Four months ago, when the Oxford English Dictionary named "selfie" the 2013 word of the year, I had never even heard of it. In the last couple of days, it's almost all I've heard. Of course, there was the selfie taken by President Obama of himself and Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, a comely lass, …
Category: Politics
Running for A.G. – a familiar face stands out
On April 19 last year, longtime political activist, former elected official and Watertown resident Warren Tolman found himself 300 yards from the capture of Marathon bomber Zhokar Tsarnaev. With a helicopter roaring overhead, police on both sides of his driveway and in his backyard, Tolman listened as a swat team worked its way through his basement searching for the …
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St. Patrick’s Day Breakfast: more love-in, less roast
Southie's traditional St. Patrick's Day breakfast was anything but traditional yesterday. A testament to the new Boston, a majority-minority city, the breakfast was hosted for the first time ever by a woman, a person of color, a Haitian-American, and a resident of Dorchester...all wrapped up in the energetic and charismatic persona of State Senator Linda Dorcena Forry. …
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Florida escape clears the cobwebs and crabbiness
South Beach is lovely this time of year, especially in that special residential anti-glitz, non-tourist world South of Fifth. Thank goodness for the generosity of friends. Cloudless blue skies, sunny days in the low 80s with low humidity, toes in the sand, dips in the ocean and laps in a pool really are restorative. Just …
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Patent leather shoes and other intrusive technologies
Wearing skirts has always been a challenge for adolescent schoolgirls concerned about their privacy, an issue made patently clear by John Powers' 1975 coming-of-age book Do Black Patent Leather Shoes Really Reflect Up? I believe local writer Caryl Rivers also talked about it in her book Virgins. But you didn't have to be at a Catholic school to …
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Staggering human costs of Iraq and Afghanistan
Recently, Taliban insurgents overran an Afghan National Army base killing 21 soldiers as they slept. It was said to be the worst single blow to government forces since 2010. Corruption remains rampant in Afghanistan, fueled by the inflow of American aid. NPR's Morning Edition today laid out more of Hamid Karzai's despicably deceptive behavior. Today's New …
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Staying connected with the world
15 years ago the Atlantic Rim Network hosted a symposium here on the dangers of the decline of international news coverage and the importance of making world events relevant to parochial audiences. It was January 1999. One participant, a CBS news producer, pointed to the other panelists (e.g. CNN, USA Today, NYTimes), telling them they were missing …
What will it take to fix ACA?
When President Obama back in 2010 said of the flawed Affordable Care Act, pass it now, fix it later, perhaps he never dreamed of the extent to which politics would have paralyzed the U.S. Congress. In the past, with major laws like Medicare and Social Security, legislators took an engineering model approach. Pass it. Test …
Boston Olympics? costly diversion
The initial images of the Sochi winter Olympics - tap water the color of urine, treacherous unfinished sidewalks, bathroom doors that wouldn't open, failed opening night electronic display - have given way to images of skiers doing death-defying summersaults off the chutes, elegant ice skating, breathtaking bobsled runs, the excitement of the T. J. Oshie goal …
Real life after the good ship Lollipop
Shirley Temple was three years old back in the 1930's when she started her performance career. She achieved major league stardom between the ripe old ages of six and 11. With her curly hair and twinkly eyes, she sang and danced and achieved the moniker of America's Sweetheart well before the days of American Idol. …
Marjorie Arons-Barron 