Trudging up to Yawkey Way from the Kenmore Square T stop last Friday, I tasted bile in contemplating the horrors of the 2012 team, a performance that defies description by all but the Globe's Dan Shaughnessey. I consoled myself that it was a picture perfect summer night for a ballgame and, besides, I hadn't been to Fenway yet this season. A …
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Senate hopeful Todd Akin’s gift of gaffe
A gaffe has been defined as when a politician accidentally tells the truth. Not that the content of Rep. Todd Akin's statement about rape is the truth, but that what he said is what he really thinks. It's obvious. And he's not about to get out of the all-important race against Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri just …
Public opinion polls: take with grain of salt
Last week I was surveyed by the Gallup organization, confirming two things: first, that the venerable public opinion survey actually talks to real people, and second, that the results of questions they ask can't possibly be a reliable reflection of, er, public opinion. One problem is that the questions are designed to force choices, elicit simple …
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Gaming the games: the real Olympic spirit
One of my favorite childhood stories was the tale of Phidippides, the man who in 500 BC ran from Marathon to Athens, delivered the good news of a victory over Persia, and dropped dead from exhaustion. As the story goes, that's how the modern marathons got their name, and they've been Olympic sports for more than a century. For me, …
Three strikes to improve public policy: the legislative process works
Governor Patrick's decision to sign the crime bill, the passage of a health cost containment bill, and a renewable energy boost are three healthy signs that the legislative process works. Never mind that they waited till the eleventh hour to get it done. They did what they were elected to do. The crime bill prevents habitual …
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Supervisors finally paying the price of sexual abuse cover-ups
Recently, a Philadelphia church official, Msgr. William Lynn, was sentenced to three to six years in prison on one felony child endangerment charge for covering up sexual abuse by the now laicized priest, Edward Avery, whom he supervised. Lynn was acquitted of conspiracy and a second endangerment count involving a second priest, on whom the jury …
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Colorado shooting scares, saddens and stymies us
Shouting fire in a crowded theater is a terrible thing to do. Opening fire is a horror of a whole order of magnitude. Most of America is struggling to make sense out of 24-year-old neuroscience student James Holmes' rampage, which so far has resulted in the deaths of 12 people and injured 59 others, some of whom may …
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Tanglewood: the Higgs boson of classical music
I can't really understand, much less explain, the Higgs boson, or the Higgs field that excites the creation of the Higgs boson. Scientists tell us it is the last fundamental piece of standard model of particle physics to be discovered in an experiment, and it seems to have enough potential as an explanation for an irreducible something, …
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Patrick vetoes raise questions
What is Deval Patrick is thinking these days? Other than his campaigning for President Obama, of course. At issue are the Governor's support of loosening a ban on gifts to doctors from pharmaceutical companies and medical device manufacturers and his move to veto legislative reforms of the use of welfare debit cards. Big pharma has long plied …
Ogunquit fireworks preserve charm of yesteryear
While tens of thousands of Boston concert-goers were being herded from the Esplanade to a tunnel under Storrow Drive under threat of storm, Ogunquit, Maine was celebrating July 4th as tradition would have it: simple and lovely. Standing on the Marginal Way, overlooking the water, the friendly, appreciative crowd could see the fireworks unfolding along the coast: …
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Marjorie Arons-Barron 