A Goodbye Letter to Maine News Reporter Johnny Maffei

Hey Johnny,

I know. This is corny. This is lame. But it's the Friday before Memorial Day Weekend, I need an article to post, and I'm leaning into our friendship a bit so I can start making horrible life decisions to kick off summer this weekend.

Plus, this isn't exactly your typical "Maine news reporter leaving Maine" that we've heard happen countless times before.

Because there have been Maine reporters that have left the position before that I've had some sort of professional working interaction with -- Allison Ross, Cristina Frank, Chloe Teboe -- all great, talented people.

But there's a difference between professional working interaction, and crossing that line over into friendship. And based on the fact we're in a group text that usually goes off at or before 5a (side note, thank you, iPhone, for the "mute" feature), I'd consider us fully crossed into the friendship lane.

It's funny, actually. Because I'm pretty sure our whole interaction started on social media, just randomly commenting on each other's posts. I don't even think I said a word to you the first time we were both in the same place together (The Incredible Breakfast Cook-Off in 2023) since you were running around getting coverage of everything, meanwhile I was just out there eating. Everything in sight.

But since that day, it's been random run-ins, and an equal split of talking smack to each other but also hyping each other in our careers. And since today is your last day at WGME and you're about to head to your next big thing, I thought I'd hit you with one last bit of smack talk and hype.

Getting to tag team the grand reopening of Just-In-Time Recreation in Lewiston a few weeks back will always go down as a career highlight for me, other than the absolute sham that was our bowling match. I find it convenient that on every single one of my rolls, there was someone near our lane cleaning or "fixing" something, and I hope you enjoy your cheap win you cheating schmuck.

But in all seriousness, you're a good dude, Johnny, and I'm psyched for you on your next step. Partially because it's such a good look for you career wise and it's always great to see good things happen to great people that hustle and work hard.

But mostly I'm psyched for you because I now have a free place to stay in one of my favorite places in the country, whether you like it or not. Thanks in advance.

Congrats, brother! Go crush it, and every time it snows, I'll swing a wiffle ball bat at a snowball in your honor.