By Joseph A. Curtatone

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

Nothing says the holidays like things we consider homey—fireplaces, cups of cocoa, the comfortable and cozy stuff that makes us feel like we’re home. Of course, what really makes something homey—and what things like evenings by the fireside remind us of—is people. Home is about people. And that doesn’t mean just family, or the people living with you. It means your neighbor offering to bring in your mail or watch your pet while you’re away, the convenience store clerk who greets you each day as you grab your morning coffee on the way to work, all those familiar faces you regularly greet with a smile and hello.

~Photos by Claudia Ferro

Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone was joined by Alderman At Large Mary Jo Rossetti, Jimmy Del Ponte, and City Hall staffers as they sang Christmas carols for residents of Lowell street VNA and the Little Sisters of the Poor on Tuesday, December 16. The residents joined in and had a great time.

Here are the winners of our Christmas Poem contest, chosen by the staff of The Somerville Times. The winners will receive gift certificates four Mount Vernon restaurant in the amounts of: $100 for First Place; $75 for Second Place; and $50 for Third Place. Runners up will each $25 gift certificates. We thank everyone who participated and submitted their poems.

Somerville’s Poet Laureate, Nicole Terez Dutton.

Nicole Terez Dutton’s work has appeared in Callaloo, Ploughshares, 32 Poems, Indiana Review, and Salt Hill Journal. Nicole earned an MFA from Brown University and is currently serving as the the 2013 Dartmouth Poet in Residence at the Frost Place. She has been awarded the fellowships at the Fine Arts Work Center, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Cave Canem and the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts. She is the winner of the 2011 Cave Canem Poetry Prize for If One Of Us Should Fall.  She lives in Somerville, Massachusetts and teaches at the Solstice MFA Program at Pine Manor College and Grub Street.

— Photo courtesy of Tufts University

By Jim Clark

The Committee on Public Health and Public Safety made a report to the Somerville Board of Aldermen at its regular meeting on Dec. 11 regarding its discussions with a representatives of the Community Assessment of Freeway Exposure and Health (CAFEH) Study and the Housing Department of the Office of Strategic Planning and Community Development addressing a $675,000 grant from the Kresge Foundation aimed at ways to deal with the health risks to Somerville residents from Route 93 in Somerville.

By Rebecca Danvers

According to an announcement by the city, Somerville’s “Pocket Change” workforce development program for low-income, out-of-school young adults has a new partner—Help Around Town, a website that allows businesses and residents to post one-off jobs and part-time employment opportunities at no cost to them.

From all of us here at The Somerville Times, we wish everyone in the Ville a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

By Jim Clark

Police were dispatched to a Medford St. location on last week on reports of a vehicular accident with the driver being kept from leaving the scene.

The Day After Christmas Concert will be held at Johnny D’s this coming Friday.

By Sanjeev Selvarajah

Johnny D’s will be holding its 7th Annual Day After Christmas Concert this coming Friday at 7:45 p.m., at which time Hello Echo, Nighttime Sunshine, Grimis, and Four Legged Faithful will be performing.

Eagle Feathers #68 – First Call

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

“It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christmas hope and aspiration that all of us, the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage (every man and brother of us all throughout the whole earth), may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss, (except the inventor of the telephone.)” This was quoted from a letter Mark Twain sent to Gardiner Hubbard, father-in-law of Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone. This was Twain’s reaction to phone usage in the 1890’s, much like today’s older generation’s reaction to the modern assault of today’s cell phone technology and its lack of ethics.