Sunday, May 12, 2013
Spoil the moms in your life today.
Spoil the moms in your life today. Some people consider Mother’s Day to be a trumped up holiday where prices are cranked up at restaurants that know everyone will be scrambling for a special meal not cooked or cleaned up by a mother. Certainly some of that is true: people rush out for cards and there are roses for sale on the sides of the road for those who forgot. But I say even if it is trumped up or “Hallmarked” it is still useful to take the day to consider all that mothers do. In fact, my biggest complaint is that it is only one day. I often think I should just declare a few more such days in the year, or perhaps more often. Our lives are getting crazier and there is little sacred time left. Sporting events and homework will not …
Monday, March 25, 2013
Teacher and journalist Brett Rhyne announces is candidacy for the Democratic nomination in the April 30 senate primary.
To the editor, My name is Brett Rhyne, and I’m running as a write-in candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate in the April 30 primary. Why? Because I need a job. That’s only a little facetious. Since I stopped teaching at Salem State College in 2009, I’ve been unemployed or underemployed two-thirds of the time. Put another way, I haven’t been able to provide for my five-year-old boys for half their lives. Thankfully, family, friends, our community and the state have helped greatly, and for that, I’m extremely grateful. As a teacher and a journalist, I’ve always worked to make the world a better place. Now I’d like to be your trusted servant in the U.S. Senate. As I see it, at the heart of our problems is our grow-or-die …
Are we ever done parenting?
A few days ago when I told someone my children had been accepted to college, she exclaimed, “You’re done!” There is a tendency to feel a giant sense of relief. It’s as if some gigantic part of our parenting job is complete. But, is it? If you talk to any parent just beyond this point, you will hear all sorts of stories that make it quite clear, that we are nowhere done. We all worry that we are sending our children onto the next step without sufficient preparation. There was the story of someone calling mom from a highway, driving with some friends to ask how to pay a toll. The tollbooth was approaching and it seemed that no one had a Fast Lane pass. What to do? This question, by the way, from someone in an elite college who had scored …
Thursday, February 21, 2013
This letter to the editor was submitted by Palmer Road resident Jack Buba.
- OPINION
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Thursday, February 21
To the Editor: The Selectmen have just proposed a Prop 2 ½ override for $2.1 million dollars to fix Abbot Hall. Surely no one wants town hall to fall down, but here is how the Selectmen can fix Abbot Hall without an override: If the town borrows $2.1 million to fix Abbot Hall over 20 years at 3.5% the yearly payment is just about $140,000 per year; that is less than1% of the total town budget. (The annual town budget is over $71 Million.) So the Selectmen can fix town hall themselves without an override if they just put less than 1% of the total town budget towards this very important cause. However, the Selectmen have a policy whereby they do not spend regular property tax money on long term expenses. They spend all the tax money on…
Saturday, February 9, 2013
Do you agree with the governor's decision or was it too drastic?
All non-emergency drivers were ordered off the roads on Friday when Gov. Deval Patrick issued an executive order banning travel during the blizzard. (Editor's note: The ban is lifted statewide as of 4 p.m. Saturday.) Patrick's executive order is being praised by some and bashed by others, reported The Boston Globe. While former Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis, who was in charge of the commonwealth during the Blizzard of ’78, praised the governor’s move, others called the order “tyrannical” and say the strict ban and hefty fines were too much, according to The Globe. Those caught violating the ban would face up to a year in jail and a $500 fine. What do you think? Do you agree with the governor’s decision or do you think the travel ban …
Friday, January 25, 2013
A Patch blogger's post about not helping her children on the slide is being debated across the country.
A Patch blog from Alameda, Calif., called “Please Don’t Help My Kids” has struck a nerve with readers across the country. Posted in September, the blog has taken off over the past few weeks as it has found a second life through social media sharing. The blog has 124,000 Facebook recommendations and 833 people have tweeted the blog. The blog is an open letter to other parents at the playground. The blogger Kate Bassford Baker’s basic request is for parents to not help her daughters on the slide. She wrote that she wants her daughters to do things and learn things on their own. Learning to walk up the slide’s ladder is the first step to learning new things and overcoming obstacles, she wrote. “Because, as they grow up, the ladders will only …
Friday, November 16, 2012
A story we ran Thursday morning stirred up quite a discussion among our readers. Where do you stand on the issue?
At their meeting at Abbot Hall Wednesday night, the Board of Selectmen unanimously approved a motion to enact the local BYOB regulations that they've been hammering out over the last two months and paved the way for as many as five carry-in alcoholic beverage licenses in town. The need for BYOB regulations was pushed to the forefront in September when Marblehead's new Mexican restaurant on Smith Street, Casa Corona, filed a request for permission to allow patrons to bringing along their own alcohol beverages. Alhough they originally wanted to charge only $50 for the licenses because they understood that the business owners wouldn't be making any money off the alcohol customers brought along with them, it was at the recommendation of Town …
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Abbot Hall, Town of Marblehead
188 Washington St, Marblehead, MA
/articles/is-400-too-much-for-a-byob-license
183285
/locations/8151505
42.493592
-70.866306
50 Smith St, Marblehead, MA
/articles/is-400-too-much-for-a-byob-license
/locations/8151506
Monday, October 15, 2012
Keep your eyes on the report card.
As I enter the college application fray, I am frequently asked the same question. Do you think your kids will get an athletic scholarship? The process is far from over, but if anyone is asking me what I think, the answer is no. I don't think my kids or most of their friends will get an athletic scholarship. What no one asks, but what I think will happen, is that many students I know will get merit aid, a blanket term for the discretionary funds that many colleges seem to have at their disposal to reward academic performance. I am asked the athletic money question on the playing fields and courts of Swampscott. Perhaps it is here that parents and kids alike dream about sports scholarships. And, in their dreams, pursue this goal without …
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
What do you think about Round 2 in the presidential debate series?
- GOVERNMENT
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Tuesday, October 9, 2012
The second Presidential debate Tuesday night featured lively and often confrontational exchanges between President Obama and Mitt Romney, as the two sparred over jobs, energy policy and taxes. In front of an audience of about 80 at Hofstra University in Nassau County, Obama questioned Romney's truthfulness and pressed him on the details of his economic plan, which the president called "sketchy." Romney said that Obama's policies have forced jobs overseas and put a squeeze on middle class families. Romney has seen a bump in poll numbers since the two faced off two weeks ago. Obama's performance in their first debate was widely panned as lackluster. Tell us who you think performed better in Tuesday's debate.
Monday, October 8, 2012
A Marblehead newcomer wrote this wonderful reflection on his second 30 days in town.
- OPINION
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Monday, October 8, 2012
The following was written by Stoddard Vandersteel, who moved to Marblehead two months ago from California: Another month has passed (Click Here for my reflection on the first 30 days), taking me to 60 days now in Marblehead, and still impressions are flooding in. My notes here are driven by contrasts, and say as much about my last bayside home in San Francisco (Tiburon) as it does Marblehead, so you may take away a sense of northern California as well as things you, local inhabitants, experience here every day, but which for me are the contrasts of transition. It all began by getting here – we drove. In California, driving is competitive, in Boston, combative, but here - it is collaborative. Drivers actually stop if I am anywhere near a…
JT
3:40 pm on Sunday, February 10, 2013
People should use their common sense in situations like this--but there are always some who won't and will endanger others in the process. The ban was good in that respect, and the $500 fine certainly should have made folks think twice if they were hesitating over driving or staying home for no particular reason. However, the threatened jail time was absurd--and enough's been said about that here… more ›