The longer we're here, the more obscure Maine laws we encounter. We covered some of these laws recently. Here are some more that we've come to learn in recent days.
Maple Syrup Reserves
Unlike in Canada, there is no Strategic Maple Reserve in the US. Canada has suffered serious theft from this reserve though, so as a precaution, Maine disperses maple syrup throughout the State. It's left to individuals to stockpile maple syrup so that thieves can't make off with vast cubic meters of the stuff from the State. To fulfill our patriotic New England duty, we currently have a half gallon jug of maple syrup in the fridge but we are planning to buy a gallon jug before winter. Unfortunately, a crane is required to hoist the gallon jug to your pancakes, but we want to do our part!
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Surveillance State
Small Maine communities rely on a sophisticated, low-cost surveillance system to relay critical information (e.g., that you have almost run out of maple syrup, or that you haven't been using your fire pit very often) to the necessary authorities. This typically involves a neighbor watching your mundane activities without you knowing, reporting these to every other neighbor, and then having an unknown neighbor telling you that you, say, ran out of syrup. The surveillance network is very effective and takes its work seriously! (And even though our Maine neighbors don't know about this journal of ours, we'll probably hear about it!)
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Fog banks
One threat to the surveillance state, though, is fog, which descends quite often in the morning here, and can obscure your activities from the neighbors across the street so long as you whisper. Remember, loose lips sink ships! Hence much scandalous activity, like bringing in your weekly groceries from the supermarket, is best done when under cover of a fog bank!
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