khthomson - Marblehead Current

11 Sep

Pies for a purpose: Local woman finds delicious way to give back

khthomsonCommunity Service, Food, Local News

Once a month, you may notice something unusual outside 204 Atlantic Ave. It’s a line of people outside a garage, waiting their turn for some coveted pies from Diana Breed, Marblehead's own “Pie Lady.” Breed and her friends started a pie club this summer. The first sale in July and featured all blueberry-flavored pastries. Each month focuses on an ingredient: In August it was peaches and this month it’s apple. Diana Breed delivers money raised by pie sales to Ray at the Marblehead Food Pantry.…

10 Sep

Letter to the Editor: ‘A slippery slope’

khthomsonLETTERS

To the editor: Thank you, Judith Black, for a very insightful and clear letter in the Current last week. Some of the actions of the Trump administration do parallel some of the actions of the German fascist government of 1935. Remove any independent-thinking government employees/experts who contradict Trump's ideology. Loyalty above all else. Trump did not like the labor statistics reported by the commissioner of labor statistics. He fired him. Paraphrasing Ms. Black, “Exploitation of social, racial, economic divisions. Targeting of marginalized groups and erosion…

10 Sep

Property owners can’t have it both ways’

khthomsonLETTERS

To the editor: I recently read Margo Steiner’s letter to the editor, “Think of the Less-Blessed,” about the public way on Cove Lane. I appreciate her thoughtful comments, but there’s an important point missing from the discussion. Public ways aren’t just historic features; they are part of Marblehead’s foundation. These spaces have been supported by public funding, giving access to all. They remain part of our shared community, not private property. Margo wrote: “Public town ways are means to let us less blessed folks have…

10 Sep

EDITORIAL: Waiting for the hammer to fall

khthomsonCurrent Editorials

As of this writing, a letter that town officials are expecting has still not yet arrived. That letter — from the Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities and Gov. Maura Healey — will make it official that there will be no exemption from the MBTA Communities Act for Marblehead. The state is doing the town no favors by leaving it in limbo, and it should send the promised letter as soon as possible. Once that letter arrives, however, the question becomes: What now? That…

10 Sep

Everything Is Going to be Okay: Pruning and possibility

khthomsonVirginia Buckingham

Tiny flashes of light by the edge of the yard earlier this summer caught my eye. Could it be? When I was a child in rural Connecticut, a favorite summer night activity was sitting on our front stone steps with a glass jar trying to catch fireflies. Within minutes, the jar would be filled, a homemade lantern of delight. When my kids were young, I’d hoped to pass on this simple bit of homemade fun, but we didn’t have any fireflies here that I ever…

07 Sep

Dan Howells embarks on career in music education

khthomsonArt

Even before he entered high school, Dan Howells had a deep love for music, and he knew he would pursue it in some way when he entered college. He credits his Marblehead High choir director Andrew Scoglio with instilling in him a strong appreciation for music and music making, and in the fall of 2021, Howells enrolled as a music education major with a concentration in vocal music at Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts. After graduating with summa cum laude honors in May,…

05 Sep

Food 101: Summer’s not over! Check out these secret ingredients for hot days

khthomsonFood, Linda Bassett

When it’s warm outside, all ingredients are called on to enhance food flavor. Familiar foodstuffs used in surprising ways. Or unsuspected ones added in rare abundance. Here are my new favorites: pink peppercorns, lemon zest, flaky sea salt and microgreens. PINK PEPPERCORNS: My favorite steak place put a tantalizing twist on steak au poivre on the menu. It’s crusted with black and pink peppercorns. Obsessed, I started experimenting with the rose-colored nuggets. I tried them on my own steak recipe with cognac sauce, on roasted…

04 Sep

LETTER: ‘History has a horrible way of repeating itself’

khthomsonLETTERS

To the editor: I refer to the letter of Mr. Ferrante (Do you know what real facism looks like, Aug. 19). I read his tirade (letter) and was amazed at how he was able to assign all the ills and threats besetting our democracy to liberal/progressive Democrats. I am an Independent. (I think it is called “unenrolled.) So, I vote for the individual and their policy. Also, I am an ordinary, common person, not a cranberry-and-kale-salad-eating elitist. Mr. Ferrante also noted any references to fascism…

04 Sep

Editorial: The boys (and girls) of summer

khthomsonCurrent Editorials, Local News

Labor Day arrived early this year — doesn’t it always seem to? — and with it the traditional end of summer, no matter what the calendar tells us. For many, a fresh school year is just beginning. For others, a new job or household routine. Some are now adjusting to the familial nest feeling emptier than a year ago. The days grow shorter, too. While bittersweet, summer’s unofficial passing is also a time for weighing priorities and resetting goals as we look ahead, even as…

03 Sep

LETTER: Reader questions parenting after e-bike incident

khthomsonLETTERS

To the editor: I was appalled to read a Marblehead police log entry in the Current this week. The entry concerned kids with e-bikes who were pulled over by an MPD officer due to their erratic riding and riding without helmets. When the kids were questioned by the officer they were disrespectful and surly and resisted answering the officer's questions as to their names, addresses and ages. The officer in charge told the kids their e-bikes would be confiscated for two weeks, citing a Massachusetts…