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“Maine’s Cool Little City” And Other (Dubious?) Maine Town Mottos

Until recently, Bath’s tagline was “Maine’s Cool Little City.” And while Bath is indeed cool, little, and legally incorporated as a city, so too are, say, Belfast, Rockland, and Biddeford. The slogan had started to feel a bit “generic,” the city’s marketing specialist told a local paper. Now, Bath is officially the “City of Ships,” long a nickname, and that’s a big improvement. Evoking the Kennebec River community’s famous shipbuilding legacy is equal parts romantic and factual, capturing something essential about the place. How do other Maine municipal mottos rate­­?

Notes
1. Astrophysicists say there’s no actual center of the universe.
2. Good-looking town, no doubt. But stiff competition for prettiest in all of Maine.
3. So called ever since the early-20th-century boomtown sprung from the north woods, as if by magic.
4. Picking teeth is an unpleasant task (and “Former Toothpick Capital” would be more accurate).
5. Sounds a bit too much like a Jersey Shore promo.
6. Lovely words for a lovely scene.

By Will Grunewald | From our April 2022 issue


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