Opinion

“Cooking is the art of adjustment.” ---Jacques Pepin I have a new habit, and while it's been fun and enlightening, it's also a bottomless rabbit hole of time I should spend on work, grocery shopping, lawn care, and so much else. Still, I can't seem to stop myself from spending way too much time on TikTok. No, I haven't learned any dance moves, and I haven't turned my wee pug Penny into an Internet star (yet), but I'm learning how to make food. Food that the fussy people in my house will actually eat. The good thing about TikTok videos is they are super short. The cooking videos are about two to three minutes long, and in that time, you can learn how to make oven-fried chicken with veggies, cowboy pot roast, and seafood chowder. None of the recipes are hard to do, and since it's a vide...

Over the past few years, I’ve come to realize the importance of state and local governments. In this time of brazen and dangerous attacks against our voting rights, our reproductive rights, our right to marry whom we want, our right to health care, and the refusal to address climate change, we need strong state legislators to protect what Congress and the Supreme Court will not. We need someone who represents our values as Americans, as Democrats, as progressives. For these reasons, we need to elect Jenny Armini as our representative for the 8th Essex District. I met Jenny just after the 2016 Presidential election. She organized a large group of devastated and angry people into Elect Blue. We focused on flipping Congressional districts around the country in the 2018 mid-terms....

"I'm not telling you it's going to be easy- I'm telling you it's going to be worth it." – Art Williams. While there are still plenty of soft summer nights and fun beach days left, there is no denying that what some call "The most wonderful time of the year" is approaching. No, not Christmas; that's way off. Oh, and by the way, you freaks that are all done shopping for it and looking for pumpkin spice lattes can take a seat and wait your turn. First, we have to navigate the back-to-school gamut. Parents everywhere are staring into the abyss known as "Back to School," and some of them are not okay. I have always loved back-to-school shopping. Everything is new. There were always a few snazzy outfits and a fresh pair of sneakers. I wish they still had Garanimals because that was an e...

“For whatever we lose (like a you or a me), it’s always our self we find in the sea.” – E. E. Cummings It’s not hard to love the ocean in this community. It’s all around us, almost like an embrace. And yes, when there’s a wicked Nor’easter, it can be like a hug from that one family member that pinches your cheeks and squeezes the breath out of you, but still, it’s a gift beyond measure. I refer to the beach at the end of the street as "my beach," even if it's just a line in my house deed that says I have "beach rights.” I have no idea what beach rights mean, but I still consider all of it mine, at least metaphorically. I recently spent a day with my cousin on a beach in a neighboring town. Full disclosure, I am not a "True 'Header" because I moved here from Nahant when I was eight ...