March 24, 2007: Bigger news than the donkey?

Check out the lead story in Saturday's paper:
Man vs. Mouse
By AMY CALDER
Staff Writer Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel Saturday, March 24, 2007

WATERVILLE -- Bill Exner is determined to catch the mouse he claims stole his lower dentures and hid them inside a wall.

Exner, 68, of Oakland Street, said he doesn't want to kill the mouse; he just wants to take him for a ride to the country.

Exner went to bed Tuesday night and instead of putting his lower dentures in the bathroom as he usually does, he was so tired he took them out and laid them on his nightstand, he said.

The next morning, the false teeth were gone.

Exner said he knew exactly who had taken them: a mouse he had trapped and placed in a gallon-sized pickle jar, three times -- but each time, the mouse escaped.

"The first time, I left the top off the pickle jar -- I figured there's no way this guy can get out," Exner said Thursday. "But he escaped, so the next time I caught him, I put the cover on loosely so he could breathe, and he got out again."

Exner got a trap in the first place because the mouse was making scratching noises in the walls. It's a trap that doesn't harm the mouse. All Exner has to do is put peanut butter inside it to attract the rodent. He said he planned to trap the mouse and drive it somewhere else.

"He likes peanut butter," Exner's wife, Shirley, said Thursday in the couple's bedroom, where the alleged heist occurred.

After the dentures disappeared, the Exners said they scoured the bedroom looking for them.

"We moved the bed, moved the dressers and the nightstand and tore the closet apart," Exner said. "I said, 'I knew that little stinker stole my teeth' -- I just knew it."

In a corner behind the nightstand, the couple found an opening in the wall between a baseboard heater and a structure that covers water pipes. Exner called his daughter's fiancŽ, Eric Holt, to help, convinced the mouse had spirited the dentures into the opening.

"He brought a crowbar and hammer and he sawed off a section of wood and pulled up the molding and everything," Exner said. "It was quite a job. We pull it out and he looks down and he goes, 'I don't believe it -- there they are!'

"The dentures were inside the wall, lying right there. They were not damaged. The mouse didn't bite them or anything. It's like he was saying 'I'm going to get even with you for putting me in that jar.' "

Holt said Thursday that he did not question Exner's assertion that the mouse took the dentures because when he (Holt) was a boy growing up on a farm, his father's dentures disappeared one day and they all assumed a rat took them because there were a lot of rats on the farm. Friends used to joke that there was a rat running around the farm with a pretty smile.

"The odds of getting Bill's teeth back were pretty slim," Holt said. "It was like hitting the lottery when we found them."

Sometimes, the mouse appears out of nowhere and just sits and looks at Exner, according to his wife.

"He's taunting him -- I swear he's taunting him," she said. "He's adopted us; we haven't adopted him."

Exner says he doesn't plan to put his dentures anywhere at night until he catches the mouse, which has a gray head with some brown, and a white belly.

"I got 'em right in my mouth and that's where they're staying," he said.

Meanwhile, people who deal with mice say it's entirely possible the mouse snatched the dentures.

Lori Perkins, a cashier at Petco in Augusta, said she has owned animals all her life -- including mice -- and Exner's mouse was likely interested in the food particles on the dentures and took them to where his house is -- inside the wall.

"If it has to do with food, mice will do just about anything," Perkins said. "They will eat through boxes; they'll try to eat through plastic."

After learning about Exner's mouse incident from the Morning Sentinel, Patrick Faucher, animal control officer for the town of Oakland, who is the former animal officer for Waterville, paid the Exners a visit.

Faucher said afterward that the droppings in the pickle jar and near the wall are definitely from a field mouse. Field mice are like packrats and will spirit away seeds and other food, he said.

He said there is more than one mouse in the house and that two may have actually hauled the dentures inside the wall.

"It's like in the cartoons -- one pushes, one pulls -- type of thing," Faucher said. "They're pretty ingenious in what they do and I'm sure the smell of food on the dentures had something to do with it."

Meanwhile, Holt said he told Exner to make sure he cleaned the dentures really well before putting them back in his mouth.

"I suggested he boil and soak them in peroxide and anything else he could get," Holt said.

Faucher said he asked Exner to call him when he captures the mouse and he will help him relocate the rodent.

"I want to see it," he said. "This is really quite unique, I'll tell you."

Amy Calder -- 861-9247

acalder@centralmaine.com

retrieved 3/25/2007 from http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/3742169.html

March Madness

Forget the NCAA in basketball, Maine celebrates its own brand of March Madness. The University of Maine's hockey team made it to the final four of NCAA hockey called "The Frozen Four".

Renys, a.k.a. "Your Maine Department Store" is celebrating the beginning of mud season by having March Mudness Sales. (More about mud season in a future posting.)

Gotta love it.

Here's the scoop on the hockey (from the University's sports' website http://goblackbears.cstv.com/):

3/24/2007 - M. Ice Hockey
Maine Advances To NCAA Frozen Four
The University of Maine men's ice hockey team defeated Massachusetts 3-1 in the finals of the NCAA East Regional on Saturday at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester, N.Y. Maine had a goal by Bret Tyler and power play goals by Mike Hamilton and Matt Duffy in the win, while Ben Bishop had 35 saves. The Black Bears are now 23-14-2 overall while Massachusetts is 21-13-5 overall. Maine advances to the NCAA Frozen Four for the fourth time in the last six years.

March 23, 2007: Playing Hookey

Friday afternoon during class my phone rang. It was MRM. I had to silence it but couldn't wait 'til class was over to hear her message. I was hoping she had some fun plans for Friday night. I was thinking I would go to Faculty Seminar because it was going to be at The Homestead which is a great little restaurant.

SIDEBAR: The usual seminar leader sent an email that since only 4 people attended last week's seminar, there wouldn't be one this week. Well, she must've left early because when I got there there were 4 people there and then 4 or 5 more came throughout the evening. I thought it was quite enjoyable. Well, anyway, only a few minutes after that email came through, another one showed up that said "Faculty Un-Seminar will be at The Homestead at 4:30." I thought it would be fun to see who showed up for that.

So when class was over, I listened to messages as I was walking across campus. There it was: "Hi Roomie. Do you want to play hookey? RBF, Benny, and I are out walking and were thinking about going to Gifford's. We wanted to see if you wanted to go with us. I immediately called back to say, "YES!" but the call went to voice mail after several rings. I left a message then called the house but no one was there either.

About that time, my phone rang and I assumed it was going to be MRM but caller ID told me that it was Hank! Whooop! I took that call. I had been heading up to my office and had gotten as far as the front doors of the Educatioin Center but when I knew it was Hank, I sat down in the lounge in the front foyer of the building because I didn't dare want to lose the signal and I did want to sit in those comfy chairs and enjoy the phone call. We had a great conversation, well, it was mostly me telling him how much I was enjoying Maine, so I guess it was a little one-sided conversation.

Then my phone started making noises and I looked and it was MRM calling. By the time I figured out what it was and how to answer it, the call had gone to voice mail. So Hank I kept talking. I had been telling him how much fun it was to have a great roommate and that I felt certain that was a big part of why I felt so comfortable already in my new town, when the phone rang again. This time I told him who it was and knew how to answer it. Shwew! I caught her. She and RBF were 5-10 minutes away and would pick me up at the front doors of the Education Center.

I "swapped" back to Hank (that's the word that shows up on my telephone display to go back to the other call) and continued the conversation while walking up to my office to get ready to play hookey (are you supposed to plan ahead when you play hookey?). Unfortunately, I did lose the signal when I got to the stairwell. I tried calling him back but to no avail . . . I kept getting his voice mail. I went ahead and packed up my stuff and put on my coat and headed back to the front of the Education Center. Then I got the signal that there was a message and sure enough it was Hank saying how fun it had been to catch up and he would call again. I called him back and got voice mail and so I left a similar message. Next call I need to let it be one-sided on his side 'cuz I'm dying to hear all about seminary and to find out when his ordination will be so I can be there.

And then I waited for MRM and RBF and Benny. As I stood there, I saw one of my students that had NOT been in class just an hour earlier. He crossed the street and I was wondering if he had seen me and was avoiding me. Then a young man crossed in front of me and started looking around and then called out in the general direction of that young man and called out his name. Now he had to look in my direction, though he only looked at the friend calling his name. They both walked towards the corner but then had to cross back in front of me. I said hello and called him by name as he walked by. He just smiled and said hello back. Neither of us said anything about his missing class.

About that time, I heard my name being called! I looked behind me and there was the gang. The four of us walked to Giffords. I ordered a cup of the featured new flavor, Maine birch bark. It was vanilla ice cream with white chocolate chips, chocolate covered cashews, and caramel swirl. It not only sounded delicious but I could see how they named it birch since birch trees are mostly white with some black (the chocolate covered cashews) and lots of bumps in the bark (the white chocolate chips). It really has more of a black swirl going through it, not a caramel colored one, but then I prefer caramel to chocolate, so I was thrilled with their choice. And indeed, it was quite delicious.

MRM ordered a double cone with one scoop of the Maine birch bark flavor and one scoop of Grape Nuts. She liked the birch bark but thought it was too sweet. Then she let me try her Grape Nuts. She said people in Maine really like Grape Nuts. I wondered if this was like people in Utah and their lime jello. I tried the Grape Nuts but it tasted more like vanilla ice cream with Grape Nuts in it. Wait, that's what it was. I don't really care for Grape Nuts, so even though the vanilla ice cream was good, the overall flavor was not so hot.

MRM also ordered "a dogbone sundae" which is a cup with one scoop of plain vanilla and a dogbone shaped dog biscuit on top. That was for Benny! I knew this was a great place if they had a treat for doggies.

I saw one of my students in line after us. That's still fun for me to run into my students in different places. I think some professors don't like it or think of it as an invasion of privacy or something, but I think it's fun.

We sat on the benches for a while to eat our ice cream, then decided to eat while walking on the way home. The sun was setting and it was getting chilly. We had a delightful walk home and I was very glad I had agreed to play hookey.