This New England

"Maine XXI,'' painting by GRETCHEN DOW SIMPSON

That Mainers rejected a plan to allow gay marriage is a reminder that many New Englanders remain socially conservative, especially those in the rural parts of northern New England. (Actually, most of the real estate in northern New England is rural!)

The liberals in Maine are mostly strung along the coast from Kittery to Bar Harbor -- especially in the summer. Inland, except in college towns, it's like rural New Hampshire, or Wyoming.

But everyone understands physical, as opposed to a more psychic, pain, so a medical-marijuana plan won in the Pine Tree State. Pot dispensaries may soon be as frequent a sight as lobster boats and canoes.

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Very rich, but recession-battered Yale, needs to sell $1 billion of notes to pay expenses. Weeping at the tables down at Morey's

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Will New England someday have as dense a passenger-rail system as it had in 1950? Maybe. Consider that Plaistow, N.H., officials are pushing to get commuter rail service to their part of southern New Hampshire.

Townspeople want to plug the region more into Boston business, education, technology, art and culture.

Of course, they don't want to pay the taxes or deal with the congestion of living in the real Boston area. They want exurban sprawl and close-at-hand city pleasures.

 Tags  Gretchen Dow Simpson Maine gay marriage; Plaistow Yale

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