beam maine up

I learned today that Jonathan Frakes lives in Belfast, Maine, with his General Hospital-star wife, Genie Francis. She is opening a store called The Cherished Home.

Actually, although I have yet to see her merchandise, I kind of take issue with the choice of name. This article states, "Her new business is located in an 1850s-era farmhouse on Route 1 on the city's east side. Rather than focus on antiques, Francis said, she wanted to provide area homeowners with a choice of items previously not available to them."

First, though, I have to give the Bangor News a nod for their generosity in considering Belfast a city, given that it has roughly 6300 permanent residents. It's actually the larger town in the area near Searsport, where my sister-in-law will be getting married in slightly over a month, and we can't wait to get up to that region, which is just phenomenally beautiful.

However, the Mid-Coast is the kind of area where the tourists come to relax at the Maine coast, eat some fabulously fresh lobster, and go shopping -- which usually means antiquing. A name like "The Cherished Home" will fit right in, but I'm afraid it might be misleading

Francis apparently got the bug for owning a home decor shop by "examining the furnishings on the General Hospital set." Forgive me if I'm a little off on this, but I would tend to think that a soap opera is not the place to take inspiration for cherishing the heart and home. For example, take the recap of the plot for merely the week of January 3, 2005, which reads as follows:

"Luke discovers that the woman who was following Emily and Connor around was paid to do so. Emily and Connor work on becoming more comfortable with each other. Diego learns that his sister, Maria, is really his mother. Sonny plans to take his children and Jordan to his island but agrees to let Kristina get used to Ric before taking her on vacation. Sonny buys Greystone out from under Ric and Alexis. Someone knocks Jordan unconscious and takes a mold of the key to Sonny's new house. Carly convinces Jason that even if Bridget takes her baby back in the year he can't deprive her of the love he has to give her now. Sam wants to name the baby "Hope." Courtney shows up at Jason's just as he and Sam are going to make love and tells them about Bridget's issue in her new school."

Not so much with the cherishing, as it were.

But we'll see. After all, she might be thinking more along the lines of Luke's place, which is sort of vibrant and fun and eclectic. And she does play Laura, of "Luke and Laura" fame, so you never know.

Had she asked me, though, I'd have turned to her husband for inspiration. See, soap watchers are probably already in the local tourist demographic. She should be thinking more of marketing to new and different clientele. Clearly, The Next Generation would have been a better direction to go in naming a home shop that intends to break the mold. She could get an entirely new group of tourists to the region, I'm sure.