Archive for the ‘Columns & Essays’ Category
Cure for election blues
In the wake of this week’s exercise in democracy, members of the belt and shoelaces crowd have been consoling each other on social media by sharing ways to cope with their overwhelming stress by working to make our planet a better place before they give up and move to Canada. Of course, none of these […]
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Tags: Age of Aquarius, Altamont, blue ribbon, democracy, Devo, Donald Trump, election, Hillary Clinton, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, millennials, police, pot, President, protests, Reisa Clardy, Rollining Stones, State Police, Thomas Clardy, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police Department, weed, Woodstock
Surly voting
Call me old fashioned. Call me a slave to tradition. But I’ll be voting on Tuesday, Nov. 8, on what used to be known as Election Day.
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Tags: apathy, ballot, candidate, drivers license, early voting, election, Election Day, fraud, ID, identification, MA, Mark Sardella, polling place, Sudafed, turnout, vote, Voter ID, voting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Massachusetts
Halloween, 2016 style
Halloween is Monday, and that means this would be a good weekend to stay home and avoid the throngs of giddy Deadpool and Wonder Woman wannabes clogging the roads and liquor stores as they head out to party with dozens of Donalds, hordes of Hillarys and assorted other creepy clowns. Gone are the days when […]
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Tags: adults, American, children, clowns, column, costume, cowboy, Deadpool, Donald Trump, edibles, Halloween, Hillary Clinton, Human Rights Commission, Humor, Indian, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Opinion, Politics, Question 4, sombrero, THC, trick-or-treat, USA Today, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Massachusetts, Wonder Woman
Last chance for Mary Jane
A lot of people who plan to vote “Yes” on Question 4 will be in for a big surprise after it passes. They think the ballot question to legalize marijuana for recreational use is about making it so that people won’t go to jail for smoking a joint. But what it’s really about is allowing […]
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Tags: 2016, adolescents, alcohol, ballot question, brain, cocaine, Dr. Alan Woolf, drugs, election, George Washington, hemp, herb, heroin, jail, law, law enforcement, marijuana, Massachusetts, meth, money, November 8, police, possession, pot, prison, prohibition, Question 4, Sen. Jason Lewis, stoners, teens, weed
Gone to pot
How things have changed. Not so long ago, it was a given that drugs were bad, the police were good and American soldiers protected freedom and liberty at home and around the world. These were universal values that served us well for generation after generation. Nowadays, expressing ideas that wouldn’t have raised an eyebrow a […]
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Tags: Colorado, COPS, crime, drugs, high, Human Rights Commission, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, medicine, money, music, News, opiates, Opinion, opioids, painkiller, paranoia, pharmaceutical industry, police, Politics, pot, Question 4, recreational, stoned, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed
By MARK SARDELLA Israel Horovitz’s new play is something of a departure for the prolific playwright and Wakefield native. Man in Snow, at Gloucester Stage Company through Oct. 23, is a long way from the gritty, working class atmosphere of a Gloucester fish-packing plant or the romantic neighborhoods of Paris – and not just geographically.
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Tags: Alaska, Ashley Risteen, avalanche, Denali, drama, Francisco Solorzano, Gary Ng, Gloucester Stage, Israel Horovitz, Japanese, Mark Sardella, mountain, Mt. McKinley, Northern Lights, Paul O'Brien, play, Ron Nakahara Man in Snow, Sandra Shipley, snow, stage, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item, white, Will Lyman
Primitive Social Media
Wakefield is getting good at hosting really big parties: Festival Italia, the Holiday Stroll and Independence Day are prime examples. Soon to take its place alongside those is the upcoming Halloween spectacular, “Haunted Happenings.” But what if you can’t make it for some reason? What’s the next best thing to being there?
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Tags: books, Climate Change, comedians, Cyrus Wakefield, Facebook, Festival Italia, Fourth of July, History, Holiday Stroll, Humor, Inaugural Exercises in Wakefield Mass., Instagram, Internet, John S. Eaton, Mark Sardella, media, newspaper, Opinion, Paul D'Angelo, phones, poetry, Politics, press, social media, South Reading, Tritter, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, weather
The 8.8 percent solution
It’s even worse than I thought. A couple of weeks ago, we discussed Voter Fatigue and the steps that our state and local governments are taking to aid us in performing that onerous civic duty known as voting. But until Thursday, September 8, I had no idea that for more than 90 percent of us, […]
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Tags: elections, Fenway Park, flyers, Humor, lawn signs, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Opinion, Phyllis Hull, Politics, primary election, selectmen, voter, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item
By MARK SARDELLA GLOUCESTER — Imagine, if you can, an oligarchic takeover of a state led by a “Palinesque” Manchurian candidate with only a hapless, dying, Occupy-style activist standing in the way of her establishing a totalitarian regime. Forget trying to imagine it. It’s been done for you! Playwright Peter Sinn Nachtrieb’s over-the-top, absurdist, dark […]
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Tags: Alex Portenko, Amanda Collins, Breean Julian, campaign, elections, Gloucester Stage, Howard Zinn, Jeff Zinn, Lewis D. Wheeler, Mark Sardella, Occupy, Peter Sinn Nachtrieb, play, Politics, radical, review, Sarah Palin, The Totalitarians, theater, theatre, vote, Wakefield Daily Item
Mark Sardella 