SATURDAY, DECEMBER 18, 2010
VOL. 2 NO. 227
PORTLAND, ME
PORTLAND’S DAILY NEWSPAPER
699-5801
FREE On Friday, a Portland Police cruiser is parked unoccupied along Fore Street with the Cactus Club entrance visible in the background (the club’s sign, doorway and window are adorned with green paint). Police are urging the city to not renew the club’s liquor license, which would effectively put the bar out of business. (DAVID CARKHUFF PHOTO)
‘But Uncle Sugar still loves me ...’ See Bob Higgins’ column on page 4
Do you remember rock-and-roll radio? See Mark Curdo’s column on page 4
The Polar Express rides again See the Events Calender, page 15
Old Port bar draws police ire Cactus Club reports detail fights, public intoxication Used Books Rare Books Maps and Prints Bookbindery We repair your Treasured Books. Books make Great Gifts. Gift Certificates. Recent Acquisitions: • Hundreds of Antique Maine Maps • Reasonably Priced Fine Art Prints • Books on Science & Alchemy • American History
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BY DAVID CARKHUFF THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
In front of the Old Port bar on Fore Street, police report a man has to be pepper sprayed to stop a brawl. On another police call, a woman inside the club is talking to a witness, who sees the woman’s eyes “roll to the back of her head” before she collapses.
Another time, a woman who could not walk under her own power is carried out of the club by two men and placed in the back of a Dodge Charger. These are among a spate of detailed Portland Police incident reports from in and around the Cactus Club. They are gritty stories, detailed accounts behind 32 calls to the troubled Old Port bar in the past year
— evidence included in a Monday packet for the City Council urging non-renewal of the club’s liquor license. Women passed out on the sidewalk, dressed in skimpy clothing and in danger of hypothermia; one woman passed out near an ATM machine next to the 416 Fore St. venue, “lying in a puddle of her own vomit.” see CLUB page 3
Two authors draw attention with their debuts BY MATT DODGE
Books
THE PORTLAND DAILY SUN
Two local authors with similar out-the-gate accolades and University of Southern Maine ties are earning their place among the local literary establishment. Jessica Anthony, a former lecturer in USM’s English department, and Justin Tussing, full-time English profes-
sor and director of Stonecoast Summer Writer’s Conference both caught the attention of critics and readers with their debut efforts and have since settled in Portland. Anthony’s “The Convalescent” embraces the author’s
Old Port Playhouse
self-coined style of “absurdorealism” to tell the story of 10,000 years of Hungarian history and a midget who happens to be a meat retailer, while Tussing’s “The Best People in the World” extends a teenage fantasy to its all-too-real and most sobering conclusion in 1970s America. see BOOKS page 6
“The Convalescent” and “The Best People in the World”
“IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE!”
A Red Claws connection to the Harlem Globetrotters
TONITE-SUNDAY • 773-0333 WWW.OLDPORTPLAYHOUSE.COM
See story in Sports, page 9
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