Views & Reviews - Marblehead Current

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Grow old along with me

22Mar

By Virginia BuckinghamNo Comments

Opinion, Views & Reviews, Virginia Buckingham

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Grow old along with me

We snore. Our eyesight is getting worse. We both gained weight during the pandemic. We walk slower. We’re easily distracted. Our joints hurt. We don’t like spending too much time alone. And, oh, do we love our afternoon naps on the couch. Our cockapoo April and I are aging together. How I wish she would continue to “grow old along with me” as the Robert Browning poem and John Lennon song entreat. I picked up April in New Hampshire during a nor’easter not unlike the one we had last week. I hadn’t committed to the breeder that I would take the last of the litter. But the minute I saw all four pounds of her, white with black spots, you would have had to muster an army to keep me from bringing her home. I held her in one hand as I signed the paperwork and she licked my face with her tiny p...

22Mar

By Mark AdamsNo Comments

Opinion, Views & Reviews

SUSTAINABLE MARBLEHEAD: Green Home Tours to showcase energy-efficient technologies

Concerns over our changing climate and rising energy bills have Marblehead residents considering changes to how they heat and power their homes. As a coastal community, many of us are worried about climate change and how that could impact us and our children. We want to do our part to fight against the potentially devastating effects that rising global temperatures might bring. To help Marbleheaders learn about home energy efficiency, Sustainable Marblehead is organizing a Green Homes Tour on April 8 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., featuring 11 houses. During the tour, Marblehead residents will have the opportunity to visit with other homeowners who have installed heat pumps, solar, insulation and other energy-efficiency technologies such as induction stoves and tankless hot water...

’HEADERS HISTORY: Set to song, Mason’s poem soothed Civil War soldiers

22Mar

By Mark HurwitzNo Comments

Opinion, Views & Reviews

’HEADERS HISTORY: Set to song, Mason’s poem soothed Civil War soldiers

Caroline Briggs Mason was born in Marblehead in 1823, the daughter of physician Dr. Calvin Briggs and Rebecca Briggs. In the 1830s, Caroline’s father sent her and her sisters to The Bradford Academy, a boarding school in Haverhill. Shortly after graduating from the Bradford Academy, all three sisters ran a private school for girls in Marblehead. Caroline Briggs Mason Poems Caroline's poem "Do They Miss Me at Home?" was set to music by composer Sidney Martin Grannis in the 1850s and became very popular with the public. Although the poem was originally written about a young girl who missed her family, soldiers fighting in the American Civil War later adopted it as they also missed their families back home. "Do They Miss Me at Home?" Do they miss me at home, do they miss me? ...

22Mar

By Bob BakerNo Comments

Opinion, Views & Reviews

COLUMN: Sparks that light my fire

Just a sampling of odds and ends of shorter stuff I've been sorting through as I've been thinking about another memoir of my happy-go-very-lucky life. thoughts People ask me where I grew up. Nowhere ... yet. I'd rather be over the hill than under it. Guns don't kill people: Animals with guns kill people. Egocentric after sex: "Was it good for me?" If your horse has bad breath when you are talking to it, maybe you are at the wrong end of the horse. Success is the persistent pursuit of coincidence. A frightening thing happened to him: He had a near-life experience. Sometimes it's better to have people pushing with you than pulling for you. Winter springs, summer falls. We take with us only what we've given. Quite often, I like being apart of the group. ...

SUPERINTENDENT’S UPDATE: Addressing hate in school sports — and beyond

18Mar

By Superintendent John BuckeyNo Comments

Marblehead Public Schools, Opinion, Views & Reviews

SUPERINTENDENT’S UPDATE: Addressing hate in school sports — and beyond

Good people of Marblehead Public Schools: Lá Fhéile Pádraig sona daoibh! Happy St. Patrick’s Day. Last week, I shared one of the core values from our Strategic Plan for Success (PfS), personal growth. Another of our articulated core values — and arguably the most important — is student achievement. At our next School Committee meeting, I will update the committee on iReady and how we are using student achievement data to support teaching and learning and to inform instruction. Students at Glover, Brown, Village and Vets all took a fall assessment and a winter assessment in ELA and math via iReady. Students and families receive individualized score reports and analysis of the grade-level standards. They can see their growth and areas for improvement. It helps to inform...

SUPERINTENDENT’S UPDATE: Ski team exemplifies one of district’s core values

11Mar

By Superintendent John BuckeyNo Comments

Marblehead Public Schools, Opinion, Views & Reviews

SUPERINTENDENT’S UPDATE: Ski team exemplifies one of district’s core values

Good people of Marblehead: In the district strategic plan, “The Plan for Success,” one of our articulated core values is personal growth. Specifically, we state, “We will provide students with opportunities to grow socially, emotionally, physically and academically, and to be respectful, contributing members of society.” On March 1, our alpine ski team exceeded expectations when it came to modeling exemplary personal growth. At the championship at Berkshire East, they were named the state champions, only to have that changed as the result of a scoring error. I received a letter from the MIAA heralding their grace and sportsmanship. MIAA Assistant Director Dr. Steven Dubzinski wrote that the members of the Marblehead team congratulated the actual winner, St. John’s Prep, with a...

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Of lions, lambs and other March madness

8Mar

By Virginia BuckinghamNo Comments

Opinion, Views & Reviews

EVERYTHING WILL BE OKAY: Of lions, lambs and other March madness

March is the longest month. Yes, there are six other months with 31 days in them, but do any of them feel as long as March? Like a child feels anticipating Christmas or the last day of school, April takes forever to arrive. And the month named for the Roman god Mars, the god of war, is a trickster to boot. It teases with more light and then a little more. It taunts with snowfalls and ice storms. It tweaks with warmth, calling to the crocuses. It twists the very next day with bitter winds and gray. A depleted wood pile calls for better planning and the purchase of plastic wrapped bundles for $6.99 a whack. The fire roars next to a vase of daffodils. Fight me, Mars! If I were braver I would have written a column about ideas to make March enjoyable last week when there were 30 days in ...

DIXEY COLLECTION: When Lucille Ball landed at Seaside Park

8Mar

By Marblehead Current staffNo Comments

Opinion, Views & Reviews

DIXEY COLLECTION: When Lucille Ball landed at Seaside Park

The Marblehead Current is proud to partner with photographer Dan Dixey, who regularly shares photos of Marblehead from his extensive collection, along with information about each shot. “Lucille Ball arrives by helicopter to appear in the Marblehead summer theater in 1947,” explained photographer Dan Dixey. “She is being escorted by Selectman Lester Marsh, in the white suit, at Seaside Park. The pitcher and catcher were not fazed by the spectacle and stayed on the field warming up.” Dixey received this slide from late Marbleheader Harry Wilkinson, who wrote the Memory Lane column in the old Marblehead Messenger. Lucille Ball's helicopter in Seaside Park in 1947

COLUMN: Local artist deserves second look

8Mar

By Bonnie EissnerNo Comments

Opinion, Views & Reviews

COLUMN: Local artist deserves second look

Living in Marblehead, it’s hard to miss the local pride for Nathaniel Hawthorne. There’s the House of Seven Gables museum and the Hawthorne Hotel. But on the grounds of the hotel is a guest house named for another 19th-century artist from Salem who also achieved considerable acclaim in her lifetime, the painter Fidelia Bridges. Although less well known now than Hawthorne, Bridges is attracting renewed interest. A century after her death, her works are commanding high prices at auctions, and in a new book, “Fidelia Bridges: Nature Into Art,” art historian Katherine Manthorne makes the case for getting to know Bridges and her beautiful and important artwork. This portrait of Fidelia Bridges by Oliver Ingraham Lay, c.1877, an oil on canvas mounted on wood, is part of the collection ...

8Mar

By Stephen BachNo Comments

Opinion, Views & Reviews

DOC IN A BOX: What to know when choosing a backup solution

With the abundance of digital data now being stored for businesses and personal users, the need for reliable backup solutions has become increasingly important. Backup services provide a way to ensure that information and materials are safe from being lost or damaged in the event of natural disasters, computer malfunctions and malicious attacks. While users have the option of using paid services, there is also a high demand for free backup solutions. Free backup services can be highly attractive to users due to the cost savings. Many of these solutions are offered by cloud storage providers and software developers. They may offer storage space, a limited number of backups or automated backup services for free, but then offer paid plans to increase the amount of storage or provide addit...