Arts & Life
Get Growing with Mickey Rathbun: What good is an herbarium? Herbariums, like Emily Dickinson’s, are an essential resource for scientists
By MICKEY RATHBUN
The word “herbarium” sounds a bit quaint, even antiquated. We may think of Emily Dickinson’s herbarium, which she created during her year at Mount Holyoke in 1847-48. Although she had begun studying plants at age 9 and was helping her mother in the...
Faith Matters: ‘A place where there is no man’: A call to realize that we are the ones we have been waiting for
By JASPER LAPIENSKI
“In a place where there is no man, strive to be a man.” (Avot 2:6)If you take just the second half of this statement, it sounds uncomfortably familiar: Be a man. We hear that a lot these days. Real men don’t cry; be a man. Shoulder the burden. Do your...
Sounds Local: Coming out in her own time (signature): Kim Chin-Gibbons to release first single as solo artist, ‘7848’
By SHERYL HUNTER
Kim Chin-Gibbons of Amherst has been playing in bands for over a decade. Most know her from her work with ZoKi, a group she co-founded with Zoe Lemos of Ashfield when they were in their teens and students at the Institute for the Musical Arts (IMA) in...
‘The butler did it’: A story about ‘Jeopardy,’ body image and tomato sauce
By TINKY WEISBLAT
I frequently wow my nephew as we compete to yell the answers to the questions (or rather the questions to the answers) on “Jeopardy” at the television set. My secret is that I have had way too much schooling and have read way too many books.I was...
How and why does wood burn? A basic scientific explanation to help you better heat your home, build the best fire
By STEVE THOMAS
A significant number of people in this area burn wood to heat their homes, including a number of new arrivals who may have much interest in doing so, but little experience. Accordingly, I thought it would be worthwhile to write about this subject as...
Speaking of Nature: No power, no problem: The late-March storm that set a new record
By BILL DANIELSON
As seems to be the case more and more often, March went out with a bang. And, in agreement with my assessment of the year from last week’s column, it seems only fitting that we experienced our most major winter storm of the season in what was...
What does freedom look like today? 7 Black American artists interpret the meaning of emancipation
By DON STEWART
Through July 14 at the Williams College Museum of Art you can view new works by seven of today’s leading Black American artists in “Emancipation: The Unfinished Project of Liberation.” The show, “conceived as a commemoration of the 160th anniversary...
Faith Matters: Never-ending love is the message of Easter: As Jesus’ disciples of today, spreading this love is our mission
By THE REV. DR. CANDI ASHENDEN
Tomorrow is Easter Sunday and many little children in our towns will wake up to discover that the Easter Bunny has arrived while they slept and hidden real and/or plastic-colored eggs around their living rooms or yards, perhaps along with some little...
Assessing student assessments: Part one of a conversation about the complicated issue of assessments in our schools
By DOUG SELWYN
One of the responsibilities and challenges of every society is to educate their young people so they are ready to assume their roles as adults in the community. There is not one way to do this, and societies make choices based on their values, their...
Book Review: A boy who found salvation in comics: Author of autobiographical graphic novel ‘Hey, Kiddo’ to give talk in Greenfield on Tuesday
By TINKY WEISBLAT
‘Hey, Kiddo” came out in 2018. I was inspired to read it last week when I learned that its author, Jarrett Krosoczka of Florence, will be visiting Greenfield this coming Tuesday, April 2.I haven’t read a lot of graphic novels (I’m too old!), but I...
Sounds Local: Thriving on a riff: Percussionist Tony Vacca brings Fusion Nomads to Hawks & Reed this Friday for ‘a magic carpet ride’
By SHERYL HUNTER
‘From the first time a musician went beyond his or her home village, or region, or nation,” percussionist Tony Vacca says, “music has been an ever-expanding, multi-culti hybrid of instruments and ways to play them.” According to Vacca, that is the...
‘No bunnies in the Bible’: Unpacking the myths and history of hot cross buns at Easter
By TINKY WEISBLAT
When I was a child, I loved embracing spring at this time of year by eating a hot cross bun. I still do.Hot cross buns are sweet, yeasty rolls traditionally served toward the end of Lent, specifically on Good Friday. The cross of icing that tops them...
Sowing the seeds of recovery: Greenfield-based Recover Project supports sobriety through community gardening program, Garden Path
By EVELINE MACDOUGALL
The benefits of gardening are widely known, but there’s one aspect readers may not have considered: gardening can offer a path to sobriety, especially when undertaken with friends. Some members of the Greenfield-based Recover Project are spending time...
Speaking of Nature: Is this Grackle really common? Behold the bird’s colorful iridescence on a sunny day
By BILL DANIELSON
After a while, one learns what to expect with each month and each season. July is going to be hot and humid, October will be colorful and somewhat melancholy, January will be cold and sleepy, and then there is March. March is the month for which the...
A tale of murderous indifference: ‘The Zone of Interest’ offers a view of the Holocaust as chilling as its architects
By STEVE PFARRER
Hannah Arendt famously coined the term “the banality of evil” in her book on Adolph Eichmann’s trial in Israel in 1963, where the former Nazi official, a key organizer of the Holocaust, presented himself as a bureaucrat who was “just doing his job” in...
Faith Matters: Recommended for ages birth to resurrection: God’s love in inclusive of all
By STEVE DAMON
‘I’d like to invite the young and the young-at-heart to come on up,” I bellow as I skip, jog, crawl, roll, saunter, or … whatever … up to the United Church of Bernardston alter, every Sunday morning at approximately 10:50 in the morning, 9:50 during...
Valley Bounty: Fermentation meets cooperation: Real Pickles in Greenfield supports and supplies the regional food system
By JACOB NELSON
A knock on the door interrupts the conversation. Someone is here to trade cheese for Real Pickles’ fermented veggies.Kate Hunter, a marketing coordinator, assistant sales manager, and worker-owner at Real Pickles, gets up to confirm the terms. Out the...
Franklin Medical Reserve Corps podcast bolsters emergency preparedness
By GRACE LEE
Franklin Medical Reserve Corps volunteers Denise Schwartz and Carmela Lanza-Weil have the answers to all your in-case-of-emergency questions and more in “Prep School: A Readiness Podcast.”With the first episode having been released on Nov. 29, 2023,...
Focus on Your Health: Pulmonary health is attainable: If you struggle with shortness of breath, pulmonary rehab can help
By ANITA FRITZ
National Pulmonary Rehabilitation Week happens in March, so it’s a good time to think about your pulmonary health.If you or someone you know has shortness of breath because of lung problems, pulmonary rehabilitation can help.Whether you want to manage...
Confidence and vibrant colors on display: Longtime art educator exhibits her work at Wendell Free Library through April
By DOMENIC POLI
It turns out that those who teach can also do.Longtime art educator Karie Neal is “fairly new” at creating her own work and has her first full exhibit on display in the Wendell Free Library through April.“It’s small, but it’s a good start,” she said...
