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fe61c902d877660fac75dd09fff2cddf | 0.80038 | culture | Wolverines receives Endangered Species Act protection due to climate change | As New England transitions into late fall and gears up for winter's onset, we are watching the days shorten up and the sun appears lower in the sky. This change in sun angle significantly impacts people living in northern altitude’s ability to produce vitamin D.
A combination of Boston's latitude and the tilt of the northern hemisphere on Earth’s axis away from the sun during the winter makes it more difficult to soak up the sun. Everywhere south of the 37th parallel can still get enough sun in the winter to produce vitamin D. But Boston's latitude is at 42 degrees N, well north of the 37th parallel. If you are looking at the sky, the sun only rises 25 degrees above the horizon in December. In contrast, the sun would be at a 70-degree angle from the horizon in the summer. Consequently, from November to February, the sunlight is not direct enough to facilitate the absorption of vitamin D.
Vitamin D is vital for various bodily processes, with two significant reasons to maintain adequate levels during winter immune system support and the influence on brain function related to mental health. Notably, individuals experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) or seasonal depression often exhibit low levels of vitamin D.
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To address this deficiency during winter, individuals in regions with limited sunlight can consider alternative sources of vitamin D, such as dietary supplements or vitamin D-rich foods and considering vitamin D supplements if recommended by health care professionals can contribute to maintaining optimal vitamin D levels. |
2faf17e266875d7984dcf0f3570c775a | 0.8096 | culture | Arts Beat: Sounds of the season include symphony horns, Caribbean folk music | Ricardo Arjona, the Guatemalan singer and songwriter known for dozens of Latin pop ballads that became international hits over a career that spanned more than 30 years, said he would stop touring, citing back problems and an imminent surgery.
Arjona, 59, wrote in social media posts on Sunday that he would stop performing on his “Blanco y Negro” tour after a show in Santiago, Chile, though his statement fell short of announcing a retirement.
“I’ll have to disappear to invent a reason that’s bigger than this,” he wrote in Spanish. “If I can’t find it, I prefer not to return.”
Arjona said he had received “six spinal infiltrations,” also known as epidural injections, over the past two months to be able to stand during his concerts, and to delay surgery. Before he performed on Saturday, Arjona said he wasn’t sure if he would be able to take a step. His “Blanco y Negro” tour, which began last year in Buenos Aires, included dozens of shows, with several stops in Mexico, Costa Rica and Guatemala. The North American leg of the tour this year included stops at Madison Square Garden in New York, as well as dozens of other cities across the United States. |
91d8b7a54c8c38ac0ae2a8fe7c7d82aa | 0.815436 | culture | Travel in 2023: 12 Months That Took Chaos to a New Level | Here are some of the year’s most disruptive and devastating events for travelers and local residents.
January
Technological trouble — at least in the United States — seemed to seep over from 2022 into the new year. Just weeks after Southwest Airlines upended holiday vacations for as many as 2 million passengers by canceling thousands of flights in late December 2022, another air travel meltdown struck in early January. This time, a technology system failure at the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily grounded domestic departures nationwide, causing thousands of flights across major airlines to be delayed or canceled. The trouble highlighted the fragile airspace system and renewed calls for greater funding for the F.A.A.
The breadth of the outage shocked some passengers traveling that day. Jaime Vallejo was flying from Newark to Ecuador with his wife and three children when he learned that his flight was delayed because of the F.A.A. outage. “That’s the computer system for the whole country, and that’s something that should make you a little nervous,” he said.
February
As powerful winter storms swept across the western and northern United States, hundreds of thousands of people went without electricity. (In Michigan, outages lasted for days.) Thousands of flights were disrupted. Roads were shut down by freezing rain and heavy snowfall, especially in areas unaccustomed to snow — Portland, Ore., received nearly 11 inches of snow in one day.
In the Los Angeles area, heavy flooding washed out roads and put most of the San Fernando Valley under a warning. A dangerous combination of hazards — heavy wind, rain and snow — prompted L.A. County to issue a rare blizzard warning, the first in more than three decades. |
21fcf829bcbac461d74d16ad230f367c | 0.815436 | culture | Nayana LaFond uses art to bring attention to missing and murdered Indigenous people | In recognition of Native American Heritage Month in November, MassLive asked readers to identify people who are leaders from the Indigenous community throughout the state, working to make a difference in their own area of interest, be it politics, education, business or the arts.
MassLive will publish profiles of these leaders through November. These are people our readers have identified as inspirational, who may be doing good acts for their communities. They are being recognized for their accomplishments, leadership and commitment to inspire change.
Nayana LaFond is an artist based in Western Massachusetts. (Hoang 'Leon' Nguyen / The Republican)Leon Nguyen
Nayana LaFond
Age: 42
Community: Athol
Her story: Nayana LaFond has always been an artist. She said she likes to use art as medicine to deal with what life has brought her. Her life has inspired her to unconsciously transition to “artivism” — art that draws attention to social issues. Specifically, she began her journey into activism with the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People painting project.
“Art has become my means of raising awareness and promoting change,” she said.
LaFond said murder is the third leading cause of death for Indigenous people after cancer and heart disease, in comparison with national leading causes of death for non-Indigenous Americans. Murder doesn’t crack the top 10, she said.
LaFond uses art to bring attention to issues such as missing and murdered Indigenous people and domestic abuse. She’s also involved in the community as a board member of the Native Youth Empowerment Fund.
In her words: “Be careful and deliberate in everything you do. Remember that working with people who have experienced trauma should be done carefully and respectfully and no one should ever profit from it.”
We’re always open to hearing about more inspiring people. If you’d like to suggest someone else who should be recognized, please fill out this form. |
1fa3ce6874f6ec392f28941ec212fc6d | 0.815436 | culture | Westfield Police cadets successful toy drive makes season bright for city kids | WESTFIELD — Last Thursday morning, a Police Department pickup truck backed up to the main entrance of Westfield Middle School, the first of seven stops, and several officers and police cadets unloaded over a dozen of bulging garbage bags.
They weren’t filled with rubbish, they were filled with the spirit of Christmas.
“It really is all about the kids,” said Police Department Patrolman John Blascak as the reason the department started the annual Westfield Police cadet toy drive nine years ago.
It started simply enough, Detective Chris Coach said. At the time, he said, his wife was the president of the PTO at the former Juniper Park Elementary School, and told him the organization wanted to provide gifts to children who might otherwise go without, but it didn’t have quite enough money to go around.
Coach began talking with Detective Rick Mazza and they decided to organize a toy drive with the participants of the department’s youth cadet program. Nine years later, the drive is still going strong.
This year, officers and cadets delivered the unwrapped gifts to Westfield Middle School, Abner Gibbs Elementary School, Munger Hill Elementary School, Southampton Road Elementary School and Westfield Intermediate School.
Coach said each of the schools that receives gifts let the police know in advance how many children’s parents need gifts and whether they are for girls or boys. The gifts purchased are appropriate for ages 5-11.
Coach wanted to make it clear that without the community’s help, the toy drive would not be as successful as it has become.
“We really want to thank all who donated,” Coach said.
The toy drive took place on two Saturdays in late November and early December at Walmart, Five Below, Dollar General and Playnow.
Coach said all the 30 cadets participated by standing out in front of each of the stores, handing out flyers about the drive and the gift needs for the children. Cash donations were also accepted, which brought in about $2,000.
That meant Couch had to go shopping, which he did with his daughter.
“It was fun,” he said, adding it took several trips to gather all the toys needed.
In fact, the toys needed for the 250 children filled a garage at the police station and a department storage locker at Westfield-Barnes Regional Airport, Coach said.
While the department had a goal of five gifts per child, Coach said the drive was so successful the number of gifts the children will receive might be more.
When the officers and cadets arrived at Abner Gibbs Elementary School, Principal Erika Masciadrelli said, “it was heartwarming to see them arrive.”
“Many of our children will benefit this Christmas because of the generosity of the cadet program,” she said.
She said the unwrapped gifts are provided to the families needing them.
The department’s cadet program serves as something of a pipeline for new officers, Blascak said. The program is open to those between the ages of 14-21 who are thinking about a career in law enforcement. Blascak said the cadets are trained in aspects of law enforcement during weekly evening meetings.
The cadets also volunteer at many of the city’s civic events, he said. |
a0a247fac64438de1943e15621b1e1e3 | 0.815436 | culture | Dear Annie: My friend wont co-sign my daughters loan and now Im miffed | Dear Annie: My daughter recently and courageously moved across the country to the city her godmother lives in. I chose this friend to be her god mom based on what I thought was a beautiful bond the two had with each other.
I adopted my daughter when she was in her late teens after a heck of a time in the foster care system. My friend gave my daughter a dear nickname early on and lavished praise on her to no end. Fast-forward 15 years later, and my daughter obtained a master’s degree, bought herself a new car, has great credit and is otherwise doing well.
Because my daughter has no rental history, the management company at the apartment she applied to wanted a co-signer. My daughter decided to ask her godmother to co-sign for her, adding, “I have significant cash that I could give to you to hold until you could be removed as co-signer.” Her godmother replied, “No. I won’t be doing that. Welcome to adulting.”
When my daughter shared this with me I was floored! I immediately told my daughter that I would co-sign myself, which, of course, I did.
Annie, am I wrong to be offended to the point of no longer wanting contact with my “friend”? I am shocked and disgusted at how she treated my daughter. No reasoning, no discussion, no contact with me to ask me anything about it. A few weeks later, she sent my daughter a text as if nothing was wrong.
I thought about talking to her about this but frankly can’t imagine what she could say to me that would make how she handled this OK. I feel like I don’t know who she is anymore. Am I being unreasonable cutting this “friend” off?
— Godmother Goes Awry
Dear Godmother Goes Awry: I would certainly talk to your friend before jumping to any conclusions. Everyone has a different parenting philosophy; clearly hers is “sink or swim.” Perhaps she thinks she is doing your daughter a service by forcing her to figure things out for herself. Or perhaps she doesn’t have the money.
Another good guess is that, like many people, she has an inordinate fear of financial commitments. Their attitude is, “Anything to do with money, or signing a contract, forget about it.” This seems possible because your daughter offered to give her the cash as security, and she did not want any part of anything to do with this.
Regardless of the explanation, it seems that your friend and your daughter have a unique relationship, and you should do all you can to keep it intact.
More importantly, how does your daughter feel about her godmother’s response? If she is upset, you should encourage the two of them to have a conversation as well. If she’s not upset, then you should certainly let it go.
Dear Annie: My son is getting married in a year. He has sent out save the dates to family and friends. He sent one to his cousin and his cousin’s fiancee.
Two months later, the same cousin and fiancee sent out wedding invites for their own wedding (taking place two months before my son’s) and did not include my son’s fiancee. I spoke with my nephew to see what happened. He said it was a mistake but he would need to wait to see if others reply no before inviting my soon-to-be daughter-in-law.
It is going to be a fairly large wedding, and I feel like my nephew should remedy the situation now and not later. At this point, if my son’s fiancee is not invited, then the rest of our immediate family, including myself, do not want to attend my nephew’s wedding.
— Irritated Aunt
Dear Irritated Aunt: Your nephew’s logic doesn’t make much sense. If it was a mistake that your son’s fiancee never got her invite, then it shouldn’t really matter how the other guests RSVP. I would speak to your son directly about the matter, and then have him reach out to his cousin and explain why it’s important for his fiancee to receive an invite sooner rather than later.
“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 |
f194ef492f4ea17d74faacbe29f52ee0 | 0.815436 | culture | Every Thanksgiving Food, ranked best to worst | Thanksgiving is a cultural aberration. Somehow, society’s tenuous grasp on colonial history has been distilled into it being perfectly acceptable to eat way too much food before 3 p.m., fall asleep on the couch and then wake up to eat pie until you feel sick.
For one day, decorum is out the door. There’s a sort of unspoken bonding as families and friends participate in cooperative hedonism. What starts as a pristine, Hallmark movie-appropriate spread quickly unravels into chaos as a roasted bird is torn apart with gravy-stained hands.
For this one meal, it’s deemed acceptable to “catch ‘em all” with side dishes like their Pokémon — with the inevitable result that you’ll fall asleep in the second quarter of the Cowboys game that no one is really watching.
This is the peak of human society, and no one can tell me any different. Take that, Roman Empire.
Every year, I set out to rank every conventional Thanksgiving food I can think of. Are they the same as last year? Probably not. I never check where things ranked the year before. That was last year’s version of me who wrote that, and that guy was crazy.
As always, these rankings are not scientific, but they are correct — no matter how much people tell me my mouth is broken.
1. Stuffing - Stuffing is magical anarchy. It is a food that is entirely ungovernable. From the moment Thanksgiving dinner is served on Thursday until leftovers run out, there are no rulers, no kings. You want to take this bread-casserole and put it on a sandwich? Why not? You want to eat it cold out of the fridge while people call you a weirdo? Go for it. You want to put it on a waffle iron because you saw it in a TikTok? No one can stop you.
As long as I have stuffing, anything is possible. This aluminum tray of thrice-cooked savory carb cake can take me anywhere. It can be a sandwich. It can hang out with gravy. It can be breakfast. Fear not the gluten madness! Join me in the guild of stuffing wizards! We’re stocked up until mid-December!
2. Gravy - There is nothing that gravy can’t fix during Thanksgiving dinner. The turkey is dry? Gravy. You’ve only got mashed potatoes on your end of the table? Gravy. Your aunt made weird stuffing with za’atar and sumac because she saw a Bon Appetit video? Gravy.
Gravy is the panacea for all Thanksgiving woes. I’m going to carry a vial of it with me at all times in case I run into danger. If I get kidnapped, I can use it to grease up my wrists and bust out of my handcuffs.
Safety first: Always remember your emergency gravy.
3. Whipped Cream - Now, you might be saying, “Hold on. Whipped cream isn’t a food. It’s a topping.” Well, you could say the same thing about cranberry sauce, and people still consider that bogfruit jelly a side dish.
The point here is this: When I look at the dessert table, half of what I see if basically a vessel to transport whipped cream directly to my face.
4. Chocolate Creme Pie - I like my plate of chocolate creme pie to be about a 50:50 pie-to-whipped cream ratio by volume. I try to make it a 50:50 ratio by weight. But I usually get the can taken from me before that happens.
5. Pecan Pie - This is one of the great marketing scams of all time. If I showed up and served a “sugar pie,” you’d all call me crazy. But if I put a layer of pecans on top of it, all of a sudden it’s a classic.
6. Pumpkin Pie - Each year I think I get tired of pumpkin spice. But then I get a slice of pumpkin pie and remember pumpkin is awesome.
7. Turkey - I always hear about people’s turkey being dry. Listen, I’m sorry that whoever is cooking your turkey doesn’t do as good a job as my mom. I get it, my mom can’t cook Thanksgiving dinner for everyone. Although, based on how much she makes, it certainly looks like she’s trying.
8. Bread/Dinner Rolls - Sometimes things get dire as you’re waiting for Thanksgiving dinner to be ready. Fortunately, dinner rolls are there for emergency rations to sustain you through the tough times. It could be dozens of minutes until dinner is ready. But you’ll persevere, thanks to bread.
9. Mac & Cheese - There seems to be a sort of cultural divide where some folks don’t think mac & cheese is a Thanksgiving food. This makes zero sense to me. It’s basically the same thing as scalloped potatoes or green bean casserole — but with noodles. Plus, I’ll never understand why anyone has ever had the thought along the lines of, “Man, I wish this mac & cheese wasn’t here.”
10. Apple Pie - Listen, I really like apple pie. It’s great. But I can have it any time. It’s like ice cream in February. It’ll have its time to shine later.
11. Mashed Potatoes - The glue that — sometimes literally — holds the Thanksgiving meal together.
12. All Other Pies/Desserts - There are just too many desserts to list. So if you’re looking for something like “Sweet potato pie,” “brownies” or “carrot cake,” put it here. Heck, put Pop-Tarts and Dunkaroos here for all I care. I’m not the sugar police.
13. Cornbread - Solid, versatile. Cornbread is a team player. It doesn’t demand much attention but adds a little something to everything around it. We could all learn something from cornbread.
14. Green Bean Casserole - Either be mac & cheese or be a vegetable dish. Don’t try and be both!
15. Ham - To me, the best Thanksgiving ham comes hours after the meal has ended and I’m feeling snacky. I’ll sneak in to pick off a little piece to eat. That’s my secret ham.
16. Peas - My favorite thing about peas at Thanksgiving is that they stand out color-wise. You only need a few on your plate to declare, “Yes, hello fellow adults, I too have put vegetables on my plate.”
17. Corn - Like peas, but closer to beige.
18. Brussels Sprouts - Good if roasted correctly. I’m always afraid they’re going to fall off the plate.
19. Squash - I’ve started to really come around on squash. But sometimes it’s hard for it to mesh with the rest of the meal.
20. Carrots - Loses points for not being able to mix into mashed potatoes as well as peas or corn.
21. Salad - I say the same thing every year: Having salad at Thanksgiving dinner is like having a paramedic at a Little League game. You’re not going to use it. But everyone feels a little better knowing that it’s there.
22. Scalloped Potatoes - Potatoes? Great. Cheese? Awesome. Scalloped potatoes? Eh. For whatever reason, these are almost always too hot or too cold.
23. Candied Yams - What a waste of good marshmallows.
24. Cranberry Sauce - This viscous, vermilion vitriol has stained Thanksgiving dinner with its blood-tinged ichor for far too long. Every year, these eldritch orbs of acid spawn from bogs in Massachusetts and somehow it’s a source of pride in the state.
It pains me to know that countless flubber fiends will make a visceral “splorp” sound as they limpidly flop out of Ocean Spray cans in the coming days. Then the whole family will eat Thanksgiving dinner with this gelatinous log of astringent avarice sitting there like it isn’t some alien menace.
Now, does cranberry sauce add some much-needed acidity to what’s a very starch-heavy dinner? Maybe. But it doesn’t have to be so weird about it.
Previous rankings
For comparison’s sake, here are rankings from previous years. If you have criticisms about my rankings -- or me arbitrarily changing them from previous years, please send your complaints to mperri@masslive.com. |
ed4fe643670810aba9c4222123c41a40 | 0.815436 | culture | MassLive wants your suggestions for LGBTQ+ leaders to celebrate in Mass. | Massachusetts was the site of the first legal gay marriage ceremony in the United States nearly 20 years ago. Many LGBTQ+ leaders make this state their home, and MassLive is looking to celebrate them.
We are reaching out to ask our readers who is making a mark in areas such as business, art, music, politics, advocacy, activism or education.
Please nominate individuals by filling out the form at this link or in the embedded form below and be sure to include contact information for how we can reach the person.
We will feature Massachusetts LGBTQ+ leaders during the month of February.
Thank you for your help! |
82fd23e18210184885f5ec3263befaa6 | 0.821836 | culture | Concord firefighters save woman, dog after falling through ice | 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.” |
e63fe4aa95f0a8088f4c316e0414d59e | 0.836932 | culture | Robert M. Solow, Groundbreaking Economist and Nobelist, Dies at 99 | The Red Sox face a deadline — and clarity — on another one of their rumored free agent targets later this week. And barring a last-minute surprise, Boston’s pursuit is expected to fall short.
Boston is considered a “long shot” to sign Japanese left-hander Shōta Imanaga before his deadline to sign with a major league club Thursday (Jan. 11), according to a source with knowledge of discussions between the sides. It’s unclear exactly how aggressive the Red Sox have been with Imanaga, who is considered one of the top three free agent starters left on the market and must pick a new team by 5 p.m. ET on Thursday. But unless something changes in the coming days, the southpaw is expected to sign elsewhere.
On Friday, The Boston Globe’s Alex Speier reported the Red Sox were “lurking in Imanaga’s free agency rather than as one of the most involved teams.”
A source said earlier Monday that multiple teams remain interested in the mix for Imanaga. The Angels, Giants, Cubs and Mets have been linked to him, along with the Red Sox, for weeks. On Monday, MLB.com’s Mark Feinsand pegged San Francisco — one of the teams that missed out on fellow top Japanese starter Yoshinobu Yamamoto this winter — as the favorite to sign Imanaga. It’s unclear if Imanaga has a preference to pitch on the west coast.
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Imanaga, 30, was posted by the Yokohama Bay Stars on Nov. 27, opening a 30-day window for teams to sign him. While the lefty is not expected to command a deal close to the 12-year, $325 million contract Yoshinobu Yamamoto received from the Dodgers late last month, he’s still considering an intriguing mid-rotation option who may get more than $100 million on the open market. MLBTradeRumors ranked Imanaga as the No. 10 free agent on this year’s market at the outset of the winter.
The Red Sox, as MassLive’s Sean McAdam reported, heavily scouted Imanaga, who led Nippon Professional Baseball with 174 strikeouts in 2023. For a team that has yet to make major improvements to its starting rotation this winter (Boston signed Lucas Giolito while trading away Chris Sale), Imanaga was thought to be a logical fit. Speier previously reported that Boston was impressed with the left-hander’s pitch metrics despite the fact he’s undersized (5-foot-10) and has a fastball that usually sits in the 92-92 mph range.
In November, McAdam spoke to a veteran scout who had watched Imanaga extensively in both the World Baseball Classic and NPB.
“He’s an undersized lefty who can really throw strikes,” said the evaluator. “He has a plan out there on the mound. He’s not overpowering but I think his strike-throwing and feel to pitch are really his strengths. The (four-seamer) fastball plays. It’s got ride to it, and it’s also got some spin to it. He’s got the ability to got some swing-and-miss with it, even though it’s not overpowering. He can locate it, move it around the zone and keep it away from the barrel.
“I would say his next best pitch would be his split-change. Hitters don’t see that over here as much, and he can throw it to both lefties and righties. After that he has a slider which he throws to lefties, and a curve.
“I see him as a back of the rotation guy. He’s a strike-thrower, but when it comes down to just the quality of the pitches, that gives me a little pause. And the durability.” |
a41311aa75e167bba247cef1dd0e43a1 | 0.84309 | culture | Springfield Marine training in Japan near Mount Fuji (Photos) | Western Massachusetts may get five inches of rain on Monday amid a storm that has brought high winds and heavy rainfall across the state, according to the National Weather Service.
While temperatures across the state are expected to be warm, in the upper 50s and low 60s, the storm’s worst impacts are expected to occur Monday, the weather service said. Heavy rain may lead to flooding in Western Massachusetts and on the coast, and strong winds are expected to cause widespread power outages.
[630 AM] A steady moderate to heavy rain this morning will transition to showers this afternoon. Street/highway flooding will continue along with strong to damaging winds. Strongest winds occur this morning into midday for #CapeCod & Islands. #MAwx #RIwx #CTwx pic.twitter.com/RK3SmJruqM — NWS Boston (@NWSBoston) December 18, 2023
Heavy rain and flooding
By 7:30 a.m., some areas of western Massachusetts had already received over 2 inches of rain. National Weather Service Meteorologist Torry Dooley said a weather spotter in Westfield had recorded 2.25 inches, while a spotter in Williamsburg had recorded 2.8 inches.
The western halves of Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties and the eastern half of Berkshire County are expected to get the most rain, with up to five inches possible, according to the weather service. Springfield, Pittsfield and Great Barrington should all miss the heaviest rain, but will likely still see two to three inches, as will central Massachusetts west of I-95.
East of I-95, the weather service predicts 1.5 to 2 inches of rain, except for the South Coast, Cape and Islands. The South Coast, Martha’s Vineyard and western Cape should see an inch to an inch and a half of rain, while Nantucket and the eastern Cape can expect a half inch to an inch.
A flood watch is in effect until 7 p.m. Monday in Worcester and Springfield and until 5 a.m. Tuesday in Pittsfield. In these parts of the state, excessive runoff may cause rivers to flood, and creeks and streams may rise out of their banks, according to the weather service. Additional flooding may occur in urban areas with poor drainage.
High winds and power outages
According to the National Weather Service, by 6:30 a.m., a weather spotter in Goshen had recorded wind gusts of 63 mph. Meanwhile, in Norwood, wind gusts up to 56 mph had been recorded, and gusts around 52 mph were recorded in Taunton, New Bedford and Plymouth.
A high wind warning is in effect in southeastern Middlesex, Suffolk and eastern Norfolk and Plymouth Counties until 7 p.m. Monday. Winds of 25 to 35 mph with gusts up to 60 mph are expected in these areas, according to the weather service.
The weather service predicts the winds will blow down trees and power lines, causing widespread power outages. Travel will also be difficult, especially in vehicles that are high off the ground.
Read more: Snow possible in Western and Central Massachusetts on Tuesday
Peak winds are expected to occur between 7 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday. The weather service advises those who must drive to drive with caution, and for residents to stay in the lower levels of their home and avoid windows.
A wind advisory is also in effect in central Massachusetts until 7 p.m. Monday, and in western Massachusetts until 4 p.m. Monday. In these areas of the state, the weather service predicts 20 to 30 mph winds, with gusts up to 55 mph.
Storm timeline
The National Weather Service expects the storm’s worst impacts to continue into the early afternoon Monday, but that the heavy rain and high winds will taper off by the end of the afternoon.
The National Weather Service expects Monday's storm to peak in the morning and taper off by the afternoon.National Weather Service
Massachusetts will experience some scattered thunderstorms Tuesday, but they are not expected to be impactful, the weather service said. Areas of high elevation in the Worcester Hills and the Berkshires could experience light snow amid the rain.
The rest of the week is expected to be clear and cool, according to the weather service. |
dd279679557cc10982661d35e72852f6 | 0.84309 | culture | From the Queer Archives: How two-spirit gatherings in the Midwest reshaped queer indigeneity | As we start to dig out from over a foot of snow in spots, the screaming message of the day is, "Don't put it in the street or over a storm drain."
Torrential rain, high winds and a serious meltdown are in order by Tuesday night and early Wednesday.
Otherwise, our weather is quiet over the next 36 hours. Unfortunately, we won't get much melting done through Tuesday as our highs only top the mid-30s Monday and near 40 Tuesday. In fact, there may be some light accumulation of snow at the onset of the storm Tuesday night, especially across central Massachusetts and southern New Hampshire.
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That still won't be enough to stop the major meltdown in store for Tuesday night and all of Wednesday. High temperatures will spike to the low/mid 50s in a small window early Wednesday morning before settling back to the 40s for the remainder of the day.
Gusty winds from the south/southeast will be strongest from late evening Tuesday straight through early morning Wednesday. There will be a pause early Wednesday, then additional gusty (although not as strong as overnight Tuesday) winds are expected Wednesday afternoon.
This warm storm is just one of two that will take a swipe at New England in the next six days.
The next is Saturday. Another dose of rain and wind with that system, too. So, it's wise to keep the snow off the storm drains, and to dig out the gutter downspouts, fire hydrants and any covered storm or sewer drains.
Stay warm this morning. Breezes will make it feel like the teens into the late morning. |
043f933dd32e274145c21942d9a4ad35 | 0.84425 | culture | Businesses, volunteers deliver 223 Thanksgiving meals for families in Westfield | WESTFIELD — Two hundred twenty-three turkeys, each with five pounds of potatoes, stuffing, gravy, green beans, onion rings, cranberry sauce, corn, soup, brownie mix and grocery gift cards were packed and delivered on Monday to Westfield schools for distribution to families needing a little help to prepare their holiday meal.
The Thanksgiving food drive, co-chaired by Susan and Ralph Figy and Eileen and Jim Jachym, was boosted by donations and volunteers from local businesses and individuals from the community who sponsored ingredients and gift cards and came together on Friday morning, Nov. 18, to pack the bags in a well-organized assembly line with the help of a crew from Westfield Middle School. Several city councilors also joined the group to put together the meals for delivery to the schools. |
9b7e983e30cda748889ad0baf3c7e62e | 0.84425 | culture | Its Getting Hard to Stage a School Play Without Political Drama | Stevie Ray Dallimore, an actor and teacher, had been running the theater program for a private boys’ school in Chattanooga for a decade, but he never faced a school year like this one.
A proposed production of “She Kills Monsters” at a neighboring girls’ school that would have included his students was rejected for gay content, he said. A “Shakespeare in Love” at the girls’ school that would have featured his boys was rejected because of cross-dressing. His school’s production of “Three Sisters,” the Chekhov classic, was rejected because it deals with adultery and there were concerns that some boys might play women, as they had in the past, he said.
School plays — long an important element of arts education and a formative experience for creative adolescents — have become the latest battleground at a moment when America’s political and cultural divisions have led to a spike in book bans, conflicts over how race and sexuality are taught in schools, and efforts by some politicians to restrict drag performances and transgender health care for children and teenagers. |
fb50e27cb29a35d5c5be631d4e62e626 | 0.861916 | culture | Nurse's viral plea on living paycheck to paycheck highlights struggles in today's economy | Two people are dead as a result of an early morning single-car crash in Boston’s Dorchester neighborhood, according to Massachusetts State Police.
Boston police said officers responded to the intersection of Morrissey Boulevard and Old Colony Avenue around 3:15 a.m. for a report of a rollover car crash with injuries.
State police wrote on social media just after 7 a.m. that two people had died as a result of the crash and that a third had life-threatening injuries. A fourth person in the vehicle suffered minor injuries.
A portion of Morrissey Boulevard was closed Thursday morning as a result of the crash. Pictures of the crash shared to social media show the car still on its side.
Authorities are still investigating the incident. No further information about the crash, including the identities of the victims, has been released. State police said they would release more information about the crash at a later time. |
b89bb6f248b219b8a07c15887bf5b730 | 0.929988 | culture | Stuffy, Preppy, Sleepy: Can a Rebrand Fix Connecticuts Reputation? | Three years ago, George Gascón rode a wave of collective outrage following the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis to become district attorney of Los Angeles by promising to make the criminal justice system fairer and, most crucially, to rein in the police.
Now, to win re-election and stay in office, Mr. Gascón will need to tap into a different type of emotion: fear — in particular a perception that Los Angeles is less safe and that his policies as district attorney have made it so, an argument advanced by many of his challengers but largely unsupported by data.
“I think that this race now for 2024 has gone back to, for a lot of people, law and order, lock ’em up,” Mr. Gascón said in an interview.
Mr. Gascón’s victory in 2020 was one of the most consequential electoral outcomes from the movement for social justice and police accountability galvanized by Mr. Floyd’s murder by a Minneapolis police officer. And for the national movement that in recent years has helped elect progressive prosecutors in jurisdictions across the country, the victory in Los Angeles was momentous: The county, with a population almost the size of Ohio’s has the nation’s largest prosecution office, the largest jail system and a long history of police abuses. |
d99a18d4d35e3fbf6c1fb0e34707d62c | 0.929988 | culture | Edible Neighborhood Emerges At Little Wanderers Gingerbread House Contest | House Democrats splintered on Tuesday over a resolution condemning the rise of antisemitism in the United States and around the world, with more than half of them declining to support a measure declaring that “anti-Zionism is antisemitism.”
The resolution denouncing antisemitism, drafted by Republicans, passed by a vote of 311 to 14, drawing the support of all but one Republican. Ninety-two Democrats voted “present” — not taking a position for or against the measure — while 95 supported it.
That reflected deep and growing divisions among Democrats between those who have offered unequivocal support for the Jewish state and its actions, and others — especially in the party’s progressive wing — who have been critical of Israel’s policies and its conduct in the war with Hamas.
“Under this resolution, those who love Israel deeply but criticize some of its policy approaches could be considered anti-Zionist,” Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the longest-serving Jewish member of the House, said in a floor speech before he voted “present.” “That could make every Democratic Jewish member of this body, because they all criticized the recent Israeli judicial reform package, de facto antisemites. Might that be the author’s intention?”
Zionism began as the movement to create a Jewish state in the land previously known as Palestine, and since Israel’s founding, has been defined as the political ideology of supporting Israel’s continued existence as a Jewish state.
The House has passed a number of resolutions in recent weeks to declare solidarity with Israel, denounce antisemitism and repudiate the actions of Hamas and its supporters, after the Oct. 7 Hamas-led attack that killed more than 1,200 people and took about 240 more hostage.
Representative David Kustoff, Republican of Tennessee and the author of the resolution, rejected the suggestion that his measure was political, instead charging that Democrats have espoused anti-Jewish opinions.
“We have seen members of this very body repeat blatantly antisemitic rhetoric and spread lies about Israel and her right to exist,” Mr. Kustoff said on the floor. “Let me be absolutely clear, such hate has no place in the halls of Congress, nor in our national discourse.”
In recent weeks, Republicans and a number of Democrats have accused some left-wing Democrats of using antisemitic language. Last month, the House censured Representative Rashida Tlaib, Democrat of Michigan, for promoting a pro-Palestinian slogan, “from the river to the sea,” that is seen by many as calling for the destruction of the state of Israel.
Ms. Tlaib denied that was her intention, defending the rhetoric as an aspirational call for Palestinian statehood. She has also come under fire from her colleagues for accusing President Biden of supporting a “genocide” in the Gaza Strip.
Genocide is defined under international law as a crime with the intent to destroy a national, racial, ethnic or religious group. Israeli officials have insisted they are trying to target Hamas, blaming the terrorist group for any collateral damage. Some human rights officials have questioned Israel’s tactics, however, as the civilian death toll has climbed, with the health authorities in Gaza estimating more than 15,500 have been killed.
Such sentiments have been echoed by pro-Palestinian protesters in large cities and on college campuses, during demonstrations that have sometimes been punctuated by voices questioning Israel’s right to exist, and incidents targeting Jewish students.
Democrats questioning the resolution called such displays of anti-Jewish sentiment unacceptable, but said equating all anti-Zionism to antisemitism went too far.
“Let me be unequivocally clear: most anti-Zionism, particularly in this moment, has a real antisemitism problem,” Mr. Nadler said. “But we cannot fairly say that one equals the other.” |
8e09e64fc7ec60ed6fd7aaf5d0b25893 | 0.957395 | culture | 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. |
8b03ef6c5ef326577ab076f9415e6c80 | 0.976266 | culture | Tolkien Estate Wins Court Order to Destroy Fans Lord of the Rings Sequel | It was supposed to be what a fan described as a “loving homage” to his hero, the author J.R.R. Tolkien, and to “The Lord of the Rings,” which he called “one of the most defining experiences of his life.”
A judge in California had another view.
The fan, Demetrious Polychron of Santa Monica, Calif., violated copyright protections this year when he wrote and published a sequel to the epic “Rings” series, U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson of the Central District of California ruled last week.
In a summary judgment, Judge Wilson found “direct evidence of copying” and barred Polychron from further distributing the book or any others in a planned series. He also ordered Polychron to destroy all electronic and physical copies of the published work, “The Fellowship of the King,” by Sunday. As of Wednesday, Amazon and Barnes & Noble were no longer listing the book for sale online.
The saga began in 2017, when Polychron emailed and then hand-delivered a gift-wrapped copy of his book to Simon Tolkien, a grandson of the author, at his home in Santa Barbara, Calif. Accompanying the gift was a letter in which Polychron said that he had written “the obvious pitch-perfect sequel” to Tolkien’s fantastical trilogy about Middle-earth and that he “really didn’t have a choice,” according to court documents. He said his goal was “to stick as close to canon as I could.” |
7a91b679cec9a53449bef18457dcc3e4 | 0.992582 | culture | Carlos Lyra, Composer Who Brought Finesse to Bossa Nova, Dies at 90 | Carlos Lyra, a Brazilian composer, singer and guitarist whose cool, meticulous melodies helped give structure and power to bossa nova, the samba-inflected jazz style that became a worldwide phenomenon in the early 1960s, died on Dec. 16 in Rio de Janeiro. He was 90.
His daughter, the singer Kay Lyra, said the cause of his death, in a hospital, was sepsis.
Alongside Antônio Carlos Jobim, Mr. Lyra was widely considered among the greatest composers of bossa nova. Mr. Jobim once called him “a great melodist, harmonist, king of rhythm, of syncopation, of swing” and “singular, without equal.”
Mr. Lyra was part of a loose circle of musicians who in the 1950s began looking for ways to blend the traditional samba sounds of Brazil with American jazz and European classical influences. They often gathered at the Plaza Hotel in Rio, not far from the Copacabana beach, to discuss music and hash out ideas. |
fcb1528cc87f06b188c03b3f1e3a6a7b | 0.995031 | culture | Date for 2024 Boston Pride Parade announced | The date for the largest Pride celebration in New England has officially been announced.
Boston Pride 2024 will be held on Saturday, June 8, the event said in a Instagram post Monday, Jan. 8. This is the second year that the organization Boston Pride For The People (BP4TP) is hosting the celebration.
“We are thrilled to be back for a second year helping our City and region celebrate the LGBTQ+ community’s vibrancy and joy,” Adrianna Boulin, president of BP4TP, said in a statement according to NBC10 Boston.
“We are committed to creating a Pride that is built by us and for us, that reflects and honors our rich culture and diversity,” Boulin continued.
The Boston Pride Parade returned to the city last year for the first time since 2019. The parade was put on hold following the COVID-19 pandemic. It did not return in 2022 after restrictions loosened.
Read More: Boston Pride Parade marks its comeback in Copley Square after hiatus since 2019
The parade’s original nonprofit organizer, Boston Pride, also dissolved in 2021 amid a boycott over issues of race and transgender inclusion, and complaints of excessive commercialization of the parade, MassLive previously reported.
No new organizer picked up the event in 2022.
More than 1 million people attended the parade in 2023, NBC10 Boston reported. This year’s parade will start in Copley Square and make its way through the South End before finishing at Boston Common.
Read More: How to find the best sledding spots in the Greater Boston Area
Two festivals will take also place throughout the day including an all ages festival on Boston Common and a 21-plus festival at Boston City Hall Plaza, according to NBC10 Boston.
BP4TP is also seeking volunteers to help with the event. Volunteers will have to attend weekly committee meetings from January to June. Applications will be accepted until Saturday, Jan. 13. Click here to apply. |
2510238ce952b2066545da45eb0c0f44 | 0.996072 | culture | Joan Acocella, Dance Critic for The New Yorker, Dies at 78 | Joan Acocella, a cultural critic whose elegant, erudite essays about dance and literature appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Review of Books for more than four decades, died on Sunday at her home in Manhattan. She was 78.
Her son, Bartholomew Acocella, said the cause was cancer.
Ms. Acocella (pronounced ack-ah-CHELL-uh) wrote deeply about dancers and choreographers, including Mikhail Baryshnikov, Suzanne Farrell and George Balanchine. She scrutinized the vicissitudes of the New York City Ballet as well as the feats of the ballroom-dancing pros and celebrity oafs of the popular TV series “Dancing With the Stars.”
She was The New Yorker’s dance critic from 1998 to 2019 and freelanced for The Review for 33 years. Her final articles for The Review were a two-part commentary in May on the biography “Mr. B: George Balanchine’s 20th Century,” by Jennifer Homans, her successor as The New Yorker’s dance critic.
“What she wrote for us,” Emily Greenhouse, the editor of The Review, said in an email, “was often mischievous and always delicious — on crotch shots and cuss words, on Neapolitan hand gestures and Isadora Duncan’s emphasis on the solar plexus.” |
55bd88456f631e7d0787db54f36705f5 | 0.997275 | culture | 3 most harmful books selling purity culture in 2023 | Sign up for Reckon’s latest weekly newsletter covering the three topics never to be discussed at the dinner table. Enter your email to subscribe to Matter of Faith.
The impact of “I Kissed Dating Goodbye,” authored by disgraced pastor Joshua Harris in 1997, introduced an alternative to dating called “courting,” emphasizing strict rules on physical touch and supervised dates within Christian teenage circles. However, this book is just one example in a series of influential works promoting unrealistic modesty rules and harmful abstinence-only rhetoric, also known as “purity culture.”
Rooted in white Christian nationalism, a societal framework that advocates for a white, Christian centered political and social structure, purity culture perpetuates teachings favoring a white, straight, religious standard for relationships. This stance disregards alternative lifestyles and non-nuclear family structures, contributing to the promotion of abstinence until marriage as a safeguard for one’s body and soul in line with evangelical ideals about sexuality.
Despite its long-standing existence, these teachings have been linked to adverse outcomes, including increased rates of unintended pregnancies, sexually transmitted infections, and mental and physical health issues stemming from sexual repression.
Purity culture has even been linked to reduced rates of vaccination against HPV–the most common sexually transmitted disease in the world that can progress to cancer in both men and women. A 2023 study by the American Society for Virology found college students who were more religious were less likely to be vaccinated against HPV and less likely to vaccinate their children, even though the vaccine has found to be safe and highly effective.
While books perpetuating sexual health misinformation continue to be available in bookstores and classrooms nationwide, Reckon spoke with sexual health experts and readers to identify and highlight these problematic reads, aiming to create awareness about their detrimental impact.
Here are the books to add to your anti-reading list:
“Every Young Man/Woman’s Battle” (The Every Man series)
This book was among the top books mentioned both by experts and by commenters online who shared their experiences with how these books affected their lives and view of their own sexuality.
While “Every Man’s Battle” was a common read for young men, there were 24 other books in the series published including a female companion “Every Woman’s Battle.” There’s also a series aimed at teenagers that inserts “young” in the title.
Matthias Roberts, host of the Queerology podcast and author of “Beyond Shame: Creating a Healthy Sex Life on Your Own Terms,” said the book created a confusing juxtaposition for him as a gay man, creating an impossible standard for him.
“The series pushes the idea that you are sinful for even experiencing sexual feelings. Despite their insistence that attraction to women is natural for men, the books read as if feelings of attraction are just as bad as having sex outside of marriage,” he said.
One user on reddit, u/IcedCoffeeVoyager, said the book has affected his sexual relationship with his wife.
“‘Every Man’s Battle’ and ‘I Kissed Dating Goodbye’ fucked me up. I’m happily married and sexually active with my wife, but I’m very uncomfortable discussing what I like or want to explore with her. Even though she’s very comfortable and open about her end of things. I just can’t make myself say it, there’s a mental block because expressing these thoughts is shameful thanks to purity culture programming,” said reddit user
The comment was shared on a post asking about the books that most heavily influenced people’s purity culture views on their sexuality.
The books are still available online and in print–just a click away from having the book on your e-reader or other electronic device.
“And the Bride Wore White” by Dannah Gresh
When Reckon asked sex educator Erica Smith about the books she hears her clients talk about most often, one of her first responses was “anything by Dannah Gresh.” Smith created the “Purity Culture Dropout” online course and regularly posts information about sexual health and finding a new sexual ethic outside of purity culture.
Gresh, an author and founder of Pure Freedom Ministries, which focuses on producing content on sexual purity for girls, has created a range of content for girls of all ages. Her work has been highly criticized by commenters and experts for introducing girls to modesty and purity culture before they begin puberty.
She’s also been accused of attacking the LGBTQ+ community in her books.
“’Lies Girls Believe’ subtly attacks the LGBTQ community by arguing that there are only two “very different” genders. And this, unfortunately, is precisely how hate is spread, by teaching innocent children that others are “sinning” for being who they are,” according to a review on the Reader Fox book review blog.
Twitter user Lorca Damon called “And the Bride Wore White” the “worst.” Smith added that Gresh’s work is especially harmful because it targets girls at a very young age.
“Dannah Gresh starts girls young with the belief that there is one singular way to be a good and pure person. She has books for every age of girlhood, she’s focused on getting this message to girls before puberty. Everything is on the girl’s shoulders,” Smith said.
Her book “Secret Keeper” is about modesty and how women have a special gift that they will eventually share with one man, Smith explained. The book is such an inflection point for her that she’s made social videos focusing on the book exclusively. She explains the book in a reel posted on her Instagram, where she explains that the book teaches that girls’ purpose is to “captivate and intoxicate one man–but just one.”
“Boy Meets Girl” by Joshua Harris
While Harris’ “I Kissed Dating Goodbye” has been one of the most discussed purity culture books of all time, he wrote more than one book on purity. Another book by Harris that readers said affected their views on sexuality was “Boy Meets Girl.”
This book presented an unrealistic standard that commenters on reddit described as “gross” in a post about the book.
“Boy Meets Girl by Joshua Harris. This had me convinced that dating someone was only suitable if I knew for sure that I would be happy marrying them. Anything less was basically cheating on my future spouse. It’s so gross, but when I was 17 and everything in my life revolved around church teaching? I desperately wanted to “live beyond reproach,” said reddit user u/Sad-Percentage9289.
Following the announcement of his divorce and leaving the Christian faith, Harris stopped publishing all of his books, including “Boy Meets Girl” and “I Kissed Dating Goodbye.”
So what should I read instead?
If you’re looking for a better take on sexual ethics, check out these titles:
This book addresses how to create a new sexual ethic after you decide abstinence unless you’re married isn’t the right choice for you. It also includes perspectives that are inclusive of LGBTQ+ experiences.
This book is a great primer on sexual response, particularly for cisgender women. It doesn’t include transgender sexuality, but is a useful resources for cis folks.
God and the Gay Christian : The Biblical Case in Support of Same-Sex Relationships” by Matthew Vines
This book outlines a biblical perspective on same-sex relationships that celebrates and includes LGBTQ+ folks’ faith and relationships.
Pure ” by Linda Kay Kline
Kline tells her story and the stories of many other people who grew up in purity culture and are working to untangle the web of restriction in their minds. |
2384d0ea00315cd3fdf618e7c4ca7f28 | 0.997967 | culture | Concord firefighters save woman, dog after falling through ice | A woman who fell through the ice while trying to save a dog were both rescued on Friday, the Concord Fire Department announced.
At around 10:40 a.m., the department received a call from a passerby about a 26-year-old woman who fell through the ice at a pond near Balls Hill Road, according to a statement.
The passerby guided 10 firefighters who arrived to rescue the woman. When they found her, she and the dog had both pulled themselves from the ice to the edge of the water, the fire department said.
She and the dog were wrapped in blankets, while firefighters treated her for hypothermia. The woman was placed in a Stokes basket stretcher and carried by firefighters for a quarter-mile while they navigated through steep terrain and trails to reach a clearing.
Read more: Woman dies after SUV hits her walking on Revere street
A fire department RTV then drove her to an ambulance, which took her to a nearby hospital. The dog was taken to a nearby veterinary hospital.
“Our firefighters worked swiftly and professionally to help this woman and dog get to safety after falling through the ice, and we are happy that they are alright,” said Concord Fire Chief Thomas Judge. “We would like to remind members of the community that our recommendation is to stay off the ice, but if you choose to do so, to proceed with great caution and be prepared.” |
7df71c232b656400cb5c0e4b681d3e8c | 0.998061 | culture | In Remote Canada, a College Becomes a Magnet for Indian Students | On a college campus in northern Canada, eight hours by car from Toronto, most of the students who fill the classrooms are from a country half a world away: India.
The young men and women stretching on mats in the gymnasium are more likely to be from Punjab or Gujarat, two Indian states, rather than rural Ontario. Hindi and Punjabi drowned out English in the cafeteria’s lunchtime cacophony.
In the surrounding city of Timmins, the waiters at two new Indian restaurants do not ask customers how spicy they want their dishes. A shuttered bar named Gibby’s has been reopened as a Sikh temple, or gurdwara, where students from the school, Northern College, gathered on a recent evening.
“We feel like we are in India,” said Mehardeep Singh, 20, a general arts and science major, who led a prayer. “In every class, there are only three or four local people. The rest are from India.” |
20e15d018d7e5b7147eebb4ec63e0d58 | 0.999348 | culture | Opinion | Train Yourself to Always Show Up | A somewhat obscure text, about 2,000 years old, has been my unlikely teacher and guide for the past many years, and my north star these last several months, as so many of us have felt as if we’ve been drowning in an ocean of sorrow and helplessness.
Buried deep within the Mishnah, a Jewish legal compendium from around the third century, is an ancient practice reflecting a deep understanding of the human psyche and spirit: When your heart is broken, when the specter of death visits your family, when you feel lost and alone and inclined to retreat, you show up. You entrust your pain to the community.
The text, Middot 2:2, describes a pilgrimage ritual from the time of the Second Temple. Several times each year, hundreds of thousands of Jews would ascend to Jerusalem, the center of Jewish religious and political life. They would climb the steps of the Temple Mount and enter its enormous plaza, turning to the right en masse, circling counterclockwise.
Meanwhile, the brokenhearted, the mourners (and here I would also include the lonely and the sick), would make this same ritual walk but they would turn to the left and circle in the opposite direction: every step against the current. |
db64d819c52ca0213909f9cdbe9bba9e | 0.168323 | entertainment | 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. |
2014799beeec55061695fd7a26405d8a | 0.190383 | entertainment | Mega Millions numbers: Are you the lucky winner of Tuesdays $165 million jackpot? | Are you tonight’s lucky winner? Grab your tickets and check your numbers. The Mega Millions lottery jackpot continues to rise after someone won the $395 million prize on December 8.
Here are the winning numbers in Tuesday’s drawing:
12-15-32-33-53; Mega Ball: 24; Megaplier: 3X
The estimated jackpot for the drawing is $165 million. The cash option is about $80.3 million. If no one wins, the jackpot climbs higher for the next drawing.
According to the game’s official website, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers -- five different numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from 1 to 25 -- or select Easy Pick. A player wins the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.
Jackpot winners may choose whether to receive 30 annual payments, each five percent higher than the last, or a lump-sum payment.
Mega Millions drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays and are offered in 45 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $2 each. |
6b6e2cb66c67bef6f4687771d9004d0f | 0.191696 | entertainment | And the winner is... | Black Joy December 22, 2023 | Sign up to get positive Black news stories, words of affirmation and weekly curated playlists delivered to your inbox twice a week: Enter your email to subscribe to Black Joy.
When you were asked what you wanted to be when you grew up, how did you answer?
When I chat with Black creatives about this question, many of them say they felt unsupported when they talked about being an artist, singer, or poet. I felt hurt when people predicted that I wouldn’t make it as a reporter. Luckily, my passion for writing outweighed other’s opinion of both the journalism field and my capabilities to navigate it. There’s a magical element to writing that I just couldn’t let go of. I was a fiction reader back then and I admired how writers could transcend time and space with words. How the literary chemistry of a paragraph could set the mood and pace of an entire story.
I wanted to make a career out of writing, and journalism seemed like a way in. I was also a hyper-aware child with big feelings, which I later learned are reactions to abuse. But I’m proud of my younger self for subconsciously transforming remnants of trauma into tools of fulfillment. My hypervigilance allowed me to observe the environment around me. My big feelings gave me the ability to emphatically connect with people. Both of these traits became superpowers when you’re interviewing someone.
May 2024 will mark 10 years of journalism for me. A decade’s worth of having the honor of connecting with people and the privilege to tell their stories to the world. I believe that when we disarm ourselves of our egos and dive into the depths of someone’s story we will emerge as our better selves because all of us have some wisdom we can share. I hope you take the time to connect to the stories you haven’t read yet as we celebrate the winners of the inaugural Black Joy Awards. Also, don’t forget to slip this newsletter to your friends and fam’s inboxes so they can join this masterclass of life as well.
– Starr
Griot of the Gospel: Juiccy Misdemeanor
Colorado drag queen Juiccy Misdemeanor saw the need for Black queer spaces in her area
Turn to your neighbor and say, “The sanctuary is for er’body!”
And Colorado drag queen Juiccy Misdemeanor is your griot in the church of Black Joy. Griots safeguard our identity through multiple mediums of performance: music, dance, poetry, oral history, drama, etc. Nearly all of those elements were used during Juiccy’s Gospel drag brunches. Her genius to use praise music – a celebration of Black spirituality – helped Black Pride Colorado build a sense of community and refuge for queer folks who find relief in the Gospel bops. Funny how those who were once chastised out of the church are now creating these powerful spaces. Only God can do it! *bust out in a praise dance*
Read Juiccy’s story here.
Cultivators of community: Fennigan’s Farms
Amanda Brezzell and Claire Austin of Fennigan's Farms
Speaking of powerful spaces, we gotta send gratitude to the real ones who got our backs during good times and bad. This year, the Cultivator award goes to Fennigan’s Farms. Sisters Amanda Brezzell and Claire Austin are truly standing on business when it comes to increasing food access in Detroit. They not only help their neighbors build their own gardens or greenhouses in affordable ways, they also teach their community how to live a healthy lifestyle off the land. Let me grab me some overalls and get to work, sis!
Read more about Fennigan’s Farms here.
Healing collectives: Afro Mermaid and Fight Through Flights
A group of Black and brown mermaids gather for the 2022 Afro Mermaid Summit in Miami.
Life be life-ing sometimes. Which is why Black-centered organizations are a must for our livelihoods! We’re celebrating two winners in the collective category: Afro Mermaid and Fight Through Flights. Folks got big mad when a Black woman was picked to be Ariel in the live action remake of “The Little Mermaid.” But what haters don’t know is that professional Black mermaids like Carrie Wata are healing Black folks’ relationship with water while empowering their imaginations. Don’t know about y’all but I wanna get under the sea with Carrie!
Founded by two women who lost their beloved sister to breast cancer, Fight Through Flights is a nonprofit helping Black women who have survived or are living with breast cancer live their best life through wellness retreats. Sometimes traveling is the best therapy and it’s even better when you got your girls.
Read more about Afro Mermaid here.
Read more about Fight Through Flights here.
Fight Through Flights Leadership Retreat in Caye Caulker, Belize.
Brilliant visionary: Maori Karmael of BlackStar Film Festival
Maori Karmael Holmes, BlackStar Film Festival founder.
Visionaries reimagine the past, present and future for our betterment. And Maori Karmael understood the assignment well when she founded Philadelphia’s BlackStar Film Festival. Known as the “Black Sundance,” BlackStar has given Black and indigenous filmmakers space to stretch their creative muscles without censoring the authenticity of their stories. Listen to Maori’s story as she kicks off the second season of our Black Joy Archive podcast.
Read more about Maori here.
Nurturer of the youth: Akiea Gross
Akiea Gross founder of Woke Kindergarten
The kids really are alright under the care of abolitionist Akiea Gross. A tough stint in the education field and the murder of George Floyd pushed Akiea to go all in for their pedagogy, Woke Kindergarten. Parents and teachers can use Woke Kindergarten’s online portal to access mini lesson plans that break down big concepts like colonialism and anti-capitalism for our youngest minds. When it comes to the revolution, class is always in session no matter the age.
Read more about Akiea Gross here.
The Playful Healer: Ghrey Mbenza
Ghrey Mbneza, a queer occupational therapist, poses for a photo.
As an occupational therapist in Seattle, people like Ghrey Mbenza are important — when we heal ourselves, we heal our lineage.
Ghrey is proud to be a person who plays too much (in a good way!). Their greatest personality trait led to a career rooted in joy and radical imagination. Ghrey helps neurodiverse children meet their cognitive and behavioral goals through their practice Play With Ghrey. We love an adult who lets children’s wonder thrive without limits.
Read more about Ghrey here.
All the kids win at Black Joy
Keith Griffith III, the 16-year-old award-winning entrepreneur who started a honey bee business called Beeing2gether in Louisville, Ky., holds up a honeycomb he pulled out of a nuc box.
Let’s sing together in the key of Whitney Houston: I believe that children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way!
Which is why all the nominees in our Babies category are winners. Yes, we are those people because all of these kids are doing incredible things for their communities. We got Keith Griffith III, a teen entrepreneur who started his community-based beekeeping business in Kentucky. Then we have Ohio teen philanthropist Logan Williams who helps the homeless through her nonprofit Blanket Blessings. And Sailor Kinsley is making sure to spread positivity with laughter on social media.
Read more about Keith here.
Read more about Logan here.
Watch Sailor Kinsley on our Instagram.
Disney Dreamer Logan Williams smiles for the camera.
Monumental memory-keepers: Hess Love and Andrea Walls
Hess Love in a flower crown.
The last is definitely not least when it comes to our memory-keepers. These folks use their gifts to preserve our history, traditions and heritage. Hess Love does this through Hoodoo, archiving, environmental science and storytelling. Founder of the Chesapeake Conjure Society, Hess expresses the importance of reclaiming Hoodoo as a Black practice and not a demonized one.
As the founding archivist of Philly’s Museum of Black Joy, Andrea Walls pushes against the European standards of preservation. She taps into community organizing and other experimental forms of collecting to properly portray our culture in a world that wants our joy to be invisible both in history and in the present.
Read more about Hess Love here.
Read more about Andrea Walls here.
Black women archivists: Andrea Walls, keondra freemyn, Zakiya Collier
And that’s all folks! This is my last newsletter of 2023. I wanna thank y’all for helping me close out the year with some celebratory energy in my bones. See ya in 2024 to the stage to spread more Black joy. |
eeeb11771bd27177db0f13da0fa0b852 | 0.193001 | entertainment | Tom Wilkinson, 'The Full Monty' actor, dead at 75 | Tom Wilkinson, best known for his role in "The Full Monty," has died. He was 75.
"It is with great sadness that the family of Tom Wilkinson announce that he died suddenly at home on December 30th. His wife and family were with him. The family asks for privacy at this time," his reps confirmed to Fox News Digital.
The cause of death has not been revealed.
Wilkinson portrayed former steel mill foreman Gerald Cooper in "The Full Monty."
This is a developing story. Please check back for details. |
343a0bc8b657732534d72708a635afd7 | 0.194797 | entertainment | I ate it so you dont have to - masslive.com | The best fast-food salad is the Market Salad from Chick-fil-A. It’s not even close. It’s got some nice chicken. It’s well-balanced with the sweet fruit and granola. The blue cheese isn’t overbearing. It’s a rare example of a salad that feels like an actual meal and not like “eating a salad.”
So if you want to do the bare minimum in trying to eat healthy this year, you can go for that. I say “bare minimum” because it’s a bleak, wilted salad landscape out there. The options are all underwhelming and overly expensive — like trying to eat lunch at a highway rest stop in Connecticut.
That’s what happens when half the competition simply gives up.
Fast food salads, ranked worst to best (Review)
It turns out that healthy foods are more costly to make, which was a big problem for fast food chains during the pandemic. That’s why McDonald’s cut their salads from menus at most locations (including everything within miles of me). Taco Bell’s Fiesta Salad? That’s gone. Burger King? Yeah, try walking into a Burger King and asking if they have a salad on the menu. I can tell you, it’s not a fun experience.
So what’s left? There were only four fast food chains within reasonable driving distance of me that offered some form of salad. I totaled 10 different salads across my visits.
Dairy Queen: Chicken Strip Salad
Subway: Tuna Salad, Chicken Salad
Wendy’s: Apple Pecan Salad Cobb Salad, Parmesan Caesar Salad, Taco Salad
Chick-fil-A: Cobb Salad, Spicy Southwest Salad, Market Salad
Let’s be clear: Every single one of these salads is the same base concept with a different coat of paint. It’s all the same: a bed of iceberg or romaine lettuce squares that have some combination of ancillary veggies and special toppings. Corn, bacon and egg? That’s a cobb. Parmesan and croutons? Caesar. Craisins, apples and candied pecans. That’s, well, an apple-pecan.
It all boils down to who actually puts in the effort and who actually adds decent ingredients.
How do they rank?
10. Dairy Queen Chicken Strip Salad | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst.Nick O'Malley, MassLive
10. Dairy Queen Chicken Strip Salad | Price $7.09 | Calories: 380 (before dressing)
(Topped with chopped chicken tenders, shredded cheese, bacon bits, diced tomatoes, croutons)
This is the least amount of effort I’ve ever seen put into a salad. They could at least try to sprinkle the ingredients throughout the salad. Instead, they’re tucked away in different little ingredient pods, like groups of angsty teens in a school cafeteria who don’t want to talk to each other.
It’s like this product is designed to look like a salad with the least amount of effort possible. But they never considered that someone would actually order it.
If even a C+ effort went into this salad, it could be elevated to “sort of good.” Instead, it’s a chore to eat. Every component is hard to pick up with a fork. I had to go get a big spoon from my drawer to actually get decent bites.
I will say, Dairy Queen’s chicken strips are good. Whenever I get them, I’m always surprised by how much I like them. They’re quite peppery and well-seasoned.
9. Wendy’s Parmesan Caesar Salad | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
9. Wendy’s Parmesan Caesar Salad | Price: $8.49 | Calories: 530
(Topped with shaved Parmesan, croutons, grilled chicken and Caesar dressing)
The problem here is that the typical Caesar salad you see in most places is a lazy, poorly-designed effort restaurants can make to check a box that says, “Yes, we serve a salad.”
Here, we have the typical lineup of shaved parmesan, grilled chicken and croutons. It’s all hard to eat with a fork and gets blasted into salty oblivion by the dressing.
You can do better than chicken and croutons.
8. Subway Tuna Salad | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
8. Subway Tuna Salad | Price: $8.19
(Topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, cheese and sweet onion sauce)
I actually liked this. When I got the tuna, veggies and sauce in one bite, it was reminiscent of sushi with pickled ginger and soy sauce.
With that said, the tuna is a bland gray paste of fish. It’s best if you don’t pay attention to it. It’s quite fishy and the texture is offputting.
Say what you want about Subway, but its sauces are tasty — probably because they’ve got a good amount of sugar.
7. Wendy’s Cobb Salad | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
7. Wendy’s Cobb Salad | Price: $8.49 | Calories: 670
(Topped with lettuce, bacon, chicken, shredded cheese, ranch dressing)
Cobb is the Frappuccino of salads. It’s what people order when they don’t like salads.
Here, you get most of the flavor from the bacon and chicken — and you do get plenty of chicken here, which is nice. It’s cool to see actual strips of bacon here. It lets you actually get some decent bites instead of having bits just fall to the bottom.
The tomatoes are advertised as diced. But the ones I got here were sliced and mealy. It shows why most salads stick with cherry tomatoes.
6. Wendy’s Taco Salad | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
6. Wendy’s Taco Salad | Price $8.49 | Calories: 690
(With tortilla chips, chili, salsa, shredded cheese, sour cream)
This is not a salad. This is a DIY nacho bowl with lettuce underneath.
It’s actually very fun to eat with the tortilla chips. Going in with the tortilla chips to get a mix of ingredients makes for a varied eating experience.
But if you use a fork, you’re just gonna get chunks of lettuce with a random smattering of salsa, chili, cheese and sour cream. This salad feels like it needed one more component to close it out, like ground beef or chicken.
5. Subway Grilled Chicken Salad | $9.09
(Topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumber, shredded cheddar, olives and Subway Vinaigrette)
Grading a Subway salad is hard because it’s so customizable. The salads are a little underwhelming in size. But they’re also the only place where you can get a salad topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, cucumbers, peppers and olives. No other place really lets you pile on veggies.
Most other places, it’s salad mix with other ingredients on top. This was the closest to a salad I’d make at home. Well, I guess I did make it. But it stood out because of how veggie-heavy it is without incorporating more flashy toppings.
4. Chick-fil-A Cobb Salad with Nuggets | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
4. Chick-fil-A Cobb Salad with Nuggets | Price $9.99 | Calories: 830
(Topped with lettuce blend, grilled chicken, tomatoes, cheddar cheese, chopped eggs, bacon, crispy fried onions, and avocado lime ranch dressing)
The choice to add four bulbous cherry tomatoes in each corner is strange. How do these fit in with the rest of the salad? They’re so out of place.
As for the rest of the salad, it gets quite creamy and satisfying when you mix up with the egg, the ranch and the cheese. It’s hearty, the most filling salad you’ll get on this list.
The corn is a nice touch, adding an element of sweetness and a much-needed fresh vegetable complement.
The avocado lime ranch is fascinating. It’s got a bit of zing and acidity to it. But it doesn’t carry a ton of flavor. It’s very much a background character, so there’s no reason to put a ton of it on. It’s a glue guy, literally helping you stick pieces of salad together to make it easier to eat.
3. Chick-fil-A Spicy Southwest Salad | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
3. Chick-fil-A Spicy Southwest Salad | Price: $10.19 | Calories: 680
(Topped with tortilla strips, black beans, tomatoes, shredded cheese, spicy chicken, creamy salsa dressing)
The creamy salsa dressing isn’t messing around, neither is the spicy chicken. This thing is legit spicy.
This salad is satisfying to eat and comes with a hefty amount of kick. It’s very much a meal, with the tortilla strips, beans and corn adding a nice amount of body to the salad itself.
Overall, this is a nice balance of crunchy, spicy and flavorful. But it may actually be a bit too much for those who don’t like spicy things.
2. Wendy’s Apple Pecan Salad | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
2. Wendy’s Apple Pecan Salad | Price: $8.49 | Calories: 540
It’s baffling to me that this costs the same as the Caesar Salad at Wendy’s. You get so much more for your money.
This was my No. 1 pick the last time I ranked fast food salads. It’s still a solid pick. You get so much more in terms of tang and sweet and color and pops of flavor. The apples, craisins and candied pecans add a really nice sweetness and nuttiness, just enough to make you believe you’re eating real food and not just “a salad.”
At least that’s how it’s supposed to go.
This time around, the apples were particularly tart and acidic. They also went a bit heavy with the blue cheese. As a result, the funky and astringent elements overpowered everything else.
Sometimes, you just get a bad salad. It’s good when it’s more in balance.
1. Chick-fil-A Market Salad | Fast food salads, ranked best to worst. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
1. Chick-fil-A Market Salad | $10.19 | 550 calories
(Topped with apples, strawberries, granola, almonds, blueberries, grilled chicken, zesty apple cider vinaigrette)
This is the best salad and it’s not even close. It’s sweet, it’s tangy, savory and filling. It’s bright and colorful. It’s varied — and most importantly — balanced.
Because there are so many dimensions to the ingredients, the balance and flavors change depending on what you get on your fork, making you want to take another bite.
It’s fun to eat, the opposite of the usual doldrum of eating a salad (looking at you, Caesar).
I really like the inclusion of the granola, it adds a nice crunch and sweetness. The apple cider vinaigrette is also one of the best dressings of the bunch. The blue cheese funk is present, but is balanced out nicely with the other elements.
The final word
It’s unfortunate how the landscape of salads has changed in recent years. You can see restaurants streamlining their menus to go with simpler, more profitable items.
As you can see on the list, the salads at these fast food chains don’t come cheap. Chick-fil-A has the best salads overall. But Wendy’s gives you the best value.
With all of that said, these things are healthier than most fast food options. But that doesn’t automatically make them truly healthy -- especially when you have the fried chicken nuggets and ranch dressing involved.
Still, it’s a step in the healthier direction.
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“I ate it so you don’t have to” is a regular food column looking at off-beat eats, both good and bad. It runs every other Thursday-ish at noon-ish.
You can send any praise/food suggestions to nomalley@masslive.com. Please send all criticisms and defenses of Connecticut’s rest stops to tsanzo@masslive.com. You can check out the rest of the series here. |
6c6ab4236e6b5e7a84b5f9207459768a | 0.195203 | entertainment | Willie Ruff, Jazz Missionary and Professor, Dies at 92 | Willie Ruff, who fashioned an unlikely career in jazz as a French horn player and toured the world as a musical missionary in the acclaimed Mitchell-Ruff Duo while maintaining a parallel career at the Yale School of Music, died on Sunday at his home in Killen, Ala. He was 92.
His death was confirmed by his niece Jennifer Green.
Mr. Ruff, who was also a bassist, played both bass and French horn in the duo he formed with the pianist Dwike Mitchell in 1955, which lasted until Mr. Mitchell’s death in 2013. They opened for many jazz luminaries, including Duke Ellington, Miles Davis and Sarah Vaughan; played countless concerts in schools and colleges; and toured foreign countries where jazz was little known or even taboo.
In 1959, they flouted edicts against music that the Soviet Union deemed bourgeois, performing an impromptu set in Moscow while on tour with the Yale Russian Chorus. Their concerts in China in 1981 were considered the first jazz performances there since the Cultural Revolution. |
168439b6896b7a29e9d4428ecd2c1555 | 0.197766 | entertainment | Mass. State Lottery winner buys $100,000 Mass Cash ticket at Roche Bros. | One lucky Massachusetts State Lottery player won big this weekend when they purchased a winning “Mass Cash” ticket worth $100,000 at a grocery store on Cape Cod.
The winning ticket was purchased Saturday — just two days before Christmas — at the Roche Bros. store on Commercial Street in Mashpee. “Mass Cash” tickets retail just just a dollar a play, but can win players $10, $250 or $100,000.
In “Mass Cash,” players select five numbers between 1 and 35 and then mark how many drawings they want to use those numbers for. Players have a 1 in 324,632 chance of matching all five numbers, and if they do, they win $100,000. Drawings take place daily at 9 p.m.
Read more: Will there be a Powerball drawing on Christmas night?
There was also a lucky “Powerball” winner in Massachusetts on Saturday. The player won $50,000 through a ticket purchased Ted’s Stateline Mobil, a gas station on the New Hampshire border in Methuen.
In “Powerball,” players choose five numbers between 1 and 69 and one “Powerball” number between 1 and 26. Each play costs $2, and players mark how many drawings they want to use the same numbers for.
Drawings take place at 10:59 p.m. Monday, Wednesday and Saturday, and players can multiply their non-jackpot prizes up to 10 times by marking “Power Play” for an extra $1 per play each drawing.
The Methuen player won $50,000 by matching four numbers and the “Powerball” number on Saturday. They had 1 in 913,129 odds of doing so, winning them the third-biggest prize in the game.
Matching all five numbers wins players $1 million, but they have 1 in 11,688,053 odds of winning this way. Matching all five numbers and the “Powerball” number wins players the jackpot, but they have odds of 1 in 292,201,338 odds of doing so.
Overall, there were at least 253 lottery prizes worth $600 or more won or claimed in Massachusetts on Saturday, including nine in Springfield and five 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. |
7360d9e6003f182989a0ca3b01ccb2fc | 0.19838 | entertainment | How to act like a rude jerk while traveling. (But please dont.) | Either way, there is no recognition for being courteous at 30,000 feet. While we follow the rules of air travel, passengers such as Tiffany Gomas , better known as Crazy Plane Lady, Viral Plane Lady, or the “Not Real” Lady have a strategy. The Dallas woman was thrown off a plane in July because she screamed a passenger was “not real” and warned fellow travelers that they were all going to die if they didn’t get off the plane. She has since been parodied on “Saturday Night Live,” given a tell-all interview to TMZ, and made the rounds on Fox News and Inside Edition. Now she’s hawking an ugly Christmas sweater.
Nature or nurture? Are we born with a gene that triggers questionable behavior on a flight, or do we learn it from our families?
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According to the FAA, the number of unruly passengers has doubled over the past five years. Air rage incidents soared during 2021. (Remember mask mandates?) So far, 2023 is shaping up to be another banner year. Which leaves us to ponder if there is a generation of children who observed their parents and thought, “When I grow up, I want to use my airplane seat as a toilet, just like daddy.”? Or were they born with a gene that allows them to think that wheelchairs can be used as luggage trolleys? Scientists have yet to weigh in.
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But what about the rest of us who didn’t have parents to show us how to get into physical altercations at the baggage carousel or weren’t born with a gene that causes us to punch flight attendants without a second thought? Civilized, sober travelers never go viral on TikTok or wind up on the evening news. It’s just not fair. No one will post a video of us reading a book or watching a movie peacefully.
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If you have a craving to star in a viral video and pay a hefty fine to the FAA, we’ve put together a list of actions guaranteed to annoy your fellow passengers or get you tossed off a plane and maybe a book deal. We’re not promising you’ll reach to reach Crazy Plane Lady status, but get ready for your iPhone closeup.
A woman rests her bare feet on an airplane tray table from this photo from the Instagram account Passenger Shaming. Passenger Shaming/Instagram
HOW TO ACT LIKE A RUDE JERK WHILE TRAVELING
Do gross things with your bare feet.
Nothing sets people off like airing out your tootsies and then using them like you’re Daniel Day-Lewis in “My Left Foot.” In 2019, the country was captivated as they followed traveler Jessica Char’s encounter with a fellow passenger’s bare feet. The feet emerged from the row behind her and were used for activities such as opening and closing the plane’s window shade. It came on the heels (pun intended) of the passenger who used his feet to scroll through options on the inflight entertainment screen. If your toes aren’t talented enough to engage in such activities, simply start clipping your toenails or peeling dead skin off your feet. I never knew Americans were plagued by dead skin on their feet until I started spending a lot of time on planes.
Make some noise.
Making too much noise is sure to draw icy stares or get you ejected from a plane. You can begin your cacophonous symphony by forgoing headphones. Everyone loves listening to a tennis match or hearing Jason Aldean’s “Try That In a Small Town” emanating from your phone when they’re trying to fall asleep. Bring noisy toys if you’re traveling with children; the louder and more repetitive, the better. Also, fellow travelers enjoy hearing you scream, “Yes, Dad, we just landed,” into your phone as soon as the plane touches down. If you really want to be a clodpoll, try singing. Earlier this month, a Delta Air Lines flight attendant came close to kicking performer Bobbi Storm off of a flight because she wouldn’t stop singing. The Detroit-based Storm said she was doing “what the Lord is telling me to do.” She posted the altercation on her Instagram account. A majority of her followers on social media sided with the flight attendant rather than the Lord.
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Things could get ugly if you down too many martinis before your flight. Craig F. Walker/Globe Staff
Get drunk. Like really drunk.
Show me a viral video of two passengers brawling on a plane, and I’ll show you three empty margarita glasses at the nearest airport Chili’s-to-Go. Alcohol is often the root cause of fights between passengers, questionable antics, attacks on crew members, and lascivious behavior. Drinking and acting silly will also snag you 15 minutes of fame and shame. You’ll get at least 10 million views on X (the platform formerly known as Twitter) if you down several overpriced airport martinis and then start turning cartwheels on your way to your gate. Sadly, that’s not fiction. A woman in Los Angeles was barred from boarding a Southwest plane when a flight attendant spotted her floor routine.
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Seats in the premium economy cabin on Norse Atlantic Airways in full recline. Ulf Heikman
Start fighting over reclining seats.
We’re coming up on the 10th anniversary of the legendary Knee Defender battle. In 2014, businessman James Beach used a $22 device called the Knee Defender to block the woman seated in front of him from reclining. Words were exchanged, soda was thrown, and the flight was diverted from Denver to Chicago so the warring factions could be extracted from the plane. Getting people to agree on whether or not passengers should be allowed to recline is easier than getting Will Smith and Chris Rock to attend the same dinner party. Every time a new fight goes viral, the debate begins anew. Earlier this month, it boiled again when a woman repeatedly yelled, “I’m allowed to put my seat back,” while claiming the passenger behind her pushed her seat through the entire flight. In case you’re wondering, the answer is that you shouldn’t recline your seat unless it’s a long-haul overnight flight.
Turning left into business class while sending your kids to the back of the plane is a quick, efficient way to lose friends and put your children into therapy for life. Patrick T. Fallon/Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/
Sit in business class. Make your kid sit in economy.
Turning left into business class while sending your kids to the back of the plane is a quick, efficient way to lose friends and put your children into therapy for life. British pop star Robbie Williams, whose net worth is $300 million, makes his four kids sit in economy. Celebrated grump and perpetually angry chef Gordon Ramsay, who is worth $220 million, also makes his six kids sit in economy. It’s not just celebrities. There are many cruel parents who send their children to economy because they reason that the kids wouldn’t appreciate business class or they claim they don’t want their kids to get spoiled. Not only is this tough on the children, but think of the other passengers who are stuck sitting near a brood of unsupervised children.
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Pass the aspirin, please. If the children share their father’s demeanor, the pre-departure cocktails can’t come soon enough. At least soon it will be your moment to shine.
Christopher Muther can be reached at christopher.muther@globe.com. Follow him @Chris_Muther and Instagram @chris_muther. |
633fea7798d9a47b8fe02f4eb67c1bc7 | 0.199011 | entertainment | 10 standout shows for theater audiences this winter in Boston | ANNIE Andrea McArdle, the original Annie on Broadway, the one who turned “Tomorrow” into an inescapable earworm, turned 60 in November. The latest of many young actors who have played Annie since McArdle originated the role is 11-year-old Rainier “Rainey” Trevino. The national tour that began last fall is directed by Jenn Thompson, who played Pepper in the original Broadway production when she was 10 years old. Stefanie Londino plays Miss Hannigan, and Christopher Swan is Oliver Warbucks. Feb. 6-11. At Boch Center Wang Theatre. www.bochcenter.org
MACHINE LEARNING Hoping to end their estrangement, Jorge (Armando Rivera), a brilliant young computer scientist, creates a nursing application designed to provide individualized treatment for his ailing father, Gabriel (Jorge Alberto Rubio). But matters do not go according to plan, underscoring the perils of AI. Perhaps Jorge shouldn’t have named the application Arnold (Matthew Zahnzinger), after the Terminator? Francisco Mendoza’s play is directed by Gabriel Vega Weissman. Jan. 25-Feb. 25. Central Square Theater, Cambridge. 617-576-9278, ext. 1, www.centralsquaretheater.org
The 7 Fingers return to the Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre for "Duel Reality," Feb. 7-18. Arata Urawa
DUEL REALITY The welcome mat is always out in Boston for the 7 Fingers, an endlessly inventive Montreal-based troupe that blends circus arts and theater. This is the eighth time they’ve come to Boston under the auspices of ArtsEmerson. “Duel Reality” is a riff on “Romeo and Juliet” that turns the stage into an arena as the Montagues and Capulets square off against one another, sporting-style. Directed by Shana Carroll. Feb. 7-18. ArtsEmerson. At Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre. 617-824-8400, www.artsemerson.org
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DISHWASHER DREAMS An autobiographical solo show, written and performed by stand-up comedian Alaudin Ullah, about growing up in Spanish Harlem as the son of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh; the conflicts with his family in which he struggled to find his own voice; and his encounters with stereotypes about Muslims as he tried to build a career as a film and TV actor. Directed by Chay Yew. Feb. 28-March 17. Merrimack Repertory Theatre. At Nancy L. Donahue Stage, Lowell. 978-654-4678, www.mrt.org
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JOHN PROCTOR IS THE VILLAIN In Kimberly Belflower’s play, a group of mainly female high schoolers in rural Georgia take a close, challenging look at Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” through a contemporary lens, and at the patriarchal, sexist assumptions they have to battle in the present day. Directed by Margot Bordelon. Feb. 8-March 10. The Huntington. At Wimberly Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org
GOLDA’S BALCONY The gifted Annette Miller portrays Israeli prime minister Golda Meir in William Gibson’s solo drama. It takes place on the eve of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, and Meir has momentous choices to make. Miller originated the role at Shakespeare & Company in 2002, directed by Daniel Gidron, who also returns for this production. Feb. 23-March 10. Shakespeare & Company. At the Jackie Liebergott Black Box Theatre, Emerson Paramount Center. 617-824-8400, emersontheatres.org
BECOMING A MAN P. Carl, who formerly served as co-artistic director of ArtsEmerson and worked as a dramaturg on the American Repertory Theater production of Claudia Rankine’s “The White Card,” has adapted his memoir about his decision to affirm his gender, and the impact it had on the people in his life, amid an ominous political climate. In press materials, Carl said that “Becoming a Man” is “about surviving, becoming embodied, and learning to live.” Diane Paulus, who is co-directing “Becoming a Man” with Carl, has said that the play “asks the question: When we change, can the people we love come with us?” Feb.16-March 10. American Repertory Theater. At Loeb Drama Center, Cambridge. 617-547-8300, www.amrep.org
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COST OF LIVING Martyna Majok won the 2018 Pulitzer Prize for this drama about human connection and disconnection, as seen in the relationships between two people with disabilities and their caretakers. John (Sean Leviashvili), an affluent graduate student with cerebral palsy, hires Jess (Gina Fonseca), a Princeton grad working multiple jobs to make ends meet. Meanwhile, Eddie (Lewis D. Wheeler), an unemployed truck driver, and his estranged wife, Ani (Stephanie Gould), quadriplegic after a car accident, are trying to figure out the contours of their relationship. Directed by Alex Lonati. March 8-30. SpeakEasy Stage Company. At Roberts Studio Theatre, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts. 617-933-8600, www.speakeasystage.com
KING HEDLEY II Having enjoyed success last year with August Wilson’s “Seven Guitars,” Actors’ Shakespeare Project is tackling Wilson’s drama — set in Pittsburgh in the middle of the Reagan era and featuring a couple of characters from “Seven Guitars” — about a former prison inmate (played by James Ricardo Milord) who steals and sells refrigerators in an attempt to raise the funds he needs to open his own video store. Directed by Summer L. Williams, with a cast that also includes Omar Robinson, Patrice Jean-Baptiste, and Naheem Garcia. March 8-31. Actors’ Shakespeare Project. At Hibernian Hall. 617-241-2200, www.actorsshakespeareproject.org
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GIRL FROM THE NORTH COUNTRY A musical built upon the songs of Bob Dylan, “Girl From the North Country” is set in a boardinghouse in Depression-era Duluth, Minn. (the city where Dylan was born), with travelers who are struggling with loneliness and despair. Written and directed by Dublin-born playwright Conor McPherson (”Shining City,” “The Weir,” “The Night Alive,” “The Seafarer”). March 12-24. Broadway In Boston. Emerson Colonial Theatre. 888-616-0272, www.broadwayinboston.com
Don Aucoin can be reached at donald.aucoin@globe.com. Follow him @GlobeAucoin. |
8fdb56fd959552dd84ca1b935d3143f4 | 0.199563 | entertainment | 2024 HoopHall Classic: Top 5 games to watch | Eight of the top 10 and 18 of the top 25 boys high school basketball teams in the country will play at the 2024 HoopHall Classic. These teams feature many of the nation’s best young talents, including Duke-commit Cooper Flagg, Rutgers-commit Dylan Harper, AJ Dybantsa and Cameron Boozer.
In addition, five of the top 25 girls programs in the nation will play. Long Island Lutheran’s five-star Notre Dame commit Kate Koval leads a list of top recruits on the girls side (hyperlink to story).
Here are the top five games to watch this weekend.
5. Girls: No. 2 Long Island Lutheran (NY) vs. No. 11 Etiwanda (CA)
Date: Monday, Jan. 15 at 9 a.m.
Broadcast: ESPNU
Kennedy Smith (No. 6) and Kayleigh Heckel (No. 28) will be teammates at USC next year, but face off against each other in the only girls game on Monday. Long Island Lutheran boasts four seniors in the top 100: Kate Koval (Notre Dame), Syla Swords (Michigan), Kayleigh Heckel (USC) and Ka’Shya Hawkins (Syracuse), as well as highly-rated sophomore Savannah Swords. Etiwanda is led by Smith and a pair of top-25 players in the class of 2025, Grace Knox and Aliyahna Morris.
4. Boys: No. 1 Montverde Academy (FL) vs. No. 14 Oak Hill (VA)
Date: Friday, Jan. 12 at 7:30 p.m.
Broadcast: ESPN+
Though the weekday games are generally reserved for local matchups, fans will get a treat Friday night as Flagg and the rest of Montverde’s star-studded lineup debut against longtime prep power Oak Hill in the first matchup of the tournament between two ranked schools. Montverde is a perfect 16-0 with wins over nine other schools participating in the HoopHall Classic. But Montverde isn’t just the Flagg show – Asa Newell, Liam McNeely and Derik Queen are five-star recruits and Robert Wright III and Curtis Givens are ranked in the top 50.
3. Boys: No. 2 Long Island Lutheran (NY) vs. No. 5 Christopher Columbus (FL)
Date: Saturday, Jan. 13 at 4 p.m.
Broadcast: NBA Youtube and NBA app
V.J. Edgecombe, the highest-rated uncommitted prospect in the country, leads a Long Island Lutheran team that also rosters junior Kiyan Anthony, son of Carmelo Anthony. Columbus has four NBA sons of its own, between Jason Richardson’s sons Jase and Jaxon and Carlos Boozer’s sons, Cameron and Cayden.
2. Boys: No. 3 Paul VI (VA) vs. No. 5 Christopher Columbus (FL)
Date: Monday, Jan. 15 at 1 p.m.
Broadcast: ESPNU
Paul VI and Columbus have two common opponents this year: No. 1 Montverde, who beat Columbus 89-61 and Paul VI 69-62, and No. 4 Link Academy, who beat Columbus 68-61 but lost to Paul VI 74-71. Paul VI is led by three seniors in the top 100 – center Pat Ngongba and shooting guard Daren Harris (both Duke commits) and wing Isaiah Abraham (UConn).
1. Boys: No. 1 Montverde (FL) vs. No. 11 Prolific Prep (CA)
Date: Sunday, Jan. 14 at 7:30 p.m.
Broadcast: ESPN2
The primetime game on Sunday will be a matchup between 2024′s top prospect, Flagg of Montverde, and 2025′s top prospect, A.J. Dybantsa of Prolific Prep. Dybantsa won the 2022-23 Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year as a freshman at St. Sebastian’s (Needham, MA) before moving across the country to California and reclassifying from 2026 to 2025. In addition to Dybantsa, Prolific Prep stars five-star Alabama commit Derrion Reid and three other 2024 four-stars.
Team, player rankings via ESPN. |
2ba3ca508f7f4ccdc20f4966932c18a4 | 0.200362 | entertainment | Mega Millions numbers: Are you the lucky winner of Fridays $140 million jackpot? | Are you tonight’s lucky winner? Grab your tickets and check your numbers. The Mega Millions lottery jackpot continues to rise after someone won the $395 million prize on December 8.
Here are the winning numbers in Friday’s drawing:
5-23-26-38-44; Mega Ball: 25; Megaplier: 3X
The estimated jackpot for the drawing is $140 million. The cash option is about $68.7 million. If no one wins, the jackpot climbs higher for the next drawing.
According to the game’s official website, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers -- five different numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from 1 to 25 -- or select Easy Pick. A player wins the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.
Jackpot winners may choose whether to receive 30 annual payments, each five percent higher than the last, or a lump-sum payment.
Mega Millions drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays and are offered in 45 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $2 each. |
42e086f1237194376b66ce71c7248785 | 0.200873 | entertainment | Read Your Way Through Utah | What is the state of reading in Utah?
It begins by reading the land. Start with “The Broken Land: Adventures in Great Basin Geology,” by Frank DeCourten, paired with Stephen Trimble’s beautifully penned and photographed “The Sagebrush Ocean: A Natural History of the Great Basin.” For the high desert emblematic of Utah’s national parks, consult “The Geology of the Parks, Monuments and Wildlands of Southern Utah,” by Robert Fillmore. And for a more personal sense of Arches and Canyonlands, “Blow Sand In His Soul: Bates Wilson, The Heart of Canyonlands,” by Jen Jackson Quintano, is a spirited biography of Wilson, who advocated their protection. “A Naturalist’s Guide to Canyon Country,” by David B. Williams, is an essential companion, with more than 270 plants and animals identified and described within their ecological communities.
Indigenous voices are strong and varied in Utah. Ute historian Forrest S. Cuch’s excellent “A History of Utah’s American Indians” introduces the eight federally recognized tribal nations located in the state. “Navajo Mountain and Rainbow Bridge Religion,” by Karl W. Luckert, provides transcripts of oral histories made by Diné elders who shared traditional knowledge associated with Rainbow Bridge, one of the world’s largest sandstone arches, accessible by boat on Lake Powell. “Edge of Morning: Native Voices Speak for the Bears Ears,” edited by Jacqueline Keeler, is an evocation of why these sacred lands matter to Native communities; it includes voices such as Regina Lopez Whiteskunk, Willie Grayeyes and Jonah Yellowman. Stacie Shannon Denetsosie’s stunning debut collection, “The Missing Morningstar: And Other Stories,” was recently published, to rave reviews.
Which books can lead to a desert state of mind?
Begin with the classics, such as “Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness,” by Edward Abbey, an anti-memoir on wildness set in Arches National Park in the years when Abbey was a park ranger there. Published in 1968, it can be considered a Thoreauvian counterpoint to the turbulence surrounding the Vietnam War. Then, for a romp of a novel with a bent toward sabotage, Abbey’s “The Monkey Wrench Gang” may inspire you — as it did the environmental group Earth First! — to reimagine the Colorado River without Glen Canyon Dam. If you find Abbey’s politics problematic, I suggest the saucy “Desert Cabal: A New Season in the Wilderness,” by Amy Irvine.
“The Last Cheater’s Waltz: Beauty and Violence in the Desert Southwest” and “The Anthropology of Turquoise: Reflections on Desert, Sea, Stone and Sky,” by Ellen Meloy, are sharp-edged works with quick-witted storytelling that use cultural tensions between the land and a politics of extraction — of uranium, oil and gas or coal — to complicate the scenery. Craig Childs’s elegant exploration of archaeology in “House of Rain: Tracking a Vanished Civilization Across the American Southwest” takes the reader back in time to pre-Puebloan cultures whose pictographs and petroglyphs tell stories on stone near the cliff dwellings they left behind. And his book “The Secret Knowledge of Water” could not be more germane to our current megadrought.
Which books can feed a Mormon state of mind?
Two biographies create a bedrock for understanding the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints: “Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling,” by Richard Lyman Bushman, and “Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet,” by John G. Turner. Both authors present these iconic figures in human terms. The charisma of Smith as a mystic and Young as a visionary pragmatist led the “saints” into a theology of western expansion only to find that they had a salt desert to tame. Two of my other favorite Mormon books are Maurine Whipple’s novel “The Giant Joshua” and Annie Clark Tanner’s autobiography “A Mormon Mother.” Both are tough and tender commentaries about how patriarchy and polygamy shape women’s lives as they endure heartbreak and deepen their spiritual strength. “Mormon Country” and “Recapitulation,” by Wallace Stegner, are wise works of historical intelligence, with rich renderings of Salt Lake City following settlement. And Jonathan T. Bailey’s “When I Was Red Clay: A Journey of Identity, Healing and Wonder” is a courageous memoir of growing up gay in a rural Mormon community and avoiding erasure by finding refuge in wilderness. |
a1149098a5a46bd48ff97ff5d83eb5fe | 0.20249 | entertainment | Your guide to First Night Boston 2024 | First Night festivities will take place as far away as Virginia and California this year, but Boston is where it all started. It’s a night that celebrates artistry in many forms from ice-sculpting to button design. First Night has been a part of Boston for nearly half a century, but as with all traditions, there are notable changes from year to year. We’ve got your guide to help you make the most out of whatever part of 2023 we have left!
Where to go
First night is on the move this year! Don’t go to Copley Square expecting last year’s celebrations. The main stage will be at the newly renovated City Hall Plaza with other events in the surrounding area: The Greenway, Columbus Park, Improv Asylum and Boston Common.
Getting there
As with any large event held in a metropolitan area, event organizers discourage driving and encourage public transportation. Luckily for attendees, the events are close to several T stops and not too far off from Back Bay for those taking the commuter rail. To get to City Hall Plaza, use nearby stops Government Center (Blue Line and Green Line), Haymarket (Orange Line and Green Line), and State Street (Orange Line and Blue Line). The T will operate on a Sunday schedule with increased service starting in the late afternoon. Visit the MBTA's website for more travel information.
Whether you’re planning to drive or still figuring out your travel plans, you may want to consider the scheduled parking restrictions and road closures. You can view a list of traffic advisories for more details, and advanced reservations for parking are available through SpotHero.
How do I purchase tickets?
You don’t! Since 2015, First Night Boston has been entirely free to the public.
Programming highlights
Get a full nights’ sleep going into New Year’s Eve because starting at 11 a.m., there’s a 13-hour lineup of events, attractions, entertainment and more.
11 a.m. to 5 p.m. – Free admission to the Mapparium Globe, the three-story stained glass depiction of the Earth. This is the furthest activity from the main stage, so it’s a good place to visit on your way in or out of the city.
11:11 a.m. – Performances start at City Hall Plaza and continue for much of the day. The first act is music group Sweet Harmony. Check the schedule for a full list of acts.
Noon - 3 p.m. – Free rides at the Greenway Carousel.
1 p.m. – The Greater Boston Chinese Cultural Association will provide supplies for arts and crafts on the second floor of City Hall Plaza. Activities include calligraphy, face painting, games, snowflake making.
2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m. – Hourly shows at Improv Asylum for audiences of all ages.
6 p.m. – Join drummers, puppeteers, and firetrucks on a downtown parade starting at City Hall Plaza and ending at Boston Common, where more festivities will take place. Be sure to stop by Frog Pond for the annual skating spectacular.
7 p.m. – The first of two firework shows of the evening. The early show will take place over Boston Common.
7:20 p.m. - midnight – Music continues at City Hall Plaza. The official countdown to midnight begins at 11:30 p.m. with rapper Sammy Adams to help ring in the new year.
Midnight – Have your cheers, then look toward the harbor for a view of the midnight fireworks display.
Do’s And don’ts
Do use public transportation.
Do speak up or call 911 if you see dangerous activities.
Do be prepared for weather on the colder and perhaps wet side.
Do stay home if you're experiencing cold- or flu-like symptoms.
Do be respectful of families, older citizens and people with disabilities at the events or when you're riding the T.
Don't drink alcohol or smoke marijuana at any of the events.
Don't drive if you've consumed alcohol. New Years is among the most dangerous times of the year to be on the road.
Don't bring your own fireworks. (They are illegal in Massachusetts.)
What’s going on outside of Boston?
Not making it to Boston for First Night? There’s plenty going on around the rest of the state. To the east, Chatham is celebrating its own First Night. To the west, Northampton will mark its own First Night as well. Both will feature their own slate of performances and celebrations. |
de2475a338d3f6c51e247d75aaf68360 | 0.20322 | entertainment | Mega Millions numbers: Are you the lucky winner of Tuesdays $377 million jackpot? | Are you tonight’s lucky winner? Grab your tickets and check your numbers. The Mega Millions lottery jackpot continues to rise after someone won the $360 million prize on October 6.
Here are the winning numbers in Tuesday’s drawing:
35-40-18-67-64; Mega Ball: 18; Megaplier: 4X
The estimated jackpot for the drawing is $377 million. The cash option is about $179.6 million. If no one wins, the jackpot climbs higher for the next drawing.
According to the game’s official website, the odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 302,575,350.
Players pick six numbers from two separate pools of numbers -- five different numbers from 1 to 70 and one number from 1 to 25 -- or select Easy Pick. A player wins the jackpot by matching all six winning numbers in a drawing.
Jackpot winners may choose whether to receive 30 annual payments, each five percent higher than the last, or a lump-sum payment.
Mega Millions drawings are Tuesdays and Fridays and are offered in 45 states, Washington D.C. and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets cost $2 each. |
205309cc4a9687b7b7c2d98bb952c411 | 0.205785 | entertainment | Country music legend overwhelmed by fans after announcing his retirement | A member of an Grammy Award-winning country/gospel group is feeling the love from his fans after he broke the news that he is retiring from touring because of a debilitating medical condition.
Joe Bonsall, who has spent the past five decades as the tenor singer for Country Music Hall of Fame group The Oak Ridge Boys, officially announced his retirement on Wednesday, Jan. 3.
The 75-year-old said the reason for his retirement was because of his battle with a neuromuscular disorder, which Bonsall has been fighting for more than four years.
“I am now to a point that walking is impossible so I have basically retired from the road. It has just gotten too difficult,” the singer wrote on X. “It has been a great 50 years and I am thankful to all the Oak Ridge Boys band crew and staff for the constant love and support shown to me through it all. I will never forget and for those of you who have been constantly holding me up in prayer I thank you and ask for you to keep on praying.”
In the following days, the Country Music Hall of Fame inductee was flooded with responses from fans and colleagues alike, including former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee.
“One of the greatest voices in music and one of the classiest and most gracious human beings,” Huckabee wrote on X. “An authentic Christian gentleman....God bless you Joe! Love and respect.”
“I’m honored to have known Joe Bonsall and the Oak Ridge Boys for many years. I’m especially honored and grateful that I got to record and perform with them on my gospel album in 2023,” singer Travis Truitt wrote on X. “I wish Joe Bonsall the very best in his retirement. He’s one of the finest guys I’ve ever known in the music industry.”
“Nothing has made me happier than having a front row seat to your talent and energy all these years,” Jennifer Stevens said in response to Bonsall’s post. “Congratulations on 50 amazing years.”
The singer took to social media to let people know that he heard them.
“I am overwhelmed by the love shown to me this week,” he wrote on X Friday, Jan. 5. “I think I have heard from everyone I have ever known and many many more …. Thank you doesn’t seem adequate … but THANK YOU.”
Read More: Country music star shocks fans with farewell tour announcement
As Bonsall steps away, 27-year-old Ben James will take his spot. James is known for his previous work with Doyle Lawson’s band Quicksilver, as well as Dailey & Vincent’s band, according to Billboard.
Bonsall introduced James to Oaks fans in his Jan. 3 statement saying, “There is a young man named Ben James singing for me out there, and he needs your love and encouragement.
“His sound is different than mine, but he brings a ton of talent to the table,” Bonsall continued.
In September, The Oak Ridge Boys announced their farewell tour, “The Oak Ridge Boys American Made Farewell Tour” with a full slate of shows for 2024. Click here for information on upcoming dates and tickets. |
b3cd4a2f19ac9b9540a61d5d74919480 | 0.206631 | entertainment | Hottest winter theater tickets in Boston | Cold weather, hot emotions. Dark nights, bright lights. Explore artistic poles this winter in the Boston theater scene. There will be shows with silly pop music, riffs on classic literature, ballet, puppets, teen dramas, and haunting intimacy.
“Trouble in Mind,” Jan. 12 – Feb. 4, Lyric Stage
Black actress Wiletta Mayer is set to take Broadway by storm in 1955. But stereotypes and racism follow her through her debut in a supposedly progressive play by a white writer. Funny, warm, and cutting, “Trouble in Mind” is a backstage look at the theater of the past that resonates in the present. Lyricstage.com
“Moulin Rouge! The Musical,” Jan. 16 – Feb. 4, Citizens Bank Opera House
Here we are now! Entertain us! The fever dream, sugar rush, glitz and glam of Baz Luhrmann’s film has been put on stage. And everybody loves it. The winner of 10 Tonys comes to life with help from the catalogs of Madonna, Beyonce, Gaga, Britney, Adele, Elton, and many, many, many more. Boston.broadway.com
“A Case for the Existence of God,” Jan. 26 – Feb. 17, the Calderwood Pavilion
Heartbreaking, humorous and heavy, playwright Samuel D. Hunter’s work takes place in an Idaho office cubicle where mortgage broker Keith and yogurt plant worker Ryan connect over their infant daughters. Ryan, white and divorced, tries to build stability for his daughter while Keith, a Black, gay foster father works to adopt his foster child. speakeasystage.com
“Moby Dick,” Jan. 23 – 28, Emerson Paramount Center
Director Yngvild Aspeli and Norwegian theater company Plexus Polaire present Herman Melville’s masterpiece in a wild and thrilling new way. The production sets sail with seven actors, 50 puppets, video projections, a drowned orchestra and one monstrous whale. artsemerson.org
“John Proctor is the Villain,” Feb. 8 – March 10, the Calderwood Pavilion
Playwright Kimberly Belflower uses Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” as a window into the lives of teen girls. As a class of high school students in a small town in the South dive into the play, they wrestle with love, teen drama, and sex (or at least sex ed). In their exploration they learn about their own strengths and determination. Smart and sharp, humorous and heartfelt, this play is a snapshot of a generation growing up. Huntingtontheatre.org
Winter Experience, Feb. 22 – March 3, Citizens Bank Opera House
The Boston Ballet reinvents Marius Petipa’s “Raymonda” erasing outdated and offensive caricatures. This new, one-act version is paired with two works by Helen Pickett, world premiere “SISU” and 2007 Boston Ballet commission “Petal.” bostonballet.org
“Exception To The Rule,” March 7 – 17, the Modern Theatre
Six Black students navigate violence, bullying, and romance in detention in a struggling city high school in a production that asks if we are failing kids considered to be failures. The Front Porch Arts Collective teams with Northeastern University and Suffolk University for Dave Harris’ “Exception To The Rule.” Frontporcharts.org |
4a23a1567499b28fce0064e9662bde3b | 0.209797 | entertainment | Mass. lottery player wins $25,000 a year for life Lucky for Life prize | A lottery player from Massachusetts who won $25,000 a year for life said he’s been playing the same random numbers for the past five years.
Venkataramanan Balakrishnan of Shrewsbury won the multi-state “Lucky for Life” drawing on Nov. 28 after he matched the first five numbers on his ticket in the drawing.
Balakrishnan claimed his prize on Dec. 1 at Massachusetts State Lottery headquarters in Dorchester and chose the cash option on his prize to receive a one-time payment of $390,000 before taxes.
“Lucky for Life” drawings are conducted seven nights a week at 10:38 p.m., and tickets to play cost $2. |
c67ac90dffb211a4e6147ba50741ad3a | 0.210557 | entertainment | I ate the Olive Garden Chocolate Lasagna so you dont have to | Olive Garden is selling something that it is marketing as “Chocolate Lasagna.” It’s just a slice of chocolate layer cake.
There, I just saved you about 10 bucks and 1,000 calories.
You can stop reading now if you want. I won’t blame you. The only people I expect to read further are my mom and that one person out here who loves Olive Garden and is looking for an email to send complaints to.
Olive Garden Chocolate Lasagna
“Chocolate Lasagna” is a crime against two languages. It’s just a slice of chocolate layer cake with chocolate mousse that’s topped with ganache and has a layer of crushed wafers at the bottom. It’s as much a “Chocolate Lasagna” as a cannoli can be a “Chocolate Chip Burrito.”
This dereliction of dessert decency is like if Chick-fil-A started marketing their sandwiches as “Southern Chicken Parm Sliders.” Yes, I’d 100% eat it. But I’d do so with an indignant scowl trying to make up for how much of a sucker I am.
With that said, the “Chocolate Lasagna” does taste pretty good, which shouldn’t be surprising since it’s, you know, cake. So, congrats, Olive Garden. You’ve pulled off the world’s weirdest low-stakes mass-marketing skullduggery.
It’s like if someone tried to sell me a pre-owned hot tub on Craigslist, but instead I got a really nice new couch. Yes, I’ve technically been bamboozled and/or hornswoggled. But this is probably a better outcome for me.
The Lasagna Classico and "Chocolate Lasagna" from Olive Garden. (Nick O'Malley, MassLive)Nick O'Malley, MassLive
What does it taste like?
For the sake of conducting ethical lasagna science, I decided to get both the “Chocolate Lasagna” and the “Lasagna Classico.” To be clear, I got the lunch-sized portion of the real lasagna. I didn’t want to go full Garfield the cat at this Olive Garden on a Wednesday afternoon.
The “Chocolate Lasagna”
All jokes aside, this is a pretty good cake. It’s rich, but not overly heavy. It’s chocolatey, but not too sweet.
The crushed wafers at the bottom were definitely the most interesting part, adding some really nice texture and flavor. I feel like if they leaned into that and the ganache more, they could have had a more unique dessert that was more deserving of the “lasagna” monicker.
But then again, they also could have tried to use chocolate pasta. So let’s be glad they didn’t get too ambitious over here.
The three layers of cake are delightfully dense. So it’s nice to see Olive Garden offset that with chocolate mousse as the filling. Throwing buttercream in there would have been a bit much.
Overall, this dessert is a chilled mesa of chocolate that is really satisfying in the way it lets you cut through the layers with your fork. It pops with dark, chocolatey flavor and only gets better with the added chocolate sauce and whipped cream.
Lasagna Classico
Well, this is technically lasagna. Most of the lasagna’s bulk consists of layers of pasta, then ricotta, then a little sauce, then repeat. There’s not much actual melted cheese inside the body of the lasagna which is disappointing.
It checks all the boxes you look for. But it is a bit dry and boring on the inside. The more generous sauce on the top does most of the heavy lifting in terms of flavor.
This isn’t how I’d make lasagna. But I also don’t design the menu for the Olive Garden lunch rush. So I’m not really in a position to speak.
So is it any good?
In terms of it being a delicious thing to eat? Yes, this is a solid dessert at a fast-casual chain restaurant.
In terms of marketing? It’s as rich in lies as it is in chocolate.
The final word
I look at Olive Garden the same way I do cranberries. I’m quite vocal in my general distaste of them, but I also understand they have their place.
I have a beef with Massachusetts’ most famous bog-fruit because I have to deal with cranberry sauce haunting the dinner table every Thanksgiving. I bristle at Olive Garden because my mom’s side of the family is Italian and refuses to associate with whatever it is they’re doing over there.
If I went to Italy and tried to pass this dessert as “Chocolate Lasagna,” I’d be chased away by every nonna with a rolling pin within a half-mile.
Still, I’d absolutely tear into a basket of Olive Garden breadsticks. I have zero pride when it comes to me and carbs.
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“I ate it so you don’t have to” is a regular food column looking at off-beat eats, both good and bad. It runs every other Thursday-ish at noon-ish.
You can send any praise/food suggestions to nomalley@masslive.com. Please send all criticisms and complaints about restaurant chains doing weird things to Italian food to dcifarelli@masslive.com. You can check out the rest of the series here. |
9801050338aeeebe97bffe57f3b9b355 | 0.214547 | entertainment | 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. |
e5e1b2e7a302d9790957e4a5789279f7 | 0.216027 | entertainment | Conversations and insights about the moment. | Pinned
Every day at this week’s Davos World Economic Forum, I have had to respond to Arab officials and friends who are unable to sympathize to any degree with the trauma that Hamas inflicted on Israel on Oct. 7, given the thousands of Palestinian civilian deaths in Gaza. These deaths, of course, are the result of Israel’s war on Hamas fighters who deliberately hide under, and fire rockets from, civilian homes.
My own way of dealing with the nightmarish nature of this war is to focus all my energies on thinking about how to stop it. But I can always think about China, or something else, if I want. That’s not the case if you are Secretary of State Antony Blinken and you are Jewish and you understand how unspeakably vicious the Hamas onslaught was on Oct. 7. Not to mention if you understand that Israel has a right to self-defense, but you also understand that Palestinian civilian casualties in Gaza have reached numbers you cannot ignore and that could leave a long-term stain on Israel and America.
So when I was invited to Davos to interview Blinken before a large audience today, I asked him bluntly the question people here have been asking me: One of the things you hear so often from people given the high number of civilian casualties in Gaza is, for the United States, do Jewish lives matter more than Palestinian Muslim lives or Palestinian Christian lives, given the incredible asymmetry of the casualties?
Blinken did not hesitate for a second to give an impassioned and heartfelt answer that I thought did him and America proud — an answer that neither obscured the vast human tragedy that has been triggered by Israel’s retaliation nor let Hamas off the hook for its role in starting the whole thing.
“No — period,” Blinken immediately shot back at me.
“I think for so many of us,” he continued, “what we’re seeing every single day in Gaza is gut-wrenching, and the suffering we’re seeing among innocent men, women and children breaks my heart. The question is: What is to be done? We’ve made judgments about how we thought we could be most effective in trying to shape this in ways to get more humanitarian assistance to people — to get better protections and minimize civilian casualties at every step along the way. Not only have we impressed upon Israel its responsibilities to do that, we’ve seen some progress in areas where, absent our engagement, I don’t believe it would have happened.”
Blinken continued: “But that in no way, shape or form takes away from the tragedy that we’ve seen and continue to see. It’s why we’re at it relentlessly, every single day. All I can tell you, Tom, is just on a purely human level, it’s devastating,” he said, referring to the “gut-wrenching” suffering that Israel has inflicted on the Palestinians in Gaza. “But it also reinforces my conviction that there has to be — and there is — another way that answers Israel’s most profound concerns” about security.
Because of deep-fake technologies and other distortions that are made possible by social media, Blinken added, “there are large swaths of the world” that “don’t believe Oct. 7 actually happened — they don’t believe that Hamas slaughtered men, women and children, that it executed parents in front of their kids, that it executed kids in front of their parents, that it burned families alive. They don’t believe it.” Therefore, he explained, when Israel responds the way it did, with seeming indifference to thousands of Palestinian civilian casualties, a lot of people think there is no context at all.
The biggest poison around the world is the inability to see the humanity in the other, he concluded. “When that happens, you get so hardened that you’re willing to do and accept things that you wouldn’t if the humanity of the other was front and center in your consciousness. So one of our challenges is to fight that dehumanization — to find ways to diffuse it to take that poison out.” |
fe16e202f21f07c8a26190acad3b784b | 0.216226 | entertainment | Paul Giamatti Has Done the Reading | Paul Giamatti would just like to put it out there that maybe he doesn’t always have to play such a motormouth.
It might be nice, just to shake things up a bit, if he could portray someone more likely to express themselves nonverbally — a taciturn horse breeder with an anguished past, say, or a world-class safecracker with shrapnel-related vocal cord injuries.
“Please, don’t make me talk so much,” he said recently, in a low register, his hangdog eyes pleading with the universe.
Giamatti watchers may have a hard time imagining the actor tongue-tied. He is one of cinema’s great talkers, often cited for dazzling flights of oratory. Think of Miles’s profane rebuke of merlot in “Sideways” (2004), or the founding father flogging the virtues of independence in “John Adams” (2008) or the brash boxing manager Joe Gould in “Cinderella Man” (2005). For Giamatti to yearn for fewer lines of dialogue might sound like a Formula 1 car pining for a bus route. |
5089bbdc99fd6723644e82275747a742 | 0.217042 | entertainment | How to watch part 1 of the reunion episode of Southern Charm, stream for free (S9) | The newest episode of “Southern Charm” will premiere on Thursday, Jan. 11 at 8 p.m. ET. on Bravo.
Viewers without cable looking to stream the new episode can watch it online using DirecTV Stream, Sling, and fuboTV. DirecTV and fuboTV both offer free trials.
“Southern Charm” reveals a world of exclusivity, money and scandal dating back through generations of families in Charleston, S.C. The docuseries follows several Charleston singles as they pursue their personal and professional lives while trying to preserve their family names, because just one social faux pas can taint a family’s name for generations,” fuboTV wrote. “Members of the notoriously closed society unlock the gates of their centuries-old homes for a real-life look at how modern-day Southern aristocracy lives. Viewers get a peek at a social scene which is bound by tradition and ostentation unlike any other culture in America, through a group of the city’s most charismatic gentlemen and their Southern-belle equals.”
In part 1 of the reunion episode of season 9, “The charmers sit down for a reunion after a tumultuous season; Austen and JT see each other for the first time since their face off; Shep finds himself in the hot seat; Taylor and Olivia delve into the root of their broken relationship.”
How can I watch the newest episode of ‘Southern Charm’?
Viewers looking to stream can do so by using FuboTV, Sling or DirecTV Stream. Both FuboTV and DirecTV offer free trials when you sign up and Sling offers 50% off your first month.
What is FuboTV?
FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels.
What is DirecTV?
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. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up. |
760064fa6e2917a4e8facc6a54f44c87 | 0.224167 | entertainment | Mass. State Lottery winner: Woman wins $25K a year for life with random numbers | A woman from Massachusetts won a $25,000 a year for life lottery prize with random numbers she’s been repeatedly playing for just the past six months, the Massachusetts State Lottery said.
Sonia Firme, of Dracut, matched the first five numbers on the “Lucky for Life” ticket she bought for the drawing on Jan. 2. The winning numbers for the drawing were 10, 24, 40, 44, 48 and Lucky Ball: 11.
Firme told the lottery she’s going to continue to play the numbers, which she’d selected at random six months ago, after her win.
The winner claimed her prize on Jan. 4, and chose the cash option to receive a one-time payment of $390,000 before taxes. Firme said she’s going to use the prize to buy a house.
Firme bought the winning ticket at A&A Liquors and Market, located at 115 Hampson St. in Dracut. “Lucky for Life” drawings are seven nights a week. |
54eb74f413b9e6da213731d739d05557 | 0.226137 | entertainment | Three Kings celebration fills Union Station | An evening of music, food and gifts on Friday celebrated the arrival of the three wise men, or kings, at the manger of the baby Jesus, although it looked more like Union Station in Springfield. Several hundred people, composed of families and kids, packed into the Hispanic American Library and spilled out onto the station concourse area for the Epiphany, or the traditional end of the 12 days of Christmas, when the three Magi reached Bethlehem and brought their gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh to the newly born Jesus Christ.
“This is the celebration of the three kings, Dia de Los Reyes, which is celebrated in Puerto Rico and 21 Latin American countries,” library Executive Director Juan Falcon said. “As always, a celebration is a way of giving back to the community. So, for tonight the community has responded and they have provided everything you see going on, the meal, the activities and the music.”
The kings themselves, dressed in regal finery and bearing their gifts waded through the crowds to stop occasionally and pose for photographs with children who waited a long time for this chance.
“This is a huge tradition in the Puerto Rican camp, Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican community,” said state Rep. Orlando Ramos, D-Springfield, in his guise as Caspar. “I have to be a part of this and help families in need, and to continue to celebrate the three kings.”
State Rep. Carlos Gonzalez, D-Springfield, has worn the king’s robes several times, and he said it is always a privilege.
“It is a privilege and an honor to be Melchoir,” he said. We are celebrating the tradition and more than gift giving, this is a day to give thanks to the Lord for family, friends and community.”
Falcon noted that in some countries, the Epiphany is when families exchange gifts in honor of the birth. To others. the 12th day is the end to the Christmas season.
“Growing up as a Portuguese American in Ludlow we never took down our Christmas decorations until after Three Kings Day,” state Sen. Jacob Oliveira, D-Ludlow, said. “But on the Iberian Peninsula and in Latin American and South American. countries it continues to be a big tradition. A lot of families exchange gifts on the Three Kings Day.”
State Sen. Adam Gomez, D-Springfield, said he, too, has worn King Balthazar’s costume before and he said it is only right.
“There are three Puerto Ricans here, me, Orlando and Carlos, and we all hail from the city of Springfield,” he said. “It is only right that the three kings should be the Three Kings.” |
dc634ce55f58834dc508777cf7ae6be2 | 0.226339 | entertainment | Embrace the Suck | Our new audio app is home to “This American Life,” the award-winning program hosted by Ira Glass. New episodes debut in our app a day earlier than in the regular podcast feed, and we also have an archive of the show. The app includes a “Best of ‘This American Life’” section with some of our favorite bite-size clips, so you can enjoy the show even if you don’t have a lot of time. |
40cfa471b2bf2c002e0ec024d72bc467 | 0.234817 | entertainment | Being a Woman in Magic May be the Hardest Trick of All | Though it was nearly five decades ago, Gay Blackstone can still vividly recall the first time she was sawed in half onstage. Her screams were an intended element of the illusion, but nerves and fear made them genuine that time.
For Ms. Blackstone, that gig assisting the master illusionist Harry Blackstone Jr. turned into a love affair and, later, marriage. After her husband died in 1997, Ms. Blackstone moved center stage and went on to a successful career as an illusionist, coach, producer and director.
But she is an exception. Only around 8 percent of professional magicians are women, according to a spokeswoman for the Magic Castle, a private clubhouse in Los Angeles for members of the Academy of Magical Arts. Ms. Blackstone and others say a number of factors are to blame for the stubborn disparity, including sexism, wardrobe limitations and the enduring stereotype that women best serve as the audience’s distraction.
“I think for many years, no one really thought of the need for women to be the magician,” Ms. Blackstone said. “But now, as we’re coming up with different roles and different things we want to be doing, then there’s no reason why women can’t be just as great as men.” |
093c2f1fff75fd9077ae3db05444bbf1 | 0.235348 | entertainment | Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86 | Entertainment Comedian Tom Smothers, one-half of the Smothers Brothers, dies at 86 With his brother Dick, Tom Smothers co-hosted one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in history. Tom Smothers does yo-yo tricks during arrivals at CBS's 75th anniversary celebration Sunday, Nov. 2, 2003, in New York. AP Photo/Louis Lanzano, File AP
Tom Smothers, half of the Smothers Brothers and the co-host of one of the most socially conscious and groundbreaking television shows in the history of the medium, has died at 86.
The National Comedy Center, on behalf of his family, said in a statement Wednesday that Smothers died Tuesday at home in Santa Rosa, California, following a cancer battle.
“Tom was not only the loving older brother that everyone would want in their life, he was a one-of-a-kind creative partner,” his brother and the duo’s other half, Dick Smothers, said in the statement. “Our relationship was like a good marriage — the longer we were together, the more we loved and respected one another. We were truly blessed.”
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When “The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” debuted on CBS in the fall of 1967 it was an immediate hit, to the surprise of many who had assumed the network’s expectations were so low it positioned their show opposite the top-rated “Bonanza.”
But the Smothers Brothers would prove a turning point in television history, with its sharp eye for pop culture trends and young rock stars such as The Who and Buffalo Springfield, and its daring sketches — ridiculing the Establishment, railing against the Vietnam War and portraying members of the era’s hippie counterculture as gentle, fun-loving spirits — found an immediate audience with young baby boomers. The show reached No. 16 in the ratings in its first season.
It also drew the ire of network censors. After years of battling with the brothers over the show’s creative content, the network abruptly canceled the program in 1970, accusing the siblings of failing to submit an episode in time for the censors to review.
Nearly 40 years later, when Smothers was awarded an honorary Emmy for his work on the show, he jokingly thanked the writers he said had gotten him fired. He also showed that the years had not dulled his outspokenness.
“It’s hard for me to stay silent when I keep hearing that peace is only attainable through war,” Smothers said at the 2008 Emmy Awards as his brother sat in the audience, beaming. He dedicated his award to those “who feel compelled to speak out and are not afraid to speak to power and won’t shut up and refuse to be silenced.”
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During the three years the show was on television, the brothers constantly battled with CBS censors and occasionally outraged viewers as well, particularly when Smothers joked that Easter “is when Jesus comes out of his tomb and if he sees his shadow, he goes back in and we get six more weeks of winter.” At Christmas, when other hosts were sending best wishes to soldiers fighting overseas, Smothers offered his to draft dodgers who had moved to Canada.
In still another episode, the brothers returned blacklisted folk singer Pete Seeger to television for the first time in years. He performed his song “Waist Deep in the Big Muddy,” widely viewed as ridiculing President Lyndon Johnson. When CBS refused to air the segment, the brothers brought Seeger back for another episode and he sang it again. This time, it made the air.
After the show was canceled, the brothers sued CBS for $31 million and were awarded $775,000. Their battles with the network were chronicled in the 2002 documentary “Smothered: The Censorship Struggles of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour.”
“Tom Smothers was not only an extraordinary comedic talent, who, together with his brother Dick, became the most enduring comedy duo in history, entertaining the world for over six decades — but was a true champion for freedom of speech, harnessing the power of comedy to push boundaries and our political consciousness,” National Comedy Center Executive Director Journey Gunderson said in a statement.
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Thomas Bolyn Smothers III was born Feb. 2, 1937, on Governors Island, New York, where his father, a Navy major, was stationed. His brother was born two years later. In 1940 their father was transferred to the Philippines, and his wife, two sons and their sister, Sherry, accompanied him.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the family was sent home and Maj. Smothers remained. He was captured by the Japanese during the war and died in captivity. The family eventually moved to the Los Angeles suburb of Redondo Beach, where Smothers helped his mother take care of his brother and sister while she worked.
The brothers had seemed unlikely to make television history. They had spent several years on the nightclub and college circuits and doing TV guest appearances, honing an offbeat comedy routine that mixed folk music with a healthy dose of sibling rivalry.
They would come on stage, Tom with a guitar in hand and Dick toting an upright bass. They would quickly break into a traditional folk song — perhaps “John Henry” or “Pretoria.” After playing several bars, Tom, positioned as the dumb one, would mess up, then quickly claim he had meant to do that. As Dick, the serious, short-tempered one, berated him for failing to acknowledge his error, he would scream in exasperation, “Mom always liked you best!”
They continued that shtick on their show but also surrounded themselves with a talented cast of newcomers, both writers and performers.
Among the crack writing crew that Smothers headed were future actor-filmmaker Rob Reiner, musician Mason Williams and comedian Steve Martin, who presented Smothers with the lifetime Emmy. Regular musical guests included John Hartford, Glen Campbell and Jennifer Warnes.
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Bob Einstein had a recurring role as Officer Judy, a dour Los Angeles police officer who once cited guest Liberace for playing the piano too fast. Leigh French, as the hippie earth mother in the segment “Share a Little Tea With Goldie,” always appeared to have been drinking something brewed with more than just tea leaves.
The brothers had begun their own act when Tom, then a student at San Jose State University, formed a music group called the Casual Quintet and encouraged his younger brother to learn the bass and join. The brothers continued on as a duo after the other musicians dropped out, but began interspersing comedy with their limited folk music repertoire.
Their big break came in 1959 when they appeared at San Francisco’s Purple Onion, then a hot spot for new talent. Booked for two weeks, they stayed a record 36. Booked into New York’s Blue Angel, they won praise from The New York Times, which described them as “a pair of tart-tongued singing comedians.” But to their disappointment, they couldn’t get on “The Tonight Show,” then hosted by Jack Paar.
“Paar kept telling our agent he didn’t like folk singers — except for Burl Ives,” Smothers told The Associated Press in 1964. “But one night he had a cancellation, and we went on. Everything worked right that night.”
The brothers went on to appear on the TV shows of Steve Allen, Ed Sullivan, Garry Moore, Andy Williams, Jack Benny and Judy Garland. Their comedy albums were big sellers and they toured the country, especially colleges.
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Television first came calling in 1965, casting them in “The Smothers Brothers Show,” a sitcom about a businessman (Dick) haunted by his late brother (Tom), a fledgling guardian angel. It lasted just one season.
Shortly after CBS canceled the “Comedy Hour,” ABC picked it up as a summer replacement, but the network didn’t bring it back in the fall. NBC gave them a show in 1975 but it failed to find an audience and lasted only a season. The brothers went their separate ways for a time in the 1970s. Among other endeavors, Smothers got into the wine business, launching Remick Ridge Vineyards in Northern California’s wine country.
“Originally the winery was called Smothers Brothers, but I changed the name to Remick Ridge because when people heard Smothers Brothers wine, they thought something like Milton Berle Fine Wine or Larry, Curly and Mo Vineyards,” Smothers once said.
They eventually reunited to star in the musical comedy “I Love My Wife,” a hit that ran on Broadway for two years. After that they went back on the road, playing casinos, performing arts centers and corporate gatherings around the country, remaining popular for decades.
“We just keep resurfacing,” Smothers commented in 1997. “We’re just not in everyone’s face long enough to really get old.”
After a successful 20th anniversary “Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour” in 1988, CBS buried the hatchet and brought them back.
The show was quickly canceled, though it stayed on the air long enough for Smothers to introduce the “Yo-Yo Man,” a bit allowing him to demonstrate his considerable skills with a yo-yo while he and his brother kept up a steady patter of comedy. The bit remained in their act for years.
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Smothers married three times and had three children. He is survived by his wife Marie, children Bo and Riley Rose, and brother Dick, in addition to other relatives. He was predeceased by his son Tom and sister Sherry.
Former Associated Press journalists John Rogers, Frazier Moore and the late Bob Thomas contributed to this report. |
e923fda20004a3c6c76b07dddce06b47 | 0.237483 | entertainment | WordleBots New Preferred Opening Word: Trace | In our recent analysis of 515 million Wordle games played over a year, we noted that a few changes would soon be coming to WordleBot’s dictionary. As of today, those changes are now live — including a new opening word in both regular and hard mode.
WordleBot plays no role in the words selected to be Wordle solutions and doesn’t know the solutions. But, unlike human players, who are free to guess just about every five-letter word in the English language — 14,855 of them — we’ve limited the bot to a smaller set of roughly 4,500 relatively common words to choose from when making its guesses and recommendations.
We listened to feedback from readers who wanted certain words added (like BARRE and MOREL and MERCH) and certain ones deleted (PWNED has been owned, and EGADS to YEESH; all three are out). We also have new data on reader guesses that has helped us get a feel for which words are more familiar to more people.
Perhaps the most noticeable effect of all these changes will be that, starting today, the bot’s preferred opening guess has shifted — ever so slightly — to TRACE, from SLATE. And in hard mode, the bot’s favorite word is now neither TRACE, nor SLATE, but TROPE. |
e6b075dcc5969cac79cd9f2b72d83103 | 0.242518 | entertainment | Live Wire: Steve Forbert, Freedy Johnston to play Amherst | Steve Forbert and Freedy Johnston will provide a one-two musical punch at The Drake in Amherst on Feb. 7.
Forbert, who bore the mantle of the “new Dylan” when he first hit the scene in the 1970s, forged his own sound throughout the years, starting with 1978′s critically acclaimed “Alive on Arrival.” But it was the following year’s “Jackrabbit Slim,” which included the breakout top-20 single “Romeo’s Tune,” that brought Forbert into the national spotlight.
While a contractual dispute with his record company stalled his recording career for a few years in 1984, Forbert didn’t let the snag keep him from touring, which he has done relentlessly over his career. He has released more than 20 studio albums over his four-decade career, with the most recent being 2022′s Moving Through America. His 2004 album, “Any Old Time,” received a Grammy nomination for Best Folk Album
In 2018, he published a memoir, “Big City Cat: My Life in Folk-Rock.”
Likewise, Johnston received lauds for his debut album, but didn’t make a splash on the charts until his second release, which featured the single “Bad Reputation, which reached No. 54 on the charts. The album led Rolling Stone to call Johnston the “songwriter of the year.”
Tickets range from $25 to $35 and the show starts at 8 p.m. The Drake is at 44 North Pleasant St. |
908140ea1cbc5ef3ed69926242bf9877 | 0.243531 | entertainment | The Grim Heartbeat Propelling Killers of the Flower Moon | Early in Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” an Osage woman named Mollie gives her gravely unsuitable white suitor, Ernest, a Stetson. It’s a large off-white hat with a bound-edge brim and a wide ribbon around the band. It’s a gift but it feels more like a benediction, and anyone who’s ever watched an old western film (or “Star Wars”) will recognize the symbolism of her largess. Mollie is telling Ernest that she sees him as a good guy, even if the movie has already violently upended the familiar dualism of the white hat vs. black.
That dichotomy shapes “Killers of the Flower Moon,” a deeply American story of greed, betrayal and murder told through the anguished relationship between Mollie (Lily Gladstone) and Ernest (Leonardo DiCaprio). It’s around 1919 and Ernest is wearing his World War I uniform when he dismounts a train in Fairfax, an Oklahoma boomtown where luxury cars rumble down dirt roads. He’s come to live with his uncle, William Hale (Robert De Niro), a smooth-talking rancher who, in one breath, asks him if he has seen bloodshed and, in the next, describes the Osage as the finest and “and most beautiful people on God’s earth.”
The movie is based on David Grann’s appallingly all-too-true crime book from 2017, “Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the F.B.I.” In adapting it to the screen, Scorsese and Eric Roth have dramatically narrowed the role of the F.B.I. to focus on the multiple murders — scores, perhaps hundreds — of Osage members that took place largely in the 1920s on the tribe’s oil-rich reservation in northern Oklahoma. As the 19th century gave way to the 20th, oil made the tribe among the wealthiest people in the world. It also made them the target of numerous white predators. As a 1920 article in Harper’s ominously put it: “The Osage Indians are becoming so rich that something will have to be done about it.”
The following year, Congress passed a law that required the Osage to prove they could handle their reserves “responsibly.” If they couldn’t, they were declared incompetent and appointed a guardian; it was a status, as Grann explains, that was usually given to full-blooded Osage like Mollie. It’s instructive then that the first time you see Mollie in “Killers,” she is in an office being asked to state her name by an unseen man. “I’m Mollie Kyle, incompetent,” she says, her face a serene blank. The man is her guardian, yet another smooth talker, though one with a picture of a Ku Klux Klan rider on his wall. When Mollie leaves his office, Scorsese cuts to a shot of her feet on a doormat imprinted with “KIGY,” an abbreviation for “Klansman, I greet you.” |
003719273ef5d226b58687000cacfd62 | 0.244078 | entertainment | Easy No-Yeast Cinnamon Rolls, a Gift to Whoevers in Charge of Breakfast | Good morning. This is it, for those celebrating Christmas tomorrow: the final push. Maybe there’s a turkey dry-brining in the fridge, or a ham waiting for its holiday glaze. Some will prepare prime rib, or a mushroom Wellington, or crack open oysters by an open fire.
Perhaps you’ll make cookies today, so that the children may leave a few out for Santa in the evening. You could make pastelitos, or a big lasagna, for the coming hordes of family, or to eat slowly over the coming days.
I am partial, myself, to these easy, no-yeast cinnamon rolls, a recipe our Margaux Laskey adapted from the one Allysa Torey uses at Magnolia Bakery. (A mixture of baking soda and baking powder offers the lift.) They’re a perfect introduction to a few days of gifts and carols, cups of coffee and naps on the couch. “Stop what you are doing and MAKE THIS,” one of our readers noted on the recipe. “They are outstanding!” |
98536573de7c9d69a7f855ebfe18d4d5 | 0.245372 | entertainment | Madonna gives Boston something to celebrate | “Open your heart, I’ll make you love me,” Madonna sang to a thrilled, packed, up-way-past-bedtime TD Garden Monday night.
Hearts were wide open. She made us love her.
Madonna has always looked forward, charging out in front of a genre perpetually obsessed with the next young thing. This year, Madonna, who is — GASP! — 65, is taking some time to celebrate her — GASP! — past. Not a greatest hits show (no “Material Girl,” no “Like a Virgin”), the Celebration Tour is a retrospective, a finely curated biography set to the greatest pop of the past 40 years.
She started her story (at 10:15 pm) in the most obvious place: the dance floor. The first mini set crammed in many of catchiest ’80s club jams, often with too much club bass. The whole night had too many melodies crushed under a tuneless low-end rumble, even ballad “Crazy for You” had a needless thumping. (Note: Pop stars, hire an actual band and minimize pre-recorded tracks.)
But, true to form, she overcame the sound with spectacle and charisma. “Open Your Heart” was captivating with Madonna staring into a camera, her dancers recreating the video’s peepshow burlesque vibe behind her.
The narrative moved on to different chapters (heretic, sex positive champion, mother and daughter). In each act, what worked — what’s always worked — remained: great pop, spectacle, charisma, and dancers, oh so many dancers!
The stage expanded from a main section with multiple smaller sections all connected by catwalks. And Madonna and troupe used every inch of floor. “Erotica” had Madonna and her troupe throwing punches in boxing rings on side stages. “Don’t Tell Me” saw the crew strutting in chaps and cowboy hats, and Madonna can still strut with awesome energy.
In one of the most arresting pieces of choreography in any pop show, a dozen dancers spun on a carousel, shirtless, undulating, bathed in warm light, striking crucifixion poses. At the center, Madonna sang a pumping, hypnotic remix of “Like A Prayer.”
“Vogue” played tribute to its inspiration, New York’s ballroom scene of the ’80s. With each dancer dressed in a radically different glammed out outfit showing off in front of judge Madonna. In a twist, 11-year-old daughter Estere topped the competition with her skills (four of her kids helped out including 17-year-old daughter Mercy who accompanied her on a grand piano for “Bad Girl”).
The show covered so much ground. The world-conquering rush of “Ray of Light” and breezy “Isla Bonita” and a wonderful, acoustic and raw version of “Express Yourself.” There was pyro and costume changes, hydraulic lifts and moving video screens with endless montages
And yet, it wasn’t enough. That’s a good thing. She’s made us love her and we want more.
“I think the most controversial thing I have ever done is to stick around,” she said in a video clip from an event honoring her as Billboard’s 2016 Woman of the Year. The comment couldn’t be more true considering the ageism and sexism she has faced and still faces. So please, shock he haters, stick around some more. |
7035c86e87055bf890372666de73bf58 | 0.251255 | entertainment | Death of Parasite Star Highlights South Koreas Crackdown on Drugs | Lee Sun-kyun, the “Parasite” actor who was found dead on Wednesday, was far from the only celebrity entangled in South Korea’s latest antidrug crackdown.
Yoo Ah-in, the actor known for his roles in the 2018 film “Burning” and the 2021 Netflix series “Hellbound,” is facing trial after testing positive for propofol, marijuana, ketamine and cocaine, officials say. Several South Korean retailers have cut ties with the actor since the drug accusations became public. He is no longer listed as a cast member for the second season of “Hellbound.”
G-Dragon, the rapper and former member of the K-pop boy group BigBang, had been under investigation for possible drug use until the police dropped the case earlier this month after he tested negative on several drug tests. Nevertheless, BMW Korea removed images of him from its online advertisements.
The recent accusations against high-profile entertainers here have highlighted the continuation of a strict antidrug policy and attitudes in South Korea that have drawn a hard line against anything other than total abstinence from drug use. |
6033f3e7f0a976c823a55e8e7d7809c8 | 0.25156 | entertainment | Seinfeld actor Peter Crombie dead at 71: ex-wife | Peter Crombie, best known for his role as "Crazy" Joe Davola on "Seinfeld" has died. He was 71.
"It is with shock and extreme sadness that I share my Ex-husband died this morning," his ex-wife Nadine Kijner shared on Instagram.
"Thank you for so many wonderful memories and being such a good man. Fly free into the Un-boundless source of light, Peter. May you be greeted with love by your parents, and Oliver. So so many people loved you because you were a kind, giving, caring and creative Soul."
JERRY SEINFELD HINTS AT 'SEINFELD' REUNION 25 YEARS AFTER SHOW ENDED
Crombie’s former spouse accompanied her tribute with sweet photos of the couple during their wedding day. The two were all smiles as the actor held his ex-wife and he fed her cake. The last photo of Crombie and Kijner was the two of them sharing a kiss at the altar.
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The late actor battled a short illness on Wednesday morning, his ex-wife said, according to People via TMZ. No further details on Crombie’s death have been revealed.
Kijner did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.
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Other heartfelt tributes poured in for Crombie, including his friend and comedian Lewis Black.
"Am heartbroken by the death of my good friend Peter Crombie. He was a gifted artist," Black shared on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"Not only was he a wonderful actor but an immensely talented writer. More importantly he was as sweet as he was intelligent and I am a better person for knowing him."
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Crombie was famously known for his role in "Seinfeld," as his character consistently terrorized Jerry Seinfeld. He played "Crazy" Joe Davola in five episodes of the popular sitcom from 1992 until 1993.
His other television and film credits include "House of Frankenstein," "My Dog Skip," the 1987 movie "Broken Vows," "L.A. Firefighters," "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine," "As the World Turns" and "Law & Order," according to IMDB.
Before his death, Crombie’s most recent role in 2000 was Detective Moody in the series "Walker, Texas Ranger." |
d9eb96de10d8ffe7cab47c79afe86b08 | 0.253652 | entertainment | Mass. State Lottery winner: 2 $1 million, 3 $100,000 prizes claimed same day | Two $1 million and three $100,000 lottery prizes were won or claimed from tickets sold across Massachusetts the day after Christmas.
One of the $1 million prizes claimed on Dec. 26 was from the Massachusetts State Lottery’s $50 scratch ticket game called “Billion Dollar Extravaganza,” and was sold in the Western Massachusetts city of Greenfield from the Elks Lodge.
The other $1 million prize claimed Tuesday was sold in Oxford from a shop called Rte. 12 Variety, and was from the lottery’s scratch ticket game called “$1,000,000 Snow Much Money.”
Two of the $100,000 prizes claimed in the state the day after Christmas were both from the scratch ticket game called “300X.” One was sold in Uxbridge from a store called Brothers Liquor, and the other was sold in Franklin from Old Gold Convenience Store.
The third $100,000 ticket was from the “Mass Cash” drawing for Dec. 26. The winning numbers for the drawing were 5, 11, 13, 23 and 27, and the winning ticket was sold in Braintree from Liberty Wine & Spirit.
Overall, there were at least 924 lottery prizes worth $600 or more won or claimed in Massachusetts on Tuesday, including 23 in Springfield and 38 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. |
ca1464b0df6fac2d8c1fe61932c5e60a | 0.258924 | entertainment | Boston finally has its own Subwaydle | First, there was Wordle. The simple game offered a new, five-letter word for players to guess every day.
Then, the spinoffs began. Some hewed closely to the original game — like Hardle (a harder version of Wordle) or Quordle (a challenge to solve four five-letter words simultaneously).
But then it went a step further. New puzzles sprung up that asked users not to guess based on words, but rather people, places and things. There was Worldle (identifying countries by their shape), Actorle (guessing an actor by their career history) and Heardle (identifying songs from just a snippet).
Finally, it’s Massachusetts’ turn to shine with MBTAdle, which dares you to guess a specific MBTA trip from Station A to Station B — including two transfers.
Madeleine Barowsky, a 27-year-old software engineer who lives in the Boston area, started on it as a personal project last week. By Wednesday, it was live.
“I just had a few days off for Thanksgiving and was talking about Subwaydle with a friend, and she was like: ‘You should make one for Boston,’” Barowsky told GBH News. “And I was like, ‘You know what? I have nothing but time on my hands right now. Let's do it.’”
She based it on New York’s Subwaydle, which launched in early 2022 to a fanfare of local media coverage that proclaimed it was “perfect for hardcore New Yorkers.” Barowsky used the game’s open-source code and chatted with its creator.
“Once I started, I was just really interested and wanted to keep going,” she said.
Players have to pick a specific route to connect Station A to Station B. (This reporter got Wednesday’s puzzle in two guesses.) There are more than 36,000 permutations, enough that the game won’t repeat the exact same route for 99 years — but it might give you the same two stations to connect.
“It's not going to be the most efficient route most of the time,” Barowsky said. “If you could get there in a few ways, you still have to get the right one according to the puzzle.”
But unlike in New York, there aren’t too many lines — or, too many opportunities to transfer (see: the lack of a Red-Blue connector). So Barowsky got creative.
“We just have like a lot of branching both on the Green and the Red Lines, so I treated them as different trains running on a lot of the same track,” she said. “That's something that a few people have commented on — like, if you're going towards Alewife, it doesn't really matter if you get on a train that originated at Ashmont or Braintree.”
The MBTAdle of today isn’t set in stone: Barowsky considered including key bus routes, too.
“But I wanted to just launch it first and see if people are even interested,” she said.
For first-time players, Barowsky has a few tips for success.
“You should have looked at the map before you played — I think it's kind of cheating to look at the map while you're playing,” she said. “Just remember, there are not that many stations where you can transfer. So, if you don't recognize the station, maybe it's on the Green Line Extension.” |
c0798f21acf04e08b16847071cbe924d | 0.263065 | entertainment | After 60 Episodes, Peter Morgan Says Goodbye to The Crown | On a chilly day in December 2016, Peter Morgan stood on a London street, watching the filming of a scene from his new television series about the British royal family.
Half an hour later, he flopped into a chair, running his hands through his hair. As both the show’s writer and showrunner, he was already working on Season 2 while keeping an eye on every detail of Season 1. “I love doing this, but it’s overwhelming to a degree that isn’t sustainable over a long time,” he said.
“This” was the “The Crown,” Morgan’s ambitious six-part series that would span most of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II, exploring national and international politics, personalities and social change through the prism of an intergenerational — and royal — family. After 60 episodes, all written or co-written by Morgan, he has seen it through.
On Thursday, Netflix will release the last six episodes of the sixth season, marking the end of a show that has been one of the most watched, argued over and influential creations in recent television history. |
d5939fe5fbb96b961999c0052e3031e8 | 0.26309 | entertainment | Mass. State Lottery winner: Man wins $4M; to donate part to Animal Rescue League | A Massachusetts man who won $4 million playing the lottery is truly letting some of his prize go to the dogs.
Paul Riley, of Peabody, was the winner of a $4 million prize in the Massachusetts State Lottery’s “100X Cash” scratch ticket game. He claimed his prize on Tuesday, Jan. 16.
Riley brought along his dog Raven when he claimed his $4 million ticket. Riley chose to receive his prize in the form of a one-time payment of $2.6 million before taxes.
The Peabody man told the lottery he’s an animal lover, and that he’s going to donate some of his prize to the Animal Rescue League. Riley also said he plans to buy a new car for his wife.
Riley bought his winning ticket at Summit Variety, located at 145-A Summit St. in Peabody, which will receive a $40,000 bonus for selling the winning ticket. |
ec27c520abd53a600a885e21af0b2de2 | 0.266979 | entertainment | Cookies for the Holidays | Above are the seven developers (including myself!) behind all the magic. Eric, whose holiday cookies are as nostalgic as they are evocative; Melissa, whom many consider to be the GOAT (her gingerbread blondies do not disprove that); Sue, whose precise technique and gorgeous flavors always shine; Samantha, who not only developed her own showstopper but also styled all of the cookies for the photo shoot; me, who [insert something nice about Vaughn here]; Yewande, whose cookies are always as stylish as they are brimming with flavor; and Sohla, who has more fun in the kitchen than anyone I’ve ever met and is a baking genius.
Though I supervise the video team, I also develop recipes and appear on camera, so I’m in on Cookie Week from the ground floor up. I get asked a lot of questions about the process behind it all: When do we start? What is the brainstorming process like? How do you come up with the ideas?
Here are some demystifying facts and figures: Every July we start throwing around ideas (begrudgingly, because it’s still summer and we don’t want to think about the holidays yet). We then approach our Cookie Week squad with a request for four or five ideas each, and from there our editors narrow the list to one that exhibits every cookie quality we look for. It takes weeks of working and reworking, going back for more pitches, and helping the developers to get their cookies just right. I have fond memories of testing out different icing techniques one day in our cooking studio with my pal Samantha, until finally landing on one that felt glamorous and vibrant, yet completely doable for home bakers. |
106c76dc4b750032c489812879daaa48 | 0.26742 | entertainment | How to watch Oxygens Dateline: Secrets Uncovered for free (Jan. 17) | The Oxygen series “Dateline: Secrets Uncovered” airs this Wednesday, Jan. 17 at 8 p.m. ET.
Those without cable can watch the new episode in real-time for free through either FuboTV or DirecTV Stream, each of which offer a free trial to new users.
In the new episode, “When Courtney Copeland is shot and killed, his mother investigates whether police detectives did enough to try to solve the case.”
How can I watch Oxygen’s “Dateline: Secrets Uncovered” for free without cable?
You can watch the new episode on FuboTV or on DirecTV Stream, each of which offer a free trial for new users.
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, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels. |
250e0e95d1e47ca54c56bde3d074c369 | 0.267796 | entertainment | Toy for Joy 2023: Hampden County Sheriff Nick Cocchis team leads community effort | When Hampden County Sheriff Nicholas J. Cocchi pledged his office and staff’s partnership in the Toy for Joy campaign, he knew it would be far from a silent partnership.
The department has been a key and active community partner as the drive to give underprivileged children a happier Christmas heads toward its Christmas Eve deadline with its $150,000 campaign goal in mind. Just over $100,000 still needs to be raised in this final week of the effort. |
72f03c3f4e4de7011f5ad0ab882b9559 | 0.267929 | entertainment | Polly Wants a Cracker, but She Wants to Make It Easier to Chew | It is the first time that this food-dunking behavior has been documented in parrots — it has also been observed in grackles and crows. And it was a serendipitous discovery for the lab, which typically relies on meticulously planned experiments to test the cockatoos’ renowned problem-solving skills. “But sometimes we get gifted with accidental things that just happen,” Dr. Auersperg said.
Goffin’s cockatoos are known for their ability to use and manipulate objects. In earlier studies, Dr. Auersperg and her colleagues found, for instance, that the birds could open locked puzzle boxes and make their own tools to obtain out-of-reach food.
But the researchers at the Goffin Lab did not typically pay close attention to the birds’ behavior at lunch, said Jeroen Zewald, a doctoral student in the lab and another author of the study. Until, one day last summer, they noticed something curious. An affectionate male bird named Pipin — “the gentleman of the group,” Mr. Zewald said — was dunking his food into the tub of water typically used for drinking and bathing. Two other birds in the lab, Kiwi and Muki, turned out to be dunkers, too, the researchers noticed.
To study the behavior more systematically, Mr. Zewald and Dr. Auersperg spent 12 days observing the birds’ lunchtime behaviors. In total, seven of the 18 birds were observed dunking food at least once, they found. (Still, Pipin, Kiwi and Muki were the undisputed dunkmasters, racking up many more “dunking events” than the other birds.) |
2460b76a5460088f05a7e04a06dddf48 | 0.270468 | entertainment | Beer Nut: Too many options are better than fewer | On a recent trip, I met a bartender named Nick who hailed from Belgium. Having never been there, I grilled him about certain Belgian beers and how they were viewed in his homeland.
We covered a wide span of topics, but what found most interesting about our chat was Nick’s combination of semi-surprise and minor confusion – let’s call it puzzlement – over the seemingly endless plethora of beer choices outside his country.
Belgium is known for some of the best beers going, but Nick said he was amazed about how many variations of the same styles can be found even in one bar. He said that in Belgium, most bars might have between five and eight taps, but also more bottled beer than in many other countries he’s been to.
It certainly didn’t seem like a complaint. Likewise, I sometimes ruminate on the cornucopia of beer choices with at least a small bit of bemusement. And like Nick, my thoughts don’t represent any sort of criticism. But I do wonder if the seemingly endless parade of variety is necessary. There doesn’t seem to be any downside: “the more, the merrier” and all that sort of thing, right?
And people love having choices and options. I know I do.
But Nick mentioned one problem with having so many options in one bar.
“It would be hard to control myself and not try them all,” he said, tongue in cheek.
This led me to wonder if there is such a thing as too many choices.
I’m sure we’ve all faced decisions where the options seemed overwhelming and we wished for a narrower field of choices. Sometimes certain details of a decision aren’t that important to us, and we’d just rather not have to deal with them.
With beer, I have seen customers walk into a bar with dozens of beers on tap and look a bit bewildered. Maybe they’re new to craft beer or maybe they’re just casual fans. Now, let’s assume that they know they like IPAs in general, but aren’t overly familiar with all the nuances the style has to offer.
They stare at the beer menu or lineup of tap handles and see four or five different IPAs (which isn’t unusual these days). While a lot of beer bars gladly give out samples, Nick winced a little about dealing with this type of situation.
“I can see giving two or three tastes, but not five,” he said.
And even for me, having a surfeit of choices can give me pause. Sometimes it’s just difficult to make up your mind. What if you choose wrong?
Well, the good thing about beer is that you can always choose again. And that’s better than having restricted options, right? |
cb0f228c95ad17c3cbf5d00a905bfdf9 | 0.274672 | entertainment | Boundary-busting Boston musicians up for Grammys | Boston musicians, breaking down musical boundaries, are well-represented as nominees for the 2024 Grammys. Nominees appear across a wide array of loose-fitting categories onstage and behind the scenes. Berklee College of Music, Harvard University and the New England Conservatory are the primary local sources of performers, songwriters, engineers and producers, with current faculty and alumni appearing on a diverse set of albums. Jazz and so-called global music are at the center of many nominees. The Banner caught up with three local nominees recently.
A full-time faculty member at the New England Conservatory (NEC), Mehmet Ali Sanlıkol is nominated for, “A Gentleman Of Istanbul,” in the category of Best Engineered Album, Classical. Sanlikol, who also serves as director of NEC’s Intercultural Institute, spoke to the Banner about his unique, eclectic and nearly uncategorizable album.
“This album was inspired by the very fascinating travels of Evliya Çelebi, who was a 17th-century Ottoman intellectual,” Sanlikol said. “I picked him because at the time, Donald Trump was going on about the so-called Muslim ban. All you had then were very stereotypical, outdated images of Muslims.”
Sanlikol, trained as a classical musician, with a career as a jazz pianist, added to his knowledge. Immersing himself in what he terms, “a decade of studies,” he learned to play traditional Turkish instruments: the oud (“a short-necked lute”); and the ney (“a type of flute”). He also studied Sufi dervishes and practiced singing Koranic recitations. All of this combined to create his own interpretations of deep, musical cultures.
“My role as director of the Intercultural Institute is to introduce our students to all kinds of traditional music and cultures around the world,” Sanlikol said.
Over at Berklee, visiting scholar Miguel Zenón, in the Harmony and Jazz Composition Department, is Grammy-nominated for Best Latin Jazz Album for “El Arte Del Bolero Vol. 2.,” a collaboration with Venezuelan pianist Luis Perdomo. Zenón, a composer and alto saxophonist, is originally from Puerto Rico.
“Anyone growing up in Latin American culture would find our melodies familiar,” Zenón told the Banner. “The music is a cultural expression; we are not recreating the songs, we are using a jazz tradition to create our interpretations of them.”
The duo of Zenón and Perdomo create harmonies on the album that wordlessly establish a peaceful space. That space is not nostalgic, but rather is a musical anchor, a legacy of the musicians who helped to establish a Latin American culture that has no national boundaries.
“The album celebrates the Latin American songbook,” Zenón said. “It is the same as the Great American Songbook having songs, for example, by George Gershwin and Cole Porter. The songs on my album are what we grew up hearing with our parents and grandparents.”
In addition to teaching and performing, Zenón established Caravana Cultural, a project based in Puerto Rico that provides free concerts focusing on jazz greats. Performing all over the island, the project has brought the music of Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington and Keith Jarrett, among others, to audiences in recent years.
“Love in Exile,” is another Grammy-nominated album featuring musicians with ties to Boston. Named by The New York Times last week as one of the 10 best in 2023, across all musical categories, it features Harvard professor Vijay Iyer and Berklee graduate Arooj Aftab, along with Shahzad Ismaily. The recording is impossible to define, with its use of jazz idioms, Pakistani and Indian traditions, and synthesizers.
Aftab told the Banner, “On the album, I’d like to think that I am the third instrument. I sometimes follow and build on ideas Vijay and Shahzad put forward, and then at other times I am the idea, the driving force, that we build on. I focus on freedom inside of the tunes, but all three of us are consciously kind of steering the tunes to have a beginning, a middle and an end, so the music can feel graceful and thoughtful and complete.”
The Grammy Awards ceremony takes place Feb. 5 in Los Angeles.
This year’s Grammy nominees bear truth to the adage attributed to the great Duke Ellington: “There are simply two kinds of music, good music and the other kind.” And by breaking down borders, these musicians allow us to listen with open minds and hearts. |
22d4c81755bb8d07866389f64e7cc8af | 0.276215 | entertainment | Powerball: See the winning numbers in Mondays $295 million drawing | It’s time to grab your tickets and check to see if you’re a big winner! The Powerball lottery jackpot continues to rise after one lucky winner in California won $1.73 billion in the October 11 drawing. Is this your lucky night?
Here are Monday’s winning lottery numbers:
19-26-30-39-63, Powerball: 13, Power Play: 2X
The estimated Powerball jackpot is $295 million. The lump sum payment before taxes would be about $135.8 million.
Double Play Winning Numbers
15-21-39-45-52, Powerball: 12
The Double Play is a feature that gives players in select locations another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing. The Double Play drawing is held following the regular drawing and has a top cash prize of $10 million.
Powerball is held in 45 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Double Play add-on feature is available for purchase in 13 lottery jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Michigan.
A $2 ticket gives you a one in 292.2 million chance at joining the hall of Powerball jackpot champions.
The drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m. |
45ca5e4ac9c40914bf1605b5b25a9cf6 | 0.277694 | entertainment | Mad for It: What Happened When Chanel Came to Manchester | Manchester is a city of glory and grit. Set among the damp northwest hills of England, it’s the rain-spattered home of Northern soul and legendary bands like Joy Division, New Order and Oasis; two world famous soccer clubs; the cradle of the industrial revolution; and one of the most vibrant nightlife scenes on the planet. Style and swagger? This proud city has them in spades. But most people would not consider it a capital of high fashion.
That all changed this week when Chanel took over the town for its Métiers d’Art runway show, an annual presentation of the intricate craftsmanship of its specialist ateliers. Since 2002, the show has been held in Salzburg, Austria; Rome; and Dakar, Senegal, among other cities. On Thursday, 600 guests, braving icy winds and lashing rain, descended on the Northern Quarter neighborhood of Manchester for a runway show held on Thomas Street, lined with empty tattoo parlors, pubs, vintage clothing stores and record shops. (Their owners had been paid off handsomely to vacate them for the week.) As guests took their seats by candlelight on the street among A-listers like Kristen Stewart, Tilda Swinton and Hugh Grant — under a giant purpose-built Perspex roof — many sipped hot toddies to fortify themselves against the elements.
The show may not have had the glamour and grandeur of those at past Chanel sites. (Some eyebrows were raised when the location was announced earlier this year.) But the beauty of Manchester is not to be found in its gloomy buildings, many of which housed a once thriving textile and cotton trade. Rather, it is in the electric spirit and creativity that pulsates through the narrow streets of the city.
“We wanted this show to take place in England, but not in London, which felt too expected,” the Chanel president, Bruno Pavlovsky, said before the show. Twenty-four hours earlier, guests had been treated to a raucous night in the stands at Old Trafford as they watched Manchester United beat Chelsea or to a recital at a local working men’s club by the punk-rock-era poet John Cooper Clarke. |
841b331238be842ffd575395cfc80b94 | 0.279478 | entertainment | Happy Days at 50: The Fonz Bought Me a House | On Tuesday night, Jan. 15, 1974, Richie, Potsie, Ralph and Fonzie entered our living rooms for a visit that would end up lasting more than a decade.
Created by Garry Marshall, “Happy Days” arrived as a comic but earnest chronicle of adolescence in 1950s Milwaukee. It revolved around Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) and his equally hormonal pals — Warren “Potsie” Weber (Anson Williams) and Ralph Malph (Donny Most) — along with the rest of the Cunninghams: Richie’s younger sister, Joanie (Erin Moran); mother, Marion (Marion Ross); and father, Howard (Tom Bosley). (Chuck, an older brother played by a series of actors, disappeared early in the show’s run.)
“Happy Days” didn’t really take off with viewers until a couple of seasons later, when it was retooled into a broader multicamera sitcom oriented around the local tough turned mentor and guardian angel, Arthur Fonzarelli (Henry Winkler), known the world over as the Fonz. In the 1976-77 season, “Happy Days” became the most-watched show on television, supplanting “All in the Family.” It ran until the summer of 1984, a total of 11 seasons, while generating multiple spinoffs — “Laverne & Shirley,” “Mork & Mindy,” “Joanie Loves Chachi” — and untold tons of Fonzie merchandise.
In December, the surviving members of the original core cast — Howard, 69; Most, 70; Williams, 74; Winkler, 78; and Ross, 95 — met in a video chat to commemorate the 50th anniversary of “Happy Days.” (Bosley died in 2010, Moran in 2017.) They reminisced about the special bond they felt at the time and have felt ever since, and how the elevation of Fonzie was integral to the show’s popularity. (Disclosure: I helped Williams on his campaign for mayor of Ojai, Calif., in 2022, and we are friends.) |
db189d4b2a7b7df533f33102880e86d2 | 0.285059 | entertainment | Edible Neighborhood Emerges At Little Wanderers Gingerbread House Contest | BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — Nearly 200 residents took part in a holiday competition for a great cause on Sunday morning.
35 teams competed in The Home for Little Wanderers 2023 Gingerbread House Decorating Contest at the Mandarin Oriental in the Back Bay. While the contestants created a neighborhood of houses with sugar shingles, CEO of Little Wanderers Lesli Suggs said they hope to raise $100 thousand for at-risk children.
“For children in public schools, early childhood, young adults who are aging out of care, we provide those critical services to ensure that children have the opportunity to grow up in safe and loving families,” said Suggs. |
4c61f0f1b152c9fdd905f746f55dfd0d | 0.285459 | entertainment | Whats Ahead in 2024? The Cookie Cutters Tell All. | Ben Clark may be uniquely qualified to predict the outcome of the next presidential election. He’s not a pollster or political strategist. He makes cookie cutters.
The metal baking tools are an uncanny cultural bellwether, said Mr. Clark, who runs Ann Clark, the largest cookie-cutter manufacturer in the United States. Just after the 2016 election, he noticed that percentage sales of his Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump cutters roughly aligned with the vote.
Last spring, guitar and musical-note shapes began selling at a rapid clip, just as Taylor Swift was starting her Eras tour. In July, cookie cutters shaped like lipsticks and convertible cars picked up steam, thanks to Barbie mania.
On a recent morning at the factory in Rutland, Vt., Mr. Clark was puzzling over next year’s election — specifically, how to create a cookie cutter of President Biden, whose silhouette isn’t all that recognizable. Suddenly, it hit him. |
335e97539814732837b29b888d9fe07c | 0.287132 | entertainment | Two Firsts and Two Fanfares from BSO | BSO Assistant Conductor Earl Lee and alto saxophonist Steven Banks joined the orchestra in works of César Franck, Henri Tomasi, and Tchaikovsky at Symphony Hall Thanksgiving Friday afternoon. For Banks it was a Boston debut and for Tomasi’s concerto its first BSO performance. The Franck must appear new to many Boston audiences, though surprisingly isn’t altogether a BSO rarity. Starting with Gericke in 1901, it was done nearly every ten years up through Monteux in 1920. Since then it’s been revived every second or third decade, most recently under Marek Janowski in 1993.
With the Franck and the Tchaikovsky, showers of fanfares rang out as if to announce what surely could become one of most memorable of subscription concerts.
Even for Franck, according to long-time annotator Steven Ledbetter, “This is a side of Franck that we rarely see” and for his contemporaries, he was only “‘slumming’ in the world of the Lisztian tone poem.” Le Chasseur maudit (The Accursed Huntsman), via Korean Canadian Lee, caught us up in a spook riddled rhythmic ride through the meadows. Trembling strings and stoutly pealing brass heralding the way, Lee, near statuesque at first then becoming ever more engaged in successive demonic crescendos, arms moving further and further outward, shuddered, though with restraint, as he led the full orchestra into the last climax. A thriller of a ride not unlike those we are accustomed to as movie-goers.
Walking onstage Steven Banks already signaled that he would assuredly and magnificently guide listeners in Concerto for Alto Saxophone in E-flat and Orchestra by Henri Tomasi. That the concerto was composed in 1949, premiered by the renown saxophonist Marcel Mule, and only now taken up by the French leaning BSO, is a mystery—the score having Gallic written all over it.
Tomasi’s “exam piece” for the Paris Conservatory skyrocketed with Steven Banks and Earl Lee co-piloting an empathic and super-charged BSO. First, so much can be said about the instrument, its multitudes of highly individualized voices in jazz. A rarer voice in the concert hall, the saxophone in the hands of a Banks furnished an oasis of luxuriant timbre. Next, his direct coursing through Tomasi’s labyrinth of a century of French musings caught hold and never let go. From lyricism to virtuosity came a cover of ineludible velvetiness. Looking backward and forward, Tomasi’s rapturous, often times inscrutable, score took Banks and Lee to ecstatic climaxes, a supersonic orchestra always engaging on equal ground. Both saxophonist and conductor were immensely compelling visually, the former lithely exuding complete rapport with the kinetics of Tomasi, the latter exhibiting sinewy energy powering the BSO.
Yet another first, a real surprise, a supremely ethereal solo rendering of Albert Hayes Malotte’s The Lord’s Prayer. The melody unfolded slowly, purely, one note at a time wafting through a reverent Hall, as though coming from another world; listeners would gradually come to recognize the old standard sung at weddings and church services. This encore, truly a one-of-a-kind.
Following intermission, sharper fanfares rallied from Symphony No. 4 in F Minor, Opus 36, Tchaikovsky’s famous work, emblematic especially to those fortunate to have encountered it during childhood. The Boston Symphony orchestra leapfrogged innocents revisiting that music and into what symphony really means. Steadfastly holding our attention to the Tchaikovsky, Lee, as before with the Franck, conducted with close-to-the-body eloquence giving way at extremes, from putting his baton aside to wave on passages of dreamy strings or gliding winds to gyrating about the podium to stir up exhilarating passages of brass or percussion. The instruments of the BSO arose in their full glory. Just what you would have wished for: dizzying speeds from all around the orchestra; catchy solos from the woodwinds; and those spinetingling episodes from trumpets to tuba, cymbals to timpani. The sudden burst of the percussion opening the fourth movement on top of the enticing plucked strings settling into barely heard notes ending the third, just one of uncountable amazements.
David Patterson, Professor of Music and former Chair of the Performing Arts Department at UMass Boston, was recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award and the Chancellor’s Distinction in Teaching Award. He studied with Nadia Boulanger and Olivier Messiaen in Paris and holds a PhD from Harvard University. He is the author of 20 Little Piano Pieces from Around the World (G. Schirmer). www.notescape.net |
6ac14a55f8b8458c8dfedbefde768ae6 | 0.289155 | entertainment | Powerball: See the winning numbers in Wednesdays $700 million drawing | It’s time to grab your tickets and check to see if you’re a big winner! The Powerball lottery jackpot continues to rise after one lucky winner in California won $1.73 billion in the October 11 drawing. Is this your lucky night?
Here are Wednesday’s winning lottery numbers:
04-11-38-51-68, Powerball: 05, Power Play: 3X
Double Play Winning Numbers
14-29-39-66-67, Powerball: 02
The estimated Powerball jackpot is $700 million. The lump sum payment before taxes would be about $352.3 million.
The Double Play is a feature that gives players in select locations another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing. The Double Play drawing is held following the regular drawing and has a top cash prize of $10 million.
Powerball is held in 45 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Double Play add-on feature is available for purchase in 13 lottery jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Michigan.
A $2 ticket gives you a one in 292.2 million chance at joining the hall of Powerball jackpot champions.
The drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m. |
92a9a126a9839a6571af45540b161fe0 | 0.290208 | entertainment | I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus': It wasn't really banned in Boston | But a Christmas or two ago, I stumbled on a brand new (to me) holiday tale. According to many sources, including Wikipedia, the 1952 hit “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” was banned in Boston — or at least denounced by the Catholic Church.
After 50 Christmases in Boston, I thought I knew the local holiday scene pretty well. Where to go for “Messiah” performances and carols; when a child (or grandchild) is the right age for “The Nutcracker”; why the city’s Christmas tree is a gift from the province of Nova Scotia.
“Within a week of its release, the Archdiocese of Boston condemned ‘I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus’ as immoral,” writes Ace Collins in his 2010 book “The Greatest Hits of Christmas.”
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Versions of this story are all over the web.
John Mellencamp, who covered the song in 1987, refers to the Boston ban on his website. On Dolly Parton’s Facebook page (she recorded the song in 2020), a fan mentions the ban. Even a Catholic news site recounts the tale.
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In the most dramatic telling, the benighted bishops don’t even realize that the Santa in the song is Daddy in costume — they think he’s an adulterous old elf on a booty call.
According to Collins, the 13-year-old singer, Jimmy Boyd, was flown to Boston to enlighten the critics. “Cameras were on hand as the child explained to the church leader the song’s real punch line. This was not an affair — it was a father making the season magic for his children.”
(How he’s “making magic” for a child who’s supposed to be “tucked up in my bedroom fast asleep” is not explained. In fact, this is really the dodgy bit of the song: Why is Daddy cosplaying Santa for an audience of one? Does Mommy have a thing for fake beards and jelly bellies?)
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At any rate, it was probably the claim about the churchmen’s misunderstanding that tipped my curiosity into skepticism. Objecting to the song for “mixing sex with Christmas,” as one report put it, is plausible. A council of clergymen not getting the joke? Not so much. I decided to check it out, and the first place to check was obviously with the Boston Archdiocese itself.
I was in luck there. The archivist at the time of my queries, Christina Stankewicz, was as curious as I was, and she combed both the church’s records and other online sources. She found no mentions of the alleged local flap at all, in the archdiocese files or elsewhere. If “cameras were on hand” for Jimmy Boyd’s visit, the photos were never printed. “The whole story seems fishy,” she emailed. “There would have been some sort of fanfare around a 13/14-year-old boy talking to church leaders” about his hit song.
The Globe did run a couple of tiny news items about radio stations in other cities refusing to play the song. And at least one ban was authentic, if brief: UPI reported on Dec. 15, 1952, that WSAZ, a TV and radio outlet based in Huntington, West Virginia, had banned the tune. The stations’ vice president, L.H. Rogers, said the song breached a broadcasting code of the time: “It violates a provision against songs in which children describe parents’ misconduct, and implies an insult to Santa and the sacred occasion.” The audience did not agree, and the ban was lifted nine days later.
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But in Boston, as far as we can tell, the reaction was . . . nothing. So why does our fair city get the blame when the (few) complaints came from elsewhere?
Well, we don’t have to go back to our Puritan founders — so pure they made Christmas celebrations illegal — to figure it out. Boston worked hard at maintaining its reputation for prudery well into the 20th century.
In December 1952, when “I Saw Mommy” was hitting the Billboard charts, the Harvard Crimson published a long report on the state of local censorship. At the time, the Massachusetts Advisory Committee on Juvenile Reading, a group of worthies from civic groups and churches, was empowered to rule on “dirty books.” As the Crimson reported, a member of the committee could say a word to the police, who would pass it on to the bookseller, “man to man,” and presto, the offending title would disappear. “It is censorship by ‘polite’ warning, and ‘helpful’ advice,” the article concluded. “It is highly effective.”
This is the history that made “Banned in Boston” a phrase with its own Wikipedia page. And so, just as Mark Twain gets credit for witticisms of others, Boston is the logical target when someone decides to point fingers at bluenoses.
It’s possible that someone who dimly remembered the West Virginia broadcast ban reframed the story as a Boston scandal. Exactly when that made it into print is still a mystery, but it appears as an aside (“even though the disc was banned in Boston”) in the San Bernardino Sun as early as 1979 — a clue that it was spreading before the internet’s rumor amplifier gave it a boost.
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But it wasn’t until 2009, when Jimmy Boyd died, that the rumor made the big time. Obituaries in both The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times put the claim in print: “The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston condemned [the song] as mixing sex with Christmas,” wrote the New York Times reporter. The LA Times account was more cautious: “The Catholic Church condemned the song for implying even a tenuous link between sex and the religious holiday.” Those citations give the myth legitimacy: Now Wikipedia and Ace Collins have two respectable sources to cite, and the legend becomes “fact.”
Do I think correcting the record will have any effect? No more than the Grinch (or the Puritans) could stop Christmas from coming; no amount of fact-checking can shut down a story people want to believe. But at least we can defend our town from this Christmas calumny: Whatever you think of the song, “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus” was never banned in Boston.
This article was updated on Dec. 20 to add that the Globe printed brief stories about opposition to the song elsewhere.
Jan Freeman, a former language columnist for Ideas, is a writer in Newton. |
a3edc6191d32e3abc6d7543ae276692d | 0.291321 | entertainment | Stream These 9 Movies Before They Leave Netflix in January | In January, several big movies from an impressive coterie of marquee directors — including Sofia Coppola, Luca Guadagnino, Yorgos Lanthimos, Spike Lee, Jordan Peele and Robert Rodriguez — leave Netflix in the United States, along with a zippy comedy, an entertaining animated sequel and what may be the most famous runner-up in Oscars history. (Dates indicate the final day a title is available.)
‘BlacKkKlansman’ (Jan. 5)
Stream it here.
Better late than never: Spike Lee won his first competitive Oscar for co-writing the screenplay to this deft combination of social satire and police procedural, which he also directed. It details the true story of how the Colorado police detective Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan — despite the fact that Stallworth is Black. Lee plays Stallworth’s ruse, achieved with a clever combination of phone calls and undercover work by his white, Jewish partner (Adam Driver), for laughs. But the danger of the operation is ever-present, building considerable tension to a conclusion that ingeniously and gut-wrenchingly ties the past to the present.
‘Get Out’ (Jan. 5)
Stream it here.
When Jordan Peele’s crossover to feature filmmaking was announced in the mid-2010s, most audiences — familiar only with his work as half of the sketch comedy team Key & Peele — presumed he would continue to work in that wild comic style. No one could have predicted that he would turn the entire horror genre upside down, but that’s exactly what he did with this nail-biting combination of social commentary and scary movie. What begins as a “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” riff — a wealthy young white woman (Allison Williams) bringing her Black boyfriend (Daniel Kaluuya) home to meet her parents — turns into something far more sinister and unpredictable; Peele’s insights as a screenwriter are pointed and even profound, and his directorial instincts are striking from Frame 1.
‘Spy Kids’ (Jan. 12)
Stream it here.
Just as it’s hard to remember that Peele wasn’t always associated with horror, recall that there was once a time when the idea of Robert Rodriguez — known then for his hyperkinetic action movies — making a family film was shocking. But he changed all of that with this 2001 smash, in which two average kids (the charismatic duo of Daryl Sabara and Alexa Vega) discover that their seemingly boring parents (Antonio Banderas and Carla Gugino, both delightfully game) are in fact globe-trotting super spies; a mission has gone awry, and the kids have to save them. Rodriguez’s imaginative scenario plugs right in to childhood play, and his handmade style is a smooth fit for kid-friendly cinema. (The second and third chapters in the franchise leave Netflix the same day.) |
9ed75e7dbec2f4f1108683b0c4954245 | 0.292079 | entertainment | Ask Amy: My longtime partner called me an old bag and Im not here for it | Dear Amy: I’ve been with my partner for almost 16 years.
Throughout this time, he has said some ridiculously mean things to me, thinking he’s just being funny or making a joke.
Most recently, in the course of a conversation, he “jokingly” called me an “old bag,” thinking that how he said it was clever and “just a joke.”
He’s always so proud of himself when he makes a “funny” statement.
I called him out on it, telling him that I thought that was a mean comment and not funny at all.
He said nothing in return.
We are currently on vacation out of the country and I’m having a hard time not thinking about this and how angry I am at him for saying this and “spoiling” our vacation from the start.
He gets this sense of humor from his family… I understand it intellectually, but it still hurts after all these years.
Am I being too sensitive?
What should I do?
– Really Tired
Dear Tired: To tackle your question about your partner’s hilarity, I shared your question with stand-up comedian and Emmy Award-winning comedy writer Josh Gondelman. His response follows:
“As Mel Brooks famously said: ‘Tragedy is when I cut my finger. Comedy is when you fall into an open sewer and die.’
In plainer terms, it can be funny when someone else gets hurt.
I’m a pretty compassionate person, but I will laugh every time when someone talking loudly on a cellphone bonks their head on a tree branch while they’re walking down the street. (I’m only human, after all.)
The problem here is that your partner is laughing at the pain of someone (you) he has to sleep next to every night (presumably) until death.
So when you feel pain, it would (presumably, again) make a difference to him.
Are you being sensitive? Sure. Too sensitive? I don’t know about that! Maybe your partner is calling you an ‘old bag’ because the funny thing (to him) is that you’re so obviously NOT an old bag that it’s ironic.
But here’s the thing: When you tell a joke and there’s an audience of two (you and him), and half of that audience (you, again) doesn’t laugh, that joke has bombed.
And yes, as a professional joke teller, it can be fun to antagonize an audience, but not the one you plan to go on vacation with.
There’s a term in comedy for when someone continually makes a joke that hurts people’s feelings and doesn’t go over well. We call it: Being Annoying.
Your partner is being annoying. He’s not taking your feelings into account. And when a comic can’t read the room, he’s in danger of the crowd walking out.”
I’ll add to Josh’s response: In terms of what you should do about this, I suggest that you should re-examine your sensitivities, share this professional comic’s answer with your partner, drop the mic, and (figuratively) “walk out” (disengage patiently) while he reworks his set.
Dear Amy: Recently, my husband and I lost our sweet greyhound. He was almost 13.
We adopted him at 4½, after a career on the racetrack. We are so grateful he came into our lives, and are humbled by the outpouring of support from our friends and family during this difficult time after his death.
I wanted to make a suggestion to your readers supporting people during their time of pet loss. Instead of sending flowers and treats to the grieving humans, consider making a donation to a local pet rescue, especially one from where the pet is from or which works with the grieving owner’s breed.
While I appreciate the gifts that we received, I would feel such a sense of peace knowing that my dog’s legacy was supporting future dogs in finding their furever homes.
– Grieving Dog Mom
Dear Grieving: This is a fantastic idea. Thank you for suggesting it.
I hope it eases your own sadness somewhat to know that your suggestion will likely lead many people toward supporting animal causes as an expression of sympathy for the loss of a pet.
Dear Amy: “Looking” was frustrated by online matching.
There is a national online site called meetup.com.
It is a fabulous site for finding groups of mutual interest in local areas.
It’s not a dating site, but there are things for singles.
It’s also a way to make friendships. I’ve made several through participating in events.
– Happily Met up
Dear Happily: This is a great suggestion. I’ve used Meetup, myself!
(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. |
ff89f363465bb16fcf0c07a351147fbb | 0.292746 | entertainment | Powerball: See the winning numbers in Saturdays $535 million drawing | It’s time to grab your tickets and check to see if you’re a big winner! The Powerball lottery jackpot continues to rise after one lucky winner in California won $1.73 billion in the October 11 drawing. Is this your lucky night?
Here are Saturday’s winning lottery numbers:
03-09-10-20-62, Powerball: 25, Power Play: 3X
Double Play Winning Numbers
09-39-41-46-65, Powerball: 03
The estimated Powerball jackpot is $535 million. The lump sum payment before taxes would be about $268.2 million.
The Double Play is a feature that gives players in select locations another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing. The Double Play drawing is held following the regular drawing and has a top cash prize of $10 million.
Powerball is held in 45 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Double Play add-on feature is available for purchase in 13 lottery jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Michigan.
A $2 ticket gives you a one in 292.2 million chance at joining the hall of Powerball jackpot champions.
The drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m. |
db0ca1b78ba78444a59aea71cf827b28 | 0.29361 | entertainment | Beer Nut: A few brewing news and notes | As we approach the end of the year, I figured today would be a good day to clear off a few stray items of beer news and notes from my virtual desk. So let’s dive right in:
Regular readers will know of my ongoing gloom over the news of Anchor Brewing Co. shuttering its operation in late summer. To employ the old phrase, it seems the death knell is “all over bit the shouting” – or more accurately, the bidding.
According to a story in the San Francisco Chronicle, Anchor’s parent company, Japanese brewing giant Sapporo Holdings Ltd., is liquidating Anchor’s assets, and doing so in three separate sections: the land where the brewery was situated for the past 43 years, the Anchor brand and intellectual property rights (including recipes), and the brewery’s brewing equipment.
Potential buyers can make offers on any or all three parts, but Anchor spokesperson Sam Singer informed the Chronicle that there are some interested parties who would like to keep all three sections together. The article noted that the most valuable facet of Anchor’s holdings is probably the 2.17-acre chunk of real estate, which was listed in October for $40 million.
The sale of Anchor’s assets is being handled by Hilco Corporate Finance, an investment bank whose specialty is these such sales. Teri Stratton, Hilco senior managing director, told the Chronicle that she is “highly confident” that the Anchor brand will continue.
For fans of the oldest craft brewery in the nation, that’s some good news just in time for the holidays.
Next up is a beer (and wine) battle in Great Barrington, where Price Chopper/Market 32 is making a third attempt to snag the town’s sole remaining beer and wine license.
The select board has already twice denied requests by the chain, but will hear a third application on Dec. 4. According to a story in the Berkshire Eagle, Price Chopper wants to sell alcohol as part of its Market 32 brand anchor store at Barrington Plaza.
At previous hearings, Price Chopper officials previously told the board that it wants to be able compete with Big Y, which was granted an all-alcohol license in 2018. While that seems to be a fair argument, other liquor store owners have pointed out that Price Chopper is an out-of-state company and that local businesses should take precedence.
I have no strong opinion on this sort of thing, but I usually side with the local folks. Liquor licenses are a hot commodity and it will be interesting to see how Great Barrington decides this ongoing series of attempts.
Last and certainly least (but also the funniest) is a story about Cleveland-based brewery Saucy Brew Works, which brewed a University of Michigan version of its Stealing Signs Double Dry Hopped Hazy Pale Ale. The release of the brew was a clear poke at Michigan football coach Jim Harbaugh, who has been embroiled in a sign-stealing scandal.
The 6.5% ABV brew comes in a can featuring Michigan colors and a drawing of a man who certainly resembles Harbaugh.
Michigan got the last laugh in the classic collegiate football rivalry, however. The Wolverines beat the Buckeyes 30-24 last weekend. |
58f0eff729bd5d74ebed5f5fbcd206c9 | 0.295607 | entertainment | Powerball: See the winning numbers in Saturdays $340 million drawing | It’s time to grab your tickets and check to see if you’re a big winner! The Powerball lottery jackpot continues to rise after one lucky winner in California won $1.73 billion in the October 11 drawing. Is this your lucky night?
Here are Saturday’s winning lottery numbers:
27-33-63-66-68, Powerball: 09, Power Play: 2X
The estimated Powerball jackpot is $340 million. The lump sum payment before taxes would be about $157.8 million.
Double Play Winning Numbers
01-27-30-49-62, Powerball: 20
The Double Play is a feature that gives players in select locations another chance to match their Powerball numbers in a separate drawing. The Double Play drawing is held following the regular drawing and has a top cash prize of $10 million.
Powerball is held in 45 states, the District of Columbia, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico. The Double Play add-on feature is available for purchase in 13 lottery jurisdictions, including Pennsylvania and Michigan.
A $2 ticket gives you a one in 292.2 million chance at joining the hall of Powerball jackpot champions.
The drawings are held at 10:59 p.m. Eastern, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. The deadline to purchase tickets is 9:45 p.m. |
2939a6c71fe5f7a2f9f7ea980a759a1b | 0.297575 | entertainment | Doctor Who Welcomed Its 15th Doctor. Heres How He Stacks Up. | With most TV shows, a major casting change is a dreaded event. But for fans of the long-running British series “Doctor Who,” big casting changes are expected, even anticipated. With the show’s latest Christmas episode, which premiered Monday on Disney+, we got acquainted with the newest Doctor, played by Ncuti Gatwa (“Sex Education”) — the 15th Doctor and the first Black, openly queer one in series history.
The arrival of a new Doctor, the show’s titular time-traveling, space-wandering alien, is always a buzzy occasion. But although the Doctor typically dies and is regenerated in the final minutes of some climactic episode, it is the one immediately following that truly establishes the new incarnation and what kind of flavor he or she will offer. These first full episodes with a new Doctor, including this year’s Christmas special, “The Church on Ruby Road,” can reveal a lot about how that Doctor’s tenure will go.
Here’s a look back at the first post-regeneration episodes of every Doctor since the show’s 2005 revival. |
4c6ab4799b1d346e2aa1693a37881e71 | 0.300889 | entertainment | How to watch Love & Marriage: Huntsville Dec. 30 new episode for free | The Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) series “Love & Marriage: Huntsville” continues on Saturday, Dec. 30 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT with a new episode.
Those without cable can watch the new episode for free through Philo, FuboTV or DirecTV Stream, each of which offer a free trial to new users.
“Three high-powered African-American couples come together to help the thriving city of Huntsville, Ala., continue to grow in ‘Love & Marriage: Huntsville,’” FuboTV said in a description of the series.
“The couples are longtime friends and avid socialites with very strong points of view,” it added. “They help the town grow with their real estate venture, the Comeback Group, as they strive to face the realities of love and marriage while striving for success.”
The new episode is titled “Family, Fidelity & Fish Fries″ according to FuboTV, which added in a description, “Stormi brings her family together in Mississippi for a fish fry; Martell extends an olive branch to Melody in hopes of peace; Kimmi has a big surprise for Maurice; Marsau searches for answers as he continues to doubt Tisha’s fidelity.”
How can I watch “Love & Marriage: Huntsville” for free without cable?
The new episode is available to watch on Philo, FuboTV or DirecTV Stream, each of which offer free trials 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 FuboTV?
FuboTV is an over-the-top internet live TV streaming service that offers more than 100 channels, such as sports, news, entertainment and local channels.
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. DirecTV also offers a free trial for any package you sign up. |
327c152705976d5aed9f246ca1949522 | 0.302384 | entertainment | Lil Nas X is entering his Christian era - so what could that mean for Christian rap? | Sign up for Reckon’s latest weekly newsletter covering the three topics never to be discussed at the dinner table. Enter your email to subscribe to Matter of Faith.
Rapper Lil Nas X told fans last week he’s entering his “Christian era,” and the internet made it clear we’re still unsure what it means to be queer and Christian.
Despite the rapper’s soulful lyrics like “I’m trying hard to face my pain. Give me hope when I feel less,” some fans and celebrities aren’t buying it. Fellow creators and fans have questioned the validity of his intentions behind the song and accused the rapper of being too flippant about Christianity.
Some fans are celebrating the rapper’s “glow-up” as some fans have called his implied pivot to more spiritual themes in his music.
Could Lil Nas X’s foray into Christian hip hop mark a significant shift in the landscape of mainstream music? A rapper producing songs with Christian themes and even Christian hip hop as a genre has existed for far longer than Lil Nas X. The industry boasts Grammy award-winning and nominated artists like Kirk Franklin, Lecrae and Andy Mineo.
While the genre has existed for decades, it has often been relegated to niche audiences and struggled to gain widespread recognition. However, Lil Nas X’s immense popularity and willingness to explore controversial themes could bring Christian hip hop to the forefront, sparking conversations about faith, sexuality, and the role of religion in contemporary culture.
Lil Nas X’s embrace of Christian hip hop signals a broader trend of artists using their platforms to address spiritual and social issues, and queer Christian fans are celebrating his embrace of his faith and sexuality.
Christian hip hop artists like Lecrae and Mineo have been popular among both religious and secular music fans alike as the appeal of Christian rap has grown since rappers started including Jesus in their lyrics in the late 1980s. (Actor Mr. T even made his own Christian rap album in the 1980s).
Commenters on X compared Lil Nas X to Kanye West, whose “Christian era” included sold-out Sunday Service shows complete with expensive Christian-themed merch and appearances at evangelical youth group conferences in East Tennessee.
“kanye west (god bless his soul) needed a proper competitor. go for it,” one Twitter user said.
What are other celebrities saying and why does it matter?
Religious themes among major pop artists lyrics are nothing new with both pro-religion and anti-religion themes present in most popular music of the last few decades. While Lil Nas X has been known for trolling homophobic and often religious fans, he now seems to be going the way of rappers before him like Kanye West, who have expressed their faith in their lyrics despite previous controversy.
Actor and singer Tyrese Gibson addressed Lil Nas X’s new song preview in a comment on The Shade Room’s Instagram post about the clip on Nov. 30.
“God is not to be played with. From shoes with devil signs and devils blood in the [shoe] sole? We can all change. I get it, but I feel a way about people making a mockery about Jesus……. Do you, [live] your life. Do what makes you happy but yall better stop playing with Jesus out here,” Gibson said in the comment, which has received nearly 58k likes as of 2 p.m. Monday.
Lil Nax X’s 2021 release of his song “Montero” and accompanying music view and shoe collaboration stirred up multiple controversies surrounding the artist and his devil-themed creations. The “Montero” music video featured Lil Nas X descending into hell and seductively dancing on what appeared to be the devil then snapping his head.
The shoes, a custom designed Nike shoe, were advertised to contain real human blood and the inscription “Luke 10:18,” which says “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” Nike said they weren’t involved in the controversial shoe design and later sued the rapper over the shoe. The shoe, a limited run of 666 pairs, sold out in less than a minute.
Lil Nas X responded to Tyrese’s Instagram comment, implying the criticism was unwarranted.
“this really crazy cuz all i did was post a song about asking god for hope when you feel hopeless and yall acting like I posted a video of me burning a church down and peeing on a nativity scene,” Lil Nas X tweeted Nov. 30.
Fans commented on the long denim skirt Lil Nas X wore in the video, calling it an “apostolic skirt,” referencing the long, often denim skirts worn by some women who adhere to strict modesty standards as part of their practice of highly conservative forms of Christianity. There’s even a modest Christian clothing company called “Apostolic Clothing,” which specialized in modest dresses and skirts for women.
After Lil Nas X posted the video Nov. 29, he followed it up with a post clarifying his stance on religion and sexuality, saying “making christian music does not mean i can’t suck d*ck no more. the two are not mutually exclusive. i am allowed to get on my knees for multiple reasons.” He also posted a TikTok about rejoining Christianity “after my 2021 antics.”
Other rappers chimed in too, including Holy Gabbana who responded to the video with an Instagram post Sunday and ensuing discourse online about Lil Nas X’s sexuality and religious practices, saying he could not call himself a Christian and be gay.
“If Nas X wanna be gay cool, do u lil bra just don’t title yaself a Christian and make others believe it’s okay for us to live in habitual/intentional sin. Ppl deserve TRUTH and I stand on da word of God,” he said in a post on his Instagram story.
The “Industry Baby” rapper has routinely trolled homophobic fans and used other religious imagery in his music, most notably the “Montero” music video featuring him giving the devil a lap dance.
What’s next?
The mainstream success of Lil Nas X and other Christian hip hop artists has the potential to revitalize the genre and introduce it to a wider audience. It could also lead to a greater acceptance of religious expression in mainstream music, fostering a more inclusive and diverse musical landscape, as the popularity of Christian music has shown.
Some have criticized the Christian music industry, claiming the widespread popularity and money-making opportunities from Christian music could affect how the church is perceived, according to an article in Christianity Today.
Some argue that rap is the perfect space to explore issues of faith, particularly Christianity, drawing parallels between Jesus and rap culture, portraying Jesus as a rebellious figure challenging societal norms, akin to a gangster rapper.
As major music magazine Spin put it in this August 23 article, there are more reasons to call Jesus a rapper than there are to call him not a rapper.
Lil Nas X’s posts responding to the controversy show he’s unafraid to embrace two things that many still see as opposites: queerness and religion.
While Lil Nas X’s “Christian era” has been met with mixed reactions, it undoubtedly represents a bold move in the music industry. Lil Nas X has already made multiple splashes with religious themes in his music, but it’s clear he won’t be the last rapper talking about their faith. |
8974a02fb62611500e0d129b06024419 | 0.303304 | entertainment | Hulu closes in on Amanda Knox series produced by Monica Lewinsky, Warren Littlefield | Hulu is moving in on its next limited series.
According to Deadline, author and activist Amanda Knox — who was wrongfully convicted for the 2007 murder of her roommate Meredith Kercher — is telling her story in an unnamed limited series about her conviction and its aftermath.
Knox is also set to executive produce the series alongside Emmy-winning producer Warren Littlefield and Monica Lewinsky, the outlet said. Cast members, like who will play Knox, has not been announced yet.
Read more: Singer Mary Lambert treads the national and local stage
It also will be written and executive produced by write KJ Steinberg.
The series had been on Hulu’s radar for some time when Lewinsky teased it in an October appearance on “Today” about a PSA campaign on self-bullying.
“I wish it were announced already, but I’m executive producing a limited series that’s on another young woman who found her life decimated and ripped apart on the world stage, but she somehow managed to survive,” she said. “I think it’s going to be really powerful and hopefully they’ll announce it soon.”
While a release date has not been announced, viewers can watch the show on Hulu when it premieres.
Viewers 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. |
5edeed46750c19cffdc1ea9cfb0e90fc | 0.304139 | entertainment | The Best Historical Fiction of 2023 | THIS OTHER EDEN, by Paul Harding (Norton, 221 pp., $28). Malaga Island was first settled in the late 18th century by a formerly enslaved Black man and his white wife, and over the years it became a refuge for outcasts of different races and conditions. In 1912, its people were forcibly evicted by the state of Maine, and their homes destroyed. Some were sent to the Maine School for the Feeble-Minded, while the rest were dumped on the mainland and told never to return to the island. From this tragic event, Harding (a previous winner of the Pulitzer Prize) has created a devastatingly lyrical fictional portrait of a tight-knit community dismissed as degenerate by those who would “save” it. With heartbreaking empathy, he evokes their daily rhythms, their fears and fascinations and, above all, their improvised harmony with both the sea and one another. |
a8fd7a29960e23c66d0e78a50210f4ee | 0.305544 | entertainment | Hakim, Meet Hakeem: How a Young City Farmer Got to Know a Congressman | Growing up, Hakim Jeffrey did not think much about politics. But people would often point out that his name sounded very similar to the name of his representative in Congress, a rising star in the House and fellow Brooklyn native.
“All of them would just tell me, ‘You should meet this man some day,’” Mr. Jeffrey said.
He brushed it off. Mr. Jeffrey, who lived in the Bay View Houses, a public housing development in Canarsie, thought of himself then as “just a regular 16-year-old boy from the projects.”
Then, at 18, he started working on a new farm at the development, one of several the New York City Housing Authority had helped build to provide healthy food for residents.
He loved it.
Before, he had been an introvert who skipped school to play video games. On the farm, he would give important people tours, showing how he grew chard, kale, tomatoes, squash, basil and other produce. |
a3714cb400c4e56d96f0e648e3e604d3 | 0.307589 | entertainment | TikTok star who delighted millions with cooking videos dies, report says | A TikTok creator with Massachusetts ties who delighted millions of viewers with her cooking videos died on Monday, Jan. 1, The New York Times reported. She was 67.
The daughter of Lynn Yamada Davis, Hannah Mariko Shofet, told the news outlet that her mother died from esophageal cancer, which she was diagnosed with in 2019, according to her Forbes biography.
A third-generation American with four Japanese grandparents, Davis launched her series “Cooking with Lynja” on TikTok during the coronavirus pandemic, posting 3-4 videos each week.
Read More: Hit song writer who rose to fame as a child country music star has died
Her youngest child, Tim Davis, edited her videos.
“My mom was like my partner in crime,” Tim Davis, 27, told The New York Times.
Davis, who was born on July 31, 1956, in New York City, grew up in Fort Lee, New Jersey, according to the news outlet. She graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1977 with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering.
Read More: Country music star shocks fans with farewell tour announcement
Her TikTok career blossomed after she posted a video in September 2020 in which the 5-foot-tall Davis made a bacon, egg and cheese sandwich while dancing.
Some of Davis’ most-popular videos include making homemade pasta with TikTok star chef Nick DiGiovanni and making berries and cream cookies. Her TikTok has accumulated more than 17 million followers.
Davis was named to the Forbes Top 50 Creators list in 2022 and was included on its “50 over 50″ list. She also won a Streamy Award in the editing and food categories in 2022. Davis also had a partnership with Osmo, among others.
Her social media accounts have stayed active after death, because Davis wanted to post videos that were already edited, The New York Times reported. Tim Davis told the outlet that he will stop posting videos once all the Cooking with Lynja videos that feature his mother are uploaded. |
bd9f0f9203d6fc43c03087f8a0fbe040 | 0.310292 | entertainment | Why Im Still in Love With Waikiki | Since my first trip to Waikiki Beach in 1977, I have traveled all around the Hawaiian Islands. And I’ve loved each one. But I love Waikiki, too.
Not the hordes of tourists, of course, or the high-end shopping malls that have taken over Kalākaua Avenue and earned it the nickname, Vegas on the Beach. What I love are the remnants of a different Waikiki, a beautiful, tropical paradise that inspired songs and movies and dreams and romance. When I come here, with some time and patience, I can still find that Waikiki.
Lately, it’s become fashionable to dismiss Waikiki as a playland for tourists and not the “real” Hawaii. When I posted pictures of a gorgeous sunset and the waves crashing on Waikiki Beach on social media last March, I got vehement comments like: “Get out of there and see the real Hawaii!”
And: “Here’s where you should be …”
And: “Ugh. Waikiki.”
But Waikiki is no less the real Hawaii than anywhere else, said T. Ilihia Gionson, the public affairs officer for the Hawaii Tourism Authority. “From the beginning, Waikiki has been a very special place that captured the hearts and souls of many,” he said. “The land is the land, and it will always have that certain energy and life force that comes through, no matter what we put upon it.” |
7ecd6cfdb383c08e05c2c26f56f3da1f | 0.311654 | entertainment | Events across New England honor life, legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Boston News, Weather, Sports | BOSTON (WHDH) - Events will be held across New England Monday to honor the life and legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., on Martin Luther King Day.
On Sunday, hundreds of area residents attended the second annual MLK Embrace Honors: Friends & Family Sneaker Affair, which encouraged hundreds of attendees to wear their “flyest formal attire – tuxedos, gowns and sparkles – paired with their favorite sneakers for a night of self-expression, food, cocktails, live performances, and other special surprises.”
The celebration marked a year since The Embrace was unveiled on Boston Common. The Embrace memorializes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King’s time and powerful presence in Boston. Symbolizing the hug Dr. King shared with Coretta after he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.
The annual MLK breakfast will be held Monday at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center at 9 a.m.
Stay with 7NEWS on-air and online for the latest on area Martin Luther King Day events.
(Copyright (c) 2023 Sunbeam Television. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.) |
dddab6a6fe330b759e4583e44bc16405 | 0.312568 | entertainment | Visit Thompson Island in Boston, Moby-Dick Marathon, ABBA tribute | Bid farewell to 2023 at sea with the New Year’s Day Boat Trip. Journey to Thompson Island with the Friends of the Boston Harbor Islands and spend the afternoon immersed in forests, meadows, and marshes. Departs at noon from Mass Bay Lines on Rowes Wharf and docks at 4 p.m. Bring food and layers. Tickets required — $30 general admission, $20 children ages 3-12, with discounts available — at bostonharborislands.org .
January 2-7
Call Me Ishmael
Spend 25 consecutive hours reading Herman Melville’s classic at the New Bedford Whaling Museum’s annual Moby-Dick Marathon. Event highlights include a Friday evening cocktail hour and buffet dinner; on Saturday and Sunday, offerings include a scavenger hunt, arts and crafts for kids, a “Stump the Scholars” session, and more. Readings begin at noon on Saturday. $75 for Friday’s dinner; Saturday and Sunday events are free. whalingmuseum.org
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January 5-14
Silk and Lace
Complementing the “Fashioned by Sargent” exhibit at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, In Sargent’s Time: Edwardian Dramas highlights the era’s lavish style in four films. Movies range from a coming-of-age love story to an examination of class and corruption. Showings run through January 14. Find times and tickets — $15, with member discount available — at mfa.org.
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January 6
Dancing Queen
Stomp your feet and sing along to The Music of Abba at The Wilbur Theatre. Witness the Scandinavian pop supergroup’s hits brought to life by the Direct From Sweden tribute band, complete with sequined costumes, disco choreography, and catchy tunes. Doors open at 7 p.m., show begins at 8 p.m. Tickets from $35. thewilbur.com
January 11-14
Jig Jubilee
Click your heels at the annual Boston Celtic Music Festival. In venues across Greater Boston, local musicians of all ages perform traditional shanties and ballads. Fiddles, tin whistles, and pipes in hand, these artists, supported by the Passim School of Music, blend modern melodies with time-honored tunes. Festival also includes a Scottish social dance, an award-winning folk band hailing from Quebec, and a Sunday morning brunch. Ticket prices and showtimes vary. passim.org
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EDITOR’S NOTE: This edition of Your Week Ahead covers two weeks. Look for the next Globe Magazine on January 14. Share your event news. Send information on Boston-area happenings at least three weeks in advance to week@globe.com. |
96de1cf8b7685a9e179a6a7cbb746a21 | 0.315174 | entertainment | Tom Wilkinson, Actor in The Full Monty, Dies at 75 | Tom Wilkinson, an admired performer on the British stage who in middle age became a skillful character actor and supporting star in a wide range of movies that gained popularity and acclaim in the United States, including “The Full Monty,” “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and “Shakespeare in Love,” died on Saturday. He was 75.
A statement by his agent said he died suddenly at home. It did not provide other details.
Mr. Wilkinson might not have been known by name to many American moviegoers, but he used that inconspicuousness to his advantage, evading typecasting and inhabiting instead a wide array of roles persuasively. Some of them remain broadly memorable today.
He earned Academy Award nominations for his work in the legal thriller “Michael Clayton” (2007) and the drama “In the Bedroom” (2001), an unusual turn for him as a movie’s protagonist. He also delighted audiences in comedies, not only “The Full Monty” (1997) but also “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” (2011).
In addition to “Shakespeare in Love” (1998), his other blockbuster films included “Batman Begins” (2005) and “Rush Hour” (1998), both movies in which he played greedy villains. |
05411dc83bc514bef1620a4933eb69ac | 0.317982 | entertainment | First $1 million lottery winner in Mass. of 2024 sold in Quincy | The Massachusetts State Lottery has announced the winning number in its special New Year’s Day Mass Millionaire Holliday Raffle.
The number is 0083128.
The ticket corresponding to that number was sold at American Legion Morrisette Post 294 at 81 Liberty St. in Quincy. That store will receive a $10,000 bonus for selling the ticket.
The drawing was the culmination of a series of drawings that began on Friday, Oct. 20. On 11 consecutive Fridays, one $20,000 prize winner was chosen and winners of those prizes remained eligible to win a prize in the New Year’s Day drawing.
Tickets of the raffle began on Monday, Oct. 16, with every hundredth ticket sold across the state getting a $100 cash voucher. Those that won the voucher also were eligible for the New Year’s Day drawing.
Apart from the million-dollar winning ticket, four $250,000 tickets were chosen and six $25,000 winners were chosen.
Read more: RI man loses out to NC woman to become 1st Powerball millionaire of 2024
The $250,000 prize numbers selected were the following, and were purchased at the following stores:
0174696 - EZ Convenience & Vape Shop, 751 Meadow St., Chicopee
0213087 - Poquoy Brook Golf Club, 20 Leonard St., Lakeville
0242866 - Chapin East Variety Store, 830 East St., Ludlow
0077276 - The Country Store, 212 North St., Foxborough
The $25,000 prize numbers selected were the following and were purchased at the following stores:
0510161 - Stop & Shop, 660 Merrill Rd., Pittsfield
0318215 - Mass Lottery Customer Service, 150 Mount Vernon St., Dorchester
0013808 - Andrews Fruit & Produce, 1697 S. Main St., Fall River
0182266 - Bruso’s Liquor Mart, 15 Exchange St., Barre
0008392 - Shortstop General Store, 439 Main St., Hudson
0107958 - Rendezvous Lounge, 473 Riverside St., Dracut
Winners have a year to claim their prizes. Winners of the million-dollar prize and the four $250,000 prizes must claim them at Mass Lottery headquarters in Dorchester. The other prizes can be claimed in Dorchester or at regional centers in Braintree, Lawrence, New Bedford, West Springfield and Worcester. |
7dc88ef5f19125a934fc8738d2ce5fd5 | 0.318789 | entertainment | The 10 Best Books of 2023 | Every year, starting in the spring, we spend months debating the most exceptional books that pass across our desks: the families we grow to love, the narrative nonfiction that carries us away, the fictional universes we can’t forget. It’s all toward one goal — deciding the best books of the year.
Things can get heated. We spar, we persuade and (above all) we agonize until the very end, when we vote and arrive at 10 books — five fiction and five nonfiction.
We dive more into the list in a special edition of our podcast. And in case you’d like even more variety, don’t miss our list of 100 Notable Books of 2023, or take a spin through this handy list, which features all the books we’ve christened the best throughout the years. |
2a52a28f76f3329435ae66161e83fdd7 | 0.318844 | entertainment | McCrays Farm sees enthusiastic response to holiday lights walk | SOUTH HADLEY — For the last month, an eruption of bright, colorful light greeted people rounding the curve on Alvord Street in South Hadley, welcoming patrons to stop by and wander through the Holiday Light Walkthrough at McCray’s Farm.
From Nov. 24 through Dec. 31, the farm put on a display of nearly 500,000 holiday lights, showcasing themes such as Halloween, Santa’s workshop and Dr. Seuss’ “How the Grinch Stole Christmas.” After scanning barcodes on their phones, viewers take about 40 minutes to stroll through the farm.
2023 was the second year McCray’s Farm offered a holiday lights walk. The response it received has it planning to host holiday lights walks for seasons to come.
Stephen McCray, owner of McCray’s Farm, is one of about a dozen people who were heavily involved with designing and setting up the displays.
Six years ago, McCray’s fiancee suggested that he put together a holiday lights walk, but he was too busy and knew he wouldn’t be able to get the monetary help he would need from a bank. However, after he visited the holiday light show at Sandy Hill Farm in Eliot, Maine and spoke to the farm’s owner, Bill Widi, he was inspired to take the risk and invest in his own stroll.
The initial investment is huge, McCray said, but once it is up and running, it requires very little labor, which is completely different from the rest of the farm’s operations.
The farm organized the holiday lights for the first time in 2022. At the beginning, McCray was concerned about competing with Bright Nights at Forest Park. But he saw a market for a smaller, yet still impressive, light show. The farm was blown away by how many people came out to the stroll in its first year, McCray said. Many guests would return throughout the season and offer their praise.
“Most things you do in life, you don’t get a lot of gratification out of,” McCray said. “But we got so much love for doing this and it’s just incredible. Like I said, most stuff you do, you just really don’t get people telling you ‘thanks’ and stuff like that. We just got so much love, it was incredible.”
Although large amounts of rain have led to a slight drop in the number of attendees this past year, McCray said that the farm still enjoys doing the stroll and is appreciative of the support it continues to receive. Many families have told the farm that they are making an outing to walk the light displays an annual tradition.
McCray’s personal favorite display is the Love Shack, which he conceptualized and team member Mandi Carroll built. Crowd favorites include the Fog Room, which uses fog machines and lasers to create an electric effect, and the sports section. Viewers get to see the four major Boston sports team logos lit up while being serenaded by the Boston anthem, “Sweet Caroline.”
McCray said the farm would like to keep running the stroll in the future and is excited for the challenge of innovating new ideas and themes each year.
“We’re going to do the best we can,” McCray said. “We have to keep changing it up. You know, one of the most uncomfortable feelings is when people tell me ‘This is better than Bright Nights, because Bright Nights is always the same.’ I can only imagine how much money is invested in Bright Nights, and I’m sure they try to change it up, so the pressure is on for us to keep trying to change it up enough.” |
eafa063ffd9b7392d592ae6738fbea04 | 0.323047 | entertainment | Elton John Joins the EGOT Club. What Does That Mean? | Elton John became the 19th person to secure an EGOT — the playful acronym for winning an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony — when he won an Emmy on Monday night for “Elton John Live: Farewell From Dodger Stadium.”
The award was given for outstanding live variety special.
John won a Tony for the score of “Aida” (2000) and Oscars for “Can You Feel the Love Tonight" in “The Lion King” (1995) and “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” in “Rocketman” (2020). He has won five Grammys, including for “That’s What Friends Are For” (1986), with Gladys Knight, Dionne Warwick and Stevie Wonder.
Eighteen other people have won EGOTs, including the “Frozen” songwriter Robert Lopez, the only person to do it twice. Before John, the most recent addition to the club was the actress Viola Davis, who earned a Grammy last year for the audiobook of her memoir. She is one of six women with an EGOT.
So who has an EGOT, where did the acronym come from, and what does it really take to earn the accolade? |
c31a131f6df2b367e5c519d4ea8f3741 | 0.328959 | entertainment | Skywatch: A look back at 2023, and what lies ahead | Are you getting used to having more information available to you each year? In astronomy alone, tens of thousands of papers were published in 2023, so we depend on our collective filters to keep things manageable. Here, I present my own woefully incomplete selection along with a few anniversaries and a thought or two about everything in general.
The most important story of 2023 is that it is now the warmest year on record for our planet. A recent report by the World Meteorological Organization tells us that the global average was about 1.40°Celsius (2.52°Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial 1850-1900 baseline. Many expect 2024 to be even warmer due to the delayed effects of last year’s El Niño event on global temperatures.
Compared to global averages, local temperatures can shift dramatically. My hiking friends and I saw one of the warmest Februarys in memory after our coldest day of snowshoeing ever on Feb. 3 — minus 15° Fahrenheit in the Adirondack Mountains of New York. (See my column about that here: https://www.masslive.com/living/2023/03/skywatch-marching-toward-spring.html).
We’ve yet to see anything like that this winter, but you may still be surprised to learn that we were closest to the sun for the year on January 2. Obviously, winter doesn’t have to do our distance from the sun. Our closest point, called perihelion, came at 7:38 p.m. when Earth was 91,404,095 miles from the sun. Earth’s farthest point, aphelion, comes on July 5 when we are 94,510,539 miles from the sun.
These distances typically vary year to year by a few thousand miles, so they are commonly rounded to 91.4 million miles, and 94.5 million miles respectively.
Our latest sunrise came on Friday morning, Jan. 5. Were it not for a little wobble in Earth’s rotation, this would occur on the shortest day — the winter solstice — along with our latest sunset. Our distance from the sun matters little here.
Speak of the sun, parts of the western U.S. Central and South America witnessed an annular eclipse in October. Annular eclipses happen when the moon is at a distant part of its orbit, and appears too small to completely cover the sun.
On April 8, the moon will completely cover the sun for a total solar eclipse visible along a line from Mexico and Texas, up through the Midwest to upstate New York, then across northern New England into Canada. This puts totality within driving distance for us here in western Massachusetts — our best chance in years to see one of the most spectacular events nature has to offer. There’s still time to plan a trip, but beware that few camping and hotel options may be left.
If you need more incentive, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting that Solar Maximum will come sometime between now and October 2024, which means the sun’s corona during totality could be especially spectacular.
In November, scientists from George Mason University warned that even if this solar peak is relatively weak, sunspots and solar flares could disrupt earth-bound technologies, including the internet — a concern given that the internet grew into a global economic driver while the sun was relatively quiet.
Increased solar activity and geomagnetic storms can also disrupt satellites, and in extreme cases, our electric systems, so understanding space weather is more important than ever. I’ll let others worry about disruptions to civilization, but will keep an internet eye on solar activity so I don’t miss the next big display of the aurora borealis, or northern lights.
Clouds ruined the few chances we’ve had here in southern New England since last spring’s display. (See my column about that here: https://www.masslive.com/living/2023/04/skywatch-look-up-you-might-see-a-light-show.html)
Dec. 17 was the 120th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first successful flight at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina in 1903. That seems like a long time ago, but I was born less than 50 years later, and went on to witness the first ever artificial satellite, the Soviet Union’s Sputnik in 1957.
Sputnik’s success prompted the U.S. to form the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on July 29, 1958. We celebrated NASA’s 65th anniversary in 2023.
The 20th anniversary of the Columbia Space Shuttle disaster of 2003 reminded us of the risks of space travel, while the International Space Station — the largest artificial satellite ever — marked its 25th year in orbit.
Over 270 people from 21 countries have flown on the ISS, including those on private missions like Axiom 2 in 2023. Every person there needs about a gallon of water per day for drinking, food preparation, and hygiene, so it was an important milestone in 2023 when the station achieved a water recovery rate of 98% — mainly by recycling urine.
Among those who will benefit from this technology is NASA’s Artemis moon program, which probably won’t launch its first manned mission until at least 2025. NASA has modified its contract with SpaceX to further develop the Starship human landing system for the Artemis program despite two partially successful Starship launches in 2023.
SpaceX has landed Falcon 9 boosters at least 259 times, and in December, one booster made a record 19th landing before toppling over on its barge in rough seas.
Russia, India, and a private Japanese company attempted to land unmanned probes on the moon in 2023, but only India prevailed. A couple of U.S. companies, China, and the Japanese Space Agency will make attempts this year.
In February, NASA’s Mars Perseverance Rover will begin its fourth Earth-year on the Red Planet. Incredibly, the Ingenuity helicopter it carried — the first craft to fly on another world — has made at least 69 flights since its first in April 2022.Our other rover, Curiosity, entered its 13th active year on Mars in November.
In October, NASA’s Juno probe — which entered Jupiter orbit in 2016 — flew just 7,270 miles from Jupiter’s moon Io, revealing never before seen surface details.
In April, the European Space Agency launched the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) to determine the past — or present — habitability of those moons. It will arrive at Jupiter in 2031.
In September, NASA retrieved its first sample of asteroid Bennu from the OSIRIS-REx probe, and in October launched another spacecraft to a metal-rich asteroid named Psyche. In December, the Psyche spacecraft beamed a prerecorded video of a cat named Taters back to Earth from 19 million miles away in a test of high-bandwidth laser communications.
The James Webb Space Telescope topped off its first year with extraordinary images of the closest star-forming region to Earth and the Crab Nebula after challenging cosmologists with surprising observations of the most distant galaxies ever seen. Meanwhile, the Hubble Space Telescope hobbles along 30 years after its vision was restored by high-flying space shuttle astronauts.
In July, ESA launched the wide-angle Euclid space telescope to help unlock the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy.
Around the same time, military veterans testified to Congress about unidentified flying objects, including fantastic reports of retrieved alien craft and bodies. This came just as humans were facing the real prospect of creating their own aliens in the form of artificial intelligence.
Taken together, this is a remarkable journey for a species that, for most of its existence, roamed the planet in small groups, hunting and gathering to survive.
Find rise and set times for the sun and moon, and follow ever-changing celestial highlights in the Skywatch section of the Weather Almanac in The Republican and Sunday Republican.
Patrick Rowan has written Skywatch for The Republican since 1987 and has been a Weather Almanac contributor since the mid 1990s. A native of Long Island, Rowan graduated from Northampton High School, studied astronomy at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in the 1970s and was a research assistant for the Five College Radio Astronomy Observatory. From 1981 to 1994, Rowan worked at the Springfield Science Museum’s Seymour Planetarium, most of that time as planetarium manager. Rowan lives in the Florence section of Northampton with his wife, Clara, and their cats, Eli and Milo. |
6f008442bad5d50010e9321c92ebb211 | 0.330469 | entertainment | Mass. State Lottery winner: Lucky customer at Lucky Farms in Worcester wins $100,000 | On the Friday before Christmas morning, a lucky customer at Lucky Farms Smoke Shop in Worcester won $100,000 in the Massachusetts State Lottery.
The winning $100,000 ticket was from the “300X” scratch ticket game, which still has 68 prizes valued at $100,000 remaining as of Dec. 23. There are also six $1 million prizes out of an original eight possible, and none of the game’s three $15 million prizes have been claimed.
The winning ticket was sold at Lucky Farms Smoke Shop in Worcester at 759 Grafton St.
Overall, there were at least 588 lottery prizes worth $600 or more won or claimed in Massachusetts on Friday, including seven in Springfield, six in Boston and 11 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. |