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)

It’s almost gone. At the end of October, we held a ‘wallbreaking ceremony’—a groundbreaking ceremony, but in reverse—for the Brickbottom waste transfer station. That wallbreaking ceremony was not about celebrating destroying things. We celebrated what we are building—and what is to come. We’re removing what is, along with McGrath Highway, the biggest barrier to redevelopment in Brickbottom. We’re tearing down the walls that divide our community. Since 1950, anyone entering Somerville from Boston and Cambridge has been greeted by an unwelcoming sight—and smell. That ends now.

By Douglas Yu

It’s another holiday season. Thanksgiving is just around the corner, and some people expect a nice family reunion in their hometowns. This year, a community sing-along led by Ben Lovenheim will be held in Somerville.

– Photos by Claudia Ferro

The Somerville Kiwanis Club, with the assistance of the Somerville Council on Aging, recently hosted over 100 senior citizens to a Thanksgiving dinner. The event was held at the Culinary Arts restaurant at Somerville High School.

Ravenna and Emily enjoyed a blissful afternoon of cupcakes and art at The Nave Gallery. – Photo by Lawrence Paolella

By Erica Scharn

The Nave Gallery kicked off its Wrap Around Sale to benefit the Somerville Homeless Coalition with cupcakes, rubber ducks and homemade goods on Saturday.

The Nave Gallery in Somerville, which is a volunteer-run exhibition space, hosts the Wrap Around Sale every November, starting with a Cupcake Reception. The Wrap Around Sale features handmade goods by artists, crafters and knitters, with all of the proceeds benefitting the Somerville Homeless Coalition. Now in its sixth year, the event raised nearly $3,000 for the Coalition last year. The Wrap Around Sale will take place every Saturday and Sunday, 1:00 – 5:00 p.m., until December 15, 2013 (with the exception of Thanksgiving weekend).

Ward 7 residents met with city officials and one another to discuss issues of importance in the community. – Photo by Tom Bannister

By Tom Bannister

Some 100 residents crowded into the standing room only West Somerville Community School to meet with Mayor Joe Curtatone, staff and department heads for the Fall ResiStat Ward 7 meeting last Wednesday.

This Saturday evening on the 23rd at 7p.m., the Greek Orthodox Church Dormition on Central Street will be unveiling The Axion Estin icon of the Virgin Mary, one of the oldest and most highly venerated icons of Orthodoxy. This is the authenticated replica of the Axion Estin Icon at Hierarchical Great Vespers service. The public is invited to attend and a delicious free reception is to follow.

The situation is beginning to look serious. The searching for a solution to the rodent problem situation, that is.

The issue has been discussed and cursory actions taken for quite some time, but a new concerted effort has been taking shape in recent months and a fresh plan of attack has been formulated and will be implemented in the very near future.

After two overtime periods, the Somerville High School Boys soccer team effort came to an end as West Springfield prevailed in the Division 1 State Championship in Worcester on Friday, November 15.

Somerville High School’s Anthony Scrima earned Runner-up honors in the MIAA’s 13th Annual Sportsmanship Essay/Multimedia Contest, with a video entry titled Be the Game Changer.

Scrima’s video:

Ghost Dance In Berlin: A Rhapsody in Gray by Peter Wortsman ( Solas House, Inc. 2013)  $16.95

I admit I am not a  well-traveled individual like my friend the noted critic and Somerville Times guest columnist, Dennis Daly. My travels encompass  Union Square to Davis, from the Bloc 11 Cafe, to the hinterlands of the Sherman Cafe.  Nor do I harbor a great interest in Germany. Being a Jew, and with  Holocaust survivors in my family, my images of Germany have been  of grainy documentary footage, with skeletal corpses heaped together  outside a concentration camp–never again–I have said to myself–for  more than one reason. But Peter Wortsman’s memoir: Ghost Dance in Berlin…. A Rhapsody in Gray caught my interest–not only because it was recommended to me by a writer I greatly admire–Alan Kaufman ( Drunken Angel and Outlaw Bible of American Literature) but because Wortsman brings the gimlet eye of a seasoned traveler, and the sensibility of a poet to his prose.