High resolution
This week, the Wakefield Board of Selectmen passed a resolution opposing the legalization of marijuana, dealing a devastating blow to the local Cannabis Community.
On the bright side, most of them were too high to notice.
Dude, don’t the selectmen know that people have a Constitutional right to smoke weed? The Constitution was written on hemp paper, so its like, literally in the Constitution, man.
With arguments like that, how can Question 4 on the Nov. 8 ballot possibly lose?
Continue reading ‘High resolution’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: ballot, Bob DeLeo, bong, Boston, cannabis, David Njuguna, driving, drug abuse, drugs, edibles, election, ganja, Gov. Charlie Baker, hemp, herb, joint, legalization, Lt. Thomas Clardy, marijuana. pot, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Maura Healey, Mayor Martin Walsh, medical, prohibition, Question 4, Sen. Jason Lewis, THC, US Constitution, vote, Wakefield Board of Selectmen, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, weed
Fine print
Lately, I don’t feel like my week is complete until I’ve been lectured by a millennial about one thing or another. Usually it’s about the evil of plastic bags or how many genders there are or how the Founding Fathers all smoked hemp, dude.
The usual venue for these sermons is social media, where I’m about as popular as a mosquito at the Olympics.
Recently, I was informed for about the 7 millionth time that young people don’t read newspapers.
Stop the presses, as we used to say in the dinosaur print medium.
It usually happens after someone expresses horror over hearing about some new development in town. Things quickly go downhill after I gently and politely point out that this “sudden” change has been in the news for months.
Continue reading ‘Fine print’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Baby Boomers, citizenship, civics, education, Facebook, First Amendment, Founding Fathers, Freedom of the Press, Great Depression, Greatest Generation, hippies, Invasion of Normandy, Mark Sardella, media, millenials, mosquito, News, newspapers, Olympics, peace movement, Politics, press, schools, social media, Stephen Colbert, Twitter, Wakefield Daily Item, Zika
By MARK SARDELLA
Morgan Flynn is living her dream.
The 2012 Wakefield Memorial High School graduate is the Directing Apprentice for the current season at Gloucester Stage, where she is getting to work directly with a series of professional theater directors, a job that she aspires to.
“I went to school thinking I wanted to be an actor and then I sort of found directing about halfway through,” Flynn says. “Directing, I just feel really at home.”
Continue reading ‘Morgan Flynn’s theater career is just taking off’
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Feature stories, Profiles, theater, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: acting, actor, Commonwealth Shakespeare Company, Directing Apprentice, director, Gloucester Stage, Kennedy Center American College Theatre Festival, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Morgan Flynn, Paula Plum, play, Rick Lombardo, Robert Walsh., Salem State University, stage, The Last Schwartz, theater theatre, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Zoe Laufer
Where’s the Money?
Now that July 19 is behind us, can we finally admit that all the hand-wringing over the Special Election had nothing to do with it costing the town $10,000 and everything to do with politics and the person who filed for the Special Election?
After Phyllis Hull collected the 200 signatures needed to force the selectmen to call a Special Election, six people ran for a single nine-month term on the Board of Selectmen in a mid-summer election that people said was a waste of money.
Seldom have so many expended so much effort for so little.
Continue reading ‘Where’s the Money?’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Ally Houghton, Betsy Sheeran, Board of Selectmen, campaign, candidates, Chris Callanan, Dan Benjamin, election, Galvin Middle School, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Mehreen Butt, money, Nate Gayman, Phyllis Hull, Politics, schools, special election, taxes, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA
Nobody asked, but…
Things like the recent Independence Day celebration and the upcoming Festival Italia remind me that civic groups that actually do things are a lot more interesting (not to mention fun) than the ones that exist just air grievances and self-promote.
If it’s true that after July Fourth, the summer flies by, then why do I have the feeling that we’re in for a long, hot summer? 
At least we have the Democratic and Republican National Conventions to look forward to.
Not to mention our own Special Election on July 19.
Speaking of summer, since the Olde Towne Team has managed to get to the All Star break still in contention, is there any way that Wright and Porcello can pitch every other day?
And speaking of the local nine, why don’t baseball teams have cheerleaders – or hockey teams, for that matter.
Not that Senator Jason Lewis and Governor Charlie Baker care, but I’m willing to be a one-issue voter as long as they oppose marijuana legalization.
Call me old-fashioned, but I still think of cops as the good guys.
Continue reading ‘Nobody asked, but…’
Filed under: baseball, Columns & Essays, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: baseball, bomb dogs, Boston Red Sox, Charlie Baker, COPS, female, Festival Italia, genders, golf, hockey, Indepencence Day, Jason Lewis, Lois Lane, male, marijana, plastic bags, Pokemon, police, pot, price point, Rick Porcello, smart phone, Srop Sign, Steven Wright, Superman, tomato plants, weather girls, weed
All in the family feud
Deborah Zoe Laufer’s comedy ‘The Last Schwartz’ at Gloucester Stage
By MARK SARDELLA
GLOUCESTER — The Last Schwartz, by Deborah Zoe Laufer is a play about family ties – the ones that bind, the ones that bend and the ones that break.
In the opening scene, Herb Schwartz’s wife Bonnie (Brianne Beatrice) is describing to family members an Oprah episode about the strongest family tie imaginable, that of conjoined Siamese twins. Bonnie relates how on the show the twin girls each express their hopes and dreams. One wants to be a doctor. The other wants to be a mother and have a family.
But when the twins add that they would never want to be surgically separated, neither Oprah nor her studio audience betrays that their goals are unattainable.
Continue reading ‘All in the family feud’
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Feature stories, Opinion, Reviews, theater | Leave a Comment
Tags: Andrea Goldman, Brianne Beatrice, Deborah Zoe Laufer, Family, Gabriel Kuttner, Glen Moore, Gloucester Stage, Gloucester Stage Company, Jewish, Judaism, Mark Sardella, Paul Melendy, Paula Plum, The Last Schwartz, theater, theatre, Veronica Anastasio Wiseman, Wakefield Daily Item
By MARK SARDELLA
The campaign to oppose a likely question on the Nov. 6 election ballot seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use is picking up steam, as State Senator Jason Lewis appeared before the Board of Selectmen on Monday to present the case for voting “no” on recreational pot.
Lewis headed a year-long study by a committee of Massachusetts lawmakers on the impact of legalizing recreational marijuana in Massachusetts. Based on everything that he learned, Lewis said that he is strongly opposed to the ballot measure that will likely go before voters in November seeking to legalize marijuana for recreational use and allow it to be sold commercially.
Lewis has joined the Campaign for a Safe and Healthy Massachusetts, a bipartisan effort to oppose recreational marijuana. The campaign is spearheaded by Gov. Charlie Baker, Speaker of the House Robert DeLeo and Boston mayor Marty Walsh.
Continue reading ‘Senator Lewis: Just say ‘no’ to legalizing pot’
Filed under: Columns & Essays | 1 Comment
Tags: >Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents, 4Front Ventures, AIM, alcohol, Association for Behavioral Healthcare, hemp, legalization, lobbyists, marijuana, marijuana industry, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police, Massachusetts District Attorneys, Massachusetts Hospital Association, Massachusetts Medical Society, money profit, National Association of Mental Illness of Massachusetts, pot, Retailers Association of Massachusetts, SAMHSA, Sen. Jason Lewis, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, Wakefield Daily Item, weed
By MARK SARDELLA
WAKEFIELD — With Lake Quannapowitt as the backdrop, Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan stood shoulder to shoulder with a host of local officials yesterday to convey a life-saving message about water safety this summer.
And to hammer the point home, the Wakefield Fire Department conducted a simulated drowning rescue, swimming far out into the Lake to save a “victim” and deliver her to waiting Action Ambulance EMTs.
Ryan noted that in Middlesex County there are 136 lakes and ponds and 22 rivers.
“They offer many opportunities for recreational activity,” Ryan observed, “but all too often that fun turns to tragedy in accidents that could have and should have been avoided.”
Ryan cited a Centers for Disease Control report that from 2005 to the present, 10 people died every single day in swimming or some other water-related incidents (not including boating). Of those, she said, 5,000 were children.
“This is what we’re trying to avoid as we go into the summer,” she said.
Continue reading ‘DA brings water safety message to Wakefield’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, News, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Action Ambulance, Adam Rodgers, boating, Boys & Girls Club of Stoneham & Wakefield, Captain Mary Walker, District Attorney Marian Ryan, drowning, Fire Chief Michael Sullivan, Lake Quannapowitt, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Environmental Police, Middlesex County, Mike Woronka, Police Chief Richard Smith, rescue, safety, swimming, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Fire Department, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police, water, water safety
The walk of life
By MARK SARDELLA
They came to celebrate life and they came to reaffirm a commitment to defeat cancer.
And they came to walk.
More than 1,000 people made their way to the athletic field at Northeast Metro Tech on Friday, June 17, 2016 for Wakefield’s Relay For Life. They included cancer survivors, caregivers and participants in 53 teams as well as other supporters.
Before the event ended, they had raised more than $100,000 for the American Cancer Society.
Continue reading ‘The walk of life’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Feature stories, News, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: American Cancer Society, Anthony Longo, Darcy Corrigan, Donald Wong, House Calls Catering, Julie Budd, Mark Sardella, Mary McKenzie, Massachusetts, Northeast Metro Tech, Paul Brodeur, Relay for Life, survivors, The Savings Bank, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
By MARK SARDELLA
Whether or not you have read or studied Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem, The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, you are undoubtedly familiar with a few of the phrases and idioms that the work gave to the English language.
“Water, water, every where,/ Nor any drop to drink,” is one. But the metaphor of an albatross around one’s neck has become an English language idiom referring to a heavy burden of guilt that becomes an obstacle to success.
“Albatross,” the current one-man play at Gloucester Stage Company, is both a retelling and an extension of Coleridge’s epic poem. Co-written by Matthew Spangler and Benjamin Evett (who also performs as the mariner) the play appends to the poem a prologue that explains how the mariner got on board the ship.
Continue reading ‘Albatross soars at Gloucester Stage’
Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Reviews, theater | Leave a Comment
Tags: Albatross, Benjamin Evett, Cristina Todesco, Frances Nelson McSherry, Garrett Herzig, Gloucester Stage, Leslie Sears, mariner, Mark Sardella, Matthew Spamgler, play, Rick Lombardo, Rime of the Ancient Mariner, sailor, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, sea, ship, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item
Mark Sardella 