The Somerville Arts Council has funded a second year of Voices of the Somerville Home, a weekly memoir writing class at The Somerville Home residential care facility. Now underway, the program’s participants once again gather around a folding table in the home’s living room every Wednesday, equipped with pens, pads of paper, and a yearning to set their memories down in ink.

Brattle Book Shop owner Kenneth Gloss has a green thumb for gardening book acquisition.

By Kenneth Gloss

Pardon the pun, but gardening books are a perennial favorite with collectors. They have been around from the very first days of writing because they served as guides for the all-important agricultural tasks people had to do each day. The earliest versions of gardening books were nothing like what we think of today. They were advice books, filled with information on how to till the land, what seeds to select, when to harvest, etc. For a good example of a recreated 15th Century gardening book, look for De Boke (The Garden Book) by Jenny Day Haynes, published in 1906. This book is a replica of what one might find 500 hundred years ago.

On The Silly Side by Jimmy Del Ponte

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

My kids just got back from 3 days at Six Flags Theme Park with their mother, and I’m sure she dropped a nice hunk of change. A family of my friends with small children were heading up to Story Land in New Hampshire. With gas and hotel, that costs a pretty penny. A day at Canobie Lake Park, for a family of 4 without discount coupons, will cost a whopping $120.00. Toss in the food and some souvenirs and you’re coming home with an empty wallet.

By State Representative Tim Toomey
26th Middlesex District
Cambridge City Councillor
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(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has proposed a new transportation project that is drastic, unnecessary, and should it be implemented, will hurt the cities of Cambridge and Somerville.

The Grand Junction Railroad, an 8.5 mile-long stretch of rail that runs through Cambridgeport, Kendall Square, East Cambridge, and the Brickbottom area of Somerville, was purchased from CSX by MassDOT roughly one year ago. Just months after purchasing the track as a part of a much larger deal with CSX, MassDOT began studying a proposal that would bring as many as 24 Commuter Rail trains per day through Cambridge and Somerville, with the goal of allowing passengers to ride the Worcester line directly to and from North Station.

Somerville Police are seeking to identify the suspect who robbed a local gas station.  On July 12, at about 8:45 p.m., the Sunoco Gas Station at 541 Broadway was robbed at knifepoint.  The store surveillance video shows the suspect arriving in a black sedan, possibly a Nissan Maxima, with a towel covering it’s license plate, then entered the store and walked up to the counter, where he spoke briefly to the clerk.  The suspect then went back to his car briefly.  He then came back into the store where he calmly walked behind the counter, pulled out a knife and demanded cash.  The suspect fled the store with an undisclosed amount of cash, jumped into the car and fled toward Medford.

By Jim Clark

Employees at the Somerville Avenue Target store became suspicious of a customer while observing him on their security camera system last Sunday.

The man had reportedly entered the store and walked directly to the vacuum cleaner section where he placed two of the same model vacuums into his shopping carriage. Store personnel state that this particular type of vacuum is a commonly stolen item.

By Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

If you paid a company thousands of dollars a year each and every year, you naturally would expect to get attentive customer service as part of the transaction. After all, you are a good customer. That company ought to place a high value on your patronage.

City government is no different. If you live in Somerville, you either pay local taxes directly or through your rent. You get a lot for those taxes – schools, roads, public safety, parks, public records, etc. Yet it is still a sizable chunk of money. In the business of municipal government, you are the customer and you deserve high quality customer service.

Best-selling fantasy author George R.R. Martin. - Photo by Andrew Firestone

By Andrew Firestone

Somervilliens always seem to be on the right side of the literary tracks, but this last Tuesday, July 12, a few of them absconded to Burlington where best-selling fantasy author George R.R. Martin held court. Partly in celebration for the release-day of his fifth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance with Dragons, and partly due to his ever-rising fame from the HBO television adaptation, Game of Thrones, these lucky ‘Villens joined over 1,000 fans outside the Barnes and Noble booksellers to meet the famous author and come away with a signed copy of his book.

The Michael J. Epstein Memorial Library will grace the Music on the Park Stage, Seven Hills Park, as part of the ArtBeat festivities on Saturday, July 16.

By Carrie Stanziola

If you are looking for a fun, inexpensive, and red-filled weekend, come to ArtBeat in Davis Square on Friday and Saturday. Expect to enjoy local talent including artists, craft vendors, musicians, and specialty performers. As some Somerville residents already know, each year ArtBeat is based around a different theme, this year’s being the color red. Saturday’s festival will commence with a Red Menace Parade that will feature beating red hearts, pirate puppets and fruit jugglers. Red-themed activities including plein art painting and the construction of a giant, red-scaled dragon on the Davis Square traffic island will take place.

By Andrew Firestone

Hut! Hut! Hike! Children of all ages flanked the field at Dilboy Stadium and trained in the summer sun this week, when Detroit Lions Offensive Tackle and ‘Villen through and through Gosder Cherilus held a free training camp for children aged 7-14. Sponsored by the Gosder Cherilus  Foundation with help from the Somerville Recreation Department, the week-long camp, held from 9 till noon, helped kids with their agility, catching, hitting and teamwork.