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 only can, but has, affected the average weather conditions over a period of years, resulting in climate change (formerly global warming). They further tell us that to save the planet we must institute sweeping changes in our behavior in order to reverse, or at least slow, the rise in global temperature that we have caused.
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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 appear to be in the minority. We live in a hugging society. People hug at the drop of a hat. It’s why I stopped wearing hats.
I’m speaking primarily of social hugging. It has become epidemic. The “hello hug” has become almost de rigueur in some settings. I avoid those settings.
I’m not anti-hugging. Some of my best friends are huggers. What consenting adults do is none of my business.
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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 world’s youngest multi-billionaire.
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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 working in the North Pole IT department downloaded the vast database while pretending to be listening to Christmas tunes online.
It was not known if the North Pole maintained a backup database, but that question was rendered moot yesterday when WikiLeaks made good on its promise and published the list on its web site.
The action led to a blizzard of reactions on the eve of the Christmas holiday.
Continue reading ‘It’s Beginning to Leak a Lot Like Christmas’
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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 been an unearned distinction, conferred by parents at birth by happenstance of geography. There are those who would argue that since the virtual extinction of home births in the last generation or so, there are no more true Wakefield natives being minted. All birth certificates list the town where the hospital birth took place, making many of us technically natives of Melrose or Winchester.
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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.
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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
Two Partings, One Huge Loss
When all was said and done after this long campaign season, Tuesday’s election directly impacted Wakefield, Massachusetts in a couple of key ways. Two of Wakefield’s longtime representatives in the state legislature will no longer be there.
Running for Lt. Governor as Charlie Baker’s running mate, Wakefield’s Sen. Richard Tisei suffered the first loss of his long political career. His senate seat will be assumed by current State Rep. Katherine Clark of Melrose, who defeated Malden’s Craig Spadafora. We’re going to miss Richard Tisei.
State Rep. Mark Falzone was upset by fellow Saugus resident, businessman Donald Wong. Falzone’s district includes half of Wakefield and he was my State Rep.
I can’t say I’ll miss him.
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Tags: Charlei Baker, Donald Wong, election, elections, Mark Falzone, Massachusetts, Politics, Richard Tisei, Saugus, Scott Brown, State House, state representative, State Senator, Wakefield, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass
Donate a Paver for Veterans’ Day
Memorialize a veteran
With Veterans’ Day approaching, Wakefield Selectman John Encarnacao wanted to remind people that they have available to them a unique and permanent way to memorialize the veterans in their family – by contributing for a memorial paver for the “Veterans’ Walk of Remembrance,” which will encircle the new World War II Memorial that will be erected next year on the Common in Wakefield Massaschusetts .
“Everyone in the community has at least one veteran in the family,” Encarnacao noted at the end of last week’s selectmen’s meeting.
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At Lyric Stage in Boston
When The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby debuted in London and then on Broadway, it took on the character of a major theatrical event. The same is expected when David Edgar’s stage adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic makes its New England premier at Boston’s Lyric Stage October 21 – December 19, 2010.
The Lyric Stage production features 25 of the Boston area’s best actors, including Wakefield, Massachusetts native and 1983 Wakefield High School graduate Leigh Barrett.
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Taxes, jobs, illegal immigration and cuts in local aid were among the issues that Massachusetts State Senate candidates Katherine Clark and Craig Spadafora disagreed over in a televised debate Wednesday night in Malden. Clark and Spadafora are vying to represent the 3rd Middlesex District in the State Senate, encompassing Wakefield, Lynnfield, Malden, Melrose Reading and Stoneham. The seat is being vacated by current Sen. Richard Tisei, who is running for Lt. Governor.
Clark is currently a State Rep. representing Melrose and part of Wakefield. Spadafora is a Malden City Councilor.
Spadafora blamed Clark and the state legislature for voting in 2009 to give Gov. Deval Patrick “9C” powers resulting in mid-year cuts in local aid to cities and towns, including a $10 million cut for Malden.
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Mark Sardella 