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Murray: What it really means to put women & children first

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

“Women and children first!”  It’s what ushers would holler when the theater caught fire; and it’s what the bos’n bellowed between piercing cries of his whistle when the ocean liner hit an iceberg and they were moving passengers to the lifeboats.  For many the protection of society’s most vulnerable and their chief caregivers isn’t relegated to moments of high drama on Turner Classic Movies.  For the women who are the main cogs (and it is largely women) in our social services industrial complex that do the caring for the castaway flotsam and jetsam of society, “women and children first” is a mantra.  The one catchphrase that helps them make sense and order of the three-alarm fire that is every workday if you’re helping the addicted, the hungry, the divorced, the unemployed, the abandoned, the unhoused, and the unwanted.And so it was for Ramona. She was a teen mother.  Pregnant and married at 17, her shining Sir Galahad was soon shown to be little more than the father to her chi...

Ski Wednesday: Late-season trips extend the fun

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

Q: Who plans a ski vacation for this season now?A: 1) Crazy people2) Ski and ride enthusiasts who just don’t want to let go quite yet3) Crazy people who are also smart4) All of the aboveThat’s right, there are folks out there booking flights and/or rooms, making sure their skis and boards are tuned and drafting their away message, because while April and May are not exactly the same as mid-winter when it comes to conditions, if you pick the right place to visit, “not exactly the same” can translate to pretty, pretty great.A few winters back – during a season like this when the spring snow just seemed to keep coming and coming — my husband and I booked a last minute trip to Breckenridge. We headed there expecting smushy snow, sunshine and leisurely apres, which would have been fine. We found instead fresh, deep (and light) powder, zero lines and yes, discounts on just about everything. What a gift.Another winter of late snow, we booked a few days and nights up at Vermont’s Sugarbush....

Lowry: Manhattan D.A. has Trump in crosshairs

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

How much does a mug shot mean to you?To Alvin Bragg, it apparently means quite a lot.All signs point to Bragg, the progressive prosecutor in Manhattan, indicting Donald Trump for his 2016 hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.The old Karl Marx line is that history repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. This historic first-ever indictment of a former president of the United States would skip straight to farce.First, there’s the tawdry and relatively trivial subject matter. Trump stands accused by his critics on the left of fomenting an insurrection to overthrow the Constitution and the criminal offense they are going to get him on stems from a dalliance with a porn star in 2006.Then, more importantly, there’s the question of the merits. Unless Bragg has something unexpected on Trump, this appears to be a prosecution in search of a legal theory.Everything indicates that Bragg is more interested in subjecting Trump to the humiliations attendant to getting charged (t...

Lemony chicken tenders a tangy treat

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

A bright, lemon sauce flavors delicate chicken tenderloins in this quick dinner. Tenderloins, or tenders, are a secondary muscle that lies directly under the chicken breast. As the name suggests, they’re very tender and need only a few minutes to cook. White wine and capers add to the lemony sauce for a tangy treat.The tenderloins are flattened to about 1/4-1/2-inch thick. This can be done with the bottom of a heavy skillet or meat bat. Be careful not to press too hard. The chicken flesh may shred.You can use boneless, skinless chicken breast instead of tenderloin. Be sure to flatten them to 1/4- to 1/2-inch thick.You can use any type of mushroom.TAG GOES HERELemony Chicken TenderloinsINGREDIENTS3/4 pound chicken tenderloin1 tablespoon butter1 cup sliced mushrooms2 teaspoons minced garlic1/2 cup dry white wine2 tablespoons water2 teaspoons cornstarch2 tablespoons lemon juice2 tablespoons drained capers2 tablespoons chopped parsley (optional garnish)2 lemons cut into wedges for garni...

Retirement party for former Brockton High football coach Peter Colombo

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

A retirement party for former Brockton football coach Peter Colombo will held on April 15 at Thorny Lea Golf Club in Brockton. Cocktail hour will be from 12:30-1:30 p.m., followed by a meal.A standout football player at Brockton High, Colombo went on to have a Hall of Fame career as a two-sport athlete at Holy Cross. He guided the Crusaders to a pair of wins over Boston College (1977-1978) and also starred on the baseball team which qualified for the NCAA Regionals in 1978.Colombo returned to Brockton and eventually took over as head football coach from his legendary father Armond in 2003 and compiled an overall record of 142-80-1, including a 9-2 season in 2022. His signature win was an epic 22-21 victory over Everett in the 2004 Super Bowl at Bentley, a game which snapped the Crimson Tide’s 35-game winning streak.Tickets are $45 and for further information, contact Richard Bloomstein at [email protected]

Editorial: Nip ban one more blow to retailers

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

If the City Council has its way, Boston will join a host of other Bay State cities and towns issuing a last call for nip bottles.As the Herald reported, the nip order comes from City Councilor Ricardo Arroyo, the district councilor from Hyde Park. In his neighborhood, some locals have been seeing red at what they’ve said are thousands of discarded nips.But the issue goes beyond litter for Arroyo.“The data is clear that in cities that have banned the sale of nips there is a significant and positive impact on public health,” Arroyo said in a statement. “We should put the wellbeing of our communities first by banning the sale of nips in Boston as well.”If we’re talking about banning things that can have a detrimental effect on public health, shouldn’t cannabis be on the table?In 2019, then-Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration launched an impaired driving campaign. It cited data from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security showing that cannabis was foun...

Savor the joy of spring asparagus

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

It’s officially spring on the calendar, but if you’re looking for signs of the season, check out the grocery store. Asparagus spears standing nice and tall are one of the glories of spring.A nifty way to serve them is to coat the trimmed spears in olive oil and roll them in a mixture of raw sesame seeds, grated cheese and a pinch of salt. Place them on a non stick baking pan and roast them at 350F until the spears are easily pierced by a knife at their thickest part and they look nicely browned. Best served hot. 

Delicious Best-Ever Beans are dinner-party worthy

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

Approximately 1,001 bean-related articles came out over the past few years.Several recipes for The Best-Ever Beans that I tried out during the pandemic turned out sturdily good — a fine side dish or light supper, nothing superlative about them. Leaving beans behind for a bit seemed all right, cupboard side-eye notwithstanding.Then friends Bradley and Gillian Sweeks had us over for dinner and  made truly, The Best Beans Ever. These were main-dish-dinner-party-worthy beans: Richly savory, they were somehow possessed of both a deeply satisfying simplicity and, if you thought about the beans while engulfing them, a little tantalizing complexity.Bradley noted that while he used to make his beans with ham hock, this method involving a lot of olive oil came out, he thought, even better. Additionally, he mentioned tomato and anchovy and shallot. He also served the beans with his good-and-garlicky homemade sourdough focaccia. (Ahead-of-time-note: You’ll want to soak your beans — see st...

Dear Abby: Woman may double down on romance with gambler

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

Dear Abby: My ex-husband and I separated two months after our wedding. Our divorce was final five months ago. After I left him, I started talking to a younger guy I had a lot in common with. However, he has a gambling problem and ended up stealing money from my cash app.He eventually paid me back and has done everything in his power to get me to trust him again. We are both VERY attracted to each other. After he repaid the money, he told me he was in a very dark place and felt horrible about doing it.He says he loves me, and even though I tried fighting it, I love him too. But there are issues — the trust, the gambling and the age gap. I’m 15 years older. He’s still very young, and I know when I was his age, I wanted different things than I want now. I’m worried he’ll lose interest in me because we are at different points in our lives.We aren’t exactly labeled a couple but we act like we are. No one but very close friends of mine knows about our s...

Syria says Israel attacked Aleppo airport, no casualties

Published Sat, 08 Feb 2025 10:00:11 GMT

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) — An Israeli airstrike early Wednesday targeted the international airport of the northern Syrian city of Aleppo, causing material damage in the second attack on the facility this month, state media report. State news agency SANA, quoting an unnamed military official, did not mention if the strike caused any deaths or injuries. It said warplanes fired the missiles toward Aleppo, Syria’s largest city and once commercial center, while flying over the Mediterranean. The airport has been one of the main channels for the flow of aid into the country after the Feb. 6 earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, killing over 50,000 people, including more than 6,000 in Syria.On March 7, an Israeli airstrike put the airport out of service for several days and flights were rerouted to two other airports in the war-torn country until the damage was fixed. Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes on targets inside government-controlled parts of Syria in recent years, including a...