Archive for the ‘Columns & Essays’ Category
The Young and the Reckless
Kenneth Lonergan’s “This Is Our Youth,” currently on stage the Gloucester Stage Company, paints a compelling, passionate and funny – if not pretty – picture of disaffected upper-class youth in Manhattan’s Upper West Side in 1982. I found myself wondering if the play’s title was intended as an observer’s commentary about the play’s twenty something […]
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Tags: Alex Pollock, Amanda Collins, Gail Astrid Buckley, Gloucester, Gloucester Stage Company, Jenna McFarland-Lord, Jimi Stanton, John Malinowski, Kenneth Lonergan, Lewis D. Wheeler, Mark Sardella, Marsha Smith, theater, theatre, This Is Our Youth
It’s the parking…
Pop quiz: What’s the first thing you do if you’re a new business moving into Wakefield Square? If you answered, “Hire Brian McGrail to go before the Zoning Board and get a waiver from the parking requirements,” you would be correct! Bonus question: Why do you need a waiver from the requirements for parking? If […]
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Tags: business, economic development, Lexington, Lynnfield, Mark Sardella, MarketStreet, Massachusetts, Melrose, revitalization, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item
Commencement Speech
We are right in the middle of the graduation season, and I am again available for a small stipend to deliver the keynote address at any commencement ceremonies. Or you can save yourselves the money, save me some time, and spare your graduates a few minutes of agony and just read it here. Graduates, distinguished […]
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Tags: commencement, graduates, graduation, Mark Sardella, school, speech, students, Wakefield Daily Item
Going After Gomez
They say that everybody loves an underdog – unless the underdog happens to be a moderate Massachusetts Republican. The Democrats think you’re the devil incarnate, and a lot of your fellow Republicans call you a Democrat. Scott Brown heard it when he ran, and now Senate candidate Gabriel Gomez is also getting it from both […]
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Tags: campaign, Congress, Ed Markey, Edward Markey, election, Gabriel Gomez, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Politics, senator, US Senate, Wakefield Daily Item
From the Fab Four to 4G
Today, Saturday, Feb. 9, marks a significant anniversary for Baby Boomers. On that date in 1964, a British band known at The Beatles made its US debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. For the benefit of those under 50, the Ed Sullivan Show was a TV staple. It was a variety show that families could […]
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Tags: Beatles, Beyonce, Ed Sullivan Show, Mark Sardella, phones, telephone, Television, Wakefield Daily Item
A Word, Please?
Eliminating a few dozen words from the lexicon will make for a better 2013 It’s the New Year, time for all those obligatory and oh-so-hilarious “Best” and “Worst” lists for the previous year along with predictions for the coming year. I’m taking a different approach. Since nothing good happened in 2012, I’m off the hook […]
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Tags: 2012, 2013, ban, banned, Humor, Mark Sardella, New Year, Wakefield Daily Item, War on Words, words
End of Year Observances
When I speak of “end of year observances” I’m not attempting to concoct a new euphemism for “the holidays,” although, now that it’s come up, it seems as good a place as any to begin. I won’t talk about any “War on Christmas,” which is probably about as worthy of serious consideration as the “War […]
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Tags: Christmas, ethics, holiday, holidays, marijuana, Mark Sardella, moral equivalency, New Year's, Seasons Greetings, Wakefield Daily Item, War on Christmas
Mark Sardella 