Posts Tagged ‘History’
Teachable moment
“Demands on classroom teachers are now laughable,” Wakefield Education Association president Will Karvouniaris told the meeting of the “Tri-Board” last week. If any members of the Town Council, the School Committee or Finance Committee were amused, they didn’t show it. The town’s three top boards were meeting in joint session at the Galvin Auditorium last […]
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Tags: budget, children, class size, Finance Committee, finances, fiscal, History, Humor, Mark Sardella, mythology, newspaper, Opinion, Politics, quid pro quo, School Committee, schools, teachers, Town Council, Tri-Board, union, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield Education Association, Wakefield MA, WEA, William Karvouniaris
Weekend Warrior
As we head into the long Indigenous Peoples Day weekend, let us take a moment from our apple picking, leaf-peeping and farmers market excursions to reflect upon the true meaning of the holiday: to show how much more virtuous and woke we are than those who still call it Columbus Day.
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: Berkeley, Board of Selectmen, CA, Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day, Europeans, farmers' market, FDR, First Peoples, football, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, History, holiday, Human Rights Commission, Humor, inclusive, Indians, Indigenous Peoples Day, Italian-Americans, Landrigan Field, Mark Sardella, men, Native Americans, Opinion, Politics, progressives, Roman Empire, Town Council, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warrior
The sounds of silence
READING — When brilliant, Radcliffe College-educated Henrietta Leavitt (played by Grace Sumner) receives a letter at her Wisconsin home inviting her to come and work for Edward Charles Pickering, director of the prestigious Harvard College Observatory, she is thrilled by the prospect of doing important astronomical research.
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Tags: astronomy, community theater, Demetra Tseckares, drama, earth, feminism, Grace Sumner, Harvard College Observatory, heavens, Henrietta Leavitt, History, Humor, Lauren Gunderson, Mark Sardella, Nancy Curran Willis, Nancy Finn, Nick T. Miller, planets, play, Quannapowitt Players, Rachel Furgiuele, Radcliffe College, review, science, Silent Sky, sky, stage, stars, theater, theatre, Wakefield Daily Item, womens sufferage
Take a hike
Throughout his decades as a steady presence on the local scene, he has cultivated an air of quiet reserve. But now, one of Wakefield’s most iconic figures has finally broken his silence. Some may find what he had to say shocking. In an exclusive interview with the Wakefield Daily Item, the character known affectionately as […]
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Tags: ableism, Artichokes, bronze, climate, goat yoga, gun, History, Humor, interview, Lake Quannapowitt, male, man, marble, Mark Sardella, men, minuteman, Opinion, parody, rifle, Rockery, satire, soldier, Spanish American War, statue, The Hiker, Theo Alice Ruggles Kitson, Toxic Masculinity, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
By MARK SARDELLA GLOUCESTER – “Bringing history to life” is about as cliched as it gets, but it happens to be an apt description for what Gloucester Stage’s current production, The Agitators, succeeds in doing. Mat Smart’s play takes us into the 19th century world of icons of equal rights Frederick Douglass and Susan B. […]
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Tags: 15th Amendment, 19th Amendment, abolitionist, drama, equality, Frederick Douglass, Gloucester Stage, History, Jacqui Parker, James Ricardo Milord, Mark Sardella, Mat Smart, play, Rochester NY, Sara Elizabeth Bedard, slavery, Susan B. Anthony, The Agitators, theater, theatre, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, womens suffrage
Town Meeting Manual
Annual Town Meeting is over but November’s Regular Town Meeting will be here before you know it. Since there are always new people moving into Wakefield and new people reaching voting age, a few observations and helpful tips may be in order. You’ll of course want to bookmark this column for future reference. First, a […]
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Tags: Board of Selectmen, column, definitions, election, Galvin Middle School, History, homonym, Humor, Mark Sardella, New England, Opinion, pep rally, Politics, soccer, terms, Town Council, Town Counsel, Town Meeting, tradition, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, warrant
Board of Selectmen, 1647-2018
WAKEFIELD – The Board of Selectmen passed away with little fanfare this week after a bout with a virulent strain of political correctness. It was 371 years old. Born in 1647, the Board of Selectmen was the child of Lynn Village and Redding. It was later adopted by Reading, South Reading and Wakefield. The Board […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 3 Comments
Tags: Amherst, Board of Selectmen, Brookline, Fire Department, History, Humor, New England, Opinion, political correctness, politically correct, Politics, Reading MA, selectmen, Town Meeting, Toxic Masculinity, tradition, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police Department
Local media matters
Being a panelist on two local candidates’ debates last week got me thinking about the role that local media plays in town. Televised debates for political office in Wakefield go back to the days before WCAT, to what I call the Dark Ages of public access TV. That was my first brush with local media […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, News, Opinion, Politics, Television, Wakefield | 2 Comments
Tags: Board of Selectmen, Boston Globe, cable TV, debates, election, gender, History, historym politics, Internet, League of Women Voters, LVW, media, News, newspapers, press, public access, Television, Town Council, town hall, voters, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, WCAT, women
Happy traditional Columbus Day!
As every kid in America used to know, it was on Oct. 12, 1492 that Columbus discovered America. Most kids also learned the little poem that began, “In fourteen hundred ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.” I learned it in kindergarten at Miss Hope’s progressive Studio School on Montrose Avenue. Do schools still teach that […]
Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: America, Christopher Columbus, Columbus Day, explorer, Greenwood School, History, holiday, Hope Dillaway, Humor, Indigenous Peoples Day, Italian-Americans, Mark Sardella, Opinion, Politics, Studio School, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA
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” […]
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
