We were all bombarded with lots of news last week.

Pick your topic, and you could find out what someone thought was the cause of:

The implosion of the submersible at the bottom of the North Atlantic, about 1,600 yards off the bow of the Titanic. Or, how four guys forked up $250,000 each to visit Davy Jones Locker and disappeared in a millisecond.

Why the Wagner group and its thuggish boss, Yevgeny Prigozhin, a former hot dog seller turned mercenary warlord, challenged V. Putin and his Moscow mobs. Prediction: Look for the old Yevgeny to experience a fatal bout of defenestration. In fact, if you listen quietly to your smartphone, you might hear the window being cranked open. It is like putting your ear to a seashell and hearing the ocean.

You might hear experts on all sides expound upon how a federal indictment boosts the chances the 45th president will snare the GOP presidential nomination in 2024.

Do not expect anyone to provide a detailed argument or solution on how the nation might solve the migrant crisis or balance the budget without scaring the pants off senior citizens who depend on Social Security.

Those key topics demand study, thought and compromise. Most pols, on both sides of the aisle, would rather talk about mysterious laptops and make smarmy jokes about the other side. They would rather yell at each other about alleged Russian influence in the last election or how the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection was either a coup to overturn the Constitution or a peaceful protest against a rigged election.

Most folks pay little attention to any of it anyway. Besides, it is too early in the primary season to obsess about these topics or the arcane demographic categories in the latest poll from an obscure university or publication.

This week, let us focus on my hometown, where the annual Windjammer Days are in full swing.

Where else could you see a fleet of majestic schooners glide into the harbor? This year it features the 130-foot-long, square-rigged sailing vessel, Oliver Hazard Perry. Of course, it is hard to miss a full-sized square rigger.

Where else in the world could you experience the thrill of the Arthur Webster Memorial/Orne’s Candy Store rock skipping contest?

Where else could you cheer the sweating tuggers pulling a rope across the harbor or the lobster eating contest?

And, for Pete’s sake, nowhere else could you thrill to the internationally famous Cod Fish Race, where participants don fishermen's oilskins, boots, coats and hats, clutch a big old slimy codfish to their breasts, and run around the block. It is a relay race, so you can get multiple thrills from this event. Like the loud furniture sales guys on TV say: “Don’t miss it.”

Windjammer Days are designed to bring several thousand visitors to the town and jump-start the summer tourist season. Except for lobster fishers, and we love them all, this former fishing port is no longer home to canneries, giant draggers and seiners. In the old days, before refrigeration, our men harvested pond ice in the winter and shipped it halfway around the world.

Our local tradition of superb boat building once sent spawned wooden schooners for coastal trade and wooden minesweepers for the U.S. Navy. It continues with Washburn & Doughty, where the East Boothbay yard crafts some of the finest tugboats in the world. Just travel, and you will find W & D tugs shoving cruise ships and naval vessels around like Legos on the card table.

And, of course, there is Tim Hodgdon, who pivoted from building world-class super sailing yachts including Comanche, the fastest monohull sailing craft in the sea, to crafting limousine tenders. These slick vessels help the mega yacht owners get ashore without getting their hair or tootsies wet.

Like life, our local economy is about managing change. If you depend upon Plan A and Plan A fails, you go to Plan B or Plan C down the line. For generations, folks lived and worked on the Maine coast scratching a living from the land and sea. Today's economy revolves around attracting folks from away and their gold cards. An increasing number of them find this is a lovely place to retire and entertain their grandchildren.

Whether you are here to photograph the sailing vessels or the cod fish race, to eat a luscious lobster roll, buy your grandkid an ice cream cone, eat dinner at a fine eatery, or test out the crisp, clean sheets of one of our top drawer hostelries, we welcome you all.

And don’t forget to come back next season.