Friendly advice
Summer is winding down. Conditioned by the school year, people are squeezing in that last bit of leisure time and resting up for the post-Labor Day ramp-up of activity.
It’s also a truism that late August is a slow news period. That’s not the case at National Public Radio, where the news never rests, all things considered.
Last week, NPR’s website published a hard-hitting piece called, “Men Can Have Better Friendships. Here’s How.” Naturally, it was written by a woman.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics | 1 Comment
Tags: boys, emotions, female, friendship, gender, Humor, Julia Furlan, macho, male, Mark Sardella, masculinity, men, Niobe Way, NPR, Opinion, patriarchy, Politics, research, society, Thomas Page McBee, Tom Brady, Toxic Masculinity, Wakefield Daily Item, women
Charging ahead
We’ve already established that the only thing keeping you from trading in your Subaru for a Schwinn is the lack of bike lanes. Now it turns out that all it will take to get you into a new electric vehicle is for the town to install a few public electric vehicle charging stations.
So, which is it? Bikes or electric vehicles? Has the Sierra Club weighed in yet?
A note on terminology. An electric vehicle, or “EV” if you want to sound like a cognoscente (and, trust me, you do), is one that operates 100 percent on electricity generated mainly by fossil fuels.
Wakefield is in the process of deciding where to place its first three public EV charging stations, which the Wakefield Municipal Gas & Light Department is generously giving to the town. We learned at the August Town Council meeting that eager EV buyers have just been waiting for the charging infrastructure to be put in place. I can see the lines forming at the local Tesla dealership as we speak.
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Tags: battery, bicycles, bike lanes, capitalism, car, cars automobiles, charging stations, Climate Change, cost, electric vehicles, electricity, EVs, fossil fuels, gas, gasoline, Global Warming, Humor, Mark Sardella, Mazda, money, Opinion, planet, Politics, supply and demand, Town Council, transportation, vehicle, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, WMGLD
A simple plan
If you’re looking for someone to blame for bike lanes, look in the mirror.
That’s in effect what the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is saying in a recently released document called the Massachusetts Bicycle Transportation Plan.
MassDOT has developed the Bike Plan “to be an actionable investment strategy to guide its decision-making and bicycle infrastructure investments, as well as support municipalities to improve bikeability.”
The plan lists an “action-oriented strategy” based on three key principles.
“First, reverse the decades-long practice of prioritizing automobile travel.”
The next time you’re stuck in an interminable traffic jam, try to be grateful for your decades of priority status. You are the reason we now need bike lanes.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: America, automobiles, bicycle, bike lanes, bikes, biking, cars, Climate Change, emissions, environment, Global Warming, greenhouse gas, Humor, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, MassDOT, Opinion, planet, Politics, skydiving, soccer, solar, transportation, travel, United States, vehicles, wagonm Radio Flyer, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, windmills, yoga
That’s entertainment!
“How do you do it?” is a question I am frequently asked. “How do you sit through all those boring government meetings?”
I should probably answer that I selflessly attend these meetings in order to be your eyes and ears. I should say that I go to these meetings so that you don’t have to.
The truth is, I do it for the entertainment. It’s like live theater, or these days, soap opera, and not just because meetings are televised.
For sheer entertainment, the Town Council currently offers the best value. It can’t yet hold a candle to some of the cage matches that broke out at the old Board of Selectmen meetings back in the early 2000s, but give it time.
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Tags: agenda, Ann Santos, Common Street, control, Edward Dombroski, entertainment, government, Humor, Jonathan Chines, Julie Smith-Galvin, Mark Sardella, meetings, Mehreen Butt, Opinion, Paul DiNocco, Peter May, Politics, soap opera, Stephen P. Maio, theater, Town Council, town hall, Wakefield MA, warrants
By MARK SARDELLA
GLOUCESTER — Imagine Mel Brooks pressed into service to direct an Alfred Hitchcock movie. You might get something like Patrick Barlow’s witty stage adaptation of Hitchcock’s classic mystery thriller, The 39 Steps. The play version, currently in production at Gloucester Stage, is much more comedy than mystery. And as comedy, it’s very clever indeed.
Although the play includes every scene and most of the dialog from the 1935 film, the actors ham it up for comedic effect and comic/dramatic scenes are highlighted by Foley artist Malachi Rosen’s on-stage musical and theatrical sound effects.
Robert Walsh directs the production in which four actors play over 150 characters in the fast-paced story of Richard Hannay, a bored Londoner, whose attendance at a London Palladium show results in his getting swept up in a murder/espionage adventure with perilous implications for the entire UK.
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Tags: Alfred Hitchcock, Amanda Collins, comedy, drama, Gabriel Kuttner, Gloucester Stage, Humor, Jason Grow, Lewis D. Wheeler, London, London Palladium, Malachi Rosen, Mark Sardella, mystery, Patrick Barlow, Paul Melendy, Robert Walsh., stage, The 39 Steps, theater, thriller
Native tongue
As has oft been stated, Wakefield is a welcoming town, for both visitors and new residents — especially new residents, whom we have a habit of electing to public office before they’ve even finished unpacking.
A couple times a year, Wakefield offers an orientation program for refugees from other communities. It’s called Wakefield 101, where newcomers to our town can talk with representatives from town departments, community groups and local businesses. They can mingle with other migrants and leave with a welcome bag filled with information, fun freebies and a special gift.
Sadly, these efforts have neglected perhaps the most important consideration in helping newcomers assimilate to our culture: learning the language. Some people live here for years and never master the local lexicon. I happen to be fluent in the native tongue, so I’m happy to fill that gap.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 4 Comments
Tags: Americal Civic Center, Bandstand, Board of Selectmen, elections, Forest Glade Cemetery, Frist Parish Congregational Church, Galvin Middle School, Humor, Lake Quannapowitt, Lakeside Cemetery, language, Mark Sardella, natives, North Ave., Old Burial Ground, Opinion, Politics, Rockery, The Common, The Hiker, tourist, town hall, townies, vote, Wakefield 101, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, West Side
The great indoors
When did we become such weather wimps?
Two recent local events that were once routinely held outdoors unless forced inside by a deluge, now automatically happen under the artificial lights of LED bulbs rather than the brilliant sunshine that Mother Nature provides for free.
I’m talking, of course, about the town’s Memorial Day exercises and Wakefield High School’s graduation.
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Tags: attendance, Boy Scouts, Field House, Galvin Middle School, Girl Scouts, graduation, heat, Humor, indoor, Jay Pinnette, Landrigan Field, marching band, Mark Sardella, Memorial Day, Opinion, outdoors, Parade, sunshine, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, weather, World War II Monument
Natural history
I made my feelings known on the topic of bike lanes a few weeks ago. I’m not a fan, but they’re coming, as just one part of a $15 million downtown infrastructure project.
Rightly or wrongly, I associate bike lanes with some other obnoxious trends, like the demonization of automobiles and fossil fuels.
The internal combustion engine is one of the greatest advancements to come out of human ingenuity. But our species is now supposed to feel immense guilt and spend billions of dollars doing penance for the grievous sin of being creative and inventive, for merely using the tremendous gifts bestowed on us by God or nature, depending on your perspective.
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Tags: automobiles, barber, bicycles, bike lanes, downtown, DPW, electricity, energy, Envision Wakefield, food, fossil fuels, God, hospitals, humans, Humor, information, internal combustion engine., invention, leeches, Love and Rockets, Mark Sardella, medicne, News, newspaper, Opinion, Politics, problem solving, Rick Stinson, science, social media, technology, Television, thinking, Town Council, Town Meeting, transportation, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, WCAT
Bad examples
Bad ideas seem to be finding their way to Wakefield with some regularity of late, which is why you should always be aware of what’s going on in nearby communities.
Forewarned is forearmed as they say, and in Massachusetts there’s never a shortage of “initiatives” to be forewarned about.
Let’s start with the least dubious (which isn’t saying much) idea and work our way down.
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, Columbus Day, FDR, holiday, Humor, Indian, Indiginous Peoples Day, League of Women Voters, LWV, Marblehead, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Native American, North Andover, Opinion, Politics, Somerville, Town Meeting, vaping, vote, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, white privilege
Envision bike lanes
I have some bad news and some worse news.
The bad news: Bike lanes are coming to Wakefield Square.
The worse news: There’s not a thing you can do about it.
Why, you ask?
The answer can be expressed in one word: money.
The town wants $15 million from the state for a Main Street infrastructure project. The state wants bike lanes. No bike lanes, no $15 million. It’s as simple as that.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: automobiles, bicycles, bike lanes, cars, design, downtown, Envision Wakefield, Humor, infrastructure, Main Street, Mark Sardella, millennials, money, Opinion, parking, Politics, roads, sidewalks., stakeholders, Town Meeting, traffic, VHB, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Square, WakefieldMA
Mark Sardella 