Archive for the ‘Feature stories’ Category
Lady killer
Tony Costa is the most vicious serial killer you never heard of, which is all the more remarkable considering he plied his trade right here in Massachusetts. He didn’t just murder his victims. He eviscerated and dismembered them. And like so many other serial killers, Tony Costa was a real tough guy. He preyed on […]
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, News, Opinion, Reviews | 2 Comments
Tags: 1960s, 1969, book, book review, Cape Cod, Casey Sherman, Chappaquiddick, Charles Manson, Charlie Manson, Edmund Dinis, Edward M. Kennedy, Helltown, hippies, Kurt Vonnegut, Mark Sardella, Mary Anne Wusocki, Mary Jo Kopechne, Massachusetts, Moon Landing, murder, NASA, Norman mailer, Patricia Walsh, Provincetown, review, Roman Polanski, Sharon Tate, Sixties, Susan Perry, Tony Costa, true crime, Truro, Wakefield Daily Item
An Irish homecoming
A cold October rain was falling as I turned my rented Nissan Sunny down the dirt lane in the village of Portglenone, Northern Ireland. The road was barely wide enough for one vehicle and had grass growing between tire-worn tracks. Up on a hill in the distance, I could make out a pickup truck. A […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Family, Feature stories, History, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: Ahoghill, Ballymena, Beechfield Guest House, Blaney, Clare Blaney, Colm Blaney, Dympna Blaney, Family, family history, genealogy, Harry Blaney, History, Ireland, John Blaney, Matk Sardella, Northern Ireland, Portglenone, Rosetta O'Hara, Sean Blaney, travel, Una Lynch, Wakefield Daily Item
Return to ‘Wakefield Tonight’
Many years before I became an ink-stained wretch, I toiled in another branch of local media. It was way back in the last century, the 1980s, to be precise, when I produced and directed Wakefield’s first regularly-scheduled TV comedy/talk show. Cable TV was new and all the rage. Cable companies vied for lucrative contracts in […]
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Community, Feature stories, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Profiles, Reviews, Television, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: 1980s, Bill Downwes, Bob Brooks, Bob Lazarus, Bob Seibel, Boston, cable TV, camcorder, Carl Yarde, Chance Langton, Charlie Brooks, Charlie Golub, Comcast, comedians, comedy, comedy clubs, comics, Community Television, Elaine Gold, Gary Stuart, Giggles, Internet, Janeane Garofalo, Johnny Carson, Jon Rubin, Linda Franklin, local TV, Massachusetts, monopoly, Open Mike, Prince Pizzeria, public access television, RCN, Rich Ceisler, smartphone, Sony 1800. Betamax, stand-up, Steve Faria, Stu Wiley, talk show, Television, Tony Morewood, Tony V, TV studio, verizon, viideo, Wakefield Community Access Television, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Public Access, Wakefield Tonight, Warner Cable, Warner-Amex, WCAT, YouTube
WAKEFIELD — Greenwood native Thomas A.C. Ellis has written a new, comprehensive history of Wakefield’s role in the Civil War. It is a worthy companion to other volumes written on the history of the town. Ellis is an independent Civil War historian who decided to write the book after he searched for information regarding Wakefield’s […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Feature stories, History, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: battle, book, Civil War, Confederacy, Cyrus Wakefield, History, Lakeside Cemetery, Major Horace M. Warren, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, military, Richardson Light Guard, South Reading, Thomas A.C. Ellis, Tom Ellis, union, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield’s Civil War Service, women
Theory of relativity
For something that supposedly doesn’t exist in any public school anywhere, an awful lot of effort and ink have been spent of late trying to convince us of it’s non-existence. Critical race theory, they insist in no uncertain terms, has no place in public education. The messaging usually goes something like this: “Of course we’re […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 14 Comments
Tags: Bakari Sellers, classroom, Critical Race Theory, CRT, Culturally Relevant Teaching, culturally responsive teaching, curriculum, Douglas Lyons, Dr. Clint Smith, education, educators, equity, Jamilah Pitts, Jason Pavey, Judith Briggs, Margaret Messier, Mark Sardella, Marxist theory, MASC, Massachusetts Association of School Committees, Opinion, Politics, schoold, social justice, Social Studies, students, Suzt Veilleux, teachers, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Public Schools, Wakefield School Committee
A simple choice
Out-of-state donors are pouring millions into an effort to forever alter the outcomes of Massachusetts elections. Unfortunately for them, the concept of ranked choice voting is so convoluted that it can’t be convincingly explained in a one-minute TV ad or even with an oversized, glossy, two-sided mailer.
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Tags: ballot question, ballots, candidates, carpetbaggers, elections, Humor, John Arnold, Laura Arnold, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, money, Opinion, Politics, ranked-choice voting, Secretary of the Commonwealth, Shauna Hamilton, Texas, vote, voting, Wakefield Daily Item
Pride of the Yankees
I was vaguely aware that John J. Round had been a town official way back at the beginning of the 20th century. But, like most people, I had no inkling about his more significant contributions to the town. I had no idea, for example, that he had purchased entire tracts of land in the areas […]
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Tags: altruism, Anglo-Saxons, Arthur G. Walton, Bandstand, Cornelius Sweetser, Crystal Lake, Cyrus Wakefield, Galvin Middle School, Gardner Campbell, Greenwood, JJ Round Park, John J. Round, Lucius Beebe, Lucius Beebe Memorial Library, Mark Sardella, money, old white men, philanthropy, Pilgrims, Protestant, Sweetser Lecture Series, trees, Wakefield Common, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Town Hall, Walton Field, Yankees
For those who like music spiced with a bit of history – or vice versa – last Saturday’s Polymnia Choral Society production of Franz Josef Haydn’s The Creation was a doubly rewarding experience. The sanctuary of Wakefield’s First Parish Congregational Church was a fitting venue in which to experience Haydn’s oratorio depicting the miracle of […]
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Tags: Bible, church, classical, concert, Dana Lynne Varga, Eileen Worthley, First Congregational Church, Franx Josef Haydn, instruments, John Milton, Joseph Holmes, Melrose MA, music, oratorio, Paradise Lost, Philip Lima, Polymnia Choral Society, Sylvia Berry, The Creation, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
Give Bees a chance
Lake Quannapowitt is Wakefield’s jewel – an emerald, judging by the color. It’s August, and like the swallows returning to Capistrano, blue-green algae, aka cyanobacteria, has returned Lake Quannapowitt to the color of pea soup. Last week, the town issued a public health warning.
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, Humor, Nature & Wildlife, News, Opinion, Photography, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: blue-green algae, boats, cyanobacteria, EPA, fertilzer, Frank J. Luciani Jr, Groundhog Day, Humor, Lake Quannapowitt, lawns, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Michael Collins, Opinion, phosphorus, Politics, SolarBees, sunlight, Wakefield MA, WakefieldDaily Item
Polymnia pays tribute to Elvis
Memorial Hall in Melrose was “All Shook Up” last Saturday night as the Polymnia Choral Society presented its “Tribute to Elvis, the King of Rock.” Polymnia and the King share a historical timeline. Polymnia was founded in Wakefield in 1953, the year Elvis Presley recorded his first demo at Sun Studio in Memphis. In 1956, […]
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Tags: Eileen Worthley, Elvis Presley, Jillian Casa, Lauren Abramson, Mark Sardella, Melrose MA, Murray Kidd, music, Polymnia Choral Society, rock, She Major, songs, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
Mark Sardella 