Even in a pandemic, a @bostonglobe staffer writes of Maine in cliche Eastern Massachusetts fashion: we're the backdrop for their summer rusticating & family nostalgia, not a real place with real people who can, say, get Covid19 and die. (Brief thread.) https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/08/06/lifestyle/sorry-maine-your-covid-19-rules-will-not-ruin-my-summer-traditions-this-year/?s_campaign=breakingnews:newsletter

2. Also: we’re not “the popular girl in the high school cafeteria” picking favorite friends. ME currently has 2nd lowest per capita rate in nation over past 7 days (after VT). MA’s rate is more than quadruple ours (and, yes, much higher than NJ’s.) https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

3. Nor can the ME-MA relationship described as a 350 year friendship. ME was annexed by the Bay Colony in the 1650s, embarking on a 170-year odyssey as a colony of a colony. Effects detailed in my Lobster Coast and this @pressherald series: https://www.pressherald.com/2020/03/05/colony/

4. This postcolonial legacy is part of why so many in Maine bristle at what @Chris_Murther meant to be a humorous travel article. Despite what our license plates say, we’re not just the setting for vacations. And travel requirements are about life and death.