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Home of the Week: Two-story living area is main event in Boston riding club condo

Year built 1920 Square feet 690 Bedrooms 1 Baths 1 full, 1 half Fee $417 month Pets Yes, one dog or cat per unit with trustee approval. Tenants may not have pets. Taxes $6,039 (2023) We’re going to let the Landmarks Commission take the lead here: “BUILDINGS WE LOVE: THE NEW BOSTON RIDING CLUB.” That’s the headline on the commission’s entry on what was once the place for Boston’s toniest set to show off their horsiest skills, but is now the 21-unit Mews Condos, many of which have a horse collar on the wall in a genuflection to the building’s past. Advertisement The building, which spans from Norway Street across to Hemenway Street (where the Badminton and Tennis Club has been operating for the past 90 years), is also on the National Register of Historic Places. “An outstanding and rare local example of half-timbered Tudor Revival/Queen-Anne style architecture, the New Riding Club preserves nearly all the elements of its original design, including half-timbering, projecting gables, sandstone sills and lintels, red brick quoins, and beltcourses,’’ the registry concludes. The building offers 21 units. Hicham Bensaoui/Realty Plans The building is on the National Register of Historic Places. Hicham Bensaoui/Realty Plans Number 4, the unit for sale in this history-rich building, is on the second floor and spans two levels. The entry opens into a short hallway with hardwood flooring, which can be found everywhere in the home except for the kitchen and baths. On the left is a closet with white bifold doors. A few steps beyond and on the right is the 54-square-foot kitchen. The counters are white quartz to match the white Shaker-style cabinets. The appliances (the stove is electric) are stainless steel. The flooring is a ceramic blue-patterned tile. The pass-through provides the perfect way to hide the dinner dishes: Reach in and put them in the kitchen sink. The kitchen features white cabinets and stainless steel appliances. Hicham Bensaoui/Realty Plans Opposite the kitchen is a half bath with natural stone tile flooring and a corner cabinet with arched doors. A two-part mirror hangs above it. Advertisement The vanity in the half bath is a corner unit. Hicham Bensaoui/Realty Plans Just off the kitchen, an open space combines the dining and living areas for a total of 130 square feet. The dining area is positioned next to the pass-through to the kitchen. In the living area, the ceiling climbs two stories. Natural wood beams, two rows of windows with wood sills, and a fireplace with a wood mantel and a green tile surround stand in stark contrast to the white walls and ceiling. The fireplace is wood-burning and functioning. The unit comes with a functioning wood-burning fireplace. Hicham Bensaoui/Realty Plans As one steps onto the stairwell, take a pause: A hitching post once used to keep horses in place is on the column on the right. Yes, it’s original. The stairwell has two landings and leads to the second-level loft/bedroom area. The loft is 228 square feet and is open to the floor below it. Natural light arrives via the upper bank of living room windows. The space has a ceiling fan, and two columns that look like balusters buttress a pair of soffits. The space has a walk-in closet with custom shelving. The en-suite bath (30 square feet) has a single Shaker-style vanity with a black granite counter, a shower/tub combination with a backsplash composed of white square tiles, and a black natural stone tile floor. The loft-style bedroom gets light from the living area's upper windows. Hicham Bensaoui/Realty Plans The full bath is shower only. Hicham Bensaoui/Realty Plans There’s a washer/dryer connection in the bedroom closet. Ali Joyce of William Raveis in Boston has the listing. The monthly fee includes water, sewer, master insurance, laundry facilities, elevator, exterior maintenance, and snow and refuse removal. Advertisement Follow John R. Ellement on Twitter @JREbosglobe. Send listings to homeoftheweek@globe.com. Please note: We do not feature unfurnished homes unless they are new-builds and will not respond to submissions we won’t pursue. Subscribe to our newsletter at Boston.com/address-newsletter. John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe.

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Third-quarter struggles bog UMass womens basketball in loss to Loyola Chicago

AMHERST – A porous third quarter bogged down the UMass women’s basketball team Wednesday night, as the Minutewomen fell to Loyola Chicago, 79-66, at the Mullins Center. The Ramblers outscored UMass 24-10 in the third quarter to take a lead they did not relinquish. The third quarter included a 14-0 run by Loyola Chicago. UMass trailed by as many as 17 points late in the game but did manage to cut the lead to 73-64 with 54 seconds left. “I was proud of the group that was on the floor for the last five minutes of the game,” UMass coach Mike Leflar said. “That was the team we need to be in terms of urgency.” Stefanie Kulesza had 17 points, six rebounds and eight steals. Even with the impressive stat line, she did not have much interest in discussing individual statistics after the game. “I didn’t even realize I had that many steals,” Kulesza said. “It’s not one of the focuses that we have going into each game. If I’m in the position and in the right spot then I’ll get the steal. But that’s not what I was focused on tonight.” It was the fourth straight loss for the Minutewomen. “As a coach I am still trying to find ways to get through to this group,” Leflar said. “In terms of what it takes to win and what it takes to be a consistent group. We have to keep fighting and keep believing to take steps forward.” Kulesza scored 13 points in the second quarter alone, allowing the Minutewomen to take the lead going into halftime. The offense sputtered in the second half. In the third quarter, the Ramblers scored their 24 points on 9-for-12 from the field. UMass went 4-for-13 from the field and turned the ball over five times. The main problem throughout the game and especially the third quarter was the 26 turnovers for the Minutewomen (3-15, 1-5 Atlantic 10). “The issue the whole game was handing them the basketball,” Leflar said. “That led to a lack of urgency on the defensive side of the floor. That led to them playing faster than us. I was disappointed with that, and I shared that with our players in the huddle. They were scoring because they were outworking us.” UMass had four players in double figures: Lilly Taulelei (10 points), Alexsia Rose (10 points), Kristin Williams (15 points), along with Kulesza. Rose led the team with seven assists. Loyola Chicago (9-8 Overall, 3-3 Atlantic 10) got 22 points from Sam Galanopoulos on 9-for-13 from the floor. The Ramblers had 23 fast break and went 8-for-14 from the 3-point line. UMass sets its sights on George Mason (12-3, 3-1 A-10) on Sunday at 4 p.m. at the Mullins Center. “Watch the film,” Leflar said. “Show up for the next practice and ready to keep plugging away. My biggest challenge as the leader of the program is to make sure all 13 people are on board to keep pushing forward.” In the first quarter, the Minutewomen scored early and often inside with 12 points in the paint. The Ramblers countered with some outside shooting including two early 3-pointers by Sophia Nolan. Ali Berg’s late 3-pointer gave the Ramblers a 15-12 lead at the end of the first quarter. UMass did not score from the outside until the first minute of the second quarter on a Bre Bellamy jumper. UMass went on a 9-2 run in the final minutes of the second quarter to take a 35-33 lead at the half. Kulesza ignited the run and scored 13 points in the frame. Loyola Chicago went up 48-43 in the third quarter after an Alyssa Fisher 3-pointer. The lead matched the Ramblers biggest of the game. The lead extended to 55-43 with 2 minutes 30 seconds left in the third quarter. Fisher had 17 points for the Ramblers.

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PVIAC Late Meet Week 3: Top 3 finishers from each event

The PVIAC indoor track season continued on Sunday with an event at Smith College in Northampton. Below are the top three overall finishers for each event from the late meet. Girls — Late Meet

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Ailey Looks Back to Black Joy and Longing With 1930s Jazz

The dancers don’t so much step onto the stage in Amy Hall Garner’s “Century” as burst within it like a glitter bomb, showering the space in pink and gold. For “Century,” her first work for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, performed on Friday at New York City Center, it’s clear that Garner doesn’t merely know a party when she sees one — she knows how to dream one up. A metallic curtain hangs in the back as dancers, looking like fuchsia flowers, vibrate from their shoulders to their feet like petals caught in a breeze. Wearing dresses featuring feathered skirts and striped bustiers and, for the men, tight pants and short-sleeve shirts so form fitting that they could be painted on, the dancers are clearly committed to a celebration. But Garner adds another element to their flash: breathtaking speed. A rising choreographer who will present a new work at New York City Ballet this spring, Garner, here, takes inspiration from her family. She regards “Century” as an early birthday present to her grandfather Henry Spooner — he turns 100 on Dec. 30 — and has built a score for it based on his taste, which includes songs by Count Basie, Duke Ellington and Rebirth Brass Band from New Orleans. One section ends with a voice-over by Spooner that speaks to his longevity: “Why my life was extended I don’t know and I don’t question it. Something must be doing good, I’m still here.”

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These Boston tourist traps are actually worth going to, Eater Boston says

If you’ve ever been to Boston, you’ve probably asked yourself if the line outside of Mike’s Pastry is worth the wait, or if the pizza at Santarpio’s is really that authentic. Well, according to Eater Boston, these are among several of the city’s tourist traps that are actually worth checking out. The outlet, which is known for reporting on the best places to dine in Boston, compiled a list of Boston’s “Tourist Trap Restaurants That Are Actually Good” this month. The list is composed of classic Boston eateries that Eater Boston staff would “happily take visitors to.” Below are the restaurants that made the list: Click here to check out the list.

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Dear Annie: Is it OK to shield newborn from alcoholic grandparents?

Dear Annie: My partner and I were surprised to find ourselves expecting with my very loved rainbow baby. We had known each other less than two years and had just moved in together. So far, my relationship with his parents had been rocky at best. Both parents drank to the point of blacking out daily, which often made them unpleasant. When I first got pregnant, I had been hopeful everyone could be part of my daughter’s life. It became increasingly doubtful as my delivery date approached. Then, my partner’s mom missed our baby shower because she was sick and vomiting. She was admitted to the hospital for alcohol-induced pancreatitis a week later. My daughter was born, and we invited his parents to the hospital. They also came to visit the baby several times over the next few months. My partner’s father always showed up incoherently drunk and would yell and swear, at times getting nasty. His mother tried to hide it, but she had never really stopped drinking after the hospital. She acted nasty toward me, too. My partner got text messages from his siblings trying to see if anyone was free to drive their mom home from the bar so she wouldn’t drink and drive. Their drinking was a problem. It was already hard to visit with people because we were busy taking care of the baby, but we started to visit with the parents less because their behavior made me uncomfortable, and I didn’t want to expose my child to it. I also didn’t want to rely on them for help because I refused to let them be alone with the baby. People’s feelings were hurt, but no one’s behavior changed. After becoming increasingly erratic and forgetful, my partner’s mother missed my daughter’s first birthday party because she was incoherent. She ended up in the hospital shortly after, this time for alcohol-induced ammonia poisoning. My dad, who raised me and two of my three brothers on his own, hasn’t had a drink in decades. He joined AA early on in our childhood, and we’ve never seen him stray. In fact, events on his side of the family were almost always dry. In my teens, all three of my brothers were addicted to heroin at some point. My youngest brother is still in the throes of addiction, but two of my brothers got clean and just recently bought a house. Watching my family’s journey has made me incredibly sensitive to substance abuse. I’m afraid I’m unfairly withholding my daughter from her grandparents on my partner’s side because I’m letting my sensitivity to addiction cloud my judgment. Am I unfairly punishing my partner’s parents? — Affected by Substance Abuse Dear Affected: You’re not withholding your daughter from her paternal grandparents — you’re protecting her from them. On their best, sober days, I believe your partner’s parents probably have nothing but good intentions. But it’s clear that when they are drunk, which seems constant, they cannot control themselves or be trusted around your children. I’m sure your partner would agree. Being part of your daughter’s life is a privilege, not a right. If her grandparents want to be active in her life, they must do so soberly and play by your rules. “How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?” is out now! Annie Lane’s second anthology — featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation — is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

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Is This the Year of the Bunk Bed? Some Designers Think So.

All of a sudden, bunk beds seem to be everywhere: You see them in upscale beach and ski homes, as well as boutique hotels like Freehand, Moxy and Proper. And why not? Stacked sleeping spaces have always been an efficient use of space, whether you’re making room for a growing family or entertaining a large crowd. And now that they’re getting the designer treatment with thoughtful touches that make them feel almost luxurious, bunk rooms are more appealing than ever. “We’re pretty much doing a bunk room in every house we work on,” said Jenny Keenan, an interior designer in Mount Pleasant, S.C., who creates built-in bunk beds that are appealing to children and adults. “We try to make them elevated enough that adults can stay in them,” Ms. Keenan said. “We want them to be fun, but we also want to make sure different types of people feel comfortable in them.”

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Ask Amy: Is it fair to split the bill when everyone else drinks and you dont?

Dear Amy: How can I politely say no when friends are passing through town or vacationing here and ask if they can spend a couple of nights with us? I have never said no to anyone and have always been gracious to anyone staying in our home, but I find I really don’t enjoy it. I have extreme stress and anxiety days before they arrive, and also while they are here. My husband doesn’t understand my tirades over this. He welcomes anyone who wants to stay with us. I just don’t like people here with us 24 hours a day. I like my privacy at night to rest and read or watch television, and the last thing I want is to see faces at the breakfast table when I get up in the morning. I know this issue will be coming up soon again as one recent guest has already said he plans to be back in town early next year. Houseguests unsettle me, my lack of privacy is the issue, although I make sure they would never guess how I feel. I am tired of pretending it is fine that they are staying with us. How can I suggest that a hotel is a better choice when they ask to stay? I don’t want to offend anyone, but my mental health is more important to me than sharing my home with out-of-towners. How do I nicely say sorry, but no? – Not Saying No Dear Not Saying: Saying “no” firmly but kindly is an act of clarifying grace and, in your case, essential self-care. Your husband is the X-factor here, because he chooses not to recognize your extreme challenge, and then undermines you by being an automatic “yes” man. His behavior is supremely unfair to you, but if you are pretending that everything is OK during a visit, he may believe that you ultimately enjoy hosting. The first person you need to learn to say “no” to is the man you are sharing your home with. Your pre-visit “tirades” brought on by stress don’t seem to have impressed him. You could practice a “no” with these next self-invited guests: “You mentioned wanting to visit, but I’m finding it very hard to host lately, so hosting you in our home won’t be possible. I’ve found a number of nearby places you could look at to stay, and I’d be really happy to spend time with you during your time in town.” If you can’t bring yourself to either confront your husband about this or manage an emailed “no,” you will land with people at your breakfast table. Perhaps you should consider them to be essentially your husband’s guests. If so, you could either choose to stay elsewhere, or protect your privacy by spending as much time as possible alone, especially at both ends of the day. This is a change in your expected behavior, but – you must calmly and carefully take care of yourself. Dear Amy: My husband and I frequently go out for dinner with my brother and sister-in-law. Sometimes her sister and husband will join us. They are all drinkers, and we are not. (They usually have more than one drink). I don’t think it is fair that we pay for their alcohol every time we go out, but my husband and I both feel awkward asking for a separate check. I did ask once for them to buy their drinks before being seated, but that idea didn’t fly. Would love your thoughts on this sensitive issue. – Non-Drinker Dear Non-Drinker: This isn’t really that sensitive an issue, and you should not shy away from stating your own need and desire to go out, enjoy a meal, and pay for your meal separately. If the other two couples want to co-mingle their charges and split the cost down the middle, that’s up to them. You can ask the server directly: “Could you prepare a separate check for the two of us?” There is no need to dive into the awkwardness or explain this to the other diners. Your friends should accept your choice, resume ordering their meals, and not give it another thought. Dear Amy: “Exhausted Daughter” did not understand her mother’s life-long emotional distance. Thank you for suggesting that this daughter do some research about neurodivergence. I faced an analogous situation and receiving a diagnosis really helped everyone to understand that this behavior was not intended as a personal response. – Been There Dear Been There: I hope “Exhausted Daughter” can also receive some helpful insight. (You can email Amy Dickinson at askamy@amydickinson.com or send a letter to Ask Amy, P.O. Box 194, Freeville, NY 13068. You can also follow her on Twitter @askingamy or Facebook.) ©2023 Amy Dickinson. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

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The End of the Bill Belichick Hoodie Era

In all the words currently being written about the end of the Bill Belichick era in Boston — or, technically, the Boston suburbs — which reportedly finally came to a close on Jan. 11 after weeks of speculation, the end of the N.F.L. season and the Patriots’ dismal loss to the Jets, the one that sticks in my mind is “hoodie.” More than anyone except perhaps Mark Zuckerberg, Boston’s famous football coach has become synonymous with that particular garment. It is “an inseparable part of his legacy,” according to Bleacher Report. His “trademark,” wrote Sports Illustrated. “Iconic,” crowed Buzzfeed. For decades the hoodie helped burnish the Belichick legend, but recently it has begun to seem part of the problem: less a symbol of his coaching genius than, perhaps, a sign of his obsolescence. For most of his 24 years with the Patriots, the sweatshirt has been Mr. Belichick’s garment of choice for game day. And not just any old sweatshirt, but a particularly nondescript, schlubby blue or gray sweatshirt, often with the sleeves lopped off in a seemingly random way somewhere between the elbow and the shoulder, and layered over another shirt. Sometimes it was paired with flip-flops. The majority of that time, when he was leading the team to its six Super Bowl wins, the sweatshirt seemed to symbolize Mr. Belichick’s singularity: his ornery refusal to be anything but himself or follow any vision but his own; his gruff, blue-collar fighting spirit; his consistency; his refusal to give up — not the game and not his favorite wardrobe item.

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Former state Sen. Dean Tran arrested for unemployment fraud

Local News Former state Sen. Dean Tran arrested for unemployment fraud Tran has been indicted multiple times since leaving office. Dean Tran in 2018. Sam Doran/State House News Service Former state Sen. Dean Tran was arrested Friday for allegedly defrauding the Massachusetts Department of Unemployment Assistance and collecting income that he failed to report to the IRS, Acting U.S. Attorney Joshua Levy’s office announced. Tran, a 48-year-old Fitchburg Republican, served in the Massachusetts Senate from late 2017 until early 2021. He was indicted on 25 counts of wire fraud and three counts of filing false tax returns. Tran is expected to appear in federal court in Boston Friday afternoon. After Tran’s Senate term ended, he allegedly applied for pandemic unemployment benefits after he had already accepted a job as a paid consultant for a New Hampshire-based automotive parts company. Tran fraudulently collected $30,120 in pandemic unemployment benefits, prosecutors said. Advertisement: Tran also allegedly concealed more than $50,000 in consulting income that he received from the automotive parts company on his 2021 federal income tax return, Levy’s office said. In addition, Tran allegedly collected thousands of dollars in rental income from tenants at a Fitchburg property from 2020 to 2022 that he concealed from the IRS. “Dean Tran was once elected to serve taxpayers, but today we arrested him for allegedly cheating them out of tens of thousands of dollars in fraudulent unemployment benefits that were meant to be a lifeline for those struggling for survival as a result of the pandemic,” Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division Jodi Cohen said in a statement. “This former state senator allegedly made the conscious decision to repeatedly lie about his employment status and underreport his rental property income so he could get a tax break. The FBI and our partners are working hard every day to shut down such fraud schemes and protect the public from being fleeced.” This is not Tran’s first run-in with law enforcement. In July 2022, Tran was charged with allegedly stealing a gun from an elderly constituent and misleading investigators who were looking into the matter. Advertisement: In June 2019, Tran visited the constituent and allegedly “used his position of trust” to intimidate her into giving him her late husband’s firearms. Tran allegedly made her sign a pre-prepared contract and gave her $1,500 in cash for at least eight guns. He was asked to return the guns the next day and he did, but came back the following morning to force his way into the constituent’s home while she was alone, prosecutors said. Tran allegedly demanded the keys to her husband’s gun safe and stole a Colt .45 while she hid in her bedroom. The gun was returned to the constituent at a later date. When police interviewed Tran about the incident, he allegedly gave multiple conflicting reasons for taking the guns away. He denied any type of firearms sale but later produced a sale contract for the guns. Tran allegedly disparaged the constituent’s mental capacity and demanded a written apology from her. Tran also allegedly made false statements on a 2019 license-to-carry renewal application. In September, Tran was charged with two counts of violating the state ethics law, according to Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office. Those charges came after the Senate Committee on Ethics submitted a report to Campbell’s office that alleged Tran “inappropriately used his Senate staff to conduct campaign activities.” Advertisement: Tran used members of his staff to campaign for him while on state time, payroll, and while purportedly working for the Legislature, prosecutors said. This allegedly occurred during both 2018 and 2020. These staffers allegedly organized fundraisers, knocked on the doors of potential voters, created campaign mailers, and more during official work hours at a Fitchburg office. State conflict of interest law dictates that public employees cannot use public resources in connection with political campaigns.

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Red Sox lose No. 3 pitching prospect, another hurler up to 99 mph in Rule 5

The Red Sox lost two pitching prospects in Wednesday’s Rule 5 Draft at the Winter Meetings. The White Sox used the fourth overall pick to select 24-year-old left-hander Shane Drohan, who Baseball America had ranked Boston’s No. 3 pitching prospect behind Luis Perales and Wikelman Gonzalez. The Cardinals used the sixth overall pick to take 25-year-old hard-throwing right-handed reliever Ryan Fernandez who finished the 2023 season at Triple-A Worcester. Both pitchers must stay on their new teams active roster for the entire 2024 season (barring an IL stint) or else returned to Boston. The Red Sox had the 12th pick but they passed. Ten players overall were taken. Two Yankees pitchers were taken Nos. 1 and 2. Mitch Spence went with the top pick to the Athletics. The A’s drafted Matt Sauer second overall. Baseball America recently listed both Drohan and Fernandez as candidates to be drafted. It was a surprise Boston decided to leave Drohan, a 2020 fifth round draft pick out of Florida State, unprotected. He dominated in his first six starts at Double-A Portland this past season, posting a 1.32 ERA. But he then struggled at Worcester with a 6.47 ERA in 21 outings (19 starts). He averaged 6.4 walks per nine innings (89 innings, 63 walks) at Triple A while opponents batted .293 against him. Baseball America wrote earlier month, “His changeup ranked 19th best across the entire minor leagues in 2023 for accumulated run value. Could being a lefthander with a true major league quality changeup be enough to earn Drohan selection?”

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The World I Knew Before Is Gone: Ecuador Reels After Days of Unrest

A sense of dread took hold in Ecuador on Wednesday, with the streets empty, classes canceled, and many people afraid to leave their homes after the disappearance of two gang leaders on Monday set off prison riots, police kidnappings and the on-air storming of a TV station. The violence, which left at least 11 people dead by Wednesday and prompted the president to authorize Ecuador’s military to take on the country’s powerful gangs, has put the South American country on edge. “I feel like the world I knew before is gone,” said María Ortega, a schoolteacher in Guayaquil, a large coastal city. “You can know how things start, but not how they’ll end.” In Guayaquil, where TC Televisión was briefly seized on Tuesday, public transit had resumed and some people ventured outside. TC Televisión was not broadcasting, with only colored lines appearing on the screen where news reports would usually appear.

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Puzzle Mania 2023: Contest Rules, Clues and Answers

When the Sunday paper was delivered when I was growing up, everyone in the family grabbed a different section (news, sports, comics, whatever), and we rotated the parts as we finished. This system wouldn’t work with Puzzle Mania, The Times’s annual holiday puzzle section (which you’re holding), as it takes hours — or maybe days — to go through. Only one person would get to see it. If you live in a household with multiple puzzlers — which is the best kind of household! — I would suggest putting Puzzle Mania aside and waiting until everyone can work on it together. Special features this year are not one, but two $1,000-prize contests: Castle Quest, an escape-room-in-print, by Jason Boomer (Pages 8-9), and a Super Mega crossword by Joe DiPietro (Pages 6-7, 11). There are also puzzles from our friends at Logic Masters India, a Jumbo Connections, a Borderless KenKen, a cryptic crossword with a twist and lots of other challenges. Just remember to share! — Will Shortz Puzzle Mania F.A.Q. What is Puzzle Mania? Puzzle Mania is an annual special puzzle section in the print edition of the Sunday paper. It includes Sudoku, a Cryptic Crossword, word games, visual puzzles and more. The centerpiece of the section is the Super Mega Crossword, a crossword that is more than four times the size of the daily crossword. This year, the puzzle is 50 squares wide by 50 squares tall.

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Arts Beat: New venues, returning directors in local performing world in 2023

It has been a milestone year for several organizations. The Hartford Symphony Orchestra and the Springfield Symphony Orchestra both celebrated their 80th anniversaries. Goodspeed Musicals and Hartford Stage celebrated their 60th anniversaries. Jacob’s Pillow presented its 90th season of live dance performances. Hartford Symphony celebrated its anniversary announcing that its musicians had signed a new four-year agreement, and Maestra Cariolyn Kuan committed to three more seasons. Springfield’s Symphony emerged from the pandemic with Paul Lambert appointed as its CEO, and a two-year agreement with its musicians, although the SSO is moving forward without a music director. Under Lambert’s direction, the SSO gave a free Juneteenth concert, and is experimenting with start times to better accommodate its audiences.

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Judge dismisses lawsuit over Holdens noncompliance with housing supply law

A judge has dismissed a lawsuit against the town of Holden over its decision not to comply with a state law meant to increase the housing supply in communities served by the MBTA. The lawsuit, filed in August by the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance and two local residents, claimed that by not following the 2021 MBTA Communities Act, Holden was exacerbating the regional housing shortage. However, last week, Judge Daniel Wrenn wrote in a decision that the plaintiffs had failed to demonstrate the harm Holden’s noncompliance had caused. “The complaint makes clear that CMHA and (Westborough resident Lydiana) Morales are overburdened by a lack of affordable housing in Massachusetts,” Wrenn wrote in his decision. “But the complaint contains no allegations connecting the town’s failure to comply with (the law) to any harm or injury specific to CMHA and Morales. Rather, CMHA and Morales allege a general, indirect harm that they, like many other individuals and organizations across Massachusetts, suffer from the lack of affordable housing in the state.” The MBTA Communities Act requires cities and towns served by the transit agency have at least one zoning district “of reasonable size” where multi-family housing is allowed within a half-mile of a commuter rail, subway or bus station or ferry terminal. While Holden does not contain any transit stations, it borders Worcester, which does, so it is still subject to the law. The 177 municipalities affected by the law were required to submit an action plan to the state in January. Holden failed to do so. Town officials have since said they will not follow the law, leaving them ineligible for certain state funding opportunities. Town Manager Peter Lukes said in a statement Monday that the town has not yet decided whether it will follow the law. “We have received dozens of calls from municipal leaders and concerned residents from across the state regarding participation in the MBTA Communities program,” he said. “We have not been able to respond due to the pending litigation, but now that it is resolved at this stage, Holden is prepared to advise other municipalities of our stand and share our legal rationale behind these decisions. In the lawsuit, which named the town, its Board of Selectmen, and Lukes as defendants, CMHA alleged that Holden’s noncompliance led to strained resources at the organization, impairing its ability to follow its mission. Morales said in the lawsuit that she and her child left their Worcester apartment in October 2022 because she could not afford the rent, and moved into a shelter in Westborough. She had been unable to find affordable housing since then, and said Holden’s decision not to allow more housing to be built made her search harder. Holden homeowner Jennifer Lish, the other plaintiff in the lawsuit, said that the town’s decision not to comply hurt her and other residents because they would lose out on the benefits of programs which the town would no longer be able to access. Read more: Opposing groups with same name cause confusion in Newton housing debate Since the filing of the lawsuit, the state has increased the penalties for communities which do not follow the law, adding a variety of new grant programs to the list which those communities will be ineligible for. Wrenn wrote in his decision that Morales had experienced only a general harm, and that Holden was only one of many towns where she would consider living. While Lish is a Holden resident, Wrenn wrote that her concerns that residents of the town would miss out on “grant eligibility, increased housing infrastructure, a larger and more diverse population and a greater tax base” were similarly a general harm, not a specific injury to Lish. Lukes called the dismissal “a huge win” for Holden. “The CMHA sent out press releases to every media outlet in the state over a week prior to the town receiving notice that the action was even filed in the court. It appeared that the entire purpose of this frivolous lawsuit was to intimidate and embarrass Holden through the CMHA’s false narrative,” he said. “We were clearly not intimidated and frankly the only people who should be embarrassed are the ones who brought this inappropriate legal action and wasted everyone’s time.” Lawyers for Civil Rights, which was representing CMHA in the lawsuit, said in a statement that they expect to appeal Wrenn’s decision. “We are disappointed with the judge’s decision to dismiss the case on purely procedural grounds,” they said. “In the meantime, as the case proceeds, Holden is still required to comply with the law.”

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Californias Most Iconic Roadside Attractions

But many of our favorite attractions are far less flashy, and a little more personal. My editor, Kevin Yamamura, a Sacramento native, recalled visiting Casa de Fruta as a child while road-tripping along Highway 152 to visit relatives in Watsonville. He also recommends pulling over at Ikeda’s near Auburn for hamburgers and pie if you’re headed for Tahoe. Two roadside beacons in particular stood out in his memory along I-80 — for the Nut Tree restaurant complex, whose towering sign with three logos was removed in 2015, and for the Milk Farm, which hasn’t been open since the 1980s but whose cow is still jumping over the moon as drivers pass by. My colleague Jill Cowan, a reporter based in Los Angeles, mentioned the elephant seals in San Simeon, the James Dean cutout along Highway 46 in Lost Hills, and the In-N-Out in Kettleman City, a favorite among drivers traveling between the Bay Area and L.A. For me, the highway landmarks that loom largest are those that I’ve seen over and over. When I was a kid, the impossible-to-miss San Onofre nuclear power plant told me we had almost reached San Diego. And on I-5, the grueling Tejon Pass, often called the Grapevine, once signaled that I was well on my way back to college at U.C. Berkeley after a break; nowadays it tells me that I’m on my way back home to San Francisco. Here are some readers’ favorite stops, lightly edited: “A few miles south of Madera, in the median strip of Highway 99, stand a palm and a pine — symbolic of Southern and Northern California and much beloved by all who know what they’re driving by. When Caltrans tried to cut them down, a great outcry put a stop to that. When the pine — actually a cedar — was later blown down in a windstorm, a replacement was planted.” — Susan Weikel Morrison, Fresno

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Car crashes into Starbucks in Wellesley, police say

WELLESLEY, Mass. — A car crashed into a Starbucks in Wellesley on Saturday afternoon, police said. Emergency responders responded to a motor vehicle crash into a Starbucks on Linden Street. No patrons or employees were struck by the vehicle, police said. Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 3 Wellesley car into Starbucks (Martin, Timothy (CMG-Boston)/Wellesley Police) The occupants of the vehicle were taken by ambulance to a local hospital as a precaution, police said. This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available. Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW ©2023 Cox Media Group

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How Texas Kept the Lights On in the Recent Deep Freeze

So far, they’ve been right. In areas of Texas where temperatures dipped the lowest, it has been frigid but sunny. Solar power performed well and, overall, provided a small share of total electricity generated. In Texas, winds die down in winter and aren’t expected to contribute as much to the energy mix as in the summer, energy experts say. On Monday, for instance, wind at its highest-performing level of the day was about 28 percent of the energy mix, compared with gas at about 48 percent. In the early morning hours, however, wind was barely more than 7 percent. “We still rely a lot on natural gas,” said David Spence, a professor of law and regulation at the University of Texas at Austin. Texas is a major oil and gas state, but is also a national leader in renewables. Two years ago, the state generated 26 percent of all wind-sourced electricity in the United States, leading the nation for the 17th year in a row, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Wind power first surpassed nuclear energy in Texas in 2014 and passed coal power in 2020. In 2022, Texas installed nearly as much new energy capacity from wind alone as California did for wind, solar and battery storage combined, said William Boyd, a professor of environmental law at the University of California, Los Angeles. Last year, solar made up 7 percent of the state grid’s power mix, up from nearly nothing five years before. “We can look at Texas as a red state that may have a lot of people in power who are climate deniers,” Mr. Boyd said. “But if you look at the state’s investments in clean energy, Texas dominates.”

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Weather Alert: Heavy rain, risk of storms to start day

Concord, N.H., reached 85 degrees, breaking the 84 degree record set in 1953 and 1967, said Sarah Thunberg, a meteorologist from the National Weather Service in Gray, Maine. On a day that felt more like summer than fall, several cities in Maine and New Hampshire broke record temperatures on Tuesday, but none were set in Massachusetts, forecasters said. In Portland, Maine, the temperature reached 81, which broke the 80 degree record set in 2000, Thunberg said. Augusta saw temperatures of 85 degrees, breaking a 73 degree record set in 1983, she said. Rachel Ristuccia, 7, of Westborough spun around to make her skirt billow as she modeled for a photo shoot in the Public Garden on an unseasonably warm day in Boston. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff Record breaking temperatures can’t be officially confirmed until 4 a.m. Wednesday, Thunberg said. Although it is unlikely records will change as temperatures continue to drop into Tuesday evening, she said. Advertisement In Massachusetts, no record temperatures were broken, said meteorologist Frank Nocera from the National Weather Service in Norton. Boston came close to breaking the 85 degree record set in 1992, reaching a high of 83, degrees, Kyle Pederson, another meteorologist from Norton, said. Worcester reached 79 degrees, also coming close to the 84 degree record set in 1898, Pederson said. Temperatures fell “a little bit short, but are definitely notable,” Nocera said. More warm weather is on the horizon for early October. On Wednesday, Boston could reach of a high of 78 degrees and Worcester is predicted to reach a high of 81. Maeve Lawler can be reached at maeve.lawler@globe.com.

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Lessons From the Past Year of Wordle

People like playing Wordle. In the past year, millions have played the game every day, and then shared, discussed and debated how they tried to win. For the first time, we’ve analyzed how people played in half a billion of those Wordle games and compared them with the strategies that our WordleBot recommends. Below are four things we learned. 1. Of the top 30 starting words, ADIEU is the most popular but least efficient. Many, many words have been written about the best opening word for Wordle. Answering this question, in fact, was one of the motivations behind WordleBot’s development. In its robot brain, a handful of words — SLATE, CRANE, TRACE — are best. For human Wordle players, the most popular opening word by some margin is ADIEU. AUDIO, another four-vowel word, is the fourth-most popular.

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Best Theater of 2023

JESSE GREEN Year of the Dramedy If 2023 was a tragedy in the world, on New York stages it was a dramedy year, highlighted not only by serious plays with great jokes, but also by flat-out comedies with dark underpinnings. And though not all 10 shows (and various bonuses) on my mostly chronological list below fit that mongrel category, even the gravest of them seem to have gotten the memo that theater should not be a bore or a drag. It should thrill you into thought or, as the case may be, solace. ‘Love’ by Alexander Zeldin On the cold February night I saw “Love,” New York City was teeming with people in need of warm places to be. That was also the case inside the Park Avenue Armory, which had been reconfigured to represent a temporary facility for people without homes. Its residents included an unemployed man in his 50s, his barely-holding-on mother, a pregnant woman, two refugees — and us. Seated adjacent to the facility’s dingy common room, we became, in the playwright’s own staging, fellow residents. But if the others eyed us like we might steal a precious sandwich, we could blithely leave when the play was over. Or not so blithely: Even heading home, with my heart retuned to tiny heartbreaks instead of huge ones, I had to wonder why it was easier to engage the subject of homelessness inside the Armory than on Park Avenue. (Read our review of “Love” and our interview with Zeldin.) ‘A Doll’s House’ by Henrik Ibsen A chair and a door — and a riveting star — were all it took to make a nearly 150-year-old drama set in Norway come fully alive in New York City today. True, the chair rotated mysteriously for 20 minutes before the dialogue began. Nor did it hurt that the star sitting on it, like an angry bird in a giant cuckoo clock, was Jessica Chastain. And yes, the famous door through which her Nora walked out of her marriage and into a new life was a staging marvel in Jamie Lloyd’s surgically precise Broadway production. But finer than all that was the chilling fact that Ibsen’s text, as adapted by Amy Herzog, sounded as if it had been written yesterday — and could still be transpiring in real life tomorrow. (Read our review of “A Doll’s House” and our interview with Chastain.) ‘How to Defend Yourself’ by Liliana Padilla After a classmate is raped by fraternity bros, two sorority sisters organize a self-defense club. And though they aren’t great teachers, a great deal is learned by the other young women (and two would-be male allies) who attend intermittently over the course of several weeks. The New York Theater Workshop audience, too, learned a great deal, as the questions bedeviling so many relationships — the complexity of consent and the meaning of control — played out before us in this perfectly timed hot-button play. But what gave the production its poetic gravitas was a gasp-inducing coda, gorgeously staged by the playwright along with Rachel Chavkin and Steph Paul, in which the culture of sexual violence was traced to a source you could never again regard as innocent. (Read our review of “How to Defend Yourself.”)

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Are Market Basket, Shaws or Big Y grocery stores open in Mass. on New Years Day?

If you’re struggling to fulfill your New Year’s resolution of not procrastinating, then you’re in good hands. Those who forgot to pick up snacks or decorations for their New Year’s Day celebration will still have time for a last-minute trip as some, but not all, grocery stores will be open on Jan. 1. So before you can fully toast to 2024, see below for grocery store information. Aldi Aldi is closed on New Year’s Day. Big Y Big Y will be open with regular hours on New Year’s Day. Costco Costco is closed New Year’s Day. Market Basket Market Basket is open New Year’s Day from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., the store’s website reads. Price Chopper Price Chopper stores are open New Year’s Day. You can check your local store for exact holiday hours. Price Rite Price Rite stores will be open at 8 a.m. on New Year’s Day. Shaws Most Shaws stores are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on New Year’s Day, according to HolidayShoppingHours.com. You can check your local store for exact hours. Star Market Most Star Market are open from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. on New Year’s Day, according to HolidayShoppingHours.com. You can check your local store for exact hours. Stop and Shop Stop and Shop stores and fuel stations will be open for normal hours on New Year’s Day, according to The Pioneer Woman. Pharmacies may have limited hours. Target Target is open for regular hours on New Year’s Day. You can check your local store for exact hours. Trader Joe’s Trader Joe’s is closed on New Year’s Day. Walmart All Walmart stores are open with normal business hours on New Year’s Day, according to Good House Keeping. Wegmans Wegmans stores in Massachusetts opened at 6 a.m. on New Year’s Day. You can check your local store for exact hours. Whole Foods Whole Foods stores in Massachusetts are open from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. on New Year’s Day. You can check your local store for exact hours.

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Gas Prices Are Falling Fast, Helping Tame Inflation

In the fight to bring down inflation, the falling price of gasoline stands out as a victory, even if Federal Reserve policy has little to do with it. The national average for unleaded gas was $3.14 a gallon on Dec. 12, according to AAA. That’s 23 cents less than it was a month ago and the lowest it has been in nearly a year. Higher prices in California, where gas is $4.70 a gallon, may be masking a more broad-based decline: About 60 percent of gas stations are selling below $3 a gallon, AAA says, and a quarter are below $2.75. The fall in gas prices has been crucial to an overall slowdown in inflation. On Tuesday, the government reported that the Consumer Price Index rose 3.1 percent in November, from a year earlier. Gas prices fell 5.8 percent month over month in November, the index showed, following a 4.9 percent drop in October. The biggest driver behind cheaper gas is falling oil prices. The price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, had plunged to $69 a barrel by midday Tuesday, after approaching $100 a barrel in late September.

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Horrible Springfield Gardens properties have new owner; will tenants lives improve?

SPRINGFIELD — Hopes rose this year when Springfield Gardens, an absentee landlord with a history of substandard properties, sold 11 apartment buildings of its vast rental stock to a new owner. Gerry McCafferty, Springfield’s director of housing, said maybe things would improve under Patriot Property Management Group, a West Springfield property manager turned landlord.

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3 UMass Amherst student protesters barred from studying abroad

But weeks before he was set to leave, O’Neill learned UMass had revoked his eligibility to study abroad, along with that of two other students, leaving them on the hook for thousands of dollars in fees and travel expenses while scrambling to find housing and still-open courses in Amherst. At the crux of it was the students’ fateful decision to join an Oct. 25 campus protest in support of Palestinians , where they were arrested along with dozens of other students and placed on disciplinary probation. Aidan O’Neill was supposed to be in Spain right now. The University of Massachusetts Amherst junior was set to leave on Jan. 3 for his study abroad program in Barcelona, which he’d been planning since last spring. Advertisement “To lose my abroad eligibility at the last second, that was just heartbreaking,” said O’Neill, now staying in his hometown, Scituate, until the spring semester starts on Feb. 1. “I was practicing my right as a student to speak up against the university funding a genocide. It just seemed, honestly, crazy and absurd to me that the university was going that far to punish me.” Get Nightmare in Mission Hill A limited-series newsletter about the untold story of the Charles and Carol Stuart case. Enter Email Sign Up During a tumultuous time on college campuses across the country following the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, the incident is another example of a clash between university administrators and student protesters opposing Israel’s bombardment of Gaza. While UMass claims it was simply following policies outlined in agreements students signed, the three students whose study abroad eligibility was revoked say they are facing unusually harsh punishment because of their political views, with at least one threatening to sue. The saga has sparked concerns around First Amendment rights on campus and seen a flood of support from UMass students, faculty, and alumni calling on the university to drop disciplinary sanctions. O’Neill “was participating in a peaceful expression of his political convictions,” said Rachel Mordecai, an English department faculty member and O’Neill’s faculty adviser. “This denial of the opportunity to study abroad constitutes a disproportionate penalty for what Aidan participated in.” Advertisement Mordecai wrote a letter, obtained by the Globe, signed by 23 other English department faculty members, to UMass Amherst’s International Programs Office in support of O’Neill, whom they called “an exceptionally successful and talented student.” Jason Moralee, UMass Amherst associate dean of research and diversity, equity, and inclusion, also wrote to fellow administrators in support of O’Neill and the other two students, urging the International Programs Office to “clear these students for study abroad swiftly.” Moralee previously served as director of the UMass Oxford Summer Seminar in England for two years. In his experience, he wrote, students are “routinely” cleared to study abroad even if they have code of conduct violations or are on academic probation for drunk and disorderly arrests or academic dishonesty. “Surely, peaceful protest done by exemplary students whose records are otherwise clear ... is an offense that should not in itself prevent students from studying abroad,” he continued. UMass told the Globe its disciplinary measures have nothing to do with the content of the October protest, rather, administrators are just following policy for students who are placed on disciplinary probation for any reason. “To participate in a UMass Amherst study abroad program, students must be in good standing academically with the university and in compliance with the university’s Code of Student Conduct,” university spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski said in an email statement to the Globe. “Consistent with the university’s past practice and the Student Agreement of Participation signed by each student, IPO revoked eligibility for these students to study abroad for the upcoming winter/spring terms.” Advertisement Protesters used their phones to record as a member of the University of Massachusetts Police Department told them they will be arrested if they don’t leave within 10 minutes on Oct. 25. Jessica Rinaldi/Globe Staff It all began Oct. 25 when about 500 students staged a sit-in at the Whitmore Administration Building, demanding UMass cut ties with defense contractor Raytheon Technologies, which produces missile components for Israel’s Iron Dome air defense system. After refusing to leave when the building closed at 6 p.m., 56 students, including O’Neill, and one staff member were arrested for trespassing, and later placed on disciplinary probation until the end of the spring semester. The IPO then revoked O’Neill’s study abroad eligibility, citing an agreement he had signed stipulating that students cannot participate if they have pending legal or disciplinary actions or are on academic probation. But O’Neill and the two other students, whose lawyers declined to identify them by name, say their disciplinary treatment isn’t consistent with past practice. In 2016, 19 UMass Amherst students were arrested for trespassing at a sit-in at the same building, demanding UMass divest from fossil fuel companies. However, the university did not pursue further disciplinary action, according to Mica Reel, who was a UMass sophomore that year and led the divestment campaign. In fact, Reel said, UMass leadership expressed support for the 2016 protesters and the university divested its endowment from fossil fuels one month later. Advertisement Rachel Weber, an attorney who represented the 57 protesters arrested in October in district court, said the university’s handling of the pro-Palestinian students constituted “differential treatment” compared to 2016 protest. “It certainly raises a specter that they are being punished for the content of their speech,” Weber said. Blaguszewski said the university couldn’t confirm whether students in 2016 faced further academic sanctions because student disciplinary records are not maintained after seven years. He added that in addition to the three arrested students, six other students had study abroad privileges revoked for the winter and spring semesters due to various conduct violations. He said this is routine, with several students facing revocations due to disciplinary sanctions each year. O’Neill said he and the other two students were left in “limbo” when they were told they couldn’t study abroad in an email from the program director around 4 p.m. on Dec. 15 — the last day of the semester. O’Neill said he did not have the opportunity to appeal the decision. The students had already made travel and accommodation plans through Education Abroad, the company that arranges overseas study for UMass, with some expenses nonrefundable. They hadn’t registered for spring classes at UMass Amherst. At least one did not have housing lined up. One student faces up to $20,000 in fees for the overseas program, according to the student’s attorney, Shahily “Shay” Negrón. “They have been extremely distraught,” Negrón said. “This entire ordeal has had a toll on my client emotionally [and] financially.” Advertisement Negrón said the student was unable to persuade UMass officials to reverse their decision at a hearing in early January, and is now considering suing. UMass is “harming my client because she exercised her right to free speech,” Negrón said. But experts say a First Amendment violation case could be tough to make, especially because the students had signed the study abroad agreement. The student would need to prove that disciplinary measures were based on the substance of their protest, or that the process was otherwise unfair, said Boston University law professor Robert Tsai. “These are not easy arguments to win,” Tsai said. “Just because someone’s been treated more leniently doesn’t mean that the university is doing so because they agree with the speech.” Moralee wants the university to investigate the disciplinary proceedings. “The process looks irregular, and the university owes it to everyone to conduct an independent investigation,” Moralee told the Globe. “Is the process fair? Can we be confident that bias and discrimination hasn’t played a role in suppressing free speech on campus?” O’Neill, meanwhile, is considering pursuing study abroad next year, after his probation ends. And for now, he is left to rue his lost time overseas. “If things had happened differently, I’d be in Barcelona right now, living with the host family and having the study abroad experience,” O’Neill said. “I feel really crushed by my university. I feel like they’ve just betrayed my trust for the last time.” Madeline Khaw can be reached at maddie.khaw@globe.com. Follow her @maddiekhaw.

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A Masterpiece That Inspired Gabriel Garca Mrquez to Write His Own

But at its core, “Pedro Páramo” is a tale of two journeys, or perhaps one journey that unfolds into two. The first is a linear one driven by a Telemachean quest: a man searching for his missing father. The narrator, Juan Preciado, goes to his parents’ hometown after his mother dies, seeking his long-estranged father, Pedro Páramo. He plans to demand reparations. But what he finds is a ghost town. Then he dies. (This is not a spoiler; the story continues after his death as if nothing really happened.) The second journey is Dantesque: a spiraling descent into a kind of underworld. But unlike Dante’s mathematically plotted inferno, with its concentric circles and somewhat navigable geography, Rulfo’s is largely sensory, densely packed with sounds and their endless reverberations. Many Latin American readers know the opening sentence of the novel by heart: “Vine a Comala porque me dijeron que acá vivía mi padre, un tal Pedro Páramo.” From the beginning, we find ourselves in an unstable space-time that we will question and redefine as we move through the novel. For English-language readers, key differences in two translations of the opening line will help bring this ambiguity to light. The 1994 translation, by Margaret Sayers Peden, reads: “I came to Comala because I had been told that my father, a man named Pedro Páramo, lived there.” The most recent translation, by Douglas J. Weatherford, is: “I came to Comala because I was told my father lived here, a man named Pedro Páramo.” Just as the exchange of “here” for “there” radically changes the story’s spatiality (where the narrator is speaking), the use of “was told” — less removed than “had been told” — shifts its temporality (when the narration happens). Nothing can fall into place in a novel if the author does not have control over its sense of time, be it linear or fractured. In novels of fractured time, the sequence of events must be governed by a logic of its own, one justified by the book’s central questions. Throughout “Pedro Páramo” — in which a central concern is how the world of the living haunts the world of the dead, and not vice versa, as with most ghost stories — time ebbs and flows in a kind of tidal pattern. It is not quite circular, because circles are closed circuits, but the cadence is similar to something cyclical, to the uprush and backwash of water breaking over sand, over and over again. The dead, tormented by lives they can no longer participate in but which their memories replay, over and over again, produce a steady undercurrent of murmurs, laments, mutterings, chatter, whispers, quiet confessions. If where and when we are in “Pedro Páramo” is constantly shifting, then sound is the swift and sinuous vehicle that carries us through it. For a class I taught this fall, I asked my students to find the many sonic markers in the novel. (It was a fun experiment, and we shared the results with the sound designers of a forthcoming “Pedro Páramo” film. They wrote back to say they were inspired by our sound lists and wanted to credit the students.) I was astonished to see how much of the novel is composed of aural details. Still air shattered by doves’ flapping wings. Hummingbirds whirring among jasmine bushes. Laughter. A tap of knuckles on the confessional window. A church clock ringing out the hours, “one after another, one after another, as if time had contracted.” Also sounds we cannot hear, but can almost imagine: “the earth rotating on rusted hinges, the trembling of an ancient world pouring out its darkness.” And of course, the myriad sounds of rain.

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For Some Young People, a College Degree Is Not Worth the Debt

By researching Parent PLUS loans, I learned that the parent alone carries the debt, there are fewer forgiveness options than other federal student loans and the loans carry a current interest rate of 8.05 percent. There was no way I could sign. I’m a renter, and until two years ago, I didn’t have a retirement account. So instead of taking out Parent PLUS loans, I secured a private loan with a much lower interest rate through my credit union. Although I had to co-sign, Alex was designated the primary borrower. Alex understood that this was the only option to pay for college, but as they struggled to adjust to college life in the years following the start of the pandemic, the debt began to weigh on them. This led them to drop out of college after two trimesters. Though they have $7,000 in loans to pay off from their short stint, Alex knew the implications of accumulating even more debt over the course of four years. I did my best to alleviate their worries, but my own student loan debt wasn’t reassuring. Alex believed that, even with a minimum wage job, they could pay off their debt and continue to support themself with jobs that didn’t require a degree. Alex is not alone in this belief. Because of the combined costs of tuition and living expenses, some young people have opted to delay, drop out of or forgo attending college altogether to avoid student debt that could hang over them for decades. A recent report from the National Student Clearinghouse, a nonprofit provider of educational reporting, showed that freshman enrollment declined by 3.6 percent last fall, reversing recent gains. In addition, the share of students who left college without a degree rose to 40.4 million as of July 2021.

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Review: Boston's Long Wait for THE BAND'S VISIT Rewarded With Great Production

More than three years after its national tour – set to play Boston’s Citizens Bank Opera House in March 2020 – was shut down by the pandemic, “The Band’s Visit” is finally onstage in Boston in the form of a flawless co-production by the Huntington and SpeakEasy Stage, at the Huntington Theatre through December 17. Based on the 2007 Israeli film of the same name, “The Band’s Visit” premiered off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in December 2016 before opening at Broadway’s Ethel Barrymore Theatre in November of the following year. With music and lyrics by David Yazbek and book by Itamar Moses, the show, based on a screenplay by Eran Kolirin, went on to win 10 Tony Awards in 2018, including Best Musical, Best Book of a Musical, and Best Original Score, as well as a Daytime Emmy Award and the 2019 Grammy for Best Musical Theater Album. In Moses’ moving book, about a border crossing mix-up that strands the Alexandria Ceremonial Police Orchestra in a remote Israeli village with no bus until the next day, “The Band’s Visit,” set in the Negev Desert in 1996, offers a captivating and wistful look at what unfolds when the residents of the small community take in the Egyptian travelers and find their lives intertwining. Adroitly directed by Paul Daigneault, founding artistic director at SpeakEasy Stage, the production features a gifted cast anchored by Brian Thomas Abraham as the reserved Colonel Tewfiq Zakaria, whose quiet, commanding presence masks a wounded soul, and Jennifer Apple, who played Anna on the show’s first national tour, as the complex café owner Dina, who is both charming and fierce. Tewfiq and Dina are very different people but the connection they make during their brief encounter is very real. This is demonstrated throughout by David Yazbek’s magnificent score, which weaves wondrously through the show like the finest gossamer. Indeed, there are several songs in the 90-minute one-act musical that will likely live forever in the hearts and minds of its audiences. Chief among these is the exquisitely evocative “Omar Sharif,” in which Dina, her heart beginning to tug toward Tewfiq, shares memories of the way she once romanticized Egyptian culture. Complementing Abraham and Apple are a first-rate company of actors, among whom are several local favorites including Marianna Bassham as Iris, a new mother likely afflicted with severe postpartum depression; Robert Saoud as Iris’s widowed father, Avrum; Jared Troilo as her loyal, loving husband, Itzik; Josephine Moshiri Elwood as a village wallflower, Julia; Jessi Garlick as the tremulous Papi; and Fady Demian as Papi’s friend, the more confident Zelger. Others more than delivering on this show’s promise include Kareem Elsamadicy as the socially awkward trumpeter who turns to Chet Baker’s seminal recording of “My Funny Valentine” each and every time he is called upon to introduce himself to a woman. Emily Qualmann is terrific, too, as Zelger’s girlfriend, the you’d-better-not-get-in-her-way Anna. And Noah Kieserman, achingly effective as the silent Telephone Guy, comes alive with hope and promise when the payphone finally rings for him, breaking through his single-minded focus to take center stage for the plaintive ballad “Answer Me,” which has other ensemble members chiming in with their own private wishes and dreams. This production also features a very talented nine-member band of musicians, under the direction of José Delgado, and well done, culturally representative choreography by Daniel Pelzig, which even includes some very entertaining roller-rink footwork to Cher’s “Believe.” Miranda Kau Giurleo’s well-turned-out costumes capture the characters and the period, while Wilson Chin and Jimmy Stubbs’ cleverly multi-purpose scenic design is shown off to full advantage by Aja M. Jackson’s mood-setting lighting design. And while this is a story about Egyptians and Israelis getting along with each other, that often-charged topic is handled with great care here. The scent of apprehensiveness is definitely in the air at the outset, but no sides are taken and sensitivity and human kindness win the day. Indeed, the statement “It wasn’t very important,” describing the story at both the beginning and the end, is a droll reminder that this is not a show about world events. It’s about the need to belong, to matter, and, if we are lucky, to be loved for who we are. Photo caption: Jennifer Apple and Brian Thomas Abraham in a scene from “The Band’s Visit,” a co-production of the Huntington and SpeakEasy Stage Company. Photo by T. Charles Erickson.

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Teen apprehended, gun recovered at Boston school, police say

15-year-old apprehended, gun recovered at Boston school, police say Share Copy Link Copy WE’LL HAVE MORE ON THIS STORY COMING UP AT 6:00. ALSO BREAKING A STUDENT WAS ARRESTED AFTER THIS GUN AND THESE BULLETS WERE ALLEGEDLY FOUND FOUND IN HIS BACKPACK. THE DISTURBING DISCOVERIES MADE AT THE SNOWDEN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL TODAY. NEWSCENTER 5 JOHN ATWATER LIVE IN BOSTON WITH THE POLICE RESPONSE JOHN. WELL, ERICA, YOU SAW THE PICTURE THERE. POLICE SAY TEN BULLETS WERE FOUND IN THAT GUN. SO THAT PROMPTED A LARGE INVESTIGATION HERE TODAY. THE SCHOOL WENT INTO SAFE MODE FOR ABOUT AN HOUR TODAY. POLICE SAY THEY FOUND THAT HANDGUN AND A 15 YEAR OLD STUDENT’S BACKPACK. INVESTIGATORS SAY THAT STAFF AT THE SCHOOL WERE ALERTED THAT THE STUDENT MAY HAVE A WEAPON, BUT IT’S NOT CLEAR WHO WARNED STAFF ABOUT THAT THREAT. NOW, THIS ALL HAPPENED JUST BEFORE NOON AT THE SNOWDEN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL AND THAT 15 YEAR OLD WAS ARRESTED. OTHERS WHO WORK IN THE AREA AND SAW THE POLICE RESPONSE TODAY ARE NOW WONDERING WHAT COULD HAVE PROMPTED THE TEEN TO BRING THE GUN TO SCHOOL. I REALLY THINK THAT THERE’S NO SUPERVISION THAT AND THEN I THOUGHT MAYBE PERSONAL THINGS THAT HE’S, YOU KNOW, A 15 YEAR OLD’S BRAIN ISN’T REALLY DEVELOPED ALL THE WAY THAT HE’S TRYING TO MAKE FRIENDS OR BE COOL OR WHAT. YOU KNOW, THERE’S A LOT OF DIFFERENT THINGS THAT COULD HAPPEN OR THAT MAYBE, YOU KNOW, SOMETHING UNFORTUNATE HAPPENED IN SCHOOL OR THERE WAS GOING TO BE SOMETHING BAD THAT COULD HAVE HAPPENED. WELL, THANKFULLY NO ONE WAS HURT HERE TODAY. AND ALONG WITH THE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES THAT TEENAGER IS NOW FACING, THE SCHOOL SAYS HE WILL ALSO FACE DISCIPLINARY GET LOCAL BREAKING NEWS ALERTS The latest breaking updates, delivered straight to your email inbox. Your Email Address Submit Privacy Notice

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Boston developer to make largest investment in Lynns history

LYNN — For decades, the South Harbor site has sat vacant. A key piece of waterfront real estate in the city, developers tried over the years to woo city officials with plans for the parcel, but nothing clicked. Now, officials say the right proposal has come forward at the right time, providing Lynn a true gateway to the rest of the city, and an opportunity to reclaim the waterfront. That proposal — an 850-unit, mixed-income apartment complex with a first-floor commercial space — was hammered out over the course of four years between Boston-based developer Samuels & Associates and city leadership. Next-door neighbor Revere had already seen a glut of apartment buildings spring up along the MBTA’s Blue Line and Revere Beach. Lynn, just up the road from Wonderland and home to a Commuter Rail station, was the logical next place to turn, Samuels President Joel Sklar said. Perhaps because of what took place in Revere, the city had been preparing for a developer like Samuels to come along — revamping its zoning to embrace, not shun, new developments. It’s no surprise then that the company and the city were able to come to an agreement on the massive, $450 million proposal for the long-vacant site — fittingly just across the bridge from Revere. For Lynn, turning an empty property into a gateway to the rest of the city, complete with an 8-acre public park, 26,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, and affordable units, delivered the “wow” it long sought for the waterfront. For Samuels, the project arrived at the right time in the right place. “We love Lynn because of its proximity to the city, connectivity to the MBTA… and we just think it’s an evolving area that is a great growth opportunity,” Sklar said in an interview. “We like investing in markets that are on the rise… and we like investing and becoming part of a community.” Well before it set its sights on Lynn, Samuels had a track record of developing projects akin to what it is now undertaking at the South Harbor. In Boston, the company can be credited with a large portion of the redevelopment of the Fenway — with a variety of mixed-use projects in the area, combining both retail and residential, as it will do in Lynn, and office and lab space with retail. Sklar also pointed to the Hingham Shipyard project, which closely resembles the plans for South Harbor on the commercial and open-space fronts. “We’re taking elements of work we’ve done before and combining them into this more integrated project,” he said. For Economic Development & Industrial Corporation of Lynn (EDIC/Lynn) Director Jim Cowdell, Samuels’ experience in undertaking projects similar in size and scope to South Harbor made it the obvious choice when selecting a developer for the site. “When you look at their reputation, every project has improved the neighborhood they’ve done projects in,” Cowdell said in an interview. “There’s not a city in the state that wouldn’t want Samuels in their community.” Mayor Jared Nicholson also praised the company’s “really impressive track record,” particularly on the sorts of mixed-use projects eyed for the South Harbor. “If you’ve seen Fenway over the last 20 years, it’s totally transformed and Samuels was a big part of that,” he said. The South Harbor site itself was a draw for Samuels, and Sklar echoed comments made by both Cowdell and Nicholson in calling it a gateway to the rest of the city. Other developments along the Lynnway had created what Sklar called a “thriving community” there, leaving Samuels with the opportunity to tap into a growing area of the city. Even beyond the South Harbor project, the city has poured resources into transforming the Lynnway, between the revival of the ferry connecting Boston and Lynn, and the extension of Blossom Street. That investment has stretched into the city’s downtown, which is increasingly becoming a vibrant destination, a fact Sklar pointed to in explaining Samuels’ interest in Lynn. Though the Lynnway is not walkable in the same way as Boston’s Boylston Street, where many of Samuels’ Fenway projects are located, Sklar said the company seeks to create a community in and of itself at South Harbor, with a commercial corridor and events at the park — an effort it has had success with in the Fenway. “We’ve always been retail developers, and retail placemaking is something that we really focus on,” he said. “We have a team… who all work together… to create a vibrant district that will attract the community.” Cowdell lauded Samuels for its ability to garner community support for projects. Though Samuels’ track record would indicate that it will have no trouble drawing residents to South Harbor once the project is completed — construction is slated to stretch into the next decade — Sklar acknowledged the challenge before the company. “It has to be an intentional effort to curate and merchandise a mix of uses that will draw people down there,” he said. “This is not something that we do because it’s a big moneymaker, this is something that really needs to be subsidized by the rest of the project.” The project has already received site-plan approval from the city, and a City Council vote on the proposed tax incentive for Samuels is expected this month. Most councilors appeared supportive of the project when Cowdell and Nicholson first presented it last month. Cowdell, himself a former councilor, acknowledged the difficulty of voting for a tax incentive but noted that a third-party economic consultant hired by the city verified an incentive was warranted. Sklar noted that any project of this size, particularly on the waterfront, has a steep economic cost. But, he said the company and the city were able to establish a productive public-private partnership from the beginning. “We’ve been working together with the city on an open-book basis to understand the economics of the project, the economic impacts and costs, and the amenities that we’re creating, and structured ways to share those burdens and benefits for the best outcome for the community in a way that still allows the project to go forward,” he said. “We can all have great ideas about what we’d love to create for the community, but they have to be economically viable.” “It’s been a two-way street and a great partnership,” Sklar continued. It’s that partnership that produced what Cowdell called the single largest private investment in the city’s history. “We deserve this,” he said.

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How The Nutcracker Has Been Reimagined, for Better and Worse

A fiery car crash in New Hampshire resulted in the explosion of hundreds of rounds of ammunition Saturday afternoon, according to New Hampshire State Police. A little before 3 p.m., police received a report that a vehicle that had crashed after driving “erratically” on I-93 north in Bow, state police said in a press release. The vehicle hit the center median before “ricocheting” back across all lanes of traffic and hitting another vehicle. The vehicle then continued into the woods where it struck several trees and caught fire, police said. The three people in the vehicle were able to escape, and one was taken to a hospital with significant but non-life-threatening injuries. No one in the vehicle that was hit was injured. Officers shutdown all northbound lanes due to the fire, but as it got bigger, several hundred rounds of ammunition that were in the vehicle began to explode, police said. This forced officers to shutdown all southbound lanes until fire crews arrived at the scene and got the fire under control. The names of the people in the vehicle are being withheld while police investigate the incident, police said. One of those people was arrested on several warrants, and they may face additional charges. Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Trooper Joshua Farmer at Joshua.A.Farmer@dos.nh.gov or by calling (603) 227-0038.

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How to watch Tyler Perrys The Oval season 5 new episode free Jan. 2

The fifth season of the political drama series Tyler Perry’s “The Oval” continues this Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 9 p.m. ET/8 p.m. CT on BET with a new episode. Those without cable can watch the show for free through either Philo, DirecTV Stream, or FuboTV, each of which offers a free trial to new users. FuboTV said in a description of the series: “It tells the story of U.S President Hunter Franklin and first lady Victoria Franklin, a power-hungry interracial couple, who present a perfect façade to the world while indulging in wildly scandalous behavior behind closed doors.” “Not to be outdone, their children — Gayle and Jason — bring their own brands of volatility and excess to the Executive Residence. The soap opera-style series also tells the stories of White House staff members whose lives become intertwined with those of the first family,” FuboTV added. “Head butler Richard Hallsen is an ex-serviceman who struggles to maintain his integrity in the face of greed and corruption. In ‘The Oval,’ Tyler Perry supercharges the political genre with off-the-charts levels of scandal, sex, depravity and betrayal,” according to FuboTV. Season 5, episode 12 is titled “Who’s Playing Who” and in a description of the episode FuboTV said: “When Hunter’s eyes are opened to the truth, he goes into self-preservation mode and begins to weed out those who can’t be trusted; Richard gives Nancy no choice but to face her wrongdoings. How can I watch Tyler Perry’s “The Oval” without cable? Those without cable can watch the show for free through either through Philo, DirecTV Stream, or FuboTV each of which offer a free trial to new users. What is Philo? Philo is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers 60+ entertainment and lifestyle channels, like AMC, BET, MTV, Comedy Central and more, for the budget-friendly price of $25/month. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, like sports, news, entertainment and local channels. It offers DVR storage space, and is designed for people who want to cut the cord, but don’t want to miss out on their favorite live TV and sports.

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Israeli media say Hamas has released 13 Israeli hostages

Hamas released the first batch of hostages under a cease-fire deal that began Friday, including 13 Israelis who have been held in the Gaza Strip since the militant group staged a raid on Israel nearly seven weeks ago, according to officials and media reports. Twelve Thai nationals were also released, according to Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. An Israeli official confirmed that the Thai captives left Gaza and were en route to a hospital in Israel. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because she was not authorized to discuss the releases with the media. In all, 50 captives had been expected to be freed during a four-day truce. It was not clear if the Thai hostages were included in that. Israel is set to release 150 Palestinians under the deal. Thirty-nine — 24 women, including some convicted of attempted murder for attacks on Israeli forces, and 15 teenagers jailed for offenses like throwing stones — were expected to be freed Friday, Palestinian authorities said. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. Israeli media, citing security officials, said 13 Israelis had been freed. The cease-fire between Israel and Hamas began Friday, allowing sorely needed aid to start flowing into Gaza and setting the stage for the exchange. There were no reports of fighting after the truce began. The deal offered some relief for Gaza's 2.3 million people, who have endured weeks of Israeli bombardment and dwindling supplies of basic necessities, as well as for families in Israel worried about loved ones taken captive during Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack, which triggered the war. The truce raised hopes of eventually winding down the conflict, which has flattened vast swaths of Gaza, fueled a surge of violence in the occupied West Bank and stirred fears of a wider conflagration across the Middle East. Israel, however, has said it is determined to resume its massive offensive once the cease-fire ends. On Friday, it brought quiet after weeks in which Gaza saw heavy bombardment and artillery fire daily as well as street fighting as ground troops advanced through neighborhoods in the north. The last report of air raid sirens in Israeli towns near the territory came shortly after the truce took effect. Not long after, four tankers with fuel and four with cooking gas entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt, Israel said. Israel has agreed to allow the delivery of 130,000 liters (34,340 gallons) of fuel per day during the truce — still only a small portion of Gaza’s estimated daily needs of more than 1 million liters. For most of the past seven weeks of war, Israel had barred the entry of fuel to Gaza, claiming it could be used by Hamas for military purposes — though it has occasionally allowed small amounts in. U.N. aid agencies pushed back against the claim, saying fuel deliveries were closely supervised and urgently needed to avert a humanitarian catastrophe since fuel is required to run generators that power water treatment facilities, hospitals and other critical infrastructure. The Israeli military dropped leaflets over southern Gaza, warning hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians who sought refuge there not to return to their homes in the territory's north, the focus of Israel’s ground offensive. Even though Israel warned that it would block such attempts, hundreds of Palestinians could be seen walking north Friday. Two were shot and killed by Israeli troops and another 11 were wounded. An Associated Press journalist saw the two bodies and the wounded as they arrived at a hospital. Sofian Abu Amer, who had fled Gaza City, said he decided to risk heading north to check on his home. “We don’t have enough clothes, food and drinks,” he said. ”The situation is disastrous. It’s better for a person to die." During the cease-fire, Gaza’s ruling Hamas group pledged to free at least 50 of the about 240 hostages it and other militants took on Oct. 7. Hamas said Israel would free 150 Palestinian prisoners. Both sides agreed to release women and children first, in stages starting Friday. Israel said the deal calls for the truce to be extended an extra day for every additional 10 hostages freed. Early in the day, ambulances were seen arriving at the Hatzerim air base in southern Israel, preparing for the release. Those freed will then be taken to hospitals for assessment and treatment, Israeli officials said. Among the Israeli citizens freed some have a second nationality, according to a Hamas official who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details with the media. Israel’s Justice Ministry published a list of 300 prisoners eligible for release, mainly teenagers detained over the past year for rock-throwing and other minor offenses. Three Palestinian prisoners are expected to be released for every hostage freed. The hope is that “momentum” from the deal will lead to an “end to this violence,” said Majed al-Ansari, a spokesman for the Foreign Ministry of Qatar, which served as a mediator along with the United States and Egypt. But hours before it came into effect, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant was quoted telling troops that their respite would be short and that the war would resume with intensity for at least two more months. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also vowed to continue the war to destroy Hamas’ military capabilities, end its 16-year rule in Gaza and return all the hostages. Israel's northern border with Lebanon was also quiet on Friday, a day after the militant Hezbollah group, an ally of Hamas, carried out the highest number of attacks in one day since fighting there began Oct. 8. Hezbollah is not a party to the cease-fire agreement, but was widely expected to halt its attacks. The war erupted when several thousand Hamas militants stormed into southern Israel, killing at least 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking scores of hostages, including babies, women and older adults, as well as soldiers. The soldiers will only be released in exchange for all Palestinians imprisoned by Israel, according to the Islamic Jihad militant group, which is reportedly holding about 40 hostages. It is not clear how many of the hostages are currently serving in the military or whether the militants also consider reserve soldiers to be “military hostages.” Photos: Israel-Hamas War According to the Palestinian Prisoners’ Club, an advocacy group, Israel is currently holding 7,200 Palestinians on security charges or convictions, including about 2,000 arrested since the start of the war. The Israeli offensive has killed more than 13,300 Palestinians, according to the Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza, which resumed its detailed count of casualties in Gaza after stopping for weeks because of the health system’s collapse in the north. The ministry says some 6,000 people have been reported missing, feared buried under rubble. The ministry does not differentiate between civilians and militants in its death tolls. Women and minors have consistently made up around two-thirds of the dead, though the new number was not broken down. The figure does not include updated numbers from hospitals in the north. Israel says it has killed thousands of Hamas fighters, without presenting evidence for its count. ___ Mroue reported from Beirut and Rising reported from Bangkok. Julia Frankel contributed from Jerusalem.

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What Boston meteorologists are saying about the incoming storm

COLD IS COMING… After the storm it will turn colder next week ▶️Arctic air dropping into the US now (-20s in Montana) ▶️Spreads south then east this weekend ▶️Airmass modifies so not as brutal as it arrives here next week (Highs in the low 30s with lows in the teens)#WCVB pic.twitter.com/0cmCjsAuEV

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Whats With All the Different Salts? Heres How to Use Them.

What defines kosher salt is its large, coarse grains. The term is a shortening of koshering or kashering salt, because its traditional use is to remove the blood from meat, as required by Jewish dietary laws. The large salt crystals draw out blood without dissolving much, which keeps the meat from becoming oversalted. And the coarse grain is perfect for making a salt crust, a traditional method for cooking whole fish that results in especially tender, juicy flesh. Like table salt, most kosher salt is industrially produced. It isn’t iodized, but might contain anticaking agents, which will be listed on the label. The two dominant brands on the market, Morton’s and Diamond Crystal, are manufactured using different processes, which makes them extremely dissimilar. Morton’s has dense, heavy cubes that pack together tightly in a measuring spoon. Diamond Crystal, the darling of professional chefs, is shaped into light flakes that remain somewhat separate. When measured by volume (teaspoons, tablespoons, pinches), Morton’s is twice as salty as Diamond Crystal (see this chart for more salt comparisons). Substituting one for the other can wreak havoc on your recipe, rendering a dish too salty or not salty enough. Weighing solves this problem, because all salts can be used interchangeably by weight. Common Sea Salt Most inexpensive sea salt is industrially produced from seawater. It can be processed into fine granules like table salt, or coarser cubes to be either used in a salt grinder or added directly to pasta water, soups and stews. Sea salt is sometimes coated with anticaking agents, but, since it doesn’t usually contain iodine, it can have a cleaner flavor than table salt. Fine sea salt is often used in baking because of its ability to dissolve quickly, and can be used in place of table salt in cooking. Traditional Sea Salts Built on age-old traditions, sea salts like fleur de sel, sel gris and flaky salt are all made by evaporating seawater, either in the sun in warm climates, or by boiling. They can have a variety of trace minerals that add character, color and texture. But because they’re usually expensive and don’t have a uniform crystal size or salinity, they’re not often called for in recipe ingredient lists. Used as finishing salt, traditional sea salts can bring plenty of textures and flavors to the table.

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Mass. State Lottery winner: $100,000 prize sold on Cape Cod

Two $100,000 winning lottery tickets were claimed in Massachusetts on Wednesday and one of those prizes was sold at a shop on Cape Cod. The $100,000 prize sold on the Cape was from the lottery’s scratch ticket game called “300X,” which costs $30 per ticket to play. That winning ticket was sold in Harwich Port from a store called Value Mart. The other $100,000 prize claimed on Dec. 27, was from the Massachusetts State Lottery’s scratch ticket game called “Millions.” The winning ticket was sold in Auburn from Kane Shell Foodmart. Overall, there were at least 667 lottery prizes worth $600 or more won or claimed in Massachusetts on Wednesday, including nine in Springfield and 19 in Worcester. The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of all the winning tickets each day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600. The two largest lottery prizes won in the state of Massachusetts so far in 2023 were $33 million and $31 million Mega Millions jackpot prizes. The tickets were each sold a week apart. The $33 million ticket for the Tuesday, Jan. 24 drawing was purchased from a Stop & Shop in Belchertown. The winner came forward to claim the prize on March 1 through the Skylark Group Trust. The $31 million Mega Millions jackpot ticket was won on Jan. 31. The winning ticket was bought in Woburn from a Gibbs gas station, and the winner claimed the prize on March 8 through S & L Trust.

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Whos Afraid of a Tap Dance Nutcracker?

The White House video opens on Josette Wiggan, wearing a sequined romper with spheres jutting from the sides of her waist — a fantasy tutu befitting the story’s Land of the Sweets — as she turns with open arms. She is Sugar Rum Cherry. Think of the Sugar Plum Fairy, only cooler. Gliding backward, she heads down a hallway flanked by giant candy canes as her shoulders send a ripple down her long arms and her fingers snap to the tune of the “Dance of the Floreadores,” set to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn’s 1960 jazz arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcracker.” The film is an invitation to a dance — and not just to any “Nutcracker,” but to one that celebrates two points of American cultural pride: tap dance and jazz. Both are marginalized art forms, which makes transmitting the video from the White House all the more significant. And it’s also enchanting. Dr. Biden, correctly, calls it playful in her post, writing: “A bit of magic, wonder, and joy brought to you by the talented tappers of Dorrance Dance.” In many ways, the “Dance of the Floreadores” feels like a throwback to vintage Hollywood. (The production is choreographed by Ms. Dorrance, Hannah Heller and Ms. Wiggan.) The performers, dressed as characters from the work — including a Cavalier, a Flower with a giant purple headpiece, a Rat King — light up the score with sweeping, frisky steps as they spin from room to room in solo turns and end as a group, Ms. Wiggan in front as she blows a kiss in a final flourish. But this offering of dance joy has drawn criticism from those who see it as dystopian. It’s hard to imagine that this is news to anyone, but “The Nutcracker” is a fantasy. It can get weird, and even a little dark. In the choreographer George Balanchine’s classic 1954 version, performed by New York City Ballet this month at Lincoln Center, a Nutcracker Prince goes to battle with the Mouse King, ultimately stabbing him to death. (This inevitably leads to loud applause.) The characters in all versions of “The Nutcracker” are over the top — that’s the point.

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Video: Warming trend in Mass. heading into Christmas Day

On a quiet street in Washington Heights, tucked among a collection of yellow-brick apartment houses, a dry cleaner and an Indian restaurant, is an unremarkable building where Henry Kissinger spent his early days in the United States. The Art Deco building was the Kissinger family’s first long-term home after they arrived in New York City in 1938 as refugees from Nazi Germany. After a short stint living with relatives and staying in a different apartment nearby, the family settled into the 850-square-foot rental on Fort Washington Avenue in 1940. Mr. Kissinger’s mother, Paula, lived in the building until her death in 1998. Mr. Kissinger, the former secretary of state who reshaped the United States’ approach to the Cold War, died in Connecticut on Wednesday at the age of 100. By Thursday morning, news of his death had reached the building on Fort Washington Avenue. The neighbors old enough to remember the Kissingers had long since moved away, according to the current resident of the apartment, Alexei Gonzales. Mr. Gonzales said that he had lived in the apartment for 11 years, but had not known that the Kissingers had lived there until about seven years ago.

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Hundreds of rounds of ammunition explode during fiery New Hampshire car crash

SPRINGFIELD — Nearly a month after allegations of voter fraud erupted in the city’s mayoral race, the top elections official said the FBI has requested a meeting. Gladys Oyola-Lopez, the elections commissioner, said an FBI agent recently called to request a sit-down but was not specific about what the federal agency wants to discuss.

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Crews respond to water main break in Boston - Boston News, Weather, Sports

BOSTON (WHDH) - An intersection in Boston was blocked off late Friday as crews responded to a water main break. The break near Tremont and Stuart streets left water gushing out of a manhole cover. The cause of the break remains under investigation. This is a developing news story; stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest details. (Copyright (c) 2023 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Heiress Seeks 50 Austrians to Give Away $27 Million

In the coming days, about 10,000 Austrians will find an invitation in their mailboxes from an heiress asking for their help spending 25 million euros, or about $27.4 million, of her inheritance. It is not a scam or a clever marketing gambit. Rather, the heiress, Marlene Engelhorn, said it was an attempt to challenge a system that has allowed her to accumulate millions of euros in the first place. Ms. Engelhorn, 31, grew up in Vienna and for years has been campaigning for tax policies that would redistribute inherited wealth and address structural economic inequality. Without those tax laws in place, she is turning to the public to decide how her money should be spent.

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See all homes sold in Cape Cod, Dec. 17 to Dec. 23

The following is a listing of all home transfers in Cape Cod reported from Dec. 17 to Dec. 23. There were 1 transactions posted during this time. During this period, the median sale for the area was a 2,157-square-foot home on Stratford Ridge in Mashpee that sold for $325,000. Mashpee 50 Stratford Ridge, Mashpee, $325,000, 2,157 square feet, $151 per square-foot, two bedrooms and three bathrooms. Real Estate Newswire is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to generate analysis of data from Propmix, an aggregator of national real-estate data. See more Real Estate News

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God Is Under the Rubble in Gaza: Bethlehems Subdued Christmas

Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida is finally taking the fight to the front-runner, former President Donald J. Trump. After months of being pressed by voters to go harder, Mr. DeSantis accused Mr. Trump of not being “pro-life” during a nationally broadcast CNN town hall in Des Moines Thursday night. He pointed out that Mr. Trump had deported fewer undocumented immigrants than Barack Obama did in his presidency. And Mr. DeSantis suggested that Iowans, who will conduct the first voting in the Republican Party’s presidential nominating contest on Jan. 15, would do well to contrast his behavior with that of Mr. Trump. “You’re not going to have to worry about my conduct,” Mr. DeSantis told the audience. “I’ll conduct myself in a way you can be proud of. I’ll conduct myself in a way you can tell your kids: ‘That’s somebody you should emulate.’” Immediately after Mr. DeSantis’s hourlong town hall finished, another began for former Gov. Nikki Haley of South Carolina, also broadcast on CNN. For her, the evening seemed to go less smoothly. She was consistently placed on her back foot, defending herself over a string of recent gaffes and even receiving boos because of a joke she made a day earlier about the Iowa caucuses. At one point, she used an oft-derided cliché when talking about race, saying that she had “Black friends growing up.”

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The Biden Economy Is Doing Fine - The New York Times

Ten finance guys are drinking in a bar. Nine of them are Masters of the Universe — wheeler-dealers who make many millions of dollars every year. The tenth is what Gordon Gekko, in the movie “Wall Street,” called a “$400,000-a-year working Wall Street stiff.” Then the stiff leaves for a while, maybe to answer a call of nature. When he leaves, the average income of the guys still in the bar shoots up, because he’s no longer dragging that average down; when he comes back, the average drops again. But these fluctuations in the average don’t reflect changes in anyone’s income. Why am I telling you this story? Because it’s most of the story of wages in the U.S. economy since Covid-19 struck. In 2020 the average wage of workers who still had a job shot up, because those who were laid off were disproportionately low-wage service workers. Then, as people resumed in-person shopping, started going to restaurants and so on, growth in average wages was held down because those low-wage workers were being rehired. You need to look through these “compositional effects” to figure out what was really happening to earnings as that played out.

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Nate Landrebe IDd as man shot, killed by police during New Hampshire standoff

More episodes of Hulu’s “Only Murders In The Building” will air on ABC on Tuesday, Jan. 16 at 9 p.m. EST. Episodes 7-9 from season 1 will air back to back starting at 9 p.m. EST. Viewers can stream the show by using FuboTV or DirecTV. Both streaming services offer free trials. Since the show is a Hulu original, viewers can also stream the series on Hulu with a subscription and will get their first month free when they sign up. Plans for Hulu start as low as $7.99 a month and give you access to thousands of shows and movies. According to a description on Hulu, “three strangers share an obsession with true crime and suddenly find themselves wrapped up in one.” The show stars Steve Martin, Martin Short and Selena Gomez. How can I watch “Only Murders In The Building?” Viewers looking to binge the new season can do so with a Hulu subscription. A Hulu subscription with ads starts at just $7.99 a month and offers a 30-day free trial for new users. A subscription with no ads is $14.99 a month, also with a free trial. Viewers can bundle Disney+ with Hulu for $9.99 a month or bundle Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ for $12.99 a month. Viewers can also bundle all three, disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ with no-ads for $19.99 a month or bundle all three streaming services with live TV for $69.99 a month

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Quincy man arrested after attempting to light raccoon on fire - Boston News, Weather, Sports

QUINCY, MASS. (WHDH) - A Quincy man was arrested and charged with animal cruelty after police say he attempted to light a raccoon on fire. Quincy Police received a call on Saturday, Dec. 30 reporting that a person was attempting to light a raccoon on fire in the backyard of a house on Royal Street. Upon arrival, officers saw two neighbors arguing and a live raccoon, with apparent burn injuries, in a trap cage. In a video obtained by police, authorities said, Andrew Chieu, 63, of Quincy, could be seen “building a fire in a tin can” before placing the caged raccoon “on top of the tin can as the fire intensified”. Chieu was placed under arrest and charged with violating animal cruelty laws. He was arraigned in Quincy District Court on Tuesday. The raccoon was transported to a local animal hospital for treatment. In an update provided by the New England Wildlife Center, officials said the raccoon remained in critical condition as of Wednesday after suffering severe burns to its stomach, back, and paws. “Almost all of its fur is either completely missing or burnt from the fire,” the organization stated on Facebook. “Burns this severe are extremely painful and pose a severe health risk for the animal. Besides the obvious skin damage, burns this widespread can lead to severe infection, dehydration, electrolyte imbalance, and blood pressure issues.” “Unfortunately, in this business, we see a lot of heartbreaking things and, for sure, this case is one of the most heartbreaking,” said Zak Mertz, the CEO of New England Wildlife Centers. “He does have 3rd degree burns to his flank, to the stomach, and to the paws, which is really the most heartbreaking thing because of any animal in the animal kingdom, [raccoons] have more nerves running to their hands, so we know this is incredibly painful.” The center added that while the raccoon has a long road to recovery ahead of it, they described the animal as “a fighter and we will do everything we can to get him through.” “We’re cautiously optimistic that the raccoon is going to make a full recovery,” Mertz told 7NEWS. “Obviously with burns this severe, it’s a really rough case.” (Copyright (c) 2023 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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Best Comedy of 2023

Editor’s Note: How can a dining program that serves tens of thousands of students and staff each day churn out award-winning cuisine that has been recognized by Princeton Review for having the best campus food for seven years in a row? MassLive visited the UMass Amherst campus, interviewed chefs, tasted the food and toured the kitchens to find out how the UMass Dining program became a dining dynasty. One of the hottest spots in the No. 1 ranked UMass Amherst dining program is the Blue Wall dining area located within the university’s campus center, which offers about one dozen flavorful food concepts spread out across the main concourse. A popular pedestrian thoroughfare and crossroads in the heart of campus for students, staff and visitors alike, Blue Wall’s flavor profiles range from savory to sweet and incorporate global cuisines from Latin America, to the Mediterranean, to East Asia. The sleekly designed Blue Wall — called so due to the blue lights reflected on the walls around the space — is currently open weekdays from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., but its diverse food installations offer varied opening and closing times depending on if they cater to breakfast, lunch or dinners crowds, or all of the above. Different than the four dining commons on the UMass campus — Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Worcester — those who dine here pay at the counter for ready-to-go or dine-in meals either with cash, card or allocated meal plan dollars instead of a typical meal swipe to tap into a cafeteria space. Nevertheless, those passing through or coming for a bite to eat will catch students gathering, chowing down and studying across its eclectic seating arrangements much like any dining hall or café across the university. However, like all the dining halls, guests to campus are just as welcome as these students and school faculty to stop by and dine, according to Lynn Pelkey, the UMass location manager for Blue Wall. Feeling like a sweet treat? Stop by Yum! Bakery with glass cases displaying its many sweet treats from éclairs, to macarons, whoopie pies, cannolis, cookies, cakes, cupcakes and even cheesecake — with a separate glass case set aside for those with gluten sensitivities, Pelkey noted. Cookie Monster Galeto sold by Paciugo inside Blue Wall at UMass Amherst. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)Leon Nguyen Right next to the bakery, Blue Wall patrons can sample small spoonfuls of Italian gelato before they order a cup or cone at Paciugo, where, according to Pelkey, all the gelato is made in house, fresh and by hand daily. Flavors here range from “raspberry coconut milk,” to “lavender,” “turtle cheesecake,” “dulce de leche,” and “Cookie Monster,” among others. International flavors abound at spots like Tavola — a Mediterranean concept which offers lunchtime crowds hummus or pasta bowls, pizzas, and wraps and salads that can come with beef, skewered lamb or chicken or vegetarian friendly alternatives like falafel. A poké bowl made at Wasabi in the Blue Wall dining area of the UMass Amherst campus center.Chris McLaughlin Across the way at Tamales, authentic Mexican cuisine from burritos, to quesadillas to rice bowls are offered — and those waiting in line can even peer to the kitchen from behind a glass wall, where a tortilla press churns out tortillas for preparation and consumption. For varied Asian flavor profiles, try Wasabi or Star Ginger. At Wasabi, which Pelkey said offers “fresh” and “hearty” meals, menu items include sushi rolls, poké bowls, spicy tuna or salmon bowls. Over at Star Ginger, recipes originate from celebrity chef and cookbook author Mai Pham and are based on meals Pham ate growing up in Vietnam and Thailand. Staples here include Vietnamese pho noodle bowls, curries and entree meals such as Mongolian beef and lemongrass chicken. For more general tastes, spots like Deli Delish offer handmade sandwiches at lunch, while The Grill sizzles up burgers and grilled sandwiches, with the “Hatch Burger,” made with grass-fed beef, fried egg, bacon, cheddar cheese, lettuce and garlic aioli, being a best selling specialty, according to Pelkey. A plate of mixed salad sold by Green Fields inside Blue Wall at UMass Amherst. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)Leon Nguyen And if you’re in the mood for some vegetables, Green Fields offers a range of set salad and wrap recipes. Customers can also customize their own wrap or salad, with different add ins from the greens, to the toppings, cheese and protein options. Pelkey noted Green Fields’ crispy breaded chicken is a signature menu item add on for salads and wraps. UMass Dining on MassLive TikTok: Additionally, if it’s too early for most Blue Wall spots to be open just yet, Campus Center denizens can stop by People’s Organic Coffee for a cup of joe or tea along with other café-style menu items. Or patrons can swing into Harvest Market, which offers cold and hot bar items priced by the pound, including breakfast, or stop by any time of day to pick up different snacks, drinks or pre-packaged meals ready to go at one’s convenience. Items from the breakfast selection at the morning hot bar from Harvest Market in the UMass Amherst campus center.Chris McLaughlin And just like all operations under UMass Dining, Pelkey noted Blue Wall’s food items list different potential allergens and nutritional informational on small placards. These signs also indicate full ingredients and factors like if a food is considered halal or vegan.

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Eversource builds Rapid Pole fleet across New England to speed power restoration

SPRINGFIELD – Nearly a year ago, a powerful storm swept across New Hampshire, breaking about 200 power poles. Lines on the ground. Lights out. Heat out.

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Live Wire: Tom Rush makes Northampton stop

Tom Rush will play the BOMBYX Center for Arts & Equity in Northampton on Dec. 3 Rush helped shape the folk revival in the 1960s by introducing the world to the work of Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and James Taylor before they were well known. His own musical career began in the early ‘60s playing the Boston-area clubs while going to Harvard. Taylor once said to Rolling Stone magazine that “Tom was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main influences,” which is a view that was echoed by country music star Garth Brooks. The show, which will also feature acclaimed pianist Matt Nakoa, starts at 7 p.m.

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How 'greener' steam could help Boston buildings cut climate-warming emissions

Buildings account for the majority of greenhouse gas emissions in Boston and Cambridge. Both cities have aggressive climate goals that require large building owners to gradually reduce emissions to net zero by 2050. One big challenge building owners face is to figure out how to cut their heating systems’ emissions, which account for roughly half of their carbon footprint. Many of these large buildings rely on older steam heat systems, which were originally developed to use the steam byproduct from electricity generated by burning coal, and later natural gas. Now, a natural gas power plant in Kendall Square is trying to make that steam greener. Vicinity Energy, the company that runs the plant, is installing an industrial-scale electric boiler to produce the steam. As more renewable energy is developed to power Massachusetts’ electrical grid, the steam’s carbon footprint will continue to lower. Eventually, “it'd be zero emissions, right? Because we're going to take in renewable power,” said Don Silvia, Vicinity Energy’s regional vice president of operations. The steam from Vicinity’s plant heats travels through 30 miles of pipe to heat more than 200 buildings — hospitals, biotechnology laboratories, museums, hotels and office space. “Part of the reason why we can do what we're doing is because we're not starting from scratch,” said Silvia. Greening the steam production could cut roughly 20% of the emissions from Boston’s largest buildings, according to a 2018 report commissioned by the city. “By getting the steam generation facilities to adopt these sort of solutions, we are significantly reducing Boston and Cambridge's emissions,” said Michael Gevelber, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Boston University. Vicinity Energy's Kendall Square power plant in Cambridge. (Jesse Costa/WBUR) Other buildings could benefit from the electric boiler technology, too. Massachusetts has at least 21 steam heating systems, according to the International District Energy Association. Those systems serve university communities, downtown areas and medical complexes such as the Longwood Medical area in Boston. But the cost may be a challenge. Experts say that transitioning to the electric boiler steam will be expensive for building owners. “Electricity costs 3 to 5 times more than natural gas,” Gevelber said. In addition, because the Massachusetts electrical grid is still mostly powered by fossil fuels, the electricity that powers the boiler is still generating emissions. For clients who want to buy net zero steam, Vicinity Energy will purchase local renewable energy credits — and that will cost more. “Each building owner really needs to understand their building and how they’re most cost effectively going to meet the declining emission limits,” Gevelber said. Improving building insulation can reduce how much heat a building uses, and installing electric heat pumps can help move away from fossil fuels. Experts say the solution can be a mix of options, including clean steam. One Vicinity Energy client that is looking into these options is the Massachusetts General Hospital campus in Boston. Steam accounts for 12% of the campus’ emissions. Vicinity Energy's Don Silvia stands where the newly acquired electric boiler will be installed at the Kendall plant in Cambridge. (Jesse Costa/WBUR) “Steam is not the only option available to us. Heating can be done with heat pumps very effectively,” said Jonathan Slutzman, Massachusetts General Hospital’s medical director for environmental sustainability. He said the hospital has not decided if they will buy the electric steam. So far, one building developer has signed up to buy steam generated by the electric boiler. The boiler has the capacity to produce about one-third of the steam the plant currently generates, said Vicinity Energy’s president Bill DiCroce. The company plans to generate steam through other clean sources in the future, such as an industrial-scale heat pump. Eventually, Vicinity Energy will phase out nearly all natural gas generation at the plant, but it may take several years. In the meantime, Silvia said other steam operators are starting to show interest in electric boilers. Recently, a representative from a Vicinity Energy plant in Philadelphia toured the Cambridge facility. “Everybody's coming and looking at what we're doing and figuring out how we're going to do it,” he said. With more cities passing legislation to lower carbon emissions, using electric boilers to serve steam heat systems could be a part of the solution.

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Man who was rescued after falling overboard from tanker has died

Danvers, MA (01923) Today Areas of patchy fog early. A mix of clouds and sun. High near 65F. Winds ENE at 5 to 10 mph.. Tonight Partly cloudy early followed by cloudy skies overnight. Low 51F. Winds light and variable.

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Newton approves pared-down zoning plan to increase housing production

While Newton City Council approved a sweeping zoning change Monday meant to increase housing production in its village centers, some councilors say changes to the plan to reduce its scope means the city is still not doing enough to address its housing crisis. The new zoning ordinance will allow multifamily housing by right in certain areas in Newton’s village centers, and will increase the height restrictions for buildings in those areas. While the city’s plan goes above the requirements of a new state law that forced Newton to make the changes which had been discussed for a few years, it is a scaled-back version of the original proposal brought to the City Council, and was seen by many as a necessary compromise. “There is a lot that’s good in this. It is beginning to restore what was allowed in this city ... up until 1987 (when Newton passed more restrictive zoning),” said Councilor Deborah Crossley, who leads the Zoning and Planning Committee, at Monday’s meeting. “In our time, where we have this serious housing crisis and we have this existential climate crisis, it has become necessary for us as a community, as a commonwealth, as a nation to understand how our development patterns have strangled us. ... I don’t know why it had to take almost three years to do a better plan, a much better plan, in order to get this piece of it, but I’m very pleased that we’re getting the piece of it.” Read more: Opposing groups with same name cause confusion in Newton housing debate The MBTA Communities Act passed in 2021 requires Newton, as well as 176 other municipalities served by the MBTA, to have at least one zoning area near public transit where multifamily housing is allowed by right. The plan is estimated to allow for 8,745 new housing units to be built, 415 above the 8,330 required by the state, although there is no guarantee that any housing will be developed in these areas. Newton’s new ordinance, known as the Village Center Overlay District (VCOD), will be submitted to the state for approval as its plan for complying with the law before its end-of-year deadline. While state approval is needed for the city’s compliance with the MBTA Communities Act, the ordinance will still go into effect regardless of the state decision. Newton, which has 13 village centers rather than one downtown, designed the VCOD to allow multifamily housing in these centers, despite strongly voiced opposition from some residents. The original proposal would have targeted all 13 village centers, but the final plan passed Monday focuses only on six, Newton Centre, Newton Highlands, Waban, West Newton, Newtonville and Auburndale, encompassing just over 3% of the city’s total land area. Buildings covered by the overlay district will be limited to 3.5 or 4.5 stories, depending on the area. Developments that have at least 50% affordable units will be allowed to add an additional story. Some councilors expressed concerns that the high percentage would prevent affordable developments from being economically feasible. Councilor Alicia Bowman pointed out that affordable housing advocates had recommended projects with 35% affordability be allowed two additional stories and those with 25% affordability be allowed one extra story. “Nonprofit developers of affordable housing said, ‘This is what would make it possible for us to build to increase the amount of affordability in units,” she said. “The nonprofit developers can still and will still hopefully propose a project or two or three in the city in the coming years for 100% affordability, but going to 50% is definitely going to take out the for-profit developers.” One major concern from proponents of the VCOD was the inclusion of the village of Auburndale, which some had suggested removing from the plan. An MBTA commuter rail station there is slated for major upgrades in the next few years, and the estimated $170 million project hinges on state funding that could have been taken away if more housing was not allowed there. “The state has made clear that housing is their No. 1 priority, so it was made clear to us that if we don’t rezone in and around Auburndale, the Healey administration will lower that area on their prioritization list,” said Councilor Joshua Krintzman. “I’m not willing to give up the transportation infrastructure upgrades along the commuter rail and I don’t want to gamble with other people’s use of the commuter rail.” Advocates for the proposal celebrated the decision on Tuesday, saying that it was a step forward for the city. “Given a decades-long history of exclusionary zoning and the sad fact that multi-family housing has been the third rail of Newton politics for decades, this is an advancement worth celebrating,” wrote Charles River Chamber CEO Greg Reibman in an email to Chamber members. “Newton will be a better, more welcoming and more economically vibrant city because of it.” The Newton For Everyone Coalition, a group formed to support the VCOD proposal, said in a statement that its passage was “the most significant zoning update in decades.” Read more: Brookline OKs home rule petition to bring back rent control in town “These environmentally responsible reforms will build village vitality and support our businesses. They are the result of three years of public outreach, analysis, debate, and compromise,” the group said. “There is still more to be done to bring housing opportunities and economic development to the additional six villages not included in the new zoning.” Still, not everyone was happy with the vote. Councilor Alison Leary, who along with Councilor Brenda Noel were the only dissenting votes due to their disappointment with the amendments curbing the ordinance’s scope (Councilor Holly Ryan was absent for the vote), said she hoped the council would revisit and expand the VCOD in its next term. “What we’ve done is essentially eviscerated our work in the last three years,” Leary said. “We’ve undercut so much and given up so much that very little, I think, will get built.”

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Patriots vs Giants prediction: Odds, game and player props

After missing his first game of the season, Clippers star Kawhi Leonard could return from his absence. Leonard is listed as questionable on the injury report with left hip contusion, which forced him to miss the Clippers’ game against the Thunder on Thursday. Moussa Diabate (left hip impingement) and Mason Plumlee (left MCL sprain) are both out as well for the Clippers. The Celtics face the Clippers in Los Angeles at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. The C’s are shorthanded themselves for Saturday’s game as they have three rotation players listed, including Jayson Tatum (questionable) and Kristaps Porzingis (out). BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. The Clippers have been on a recent hot streak as they were just on a nine-game winning streak before their loss to the Thunder. They’re 17-11 on the season and have climbed out of a slow start to the year. They made headlines when they traded for James Harden from the 76ers at the beginning of the season. Harden has impressed, averaging 17.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 7.7 assists in his 23 games in Los Angeles. The Clippers have plenty of marquee names, whether it’s Leonard, Harden, Paul George or Russell Westbrook. The Celtics will also see old friend Daniel Theis, who signed with the Clippers as a free agent. Theis wasn’t getting minutes in Indiana, so he was able to negotiate a buyout. The Clippers needed front court help with Plumlee out in the long-term, which is why they went out and signed Theis. The big man has averaged 6.9 points and 3.9 rebounds in his 17 games for the Clippers thus far.

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The least-anticipated Patriots game in decades and 3 more NFL thoughts on Christmas Eve

As someone who makes a living observing, analyzing, reporting on, writing about and enjoying football, rest assured there is no joy in this next question. Is Sunday’s Patriots game the least-anticipated of the Bill Belichick era? Granted, there is no single, reliable tool for capturing fan interest. In the age of streaming, TV and radio ratings become less relevant by the year. Social media engagement is too easily manipulated to offer real insight. It’s a feel thing. How many of your friends are invested in Sunday’s outcome? What is the big draw? What are the storylines? What do you hear about the game in various media spaces? How much do they all care? How much do you care? Because during the week, these topics dominated the conversation around the Patriots instead of the actual football game they’ll play against the Broncos: an NFL Draft four months away, a head-coaching decision three weeks away, the air pressure in footballs (again) and Bill Belichick being in the best mood of any press conference this season, as he was Friday morning. Whoop-de-doo. Understanding the holiday season threw a wrench into this week, the lack of regular football talk speaks to a new nadir for the organization. Not a bad loss or an embarrassing moment or new statistical record for ineptitude. It’s fan apathy. At least last week, the reigning Super Bowl champions brought the intrigue to Foxboro. Belichick matched wits with Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid, the league's best quarterback and coach, respectively. The game before that, the Pats faced an old AFC rival during a national broadcast on Thursday night in Pittsburgh, and Bailey Zappe made his first start days earlier versus the Chargers. But for many, Sunday night's game against the Broncos - with whom the Pats share no recent history nor bad blood nor playoff stakes - might just be background noise. That's it. Now, like prior losses and suffering, this, too, shall pass. Interest will soar ahead of the Pats' regular-season finale against the Jets, driven by speculation that could be Belichick's final game coaching in New England. Both teams stink, but we will watch because of Belichick, and the fact rivalry and history are two of the most bankable draws in sports. Until then, on Christmas Eve, we will sit by the TV without a care; in hopes that more intrigue soon would be there. Here are three more NFL thoughts on Christmas Eve. Andrews' praise noteworthy As he went long on all his favorite topics - football history, schematics and opposing coaches he calls friends - Bill Belichick offered the highest praise he's bestowed on any player this year. That praise belonged to center David Andrews, a longtime captain and the only player to take 100% of the team's offensive snaps this season. Belichick was asked about Andrews' leadership amid the Pats' ongoing 3-11 campaign, and he expanded. "Fantastic. Fantastic. He's been, I mean, it’s been as good as I've seen, honestly. Every day, his performance on a daily basis is really exceptional. Attitude, effort, communication, energy, leadership of the younger players, leadership of his peers, communication, you name it," he said. "Look, like everybody who plays a lot of football, you get banged up, you're going to deal with some stuff during the year. He's shown a lot of physical toughness to play through that, a lot of mental toughness. He would never come out of practice for a play. We have to take him out to help manage some of the bumps and bruises that he has. But, this guy is a warrior." Those comments should not be glossed over. That was about as good as it gets from Belichick, speaking about a player whose contributions naturally go overlooked but have helped keep a locker room together as a season falls apart. Rodgers played Jets So, Aaron Rodgers didn't complete an unprecedented comeback and defy all medical expectations and history involved with a serious Achilles injury? Shocking. What actually surprised: how many national reporters bought the notion Rodgers could make a mid-December return, which he told NBC was his goal. Rogers finally admitted this week on ESPN's Pat McAfee Show: "Being medically cleared as 100 percent healed is not realistic at 14 weeks." Any member of the medical community could have told you that once Rodgers tore his Achilles in early September. This was not a matter of will or "shocking people," as Rodgers once insisted, but the molecular reconstruction of his tendon. Still, Rodgers pushed and pushed and pushed this ridiculous narrative, occasionally backtracked on his own comments and pushed some more. It was all hot air. Rodgers will remain on the Jets' 53-man roster, however, so he can continue to participate in Jets practices in some capacity over the final few weeks. To make room for Rodgers, the Jets released Nick Bawden. Here's hoping for less hot air, better health and more football from Rodgers moving forward. Stop underestimating the 49ers The 49ers' underlying numbers indicate they are already a historically great team. They have MVP candidates at quarterback and running back. One-time All-Pros play for them at wide receiver, tight end and left tackle. They boast a a top-5 defense. What more must we see? A big win Monday night? Fair. If San Francisco handles the Ravens on Monday night in a potential Super Bowl preview, they deserve to be recognized for what they are: the overwhelming favorite to win it all. The Niners are in a tier of their own, while the rest of the league tries to play its best football heading into the playoffs. If what we've seen from San Francisco isn't their best football yet, we might be witnessing one of the best teams of the modern era. Belichick reflects It's easy to forget Bill Belichick had a one-year stop in Denver. After starting his career in Baltimore, then moving to Detroit, he helped coach the Broncos' defense and special teams during the 1978 season. He later left Denver to coach the Giants, where his Hall of Fame career took off as a defensive mastermind. Belichick reflected on that season in the Rocky Mountains on Friday: "I learned a ton out there. It was a graduate course from Joe (Collier), from Richie (McCabe) about the secondary play, and just in general the 3-4 defense. And then, we played a over defense. It was like a version of a 3-4 Detroit, but it was a little bit different. Joe played the 3-4 defense that he played in Denver, which was –the spacing was the same, but it was configured a lot differently than what we eventually ran in the Giants when coach (Bill) Parcells came. He continued: "Looking back on it – again that was a great learning experience, because I saw kind of the same thing, but they were actually very different in the way they were coached and the way they were – the schematics of it. And, of course, that changed some of the fundamentals, too. The red-area coverages that Joe (Collier) ran out there, I'd say at that time, he was pretty far ahead of his time. They're pretty common now, but at that time they were pretty unique for the most part. So, that was a great experience. "I really didn't have too much interaction on the offensive side of the ball, other than – I was there, but I wasn't in those meetings, and that type of thing. We lost in the playoffs there, but had a good team the year before – they had gone to the Super Bowl, beat Oakland three times. So, coming off of that year, coming off the 77’ season, they lost to Dallas in the Super Bowl. So, a lot of good players, a lot of really good players out there, and a lot of good coaches, a lot of good experience that I gained. "Babe Parilli, who was quarterback coach – they had [Craig] Morton – I learned a lot from Babe, too, because I spent a lot of time with Babe. He kind of mentored me from the opposite side of the ball. I mean, I asked him a lot of questions and bothered him a lot, but he couldn’t have been more accommodating, from just the quarterback coaching perspective, because that’s something I hadn’t done. So, I learned a lot out there that year." Quote of the Week "My fashion trends. One of the things I’m known for: fashion." - Bill Belichick on players wearing cut-off sweatshirts

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Springfield, Worcester among the hottest places to buy a home in 2024

Springfield and Worcester are among the top 10 housing markets for 2024, according to Realtor.com. The website listed the real estate markets where home sales prices are anticipated to grow as numbers dip nationally. The number of existing home sales in these places is also expected to surge, Realtor.com said. The top 10 markets in 2024 “have been more steady,” said Realtor.com Chief Economist Danielle Hale. “They haven’t seen the big price and sales booms we’ve seen in other parts of the country, which helps them to stand out now.” Half of the cities listed were on the West Coast but two were in Massachusetts. Springfield was listed at No. 7 on the list. “Springfield might be an unusual pick for a national top markets list. But this city, the birthplace of beloved author Dr. Seuss, is luring homebuyers with its affordable home prices and low unemployment,” Realtor.com wrote. About 90 minutes west of Boston, it has homes with less than half the cost. A three-bedroom, 1.5-bathroom brick house with an in-ground pool is $375,000. Overall, its median home price for November was about $350,000. But Worcester, which is listed at No. 8 on the list, is even closer to Boston — a continued selling point of the website’s. “Similar to Springfield, Worcester has long been a cheaper alternative to Boston. The larger city is only about an hour’s drive to the east,” Realtor.com wrote. The median home list prices in Worcester have increased 42% in four years. Still, the website wrote, that’s a “major bargain” compared to Boston prices. But that doesn’t mean it’s for everyone. The buyers in the Worcester market include Bostonians, investors and locals who can afford the more-expensive prices and mortgage rates, real estate broker Nick McNeil, of McNeil Real Estate, told Realtor.com. The reason people are willing to move out of Boston, the website explained, is due to continued remote work. “As people have more remote work, they are willing to live farther away from the office,” said Hale.

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The U.S. Issued Its First Approval of Mass Drug Imports

The F.D.A. announced today that it would allow Florida to import millions of dollars’ worth of prescription medications from Canada, where they are available at far lower prices than in the U.S. The state estimated that it could save up to $150 million in the first year of the program, importing medicines to treat H.I.V., AIDS, diabetes, hepatitis C and other conditions. Until now, Americans could buy drugs from Canadian pharmacies, but states could not purchase them in bulk for Medicaid programs, government clinics or prisons. Florida is the first to earn approval. Supporters hope that the policy shift, backed by both President Biden and Donald Trump, will lead to similar authorization for other states and help rein in drug prices. But significant hurdles remain. The pharmaceutical industry fiercely objects to the plan and is expected to file a lawsuit to prevent it from going into effect in Florida. The Canadian government has taken steps to block the export of prescription drugs that are in short supply. “Canada’s drug supply is too small to meet the demands of both American and Canadian consumers,” a spokeswoman for Canada’s health agency said.

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To ease turnpike traffic in Westfield, give Hilltowns their own exit (Letter)

A recent article in The Westfield News (“Mayor Pushing Redesign of Exit 41 of I-90,” Dec. 1) highlighted plans to build rotaries in the vicinity of the Massachusetts Turnpike to alleviate the constant traffic jams in the area. Perhaps it’s time to build an interchange in Blandford to ease some of these issues. The service plazas in Blandford have existing gates that could be converted to entrances and exits for passenger cars only. With the gantry systems in place, the gates don’t need to be staffed. Residents from Blandford, Otis, Chester, Huntington and Russell could access these gates to alleviate the traffic issues in Westfield. David Lee

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Monday starts off sunny and cold, with another storm headed our way

As the weekend approaches, New England has shifted gears in weather. A fast-moving southern stream disturbance is poised to bring changes, with dry and sunny conditions prevailing in the morning on Friday, but clouds will increase as the swift-moving system approaches from the southwest during the mid to late afternoon. This system will usher in a bout of light rain, beginning in western-central Massachusetts and Connecticut between 2 and 4 p.m. and spreading eastward into Rhode Island and eastern Massachusetts between 3 and 5 p.m. The accompanying southwest flow will elevate temperatures to unseasonably mild levels, peaking in the low to mid-50s across eastern Connecticut, Rhode Island, and eastern Massachusetts, while other areas can expect upper 40s. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. The night will remain damp, with light rain and mild temperatures, and the potential for areas of fog, particularly in Rhode Island and southeast Massachusetts. Saturday, some drying is expected after a few morning showers north of Boston as the departing disturbance leaves behind mostly cloudy conditions with temperatures into the 50s again. More showers are expected in the morning for northern New England, and northern Maine will see periodic light snow accumulating to one to three inches by Saturday night. That cold air in the far North Country sits behind a slow-moving cold front that will sag southward into southern New England Saturday night, but won't deliver enough cold air for a change to snow Sunday — except in northern New England. Ski and snowmobile country will find a change to snow from north to south and hilltop to valley Sunday into Sunday evening, meaning return trips from ski areas to southern New England are best started before sundown Sunday. The snow line should stop somewhere around the Berkshires and Monadnock Region to Lakes Region Sunday night into Monday morning, as precipitation is expected to taper sometime Monday. Our team has issued a First Alert Sunday due to expected heavy rain and downpours later this weekend. Stay with NBC10 Boston for the latest information. Thereafter, the midweek next week looks cool and dry before renewed showers are possible next Friday into Friday night, though from this early view our First Alert Team remains optimistic for conditions Saturday at Gillette Stadium for the Army-Navy football game, with highs in the middle 40s and likely dry conditions expected at this point.

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Cloudy Saturday in New England with lighter winds

A warmer and pleasant weekend is ahead. Saturday, mostly cloudy skies across New England. Rain chances stay low. Temperatures will be in the mid-50s to 60s and winds will lighten up compared to Friday. On Sunday, clouds hang tight in the morning, but rain chances remain low, especially for Southern New England. Highs will reach the upper 50s to lower 60s. Don't forget to set your clocks back an hour on Sunday. This will bring sunset time from 5:36 p.m. to 4:34 p.m. After the weekend, we won't hold onto the warmer temperatures and dry conditions for long. Monday will be cooler than the weekend but not significantly. Highs in the 50s, high pressure is in control, and it will be mainly dry. Tuesday looks milder with a chance of showers in the morning, followed by some sunshine and highs well into the 60s. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. The second half of the week will feature cooler air, with highs in the upper 40s and low 50s on Wednesday. Lows tumble back to the 30 in spots from Thursday onward. There's a chance of precipitation Wednesday night into Thursday, possibly rain with a hint of snow or ice for Northern New England and the interior. Check back for updates as the first alert weather team irons out the details.

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As Congress Weighs Aid to Israel, Some Democrats Want Strings Attached

Follow live news updates on the Israel-Hamas war. Democrats in Congress are clashing with each other and the Biden administration over a push from the left that would attach conditions to an emergency infusion of security aid for Israel during its war with Hamas, the latest reflection of a growing rift within the party over support for the Jewish state. The debate is a striking departure from longstanding practice on Capitol Hill, where for decades, lawmakers have approved huge amounts of military funding for Israel with few strings attached. Now, as Israel battles Hamas in a conflict whose civilian death toll has soared, a growing number of Democrats are voicing worry about how American dollars will be used. The issue could come to a head on the Senate floor as early as next week, when Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the majority leader, has said the chamber could begin work on a legislative package including the aid measure. The disagreements among Democrats simmered behind closed doors on Capitol Hill and at the White House on Tuesday. At the White House, Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, huddled with roughly 20 Democratic senators who have raised concerns about how Israel might use U.S. assistance on the battlefield. Later, at a private party lunch in the Capitol, several of the same Democrats argued to their colleagues that any aid package should increase humanitarian assistance to Gaza and ensure that Israel do more to avoid civilian casualties.

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Trumps Case for Total Immunity

Listen and follow The Daily Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music Donald Trump has consistently argued that as a former president, he is immune from being charged with a crime for things he did while he was in office. Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The Times, explains what happened when Trump’s lawyers made that case in federal court, whether the claim has any chance of being accepted — and why Trump may win something valuable either way.

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How to watch Real Housewives of Salt Lake City season 4 free Nov. 21

Happy Holidays! The latest standings have been announced as of Monday, November 27th for the 2023 BroadwayWorld Boston Awards! Don't miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve! The 2023 Regional Awards honor regional productions, touring shows, and more which had their first performance between October 1, 2022 through September 30, 2023. Our local editors set the categories, our readers submitted their nominees, and now you get to vote for your favorites! Voting will continue through December 31st, 2023. Winners will be announced in January! Don't miss out on making sure that your favorite theatres, stars, and shows get the recognition they deserve! This year the BroadwayWorld Regional Awards are bigger and better than ever, including over 100 cities across America, Canada, Central and South America, Europe, and Asia! 2023 BroadwayWorld Boston Standings - 11/27/23 Best Cabaret/Concert/Solo Performance (Non-Professional) Donnie Norton & Steve Bass - A SWINGIN' AFFAIR BIG BAND - The Company Theatre 22% Abby Mueller - UNBREAKABLE - Break a Leg Theater Works 13% Steve Bass - A SWINGIN' AFFAIR - The Company Theatre 13% Harry Ohlson - UNBREAKABLE - Break a Leg Theater Works 8% Daniel Webber - AN EVENING WITH SONDHEIM, SCHWARTZ, AND WEBBER - Voices of Hope Boston 7% Casey Hatch - AN EVENING WITH SONDHEIM, SCHWARTZ, AND WEBBER - Voices of Hope Boston 6% Jon DiPrima - AN EVENING WITH SONDHEIM, SCHWARTZ, AND WEBBER - Voices of Hope Boston 6% James Jackson Jr - JAMES JACKSON JR SINGS! - Post Office Cafe 6% Jo Brisbane - MOD HOLLYWOOD! TUNES FROM A TOWN WITHOUT PITY - Napoleon Room/Club Cafe Boston 6% Erin Maitland - AN EVENING WITH SONDHEIM, SCHWARTZ, AND WEBBER - Voices of Hope Boston 5% Ken Kawa - THOROUGHLY MODERN MUSICALS - Case Theatre Boosters 5% Letta Neely - PULLING IT ALL INTO THE CURRENT - A Revolution of Values Theatre Project 3% Best Cabaret/Concert/Solo Performance (Professional) Kelli O'Hara - BROADWAY IN WORCESTER PRESENTS KELLI O'HARA - JMAC 15% Sarah deLima - THE LADIES WHO LUNCH - Napoleon Room/Club Cafe Boston 13% Jessie Mueller and Seth Rudetsky - BROADWAY IN WORCESTER PRESENTS JESSIE MUELLER AND SETH RUDETSKY - Prior Performing Arts Center 13% Yewande Odetoyinbo - UPLIFT CONCERT - Reagle Music Theatre 11% Allison Case - WOMEN IN MUSIC - Firehouse Center for the Arts 11% Paul Rescigno and Robbie Rescigno - THE RESCIGNOS: FRANKLINCENSE - THE BLACK BOX 8% James Jackson Jr - ON BROADWAY... & MORE - Provincetown Theater 6% Jimmy Tingle - JIMMY TINGLE TONIGHT! - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 6% Robert Saoud - MAKE YOUR OWN KIND OF MUSIC - Napoleon Room/Club Cafe Boston 5% Serge Clivio - SERGE CLIVIO: JOY LIVE - Regent Theatre 3% Eden Casteel - KAHN ARTIST - Seaglass Theater Company 2% Maddie Lam - CANDELIGHT CONCERT - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 2% Julia Watkins - ELECTRIFY THE NIGHT - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 2% Natalja Sticco - ECHOES OF MY HEART - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 1% BK Davis - LIVE - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 1% Tereza Kralova - THE MAESTRO’S CABARET & OPERARIUM (PREVIEW) - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 1% Natalja Sticco - THE MAESTRO’S CABARET & OPERARIUM (PREVIEW) - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 1% Max Dread Minaya - NOMENEE/PERFORMANCE - Performance 1% Ondrej Potucek - THE MAESTRO’S CABARET & OPERARIUM (PREVIEW) - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 0% Best Choreography Of A Play Or Musical (Non-Professional) Sally Ashton Forrest - BORN TO DO THIS - THE JOAN OF ARC ROCK OPERA - The Company Theatre 19% Brad Reinking - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 14% Will Fafard Jr. - THE WEDDING SINGER - Pentucket Players 9% DJ Kostka - OKLAHOMA! - Academy of Performing Arts 8% Sydney T. Grant - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 7% Jen Bertolino, Susan Chebookjian, Di Longtin, Suzanne Neuman, and Karen Rogers - THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 7% Thayne Jasperson - PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 7% Brad Reinking - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 6% Erin Verina - HEATHERS - Spotlight Music and Theater Academy 5% Brad Reinking - GREASE THE MUSICAL - Riverside Theatre Works 3% Teri Shea - THE WORLD GOES ROUND - Cotuit Center for the Arts 3% Lauren Ambrose - FOOTLOOSE - Broken Leg Productions 3% P.J. Terranova - CABARET - Riverside Theatre Works 3% Jason Hair-Wynn - THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY - Burlington players 3% Jason Hair-Wynn - NUNSENSE - Arlington Friends of the Drama 3% Best Choreography Of A Play Or Musical (Professional) Dylan Kerr - ROCK OF AGES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 12% Tyler Hanes - SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 12% Taavon Gamble - THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 9% Taryn Herman - PIPPIN - Firehouse Arts Center 9% Rachel Bertone - OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 9% Daniel Forest Sullivan - SISTER ACT - Lyric Stage Boston 7% Connor Gallagher - BEETLEJUICE - Riverside Theatre Works 6% Larry Sousa - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - Wheelock Family Theater 6% Ilyse Robbins - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 6% Al Blackstone - AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - The Cape Playhouse 5% Julia Deter - RENT - The Umbrella Stage Company 4% Taavon Gamble - THE LITTLE MERMAID - Reagle Music Theatre 3% Brooklyn Toli - JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 3% Rick Faugno - JERSEY BOYS - The Cape Playhouse 3% Kenny Ingram - THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 2% Patrick O'Neill - WHITE CHRISTMAS - New Bedford Festival Theatre 2% Saxon Pierce - THE MAESTRO’S CABARET & OPERARIUM (PREVIEW) - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 0% Best Costume Design Of A Play Or Musical (Non-Professional) Rachel Padula-Shufelt - BORN TO DO THIS - THE JOAN OF ARC ROCK OPERA - The Company Theatre 25% Paulie Devlin - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 13% Lisa Belsky - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 10% Laura Dillon - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 10% Meg McEvoy-Duane - CINDERELLA - Break a Leg Theater Works 10% Josh Telepman - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 6% Carol Sherry - CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 5% Leslie Held - WORKING - Suffolk University Theatre Department 5% Anna Silva - THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 5% Kat Lawrence - ROMEO & JULIET - CSC’s Stage2 4% Bridget Austin-Weiss - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 3% Anna Silva - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 3% Best Costume Design Of A Play Or Musical (Professional) Merrie Whitney - SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 11% Kelly Baker - SISTER ACT - Lyric Stage Boston 10% Emerald City Costumes - THE LITTLE MERMAID - Reagle Music Theatre 9% Sydney Hawes - JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 8% Catherine Stramer - RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 8% Rebecca Shannon Butler - RENT - The Umbrella Stage Company 8% Kelly Baker - THE FULL MONTY - North Shore Music Theatre 6% Rachel Padula-Shufelt - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 5% Emerald City Theatrical - OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 5% Gail Astrid Buckley - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Boston 5% Kat Lawrence - INTO THE BREECHES - Hub Theatre Company 5% Nancy Leary - MACBETH - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 4% Jennifer Paar - SENSE & SENSIBILITY - The Cape Playhouse 4% Chelsea Kerl Phelps - TALL TALES FROM BLACKBURN TAVERN - Gloucester Stage 4% Jennifer Paar - BASKERVILLE - The Cape Playhouse 2% David R. Gammons - THE GAAGA - Arlekin Players 2% Jimmy Johansmeyer - MARY POPPINS - Penobscot Theatre 2% Seth Bodie - THE GREAT LEAP - Lyric Stage Boston 1% Hunter Gannet - THE MAESTRO’S CABARET & OPERARIUM (PREVIEW) - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 1% Best Dance Production (Professional) THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 41% AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - The Cape Playhouse 18% THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 16% JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 12% WHITE CHRISTMAS - New Bedford Festival Theatre 10% FOXY - Kairos Dance Theater 3% Best Direction Of A Musical (Non-Professional) Zoe Bradford & Sally Ashton Forrest - BORN TO DO THIS - The Company Theatre 11% Zoe Bradford - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 9% Alexandra Dietrich - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 8% Brad Reinking & Stefani Wood - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 8% Michael Jay & Josh Telepman - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 6% Vito Abate - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - The Footlight Club 6% Corey Cadigan - INTO THE WOODS - Colonial Chorus Players 5% Adam Joy - SWEENEY TODD - MMAS 5% Erin verina and Kristy Errera-solomon - HEATHERS - Spotlight Music and Theater Academy 4% Zoe Bradford - THE SECRET GARDEN - The Company Theatre 4% Dana Siegal - THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 4% Laura Marie Duncan - AS YOU LIKE IT - Boston Conservatory at Berklee 4% Wesley Savick - WORKING - Suffolk University Theatre Department 3% Kyle Wrentz & Healy Sammis - PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 3% Steve Ross - NEXT TO NORMAL - Eventide Theatre Company 3% Terry Brady - OKLAHOMA! - Academy of Performing Arts 3% Jason Hair-Wynn - NUNSENSE - Arlington Friends of the Drama 3% Amy Kaser - AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 3% Art Devine - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 3% John Kennedy - AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 2% P.J. Terranova - CABARET - Riverside Theatre Works 2% Jennifer Hemphill - ROCK OF AGES - Theatre workshop Nantucket 1% Donna Wresinski - COMPANY - Eventide Theatre Company 1% Holly Hansen - GREASE THE MUSICAL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 1% Donna Wresinski - THE WORLD GOES ROUND - Cotuit Center for the Arts 0% Best Direction Of A Musical (Professional) Maddie Roth - FUN HOME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 9% Raye Lynn Mercer - THE SOUND OF MUSIC - Franklin Performing Arts Company 9% Julia Deter - RENT - The Umbrella Stage Company 8% Alex Timers - BEETLEJUICE - Citizens Opera House 8% Rachel Bertone - OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 8% Paul Daigneault - THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 7% Taavon Gamble - THE LITTLE MERMAID - Reagle Music Theatre 6% Megan Blouin-Little - JUNIE B. JONES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 6% Lydia Cochran - THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 5% Leigh Barrett - SISTER ACT - Lyric Stage Company 5% Gerry McIntyre - THE FULL MONTY - North Shore Music Theatre 4% Art Devine - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 4% Courtney O'Connor - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 4% David Drake - THE FANTASTICKS: REIMAGINED - Provincetown Theater 3% Courtney O'Connor - PRELUDES - Lyric Stage Boston 3% Al Blackstone - AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - The Cape Playhouse 2% Elizabeth Bettencourt - JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 2% Maura Hanlon - ARCHIBALD AVERY - Cape Rep Theatre 2% Joyce Chittick - JERSEY BOYS - The Cape Playhouse 1% James Robinson - AWAKENINGS - Odyssey Opera and BMOP 1% Charles Duke - THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 1% Gino DiCapra - THE MAESTRO’S CABARET & OPERARIUM (PREVIEW) - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 1% Kenny Ingram - THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 1% Patrick O' Neill - WHITE CHRISTMAS - New Bedford Festival Theatre 1% Best Direction Of A Play (Non-Professional) Toni Ruscio - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 28% Michelle Aguillion - DANCING AT LUGHNASA - Arlington Friends of the Drama 14% Bryn Boice - ROMEO & JULIET - CSC’s Stage2 13% Judy Hamer - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - Academy of Performing Arts 13% Jo Brisbane - THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 9% Celia Couture - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 6% Maren Caulfield - THE REAL INSPECTOR HOUND - The Cannon Theatre 4% Eric Butler - SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS - WCLOC Theater Company 4% Donald Sheehan - AUNTIE MAME - True Repertory 3% Kevin Nessman - FARCE OF HABIT - Acme Theatre Company 3% Celia Couture - MAYTAG VIRGIN - The Vokes Players 1% Greg Allen - PULLING IT ALL INTO THE CURRENT - A Revolution of Values Theatre Project 1% Best Direction Of A Play (Professional) Brooke Snow - CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 10% Weylin Symes - THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - Greater Boston Stage Company 8% Ali Funkhouser - THE WOLVES - Franklin Performing Arts Company 6% Dawn M Simmons - K-I-S-S-I-N-G - Huntington Theatre 5% Myriam Cyr - RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 5% Nick Paone - THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Franklin Performing Arts Company 5% Fred Sullivan, Jr. - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Boston 5% Bryn Boice - ROMEO AND JULIET - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 4% Eric Tucker - ANGELS IN AMERICA - Central Square Theater 4% Joe Couturier - DOUBT, A PARABLE - Firehouse Center for the Arts 4% John Somers - INTO THE BREECHES - Studio Theatre Worcester 4% Taibi Magar - THE HALF-GOD OF RAINFALL - American Repertory Theatre 4% David Drake - CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 4% Steven Maler - MACBETH - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 3% Bryn Boice - TALL TALES FROM BLACKBURN TAVERN - Gloucester Stage 3% Bryn Boice - INTO THE BREECHES - Hub Theatre Company 3% Myriam Cyr - RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 3% Jessica Holt - SENSE AND SENSIBILTIY - The Cape Playhouse 2% Rosalind Bevan - STEW - Gloucester Stage 2% Melory Mirashrafi - ENGLISH - SpeakEasy Stage Company 2% David Drake - THE HUMANS - Provincetown Theater 2% Brendan Fox - BASKERVILLE: A SHERLOCK HOLMES MYSTERY - The Cape Playhouse 2% Courtney O'Connor - ROOTED - Lyric Stage Boston 1% Sasha Denisova - THE GAAGA - Arlekin Players 1% Paula Plum - LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE - Hub Theatre Company 1% Best Ensemble (Non-Professional) MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 10% BORN TO DO THIS - The Company Theatre 8% A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 6% A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - The Footlight Club 6% THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 6% THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 4% RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 4% THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - The Theatre Institute 4% SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 4% AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 4% THE SECRET GARDEN - The Company Theatre 4% AS YOU LIKE IT - Boston Conservatory at Berklee 3% WORKING - Suffolk University Theatre Department 3% INTO THE WOODS - Colonial Chorus Players 3% THE WEDDING SINGER - Pentucket Players 3% THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 3% PHANTOM OF THE OPERA - The Company Theatre 3% PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 2% OKLAHOMA! - Academy of Performing Arts 2% HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 2% NEXT TO NORMAL - Eventide Theatre Company 2% NUNSENSE - Arlington Friends of the Drama 2% SWEENEY TODD - MMAS 2% CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 1% A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 1% Best Ensemble (Professional) MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 10% BEETLEJUICE - Citizens Opera House 6% ROCK OF AGES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 6% SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 6% CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 5% THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 4% RENT - The Umbrella Stage Company 4% THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 4% FAT HAM - Huntington Theatre 3% ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 3% RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 3% THE FULL MONTY - North Shore Music Theatre 3% A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 3% OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 3% MABETH - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 2% INTO THE WOODS - Actors Company of Natick 2% SISTER ACT - Lyric Stage Company 2% DOUBT, A PARABLE - Firehouse Center for the Arts 2% WHITE CHRISTMAS - New Bedford Festival Theatre 2% THE LITTLE MERMAID - Reagle Music Theatre 2% CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 2% INTO THE BREECHES - Studio Theatre Worcester 2% AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - The Cape Playhouse 2% CHICKEN AND BISCUITS - Front Porch Arts Collective 2% STEW - Gloucester Stage 2% Best Lighting Design Of A Play Or Musical (Non-Professional) Dean Palmer Jr. - BORN TO DO THIS - THE JOAN OF ARC ROCK OEPRA - The Company Theatre 22% James Gross - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 12% Olivia Sederlund - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - The Footlight Club 11% Erik Fox - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 8% Madison Gentile - THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - The Theatre Institute 8% Mauve Moriarty - AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 8% Mark Sherman - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 7% Jeff Adelberg - WORKING - Suffolk University Theatre Department 6% Jonathan Ryder - OKLAHOMA! - Academy of Performing Arts 5% Kasey Sheehan - PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 4% Eric Jacobsen - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 4% Erin Trainor - THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 3% Matt Guminski - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 2% Best Lighting Design Of A Play Or Musical (Professional) David Plante - THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 12% Nathaniel Packard - SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 10% Bretton Reis - DOUBT, A PARABLE - Firehouse Center for the Arts 9% Corey Whittemore - THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - Greater Boston Stage Company 8% Amanda Fallon - ROMEO & JULIET - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 6% Stephen Petrilli - THE FANTASTICKS: REIMAGINED - Provincetown Theater 5% Phil Kong - ARCHIBALD AVERY - Cape Rep Theatre 5% Daisy Long - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 4% E. Southern & Maximo Grano De Oro - MACBETH - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 4% Michael Wonson - JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 4% Frank Meissner Jr. - OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 3% Baron E. Pugh - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 3% Matt Guminski - THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 3% Amanda Fallon - ENGLISH - SpeakEasy Stage Company 3% Karen Perlow - PRELUDES - Lyric Stage Company 2% JARON HERMANSON - AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - The Cape Playhouse 2% Patricia M. Nichols - THE PICKLEBALL WARS - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 2% JARON HERMANSON - CAMELOT - The Cape Playhouse 2% Karen Perlow - ROOTED - Lyric Stage Boston 2% Kevin Fulton - THE GAAGA - Arlekin Players 2% Christopher Ostrom - AWAKENINGS - Odyssey Opera and BMOP 1% Kirk Bookman - SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - The Cape Playhouse 1% Michael Clark Wonson - THE GREAT LEAP - Lyric Stage Boston 1% Jason Lynch - BASKERVILLE - The Cape Playhouse 1% John Salutz - THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 1% Best Music Direction & Orchestra Performance (Non-Professional) Melissa Carubia - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 16% Robert McDonough - BORN TO DO THIS - THE JOAN OF ARC ROCK OPERA - The Company Theatre 12% Bethany Aiken - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - The Footlight Club 9% David Flowers - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 6% Eli Bigelow - SWEENEY TODD - MMAS 6% Chris morris - OKLAHOMA! - Academy of Performing Arts 6% Stefani Wood - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 6% Amanda Morgan - THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 6% Alan Freedman - INTO THE WOODS - Colonial Chorus Players 5% Pam Wannie - NEXT TO NORMAL - Eventide Theatre Company 5% Elias Condakes - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 5% Robert McDonough - THE SECRET GARDEN - The Company Theatre 5% John Eldridge - THE WEDDING SINGER - Pentucket Players 5% Jenny Tsai - CABARET - Riverside Theatre Works 3% Jeff Kimball - THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY - The Vokes Players 2% Pamela Wannie - COMPANY - Eventide Theatre Company 2% Best Music Direction & Orchestra Performance (Professional) Hallie Wetzell - THE SOUND OF MUSIC - Franklin Performing Arts Company 10% Justin Knowlton - ROCK OF AGES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 8% Amanda Morgan - PIPPIN - Firehouse Center For The Arts 7% Dan Rodriguez - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 6% Steven Bergman - JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 6% Dan Rodriguez - OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 6% Kris Layton - THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 6% Justin Knowlton - FUN HOME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 6% Jeff Kimball - RENT - The Umbrella Stage Company 5% Milton Granger - THE FULL MONTY - North Shore Music Theatre 5% Scott Storr - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 5% John Thomas - THE FANTASTICKS: REIMAGINED - Provincetown Theater 4% Luke Molloy - JERSEY BOYS - The Cape Playhouse 4% David Coleman - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - Wheelock Family Theater 3% David Coleman - SISTER ACT - Lyric Stage Company 3% Dan Rodriguez - PRELUDES - Lyric Stage Company 3% Michael Ellis Ingram - OMAR - Boston Lyric Opera 3% Matthew Smedal - AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - The Cape Playhouse 2% David Coleman - THE LITTLE MERMAID - Reagle Music Theatre 2% Gio Tio - WHITE CHRISTMAS - New Bedford Festival Theatre 2% David Angus - BLUEBEARDS CASTLE - Boston Lyric Opera 1% Dan Pardo - CAMELOT - The Cape Playhouse 1% Marco Borroni - THE MAESTRO’S CABARET & OPERARIUM (PREVIEW) - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 1% Kenny Smith - AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' - The Cape Playhouse 1% Mike Stapleton - SERGE CLIVIO: JOY LIVE - Regent Theatre 0% Best Musical (Non-Professional) MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 11% BORN TO DO THIS - The Company Theatre 10% THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 7% A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - The Footlight Club 6% SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 5% THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - The Theatre Institute 5% AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 4% THE SECRET GARDEN - The Company Theatre 4% THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 4% AS YOU LIKE IT - Boston Conservatory at Berklee 4% THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 4% WORKING - Suffolk University Theatre Department 4% INTO THE WOODS - Colonial Chorus Players 3% THE WEDDING SINGER - Pentucket Players 3% PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 3% A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 3% OKLAHOMA! - Academy of Performing Arts 3% SWEENEY TODD - MMAS 2% THE FANTASTICKS - Provincetown Theater 2% NEXT TO NORMAL - Eventide Theatre Company 2% NUNSENSE - Arlington Friends of the Drama 2% GREASE THE MUSICAL - Riverside Theatre Works 2% ROCK OF AGES - Theatre workshop Nantucket 2% THE LIGHTNING THIEF: THE PERCY JACKSON MUSICAL - Cape Cod Theatre Company 2% CABARET - Riverside Theatre Works 2% Best Musical (Professional) BEETLEJUICE - Citizens Opera House 10% ROCK OF AGES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 8% SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 6% THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 6% PIPPIN - Firehouse Center for the Arts 6% THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 6% JAGGED LITTLE PILL - Citizens Opera House 6% FUN HOME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 5% THE FULL MONTY - North Shore Music Theatre 4% ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 4% RENT - The Umbrella Stage Company 4% A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 4% INTO THE WOODS - Actors Company of Natick 4% OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 3% SISTER ACT - Lyric Stage Boston 3% WHITE CHRISTMAS - New Bedford Festival Theatre 2% THE FANTASTICKS: REIMAGINED - Provincetown Theater 2% ARCHIBALD AVERY - Cape Rep Theatre 2% JUNIE B. JONES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 2% JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 2% THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 2% THE LITTLE MERMAID - Reagle Music Theatre 2% AN AMERICAN IN PARIS - The Cape Playhouse 2% JERSEY BOYS - The Cape Playhouse 2% PRELUDES - Lyric Stage Boston 1% Best New Play Or Musical (Non-Professional) Born To Do This - The Company Theatre 34% THE PONY EXPRESS: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE - Lighthouse Studios: Meehan Family Arts Barn 31% HALLEY’S COMET - Massasoit Theatre Company 13% THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 9% RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 8% SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS - WCLOC Theater Company 5% Best New Play Or Musical (Professional) THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - Greater Boston Stage Company 31% THE PICKLEBALL WARS - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 16% THE FANTASTICKS: REIMAGINED - Provincetown Theater 14% TALL TALES FROM BLACKBURN TAVERN - Gloucester Stage 10% RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 9% ARCHIBALD AVERY - Cape Rep Theatre 7% THE GAAGA - Arlekin Players 7% LIV AT SEA - Harbor Stage Company 4% THE MAESTRO’S CABARET & OPERARIUM (PREVIEW) - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 3% Best Performer In A Musical (Non-Professional) Christie Reading - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 11% Liza Giangrande - BORN TO DO THIS - The Company Theatre 10% Keith Robinson - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 7% Adam Sell - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - The Footlight Club 6% Alex Norton - THE PONY EXPRESS: A MUSICAL ADVENTURE - Lighthouse Studios: Meehan Family Arts Barn 6% Reese Racicot - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 6% Max Ripley - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 4% Zoey Roth - THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - The Theatre Institute 4% Josh Telepman - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 3% Alex Norton - SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS - The Company Theatre 3% Kindred Moore - AS YOU LIKE IT - Boston Conservatory at Berklee 3% Wil Moser - AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 2% Maeve McCluskey - INTO THE WOODS - Colonial Chorus Players 2% Jodi Edwards - NEXT TO NORMAL - Eventide Theatre Company 2% Katie Iafolla - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 2% Kenny Meehan - THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 2% Andrew Olah - THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - The Theatre Institute 2% Emma Walker - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - The Footlight Club 2% Denise Page - OKLAHOMA! - Academy of Performing Arts 2% Diane Meehan - THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 1% Janet Pohli - NUNSENSE - Arlington Friends of the Drama 1% Sean Lally - LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS - Quigg Creations 1% Zack Johnson - COMPANY - Eventide Theatre Company 1% Marissa Sabella - THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - The Theatre Institute 1% Kieran Kelly - PIPPIN - Arlington Friends of the Drama 1% Best Performer In A Musical (Professional) Amanda LoCoco - THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 9% Nicki Abare - ROCK OF AGES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 7% Sara Jean Ford - THE SOUND OF MUSIC - Franklin Performing Arts Company 7% Yewande Odetoyinbo - SISTER ACT - Lyric Stage Company 6% Heidi Blickenstaff - JAGGED LITTLE PILL - Citizens Opera House 6% Jake Siffert - PIPPIN - Firehouse Center for the Arts 5% Eleni Kontzamanys - PIPPIN - Firehouse Center for the Arts 5% Ari Schmidt - FUN HOME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 5% Anthony Teixeira - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 4% Justin Collette - BEETLEJUICE - Citizens Opera House 4% Beau Jackett - THE FANTASTICKS: REIMAGINED - Provincetown Theater 3% Liesie Kelly - THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 3% Kayla Shimizu - THE LITTLE MERMAID - Reagle Music Theatre 3% Andy Cico - THE LIGHTNING THIEF: THE PERCY JACKSON MUSICAL - Firehouse Center for the Arts 3% Emma Robertson - INTO THE WOODS - Actors Company of Natick 2% Emily Koch - VIOLET - Franklin Performing Arts Company 2% Johnny Kuntz - THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 2% Jared Troilo - OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 2% E.J. Service - RENT - The Umbrella Stage Company 2% Nick Paone - THE SOUND OF MUSIC - Franklin Performing Arts Company 2% Christopher Chew - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 1% Mary Callanan - THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 1% Robert St. Laurence - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 1% Macklin Devine - ARCHIBALD AVERY - Cape Rep Theatre 1% Robbie Rescigno - SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 1% Best Performer In A Play (Non-Professional) Madeline Bonatti - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 16% Ricky DeSisto - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 9% Missy Potash - STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - Academy of Performing Arts 8% Aiden O’Neal - INDECENT - Concord Players 8% Jennifer Bean - MISS HOLMES - The Footlight Club 8% Josh Telepman - DANCING AT LUGHNASA - Arlington Friends of the Drama 5% Paul Melendy - THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - Greater Boston Stage Company 5% Kenny Lockwood - CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 5% Ryan Van Buskirk - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - Academy of Performing Arts 4% Sandra Basile - THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 4% Jennifer Shea - MAYTAG VIRGIN - The Vokes Players 4% Scott Salley - BLITHE SPIRIT - TCAN 4% Emma Hennessey - THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 3% Michael Jay - INDECENT - Concord Players 3% David Foster - SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS - WCLOC Theater Company 2% Kimberly Blaise - PERFECT ARRANGEMENT - Quanapowitt Players 2% Robin Shropshire - SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS - WCLOC Theater Company 2% Lily Anderson - THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 2% Kathy Koerwer - FARCE OF HABIT - Acme Theatre Company 2% Craig Chiampa - MAYTAG VIRGIN - The Vokes Players 2% Andrew Rhoades - MOON OVER BUFFALO - TCAN 2% Linnea Lyerly - SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS - WCLOC Theater Company 1% Glenn A. Pierce - FARCE OF HABIT - Acme Theatre Company 1% Best Performer In A Play (Professional) Brayden Toth - CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 9% Elena Doyno - THE WOLVES - Franklin Performing Arts Company 8% Eddie Shields - ANGELS IN AMERICA - Central Square Theater 8% Lily Ayotte - ROMEO & JULIET - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 6% Noah Silverman - THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Franklin Performing Arts Company 6% Noah Greenstein - RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 5% Thomika Bridwell - CHICKEN AND BISCUITS - Front Porch Arts Collective 5% Jack Greenberg - ROMEO & JULIET - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 4% Christina Pierro Biggins - INTO THE BREECHES - Studio Theatre Worcester 4% Tyler Simahk - THE GREAT LEAP - Lyric Stage Boston 4% Paul Melendy - TALL TALES FROM BLACKBURN TAVERN - Gloucester Stage 3% Cheryl D. Singleton - STEW - Gloucester Stage 3% Jim Manclark - DOUBT, A PARABLE - Firehouse Center for the Arts 3% Nora Eschenheimer - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Boston 3% Scott Douglas Cunningham - CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 2% Jenn Gambatese - SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - The Cape Playhouse 2% Sam Brinkley - ONCE - Priscilla Beach Theatre 2% Michael Liebhauser - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Company 2% Kathleen Pickett - INTO THE BREECHES - Hub Theatre Company 2% David Lee Huynh - BASKERVILLE - The Cape Playhouse 2% Bonniejean Wilbur - DOUBT, A PARABLE - Firehouse Center for the Arts 1% Lisa Tucker - ROOTED - Lyric Stage Boston 1% Marc Pierre - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Boston 1% Brenda Withers - BETRAYAL - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 1% Kathy McCafferty - THE PICKLEBALL WARS - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 1% Best Play (Non-Professional) A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 18% INDECENT - Concord Players 13% A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 9% A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - Academy of Performing Arts 9% RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 9% CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 7% THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 7% DANCING AT LUGHNASA - Arlington Friends of the Drama 5% SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS - WCLOC Theater Company 5% ALL MY SONS - Eventide Theatre Company 5% HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 4% BLITHE SPIRIT - TCAN 3% AUNTIE MAME - True Repertory 3% MAYTAG VIRGIN - The Vokes Players 2% FARCE OF HABIT - Acme Theatre Company 2% Best Play (Professional) CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 12% THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Company 9% ANGELS IN AMERICA - Central Square Theater 8% THE WOLVES - Franklin Performing Arts Company 8% WHITE CHRISTMAS - New Bedford Festival Theatre 7% THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 6% MACBETH - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 6% RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 5% INTO THE BREECHES - Studio Theatre Worcester 4% DOUBT, A PARABLE - Firehouse Center for the Arts 4% THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - Greater Boston Stage Company 3% CHICKEN AND BISCUITS - Front Porch Arts Collective 3% CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 3% AS YOU LIKE IT - Actors Shakespeare Project 3% STEW - Gloucester Stage 3% SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - The Cape Playhouse 2% FAIRVIEW - SpeakEasy Stage Company 2% ENGLISH - SpeakEasy Stage Company 2% THE HALF-GOD OF RAINFALL - American Repertory Theatre 2% BASKERVILLE - The Cape Playhouse 2% THE HUMANS - Provincetown Theater 1% ROOTED - Lyric Stage Boston 1% BETRAYAL - WHAT and Harbor Stage 1% THE GREAT LEAP - Lyric Stage Boston 1% JESUS HOPPED THE 'A' TRAIN - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 1% Best Production of an Opera (Professional) MADAME BUTTERFLY - Boston Lyric Opera 37% OMAR - Boston Lyric Opera 16% CARMEN- MYSTIC SIDE OPERA - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 12% AWAKENINGS - Odyssey Opera and BMOP 10% LA TRAGÉDIE DE CARMEN - Seaglass Theater Company 5% BLUEBEARDS CASTLE/FOUR SONGS - Boston Lyric Opera 5% VINCERO! - Mystic Side Opera Company 5% TOSCA- MYSTIC SIDE OPERA - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 4% IL TROVATORE- MYSTIC SIDE OPERA - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 3% UN BALLO IN MASCHERA- MYSTIC SIDE OPERA - Wilbur Fiske Haven House 1% Best Scenic Design Of A Play Or Musical (Non-Professional) Ryan Barrow - BORN TO DO THIS - THE JOAN OF ARC ROCK OPERA - The Company Theatre 12% Ryan Barrow - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 10% James Gross - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 7% Ryan Barrow - SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS - The Company Theatre 7% Jeremy Barnett - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 7% Corey Cadigan, Rod Chandler, Tim Gregor - INTO THE WOODS - Colonial Chorus Players 7% Aaron Stolicker - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 6% Mark Roderick - AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 6% Josh Telepman - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 5% Cristina Todesco - AS YOU LIKE IT - Boston Conservatory 5% Ryan Barrow - THE SECRET GARDEN - The Company Theatre 5% Nathan Fogg-DeSisto - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 4% Jennifer Shea - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 3% Richard Chambers - METAMORPHESES - Suffolk University Theatre Department 3% Mark Roderick - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - Academy of Performing Arts 3% Jeffrey Peterson - WORKING - Suffolk University Theatre Department 2% Charles Carr - NUNSENSE - Arlington Friends of the Drama 2% Mark Roderick - OKLAHOMA! - Academy of Performing Arts 1% Ed Savage - SMALL MOUTH SOUNDS - WCLOC Theater Company 1% Andrew Arnault - THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 1% Ed Council - NUNSENSE - Arlington Friends of the Drama 1% Best Scenic Design Of A Play Or Musical (Professional) Aaron Frongillo - SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 11% David Plante - INTO THE BREECHES - Studio Theatre Worcester 8% Justin Lahue - ROMEO & JULIET - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 8% Trevor Elliott - JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 7% Kathy Monthei - THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - Greater Boston Stage Company 6% Riw Rakkulchon - MACBETH - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 5% Ryan McGettigan - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 5% David Arsenault - JERSEY BOYS - The Cape Playhouse 5% Peter Colao - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Company 5% Ellen Rousseau - THE FANTASTICKS: REIMAGINED - Provincetown Theater 4% Shelley Barish - PRELUDES - Lyric Stage Boston 4% Janie Howland - ENGLISH - SpeakEasy Stage Company 4% Baron E. Pugh - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 3% Ryan McGettigan - ARCHIBALD AVERY - Cape Rep Theatre 3% Janie E. Howland - ROOTED - Lyric Stage Boston 3% Lindsay Fuori - TALL TALES FROM BLACKBURN TAVERN - Gloucester Stage 3% Kristen Martino - CAMELOT - The Cape Playhouse 2% Ellen Rousseau - THE HUMANS - Provincetown Theater 2% Christopher Ostrom - THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 2% Ryan Howell - AIN'T MISBEHAVIN' - The Cape Playhouse 2% Justin Lahue - THE PICKLEBALL WARS - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 2% Christopher Ostrom - JESUS HOPPED THE 'A' TRAIN - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 2% Allen Moyer - AWAKENINGS - Odyssey Opera and BMOP 2% Irina Kruzhilina - THE GAAGA - Arlekin Players 1% ALEXANDER WOODWARD - SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - The Cape Playhouse 1% Best Sound Design Of A Play Or Musical (Non-Professional) Sally Ashton Forrest - BORN TO DO THIS - THE JOAN OF ARC ROCK OPERA - The Company Theatre 31% Greg Dana - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 12% Hallie Grace Nowicki - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 11% Ethan Steele - AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 9% Michael Jay - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 8% Nick Waterman - PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 7% Pat Dzierak - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 6% Robert Passcucci - MAYTAG VIRGIN - The Vokes Players 4% Erin Trainor and Jo Brisbane - THREE LITTLE GIRLS DOWN A WELL - Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 4% James Gross - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 3% J. Mark Baumhardt - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 3% Ned Bailey-Adams - BLITHE SPIRIT - TCAN 2% Best Sound Design Of A Play Or Musical (Professional) Derek Pisano - THE SOUND OF MUSIC - Franklin Performing Arts Company 13% Alex Berg - SOUND OF MUSIC - North Shore Music Theatre 10% Tom Powers - THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 10% Jonathan Bell - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 8% Ted Kearnan - ROMEO & JULIET - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 6% David Drake - CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 5% Alex Berg - ASSASSINS - Lyric Stage Boston 5% VICTORIA (TOY) DEIORIO - BASKERVILLE - The Cape Playhouse 5% Dewey Dellay - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Boston 5% David Remedios - THE LEGEND OF SLEEPY HOLLOW - Greater Boston Stage Company 5% Ash - ENGLISH - SpeakEasy Stage Company 4% David Remedios - TALL TALES FROM BLACKBURN TAVERN - Gloucester Stage 3% Jason Choquette - JOSEPH AND THE AMAZING TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT - New Bedford Festival Theatre 3% Jason Choquette - THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 3% Megan Culley - JESUS HOPPED THE 'A' TRAIN - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 3% Grace Oberhofer - THE PICKLEBALL WARS - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 2% Jacob Levitan - SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - The Cape Playhouse 2% Elizabeth Cahill - THE GREAT LEAP - Lyric Stage Boston 2% Grace Oberhofer - THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED) - Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theater 2% Brendan F. Doyle - THE GAAGA - Arlekin Players 2% Dewey Dellay/Andrew Duncan Will - ROOTED - Lyric Stage Boston 2% Jacob Levitan - JERSEY BOYS - The Cape Playhouse 1% Best Supporting Performer In A Musical (Non-Professional) Christie Reading - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 10% Ana Viveros - BORN TO DO THIS - THE JOAN OF ARC ROCK OPERA - The Company Theatre 7% Dru Daniels - THE SECRET GARDEN - The Company Theatre 6% Alex Norton - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 5% Ts Burnham - INTO THE WOODS - Colonial Chorus Players 4% Ben Oehlkers - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - The Footlight Club 4% Savannah Nosek - THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - The Theatre Institute 4% Aaron Swiniuch - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 4% Mary Mahoney - WORKING - Suffolk Theatre Department 4% Jennifer Glick - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 3% Wil Moser - NEXT TO NORMAL - Eventide Theatre Company 3% Sean Lally - LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS - Quigg Creations 3% Ariel Sargent - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 2% Demi DiCarlo - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 2% Anne Vohs - AMERICAN IDIOT - Academy of Performing Arts 2% Amanda Vazquez - COMPANY - Academy of Performing Arts 2% Cadie Holbrook - THE 25TH ANNUAL PUTNAM COUNTY SPELLING BEE - The Theatre Institute 2% Eowyn Young - SPRING AWAKENING - Riverside Theatre Works 2% Bradley Boutcher - THE TRAIL TO OREGON - Yorick Ensemble 2% Dani Masterpolo - PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 2% Erin Anderson - THE GREAT GATSBY - Marblehead Little Theatre 2% Susan Wentworth Austin - NUNSENSE - Arlington Friends of the Drama 2% Timothy Bevens - THE SECRET GARDEN - The Company Theatre 2% Harry Ohlson - PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 1% Jon DiPrima - THE MUSIC MAN - Voices of Hope Boston 1% Best Supporting Performer In A Musical (Professional) Quinn Kearney - MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 10% Allison Sheppard - JAGGED LITTLE PILL - Boston Opera House 5% Chris Bradley - PIPPIN - Firehouse Center for the Arts 5% Isabella Esler - BEETLEJUICE - Citizens Opera House 5% Tori Heinlein - SOUND OF MUSIC - North Shore Music Theatre 4% Kathy St. George - THE FULL MONTY - North Shore Music Theatre 4% Jen Stearns - FUN HOME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 4% Jack Mullen - OKLAHOMA! - Reagle Music Theatre 4% David Livingston - THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 3% Dan Kelly - PIPPIN - Firehouse Center for the Arts 3% Jared Troilo - THE PROM - SpeakEasy Stage Company 3% Anthony Pires, Jr - PRELUDES - Lyric Stage Company 3% Patrick Falk - ROCK OF AGES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 3% Gavin Davis - ROCK OF AGES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 3% Aimee Doherty - PRELUDES - Lyric Stage Company 3% Christopher Rice-Thomson - SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 2% Ali Funkhouser - SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 2% Katie Gray - SOMETHING ROTTEN! - Franklin Performing Arts Company 2% Julia Anthon - THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 2% Brian Demar Jones - RENT - The Umbrella Stage Company 2% Christina Pierro Biggins - THE MAD ONES - Studio Theatre Worcester 2% Davron Monroe - SISTER ACT - Lyric Stage Company 2% Jess Andra - A MAN OF NO IMPORTANCE - Cape Rep Theatre 2% Tyrick Wiltez Jones - VIOLET - Franklin Performing Arts Company 2% Kayla Shimizu - PRELUDES - Lyric Stage Company 2% Best Supporting Performer In A Play (Non-Professional) Scotty Kippenhan - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 14% Noah Greenstein - RITE OF PASSAGE - Punctuate4 Productions 12% Suzy Cosgrove - A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 12% Josh Telepman - DANCING AT LUGHNASA - Arlington Friends of the Drama 10% Mike barry - A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE - Academy of Performing Arts 9% Allison Rudmann Putnam - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 6% Rama Rodriguez - MEASURE FOR MEASURE - Mass Arts Center 6% Will Dalley - FARCE OF HABIT - Acme Theatre Company 4% Nik Kubek - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 4% Lauren Elias - LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE - Hub Theatre Company 3% George Kippenhan - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 3% Erin Thomas-Lopatosky - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 3% Gail Bishop Nessman - FARCE OF HABIT - Acme Theatre Company 3% Ian Law - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 2% JoAnn Kaplan - BLITHE SPIRIT - TCAN 2% Nancy Finn - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 2% Kyle Kashgagian - A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 2% Gordon Ellis - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 1% Adam Heroux - HANDBAGGED - The Hovey Players 1% Best Supporting Performer In A Play (Professional) Kim Frigon - THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Franklin Performing Arts Company 11% Dan Kelly - CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Firehouse Center for the Arts 9% Anjie Parker - DOUBT, A PARABLE - Firehouse Center for the Arts 7% Charley Eastman - THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME - Franklin Performing Arts Company 6% Mary Sapp - DOUBT, A PARABLE - Firehouse Center for the Arts 6% Jessica Golden - MACBETH - Commonwealth Shakespeare Company 6% Zaven Ovian - ENGLISH - SpeakEasy Stage Company 6% June Dever - INTO THE BREECHES - Studio Theatre Worcester 5% JJ Hernández - TALL TALES FROM BLACKBURN TAVERN - Gloucester Stage 4% Alexander Platt - ANGELS IN AMERICA - Central Square Theater 3% Bobbie Steinbach - AS YOU LIKE IT - Actors Shakespeare Project 3% Kari Buckley - ANGELS IN AMERICA - Central Square Theater 3% Dan Whelton - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Company 3% Kelby T. Akin - THE PLAY THAT GOES WRONG - Lyric Stage Company 2% Barlow Adamson - ANGELS IN AMERICA - Central Square Theater 2% Jadah Carroll - THE HUMANS - Provincetown Theater 2% Josephine Moshiri Elwood - ENGLISH - SpeakEasy Stage Company 2% CHRISTOPHER TRAMANTANA - SENSE AND SENSIBILITY - The Cape Playhouse 2% Jihan Haddad - THE GREAT LEAP - Lyric Stage Boston 2% Debra Wise - ANGELS IN AMERICA - Central Square Theater 2% Kenneth Lockwood - CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 2% Nisi Sturgis - BASKERVILLE - The Cape Playhouse 2% Laura Scribner - CASA VALENTINA - Provincetown Theater 1% Brian Owens - BASKERVILLE - The Cape Playhouse 1% Robert Walsh - THE GAAGA - Arlekin Players 1% Best Theatre For Young Audiences Production (Non-Professional) MATILDA THE MUSICAL - The Company Theatre 21% SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS - The Company Theatre 16% CHICAGO - The Company Theatre 14% A WRINKLE IN TIME - Triad Theatre Company 13% WINNIE THE POOH - Academy of Performing Arts 11% DRAGONS LOVE TACOS - Cape Cod Theatre Company 8% CINDERELLA - Break a Leg Theater Works 6% PIPPIN - Break a Leg Theater Works 4% FOOTLOOSE - Broken Leg Productions 4% A CHRISTMAS STORY - Massasoit Theatre Company 3% Best Theatre For Young Audiences Production (Professional) CHICAGO - The Company Theatre 43% JUNIE B. JONES THE MUSICAL - Firehouse Center for the Arts 17% THE WIZ - New Bedford Festival Theatre 12% JUNIE B. JONES - Firehouse Center for the Arts 12% CINDERELLA - Tanglewood Marionettes 11% ROOTS A FARM TO FARM TO CIRCUS SHOW - Payomet 5% Favorite Local Theatre (Non-Professional) The Company Theatre 23% Marblehead Little Theatre 9% The Footlight Club 7% Academy of Performing Arts 5% Triad Theatre Company 5% Quigg Creations 5% The Theatre Institute 4% Yorick Ensemble 4% Concord Players 4% Cotuit Center for the Arts, Cotuit MA 3% Riverside Theatre Works 3% Break a Leg Theater Works 3% Provincetown Theater 3% Spotlight Music and Theater Academy 2% Massasoit Theatre Company 2% Cape Cod Theatre Company 2% Hub Theatre Company 2% Cape Rep Theatre 2% The Hovey Players 2% WCLOC Theater Company 2% TCAN 1% Theatre III 1% The Vokes Players 1% Eventide Theatre Company 1% Arlekin Players 1%

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Dear Annie: Theres so much more to the night before Christmas

Dear Readers: Wishing you and all a very happy holiday season. Please enjoy the following poem. “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore ‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; ‘Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!’ As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky; So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack. His eyes — how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle, But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, ‘Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.’ Annie Lane’s second anthology — “How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?” featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation — is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

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Skull of Ancient Sea Monster With Dagger-Like Teeth Discovered in England

In the spring of 2022, Philip Jacobs, an artist and fossil hunter, was walking along the Jurassic Coast in southern England when he came across a snout. It was about two feet long, complete with teeth, and appeared to have come from an ancient ocean predator known as a pliosaur. When crews returned days later with a drone, they found the snout had fallen from a cliff towering over the beach — embedded in the cliff was the rest of the skull. The more than six-foot-long fossil, with the skull intact and no bones missing, is the “discovery of a lifetime,” one expert said. “There are some special features in it that we haven’t seen on the previous ones that have been discovered,” Steve Etches, a paleontologist who has been collecting fossils for more than 40 years and was involved in the excavation, said by phone on Monday. “And it’s the most complete. So the whole skull is there, there are no bones missing.”

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A Trophy in Ruins: Evidence Grows That Russia Controls Marinka

The Ukrainian military said on Thursday that its troops were fighting “in the vicinities” of a village behind the eastern frontline town of Marinka, a strong indication that Kyiv’s forces have lost control of the town, more than a week after Moscow claimed to have seized it. Open-source maps of the battlefield also show that Russian troops have a foothold throughout Marinka. Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top commander, acknowledged last week that Ukrainian troops had all but retreated to the outskirts, saying that Marinka “no longer exists” because Russian forces had reduced it to rubble with relentless shelling. Several Ukrainian military analysts said that Ukrainian troops had established defensive lines just outside the town and were currently fending off further Russian advances. “It seems that Ukrainian forces are out of Marinka but they continue fighting in defensive positions just outside of it,” said Oleksandr Musiienko, the head of the Kyiv-based Center for Military Legal Studies.

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How Trump Has Used Fear and Favor to Win Republican Endorsements

On his last day as president on Jan. 20, 2021, Donald J. Trump stood in a snapping wind and waved goodbye to relatives and supporters before he took his final flight on Air Force One back to Mar-a-Lago. No elected Republican of any stature showed up at Joint Base Andrews for the bleak farewell. Mr. Trump, at that moment, was a pariah among Republican elites. The party’s leaders in the House and Senate, Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell, blamed him for the Capitol siege. Party fund-raisers assured donors they were done with him. On conference calls, House Republican leaders contemplated a “post-Trump” G.O.P. Today, three years after Jan. 6 and more than a week before the Iowa caucuses, Mr. Trump has almost entirely subjugated the elected class of the Republican Party. As of this week, every member of the House Republican leadership is formally backing his campaign to recapture the White House. Mr. Trump has obsessed over his scorecard of endorsers, according to more than half a dozen Trump advisers and people in regular contact with him, most of whom insisted on anonymity to describe private conversations.

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Jayson Tatum has frustrated reaction to multiple flagrant fouls

LOS ANGELES — While Jayson Tatum was healthy enough to play through a sprained ankle, there was a worrisome moment midway through the second quarter Saturday against the Clippers. Tatum rose up and drilled a 3-pointer, but Kobe Brown encroached on his landing space as Tatum tweaked that left ankle. Tatum was down on the ground briefly before walking back to the Celtics bench. The referees reviewed the play to upgrade it to a flagrant-1 foul on Brown as Tatum completed the four-point play despite some pain. BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. But then it happened again in the third quarter when Ivica Zubac was called for a flagrant because he also ended up in Tatum’s landing space. Naturally, the Celtics star was frustrated by it all. For good measure, Tatum was hit on another 3-pointer to draw three free throws, though luckily that didn’t involve his landing space. “This is some (expletive),” Tatum said of his reaction. “But it was taped up well and it was just a small tweak, so I was able to keep playing and I felt fine after that.” Tatum finished with 30 points in his return as he also knocked in 5-of-10 of his 3-pointers. The ankle didn’t seem to bother him too much as he impressed in the Celtics’ blowout 145-108 win. Fortunately for the Celtics, it appears Tatum didn’t further injure that left ankle. He missed the blowout win over the Kings due to the injury as it was the first game he sat this season. Considering the Celtics have a marquee showdown against the Lakers coming up, it’ll also be difficult to keep Tatum from playing in front of that nationally-televised Christmas Day crowd. “Ankle was swollen over the last couple days,” Tatum said. “But a lot of ice, a lot of treatment. Swelling went down. Started feeling a lot better, not quite as good as the right one. But felt well enough to go out there and play. I’ve been out for three days, and I don’t like missing games. So I was excited to get back out there with the team and play today.”

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After weekend snowstorm, Mass. to be hit by another powerful storm Tuesday

Communities in the North Shore are looking to recover after a storm brought heavy winds and flooding to the area on Saturday. Crews from the Department of Public Works and firefighters are coming around to different neighborhoods on Sunday morning to help pump out people’s flooded basements. Anyone with 6 inches of water or more in their basement can request a pump-out by calling the Fire Department. Salem is one of several North Shore communities hit hard by this storm. Severe flooding shut down roads in Gloucester. Waves came crashing over the seawall in Lynn, covering the pedestrian esplanade and shutting down Lynn Shore Drive. In Revere, Mills Avenue was completely submerged before high tide. Further North in Hampton, New Hampshire, downed trees damaged homes on North Shore Road. And concrete sea walls were dismantled on North Beach. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. People came from all over to get a look at the damage. “I had to get up early this morning to come out and see it. I love crazy weather, they’re very big. I saw them coming in the dark but yeah they’re fierce.” said Stoneham resident Billy Dalton.

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From page to screen: Percy Jackon and the Olympians executive producers on bringing the books to life

A weekly newsletter for the chronically online and easily entertained. Honey dishes us savvy analysis on culture, entertainment and power to make you the group chat MVP. Subscribe today! Reckon reporter Daric L. Cottingham recently spoke with the Disney+ original series Percy Jackson and the Olympians, executive producers Jon Steinberg and Dan Shotz. Inspired by Rick Riordan’s best-selling fantasy novel series, the story centers on 12-year-old modern demigod Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell), who’s just coming to terms with his newfound divine powers when the sky god Zeus accuses him of stealing his master lightning bolt. With help from his friends, Grover (Aryan Simhadri) and Annabeth (Leah Sava Jeffries), Percy must embark on an adventure of a lifetime to find it and restore order to Olympus. In this interview, Steinberg and Shotz discuss what went into bringing PJO to life for TV, maintaining the whimsical heart of the books, how they work with the lead cast’s chemistry, and their hopes for viewers. Click play and check out the full interview above. Check out our full review and interview with the cast of Percy Jackson and the Olympians here.

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Stocks Are in a Bull Market. What Does That Mean?

You have a preview view of this article while we are checking your access. When we have confirmed access, the full article content will load. Stocks Are in a Bull Market. What Does That Mean? It doesn’t mean stocks will continue to rise indefinitely, but it does reflect a generally optimistic outlook on Wall Street. Share full article

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Longmeadow wrestling escapes Westfield with narrow victory, 42-39

WESTFIELD – The Westfield High School wrestling team finally met its match. In an emotionally-charged matchup, Longmeadow escaped Westfield with a narrow 42-39 victory. Although it was the first league loss of the season for the Bombers, they still managed to clinch a share of the Valley Wheel league title. Ludlow won the league title a year ago.

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Explaining OpenAIs Board Shake-Up

For much of the past year, OpenAI’s board of directors has been criticized as too small and too divided to effectively govern one of the fastest-growing start-ups in Silicon Valley history. On Friday, the board’s dysfunction spilled into public view when four of its members fired Sam Altman, OpenAI’s popular and powerful chief executive. The dismissal uncorked five turbulent days, as Mr. Altman rallied almost all of the company’s 770 employees to lobby for the board’s resignation and his reinstatement. Mr. Altman, 38, returned to the company on Tuesday night, after days of haggling over his job and over the makeup of the board. The board and Mr. Altman’s allies discussed more than a half dozen options for its future. They considered a board size of three to seven members and discussed about 30 candidates, including Laurene Powell Jobs, the founder of the Emerson Collective and widow of Steve Jobs, and Brian Chesky, the chief executive of Airbnb. The departing board wanted to be sure the replacements would be independent thinkers and experienced enough to stand up to Mr. Altman.

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The Westfield News Scoreboard: Blackstone Valley boys ice hockey rallies from 3-0 deficit to defeat Westfield in OT, 4-3

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With Lucas Giolito official, Red Sox cut reliever they got at trade deadline

Georgii Merkulov has been turning heads this season in Providence. So much so, that the Bruins prospect is beginning to raise questions about when he’ll receive a call up to the NHL. The undrafted center has 10 goals and eight assists in 12 games in December for Providence. Merkulov’s 30- points is good for fourth in the AHL, and he appears to be doing everything right when he’s on the ice. The 23-year-old had an impressive training camp, but didn’t make the Bruins’ roster. So, he went to the AHL for his second full season and began to work on what he needed to. “I think the thing that’s been the most promising things we’re hearing is how quickly he’s closing in at D-zone and how his 200-foot game has upticked. It’s not surprising you hear about someone’s 200-foot game getting better,” coach Jim Montgomery told reporters after Thursday’s practice. “And he’s second in the league in scoring. Like, yesterday, we had seven odd-man rushes and five of them came from good defense. Good defense leads to offense.” BET ANYTHING GET $250 BONUS ESPN BET CLAIM OFFER MASS 21+ and present in MA, NJ, PA, VA, MD, WV, TN, LA, KS, KY, CO, AZ, IL, IA, IN, OH, MI. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-Gambler. There was speculation Merkulov was called up Thursday, and his former USHL team also posted to X, formerly known as Twitter, congratulating him on his call up. Merkulov wasn’t at practice at Warrior Ice Arena on Thursday. But with Matt Poitras representing Team Canada at the IIHF World Juniors, it’s fair to wonder whether that would warrant a call-up. “I think it’s just when opportunity creates itself. Sometimes it’s injuries, sometimes it’s your play, you’re just playing well and team’s not doing well,” Montgomery told reporters. “It’s always different circumstances as to why certain guys get the opportunity to get called up.” Merkulov could certainly give the Bruins an offensive spark. And with how he’s performed in Providence, it might be worth him getting a look — especially while they have the opportunity.

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Body of 45-year-old Avon man missing for 2 months found Saturday night

The body of an Avon man who had not been seen for more than two months was found in a well Saturday night, according to the Norfolk County District Attorney’s Office. Keith McKechnie, 45, was last seen leaving his home at 34 East High St. on Sept. 7, according to the district attorney’s office. McKechnie was reported missing by Avon police on Nov. 22. On Nov. 25, Avon police and firefighters, along with Massachusetts State Police, were searching a “heavily wooded area on the property of the home” where McKechnie often walked, authorities said in a statement. The search was mainly focused on an old well on the property that had been searched before, according to authorities. A body, later identified as McKechnie, was found in the well, the district attorney’s office said. McKechnie’s body was brought to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner in Boston for an autopsy that will be completed in the coming days to determine the cause of death. There were no obvious signs of trauma, the office added. “Our thoughts are very much with the McKechnie family tonight,” District Attorney Morrissey said Saturday evening. “This is a very sad result.”

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Mass. State Lottery winner: 6 New Years Eve winning tickets sold at Peabody Market

A North Carolina woman became Powerball’s first million-dollar winner of 2024 in a drawing shortly after midnight, but in one Massachusetts city sold a dozen lottery winners between two stores. Peabody Market at 36 Foster St. sold six winning “Keno” tickets on Sunday, Dec. 31, five of which were worth $30,000 each. Also in Peabody, D & R Market sold six winning “Keno” tickets, most of which were worth $2,700. To play Keno, players select numbers for “spots” labeled 1 through 12. Those numbers can be between 1 and 80, and players can choose as many spots to play as they like. Players then wager between $1 and $20 on each drawing and select how many drawings they want to play with the same numbers, up to 30 drawings. Keno drawings take place every day every four minutes, beginning at 5:04 a.m. and ending at 1 a.m. Players can watch Keno drawings or check their numbers by downloading the Massachusetts State Lottery App. Overall 236 winning tickets worth at least $600 were sold or claimed in Massachusetts on Sunday. Of those 17 were sold in Peabody. Five were sold in Springfield, four in Worcester and 20 in Boston. Peabody Market in Peabody, Mass. (Google Maps image)Google Maps image The Massachusetts State Lottery releases a full list of all the winning tickets each day. The list only includes winning tickets worth more than $600. The two largest lottery prizes won in the state of Massachusetts in 2023 were $33 million and $31 million Mega Millions jackpot prizes. The tickets were each sold a week apart. The $33 million ticket for the Tuesday, Jan. 24 drawing was purchased from a Stop & Shop in Belchertown. The winner came forward to claim the prize on March 1 through the Skylark Group Trust. The $31 million Mega Millions jackpot ticket was won on Jan. 31. The winning ticket was bought in Woburn from a Gibbs gas station, and the winner claimed the prize on March 8 through S & L Trust.

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RI man loses out to NC woman to become 1st Powerball millionaire of 2024

Powerball held its first drawing of the year shortly after midnight on Monday — New Year’s Day. The drawing consisted of five finalists — one of whom is from New England — who were invited to travel to New York City to take part live on Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest. The five finalists were: Finton Wallace of Rhode Island Maire Kelly Joyce of New York Lora-Lee Casady of Idaho Tracy Lacobie-Goeddel of Georgia Pamela Bradshaw of North Carolina Finton Wallace, an 81-year-old Navy veteran who worked as a banker for more than 30 years from Newport, was the New Englander. But he lost out in the drawing to Bradshaw, who lives in Clinton. “I’m so blessed, Bradshaw said after winning the drawing during the live broadcast. “I’m so blessed.” That was the second time in a row that a North Carolina resident won Powerball’s year-opening $1 million drawing, according to the North Carolina Education Lottery. The drawing involves North Carolina and 22 other state lotteries. The five finalists won VIP trips to New York City. Bradshaw told the North Carolina Education Lottery that the trip was the first time she flew on a plane, went to New York City and saw the Statue of Liberty. “I cried on the plane ride and I cried at the Statue of Liberty,” she told the lottery. “It’s just been so incredible.” Bradshaw told the lottery that she plans to spend her prize money on buying her own home. “I would love to have my own home that is mine and that I feel safe in. I can have my own house and fix it up pretty and clean and feel safe. Not anything fancy or big, just a little cottage or something with one or two bedrooms,” she said. Powerball’s next drawing will be Monday night with a New Year’s Day drawing. The jackpot is $810 million. The odds of winning a Powerball jackpot are 1 in 292 million.

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Al Shabab Terrorist Group Captures U.N. Helicopter in Somalia

A United Nations helicopter carrying nine passengers was captured in Somalia on Wednesday by the terrorist group Al Shabab after making an emergency landing because of technical difficulties in an area controlled by the group, three senior Somali officials said. Six of the passengers were captured, while two escaped and one was killed, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters. The circumstances in which the person was killed were unclear. There were foreigners among the passengers, one of the officials said, though their nationalities were not known. At least one Somali national was on the helicopter, another official said. Al Shabab, which means “The Youth” in Arabic, has spread havoc across Somalia for almost a decade and half, promising to topple the U.N.-backed national government and to establish an Islamic state in the Horn of Africa nation. The group commands between 7,000 and 12,000 fighters and makes about $120 million annually through extortion and taxation, according to Somali authorities and U.S. intelligence officials.

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Bill Belichick, Patriots part ways after 24-year historic run

The Bill Belichick era is over. The Patriots and coach Bill Belichick have decided to part ways after 24 years, a source said Thursday. Under Belichick, the Patriots emerged as the class of the NFL and found unprecedented success headlined by six Super Bowl titles and nine Super Bowl appearances. Belichick’s 24-year tenure stands as the greatest head-coaching run in league history, including 17 division titles and 13 conference championship game appearances on top of the Super Bowl titles. Belichick departs at the low point of his tenure, a 4-13 campaign that doubled as the worst season of Kraft’s ownership. On Monday, Belichick reiterated a desire to coach in New England next season. His contract reportedly ran through the 2024 season after a renegotiation with ownership last year. Belichick, 71, is expected to continue coaching in pursuit of Don Shula’s NFL record for most all-time wins as a head coach (347). Belichick is 15 wins away from breaking the record. Over the past four years, he went 29-38, though his reputation as the greatest coach in NFL history remains firmly intact. Belichick and Kraft will address the media on Thursday at noon at Gillette Stadium. In 2000, the Patriots acquired Belichick in a trade with the Jets that sent a first-round pick to New York and involved a few other pick swaps. Belichick assumed full control over football operations and selected Tom Brady in the sixth round of his first draft. Belichick went 5-11 over his first season, then won a Super Bowl the next year in Brady’s first season as the starting quarterback. That victory, a defensive masterpiece painted as 14-point underdogs versus the Rams, launched the Patriots dynasty and Belichick’s and Brady’s arcs as the greatest of all time at their respective positions. The Patriots followed with Super Bowl wins in 2003 and 2004, then an undefeated regular season in 2007 that ended with an upset loss to the Giants in Super Bowl XLII as 12-point favorites. After another Super Bowl loss to the Giants in the 2011 season, Belichick restarted the dynasty by edging the Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX, an all-time classic defined by his late-game management and Malcolm Butler’s goal-line interception. Two years later, the Patriots clinched a fifth title on the back of the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history versus Atlanta, then dropped an all-time Super Bowl shootout to the Eagles, and added another ring in 2018, when they again toppled the Rams, 13-3. Belichick and Kraft allowed Brady to leave in March 2020, which complicated their individual legacies months later when Brady won a Super Bowl in his first of three seasons with Tampa Bay. Meanwhile, the Patriots posted a losing record in three of their next four seasons running through quarterbacks Cam Newton, Mac Jones and Bailey Zappe. Belichick's legacy in New England is all-encompassing, including years of brilliant game plans, one of the largest coaching trees in league history, disciplined roster-building practices and cap management, the NFL's longest winning streak and multiple controversies. Under Belichick, the Patriots forfeited first-round picks in 2008 and 2016; first, for illegally taping opponents' signals and later allegedly scheming to deflate footballs before games in a disputed scandal that resulted in a four-game suspension for Brady in 2016. Over his final seasons, the Patriots were undermined by Belichick's work in free agency and the draft as their chief personnel decision-makers. He also struggled to adequately involve and replace key members of his front office and coaching staff. In 2021, Kraft pushed for a more collaborative evaluation process in the front office to end years of poor drafting. Last year, Kraft initiated coaching changes that followed a losing 2022 campaign undone by Belichick employing longtime defensive assistant Matt Patricia as his lead offensive coach and ex-Patriots special teams coordinator Joe Judge as his quarterbacks coach. While Patriots offensive coordinator/quarterbacks coach Bill O'Brien replaced Patricia and Judge last season, the offense fell even further, averaging 13.9 points per game, second-fewest in the league. Inside the building, Belichick's staff and front office suffered from more dysfunction, as documented in a recent Herald report. Belichick took responsibility for the team's 4-13 record Monday saying: "It was obviously a very disappointing season all the way around. Players, coaches, staff, organization, everybody is not anywhere close to what our standard and expectations are. So, obviously, things need to be fixed. Proud of the way the players and the team competed, but not the results, obviously, from any of us – starting with me and all the way down to everybody else that was involved in it." Patriots linebackers coach Jerod Mayo and ex-Titans coach Mike Vrabel are widely assumed to have an inside track at replacing Belichick. Mayo, who just finished his fifth season in coaching, received a contract extension last January that led to more money and responsibilities. Mayo, 37, has interviewed for multiple head-coaching jobs in recent years. Vrabel was fired Tuesday after six seasons in Tennessee, where he led four winning seasons and reached the 2019 AFC Championship Game. As a player, Vrabel won three Super Bowls in New England, where he was inducted into the Patriots Hall of Fame during an October ceremony. Vrabel, 48, addressed fans at halftime of a home game the following day, when he called the Patriots organization "a special place."

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Springfield leaders want better results from gang-fighting grant after record year of gun violence

SPRINGFIELD — The City Council recently accepted an annual crime-fighting grant, but with a record number of homicides occurring this past year, members said they are hoping for some changes in how the money is spent. This year, the city has received $1.24 million in a state Shannon Community Safety Initiative grant, which allows the Police Department to continue to work in partnership with the same 11 organizations it has for a number of years, as well as adding two more, said police Lt. Matthew Benoit, who administers the grant. The long-term grant provided by the state is designed to fight and prevent gang violence and can be used in five different ways, including providing opportunities for at-risk youth, social intervention and gang suppression. “I’m wondering if there is something we can change, so we have different outcomes,” City Councilor Zaida Govan said. The recipients vary from those who use the money directly on gang suppression, such as the police C3 units, to those who run youth programs, such as sports or job training to keep kids on the straight and narrow, Benoit said. This year, the two new recipients are COGIC Family Services, which provides things like after-school educational programs and summer camps, and ReGreen Springfield, which will provide enrichment programs to 60 at-risk youths that will connect them with nature, Benoit said. The only other new applicant this year was the Center for Human Development, which was rejected because it did not meet the parameters of gang prevention or suppression, Benoit said. Some of the other repeat partners include agencies such as the Salvation Army, New North Citizens’ Council, the YMCA, Martin Luther King Jr. Family Services and the Boys and Girls Club, he said. City Councilor Tracye Whitfield called for more oversight of the programs and more transparency about the application process, saying the same people at City Hall should not be making the decisions on who should receive funding. “It is great we have programs, but in 2023 I would not call it a successful year,” she said. She called for the city to “take a deeper dive” to examine the programs to ensure they are effective in battling gun violence in the city. Benoit agreed that at least half the 31 homicides in the city this year were gang-related and agreed collaboration with city organizations is vital in preventing them. Partner agencies do have to submit reports twice a year, explaining how they are using evidence-based practices to try to prevent gang violence, but measuring results is difficult, he said. “It is a difficult matrix to track. How do you measure a negative?” Benoit asked, saying it is hard to determine whether a program saved a young person from joining a gang. City Councilor Victor Davila said he would like to see the practice of how partners are selected be clearer, more transparent and refined, if needed. He said he knows the police are doing their best to fight gun violence, but 31 homicides is eye-opening, especially since it tops the previous record of 22 set in two different years. “I don’t feel there is any groundbreaking change that is happening,” he said. “It takes the entire city, and we appear to be doing the same thing, and we are not getting anything back. We are not getting a safer city.”

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Italian History Club Presents a trip to Italy

Springfield - The Italian History Club is sponsoring a trip to Tuscany Italy, Lake Como, Florence, Milan, Venice and Verona, April 15 through 25, 2024. The trip is nine nights, eight breakfasts, three lunches and seven dinners. Featuring daily tours and tour guide. Bus leaves Springfield to Boston and return, fly to Italy on Lufthansa Airway from Boston to Italy and return. Cost of the trip is $3,950 per person (double), single is an additional $500. Deposit of $1,000, balance due, on Jan. 10. Minimum passengers 36. For further information or reservations, call Giuseppe at 413-262-6562, Regina at 413-785-5168 or Paula at 413-525-6030.

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WooSox owners reach agreement to sell team (report)

It didn’t take long for Worcester Red Sox principal owner and chairman Larry Lucchino to find a new ownership group for the Red Sox’s minor league affiliate. An industry source told The Boston Globe’s Michael Silverman that Diamond Baseball Holdings has “reached an agreement” to buy the WooSox. The deal, per Silverman, still needs to be approved by MLB. The team moved to Worcester three years ago after 47 years in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. The WooSox played their first season at Polar Park in April 2021 after signing a 35-year lease. They’ll still continue to play in Worcester for the next 32 years. Lucchino was part of the ownership group that bought the then-PawSox in 2015 and helped relocate them to the Heart of the Commonwealth in a deal reached in 2018. But he announced on the “UnAcnhored Boston” podcast earlier this month that it “was time” to sell the team. $200 INSTANT BONUS DRAFTKINGS MASS CLAIM OFFER BET $5, GET $200 BONUS BET FANDUEL MASS CLAIM OFFER BET $50, GET $250 BONUS CAESARS MASS CLAIM OFFER $1,000 FIRST-BET BONUS BETMGM MASS CLAIM OFFER MA only. 21+. Gambling Problem? If you or a loved one is experiencing problems with gambling, please call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org for 24/7 support. LiveChat with a GameSense Advisor at GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234 MA Gambling Helpline. MA only. 21+. Gambling Problem? If you or a loved one is experiencing problems with gambling, please call 1-800-327-5050 or visit gamblinghelplinema.org for 24/7 support. LiveChat with a GameSense Advisor at GameSenseMA.com or call 1-800-GAM-1234 MA Gambling Helpline. “I’m now 78. I’ve been at this for over 40 years so it’s time to sell this team and move on to a blissful retirement,” Lucchino told co-hosts Bob Lobel and Mike Lynch. Lucchino long has been an executive in baseball, beginning his career in 1988 as Baltimore Orioles team president. It’s unknown how much the WooSox sold for. Although he’ll no longer own the Worcester Red Sox, Lucchino will continue to stay on as chairman. Enter your email address here to receive the Fenway Rundown email newsletter in your inbox every Wednesday. Other Red Sox affiliates under Diamond Baseball Holdings include the Portland Sea Dogs and Salem Red Sox. In total, they own and operate 25 Minor League Baseball teams. “Diamond Baseball Holdings (DBH) is committed to elevating fan experiences, creating “centers of energy,” fostering dynamic engagements for brands and highlighting the evolution of the Minor League Baseball environment,” the website states. “It is grounded in a deep-rooted appreciation for traditions, community and the sport of baseball.” The WooSox begin their 2024 season on the road against the Lehigh Valley IronPigs on March 29. They finished seventh in all of Minor League Baseball in total attendance (519,651) for 2023, according to Baseball America.

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Storm brings more rain, with power outages, high coastal water, and possible flooding

DEDHAM, Mass. — Some schools have announced closings and delays for Tuesday due to a powerful wind-driven rainstorm that knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses in Massachusetts on Monday. As of 7 a.m. Tuesday, there were more than 130,000 power outages across the state, according to MEMA’s tracker. Some towns on the South Shore could be without power for days. The storm toppled trees and downed powerlines in many communities as it blew through. Click here to view a full list of closings and delays. CLICK HERE FOR THE LATEST WEATHER FORECAST RELATED CONTENT Download the FREE Boston 25 News app for breaking news alerts. Follow Boston 25 News on Facebook and Twitter. | Watch Boston 25 News NOW ©2023 Cox Media Group

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Boston weather: Strong winds, heavy rains sweep across area Monday

Around 11 a.m., the weather service reported that the rainy weather was slowly winding down, and the sun eventually emerged by Monday afternoon. Some light snow and rain showers persisted in Western Massachusetts along the Interstate 91 corridor, forecasters said. The majority of the weather-related warnings and watches issued for the three states have now been canceled . The storm system that bedeviled Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut during the Monday morning commute is fading and sunshine is expected to push through the dreary, gray skies around lunch time across the region, according to the National Weather Service. “Save for a few light snow/rain showers surrounding the I-91 Corridor, precipitation has ended for the day! Expect improving conditions with breaks of sunshine before sunset... one of the earliest of the year at 4:11pm in Boston,’' forecasters wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. Advertisement “Latest satellite imagery showing breaks in the clouds across PA & NJ. That trend spreads east with breaks of sunshine this afternoon for all of MA, RI & CT.,” forecasters said. “Temps seasonable, in the 40s, however feeling cooler with a brisk northwest 15-25 mph.” Power outages escalated in Massachusetts mid-morning, rising to about 3,600 when earlier on Monday the number had been reduced to 1,600 by utility repair crews, according to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency. That number dropped to about 800 without power in the afternoon. Also in the state, a minor flood warning remained in effect for the Sudbury River in Framingham, Wayland and Concord. In Rhode Island, the minor flood warning is for the Pawtuxet River in Cranston with potential impacts in Kent and Providence counties, forecasters said. The warnings were issued after as much as 2.5 inches of rain fell in some places early Monday. Nearly 5 inches of rain was eventually reported in various locations in Massachusetts and Connecticut. According to the weather service, Lexington, Natick and Wrentham received more than 4 inches of rain and dozens more communities across the state were doused with more than 2-3 inches of rainfall during the storm. Newport and Coventry, Rhode Island saw about 4 inches. Advertisement According to PowerOutage.us, more than 20,000 customers were without power in the six New England states as of late Monday morning. Maine had the largest total, reporting around 13,000, followed by 7,000 outages in Vermont and 1,900 in Connecticut. Rhode Island and New Hampshire had the least share of outages. By 3 p.m., power was gradually being restored across New England and about 13,000 remained without power. The high wind warnings were also canceled after gusts of 57 miles an hour were recorded in Falmouth and 52 miles an hour in the town’s coastal Woods Hole neighborhood. The MBTA resumed ferry service, which was halted during the early morning, after 8 a.m. Commuter rail passengers north of Boston were facing delays between Haverhill and Lawrence due to signal problems caused by flooding, according to Keolis Commuter Services, the operator of the T’s commuter rail system. Also, a disabled train on the Green Line’s Cleveland Circle line triggered a delay during the morning commute, according to the T. John R. Ellement can be reached at john.ellement@globe.com. Follow him @JREbosglobe. Marianne Mizera can be reached at marianne.mizera@globe.com. Follow her @MareMizera.

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Man robbed while trying to solicit sex at Boston hotel, DA says

Man robbed at knifepoint while trying to solicit sex at Hilton hotel in Boston, DA says Massachusetts authorities say a man who was lured to a downtown Boston hotel for a sexual encounter was robbed at knifepoint by a woman.The Suffolk District Attorney's Office said the incident happened Wednesday at the Hilton Boston Back Bay at 40 Dalton St.Boston police officers met with a man at the hotel who said he had been informed about a sex-for-fee service and then contacted a female on a website, with whom he arranged to meet on the 23rd floor of the hotel.The man told police that the woman called him into her room when he arrived, brandished a knife and ordered him to hand over $200. The man handed the money over to her and then reported the incident.Danine Simpson, 27, of the Bronx, New York, was arrested on a charge of armed robbery, according to authorities. She was arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court and ordered to be held on $1,500 bail by Judge James Coffey.The district attorney's office said that when officers set up initial surveillance of the hotel room where the robbery happened, they saw a man exit and walk away from them. Authorities said the man tried to back away from officers and began profusely sweating when they stopped him. Those officers then conducted a pat frisk and found a Glock 9mm handgun loaded with eight rounds inside of a fanny pack the man was wearing.Robert Santana, 28, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was arrested on charges of illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, illegal possession of a loaded firearm and illegal possession of a high-capacity magazine. He was also arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court, and the judge ordered Santana to be held without bail pending a Dec. 28 dangerousness hearing.The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said the man who went to the hotel seeking sex will be charged with engaging in sexual conduct for a fee at a later date. Massachusetts authorities say a man who was lured to a downtown Boston hotel for a sexual encounter was robbed at knifepoint by a woman. The Suffolk District Attorney's Office said the incident happened Wednesday at the Hilton Boston Back Bay at 40 Dalton St. Advertisement Boston police officers met with a man at the hotel who said he had been informed about a sex-for-fee service and then contacted a female on a website, with whom he arranged to meet on the 23rd floor of the hotel. The man told police that the woman called him into her room when he arrived, brandished a knife and ordered him to hand over $200. The man handed the money over to her and then reported the incident. Danine Simpson, 27, of the Bronx, New York, was arrested on a charge of armed robbery, according to authorities. She was arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court and ordered to be held on $1,500 bail by Judge James Coffey. The district attorney's office said that when officers set up initial surveillance of the hotel room where the robbery happened, they saw a man exit and walk away from them. Authorities said the man tried to back away from officers and began profusely sweating when they stopped him. Those officers then conducted a pat frisk and found a Glock 9mm handgun loaded with eight rounds inside of a fanny pack the man was wearing. Robert Santana, 28, of Lawrence, Massachusetts, was arrested on charges of illegal possession of a firearm, illegal possession of ammunition, illegal possession of a loaded firearm and illegal possession of a high-capacity magazine. He was also arraigned Friday in Boston Municipal Court, and the judge ordered Santana to be held without bail pending a Dec. 28 dangerousness hearing. The Suffolk County District Attorney's Office said the man who went to the hotel seeking sex will be charged with engaging in sexual conduct for a fee at a later date.

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City of Springfields Aquatics Department offering a Red Cross Lifeguard Training Course

Springfield - The City of Springfield’s Aquatics Department will be offering a Red Cross Lifeguard Training Course. The course will take place during the Feb. vacation week at Milton Bradley Elementary School on 22 Mulberry St. Pre-registration is required and space is limited. Persons 15 years of age and over can register for the course, which runs Tuesday, Feb. 20 through Friday, Feb. 23. An in-pool test will be given to all participants prior to the first day on Wednesday, Feb. 14. Based on the results of the swim test, participants who pass will continue on to the full course. The City of Springfield is now offering free certifications for any Springfield Public School student. Cost for the program is $175 (cash or check only) per person for City residents and $225 for non-city residents. All fees must be paid by the first day of the class. The department is pleased to offer an invitation to all interested participants to learn these valuable life skills. The course is part of the Aquatics Division’s ongoing commitment to provide quality programming. Interested individuals must pre-register by calling the Aquatics Director, Joe Federico at 413-787-6298.

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At 95, This Designer Has Never Been Out of Fashion

Styles come and styles go, but Stan Herman has been in fashion for decades. Just last month, Mr. Herman, 95, the king of cozy couture, was moving the merch — velour loungewear — on QVC, where his creations have been a durable staple for 30 years, and where has he sold close to 900,000 units since 2017. “They buy more each season. I’ve retained my viability, which is not so easy,” said Mr. Herman, who has a particular affinity for chenille. “It’s my secret weapon.” When he’s not outfitting people for repose, Mr. Herman is dressing them for work. In 1975, after a successful run with a line of stylish, affordable women’s clothing under the label Mr. Mort, he began designing uniforms for hotels, casinos and businesses of all stripes, among them Avis, Amtrak, McDonald’s and United Airlines. More recent clients include JetBlue, FedEx, Sandals Resorts and New York’s Central Park Conservancy. For the record, Mr. Herman’s own uniform leans toward cashmere and turtlenecks — generally in the earth tones that comport with his astrological sign, Virgo. If you meet him, plan on talking horoscopes. And plan on being charmed, wherever you fall on the zodiac.

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A Reinvented True Detective Plays It Cool

This season — the first without Pizzolatto, though he retains an executive producer credit — can be seen as a photo negative of the first. It is chilly rather than steamy, shadowed rather than sunlit, tundra-dry instead of humid. Despite occasional flashbacks, it restricts itself to a single timeline. In the first season, women appeared mostly as beleaguered wives or prostitutes. Here the gaze and the detectives are defiantly female. Is this still “True Detective”? While Pizzolatto was not available for comment, López argues that it is. This season retains what she sees as the series’s essentials: two detectives, shrouded in secrets and enmeshed in a landscape that holds secrets of its own. The series, she believes, favors a kind of expressionism in which the inner lives of the characters explode into the environment. “The darkness around them comes from inside of them,” she said. That’s certainly true of this season, though the earth’s axis may want to have a word. And if López exchanges the first season’s meditation on male toxicity and identity for a consideration of female victimhood and agency, she also returns the series to its roots in cosmic horror, even calling back to the certain Season 1 symbols, like the spiral. Orsi sometimes doubted the wisdom of having handed a marquee franchise to someone with little television experience, but López’s choices and attitude reassured her. “Every step of the way, I was taken aback by how confident she consistently was about what we were asking of her,” Orsi said. That confidence also inspired Foster, who hadn’t done substantive television work since her breakthrough role in the 1976 film “Taxi Driver.”

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The Snickers Bar Is the Economic Indicator We Need - The New York Times

The United States has just experienced one of the biggest collapses in consumer inflation in modern history. In June 2022 consumer prices had risen 9.1 percent over the previous year. By December 2023 the rate of increase had slowed to 3.4 percent. And yet, in survey after survey, voters still declare inflation to be at or near the top of their list of concerns. Why aren’t voters recognizing the decline in the inflation rate? Because voters are humans, and humans don’t think about inflation rationally. To understand why, let’s look at a Snickers bar. More than 12 Snickers bars are sold every second in the United States. That makes Snickers bars a very important part of consumer purchases, so the price of a Snickers bar should be included in the inflation calculation. Yet Snickers bars do not consume a big portion of most families’ annual budget (at least they usually don’t). Most of us will spend far more of our budget on something like a television. With $1,500 a consumer could buy a high-end 55-inch television, or almost four Snickers bars a day for a year. Because items in the consumer price basket are weighted, roughly, by how much money consumers spend on that item in a year, television prices are more important than Snickers bars in the calculation of inflation.

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Southwick resident, Westfield flight school owner killed in small plane crash

GREENFIELD — A twin-engine plane flying out of Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport crashed into a wooded area on the Greenfield-Leyden line Sunday afternoon, killing all three people on board, including a Southwick woman, according to a statement from State Police. The Southwick woman was Frederika Ballard, 53, the president and lead instructor for Fly Lugu flight training school, which is based at Barnes and owned the airplane, according to State Police. The others killed were William Hampton, 68, of Indian Orchard who was a flight instructor; and Chad Davidson, 29, of Woodstock, Connecticut, who was a student pilot, according to police.

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Dear Annie: Put your phone down and watch your kids practice or game

Dear Annie: Recently, I retired from youth sports coaching. I am writing this letter to warn your readers about an alarming trend that I have noticed over the last decade. Namely, parents will attend their kids’ sporting events, but then spend most of the time on their smartphones. This is very different from seeing people glued to their phone screens in an airport or doctor’s waiting room or other places in which they would not normally socialize. I am talking about the people who are parents or guardians at their kids’ practices or games. Their actions tell their kids that they and their activities are not important enough to hold their attention. It’s a bad message. The kids do something great and look to the sidelines for parental approval and get nothing. I’ve even had parents approach me after a game to ask me to describe their child’s goal because they missed it. There is going to be more and more tech. It’s not about the phone, as such. It is about people knowing their role as parents and having the restraint to focus their attention appropriately. Do people own phones or are they owned by them? — Former Youth Coach Dear Former Youth Coach: Your letter brings up an important distinction. Staring at a screen is never that healthy, and there is a time when it is especially harmful — when parents are supposed to be watching and supporting their children. While your physical presence is nice, your attention to the game, and your child, is what matters. If you are just staring at a screen, your kid doesn’t get that reassurance and love they need to do their best. They might wonder why you’re even there or if they are worth your attention. Children watch and mimic everything. If you want to keep your child off of smartphones, put the phone down and be in the moment. Present but absent parents can cause great damage to their children. Dear Annie: I am a survivor of the flooding after Hurricane Katrina. One lesson I learned from that horrific experience is that I had lost a lot of “stuff” that I didn’t need to replace. Many of us accumulate far too many worldly goods. In lieu of exchanging more stuff, my friends now plan outings together and pick up the tab for the celebrant. We have attended jazz concerts, visited museums and watched movies together. We live in New Orleans where there are great restaurants, so we usually include a meal, too. We enjoy each other’s company while having great life experiences. And we don’t accrue more stuff that we have to maintain and store. — Less Stuff, More Fun. Dear Less Stuff: I am sorry for all that you had to endure during and after Hurricane Katrina. It sounds like you were able to take a horrible situation and find a silver lining. The memories and experiences that you create with friends and family are priceless, and you see that. Congratulations on enjoying deeper friendships through fun and joyous experiences. “How Can I Forgive My Cheating Partner?” is out now! Annie Lane’s second anthology — featuring favorite columns on marriage, infidelity, communication and reconciliation — is available as a paperback and e-book. Visit http://www.creatorspublishing.com for more information. Send your questions for Annie Lane to dearannie@creators.com. COPYRIGHT 2023 CREATORS.COM

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Boston weather: Coating to inch of snow forecast Wednesday morning

Those waking up to raindrops on their windows Thursday morning may be wondering if the weather will clear up by New Year’s Eve. Well, consider your prayers answered. Up to a half inch of rain is expected throughout the state with some areas, mostly on the south coast and on Cape Cod, at risk of getting up to 1.5 inches. Scattered showers will linger Friday into Saturday with temperatures several degrees above normal, with highs in the mid-to-low 40s throughout the rest of the week. By New Year’s, things will dry out. Thursday starts with light showers before heavier rain arrives by mid-day, the weather service said on X, formerly known as Twitter. The rain will reduce to a drizzle by Thursday afternoon and evening, the weather service said in a statement. AccuWeather expects the weather to be nearly as good as it can get for outdoor New Year’s Eve celebrations across the United States, with no major storms or Arctic cold in the forecast. However if you have plans to spend New Year’s Eve outside in Massachusetts, you may still want to bundle up. The forecast for Sunday, Dec. 31, calls for mostly sunny skies with highs between 40-42 degrees statewide. Sunday night temperatures could drop to the high 20s, according to the National Weather Service. Monday, Jan. 1, will also be partly sunny with highs between 39-42 degrees across the state. Monday night could see temperature drops into the low-to-mid 20s, making for a rather chilly start to 2024.

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Powerful Storm Tonight - Boston News, Weather, Sports

A potent storm is on the way tonight and there’s very little “winter” with this one, after the last one dropped a foot and a half of snow in spots. That said, this one will have juuuust enough cold air to work with that it’ll start off as a brief period of snow in the higher terrain. There’s actually a winter weather advisory in effect for the higher elevations because it could drop a quick couple inches of snow and lead to slick travel. But it won’t last long, it’ll flip to rain and wash all that snow away and then some. The storm will generate a strong southeast wind that will pull in warm air and change this over to rain for everyone overnight, and a lot of it. Most of us should pick up at least 2″ of rain tonight with some spots knocking on the door of 3 inches. For that reason, combined with the melting snow, a flood watch is in effect for most of New England. That’s a lot of water in a short amount of time, so unfortunately we’ll likely see river, stream, poor drainage, street, and basement flooding. If your basement is susceptible to flooding, get that sump pump working tonight and move the snow away from your foundation. You might also benefit from digging a few “trenches” in the snow to encourage the water to flow away from your house. Also make sure the storm drain on the road in front of your house is free of snow and ice so the water can freely flow away. Like I said earlier, the rainfall alone is a lot of water, but there’s also water locked up in the snow that’s on the ground. There’s about 1-2″ of water in the snow that’s on the ground so add that to the water that needs to flow away overnight into Wednesday morning. This storm is more than just rain, it’s also bringing a lot of wind. There’s a high wind warning in effect for the Seacoast of New Hampshire, coastal Essex County, and all of Southeastern Massachusetts, the Cape and Islands. These areas will likely see wind gusts over 60 mph, which is enough for scattered tree damage and power outages. Make sure your generators are outside and working tonight and your devices are charged up. Boston and the rest of the area are under a wind advisory. Wind here will be slightly less, but still strong enough to cause isolated tree damage and power outages. Peak gusts are timed along with the heaviest rain and will peak after midnight into early Wednesday morning. As mentioned, power outages are possible everywhere tonight, but most likely closer to the water’s edge. The persistent onshore wind does increase our coastal flooding potential tonight and Wednesday morning, but thankfully the strongest wind is not times with high tide. We have a coastal flood advisory for the Wednesday morning high tide. It’s mainly for the shore and low-lying roads that typically see flooding, but you may see 1-2 feet of inundation tomorrow morning around high tide. High tide is between 9-10am so watch for flooding a few hours on either side of that, say 8am-noon tomorrow. Astronomical tides are higher than Sunday’s storm which is why coastal flooding is more concerning, but even looking at Wednesday morning’s high tide we’re still about 2 feet shy of minor flood stage (the 10.6′ assumes flat water, which we know won’t be the case with the wind mentioned above). But the extra 2 feet of water only gets us to minor flood stage, so nothing more than that is expected.

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Deadly storms batter Massachusetts, causing widespread damage

A storm barreled up the East Coast on Monday, flooding roads and downing trees across New England, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands and forcing flight cancelations and school closures and killing at least three people. Over 3 inches of rain had fallen in parts of Massachusetts by mid-morning, according to the National Weather Service. Wind gusts reached nearly 70 mph along the southern New England shoreline. Power was knocked out for as many as 700,000 customers in New England, including 285,000 in Massachusetts and 330,000 in Maine. Maine’s largest utility, Central Maine Power, reported 50% of its customer base was without power at one point Monday. An 89-year-old Hingham, Massachusetts, man was killed early Monday when high winds caused a tree to fall on a trailer, according to Plymouth County District Attorney Timothy J. Cruz. Robert Horky was pulled from the trailer with severe head trauma and was pronounced dead at South Shore Hospital. Get Boston local news, weather forecasts, lifestyle and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC Boston’s newsletters. An intense storm knocked down trees and power lines in Massachusetts, leaving thousands without power Monday morning. Fire crews in Holbrook freed a man who was trapped in a pickup truck after a large tree fell on it on Maywood Road. The driver was taken to an area hospital. Police in Windham, Maine, said part of a tree fell and killed a man who was removing debris from his roof. Police did not immediately name the man, and they encouraged residents to stay indoors. Also in Maine, a man in Fairfield died from injuries he suffered while removing a downed tree on Norridgewock Road Monday afternoon, News Center Maine reported. Maine Gov. Janet Mills said all state offices would close for the afternoon. “With the storm expected to grow stronger in the coming hours, I encourage all Maine people to be safe and vigilant and to exercise caution when traveling,” she said in a statement. Weather knocked out power to street lights in Portland, Maine’s largest city, tying up traffic and stirring confusion at busy intersections. Wind ripped Christmas decorations from yards and homes, scattering them in city streets. Flood warnings were issued for parts of western Connecticut, western Massachusetts and parts of New Hampshire and Maine. New Hampshire moved its State Emergency Operations Center into partial activation mode to support communities experiencing damage from the severe rain, flooding and wind. “We are asking people to avoid traveling at this time if they can as most people are safest at home,” Vanessa Palange, a spokesperson for the New Hampshire Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, said in a statement. NBC10 Boston A tree fell on power lines, damaging an SUV as well, on Dedham Street in Newton, Massachusetts, as a storm hit the region on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Many flights were cancelled or delayed across the region. Boston's Logan International Airport grounded all flights Monday morning because of the poor conditions, leading to more than 100 canceled flights and about 375 delays, according to the flight-tracking service FlightAware. Trees and power lines fell in many areas, including some that landed on homes and cars. In the coastal town of Guilford, Connecticut, about 30 miles south of Hartford, a tree fell on a police cruiser but the officer escaped injury, officials said. Certain roads throughout the region were closed due to flooding or downed trees. In Rhode Island, a fallen tree branch pierced a car window in Coventry, injuring a woman inside, according to WJAR. She was taken to a local hospital with unknown injuries. Emergency crews were also seen removing a car seat from the damaged vehicle. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers also closed parts of Providence’s hurricane barrier system to prevent flooding from storm surge, Mayor Brett Smiley said. The Providence River gates were closed in the morning and another gate was scheduled to close. City Hall in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was closed due to leaks and water damage from its landmark tower, the city posted online. Some schools canceled classes, sent students home early or delayed their openings due to the storm. Among them were schools in Vermont that closed early. A numbers of roads were also closed around the state due to flooding, including in Ludlow, the southern Vermont community that was hit hard by flooding in July. And authorities urged people in the village of Moretown to evacuate 30 to 50 homes because of flooding. And in Boston, the storm knocked debris from a Massachusetts College of Art and Design building, causing it to rain down on the street below where it narrowly missed a student who was holding a newborn baby. In South Boston, a tree fell on a home on F Street. The home was damaged, but no one was injured. In Jamaica Plain, a tree fell on Perkins Street. The homeowner told NBC10 Boston they were woken up by a loud snap at about 6 a.m. A cleanup crew said the top half of the 100-year-old tree landed on a car that was driving down the street. That driver suffered minor injuries. A massive tree fell across the VFW Parkway in West Roxbury, completely blocking traffic. PHOTOS: Here's a look at the damage Monday's storm is causing across Mass. Severe flooding on Route 9 prompted the closure of the highway in Wellesley where it crossed Route 16, local police said. Route 9 is closed at Route 16 due to flooding. Several sections of Route 9 are severely flooded. pic.twitter.com/RW4O31iMMR — Wellesley Police (@WellesleyPolice) December 18, 2023 A tree was also reported down on wires on Route 1 north in Topsfield at Route 97 around 12 p.m., shutting down northbound traffic. In Upton, a tree fell on some power lines and a passing vehicle earlier Monday morning, closing a portion of Mendon Street. No injuries were reported. And in Lynnfield, a fallen tree crushed three vehicles and damaged part of a house. "We just woke up to this tree. It shook the house, my son was asleep in the room," said Tim Walsh. "It's like a train going by, like right by my head," said Tyler Walsh. The Walsh family said the most unsettling part was that they had concerns about the tree that fell for a while now. In fact, they said they've been working with the town to remove it and had a scheduled date in February to have it cut down. "We were counting down the days and I guess it came a little too soon, unfortunately," said Tyler. "Lucky to be alive. I feel very lucky right now." No one was hurt as a result of this incident. The Walsh family said they'll be working with their insurance to remedy the situation. The storm also made for a messy Monday morning commute and could impact the afternoon commute as well. State government officials urged people to avoid traveling and driving on flooded roads. “Even after the rain stops rivers will continue to crest into Tuesday, so take precautions now as no one is immune from the potential for flooding from this storm,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu said in a statement. “Respect barriers and stay safe by avoiding flooded roadways. Give hard working crews plenty of space to do their jobs as they restore power and clear debris from roads.” Rhode Island officials prohibited tractor-trailers on the Newport Pell and Jamestown Verrazzano bridges over Narragansett Bay because of the wind. The traffic in the Allston area was backed up all the way to Brighton and parts of Newton on Monday morning because of both the rush hour and an accident. In Reading, MassDOT said a rollover crash on Interstate 95 south at exit 56 closed two lanes. Drivers were told to expect delays in that area on Monday morning. A tree was reported down on I-95 south in Foxborough as well, closing two lanes. And trees were down on Route 110 in Haverhill, blocking traffic in both directions. Another tree took down power lines on Route 125 at Wood Lane in North Andover. And a fallen utility pole also struck a house on Fairmont Street in Lawrence. Roadway flooding was also reported on Route 67 in Warren, resulting in detours. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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How to Make Canaps Like a Professional Chef

The French chef Yann Nury wants you to remember that the winter holidays will be over soon. Roasts will be sliced, served and forgotten; Champagne will be drunk. And, if you choose to serve canapés, each one you make, no matter how labor-intensive, will be gone in a single bite. “Enjoy the specific moments,” Nury, 40, says. “It’s [only] once a year.” Despite their transience, Nury believes canapés are important: They can set the tone for a whole meal. Indeed, the amuse-bouche has become one of the hallmarks of the namesake catering company he founded in 2011 after working on the chef and restaurateur Daniel Boulud’s private events team. “Seductive single bites define our business,” Nury says. Working from his headquarters in a nearly 3,000-square-foot loft in New York’s SoHo, he’s planned meals for fashion brands and art-world clients in cities around the world, among them a Cuban-inspired feast in honor of what turned out to be the final show that the fashion designer Virgil Abloh staged for Louis Vuitton, in Miami. Nury’s inventive takes on classic hors d’oeuvres — for example, thyme-laced tartlets filled with tendrils of Iberico and creamy stracciatella, as a play on ham and cheese — highlight his exacting but playful approach. For a holiday party, Nury recommends preparing canapés that are elegant but comforting and not overly serious. In the videos below, he shares the steps for making three such small bites. First are his tater tots garnished with caviar and Sorrento lemon, which he sometimes finishes instead with juicy orbs of salmon roe or a thin slice of orange and a sprinkle of spices (if you nail the flavor and texture of the canapé’s base, says Nury, the topping can be unfussy). To accompany these, he suggests tiny wedges of tomato jam-topped grilled cheese. “For a great party trick,” Nury says, you can stick a barbecue grate in your fireplace and cook the miniature sandwiches to order. And completing the trio is his surprisingly hearty beef tartare with chips. For a plant-based alternative, grated carrot or golden beet can be used in place of beef, Nury says, and you could even serve the dish deconstructed, allowing people to assemble their ideal bites. That last twist satisfies another of his tenets of special-occasion hosting: Guests should be invited to tailor your creations to their own tastes. The best holiday food, after all, fulfills a personal fantasy of the season. But he also recommends being kind to yourself and abiding by his firmest rule: Don’t do the dishes until the next day.

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New episode of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon: Stream for free

The NBC series “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” returns to the network on Monday, Jan. 8 at 11:30 p.m. ET. Those without cable who want to catch the episode premiere when it airs on NBC can do so for free through either FuboTV or DirecTV Stream, each of which offer a free trial to new users. You can also watch the series on Peacock. In the new episode, the show will welcome actor Seth MacFarlane and singer Mel B. JID will perform as the musical guest. How can I watch the “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” for free without cable? Those without cable can watch the show for free through either through FuboTV or DirecTV Stream, each of which offer a free trial to new users. You can also watch the series in full through Peacock. What is FuboTV? FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, like sports, news, entertainment and local channels. It offers DVR storage space, and is designed for people who want to cut the cord, but don’t want to miss out on their favorite live TV and sports. What is DirecTV Stream? The streaming platform offers a plethora of content including streaming the best of live and On Demand, starting with more than 75 live TV channels.

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A Tuscan Retreat Where Literature is the Primary Value

If the baronessa Beatrice Monti della Corte has found a secret to life, it is stories. At the Santa Maddalena writer’s residency at her rambling estate in rural Tuscany, Monti has hosted some of the foremost storytellers of our time — Zadie Smith, Michael Cunningham, Colm Tóibín, Teju Cole, Sally Rooney, Olga Tokarczuk, Michael Ondaatje, Edmund White, and a couple hundred others. While authors appreciate her hushed writing rooms with olive grove vistas, her company is the principal draw. “The only things Beatrice won’t talk about,” Smith said, “are things that are boring.” At 97, Monti is animated and unstoppable. She runs Santa Maddalena as her personal passion project, accepting no applications and choosing writers according to her instincts, in consultation with her network of friends, publishers and other authors. Her taste, developed over a lifetime of nurturing and being nurtured by literature and art, is considered a bellwether, with several fellows going on to win the Nobel, the Pulitzer, the Booker, the Prix Goncourt.

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Westfield Public Health Bulletin: Avoiding, managing stress is important during holidays

The holidays are a time of joy and stress. There is a happiness in seeing a child’s delight in decorations, lights, snow, Santa, opening gifts and the magic of the season. There is satisfaction in giving and helping the less fortunate. There is peace and pleasure when snuggled under a blanket by the Christmas tree, sipping hot chocolate, while the children play with their new toys. Conversely, there are many demands on everyone. Anxiety, depression, loneliness prevail while dealing with financial strain, unrealistic expectations, family issues, time constraints, wanted and unwanted house guests, trying to maintain family traditions and having to work on the holiday. Eighty-eight percent of Americans say the holidays are the most stressful time of the year. Thirty-one percent say their physical and mental health worsens in November, December and January. Nearly half, 48%, report financial strain is the main cause of holiday stress. Sixty-one percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. You are not alone with your feelings. Women report greater stress and less sleep.

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2 Masterpieces Reveal the Big Bang Moment of Our Art Universe

One room in Contarini’s home displayed the lovely “St. Francis” he’d bought: 50 years on, it still ranked as one of the great portrayals of the holy man. But for all the spiritual heft of that picture, Contarini doesn’t seem to have used it for any prayerful purpose, the way its first owner must have. The collector added it to walls hung with other paintings that could hardly have had less to do with the sacred: Neighboring the “St. Francis” was a Giorgione that illustrated the classical tale of Paris, the Trojan prince, being abandoned in the wilderness as a babe. (We now know that work through copies.) It seems likely that Contarini paired the two paintings because they were about the same size and because both could be admired for their wild landscapes, and for the rivalry they set up between mentor and mentee. In a room nearby, Contarini placed another Bellini, of Christ carrying the cross, and again the collector paired sacred with secular: That Christ hung near two portraits of contemporary women that Contarini almost certainly bought for their art appeal, not because he cared much about their sitters, as earlier owners of portraits would have done. Even more surprising, Bellini’s Christ kept company with three of Venice’s famous courtesans, portrayed in another recent painting. Contarini used this room to compare the latest in people-pictures — even if one of these people was the son of God. And then there was a final space in Contarini’s collection that had a more miscellaneous grouping: a painting of horses, another Trojan scene, and finally “The Three Philosophers” that has settled this fall at the Frick. At first glance, that canvas might have come across as yet another sacred picture. Giorgione’s “Philosophers” has hallmarks of earlier Nativity scenes: Three “wise” men, dressed in what was considered exotic “Eastern” clothing and holding astronomers’ tools and diagrams, stand near the kind of cave that had played manger in some earlier pictures of Christ’s birth. But Mary and the Christ Child are nowhere in sight, and in their absence no one has been able to pin down who the painting’s three figures are supposed to be — wise art historians have suggested possibilities ranging from the prophet Abraham to Pythagoras, by way of a Turkish sultan and Giorgione himself. But the puzzle itself may be a crucial clue to what’s going on. Even an art-loving contemporary of Giorgione’s couldn’t hit on the painting’s subject when he took some notes on Contarini’s collection in 1525. Leading us to our current title, he described the scene as “three philosophers out in nature, two of them standing and one, seated, who is considering the sun’s rays.” (A setting or maybe rising sun glows gorgeous on the horizon.) And it could be that not fully revealing his subject was the painter’s goal — that he was aiming for precisely the puzzlement and pondering that are hallmarks of the way fine art went on to work in Western culture. That note taker was a minor Venetian nobleman named Marcantonio Michiel, and he lets us know that “The Three Philosophers” was only begun by Giorgione — he died of the plague in 1510, in his 30s — to then be finished by his follower Sebastiano del Piombo. As the art historian Charles Hope has pointed out, it’s possible to spot Sebastiano’s stylings on the surface we see today. And sure enough, X-rays hint that the painting started out with more legible, explicitly wise-man-ish gear on its figures, only to see that detail toned down to yield the puzzling ambiguity we’re left with now. It’s as though, in finishing the painting, the younger man was bringing it even more fully in line with that new thing we call “art” that was just then coming to be.

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Four-bedroom home sells in Lexington for $3.9 million

The spacious property located at 3 Brent Road in Lexington was sold on Nov. 28, 2023. The $3,920,000 purchase price works out to $613 per square foot. The house, built in 2002, has an interior space of 6,397 square feet. This two-story house offers a spacious layout with four bedrooms and five baths. The home's outer structure has a gable roof frame, composed of asphalt. Inside, a fireplace enhances the ambiance of the living area. The property is equipped with hot water heating and a cooling system. Additionally, the house features a two-car garage, providing ample room for vehicles and storage needs. Additional houses that have recently been sold close by include: On Brent Road, Lexington, in July 2023, a 2,485-square-foot home was sold for $1,855,000, a price per square foot of $746. The home has 5 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. In February 2023, a 1,000-square-foot home on Adams Street in Lexington sold for $800,000, a price per square foot of $800. The home has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. A 4,658-square-foot home at 4 Millbrook Road in Lexington sold in August 2023, for $3,220,000, a price per square foot of $691. The home has 6 bedrooms and 7 bathrooms. Real Estate Newswire is a service provided by United Robots, which uses machine learning to generate analysis of data from Propmix, an aggregator of national real-estate data. See more Real Estate News