Couponing for a Cause
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
Wakefield resident Joanne Lima has a uniquely altruistic hobby, and among the principal beneficiaries are those that patronize the Wakefield Interfaith Food Pantry.
“I’m a big couponer and I’m able to coupon at little or no cost,” she says. Whatever she thinks the Food Pantry could use and her family wouldn’t use, she donates. Each month, she donates to the Food Pantry a quantity of goods worth at least $200 if people had to go out and purchase them. By combining coupons and shopping sales, Lima says, she pays next to nothing for the items she donates.
“My hope is that through this story couponers especially will look to donate their overage to benefit other people,” says Lima. “There are only so many bottles of shampoo you can have in your house and there’s always going to be another sale.”
Continue reading ‘Couponing for a Cause’
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Tags: charity, couponers, couponing, coupons, donating, food, Joanne Lima, Mark Sardella, Market Basket, Massachusetts, shopping, Stop & Shop, toiletries, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield Interfaith Food Pantry, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warriors
My Way or the High Way
Everybody knows by now that there is a drug abuse crisis in the state, so naturally Massachusetts officials are doing everything in their power to make life easier for drug users and dealers and harder for the police.
God forbid we do anything that might inconvenience the stoner community.
It seems that hardly a week goes by without these official enablers pushing some measure designed to make it easier to escape any unpleasant consequence of spending your days in a euphoric fog or supplying others with the means to do so.
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Tags: drivers license, driving, drug offenders, drug traffickers, drugs, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Massachusetts Senate, Supreme Judicial Court, Wakefield Daily Item
by Mark Sardella
There are no role models in Israel Horovitz‘s new play, unless you count liars, philanderers, extortionists and murderers among your heroes. But if you like your humor black with a touch of Coen brothers absurdism, you’ll enjoy Gloucester Blue, currently in an extended run at Gloucester Stage through Oct. 11.
Continue reading ‘Classes clash in Horovitz’s ‘Gloucester Blue’’
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Tags: Aerosmith, Esme Allen, Francisco Solorzano, Gloucester Massachusetts, Gloucester Stage, Israel Horovitz, Lewis D. Wheeker, Mark Sardella, play theatre, Robert Walsh., theater, Wakefield Daily Item
Downtown’s Upside
Despite the insistence of the local online Fellowship of the Miserable that the revitalization of downtown Wakefield should happen overnight, in the real world things don’t happen that fast.
But in the past week alone, we saw several hopeful signs that things may be heading in the right direction. Dare we say the word “momentum?”
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Tags: Artichokes, business, Caffe Italia, Caryn's, Duck Walk, economic development, Galvin Middle School, Main Street, Mark Sardella, Sabatinos, Ski & Sport Shack, Sky City, Stephen P. Maio, Sweet Kiwi, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Zoning Board of Appeals
by Mark Sardella (The Wakefield Daily Item)
“Gloucester Blue is a comic thriller and has often been compared to a Coen Brothers movie,” says Wakefield native Israel Horovitz about his new play, which opens this week at Gloucester Stage.
“I can see why,” he says. “It’s a comedy, but quite dark. The final moments of the play are, I think, cripplingly funny. For Massachusetts people, there is much to recognize. I think local people are going to love this play.”
Horovitz grew up in Wakefield, Mass., graduating from Wakefield High School in 1956. His 70+ plays have been translated and performed in as many as 30 languages worldwide and have introduced such actors as Al Pacino, John Cazale, Jill Clayburgh, Marsha Mason, Gerard Depardieu and many others.
Continue reading ‘Horovitz brings ‘Gloucester Blue’ home’
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Tags: Coen brothers, comedy, drama, Esme Allen, Francisco Solorzano, Gloucester Blue, Gloucester MA, Gloucester Stage, Israel Horovitz, Mark Sardella Wakefield Daily Item, Massachusetts, play, playwright, Robert Walsh., theater, theatre, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, working class
by Mark Sardella (Wakefield Daily Item)
Not even a passing shower could dampen the spirits of the dozens who turned out for the Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2015 dedication of the Dr. Paula M. Mullen Field at the Galvin Middle School in Wakefield, Massachusetts.
Teachers and administrative staff past and present joined with friends and family members to pay tribute to one of the most beloved educational leaders to ever serve the Wakefield Public Schools. Dr. Mullen was a respected coach, athletic director, assistant principal and principal. Continue reading ‘Dedicating Dr. Paula M. Mullen Field’
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, News, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: Adam Colantuoni, dedication, Dr. Kim Smith, Dr. Paula M. Mullen Field, education, Galvin Middle School, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Paula Mullen, schools, soccer, Therese Jarmusik, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
The Right Stuff
Wakefield’s long human rights nightmare is over.
No more need to tell your stockbroker to divest from companies doing business in Wakefield, Massachusetts.
Last week, the Board of Selectmen and the School Committee voted to endorse the establishment of a “Wakefield Human Rights Commission.”
You didn’t know that human rights abuses were rampant in Wakefield? Clearly you haven’t been attending ZBA meetings. Continue reading ‘The Right Stuff’
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Tags: anthropocentric, Bill of Rights, blue-green algae, Board of Selectmen, Canada geese, Human Rights Commission, Lake Quannapowitt, Massachusetts, patriarchy, privilege, rights, School Committee, United States Constitution, Wakefield MA, Zoning Board of Appeals
Dunk Tank Diplomacy
The newest addition to last weekend’s Festival Italia was by far the best part of the event and should immediately be made a permanent fixture of this annual celebration.
No, I’m not talking about the Wakefield Civic League booth.
Continue reading ‘Dunk Tank Diplomacy’
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Tags: dunk tank, Evan Kenney, Festival Italia, Gerard Leeman, Gregory Liakos, Jason Lewis, Jay Ash, Joseph Tringale, Mark Sardella, Paul Brodeur, politicians, Politics, Stephen P. Maio, Thomas Markham, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Interfaith Foof Pantry, Wakefield MA. Massachusetts
‘The Flick’ is the reel thing
From the opening scene, connections – real, missed and misplaced are on the minds of the three principal characters in The Flick, Massachusetts playwright Annie Baker’s 2014 Pulitzer winning drama at Gloucester Stage now through Sept. 12.
As they do their post-movie “walk-through” to sweep up spilled popcorn and other trash in a run-down central Massachusetts movie theater, Sam (played by Nael Nacer) quizzes new employee Avery (Marc Pierre) in a game of “six degrees of separation” of movie actor trivia. Avery, a kind of movie savant, never fails to find the connections.
Continue reading ‘‘The Flick’ is the reel thing’
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Tags: Annie Baker, Bridget Kathleen O'Leary, Courtney Nelson, David Remedios, film, Gloucester Stage, James Weschler, Lara Jardullo, Marc Pierre, Mark Sardella, Marsha Smith, Massachusetts, Melissa Jesser, movie, movies, Nael Nacer, play, Russ Swift, The Flick, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item
Not Cool
Last week, a drunk Lynnfield woman was spotted driving the wrong way on Route 128, heading south on the northbound side of the highway. Luckily, Wakefield Police were able to stop and arrest her before she killed herself or anyone else.
She was wasted on a legal drug, alcohol, not (as far as we know) on the, as of this moment, still illegal marijuana. But this incident does raise the obvious question: Why on earth would anyone want to add another legal mind-altering drug to the mix?
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Filed under: Columns & Essays, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: addiction, alcohol, Charlie Baker, drugs, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, medical marijuana, pot, prohibition, Route 128, smoking, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police, weed
Mark Sardella 