Zika virus infection poses a significant risk in pregnancy as it “is a cause of microcephaly and other severe fetal brain defects” according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), an agency of the federal government responsible for monitoring and assessing threats to public health. “Microcephaly is a medical condition in which the […]
Taking Charge: Collected Stories on Aging Boldly by Herb Weiss, available in paperback and for Amazon Kindle https://www.amazon.com/dp/0692688706/ After 36 years in journalism Herb Weiss, known for his regular newspaper columns in The Pawtucket Times and The Woonsocket Call, has collected in book form what he regards as some of his best work. An eclectic […]
I never expected to live in a fascist state. I’m old enough to have grown up in the United States acquainted with people who escaped real fascists. One of my elementary school teachers in her late teens and early 20s fought with the anti-Nazi resistance in Germany during the war. I knew people who survived […]
The word “appropriate” can be pronounced (according to the American Heritage dictionary) either as an adjective “(ə-prō′prē-ĭt)” meaning “suitable for a particular person, condition, occasion, or place; fitting” or as a verb “(ə-prō′prē-āt′)” meaning “to take possession of or make use of exclusively for oneself, often without permission.” The ambiguity is deliberate in the title […]
Poet Emily Dickinson, who was more than a little odd herself, noted that madness is what society ascribes to those who do not conform: “Assent, and you are sane ;/Demur, — you’re straightway dangerous,/And handled with a chain.” There are, I would argue, three great novels that better than any others captured this theme for […]
In Wilbury’s “Fascist Mash-Up” of three plays – although really two plays and an epilogue – director Josh Short deserves praise for conceiving a radical experiment well carried out. Interweaving scenes from The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui by Bertolt Brecht and from Party Time by Harold Pinter, the result is surprisingly more palatable than […]
Education comes in many different forms and not every student learns best in a classroom setting, according to Steven Heath, executive director of FabNewport, a private non-profit organization that seeks to bring the “maker culture” to youth. “We are born to learn. If you put a 2-year-old on the floor you don’t have to teach […]
In probably the most emphatic repudiation of the status quo by voters since the electoral rout that ended the reign of Democrat Party chairman and Senate majority leader Rocco A. Quattrocchi in 1983, six of the 18 General Assembly incumbents facing 2016 primary challenges, all Democrats, were defeated by insurgent newcomers. This should terrify the […]
Trinity Rep’s production of Beowulf: A Thousand Years of Baggage is a lot more fun than the average high school English class, and there won’t be a quiz afterward. The catchy rock-opera style of the book and lyrics by Jason Craig and music by Dave Malloy is a very modern take on an epic poem […]
I write this a few minutes after receiving a $25 ticket for overtime parking at a meter in Providence. I walked out of Olga’s Cup and Saucer, where I had paid $5.74 for a tea and croissant plus $2 tip after paying $2.50 for the maximum two hours on the parking meter. I was watching […]