Dear Wakefield High
In the run-up to the Nov. 8, 2016 election that legalized pot in Massachusetts, how many times did you hear that legalizing recreational marijuana would never lead to increased pot use among youth?
I heard it dozens of times, in paid advertisements, in op-ed pieces and on social media. The level of denial that legalization would lead to more marijuana use by kids was wider and deeper than any river in Egypt.
“That’s a lie!” they’d scream.
“There’s no proof of that,” they’d howl.
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Tags: 2016, cannabis, Catherine Dhingra, Cheech & Chong, driving, drugs, election, Galvin Middle School, high, Humor, legalization, marijuana, Massachusetts, medicine, Opinion, Politics, pot, potheads, stoned, stoners, Wakefield High School, weed, WHS, WMHS, youth, Youth Risk Behavior Survey
Name shaming
Wakefield’s inexorable slide from a proud, blue collar, working class town to the precious PC world inhabited by communities like Cambridge, Concord and Lexington accelerated just a bit this month when the Board of Selectmen decided that it would, after all, like to change its name to one that does not have the word “men” in it.
They say it’s a move toward “gender neutrality,” and that may be the intent locally. But what’s brought us to this day is rooted in a place much darker than that.
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Ann Santos, Board of Selectmen, Brookline, definition, dictionary, Ed Dombroski, election, gender neutral, History, Humor, man, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Mehreen Butt, men, name, Opinion, PC, Peter May, political correctness, Politics, Rena M. Colson, sex, Steve Maio, Tony Longo, Town Meeting, tradition, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, women
No win zone
Sometimes, the people in charge of things just can’t win, especially in the age of social media, where everybody’s a pundit.
Recently, town officials announced several more initiatives to try to revitalize the downtown. Of course, it’s never enough. Or is it too much? Either way, the town is sure to get slammed for doing it. Or not doing it. It’s the classic case of damned if you do and damned if you don’t.
Let’s take a look at some of the more common complaints and the responses.
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, business, business district, commercial property, development, Dog Park, Dollar Tree, downtown, economic development, Facebook, Malden, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Melrose, merchants, parking, police, pundits, Ralph Waldo Emerson, schools, signs, social media, taxpayers, traffic, Twitter, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, zoning
Food for thought
My horoscope for Saturday, Aug. 19 said that I would be faced with a difficult choice. As always, it was correct, which is why I base all major decisions on the stars.
Everything good always happens on the same day. My dilemma on Saturday was whether to grab my Louisville Slugger and my mask and head into Boston to fight the fantasy fascists or go to Festival Italia in Wakefield.
I decided that the food would probably be better at Festival Italia. Since my anti-fascist brothers and sisters outnumbered the Free Speech demonstrators by roughly 30,000 – 40, I figured they probably wouldn’t need my muscle in Boston.
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Tags: America, Boston Common, Charlottesville, counter-protest, demonstration, fascist, Festival Italia, food, Free Speech Rally. Boston, Ku Klux Klan, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Nazis, new england patriots, police, protest, rally, riot, social justice, Tim Carter, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
By MARK SARDELLA
It should come as no surprise that as playwright Israel Horovitz has grown older, the 1956 Wakefield High School graduate’s plays have explored themes of aging. The title of last year’s “Man in Snow” referred in one sense to the whitening hair that comes with age.
In “Out of the Mouths of Babes,” Horovitz’s current offering at Gloucester Stage, he returns to his beloved Paris where four women have arrived for the funeral of the 100-year-old man who loved all of them – at times separately and at times simultaneously – along with a host of other conquests along the way.
These “babes” out of whose mouths Horovitz’s words come were all one-time students of the professor/writer who became lovers and/or wives of the “rock star” university teacher. They arrive in succession at the Paris apartment that they each at various times shared with of the recently deceased centenarian.
Continue reading ‘Israel Horovitz’s latest play is a witty comedy’
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Tags: comedy, Debra Wise, France, French, Gary Ng, Gloucester Stage, Israel Horovitz, Mark Sardella, Obehi Janice, Out of the Mouths of Babes, Paris, Paula Plum, play, Sarah Hickler, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, women
Weeded out
The good news for the Cannabis Community is the Massachusetts Legislature finally finished tinkering with the law making recreational marijuana legal and Gov. Charlie Baker has signed it.
The bad news is the first pot shops won’t open for another 324 days.
But who’s counting.
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Tags: Attorney General, Boston 25 News, Boston Herald, business, Cannabinoid Hyperemesis Syndrome, Charlie Baker, chronic, CHS, Colorado, doctors, ganja, hash, hemp, Jeff Sessions, joint, law, legalization, legislature, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Maura Healey, pot, Question 4, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed
Our beautiful Lake
At long last, I’ve seen the light.
I’m admittedly a slow learner, but it has come to my attention that some readers find my weekly entries in the space needlessly caustic. Some might say “snarky” or even “mean.” I was deeply troubled when I learned of this. The knowledge that my writing may have caused anyone to entertain uncomfortable thoughts or experience unpleasant feelings was more than I could bear, once it finally sank in.
That’s just not who I am.
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Tags: apology, civil rights, civility, column, constructive, diversity, hate, human rights, Humor, inclusivity, Lake Quannapowitt, marijuana, Matk Sardella, mea culpa, multiculturalism, Opinion, Politics, pothead, reefer, sarcasm, satire, sensitivity, snark, sustainability, tolerant, uplifting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed, white privilege
Hate-free zone
Hate has no home here.
There. I said it. I am now officially a good person.
I’m considering adopting that as the permanent tagline for my column so that people will know that this is safe place, where they won’t find ideas that they disagree with or make them uncomfortable. But that’s just a secondary reason.
The main reason I’m doing it is so that everyone will know what virtuous, noble person I am.
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Filed under: History, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 5 Comments
Tags: coexist, conspicuous compassion, conspicuous consumption, diversity, Hate Free Zone, Hate Has No Home Here, Human Rights Commission, Mark Sardella, open borders, Selma, signs, Subaru, Tesla, Thorstein Veblen, virtue signaling, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
Let it rain
‘The Rainmaker’ at Gloucester Stage
By MARK SARDELLA
GLOUCESTER – I almost didn’t go to see The Rainmaker when it opened at Gloucester Stage last weekend. But I’m very glad I changed my mind and went to see this classic American play by N. Richard Nash.
Written in the early 1950s, The Rainmaker is easily the best known of Nash’s plays. Some may remember the 1956 film adaptation starring Burt Lancaster and Katherine Hepburn. But although it has been revived frequently on stage, many have never seen it. Under the skillful direction of Artistic Director Robert Walsh, Gloucester Stage is bringing this uplifting work to a whole new audience.
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Tags: Brian Homer, Dave Rich, David DeBeck, drama, drought, Gloucester, Jessica Bates, Joe Short, Mark Sardella, N. Richard Nash, Norman Jones, play, review, Robert Walsh., Sean McCoy, The Rainmaker, theater, theatre Gloucester Stage, Wakefield Daily Item
A hero in the family
By MARK SARDELLA
The long July Fourth holiday weekend was a source of fun and enjoyment for most of us. For one local family, it also produced an authentic hero.
Broadway resident and Wakefield High School teacher Erin Chrisos, her husband Steve and their two children, three and-a-half-year-old Noah and one-month-old Fiona were on vacation in Old Orchard Beach last week with Erin’s parents and her younger brother, Wakefield Police Sergeant Thomas Flynn.
But at about 6:30 p.m. last Saturday, an otherwise peaceful vacation in Maine turned terrifying and chaotic for the Chrisos family.
“My one month-old daughter vomited and began to choke,” Erin says. “Every parent’s worse nightmare is realizing your child is not breathing.”
But thanks to his police training, Tom Flynn knew what to do and took charge of the situation.
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Tags: 9/11, Batman, Biddeford, choking, Erin Chrisos, Family, first responders, hero, Maine, Mark Sardella, officer, Old Orchard Beach, police, Sgt. Thomas Flynn, vacation, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police Department
Mark Sardella 