Ronald Reagan. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Clint Eastwood. Sonny Bono, Al Franken. All actor/ entertainers who won roles as politicians in real life. Now here comes Alec Baldwin. His MSNBC show , Up Late, which debuts tonight, may be the next step in his flirtation with politics. At least, that's what Variety seems to think. Baldwin may prove too …
Continue reading What’s in your wallet? Can you say Governor Alec Baldwin?
Political junkie alert! You can get a fix in Breaking Bad's Bryan Cranston's portrayal of Lyndon Johnson at the American Repertory Theater. (We were lucky to be taken, along with two other couples, by dear friends celebrating their anniversary.)A.R.T.'s new production All the Way starts right after this towering figure's ascension to the Presidency following assassination of …
I'm a life-long Red Sox fan, though I have some fair weather tendencies. I even admit to some fair weather anxieties. The major one is that, if the Red Sox are in first place at the All Star break, I take it as a bad sign. It's the idea that the boys of summer simply …
Newton Mayor Setti Warren is catching flak from some Garden City liberals for withholding $1.4 million in city-controlled federal money for a ten-unit building in a former fire station in the Waban section of Newton. The so-called Engine 6 project would house nine chronically homeless and an attendant, bringing to the residential neighborhood individuals with a history of …
Continue reading Warren unfairly under fire on affordable housing
My family's return from a glorious week in London shows how salutary it is for a political junkie to purge herself- albeit temporarily - of politics. So before I get sucked back into the nearly unspeakable frustration of focusing on the ongoing national political dysfunction, I want to reflect on the pleasures that lie between the covers of a …
Not much has changed with the Supreme Court ruling that the challenge to Texas' affirmative action policy should go back to the lower court for "strict scrutiny" to be applied. Strict scrutiny means that universities will have to show that non-race conscious strategies were tried to achieve diversity before having to utilize race-conscious policies. So where …
The last time I reviewed a Huntington Theatre production, it was M for miserable. The current play is T for terrific. Run, do not walk, to see Rapture, Blister, Burn, the Huntington Theatre production at the Calderwood Pavilion at the Boston Center for the Arts in the South End through June 22. It's a fresh exploration of the …
Continue reading Huntington Theatre ends season on a high note
It wasn't enough to decimate the core of what was Al Qaeda in 2001. The landscape in certain hospitable countries like Yemen and Syria is now dotted with Al Qaeda offshoots and affiliates. And, for the last eight years, the home-grown variety has been particularly vexing. The Sunday morning talk shows were full of attempts to …
Continue reading Muslim community needs to be part of early warning system
Like Punxsutawney Phil emerging from his cave in Pennsylvania, squinting from the sunlight, folks in my hometown emerged from lock-down yesterday morning. On the surface, it was an ordinary weekend morning in spring, a stop at Peet's for coffee, the dry cleaners, drugstore, the usual. But of course nothing was really usual as we started picking up the …
It's hard not to be shaken to the core by the horrific attacks at today's marathon. The deaths, the mutilation, scores of injuries, and fear. The assault on what can only be described as an iconic (yes, I know the word is over-used) event, emblematic of the spirit of Boston. I have never lived more than …
Continue reading Marathon explosions tear at our hearts and community
Marjorie Arons-Barron 