News
John Lennon: A Real Somewhere Man
Some time ago, just after the death of the Reverend Jerry Falwell, the Advocate published a piece I wrote entitled "Farewell to Falwell." In this piece, I posthumously tarred and feathered the Reverend with his own words, which (and I stand by this opinion)...Letters: What Do You Think?
Speakout on PanhandlingI read and reread your "Northampton's Guide to Not Giving" (Nov. 27, 2008) and its companion piece, "Don't Be Fooled," and I must admit to some mixed emotions here, as I suspect many of your readers may. I am kind,...
Notre Dame's Walkable City
On Saturday, Dec. 13, at Northampton High School, Notre Dame's Urban Design team will present the fruits of their efforts to re-imagine the Paradise City. Though city officials initially resisted Notre Dame's work in Northampton, then tried to put limits on...Between the Lines: On Your Doorstep
For some of us, the current economic crisis remains a fairly abstract concept—something we see reported in our newspapers and on TV, but that we have yet to experience directly. Meanwhile, the media provide a view of a world that, despite the horrifying...Imperium Watch: Holding the Cards
In Springfield, attorney Eugene Berman, who heads up a team of lawyers offering free or low-cost help to people facing foreclosure (to reach them, call 413-322-7404), recently told the Advocate that another wave of catastrophe is building for next year because many...Letters: What Do You Think?
"Blood From Turnip" PlanKudos to Tom Vannah for his incisive editorial "Do Not Resuscitate" [Dec. 11, 2008]. Tom hits many nails right on the head. But I'd postulate that, far from viewing the individual health insurance mandate as "fairly...Imperium Watch: Bailout Fallout
As you read this, remember that the melting of the ice caps that anchor the planet's climate is accelerating. Desertification is advancing, part of a warming action that threatens the next generation with grave shortages of water and arable land. Those conditions,...The World this Week: From Brokeback to Saddleback
The Reverend Rick Warren wants us to lead "purpose driven lives." We, of course, would love to do this, but every time we turn around some member of the clergy, like the Rev. Warren, is quite purposefully pissing on our leg—metaphorically and...Holyoke Mulls Over Lowe's
In the 15 years since Greenfield voters famously turned back a Wal-Mart proposed for their town, the Big Box battle has played out time and again across the Valley, with mixed results. While the communities and corporations vary, the arguments are strikingly similar....
Iran: The Young and the Restless
Lily was late, but apologetic. I met her in the lobby of my Tehran hotel. She was out of breath from the long walk and the long bus ride from central to North Tehran, the area where the rich live in today's Islamic Republic of Iran. She says she's barely able...Imperium Watch: Capitalism in California
Not widely known as a hot investigative publication, the AARP Bulletin offered a heartbreaking picture of homelessness in California around the time the large financial services crashed. Seventy-three thousand are homeless in the Los Angeles area alone—a number...The World This Week: Journalism for Dummies
On a slow news week such as the one between Christmas and New Year's, it is altogether fitting and proper that America's pundits would pad out their copy with trivia, even as the nation is gripped by an economic crisis.Take this breaking news story, written by...Let Them Play
A word of warning to Cinderella: should you ever encounter Susan Linn in a dark alley, you’d be wise to turn and run the other way.It’s not that Linn has anything against story book heroines per se. Indeed, Linn, a child psychologist and Harvard professor,...Merry Christmas, Mason Square
"The journey back to our building has begun!" Liz Stevens said after last week's meeting of the Springfield Library Foundation.Stevens, chair of the Mason Square Library Advisory Committee, was celebrating the Foundation's move to begin the...Between the Lines: All in the Numbers
I'm not a big numbers guy. I liked math OK when I was in school, but it never became an overriding passion. I find some statistics interesting and helpful—things like batting averages—because they can give a general statement (Red Sox slugger Dustin...
Remember ZPG?
Some 40 million people have been plunged into chronic hunger this year because of the global food crisis, taking the estimated number of the hungry to more than 960 million, the head of the UN food agency said last month.A billion people hungry, even more living...
Halos & Horns (…and Purgatory, too!)
A halo to Hampden District Attorney William Bennett for clearing out the pipeline of marijuana possession cases after the passage in November of a public referendum that made possession of an ounce or less of weed punishable with a civil fine. "I'm going to...Little & Dukakis: A Preference for Trains
Back in the early 1990s, I wrote a profile of a Rhode Island-based venture capitalist named Arthur D. Little for the now-defunct magazine, New England Business. I knew something about Little before my editor assigned the piece: a long-distance runner, he was a popular...Imperium Watch: Silver Spoon, Sterling Legacy
What with the Bush administration leaving after eight years, there's a lot of talk about legacy these days. Legacy is a hard word to define; it can even take on different aspects as years go by. Last week an American statesman died, leaving a legacy that clarifies...Letters: What Do You Think?
A Call to RevolutionAmerica, what happened? This is what the experts have been warning us about. Now it's right in our face, and it won't go away. We are on the brink of a major energy crisis. This doesn't mean tomorrow we will all be riding bicycles to...
Storm Warrenings
Suzanne Strempek Shea loves Barack Obama—button-wearing, campaign-check-writing, canvassing-in-New-Hampshire-on-Election-Day loves him. To put it in the universal language of pet lovers: "I'd leave my dog with him," she says.Strempek Shea isn't...Letters: What Do You Think?
Right on Health InsuranceYour editorial of December 11 about health insurance ["Do Not Resuscitate"] was exactly to the point. The problem with mandating that every citizen of Massachusetts purchase health insurance from private companies if they do not meet...The World This Week: Franken Sense
On Election Night this year, high on most thinking Americans' wish lists were victories for Barack Obama and Al Franken (D-Minn.) and defeats for Senators Mitch McConnell (R-Ken.) and Saxby Chambless (R-Ga.). Perhaps guilty of premature exaltation, I felt...Easthampton Stage Expansion: Sisyphus Scores
Three years ago this month, the Pioneer Arts Center of Easthampton, which produces concerts and plays and offers theater and music classes, had its doors shut. The rented space had been outfitted, in an extensive renovation, with plentiful seating and a new theater...Bush & Co.: Their Just Deserts
I am inspired to creatively ponder the possible futures of the neo-conservative posse now that President-elect Obama has ridden in on his white horse and the oil can of power has been cast into Mt. Doom.As a template, I have looked to the end of 1978's National...Imperium Watch: Not Just Serve and Return
Jeremy Hammond, editor of the online Foreign Policy Journal, points out that Israel is no less responsible for the breakdown of its cease-fire with Gaza than Hamas is. His claim, which is verifiable from news sources, challenges the usual American media description of...
Massachusetts Energy: Follow the Green Brick Road
This past August, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick signed into law two bills that have gotten a lot of people excited—and probably made some regional power companies groan. In truly savvy political maneuvering and creative management of both tax structures...Going for a Spin
There's no law to keep newspapers from grabbing whatever comes across an editor's desk and cramming it into a column with the discreet disclaimer "Viewpoint." But the paper would be doing its readers more of a service to put a note somewhere, even in...Wage War: Union Solidarity Forever…
A hopeful sign as the 111th Congress convenes and President-elect Obama prepares to take office is a new spirit of bipartisanship, brought on by the worst of times. On both sides of the aisle, there is more fear than loathing. Every day more people lose their jobs,...The World This Week: Middle Least
Isaac Newton's third law of motion says that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. While some Americans may feel that we are not subject to any laws of science, this one at least, seems to also hold true in the laboratory of politics. The eight...Letters: What Do You Think?
Make Those GradesWhile Penelope Trunk's advice for college students ["Making the Grade," Jan.1, 2009] is sound overall, it seems intended for shy students who plan to end their education after receiving a B.A. or B.S. However, students' social skills...
USS Tribune: Perfect Storm or Perfect Excuse?
In October 1991, when the fishermen of Gloucester, Massachusetts set off into the stormy Atlantic aboard the Andrea Gail, they knew the weather was dangerous, perhaps even lethal.As portrayed in Sebastian Junger's 1997 non-fiction book The Perfect Storm, the six...Between the Lines: Kulik Earns It
I've voted for State Rep. Stephen Kulik of Worthington every time he's come up for re-election in the last decade. As one of his constituents—Kulik represents the rural 1st Franklin District, as well as a number of rural communities in Hampshire...
Vermont, Entergy Square Off
Horrifying pictures of a collapsed cooling tower at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant in August, 2007 fueled long-standing controversy about whether the 36-year-old plant, located near the borders of Vermont, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, is safe. Residents of...Imperium Watch: Warhead Warehouse
A new, not widely publicized report from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has interesting things to say about what we spend for our nuclear weapons program and how we spend it. Since the financials on our atomic stockpile aren't kept in a single...Letters: What Do You Think?
Climate change is the most pressing issue our country faces today. It is tied directly to every challenge we face, from our struggling economy to health care to our national security.We are in an economic recession. It is clear that the unsustainable business...
Left Behind
On a late June evening last year, staff and supporters of the YWCA of Western Massachusetts gathered at Springfield's Symphony Hall for a celebration marking the 140th anniversary of the organization, which defines its laudable mission as "the empowerment of...Between the Lines: “Steady As You Go”
He's 71 now and his legs can't carry him anywhere near the long distances he regularly marched for civil rights in his younger days. For this presidential inauguration, Rance O'Quinn sat down and watched on television the embodiment of one of the civil...The World This Week: Truly Alternative
On June 12, 2007, a missile fired from a U.S. jet landed in a neighborhood in Baqouba, Iraq. Among its victims was two-year-old Mustafa Ghazwan, whose hearing was destroyed by the blast. Through the efforts of No More Victims (www.nomorevictims.org), Mustafa—a...
The BID-ding Opens
Last week, on a bitterly cold Northampton evening, a crowd of cashmere-, camel hair- and eiderdown-clad individuals filed into the brightly lit Puchalski Municipal Building tucked behind the spare and classical Unitarian church. The Johnson-era edifice provided snug...What Do You Think?
"Clean" Energy Future?Tom Sturm's Jan. 15 article "Follow the Green Brick Road" misses the truth of the "clean energy future" being planned for us. The real plan is that most (at least 80 percent) of the new "clean"...The Hookah Experience
I started this column on a chairlift at Berkshire East, the ski resort in Charlemont. I finished it the old-fashioned way: in my office, pecking away on my old Dell computer.I wasn't writing on the chairlift to show my ability to multi-task, using technology to...Dim Starr
So this is what leadership looks and feels like. It looks like a million people on the Washington Mall and not a single fistfight. And it feels like we can breathe again. The first taste of President Barack Obama hit Americans like a gourmet feast after George W....Entitlements Help the Economy
There's something about the phrase "entitlement programs" that seems to belittle those programs even before discussions of their merits or liabilities begin. The phrase has acquired a ring that seems to leave out of account that programs like Social...Census Work: A Job That Counts
In 2010, the 23rd United States Census will be conducted, and hiring for this massive, two year-long effort is beginning now. Tim Goggins of the U.S. Census Bureau's office in Worcester stopped by the Advocate offices last week to promote this recruitment effort....
Politics in the People's Academy
If a business or an average member of the public had wanted to open the doors of the Northampton Academy of Music for a free public screening of Obama's inauguration, it's unlikely they would have ever have gotten the idea beyond the pipe dream stage. It costs...Of Rivals and Corn Nuts
Dear Vice President Joseph Biden:It says here on the TV that you & the president have made a “team of rivals.” That is interesting b/c what you probly do not know is I (Frank Dodge) and my neighbor Jake are also a team of rivals, sort of.So I am...
Up Holyoke Down Holyoke
In the spring and summer of 1999, it seemed that everyone in Holyoke was talking about one thing: the quarry on Mount Tom.Earlier that year, the owners of the defunct Mount Tom Ski Area had gone to the City Council requesting a permit to expand a traprock quarry on...
Bud News
It was late December. It was a Springfield City Council meeting about the controversial plan to redevelop the former Longhill Garden apartments into affordable housing. It was Councilor Bud Williams, criticizing the Sarno administration for failing to "do its due...The World This Week: Family Planning
Last week, the Republicans rose up on their hind legs and stood, as one unanimous bloc, against affordable contraception for the nation's women. That's a sizeable group of potential voters for the GOP to permanently alienate, but far be it from me to offer any...Imperium Watch: The Cheated Generation
Almost a century ago we had the Lost Generation; now, early in the millennium, a morally indifferent oligarchy whose ascendancy has culminated in financial catastrophe has given us what might be called the Cheated Generation. (With the collapse of the economy, their...Letters: What Do You Think?
Barramundi Can't Eat LocallyBarramundi is not a true locavore option [see Locavore, Jan. 22, 2009]. No fish that is a predator can be sustainably raised unless you're growing its food as well. While barramundi certainly is a better choice than farm-raised...Between the Lines: Shovel Ready?
A buddy of mine spends a couple of days in late January every year in Atlantic City. He goes for a convention, the Atlantic City Pool & Spa Show, but stays in a resort hotel and plays in the casinos. This year, he was shaken by what he saw. Attendance at the...The Blogger War
When I was originally hired by the Advocate Weekly chain as their "Web guy" in late 2005, my job was to revamp the online presence of their four print publications. One of my first initiatives was to help the newspaper editors start blogging on their sites....
The Eve of Instruction
The waiting area outside the Superior Court room at the Hampshire County Courthouse is lined with benches and backed by tall, curved, greenhouse-style windows. On January 15 at around 2 p.m., the windows were heavy with melting snow and ice, the room was bright and...Northampton BID: Progressive? Aggressive? Regressive.
Standing on a street corner in downtown Northampton soon, there’s a good chance you’ll see one of two mythical, money-eating creatures.You’ll have to look closely to make a positive ID. Both will have their hands out, promising good things for only a...Best Practices for the Worst of Times
Frustrated by a growing sense of disconnect between city government and the public, the Ad Hoc Committee on Best Practices in Northampton has spent the last year trying to determine how best to revive civic engagement in the city. To better understand the dynamic...Imperium Watch: Who Gets the Jobs?
When American companies get bailouts, do Americans get the jobs?The Latin American Herald Tribune has just reported that General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in its operations in Brazil. The Tribune quotes Jaime Ardila, president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, as saying...The World This Week: What's Left
Now that conservatism, neo-conservatism and Republicanism have proven to be miserable failures, a vacuum exists in the political and academic worlds. Right-wingers and left-wingers are shifting around for new ways to define themselves, and so-called moderates are...E-Edition
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