Archive for the ‘Opinion’ Category
Sound Advice
We’ve all heard the expression “political echo chamber,” but until the recent debates who knew that the term referred to Wakefield‘s own Galvin Middle School Auditorium? I don’t know what it sounded like to the live audience of a dozen people who packed the hall, but for those of us on stage there was more […]
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Tags: cable TV, Daily Item, debate, debates, echo, Galvin Middle School, Politics, reverb, sound, Television, TV, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts, WCAT
Snow Conditions
Despite the official arrival of spring on March 20, Old Man Winter issued a reminder this week that he hasn’t yet ruled out an encore performance of Let It Snow. Still, the deep blanket of white that many of us feared would still be with us in June has all but disappeared, along with the […]
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Tags: boards, Daily Item, Order of Conditions, Planning Board, plowing, Shaw's, Shaw's Supermarket, snow, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts, winter, ZBA, Zoning Board of Appeals
A Wakefield Kid After All
On March 11, 2011, Scott Brown, the United States Senator who grew up in Wakefield, Massachusetts will be inducted into the Wakefield High School Alumni Hall of Fame. Even Sen. Brown, whose time growing up here was often far from idyllic, would probably concede that Wakefield wasn’t a bad place to grow up. Just after […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Opinion, Politics, Reviews, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Daily Item, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Scott Brown, Sen. Scott Brown, senate United States Senate, Senator Scott Brown, US Senate, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield High School Alumni Hall of Fame, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
Cabin Fever Notebook
You’ve probably heard that Mark Twain once observed, “Everybody talks about the weather but nobody does anything about it.” The quote was intended to humorously illustrate the obvious point that humans can’t control the weather – or at least they couldn’t in the time of Mark Twain. Nowadays, scientists tell us that human activity not […]
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Tags: blizzard, Climate Change, cold, Daily Item, frozen, Global Warming, ice, Mark Sardella, Mark Twain, NOAA, snow, snow storms, snowfall, snowstorms, storm, storms, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, winter
Don’t hug me, bro!
Friday, January 21, 2011 is National Hugging Day. Participation is not mandatory, despite the dawning of our nation’s new Era of Civility. I will not be observing National Hugging Day. Partly by design and partly by default, I am not a hugger – not of people and most certainly not of trees. In this I […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Daily Item, hug, hugging, hugs, Humor, Mark Sardella, National Hugging Day, poles, utility pole, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts
College, Cops & Computers
New Year’s Day is the day on which many people embark on self-improvement programs. Not me. On January 1, I subjected my self-esteem to a beating by going to see The Social Network, the 2010 movie about the founding of Facebook by a brilliant Harvard student, Mark Zuckerberg, who has gone on to become the […]
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Tags: Campus PD, COPS, Daily Item, Facebook, film, films, Fox, G4, Harvard, Item, Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Sardella, Mark Zuckerberg, movie, movies, police, Television, The Social Network, TV, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item
The New York Times reported this week that WikiLeaks claimed to have obtained Santa Claus’s 2010 Christmas list and would release the names of millions of people worldwide and the gifts that they would be receiving on Dec. 25. It was unclear how WikiLeaks obtained the list, but it is believed that a low-level elf […]
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Tags: Christmas, Daily Item, Humor, Mark Sardella, North Pole, Santa, Santa Claus, satire, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, WikiLeaks
Nativity Seen
Being a Wakefield native isn’t what it used to be. Not so very long ago, being able to say that you were born and raised here was seen as something special – a distinction that one could lord over those who moved here, for example, a mere 20 years ago (tourists). Of course, it’s always […]
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Tags: 128, Bandstand, Daily Item, Hiker, Mark Sardella, Rockery, Route 128, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
Old School
The town is preparing to accept bids from developers that will determine the future of the Franklin School, and if things go as expected, another of a generation of nine schools that the town built around the turn of the 20th century will enter a new phase in its long existence.
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, History, Opinion, Profiles, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Beatrice Moody, buildings, Daily Item, Dorothy Remick, Elizabeth Brawley, Elizabeth Strout, Franklin School, Greenwood, Greenwood School, Hamilton School, Hilda Hayden, Hurd School, James Bolton, Jim Bolton, John J. McCarthy Senior Center, Lincoln School, Montrose School, Nazareth Academy, schools, teacher, teachers, Thomas Allard, Tom Allard, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts, Warren School, West Ward School, Woodville School
Mark Sardella 