The Somerville High School and Cambridge football teams kicked off a new Thanksgiving Day pre-game tradition on Tuesday, November 20. Captains of both teams came together for the first of what will become an annual pre-game luncheon, hosted by the home team. Mayors of both cities, coaches and headmasters of each team, and Superintendent Pierantozzi also joined in the inaugural luncheon. The game winner will lay claim to the Thanksgiving Day Bowl for the year.

Book Launch Dec 2, 2012: With Robert Lowell and His Circle Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, Elizabeth Bishop, Stanley Kunitz, & Others by Kathleen Spivack

My friend, the acclaimed poet Kathleen Spivack has a new memoir out: With Robert Lowell and His Circle. I had the honor to interview Kathleen in 2010, and had a chance to question her about the Boston and Cambridge literary scene in the 50s, 60s,and 70s. She told me about playing ping-pong with Elizabeth Bishop, and her tutorials with Robert Lowell. She also told me about Anne Sexton and Sylvia Plath and the Robert Lowell workshop at Boston University they were all in. Kathleen also has a big Somerville connection. She lived in Somerville as a single mother some decades ago, and is currently a member of the Somerville Bagel Bards. This important new memoir was reviewed in the Globe recently.  Here is some information about the book and the book launch that is to happen on Dec.2:

Somerville Poet Afaa Michael Weaver. – Photo by Rachel Eliza Griffiths

Somerville Poet Afaa Michael Weaver has a new collection of poetry out The Government of Nature (University of Pittsburgh Press). He wrote the LYRICAL:

Lori and Peter Cote of Somerville proudly show off the $37M check benefitting the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.– Photo by Jay Baronowski

The 2012 Pan-Massachusetts Challenge (PMC) raised $37 million for cancer research and patient care at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute through the Jimmy Fund. The 2012 fundraising total is $2 million more than the PMC gave in 2011 and brings its 33-year Jimmy Fund contribution to $375 million.

By Jim Clark

Police were dispatched to the Kmart store on Middlesex Ave. for a reported shoplifting incident last Saturday afternoon.

Officers arrived at the store’s loss prevention office and questioned the suspected thief, who appeared to be very nervous and was sweating profusely, according to reports.

Kara – Kara Fili in We are here now. – Photo by Jim Coleman

Somerville residents Rose Abramoff, Kara Fili, Mark Kranz, Amy Mastrangelo, and Julia E. Wagner are now busy preparing for Luminarium Dance Company’s closing performance of its highly successful second season with Mythos:Pathos at OBERON, the American Repertory Theater’s second stage.

City seeks public input at November 28, 29 meetings for Gilman, Magoun and Ball Square GLX station planning

The final two planning sessions of the city’s new “Somerville by Design” initiative – which will assist in the implementation of urban design and land use goals of the SomerVision Comprehensive Plan – will be held on Wednesday, November 28 and Thursday, November 29 at the Center for Arts at the Armory at 191 Highland Ave.  Somerville by Design is the City of Somerville’s latest community planning initiative, designed to help residents and business owners visualize positive change in their neighborhoods.  SomerVision and Somerville by Design are results of funding through a Challenge Grant from the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Sustainable Communities Program.

This week marks the beginning of the annual holiday gift-buying season. Each year, more and more shoppers are using on line or catalog services to order gifts to be delivered at their homes. Unfortunately, this is also the season when the theft of delivered packages increases across the nation and Somerville is no exception.

In 2011, there were 56 reported thefts of packages from the porches or doorsteps of Somerville residents.  Thirty of those thefts happened from mid- November through the end of the year.  Some arrests were made and some items were recovered.  But our goal this year is to reduce this type of theft from happening at all.

The waste transfer station’s “transition” of the transfer station at Brickbottom, just off McGrath Highway, will occur in July 2013.

By Cathleen Twardzik

The situation regarding the waste transfer station at Brickbottom, just off McGrath Highway, has been adjusted.

The original plan was that the city would “terminate” waste management’s lease of the waste transfer station on October 1, 2012. The transfer station’s “transition” of the transfer station will actually occur in July 2013.

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.)

This article originally appeared in The Somerville News on March 29, 2008.

It used to be called Smitty’s, on Somerville Ave., but when it became the Embassy Lounge, that’s when the real fun began. The year was 1974 and the Fabulous Pharaohs were the big attraction. Inspired by The Great Pretenders, The Pharaohs were a pantomime act that did ’50s and ’60s music on Thursday and Sunday nights. The members were Mark, John, Mike, Billy, and Brian. Mike’s brother, another John, ran the equipment (p.s. – get well soon, John). Mark’s brother George was part of the group for a short time and their father, George Sr., managed them for a while. Joe W and Dave Emery were also on the tech crew at various times.