Next time we need plowing I’ll check to see if anyone is behind the wheel of the truck or maybe Dan changed the name of his service to Waymo Snow.
You see a lot of Florida license plates in Maine in the summer. They return north with all the other birds. And for those of us who might be thinking of spreading our own wings south there’s a local radio commercial with a guy who claims to be “Your Maine go-to real estate agent for property in the Sunshine State.”
We’ve noticed that since the pandemic things might be changing a bit. Some Maine snowbirds are delaying their seasonal migration long enough to be seen with snow shovels and more and more license plates from other warmer locals seem to be on our roads than in the past.
Although the cost of buying a house in Maine has gone up like it has everywhere, Maine is an attractive place to raise kids or retire. Yes, we certainly have our share of poverty and crime but we don’t have earthquakes, hurricanes, tornados and wildfires— at least not yet. Politically, we’re still blue on the coast for those for whom this matters. Of course we do have our weather and that’s where Jo’s “two winter test” comes in.
Observing a few out of state licenses sitting in snow and ice covered driveways, Jo said to me a while ago, “Let’s see how many are still here after their second winter.”
At a Chamber of Commerce dinner I sat beside a realtor who confirmed Jo’s challenge.
Me: “How many homes that you’ve sold have come back on the market after the buyers spent a couple of winters here?”
Realtor: “I’ve had a number of them. Not everyone is able to make the adjustment from “Vacationland” to “Staycationland.”
The Maine license plate is indelibly inscribed with the former but a few years ago a Maine lawmaker proposed to change it to the latter with the intent and belief that more people, especially young families, might see the light and move here. In the middle of December when that light is the faintest, it’s often a dealbreaker.
In fact, as much as I love Maine and am happy here, I am obliged to mention that it’s also the only place I’ve ever lived where when the sun is out and, if it’s not freezing or blusterly, strangers don’t acknowledge one another with just a perfunctory “Hi.” No, much more often we break into a smile and say, “Nice day!” And that’s especially true in the summer when those of us who are here all winter believe that on any nice day we earned and deserved it.
Jo was born and grew up in Maine and remembers hearing stories that it was once possible to actually drive a car across 15 miles of frozen ocean from Rockland on the mainland to the island of Vinalhaven. In the 15 years we’ve lived in Camden, winters have become noticeably warmer and shorter. That is until this one!
However, what hasn’t changed is the length of the shortest day of the year which, barring Elon Musk fooling with the earth’s orbit around the sun, is less than seven hours.
A few years ago when we were in Ecuador it was the first time I ever stood on the equator and learned that Ecuador is the Spanish word for equator. Those who live there have 12 hours of light and 12 hours of darkness every day. No dusk in the afternoon and no sunset in the latter part of the evening either. Living on the equator would drive me crazy. No summer and no winter. Now, that’s a dealbreaker!
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