Campaign 2016 has become intolerable, even for this confirmed political junkie. I won't go into why. You know what I'm talking about. So, in the interest of sanity, it has become increasingly important to savor the baseball, books and beauties of the last days of summer. Today, the Red Sox have a tenuous hold on first …
Category: Culture
2016 Olympics a gold medal disaster
Whatever happens in individual games over the next two weeks, this may be the most depressing Olympics since Berlin in 1936 and Munich in 1972. And it makes me happier than ever that Boston came to its senses and dropped its 2024 bid. The opening ceremony said it all. Unremitting commercials interspersed with some tape-delayed …
Pay equity issues start at the top
Stock market and share prices are near record highs. At the same time, Republicans and Democrats alike bemoan a sluggish recovery that has left too many behind. As delegates gather in Philadelphia this week, I wonder how many of the speakers will address this disconnect seriously, especially when so many there contributed to this …
Race across America
Philando Castile. Alton Sterling. Lorne Ahrens. Michael Krol. Michael Smith. Brent Thompson. Patrick Zamarripa. Seven men shot and killed last week. Seven senseless deaths, all speaking in one way or another to the racism laced through relations between African-Americans and the police. We have to be blind not to see it. Stone-hearted not to feel …
UK vote sends chills down US spines
Fasten your seatbelts. The ride's going to get even bumpier. A word that few on this side of the pond had heard six months ago may portend greater troubles in the United States. Brexit, shorthand for the United Kingdom's vote to exit the European Union, drives home the anti-globalization rise of nationalism, a nativistic fear of …
Normalizing relations with Cuba: not so fast
Polls make it clear that the American public is way ahead of Congress in supporting normalization of relations and reopening trade with Cuba. But positive numbers from several polls don't mean that the normalization process will be easy or fast. That was unequivocally confirmed by Gonzalo Gallegos, Deputy Assistant for Western Affairs, at a State Department briefing Monday for 30 members …
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Anteing up for the arts
Massachusetts is a world-class laggard when it comes to public support of the arts, and things could get even worse. The Massachusetts House just cut funding for the Mass. Cultural Council (MCC) by $2 million, to $12.2 million. (Originally, House Ways & Means had tried to cut twice than amount.) There's still time for the Senate to restore the MCC to …
Bathroom bill looms in Massachusetts
I have a friend. Let's call her Suzannah. She is over six feet tall, blue-eyed, platinum hair in a page boy. Terrific set of gams, as my father would say. She's married to a smart and talented guy. But here's a problem. It's the bathroom law, currently in effect in North Carolina and Georgia and under consideration …
Red Sox: hope springs eternal
There's a 4" x 3" piece of paper held by magnet on my refrigerator door. The paper is yellow. It's the American League standing from the first days of the 2015 season. Boston was at the top of the East division, with an .800 record. It had won four and lost one game. The scrap was …
A fan’s lament
I feel as if I’ve been hit by a truck. Hung over, despite the fact that I had no alcoholic beverages yesterday or all of last week. The Patriots have let me down. Me. Personally. It was hard to get out of bed this morning. If only the Pats had beaten lowly Miami in their …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 