Hie thee all over to ye Olde Edgecomb Towne Hall tonight! with ye comments and questions about the Wiscasset Bypass! This meeting, the first of two, will start at 6 p.m. and stop as close to 8 p.m. as stamina and input allow. MDOT representatives will be on hand to present a guide to the DEIS (draft Environmental Impact Statement).

The second Bypass DEIS meeting will be Saturday, December 1, at 10 a.m., also at the Town Hall. Same format. The ultimate deadline for mailed or e-mailed comments from the public is Friday, December 21, by 5 p.m.

Earlier this afternoon, the Edgecomb Historical Society is holding its final meeting of the fall session at 2 p.m. in the conference room and library of the Edgecomb Eddy School, to continue our inventory of genealogical and historic documents, photographs and publications. We will regroup again the fourth Thursday of March 2008! In between we hibernate.

Peg Schuler on the River Road advises me, in re Brussels sprouts on the stalk: Be sure to harvest from the bottom up, because that's the direction the sprouts mature. Okay, next summer... if we can beat the porcupines.

Deb Sondergaard of the Schmid Preserve Advisory Board says, 'We have planned another work party to continue cutting out the new Riverlink Trail. We made great progress a few weeks ago, and the trail is going to be a wonderful addition to our existing network! We'll meet at the Edgecomb Town Hall at 9 a.m. on Sunday, Dec 2, and will plan on wrapping up the day around noon. Please bring loppers or a pole saw if you have them.'

Let us salute the passing of Joanne Dresser on the Middle Road, and condolences to her family, many of whom live in Edgecomb. Let us also bow our heads in sadness at the death of Bert Howe, and send our deep sympathies to Jean, both of the Midcoast Unitarian/Universalist Fellowship who meet at the Town Hall on Sundays.

CHIP (Community Housing Improvement Project) is looking for a few good volunteers! Handy people willing to put plastic over drafty windows, do calking, wrapping mobile homes and general hole-plugging against the forays of Winter. CHIP will provide building materials if you will supply tools and labor. Call 1-800-924-9571 or 677-3450 and ask for Janice M. Mellyn, CHIP coordinator.

Michael Carter is one of a number of Lincoln Academy students who have been field-testing Bio-medWorks, a five-year curriculum project that introduces evidence-based medicine tools for students to explore and understand the importance of published clinical trials. This extracurricular class, under the direction of science teacher Chuck Dinsmore, was designed by the Scarborough-based Foundation for Blood Research under an NIH Science Education Partnership Award. The curriculum includes the exploration of clinical trials of medications using mathematics and higher-level critical thinking.

Hats off to Sheepscot Pottery who has donated a pinecone bake and service dish, and to Bintliff's Ocean Grill, a diner's gift certificate, and on the Newcastle/Edgecomb edge, Station Road Repair, a two-oil change and R134 air conditioner recharge, all these for the recent Lincoln Academy Boosters Club's 12th annual fundraising auction! As an L.A. alum, thanks to these Edgecomb businesses!

Hats even higher off in honor of Herman Wright whose dream of Healing Fields throughout the state was realized this last Veterans Day.

From the Maine Historical Society: At this time of the fall, hunters have been a common sight in Maine as have vehicles with deer in the back or on top. Hunter orange jackets and hats and dogs in orange vests are still everywhere. The change from hunting for livelihood to hunting for sport was not always easy. Click on the link www.mainemem ory.net/exhibitsfront.shtm l to read about the evolution of Maine hunting laws and see images of the state's hunting past.

Tuesday, December 11, is International Human Rights Day. The University of Southern Maine's International Student Organization of Lewiston-Auburn (ISOLA), the students of the 'Global Past, Global Present' course at Bates College (with assistance from the National Endowment for the Humanities) and the Maine Holocaust & Human Rights Center invites us all to a human rights celebration focusing on Chechnya.

The events planned include Chechnya-related films at Brunswick's Frontier Café in the Fort Andross mill complex on Friday and Saturday, December 7 and 8, both nights at 7:30 p.m. On December 11 itself, an all-day observance is planned on the U.S.M. campus in Lewiston, featuring special guest speaker Dr. Khassan Baiev, a surgeon during the First and Second Chechen Wars, who will discuss his experience during this dark period of history. Dr. Baeiv, the author of 'The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire,' will illuminate the little known culture of the Chechen people, whose lives have been overshadowed by this calamity. Dr. Baiev's work now focuses on helping the children of Chechnya - the real hope for tomorrow, which has led to his establishment of the International Committee for the Defense of the Children of Chechnya (www.chechenchildren.org/index.html).

Dr. Baeiv will speak again at Bates College in the evening, from 7 to 8 p.m., in the Carnegie Science Building, Room # 204. Copies of Dr. Baiev's book will be available for sale throughout these events. Donations of fiber-filled or down-filled clothing, any size, and/or cash to cover shipping will be gratefully accepted at each of these events. These donations will go to the Committee for the Defense of Forced Refugees in Chechnya. For more information, please contact Edgecomb resident Rebecca Graham, 882-8108.

Christmas is coming, the geese are getting fat! Lights are being strung along home rooftrees and town roadways. Bill Gaten's sparkling reindeer and sleigh cheer us as we travel along McKay Road! The Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library will hold an open house during the Harbor Lights Festival on Saturday, December 1, call 633-3112 for more data.

Digging out the gift wrappings (I'm low on bows, gotta get bows!) and making Christmas cards (sending them? What's this sending concept?) at 234 River Road, 633-2978, jocam@midcoast.com.

This column appears in the Boothbay Register, The Lincoln County News, the Wiscasset Newspaper, and at www.Edgecomb.org.