Life has taken a Cold War Turn, and I find myself almost missing Ronald Reagan and his willingness to stand up to the Russians. Ten years ago, Ukraine was the third most powerful nuclear power in the world. It dismantled its nuclear arsenal in exchange for the Budapest Memorandum "commitment" by Russia, Britain and the …
Marathon musings: who is a hero?
Don't read this if you're tired of the non-stop coverage of the Marathon bombing. Don't read it if you're not touched in some way by the tragedy that befell individual runners and bystanders or disturbed by the assault on our community. Have there been efforts to capitalize on the grief and memorialization of the event? The profit …
Shame on Brandeis
Ayaan Hirsi Ali is, indeed, a controversial figure, especially for the vehemence with which she has criticized Islamic fundamentalism. Just read her memoir Infidel, and you'll understand why. Her childhood was spent in Somalia, Saudi Arabia and Kenya, where she survived genital mutilation, physical and emotional abuse, parental attempts at forced marriage and all the forms …
Selfie, shmelfie – where will it end?
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, …
Remy brings ick factor to ballgame
Despite a hailstorm today, little green shoots are starting to poke their heads up in our yard, tomorrow is April 1st and the baseball season has officially started. I'm poised to wrest control of my garden from the rabbits and welcome the season with a clean slate. Except for the Remy factor. When Jerry Remy started broadcasting from spring training, …
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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Teaching kids to hate
If you're Jewish, think twice about moving to Bedford, MA. That's the message of recent anti-Semitic incidents in that west suburban town. Elementary school children play a game called "Jail the Jews." Swastika graffiti is discovered at an elementary school, at Bedford High School and a local playground. Such anti-Semitism is not unique to Bedford, …
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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Marjorie Arons-Barron 