The Suffield Observer (https://thesuffieldobserver.com/category/opinion/editorial/)
My family and I moved to Suffield in late 1984. By the time we arrived in town, residents had attended many town meetings and participated in many discussions regarding installing sewer lines on the East side of town.
One Saturday evening this past March, I sang with the other 80 members of the Springfield Symphony Chorus (SSC) in Springfield’s beautiful Symphony Hall. It was a concert filled with well-known music from 16 Broadway classics including Oklahoma, Guys and Dolls, West Side Story, Chorus Line, and Phantom of the Opera.
I have a Google alert set up for my last name. I seldom see alerts, either because there are not a lot of Colstons around, or because they are not doing anything newsworthy.
One of the interesting tools I use when writing or evaluating other people’s writing is software that measures readability. If writing is too complex, say college level, it may be too difficult for middle or high school students to read.
Having grown up in Hungary Hill in Springfield, I developed great pride in my Irish heritage. Hungary Hill was named because of the immigrants who came from the west coast of Ireland during the great potato famine.
Most of us are traveling on a highway once in a while, especially on a holiday, and stopping at a rest stop. Have you ever really looked at someone pushing a mop around on the floor or cleaning a restroom?
It is easy to think that there is not much kindness in our very divided world. I looked up a simple definition of “kind” in Merriam Webster’s Learner’s Dictionary, which is meant for use by new English language learners.
It’s sometimes hard to hear the good things happening around us, what with all the stories about continued gun violence, invasions of immigrants, hacking of voting places, media disparagement, name calling, and worries about health care, to name a few. It’s good, then, to reflect on some of the good that regular citizens do that make this country great.
Recently I attended a performance of Shakespeare’s Henry V at the Hartford Stage Company; I found it satisfactory though not exemplary. Because I had not read the play since college, I watched the rendition on DVD by Kenneth Branagh.
The staff of the Observer was generally happy with the October issue. We thought it had a variety of interesting articles and some beautiful pictures.