There’s a world of difference between the lunch-bucket atmosphere of Maine’s harness racing tracks and the affluent ambiance of New York’s Saratoga Springs, but the concerns are the same – fading interest in the sport of kings has led to declining revenues. There, as here, one remedy under consideration is the introduction of video gaming machines. There, the objection is not based upon moral grounds, but to the type of clientele the slots would attract. “The person who drives a Cadillac or a Mercedes is not going to be there,” says local Chamber of Commerce head Joseph Dalton. “It’s going to be the person driving the five-year-old Honda.” Here, the person driving a five-year-old Honda is considered uppity.

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More than 200 mothers-to-be in Frederick, Md., are protesting the local hospital’s new policy of banning cameras from the delivery room to capture on film one of life’s most precious moments. Frederick Memorial officials say it’s to help ensure a safe and healthy delivery; the moms says it’s to deny parents powerful evidence should a bungled delivery result in a malpractice suit.

One person’s Kodak moment is another’s Exhibit A.

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Writing headlines – condensing the central point of hundreds of words into a well-chosen few – has long been a perilous craft in which good intentions sometimes produce howlers. In these digital times, newspapers on the Web have an additional minefield of malapropisms to navigate in those home-page synopses that entice the reader to point and click on the link to the full story. Here, from a prominent southern Maine newspaper, is such a teaser gone awry: “After a cerebral hemorrhage wiped out one side of his brain, [a man] donates a large portion of his land to Reid State Park.” The generosity is commendable; we hope the consent was more informed than it appears.

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Maine aesthetes are in quite a tizzy over the decision by the National Endowment for the Arts to deny a $42,000 grant that would have financed a exhibition featuring the work of William Pope.L., a Lewiston visual and performance artist whose more celebrated works include walking around New York City while wearing a 14-foot cardboard penis and sitting on a toilet in Boston’s financial district while eating a copy of the Wall Street Journal. Perhaps it is government censorship of controversial commentary on contemporary culture, perhaps the NEA determined Mr. Pope.L.’s explorations of essential bodily functions merely retrace steps other artists took years ago. Maybe they just figured 42 grand was too much to pay for cardboard and a newspaper, although we think it’s pretty reasonable once you throw in the plumbing.

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As he heads into his last year in office, Gov. King says he may endorse a successor once the June primaries are over and he’s had a chance to assess the candidates’ positions on such matters as economic development and tax policy. Might pick up some pointers, too.