By George P. Hassett

The past continued to slip away from Somerville in 2007 as the city lost many of the people and landmarks that until this year had helped shape its character and identity for decades.

The longest serving officer in the police department – Acting Chief Robert R. Bradley — resigned after 38 years. A coffee shop credited with jumpstarting the renaissance of Davis Square in the 1990s was replaced with a crepe shop. And history itself was lost when Isobel Cheney, the city’s unofficial historian and author of “A Brief History of Somerville” died at 99.

Off The Shelf by Doug Holder

I am not an academic poet. I am not a part of a faculty of a major university, nor on the board of a     prestigious literary organization. I always have been a part of that great eclectic sea of the small press. In fact my activities have mostly been outside of the gated communities of the academy. I started the Ibbetson Street Press with my wife Dianne Robitaille and my good friend Richard Wilhelm in 1998. For years I had been published in small presses, and I came to realize without a vibrant small press community talented poets would not see the light of day. A student of literary history will realize that many of our great poets from Whitman to Frost to Ginsberg got their start in little magazines and small presses.

Dear Santa Claus (or God, Abraham, Mohammed, Allah – whomever will listen) –
thank you for 2007 – a year that seemed to start slow, but picked up the pace as the months passed by.

For us at The Somerville News, it started off with the “excommunication” of a certain self-destructive former editor and rolled right into the Barack Obama “ticket-gate.”

In the middle part of the year, there seemed to be a bit of a lull, with only the “will he get it or won’t he get it” Bradley magical mystery tour keeping us entertained.

From alleged death threats to unpaid parking tickets, Somerville had a busy and quirky news year in 2007. Here are the top five news stories of the year as we see it.

“We’re going to bury him”

Rick Scirocco’s campaign for mayor had a difficult day on Friday, Aug. 24. That day, the Boston Herald ran a full page story on Scirocco’s multiple domestic violence arrests and the four restraining orders taken out against him by four different women. Later in the day the Somerville News reported Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone was being guarded by a police officer on paid detail after his office learned a Scirocco supporter – Lenny DiCicco – had told a Curtatone volunteer, “We’re going to bury him.” DiCicco insisted his remark was in reference to election results and not a threat to do bodily harm to Curtatone. However, either Curtatone or his staff took the threat seriously enough to demand an armed guard at the cost of $1,034 to protect Curtatone from the elderly DiCicco.

by James Norton and Donald Norton

Beginning at 3 a.m. this morning, more than 30 members of Teamsters Local 25 padlocked the entrance of Russel Disposal  and parked a large tractor trailer in fron of the business to block access to the waste businesses’ yard.

Witnesses on scene said the union attempted to intimidate everyone in sight, including police and media, with curse-laden threats. A fracas erupted between Teamsters, police and Russell employees. At one point during the confrontation Russell owner Chuck Russell stood in McGrath Highway with a sombrero on and stomped on discarded picket signs.

By William C. Shelton

(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.)

Last month, Taeko Minigishi and Wig Zamore were setting up nitrogen dioxide monitors at the corner of Vermont and Michigan Avenues. Three neighbors out for a walk stopped to chat. When Wig and Taeko explained what they were doing, the passersby began pointing out surrounding homes where their neighbors had died from lung cancer.

Christmas is over and now the rush to ring in the New Year Рwe here at Newstalk wish all our family and friends in Somerville a Happy New Year in 2008 – may health, happiness and prosperity be with us all this New Year.

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Comedian Jimmy Tingle is saying his final farewell to Somerville. Last week he threw a farewell party at the Burren to celebrate his past five years here in Somerville – we wish him the best of luck and thank him for all he has done locally in the past.

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.)

What ever happened to Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol? They used to run it every year when I was growing up – Jack Cassidy was the voice of Bob Crochet, and of course Jim Backus was Mr. Magoo. It was one of those traditions that I wanted to pass on to my kids‚Ķ‚Äùwith razzle berry dressing‚Äù! I think it used to be televised on Channel 38.  Anyway, I finally found ‚ÄúMr. Magoo‚Äôs Christmas Carol‚Äù online – now it is in that dusty pile of DVD‚Äôs that we never watch ‚Äì most of them were gifts from Christmas past ‚Äì you know, watched it once and it didn‚Äôt catch on with the kids.

By Joseph A. Curtatone

(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.)

There may be no topic in Somerville more explosive and emotional than how to manage cars, streets and sidewalks during and after snowstorms. No matter what our policies are and how well they are communicated and implemented, people are going to be upset.

If you had asked me last Saturday, Dec. 15 how I thought we were doing on snow procedures, I would have said ‚ÄúSomerville rocks!‚Äù  Based on good forecasts, we declared a snow emergency to go into effect at 10 a.m. on Thursday.  We notified even earlier, sending out a news release, a Connect CTY call and an email blast at 7 a.m. as well as posting the information on the web, on our cable stations and on our info hotline (617-628-SNOW).  For the first time ever, we even activated some of our flashing blue light indicators at entry intersections around the city. (There are twenty-two of them, but not all of them are powered up yet ‚Äì including the one in Davis Square.)  As always, we gave people four hours to move their cars (seven if you count from when we announced the emergency) and we deployed for aggressive plowing, salting and sanding.