Brilliant Irish satirist Jonathan Swift was said to have loved individuals but loathed mankind. Specifically, he wrote, "I hate and detest that animal called man, although I heartily love John, Peter, Thomas, and so forth." In that spirit, I love Joan Vennochi, Scot Lehigh, Brian McGrory and other Globe reporters and editors, but I have …
Continue reading Boston Globe delivery problems: the route to insanity
I don't know John Henry. We've been introduced at fundraising events a couple of times; there was no extended conversation. He seems very nice, if shy. I have no reason to think he'll ruin the Boston Globe, which he has just purchased for $70 million from the NY Times, by running it into the ground. He seems a …
Continue reading John Henry gets new toy: Globe future still in question
The power of a columnist is incontrovertible. Not long ago, Boston Globe columnist Brian McGrory wrote a moving piece decrying the plight of Shirley Simmons, mother of the late Darryl Williams. Back in 1979, he was the innocent victim of senseless violence in Boston, violence that made him a quadriplegic and confined him to a …
The stock market is down over 500 points, violence is increasing in Afghanistan, North Korea seems poised to launch a rocket that could figure in its nuclear program, hate crimes in Florida and Oklahoma dominate headlines, spring gardens are threatened by unprecedented drought, opening day at Fenway is a downer! And that’s a problem.In recent …
Continue reading Red Sox are failing to provide much needed diversion from world events
Most attorneys general don’t go after political corruption because acting against colleagues can translate into a dead end politically. But Martha Coakley has a new Public Integrity Division, a welcome addition. And she has the new 2009 ethics law, which criminalizes behavior previously treated civilly. Still, there are questions about whether she is being too …
Continue reading Charging Tim Cahill: too much or about time?
Some stories never end, and too often the media let them drift from public consciousness. Not so, Brian McGrory. His moving column Wednesday on the aftermath of the Darryl Williams shooting is a powerful reminder that some people just can’t catch a break.Darryl was a football player from Roxbury playing for J.P. High when he …
Continue reading Responding to the Darryl Williams Aftermath
The unidentified “they” have often said that Boston’s three favorite pastimes are sports, politics and revenge – and not necessarily in that order. Thursday night’s MassInc’s 15-year anniversary celebration at the Kennedy Library brought together media and pols to wallow in a hilarious celebration in a bipartisan spirit of humor and across-the-aisle friendship that, I …
Continue reading MassInc shows how humor can bridge the political divide
Karl Marx believed that religion is the opiate of the masses. I have always thought that sports are the true “opium of the people.” What better escape has there been from the news about the European debt crisis, volatile domestic financial markets, quotidian social incivilities, and the self-destructive atmosphere of current politics, than a summer …
My daughter-in-law’s cousin Peter Goodrich, 33, of Sudbury died on Flight 175 that crashed into the World Trade Center South Tower. It seems that almost everyone in Massachusetts is connected in some way with one of the victims of that terrible day. And today, ten years later, hearing the names of the 3000 victims read …
The process for deciding and ratifying former Blue Cross/Blue Shield CEO Cleve Killingsworth’s exorbitant severance package seems to reflect what happens when movers and shakers in any sector get too comfortable with each other. We saw it on Wall Street; we see it in high-end non-profit health insurers. In neither area does coziness serve the …
Continue reading Cozy relationships lead to Blue Cross/Blue Shield excesses
Marjorie Arons-Barron 