Somerville tackles resident pests
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This map shows rodent calls to city hall during the first half of the year. Click the image to download a scalable PDF version.

By Elizabeth Sheeran

Somerville generally prides itself on its diversity. But city officials have made it clear that one group of residents is not welcome here.

Tomorrow’s Somerville Olympics of a Special Kind at Trum Field has been postponed due to a forecast of rain. The rain date will take place on Thursday August 2nd at Trum Field, starting at 5:30 p.m.

The Dark Knight Rises is now playing at the Somerville Theater in Davis Square. – Photo by Bobbie Toner

By Sanjeev Selvarajah

The Dark Knight Rises is more in line with Star Wars’ Return of the Jedi than it is an offspring of Spiderman 3 or X-Men 3, typical comic book fare. This movie removes the third installment curse of the genre and presides over a terrific denouement to the tale of the Caped Crusader.

Exchange of information was the theme for the most recent Davis Square Streetscape meeting.
– Photo by Bobbie Toner

By Emmanuel Vincent

The third meeting of the Davis Square Streertscape project was held on July 17.  In this meeting, the city took the information that they gained from the public at the last meeting, Project Charette, and shared information with everyone in attendance.

Ring out the old and ring in…what?

We’ve had our expectations piqued for an elegant, new, exciting, and ultra-trendy IKEA store for so long now. The news that the retailer giant will not be following through with its one-time plan for setting up shop at the new and improved Assembly Square development has left a great void to be filled. Well, one heck of a huge piece of commercial real estate to be filled with something, anyway.

The Somerville News person of the week, Danny Spinosa

Meet Danny Spinosa, a lifelong Somerville resident, businessman, and family man, who served his country with distinction and valor during World War II. He came home after the war and together with his best friend and wife for many years, Mary, started a family and raised five children, five grandchildren and now have five great grandchildren. If you know the Spinosa family, all of them have the same qualities of Danny and Mary, good ethics and high standards were instilled in them growing up.

By Allison Caloggero

The 2012 Bay State Games were held July 9-13 at Bentley University and the Veterans Field Complex in Waltham. The softball and baseball competitions wrapped up on Friday July 13th. Somerville natives Jonathan Santana Arias (Somerville HS), Jennifer White (Somerville HS) and Courtney Casey (Arlington Catholic HS) represented the Metro teams.

Luminarium Dance Company sheds light on the art of choreography and movement.

By Tatiana Kombo

After a successful presentation at this year’s Somerville ArtBeat Festival, the Luminarium Dance Company begins its second season of non-traditional, thought-provoking performance and installation art by presenting its projects at the Armory from July 29 to August 4.

The Somerville Swinging Moonlighters had the honor of singing the National Anthem at the Lowell Spinner’s baseball game July 20.  Jimmy Del Ponte conducted the group. It was a beautiful night with a great crowd cheering the singers on.

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Poet Wendy Ranan Continues the Literary Tradition of McLean Hospital with her new poetry collection– The Quiet Room
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The Quiet Room: Poems:Wendy Ranan (Deerbrook Editions POBOX 542 Cumberland, ME 04021 http://www.deerbrookeditions.com) $16.95

Wendy Ranan is a psychotherapist at McLean Hospital, and is an accomplished poet. Both Ranan and I have worked at McLean, (a psychiatric hospital that has been designated a national literary landmark) for decades. At McLean Anne Sexton lead her famed workshops, Robert Lowell paced the halls of Bowditch House, and Sylvia Plath got her inspiration for her novel The Bell Jar. Surprisingly Ranan and I have never met in the flesh and have not even heard of each other until recently. But Ranan connected with me through my friends at the Grolier Poetry Bookshop in Harvard Square. She sent me a new collection of her poetry The Quiet Room , and the book has a number of poems that concern McLean. Now a Quiet Room can be a room of one’s own as Virginia Woolf once wrote about, or it can an isolation room for psychotic and violent patients who are in danger of harming themselves and others. And in a sense many of Ranan’s McLean Hospital poems have a a quiet contemplative sense to them, but in the background there is the buzz of inner turmoil of the patients and even at times the poet herself.