Columns - Marblehead Current

30 Aug

SUSTAINABLE MARBLEHEAD: Electric vehicles: Clean, affordable, fun

Submitted ContentColumns, Opinion

Every time I walk by a gas station with my dad, he looks up at the price and sighs in disappointment. It’s expensive. He owns a (gas and electric) hybrid car, charging it routinely and leaving gas as a backup. Even still, my family knows the burden of relying on that price, and we think of friends and other families who continue to do so. The hybrid car has saved a significant amount of money through electric charging, and it would only be better with…

29 Aug

BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT: Visit O’Hare Williams studio

Leigh BlanderColumns, Discover Marblehead, Local News

The following is an interview with Patti O’Hare Williams, artist and owner of O’Hare Williams, conducted by Discover Marblehead. O’Hare Williams is a Marblehead-based artist and creative studio known for fine art, graphic design and visual storytelling. Patti creates expressive still lifes and landscapes inspired by New England’s coastal beauty, combining color, graphic lines and a touch of nostalgia in both watercolor and acrylic works. To learn more or view her artwork, go to oharewilliams.com. Patti, tell us about O’Hare Williams. For many years, I’ve…

28 Aug

MARBLEHEAD MEMORIES: Growing up at 120 Pleasant — part three

Don OrneColumns, Local History, Opinion

Editor’s Note: Donald Orne, 84, is a lifelong Marblehead resident whose family has been part of the town for generations. His father, Bud Orne, owned the barber shop at 120 Pleasant St., where the family also lived. This series shares Orne’s memories of growing up in Marblehead during the 1940s, ’50s and ’60s. The essays have been edited only for length, grammar and clarity. This is the second installment of Orne’s writings. You can read the first two installments at MarbleheadCurrent.org. I need to mention…

28 Aug

MONEY MATTERS: The true cost of raising kids

Emily PromiseColumns, Opinion

It’s back-to-school season. For parents, that means new clothes, school supplies, fall sports registrations, activity fees and the inevitable last-minute trip to the store for something you forgot. As you watch all of those expenses add up, have you ever stopped to think about what it actually costs to raise a child? According to a 2025 study by SmartAsset, Massachusetts ranked as the most expensive state in the country to raise a young child. Using data from the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the study estimated…

25 Aug

ASK LIZZIE: Crying at drop-off is not a red flag

LIzzie AssaColumns, Education, Opinion, Parenting

You stood at the school door this morning. You said goodbye, and maybe they skipped in and maybe they held onto your leg, stretching out your leggings and leaving wet tear and drool marks all down the side. Either way you walked back to the car and started worrying before you even got your seatbelt on. Now you've got a few hours. You're going to spend most of it holding your breath and wondering: Current parenting columnist Lizzie Assa COURTESY PHOTO Is she crying? Did…

24 Aug

Marblehead Cycle owner: I won’t sell e-bikes to — or for — kids

Submitted ContentColumns, Public safety, Top Stories

This is a guest column by Dan Shuman, owner of Marblehead Cycle Parents, please do not buy e-bikes for kids. Recently NBC Nightly News did a feature on the increasing numbers of fatalities and serious injuries kids are experiencing with electric scooters and e-bikes. We sell e-bikes in the bike shop and service many more bought online and there are simply no e-bikes available that are safe for kids. The human skull has developed over time to protect us from moving at the speed our…

19 Aug

FOOD 101: Summer discoveries to tuck away for fall

Linda BassettColumns, Food, Linda Bassett, Opinion

It seems that no matter where I roam, I discover new flavors, or new ways of combining old ones. New techniques or a revival of a centuries-old method. Often unexpected, often surprising. This summer, a salad dressing in Cooperstown, New York; a surprising Milwaukee pizza; a twist on a beverage at a Southern bar; Irish sausage, cheese and butter; and a classic cold potato soup in Manhattan. So, as summer shifts toward autumn, I am cataloguing them here as I riff on their flavors in…

19 Aug

EVERYTHING WIL BE OKAY: A backyard wonder

Virginia BuckinghamColumns, Opinion, Virginia Buckingham

I’ve only seen one of the seven wonders of the world in person. But the eighth has to be a backyard in New England in August. Lucky us. I’ve written before about the soothing power of the color green. The physical explanation that your eye doesn’t have to make any effort because the it focuses green right on the center of your retina makes sense. As does the evolutionary explanation that green sends a signal of safety and plentitude. Yet what is the science behind…

19 Aug

COLUMN: Let it spin

Margaret BaconColumns, Opinion

In the house where I grew up, hesitation had consequences. We were a large Irish Catholic family of six children, which in our neighborhood barely qualified as ambitious. Love was plentiful and silence was suspicious. At the center of our kitchen table sat a wooden lazy Susan. It revolved steadily, like destiny. If you hesitated, the potatoes continued their orbit without apology. Food was not passed. It was intercepted. You learned timing. You learned trajectory. You learned that the gravy does not wait for personal…

13 Aug

DOC IN A BOX: Before you search your house for 90 minutes, use this guide

Stephen BachColumns, Opinion, Stephen Bach

A very tech-savvy family member recently misplaced their phone. She checked pockets, countertops, bags, chairs, bedrooms and even the car. After about 90 minutes of searching, she called The Docs. She was using the “find my phone” app on her iPad, which kept telling her it was located at the house. She had not used the “play sound” feature, because the phone was on silent. I told her that feature overrides the silent settings, and within a few minutes, she found it. Outside. Under a…