My Commencement Address
I read with interest an article in last Friday’s Boston Globe about the intense competition faced by schools at this time of year as they try to land the most in-demand commencement speakers. My interest turned to eager anticipation when I got to the part where it said that some high-profile commencement speakers, like Rudy Giuliani, are paid up to $100,000 per appearance and are transported to and from graduation exercises by private jet.
At long last, I have found my calling.
I’m not kidding myself. I know I’m not in Rudy Giuliani’s league. But the Globe goes on to say that in this economy, some schools can’t afford the top tier talent. That’s why I’ve decided to make my services available at a steep discount. I’m willing to accept a mere $50,000 to deliver a commencement address anytime, anywhere. At that rate, I can deliver one or two speeches each spring, and spend the rest of the year doing what I do best – whatever that is.
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Shakespeare with a Twist
Wakefield, Massachusetts is well-represented in Quannapowitt Players show
The cast of “The Curate Shakespeare As You Like It,” the current Quannapowitt Players production, features three Wakefield actors portraying actors playing multiple roles in As You Like It. Wakefield resident Donna Corbett also directs the play-within-a-play.
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Tags: As You Like It, Brian Sensale, comedy, community theater, community theatre, Curate, Don Nigro, Donna Corbett, drama, Elizabeth Sheeran, Hugh Metzler, Karen Dervin, Kathleen Dalton, play, Quannapowitt Players, Reading, Reading MA, Reading Massachusetts, Shakespeare, Shawn Maguire, Shayne Doherty, stage, theater, theatre, Wakefield, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts
Total Recall
Massachusetts town solves voter apathy problem
Outraged that only 145 voters showed up at Wakefield‘s Annual Town Meeting session to vote on the town’s $67 million FY’11 operating budget, a group of local citizens has filed a petition to recall Wakefield’s remaining 16,301 registered voters.
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Tags: apathy, budget, budgets, Daily Item, election, elections, government, Mark Sardella, municipal budget, municipal government, municipalities, municipality, Open Town Meeting, recall, recall effort, recall efforts, recall election, recall petition, recall petitions, tax, taxes, town, Town Meeting, Town Meetings, towns, vote, voter, voter apathy, voters, voting, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
A recent incident at Wakefield High School in Massachusetts illustrates just how much our country has changed in just one generation – and not for the better.
A few weeks ago, a substitute teacher at Wakefield High School, who is also the father of a soldier who gave his life in Iraq, reprimanded a student who allegedly made a sarcastic statement about having to stand during the Pledge of Allegiance. The teacher, Joseph Bellavia, is himself a retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel.
Bellavia says that he reminded the student that her right not to stand during the Pledge was purchased through the sacrifices of soldiers like himself and his late son.
He says that as a result of the incident he was summoned to a meeting with the principal where he was told that his services as a substitute teacher would no longer be needed at Wakefield High School.
But that is a separate issue that is between Bellavia and the school administration. I would like to address a larger issue.
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Tags: America, American Flag, flag, Joe Bellavia, Joseph Bellavia, Old Glory, patriotism, Pledge of Allegiance, public schools, Russell Nelson, school, schools, Stars and Stripes, teacher, teachers, United States, United States of America, US, USA, veteran, veterans, Wakefield, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
A Baseball Education
Last week, I attended my first Boston Red Sox opening day, a game against the World Champion New York Yankees. My father, Steve Sardella, was born 89 years ago this week in Wakefield, Massachusetts. These two seemingly unrelated facts are linked in my mind because my father was a huge Yankee fan, despite having lived his entire life just outside Boston.
I don’t know exactly how to explain my father’s allegiance to the Yankees. It may have had something to do with the fact that the Yankees were among the first teams to sign Italian-American players like Tony Lazzeri, Frankie Crosetti and of course, Joe DiMaggio.
Growing up, I received my early baseball education watching Red Sox broadcasts with my father on a black and white TV. Back in the days before cable, my father was reduced to watching the only televised baseball available, even if it was the Red Sox, a team that he detested as much as any Bronx-bred Yankee fan.
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Tags: ballplayer, ballplayers, baseball, Boston, Boston Red Sox, Carl Yastrzemski, Curt Gowdy, Daily Item, Dave Righetti, Fenway Park, Frankie Crosetti, Joe DiMaggio, Mark Sardella, Melrose-Wakefield Hospital, Narragansett, Narragansett Beer, New York, New York Yankees, no-hitter, Opening Day, Red Sox, Stephen Sardella, Steve Sardella, Ted Williams, Tony Conigliaro, Tony Lazzeri, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts, Yankees
Wecome to Rosefield
Last year’s highly successful merger of the Wakefield and Melrose Health Departments has prompted officials in the two contiguous communities to explore other ways that they might cooperate for mutual public benefit. There has even been talk of consolidating the Wakefield and Melrose police and fire dispatch systems as another way to save both communities substantial money.
Those discussions have led almost inevitably to a proposal that comes as no surprise to those who have been closely following regionalization trends across the commonwealth. If the state approves the proposal, Wakefield and Melrose will cease to exist as separate communities two years from now, merging to form the new city of “Rosefield” in the spring of 2012.
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Tags: Board of Health, Board of Selectmen, cities, city, City of Melrose, consilidation, Cyrus Wakefield, Daily Item, Heath Department, Item, Massachusetts, Mayor Robert Dolan, Melrose, Melrose Board of Aldermen, Melrose MA, Melrose Mass, Melrose Massachusetts, merger, mergers, municipalities, municipality, regionalization, Rosefield, Stephen P. Maio, Steve Maio, town, Town Administrator, Town of Wakefield, towns, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
The Cruel Art of Love
The Shape of Things at QP challenges our concepts of truth, art & love
Art and love: we tend to demand truth and honesty in both. But are such expectations fair or even realistic? And if love and art have the power to change lives, at what price? Those are just a few of the questions posed by Neil Labute’s “The Shape of Things,” the current production by the Quannapowitt Players in Reading, Massachusetts .
Directed by Nancy Curran Willis, The Shape of Things takes a provocative and at times uncomfortable look at art, relationships and love – and the impact that they have on our lives. The play centers on the lives of four college students in a Midwestern town who become emotionally and romantically involved with each other.
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Tags: acting, actor, actors, Bill Stambaugh, community theatre, Daily Item, Gordon Ellis, Item, Jenn Shea, Kristen Dattoli, Nancy Curran Willis, Neil Labute, play, plays, Quannapowitt Players, Quannapowitt Playhouse, Reading MA, Reading Massachusetts, stage, The Shape of Things, theater, theatre, Wakefield, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Massachusetts
Another 15 Minutes
“In the future, everyone will be famous for 15 minutes,” may well be the most famous quote of the 20th Century. First uttered by Andy Warhol in 1968, it has taken on various forms. We refer to someone’s “fifteen minutes of fame,” or note that another’s “15 minutes are up.”
But Warhol’s remark proved to be far more prescient than even he imagined. Warhol died in 1987, before the explosion of two phenomena that would prove him right many times over: reality television and the Internet.
“COPS” (aka the best show on television) was the original reality TV show in the modern sense of the term, although the type of fame it bestows on its “stars” probably is not the kind that most would choose. Reality shows too numerous to name have followed in its wake.
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Tags: Boston Magazine, celebrity, Daily Item, fame, Guardian, Kowloon, Mark Sardella, McWanks, microcelebrity, photo, photos, Scott Brown, Sen. Scott Brown, Senator Scott Brown, US Senate, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item
My Father’s World War II Photos
I’ve been thinking about World War II a lot lately. I guess it’s a combination of things. Certainly the ongoing effort to raise the funds to replace the crumbling World War II Monument in my hometown of Wakefield, Massachusetts has served as a consistent reminder.
The new granite memorial will be built on the same site as the current monument on the Upper Common. That wooden memorial, built in 1946, is now badly decayed, but the new granite monument will closely follow the design of the original. The new memorial will bear the names of all 2,466 Wakefield veterans who served during the war, with a central space reserved to honor the 71 who lost their lives in the war.
My father, Stephen, and his brother, Joseph (Puck) Sardella are among the Wakefield citizens who served their country in World War II. Their names are on the current monument and will be on the new monument. Both served in the Pacific during the war, my father as an Army sergeant, and my uncle as a Navy Corpsman attached to a Marine division.
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Tags: 2nd World War, Asian Pacific, Daily Item, Guam, Ie Shima, Joe Perrone, Joseph Sardella, Mark Sardella, Pacific, photographs, Puck Sardella, Russell Nelson, Second World War, soldier, soldiers, Stephen Sardella, Steve Sardella. Joe Sardella, Ted Storm, veteran, veterans, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts, war, war photographs, war photos, wars, World War 2, World War II
Whiners and Losers
If Martha Coakley had won the Massachusetts special election on January 19, 2010, do you think she would have embarked on a statewide post-election tour to thank the voters?
We’ll never know of course, but I’m guessing she’d have been sworn in and shaking hands in Washington – not at the Kowloon in Saugus shaking hands with voters 11 days after the election.
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Tags: Democrat, Democrats, Edward M. Kennedy, election, Kennedy, Kowloon, Lenny Clark, Martha Coakley, Massachusetts, progressive, Republican, Republicans, Saugus, Saugus Mass, Saugus Massachusetts, Scott Brown, Sen. Scott Brown, Senate, senator, Senator Scott Brown, senators, special election, Steve Sweeney, Ted Kennedy, Teddy Kennedy, United States Senate, US Senate, vote, voter, voters, Wakefield, Wakefield Mass, Wakefield Massachusetts
Mark Sardella 