Hate-free zone

21Jul17

Hate has no home here. There. I said it. I am now officially a good person. I’m considering adopting that as the permanent tagline for my column so that people will know that this is safe place, where they won’t find ideas that they disagree with or make them uncomfortable. But that’s just a secondary […]

Filed under: History, Opinion, Politics, Wakefield   |  2 Comments
Tags: coexist, conspicuous compassion, conspicuous consumption, diversity, Hate Free Zone, Hate Has No Home Here, Human Rights Commission, Mark Sardella, open borders, Selma, signs, Subaru, Tesla, Thorstein Veblen, virtue signaling, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA

Let it rain

19Jul17

‘The Rainmaker’ at Gloucester Stage By MARK SARDELLA GLOUCESTER – I almost didn’t go to see The Rainmaker when it opened at Gloucester Stage last weekend. But I’m very glad I changed my mind and went to see this classic American play by N. Richard Nash. Written in the early 1950s, The Rainmaker is easily […]

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Tags: Brian Homer, Dave Rich, David DeBeck, drama, drought, Gloucester, Jessica Bates, Joe Short, Mark Sardella, N. Richard Nash, Norman Jones, play, review, Robert Walsh., Sean McCoy, The Rainmaker, theater, theatre Gloucester Stage, Wakefield Daily Item

A hero in the family

05Jul17

By MARK SARDELLA The long July Fourth holiday weekend was a source of fun and enjoyment for most of us. For one local family, it also produced an authentic hero. Broadway resident and Wakefield High School teacher Erin Chrisos, her husband Steve and their two children, three and-a-half-year-old Noah and one-month-old Fiona were on vacation […]

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Tags: 9/11, Batman, Biddeford, choking, Erin Chrisos, Family, first responders, hero, Maine, Mark Sardella, officer, Old Orchard Beach, police, Sgt. Thomas Flynn, vacation, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Wakefield Police Department

Rain can’t dampen Relay spirit

20Jun17

By MARK SARDELLA The cold, driving rain may have kept attendance down but nothing could dampen the spirits of hundreds who turned out Friday evening for the opening ceremonies of the Relay For Life of Wakefield. As attendees gathered under as huge tent in the center of the track at Northeast Metro Tech, organizers braved […]

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Tags: American Cancer Society, Amy Walsh, Anthony Longo, cancer, D'Alelio, Darcy Corcoran, Elaine Silva, Harborlights Chorus, Kathryn Gelardi, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Noreen, Northeast Metro Tech, rain, Relay for Life, The Savings Bank, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, WCAT, WMGLD

Love is a drug

20Jun17

“The Effect” at Gloucester Stage By MARK SARDELLA Is there really such a thing as love? Or is it all just a matter of brain chemistry? That is a question explored in The Effect, a play by Lucy Prebble at Gloucester Stage through July 8. But it’s far from the only question. The play also […]

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Tags: antidepressant, Brad Hall, dopamine, drama, drugs, experiment, Gloucester Stage, Lindsay Crouse, love, Lucy Prebble, Mark Sardella, Mickey Solis, pharmaceutical, play, Susannah Hoffman, The Effect, theater, theatre, trial, Wakefield Daily Item

Name that board!

15Jun17

Right on the heels of the plastic bags crisis, the latest issue to rock Wakefield is what name we should use for the town’s executive body. For the past 370 years, “Board of Selectmen” has done quite nicely, but no more. The position contains the word “man” (and in the plural, “men”). In 2017, this […]

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Tags: attorney, Board of Selectmen, Cyrus Wakefield, gender neutral, History, humpr, lawyers, man, Mark Sardella, men, Opinion, Politics, select board, selectboard, selectman, tradition, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA, Warriors, Xena Warrior Princess

Town Meeting highs and lows

09Jun17

Let me be the first to say it. Hot enough for you? I know, it’s barely 70 degrees, but after the February weather we had earlier this week, today feels like Death Valley. It doesn’t get reliably warm around here until the summer solstice. Then it’s summer until about the Fourth of July, and it’s […]

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Tags: attendance, Bill Carroll, democracy, Humor, Mark Sardella, Massachusetts, Open Town Meeting, Opinion, Politics, Reading MA, Representative Town Meeting, solstice, Special interest, summer, sun, taxes, Town Moderator, vote, Wakefield Daily Item, Wakefield MA