Archive for the ‘Columns & Essays’ Category
Love is a drug
“The Effect” at Gloucester Stage By MARK SARDELLA Is there really such a thing as love? Or is it all just a matter of brain chemistry? That is a question explored in The Effect, a play by Lucy Prebble at Gloucester Stage through July 8. But it’s far from the only question. The play also […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Opinion, Reviews, theater | Leave a Comment
Tags: antidepressant, Brad Hall, dopamine, drama, drugs, experiment, Gloucester Stage, Lindsay Crouse, love, Lucy Prebble, Mark Sardella, Mickey Solis, pharmaceutical, play, Susannah Hoffman, The Effect, theater, theatre, trial, Wakefield Daily Item
Name that board!
Right on the heels of the plastic bags crisis, the latest issue to rock Wakefield is what name we should use for the town’s executive body. For the past 370 years, “Board of Selectmen” has done quite nicely, but no more. The position contains the word “man” (and in the plural, “men”). In 2017, this […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: attorney, Board of Selectmen, Cyrus Wakefield, gender neutral, History, humpr, lawyers, man, Mark Sardella, men, Opinion, Politics, select board, selectboard, selectman, tradition, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Warriors, Xena Warrior Princess
Town Meeting highs and lows
Let me be the first to say it. Hot enough for you? I know, it’s barely 70 degrees, but after the February weather we had earlier this week, today feels like Death Valley. It doesn’t get reliably warm around here until the summer solstice. Then it’s summer until about the Fourth of July, and it’s […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: attendance, Bill Carroll, democracy, Humor, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Open Town Meeting, Opinion, Politics, Reading MA, Representative Town Meeting, solstice, Special interest, summer, sun, taxes, Town Moderator, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Running down the downtown
“Wakefield has such a pretty downtown,” my friend in the passenger seat said as we drove past The Rockery on the right, with its rows of bright red and white tulips leading up to the Hiker Statue. It was a few weeks ago and the fountain hadn’t been turned on yet. “That’s not what our […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Albion Cultural Exchancge, business development, business district, commercial, downtown, economic revitalization, economy, ghost town, Lake Quannapowitt, Main Street, MAPC, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, merchants, parking, real estate, restaurants, retail, stores, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Main Streets
Zoned out
I know some people don’t like me to write about marijuana, but the subject has been in the local news a lot lately and it’s kind of my job. So this constitutes a trigger warning for those delicate flowers of the Cannabis Community whose heads tend to explode when I write about pot. (Rest assured […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Board of Selectmen, business, cities, drugs, election, hemp, herb, Humor, legislature, maijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, Politics, pot, prohibition, Pulitzer Prize, Question 4, referendum, Town Meeiting, towns, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed, zoning
Long before it became part of my job, I would attend practically every Town Meeting. It wasn’t out of any sense of civic duty. I’ve always found Town Meeting to be great entertainment. That has led some to suggest that I seek professional help. Last week’s two-part episode did not disappoint. If you’re one of […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: budgets, bylaws prohibition, Cannabis Community sea turtles, Chamber of Commerce, Christine DeFelice, Galvin Middle School, herb, local government, Marianne Cohen, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, plastic bags, pot, Rada Boutique, schools, Town Meeting, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Walton School, weed, William Carroll
Bag the ban
It was only a matter of time. A small group of our fellow citizens has decided that they know better than the rest of us and want to dictate how we can carry our shopping purchases out of a store. Ten citizens have signed a petition to place an article on the May 1 Annual […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Nature & Wildlife, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: bags, ban, business, bylaw, capitalism, choice, Farmland, free market, lightbulbs, litter, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, oceans, petition, plastic bags, recycling, single-use, stores, sustainability, thin-film shoppomh bags, Thomas Edison, Town Meeting, trash, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, wildlife
After the Big Bump
When the Wakefield School Department came out this week and requested a 4.84 percent increase in its FY 2018 budget, they turned a few people into prophets. In 2015, Annual Town Meeting approved a “one-time” 11.4 percent increase in the School Department budget. The Big Bump was supposed to “right size” the School Department by […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: budget, drama, education, funding, Galvin Middle School, marching band, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, music, Opinion, Politics, School Committee, schools, students sports, theater, Town Meeting, user fees, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Schools
Mark Sardella 