Archive for the ‘Humor’ Category

“Sister” gets audience into the act at Stoneham Theatre If you plan to attend Sister’s Late Night Catechism “class” currently at Stoneham Theatre, you would do well to arrive early and be in your seat before curtain time. Sister (played by Nonie Newton-Breen) showed no mercy as she comically scolded Saturday night’s late arrivals, much […]


Wakefield needs a hug. The town is struggling financially and its self-esteem may be shot, but help is on the way. The board of selectmen gave preliminary approval last week to a group that wants to stage a “farmers’ market” on Saturday mornings at Hall Park on North Ave starting next summer. I just hope […]


Wednesday, September 24 was a dark and chilly night at Fenway Park, as the Boston Red Sox prepared to play the Cleveland Indians in a meaningless game. The Red Sox had clinched a post-season berth the night before, assuring that there would be October baseball in Boston. Cleveland was going nowhere, achieving a .500 winning […]


I recently reduced my carbon footprint. Did I buy a Prius? No. I could never afford the sticker price. Did I inflate my tires to the proper pressure? The answer is a flat no. Did I install a clothesline in my back yard? Sure – strung between my two windmills. Did I buy a bunch […]


Sentimental comedy about seniors at Stoneham Theatre It doesn’t hurt that playwright/director Jack Neary’s sentimental comedy about senior citizens is set in a working-class eastern Massachusetts neighborhood and features five characters who, to those who grew up in this area, will be as familiar as their own neighbors. But “The Porch” is also a very […]


Every year at around this time, just as the shock of your holiday debt is beginning to set in, the telecoms (formerly known as the cable companies) send out their own Season’s Greetings – in the form of a rate “adjustment.” Somehow, the rates never seem to get adjusted down.


Clive Thompson recently wrote a piece for Wired.com called The Age of Microcelebrity: Why Everyone’s a Little Brad Pitt. “Microcelebrity,” Thompson explains, “is the phenomenon of being extremely well known not to millions but to a small group — a thousand people, or maybe only a few dozen. As DIY media reach ever deeper into […]


Now that the New Hampshire Primary is over, we in Massachusetts may get a very short break from the barrage of “approved messages” on Boston TV and radio stations that have been aimed primarily at voters in the Granite State. Any respite will be short lived, however, with the Massachusetts primary less than a month […]


I like vanity license plates in the same way as I like weddings and children. They’re lots of fun as long as they’re not my own. I would never have a vanity license plate on my car. It’s not just that I’m too cheap, although that’s part of it. And it’s not because of an […]


I am nothing if not ahead of my time. On April 1, 1999, I wrote a column about filling in the Lake and building the “Quannapowitt Casino.” In spite of the date on the newspaper, some people in town actually thought it was a serious proposal. Back then, the state’s economy was booming, cities and […]