Eagle Feathers #3 – All Hail to Hale!

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

Heroes come in many different shapes and sizes and from all walks of life. A hero could be a schoolteacher, a military officer or sometimes both.  Such is the case with Nathan Hale, a true American hero. In his brief 21 years on earth, the Yale-educated man managed to become an accomplished Connecticut public school teacher, as well as the first member of what is now known as the Central Intelligence Agency. Hale spent the last year of his life in what is now Somerville, training under George Washington in the newly formed Colonial Army.

By Jim Clark

Police were dispatched to a Broadway residence last Thursday evening on reports of a fight in progress.

Upon arrival, officers reportedly found a man, Ryan Gallagher, 32, on the street screaming, “They beat me up! Look at my face! Look at this! For nothing!” A laceration on Gallagher’s eyebrow and scratches on his body were observed by the officers, police said.

The Somerville News Person of the Week, Patty Hamel Oppedisano.

Meet Patty Hamel Oppedisano, our choice for the Somerville News Person of the Week. A lifelong East Somerville resident, she attended Somerville schools, and still lives here with her family. Now, if you know her you’ll know she’s a little bit off center but that’s good. She’s not a conformist. Actually, no one from East Somerville is and that’s a good thing.

Nicole Genard was selected to the Boston Globe and Boston Herald All-Scholastic team for her performances in the Javelin this season. The Globe will announce their selections on Sunday, June 24.

Genard had the three longest throws in Massachusetts this year:139’10”, 138’0, and 136’4″.   She won the Weston Twilight meet, the State Coaches Meet, and the Division 1 state meet.  She holds the SHS and GBL records in the javelin, along with setting the record at the Weston meet.

Next Wave School, Somerville’s alternative junior high school, graduated seven students on Wednesday night, June 13: Brendon Davis, Gabrielle Etienne, Shawn Soares, Carls Alphonse, Bobby Crump, (not in picture: Mercedes Reyes and Ronald Fuentes). Next Wave is designed to meet the special academic, social, emotional, and behavioral needs of troubled adolescents who for many different reasons have been unable to experience success in traditional mainstream settings. By combining the clinical concept of a therapeutic community with the educational concepts of individualized and specialized integrated learning experiences.

I  wrote this speech for a recent Grolier Book Shop fundraiser at the Bloc 11 Cafe in Union Square. Hope you enjoy it…

It’s tough being a writer. In my case even when I was born I was so ugly the doctors slapped my mother instead of me. My own father, not a literary man mind you, said ” What a treasure, let’s bury it!” I remember the tender moments with him though. He once said to me with love in his expressive eyes: “You are in the flower of young manhood Doug–you are a blooming idiot.”

Dan Sklar.

I once saw a hilarious skit on Saturday Night Live. A deranged counselor talking to a student said: “So you want to be a writer, huh? Well- La-De-Freakin’-da.” Now my colleague at Endicott College Professor Dan Sklar is a serious writer but he doesn’t take himself too seriously. Here is a poem to explain his point of view to you.

Mystic River Yacht and Boat Club Commodores with Father Joe Forster, Rep Paul Donato, Former Mayor Gene Brune, and WHYC Commodore Bill Rogers. – Photo by William Tauro

By William Tauro

This past Saturday the Winter Hill Yacht Club of Somerville along with the Mystic Wellington Yacht Club and the Riverside Boat Club of Medford, invited former Somerville Mayor and current Middlesex Registrar of Deeds Gene Brune to represent The City of Somerville, and Medford State Representative Paul Donato representing The City of Medford, to be part of the over thirty year old tradition of the “Blessing of the Fleet” on The Mystic River for its 2012 boating season.

Arrests:
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Ellenmarie McCann, 25, of 167 Pearl St., June 11, 3:18 p.m., arrested at 249 Pearl St. on a warrant charge of assault and battery.

Gary Forestier, 47, of 27 Beacon St., Burlington, June 12, 8:27 a.m., arrested at Elm St. on a charge of operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license.

The Community Foundation for the National Capital Region announced earlier this month that the Laura Bush Foundation for America’s Libraries was awarding $1,126,315 in grants for 2012.  The Dr. Albert F. Argenziano School at Lincoln Park was selected as one of 238 recipients from throughout the United States. The Argenziano School was awarded a $5,000 grant to expand and diversify its library book collections.  Argenziano is one of only four schools in Massachusetts to receive the award.  The School plans to expand its collection of reading materials with a collection of Graphic Novels and a selection of Nonfiction Titles to serve the varied interests and reading levels of students in grades K-8.