The quaint old custom of looking to an oversized rodent every February 2 for a generalized weather forecast for the following immediate future is warmly amusing to some, irksome to others.

Groundhog Day is a popular North American tradition observed in the United States and Canada. Its origins are traced to the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on the given day and sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will go back into to its den and winter weather will continue for six more weeks. If it fails to see its shadow because of cloudiness, then spring will invariably arrive early.

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History comes to life in this wonderfully told story

Full disclosure, I’ve been a fan of Tina Jackson since first reading her wonderful novel, The Beloved Children. That novel, like this one, brings history to life with characters so real, complex and interesting you find yourself compelled to keep reading to learn their full story.

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Richard Wilhelm is a founding member of Somerville’s Ibbetson Street Press. A longtime resident of our city, he paints prolifically in his spare time.

Weekend service changes will also take place on the Green Line for regular maintenance and on the Red Line for signal upgrades.

The MBTA  announced service changes in February on the Orange, Green, Red, Newburyport/Rockport, and Haverhill lines.

The MBTA recently announced extended service outages that include weekdays planned for the 2025 calendar year through June. As previously announced, the vast majority of work in 2025 will take place during weekends and evenings with some limited weekday outages anticipated this year.

SomerViva organized and recorded Know Your Rights sessions to help Somerville residents understand their immigration rights and the rights their neighbors. You can find videos of these Know Your Rights informational sessions in Spanish, Portuguese, Haitian Creole, Cantonese, Mandarin, and Nepali below.