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Transparency on tap during feisty debate between Decker and MacKay
Transparency in the Massachusetts state legislature was front and center in Thursday’s debate between Rep. Marjorie Decker and challenger Evan MacKay at St. James Episcopal Church. Read more Loud bang heard across region, cause unknown The two are vying for Decker’s seat representing the 25th Middlesex District, which is entirely in Cambridge, in a repeat […]
Loud bang heard across region, cause unknown
Around 2:10 p.m., a loud bang was heard across Cambridge and Somerville with police scanners in Somerville picking up Somerville Police Department chatter at 2:16 p.m. about several reports of a possible explosion. Other reports and online posts suggest the bang was heard throughout much of Eastern Massachusetts and Rhode Island. Read more Two movies on […]
Two movies on rules rewritten & rules broken
“Ladies First” ⭐⭐ Rating: 2 out of 4. Speaking of gloriously gonzo, Sacha Baron Cohen, the hot mess (said with respect and gratitude) behind the devilishly caustic “Borat” films, stars in this rom-com-lite, gender-reversal spin with a side of nasty. The movie has a killer cast (Charles Dance, Rosamund Pike, Richard E. Grant, Fiona Shaw, […]
Yiyun Li on life ‘in the abyss,’ writing and the importance of ‘Moby Dick’
Novelist Yiyun Li read from her new memoir at a packed Cambridge Public Library last week, speaking about the suicides of her two sons and how she turned to art and writing in her grief. Read more CPS names new school leaders and administrators In “Things in Nature Merely Grow,” which won the Pulitzer Prize […]
CPS names new school leaders and administrators
Three Cambridge schools will welcome new principals at the start of the summer and the district also hired two new administrators, including a legal counsel. All three of the new principals announced on Thursday evening are familiar faces within the school system. Allan Gately Gehant, who has been interim principal at Cambridge Rindge and Latin […]
Two new movies grapple with our disorienting, disoriented world
“Backrooms” ⭐⭐⭐ Rating: 3 out of 4. If you’ve ever made a wrong turn in a shopping mall and found yourself in a space not intended for public view, you’ve had the eerie sensation captured by “Backrooms,” the new horror film from first-time director Kane Parsons. The seemingly innocuous setting is Cap’n Clark’s Ottoman Empire, […]
State invests $25 million in future MIT “quantum toolbox”
Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey stood in a windowless room on the seventh floor of MIT’s Samberg Conference Center and promised the state’s $25 million investment in a Quantum Systems Laboratory (QSL) at MIT would be good for the state. Read more The once familiar bobolink now in decline “The [return on investment] is clear on […]
The once familiar bobolink now in decline
A reader asked me recently about ground-nesting birds. Here is the story of one such bird, the bobolink. Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus) breed in open grasslands and prairies. When European settlers arrived in North America, they cleared forests for hayfields, pastures and farms. Bobolinks, native to the Americas, thrived in hayfields, which were plentiful even near […]
Copper Mill’s revised proposal still doesn’t work
The “new” proposal by Copper Mill includes a proposed structure that is 24 stories, down from 26 stories. Those are on top of the existing retail floors. And, yes, 24 stories for Davis Square is unquestionably still too high. The structure violates Mass Housing’s Chapter 40B design guidelines, and the project undercuts Somerville’s plans set […]
MIT grad students rally on commencement day, Harvard students picket
MIT graduate student workers rallied before the university’s commencement Thursday, while those at Harvard picketed outside Harvard Yard during graduation ceremonies. Read more Events this week in Camberville: Pride Patio Party, Celtic art, & Eve Plumb Over 100 people gathered outside MIT’s Lobby 7 at 77 Massachusetts Avenue to rally in support of graduate student […]