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Review by Tom Miller

Sebastian Lockwood is a story teller and a good one. He makes use of his skills in his most recent publication Headless In Hancock 1882 which he sets in the Hancock Inn and Fox Tavern, an establishment that has actually been in existence since 1789, and in the surrounding Mondack region. Lockwood is unabashedly in love with the area which he pays homage to in the book. In the introduction he declares the work to be “historical fiction” which indeed it is, allowing him the freedom to tell a good story without letting mere facts get in the way. Having said that, one needs to understand that Lockwood went to great lengths to “get it right” in the sense of the political and social sensibilities of a small town in New Hampshire in 1882. After all the Civil War is just seventeen years in the past and many of the societal opinions regarding slavery and abolition still circulate. The radical Puritans still rule south of the Merrimack River. Electricity has not quite brought the onslaught of modernism to the area. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 is in effect. Boston and New York are intriguing but frightening places. Railroads are sort of the thing … elsewhere.

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Every now and then I put a poem of my own in the Lyrical Somerville.

Doug Holder is the arts/editor of The Somerville Times, he is on the board of the New England Poetry Club, and the Friends of the Longfellow House. He is the co-founder of the Ibbetson Street Press of Somerville, MA. and teaches at Endicott College in Beverly, MA.

Center to provide hot meals, bathrooms, and safe sleeping spaces for adults experiencing homelessness

As we approach the coldest months of the year, the City of Somerville is once again opening a winter season Emergency Overnight Warming Center to support adults experiencing homelessness. Starting on Monday, December 8, 2025, through April 12, 2026, the warming center will offer a safe place to sleep and a range of other services.

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The trailer is ” Voices of Somerville” produced by Olivia Huang. It concerns the voices of poets from Somerville, and others in the area. The movie includes Somerville residents Gloria Mindock, Doug Holder, Lloyd Schwartz (Somerville Poet Laureate), Denise Provost and others. The full movie will be out next month.

A live virtual Design Public Hearing (DPH) and an Open House will be hosted to provide the public with the opportunity to become fully acquainted with the proposed roadway reconstruction project on McGrath Highway on Tuesday,  December 9, 2025, 6:30pm –  8:00pm

The wooden overhead catenary trough – seen here at Park Street – dates back to the late 1890s and will be replaced with a modern, more durable, metal trough. ~Photo courtesy of MBTA

Green Line Will Be Suspended Between North Station and Babcock Street / Kenmore / Heath Street December 8 – 22

The MBTA is reminding riders that Green Line service will be suspended between North Station and Babcock Street on the B Branch, Kenmore on the C and D Branches, and Heath Street on the E Branch for 15 consecutive days, December 8 – 22. Regular Green Line service will operate between North Station and Union Square as well as Medford/Tufts during this service change.

The Somerville Department of Public Works (DPW) wishes to remind residents that the final days for yard waste collection this season are next week from Monday to Friday, December 8-12, 2025. Yard waste can be left out for pickup by DPW on residents’ scheduled trash collection days. Please note: yard waste cannot be collected if it is put in plastic bags.

Tours provide information for prospective families on selecting preferred school for Fall 2026

Somerville Public Schools’ (SPS) school enrollment period for prekindergarten and kindergarten students begins on Friday, January 2, preceded by a series of school tours for prospective families.

Somerville’s Ralph Waldo Christie & the Perils of the Mark 14 Torpedo

Somerville Museum presents a Tavern Talk with Dan Breen at Aeronaut Brewery on December 3.