News
by Hunter Styles | May 12, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, News, Scene Here
A cool breeze floods the mountainside, rustling the leaves and pine needles in the branches high above me. But as I walk up the path, I barely hear it. My brain is making too much noise of its own. My eyes are down, watching my sneakers crunching along the dirt trail,...
by Hutner Styles | May 6, 2015 | MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
At the site of the future MGM casino in Springfield’s South End, groundbreaking has come and gone. That event symbolized the beginning of a new chapter for Springfield. This thing is really happening. And between now and July 2017, construction on this massive project...
by Amanda Drane | May 12, 2015 | Articles, Blogs, Featured, News, The Uncanny Valley
On the evening of March 17, a driver in South Hadley reported seeing a strange triangular craft in the sky with lights on each of its three visible points. After following the craft for a couple of miles, the driver pulled into the Village Commons parking lot and...
by Chuck Shepherd | May 12, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
Already, healthy people can donate blood, sperm, and eggs, but now the nonprofit OpenBiome offers donors $40 for bowel movements — to supply “fecal transplants” for patients with nasty C. difficile bacterial infections. (“Healthy” contents are transplanted into the...
by Chuck Shepherd | May 6, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
Saudi Arabia’s very first sex accessory shop (in the holy city of Mecca) should be opening soon, according to news reports — operated by a Moroccan Muslim, backed by the German adult mega-retailer Beate Uhse, and supposedly fully compliant with Islamic law. Owner...
by Amanda
Drane | Apr 28, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Free Sport, News
Summer is just around the bend and the Connecticut River — the region’s longest body of running water — remains largely unswimmable due to high levels of fecal bacteria in the water. The river has come a long way since its days nicknamed “America’s most beautiful...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 28, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
The education system is failing American students — hard. Public education is a dedication to helping young people get ahead in life and imparting knowledge that will lead to future success for the betterment of the national economy and society as a whole — but this...
by From Our Readers | Apr 28, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
News of the Not So Weird The News of the Weird’s piece on the first gay wedding behind bars in Britain (“Number Crunching,” April 23-29, 2015) although groundbreaking for its prison first, is maybe not so weird after all. The two men, reportedly both serving time for...
by Chuck Shepherd | Apr 28, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
It seemed like a good idea when the town of Celoron, New York agreed in 2009 to pay for a bronze statue honoring the village’s only celebrity. Lucille Ball had spent her childhood years there, and even today, everyone “Loves Lucy.” The result was apparently a...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 28, 2015 | Articles, Columns, Featured, News, The Uncanny Valley
“Curiouser and curiouser!” exclaimed Alice as she took her first steps into Wonderland. If she were making a trek through the Valley instead, we think she would say the same thing. Our little corner of the globe is chock full of odd people, secret places, and...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 28, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, News, Scene Here
Lively organ music floated through the air, and I followed it in from the parking lot. Why, exactly, had I opted to spend Friday night at the circus? I wasn??t sure, other than the fact that I was drawn here to the Eastern States Expo in West Springfield by faint,...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 28, 2015 | Articles, Featured, MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
On March 24, cannons shot confetti over the heads of shovel-wielding politicians and corporate executives in a vacant lot in Springfield’s South End. Around them, hundreds had gathered to celebrate the official groundbreaking of the MGM Springfield casino, which is...
by Amanda Drane | Apr 21, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, News, Scene Here
Two or three lonely shopping carts litter the entrance to the Northampton-to-Leeds section of the bikepath. I’m sitting on a stone marking the entrance to the path taking notes when a 50-something man named Peter meanders my way. “Does your name start with an ‘A’?” he...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 21, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, News
Kamil Peters steps away from his metal shop to lead me on a walk through 17,000 square feet of new working space. He saunters from room to room in a cavernous old industrial mill building along the canal in Holyoke, pointing out the work spaces for artists: an oil...
by Amanda Drane | Apr 21, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, News
In a Northampton park where Kira Coe and her friends spend a spring day in 2015, young men and their families met in 1775 before marching off to fight the British during the Revolutionary War. During much of the 1800s, the Main Street space held a livery office — a...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 21, 2015 | MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
Last September, the city of Holyoke threw a sweet deal on the table as part of an urban renewal plan that has been gestating for several years now: 13 new liquor licenses, procured from the state, intended to help revitalize four downtown neighborhoods along the...
by James Heflin | Apr 21, 2015 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
It’s easy to see why the story made international news. It doesn’t get crazier than this cavalcade of questionable decisions, though the victim (expected to recover) probably disagrees. Recently, in Georgia, a man decided that a) he should shoot an armadillo which was...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 21, 2015 | Leisure, News, Wellness
Western Mass is home to more than a dozen bike paths making up more than 80 miles of riding trails from Connecticut to Vermont. Next time you’re in the mood for a long ride in the woods, check out one of these paths:
by From Our Readers | Apr 21, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
Marco Rubio v. Iran Marco Rubio is running for president. Marco Ruboio asserts that Iran must be given a choice: they can have a nuclear weapon or they can have an economy. Not both. Marco Rubio would put an end to any agreement President Obama would make with Iran...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 21, 2015 | Food + Booze, Leisure, News
Did someone say “Restaurant Week”? Woo-hoo! We’re all over it. Sign us up! The City of Homes is holding its first Restaurant Week, April 23 through May 2. The event, organized by the Springfield Young Professional Citizens Committee, gives restaurants a chance to...
by Chuck Shepherd | Apr 14, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
On Feb. 9 a single traffic stop in Alderson, West Virginia, resulted in the arrest of six people from the same family, trafficking in stolen power tools (including one man who traded a leaf blower, hedge trimmer, and weed trimmer for Percocet pills). However, a month...
by From Our Readers | Apr 14, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
Drugs in the park not an isolated problem I want to say that I believe that “Get Out and Stay Out! 12 of the Pioneer Valley’s best outdoor spaces” (April 2-8, 2015) is a discouraging article written in the Advocate amongst a bunch of other parks and recreational areas...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 14, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
Public education in Holyoke is a sticky issue, but most can agree on one point: improvement is overdue. Holyoke has the worst high school graduation rate in the state of Massachusetts. The city’s public school dropout rate is three times the state average. In the past...
by Words and Pictures by Amanda Drane | Apr 14, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Food + Booze, Leisure, MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News, Wellness
Trans World Food Market 50 Russell Street, Hadley Small Valley, big world Brothers David Tran, 22, and Sockha Son, 30, say the success of their market hinges on staffs’ ability to help customers find just what they’re looking for — even when customers don’t know...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 14, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, News
Do you have too many Facebook friends? Tired of all those Twitter followers paying attention to you? Friends and family noticing what you have to say and share on social media is a big problem for many. We know there are lots of people looking to get rid of their...
by Patricia LeBoeuf | Apr 14, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Food + Booze, News, Wellness
For many residents of Mason Square a full week’s grocery shopping — picking up fresh fruits and vegetables, stopping by the butcher, buying some fresh bread, eggs, or pasta — means taking two buses to get to the Big Y across the river in West Springfield and cramming...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 14, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
In this week’s Advocate, you’ll find the winners of our annual Best Of the Valley Readers’ Poll, a who’s who and what’s what of all the top people, places, and businesses Western Mass and Southern Vermont has to offer. Thank you to everyone who voted. We can’t provide...
by Chuck Shepherd | Apr 8, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News, News of the Weird
An unarmed man, suspected of no crime, who three years ago was shot 16 times by police while lying in his bed, told a Seattle Times reporter in March that he bears no ill will for the cops who shot him. Said Dustin Theoharis, now 32, “Sometimes (police) make...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 7, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Free Sport, News, Wellness
Marla Brodsky’s boots crunch on the snowy path. In the dog yard behind her house, 18 pairs of ears perk up at the sound. As she approaches, her four litters of Alaskan Husky sled dogs start to stir. Some dogs lift their heads and howl. Some strain at their leashes....
by Amanda Drane and Hunter Styles | Apr 8, 2015 | Articles, Featured, MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
Try as they might, MGM won’t be able to replicate downtown Northampton. Northampton mayor David Narkewicz says representatives of the MGM Springfield casino are attempting to recruit Northampton businesses to open up shop within the walls of their future gambling...
by From Our Readers | Apr 8, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
More pressing dangers at home than guns Editor’s Note: Nurture is a bi-annual publication on parenting and children produced by the Advocate. Regarding “Where are the guns when your kids have a play date?” this article in Nurture Spring 2015 starts out as reasonable...
by Advocate Staff | Apr 8, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Leisure, News
You have a cousin who is an aspiring rapper You know how to get down Sumner Avenue — at 3 p.m. — without ever driving on Sumner You’ve been to the Alumni Club once or a hundred times — there is no in-between You definitely have an opinion about Melvin Jones III and...
by James Heflin | Apr 7, 2015 | Between the Lines, News
The radio said, “What happened in the terrifying last minutes of Germanwings…” I don’t know how it went from there, because I turned it off. The media coverage of the latest air disaster, like the many that preceded it, is all wrapped up in an unspoken contract:...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 7, 2015 | Arts, News, Scene Here
The cook turns from the steaming griddle to face the small dining room, which is crowded with breakfast customers. He looks to the front door. “I don’t remember the last time I saw a line out to the parking lot,” he says. At the long counter a seated man nods, then...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 8, 2015 | Articles, Featured, MGM Springfield Casino coverage, News
On March 24, at a public presentation at CityStage, Springfield officials set the clock two years ahead. The talk, titled “Vision 2017: The Right Direction” and led by city Chief Development Officer Kevin Kennedy, took an audience of 300 people on a journey through a...
by Chris Rohmann | Apr 7, 2015 | News
Jeannine Haas confesses that she “got through 21 years of formal education without ever reading the Iliad,” and that’s why, when she was first preparing to perform the one-person play based on that epic, “I thought, ‘Oy, it is gonna be a pain to read.’ But honestly,...
by Paul Kiel, Propublica | Apr 7, 2015 | News
If there’s any industry that has mastered the art of the loophole, it’s high-cost lending. When faced with unwanted regulation, lenders are well-practiced at finding an opening that will allow them to charge triple-digit interest to their customers. They’ve been...
by Amanda Drane
and Hunter Styles | Apr 1, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Blogs, Featured, Free Sport, Leisure, News, Wellness
Canalside Rail Trail, Turners Falls A handful of beautiful sights crop up along the four miles of this short, scenic bike path, which runs from Deerfield up into Montague along old railroad beds. But the short northern stretch where wooded areas gives way to the...
by Amanda Drane | Apr 1, 2015 | Articles, Blogs, Featured, Free Sport, Leisure, News, Wellness
His players say Winston Lee’s life revolved around baseball and softball. When he died in 2011, the players in his Spanish American Softball League were devastated. Hundreds of the inner-city players not only missed the man, but the community he’d built around him....
by Hunter Styles | Apr 1, 2015 | Articles, Featured, Food + Booze, News
Even back in January, customers at the Munich Haus restaurant in Chicopee were asking owner Patrick Gottschlicht when the biergarten would re-open. “I kept telling them it was too cold, that they’d have to wait. But they’ve really been putting the pressure on me,”...
by Kristin Palpini | Apr 1, 2015 | Articles, Between the Lines, Featured, News
In late March, a group of about 50 Holyoke high school students concerned their district may go into receivership — meaning it could soon be run by the state instead of local officials — got up in the middles of class and walked out of school in protest. For their...
by Hunter Styles | Apr 1, 2015 | Arts, News, Scene Here
If Willy Wonka took Turkish baths, his house would smell like this. In the evaporating room at Gould’s Sugarhouse Sunday morning, clear liquid sap is boiling down into concentrated gooey goodness. The thick steam it lets off is warm and silky, with a slightly sweet...
by Chuck Shepherd | Apr 1, 2015 | News, News of the Weird
Researchers are now preparing a study seeking to confirm that dog slobber, by itself (and not just the psychological advantages of playing with and petting a dog), might provide human health benefits such as relief from asthma, allergies and inflammation. Specialists...
by From Our Readers | Apr 1, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
GOP treason? T he 47 GOP senators who tried to undercut the Obama administration’s nuclear deal with Iran by issuing a warning letter to the country may have committed an act of treason under the Logan Act — a federal law prohibiting unauthorized citizens from...
by James Heflin | Mar 24, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Leisure, News, Taste-Off!
Pizza — it’s as American as, well, burritos and frankenfurters. Determining what’s the best pizza is a heady, touchy business. And in an area where there’s a pizza joint every 50 feet or so, the stakes are high. For something that is, at its most elemental, just...
by Amanda Drane | Mar 24, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
Pandora has gotten a little too intuitive. Recently, I was running at the gym, earbuds in, Pandora streaming Kelly Clarkson’s upbeat “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger,” when the song was interrupted by an ad inviting me to become a certified personal trainer....
by Hunter Styles | Mar 24, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, Music, News
It’s mid-morning at the Hampshire County Jail and House of Correction. Eight inmates are gathered around an electric keyboard in the visiting room, laughing and talking quietly. Keyboard player Ken Maiuri hits middle C, and together they warm up with some scales. Up...
by From Our Readers | Mar 24, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
Cis-gender? So much concern with body images and now a “cis-gendered woman?” (“Letter to the Editor: No room for transphobic language in Advocate,” March 5, 2015) People are exploring the age old question of, “Who am I?” Find yourself on the soul level. Try a course...
by Kristin Palpini | Mar 24, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Food + Booze, Leisure, News
Since the first time an Arab stuffed meat into a pita, the sandwich has been awesome. Sure, the Earl of Sandwich gave the lunchtime staple it’s name during a furious poker match, but the first recording of someone putting food between bread and eating it dates back to...
by Chuck Shepherd | Mar 24, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News, News of the Weird
Even dangerous felons sometimes serve short sentences, but Benito Vasquez-Hernandez, 58 — guilty of nothing — has been locked up for nearly 900 days (as of early March) as a “material witness” in a Washington County, Oregon murder case. The prosecutor is convinced...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 24, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, News
Sinbad is the older, bigger version of that cut-up from grade school that you either adored or avoided: an irrepressible tease, hyperactive and loud, with a brash baritone laugh and a tireless eye for odd social moments. Best known for his TV appearances, the...
by Amanda Drane | Mar 24, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Leisure, News, Scene Here
I’m at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade and there are more plastic cups whipping down High Street in the wind than there are people waiting for the parade to turn the corner. I’m beginning to think the parade has been delayed by the 30-plus mph wind gusts, when I spy some...
by Kristin Palpini | Mar 18, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
It was on a year-long walk retracing the path of slavery between Africa and the United States that Teegrey Iannuzzi says she finally woke up. She was taking part in the Interfaith Pilgrimage of the Middle Passage, a walk retracing the trans-Atlantic slave trade...
by From Our Readers | Mar 18, 2015 | Letters from our Readers, News
Editor’s Note: #valleyadvocate is an occasional feature showcasing some of the snappiest and interesting things Valley folks have put online in the past week.
by Amanda Drane | Mar 18, 2015 | Articles, Featured, News
Deshanay Gonzalez, 21, of Holyoke, stands near Ingleside Mall’s Aeropostale, rocking her nine-month-old daughter, Rose, in her stroller. “There’s plenty of opportunity here,” she says. “It’s our time. It’s time for women to take over.” Rose senses her mother’s gusto...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 18, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Featured, Leisure, News
Urban legends travel through towns faster than an alligator in the sewer. They’re intriguing, they have a distinct air of truthiness to them, and they provoke strong reactions. Did you hear about Richard Gere “gerbiling?” Can’t remember who told me, but, like,...
by Amanda Drane | Mar 18, 2015 | Arts, Leisure, News, Wellness
“I hate pink because I’m a redhead,” says Kimberly Hodges, 30, the middle sister of the Truehart family. “But of course that’s Jenny’s favorite color.” Having three weddings, in one family and within a nine-month timespan requires some concessions. But if dress choice...
by Kristin Palpini | Mar 18, 2015 | Articles, Between the Lines, Columns, Featured, News
Politicians skirting public record laws by conducting public business on private email accounts is becoming a scandal celebre. That Hillary Clinton kept a few private email accounts and used her own server may not seem like a big deal. But it is. Politicians’ emails...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 18, 2015 | Articles, Arts, Columns, Featured, Food + Booze, Leisure, News, The Beerhunter
Up in Vermont there’s a glow-in-the-dark circus party at the end of the world. Neon streamers and Mardi Gras beads hang all over the place. Colorful string lights set the room aglow. Some visitors hunker down at the long bar counter, but others try on jester hats,...
by Hunter Styles | Mar 18, 2015 | Arts, Columns, News, Scene Here
I pull my mud-splattered sedan onto the side of Hill Road in Ashfield, parking it at the metal gate of the cow pen at Taylor Farm. My snow tires crunch on gravel, and a dozen cows turn their heads and stare at me. Their pen is connected to the back of an enormous red...
