Wakefield MA | Mark Sardella

Posts Tagged ‘Wakefield MA’

QP scores with ‘Suburban Holidays Six’

29Nov17

By MARK SARDELLA Supporting the arts and local artists would be a good enough reason to attend Quannapowitt Players’ “Suburban Holidays Six,” especially since at least three Wakefield residents are involved with the current show as actors, directors, producers and playwrights. But you don’t need an altruistic reason to go see this year’s festival of […]

Filed under: Art, Columns & Essays, Feature stories, Humor, News, Opinion, Reviews, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Al Pirnie, Andrew Quinney, Anne Louise Breslin, arts, Barbara Bourgeois, Blair Howell, Brian Sensale, Cary Pepper, Casey Stephenson, Chris Rose, Christmas, Donna Corbett, Estella Dattoli Matthew Garlin, Estella Orfanos, Evelyn Howell, Frank Drebin, Glenn Wakeley, holidays, Jackson Hughes-Page, Jaime Hennessy, Jenny Hughes, Joan Luz-Holt, Jodie Putnnam, John Pease, Kathy Bedard and Melissa Reda, Kerry Moe, Leonard Chasse, Leslie Nielsen, Lisa Burdick, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Matt Garlin, Patrick Cleary, Quannapowitt Players, Reading MA, review, Robin Doupe, Ron Wackowski, stage, Steven D. Miller, Suburban Holidays Six, theater, theatre, Valerie Whiteneck, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA

Where’s the outrage?

17Nov17

One thing that there’s no shortage of on social media is outrage. Democrats are outraged about Trump. Republicans are outraged about Hillary (and Trump). And apparently everybody’s outraged about underground power lines. Whether on social media or real life, sometimes it seems that there isn’t enough outrage where it’s truly warranted. That’s why it was […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Board of Selectmen, Brian Falvey, Catherine Dhingra, drugs, Ed Dombroski, Facebook, Humor, legalization, marijuana, Mark Sardella, Opinion, outrage, parents, Politics, pot, power lines, social media, teachers, teens, Tony Longo, WAKE UP, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield High School, Wakefield MA, weed, Youth Risk Behavior Survey, youth teenagers

Resist the bag-banning revisionists

02Nov17

By about 11 p.m. Monday night, we should have a pretty good idea what Wakefield’s future will look like. Will the town retain a semblance of the working-class normalcy that has been its hallmark for generations? Or will it veer off in the direction of more genteel communities fond of banning everyday useful items like […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, Feature stories, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 6 Comments
Tags: ban, Board of Selectmen, Dunkin' Donuts, gender studies, Hiker statue, Honey Dew Donuts, Humor, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, name change, New England, Opinion, plastic bags, plastic bottles, Politics, selectman, Styrofoam cups, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Warriors, wroking class

Town Meeting alibis

27Oct17

It’s almost time for that biannual funfest known as Town Meeting, so start dusting off your excuses now. “Nobody told me about it.” “I have to work that day.” “I have kids.” Wow, with extenuating circumstances like those, it’s a wonder anyone ever shows up. All kidding aside, nobody gives a rodent’s hindquarters whether you […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, History, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: attendance, Betsy Sheeran, electronic voting, Facebook, Humor, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, municipal government, newspaper, Opinion, Politics, Town Clerk, Town Meeting, voting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, web site

Happy traditional Columbus Day!

12Oct17

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

A ban for all seasons

06Oct17

Anyone at Town Meeting on that night last May could see that it was going to be close. Personally, I thought the plastic bag ban was going to fail narrowly if put to a YES/NO vote. But before it came to that, a third option miraculously surfaced! “Let’s refer it back to the selectmen for […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays | 1 Comment
Tags: business, customers, Edward Dombroski, Humor, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, merchants, Opinion, plastic bag ban, plastic bags, Politics, selectmen, shopping, store, Town Meeting, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA

Name shaming

21Sep17

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

No win zone

01Sep17

Sometimes, the people in charge of things just can’t win, especially in the age of social media, where everybody’s a pundit. Recently, town officials announced several more initiatives to try to revitalize the downtown. Of course, it’s never enough. Or is it too much? Either way, the town is sure to get slammed for doing […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | Leave a Comment
Tags: Board of Selectmen, business, business district, commercial property, development, Dog Park, Dollar Tree, downtown, economic development, Facebook, Malden, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Melrose, merchants, parking, police, pundits, Ralph Waldo Emerson, schools, signs, social media, taxpayers, traffic, Twitter, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, zoning

Food for thought

25Aug17

My horoscope for Saturday, Aug. 19 said that I would be faced with a difficult choice. As always, it was correct, which is why I base all major decisions on the stars. Everything good always happens on the same day. My dilemma on Saturday was whether to grab my Louisville Slugger and my mask and […]

Filed under: Columns & Essays, Community, Humor, News, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield | 1 Comment
Tags: America, Boston Common, Charlottesville, counter-protest, demonstration, fascist, Festival Italia, food, Free Speech Rally. Boston, Ku Klux Klan, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Nazis, new england patriots, police, protest, rally, riot, social justice, Tim Carter, United States, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA

Israel Horovitz’s latest play is a witty comedy

15Aug17

By MARK SARDELLA It should come as no surprise that as playwright Israel Horovitz has grown older, the 1956 Wakefield High School graduate’s plays have explored themes of aging. The title of last year’s “Man in Snow” referred in one sense to the whitening hair that comes with age. In “Out of the Mouths of […]