Driving down the Mass Pike the day after Boston was tapped for the 2024 U.S. summer Olympics bid, there on the WGBH electronic billboard, the five Olympic rings logo against our beautiful skyline. A frisson of excitement. Wow; it's coming here! Congratulations to the bidding group. And in a split second, I wondered what (and who) …
Category: Media
Mourning Paris journalists and attack on press freedom
If I were technologically proficient, I'd edge this blog in black. How profoundly sad is the grievous slaughter of 12 yesterday in Paris, journalists and their police protectors at the satire magazine Charlie Hebdo. What an unspeakable attack on press freedom and the underpinnings of democracy. What a barbaric assault on humanity! Say what you want …
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‘T’is the season to see movies
I'm not Gene Siskel, Roger Ebert, or Joyce Kulhawik, and I don't pretend to be. But this is a heavy season for movie going, with the industry trying to distribute its best in anticipation of the next round of Oscars. My husband, sister and I have joined the legions of those willing to suspend video renting, plunk …
Sizing up Deval Patrick’s legacy
I confess to being seduced by Governor Deval Patrick. Not literally, of course, but almost always being won over by his charm. It happened the very first time I met him at a house party, nine years ago, when he promised to use the power of the state to reduce property taxes. That didn't quite work …
Mark Wahlberg, meet Nam Phan
Mark Wahlberg, star of box office hits Boogie Nights, The Perfect Storm, The Departed, Lone Surivor and more, and executive producer of Entourage and Boardwalk Empire, was one vicious dude in his teens. His rap sheet from the 1980's reads like a series of scripts from brother Donnie's NYPD series Blue Bloods. Of particular relevance today …
Righting the wrongs of Ferguson
Michael Brown is dead. Darren Wilson's career as a police officer is over. What remains are doubts that, absent a trial, we'll ever know the truth about Ferguson, and the certainty that this nation's racial divide in this country is as unremitting as ever. So what to make of the disappointing grand jury decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren …
Cosby revelations disgusting
It's as if we learned that Mr. Rogers was a pedophile, or Marcus Welby had sexually assaulted patients in his exam room. This week we learned that Bill Cosby, the apogee of middle class respectability both in character (as Cliff Huxtable on The Cosby Show) and in person (universally honored, including locally a few years ago by …
Berkeley students make mockery of Free Speech Movement
This fall marks the 50th anniversary of the Free Speech Movement at U.C. Berkeley, a pivotal moment in the history of student activism and political organizing that laid the groundwork for the antiwar movement and other social causes. At that time, students and faculty across the entire spectrum of political views joined together to protest …
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An open letter to Angela Menino
Dear Angela, Reams have been written and will continue to be written about your beloved husband, Tom; hours have been spent broadcasting his myriad accomplishments as Boston's longest running mayor. History will reflect on the many things he did to leave his imprint on the city and, indeed, the region. Future generations will marvel at the …
Getting a grip on ebola
New York City likes to see itself as informed and sophisticated, but the city's response to its first case of ebola was anything but. The headlines screamed "Ebola in NYC." News stories on television and on the electrified sides of skyscrapers flashed danger. Photos of the doctor diagnosed, who had ridden the subway, eaten at a …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 