Archive for the ‘Columns & Essays’ Category
Social (Media) Security
Is there a “generation gap” in Wakefield? That’s what I’m hearing, especially on Facebook where all the cool kids hang out. The term itself sounds so last century. It used to be applied to the cultural differences between the ‘60s kids and their parents. But now, word on the street is that there are issues […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: cheese, CVS, DeSoto, Dollar Store, Facebook, Family Dollar, generation gap, Hazelwood Cottage, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, media, Mike's Gym, newspapers, Pleasure Island, social media, social security, Twitter, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Don’t believe what you read on social media. Contrary to Facebook rumors, the new Galvin Middle School will open on time. Permanent Building Committee member Chip Tarbell confirmed that Building Inspector Jack Roberto issued an Occupancy Permit for the new school on Monday, August 25 and teachers are unpacking and preparing their classrooms this week […]
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Tags: Chip Tarbell, Galvin Middle School, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, photographs, photos, school building, schools, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Summer’s Big Chill
Summer is typically known as a slow period for news. The theory is that people are on vacation and therefore less likely to make news or to be paying attention when other people make news, so what’s the point of making news? Politicians know this. That’s why, despite a Sept. 9 primary and a Nov. […]
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Tags: ALS, Facebook, Galvin Middle School, Ice Bucket Challenge, Mark Sardella, Market Basket, News, Politics, summer, supermarket, Wakefield Daily Item
Amy Herzog’s funny, moving take on the human condition Amy Herzog’s 4000 Miles, currently at the Gloucester Stage Company, deals with some deep matters, including life, death, aging, coming home and moving on. But far from weighing it down, these universal themes emerge as organically as the fruit of a community garden in Herzog’s Obie […]
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Tags: 4000 Miles, Amy Herzog, bicycle, drama, Eric Engel, Gloucester Stage Company, Karl Marx, Manhattan, Mark Sardella, Nancy E. Carroll, play, Samantha Ma, Sarah Oakes Muirhead, theater, theatre, Tom Rash
School’s Out Forever
Galvin demolition conjures ghosts of schools past Watching the big yellow CAT’s giant claw rip through the old Galvin Middle School last week, one couldn’t help but wonder – if those walls could talk, what would they say? (Besides “Get that damn machine away from me!”) They don’t build them like they used to. The […]
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Tags: Baby Boom, Boston Red Sox, Cyrus Wakefield, demolition, Galvin Middle School, General John R. Galvin, Greenwood School, Junior High School, Mark Sardella, schools, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
A Fistful of Dollar Stores
Economic revitalization of downtown areas is usually aimed at sprucing up what’s already here through things like improved, uniform signage and dressing up storefronts as well as attracting the kinds of new businesses that reflect the quaint, warm and homey small town feel that we either remember from our childhoods or have seen on postcards […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: 5 and 10, Dollar Store, Dollar Tree Store, downtown, F.W. Woolworth, Family Dollar, Five and Dime, Five and Ten, J.J. Newberry, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, retail business, stores, W.T. Grant, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Play bends comedy, drama and mystery in one entertaining package Widowed Mary Antonelli, a retired school teacher, and Joe LaCedra, a 64 year-old leg-breaker for the mob, are spending a stormy New Year’s Eve together in Mary’s South Boston home. But this is no social encounter. It’s strictly business. We learn that much in the […]
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Tags: Auld Lang Syne, Douglas Lockwood, Gloucester Stage Company, J Michael Griggs, Jack Neary, Lynn MA, Mark Sardella, Molly Trainer, Paula Plum, play, playwright, Richard Snee, South Boston, Southie, Tareena Wimbish, theater, theatre, Tom Rash
Like other secular national holidays, Independence Day brings its share of reminders of the “true meaning” of the holiday. Enjoy your three-day weekend, we’re told, but take a moment to think about why we observe the day. This seems especially appropriate on Memorial Day and Veterans Day, when we pay tribute to those who fought […]
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Tags: celebration, Fourth of July, Independence Day, John Adams, July 4th, Mark Sardella, Parade, Samuel Adams, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Immovable Objects
For the first time in living memory peddlers in Wakefield, MA are being asked to abide by the town’s regulations. But from the reaction, you’d think that instead of being asked to move 100 feet every two hours they were being forced to run the gauntlet. Contrary to popular belief, local regulations have always indicated […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 8 Comments
Tags: Board of Appeals, Board of Selectmen, business, hawkers, hot dog, ice cream, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, peddlers, slush, transient vendors, vendor, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, zoning
Mark Sardella 