Arts & Life
Something sweet for Valentine’s Day: The legend of the Neiman Marcus chocolate-chip cookie
By TINKY WEISBLAT
We tend to associate chocolate with Valentine’s Day. Americans will spend billions of dollars for that holiday this Friday, much of that money on chocolate. It seems like the perfect romantic gift.
Chiseled to perfection: Ice sculptors wowed the crowds at 103rd annual Winter Carnival
By ANTHONY CAMMALLERI
Of the festivities available for folks who attended the 103rd annual Winter Carnival, few, if any, turn heads like the series of ice sculptures displayed along Main Street during the carnival’s opening night.
‘Your body is really the only thing you have’: Young local artist yearns to build a life beyond nightmarish pain
By EVELINE MACDOUGALL
Lily Bix-Daw, 25, heads to Dallas this week for intricate surgery to address idiopathic condylar resorption, a degenerative and debilitating condition affecting the jaw and many adjacent body parts. ICR would test anyone’s endurance and sanity, yet despite steep challenges, the Easthampton resident is on schedule to receive her BA from the University of Massachusetts Amherst this spring, having pursued her degree while enduring staggering pain, disfigurement, and financial hardship.
Planting hope in the garden: Artist Carrie Mae Weems, who named a peony for W.E.B. Du Bois, dreamed of a memorial garden
By LORETTA YARLOW
In 2013, the widely acclaimed artist Carrie Mae Weems — a charismatic artist, activist and educator, known for installations, videos and photographs that invite the viewer to reflect on issues of race, gender and class — was among 10 artists commissioned to participate in “Du Bois in Our Time,” an exhibition I curated when I was director of the University Museum of Contemporary Art at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Let’s Talk Relationships: In the spirit of boldness and openness: Bringing the conversation to a new local TV show
By AMY NEWSHORE
Being that relationships play such a huge part in the quality of our lives, I am expanding beyond my relationship coaching practice and monthly newspaper column to host a local television show. It will be called “Let’s Talk Relationships,” the same name as this column. I want to provide you, my readers, as well as others in our local community, an additional resource where you can benefit from the discussions we will be having about important, relatable relationship topics.
Faith Matters: Invoking God in politics: Learning from Lincoln’s humility
By THE REV. RANDY CALVO
This coming Wednesday is Abraham Lincoln’s birth anniversary. In his Second Inaugural Address, as the President of a divided Union, he realized that people of faith were praying to the same God for different outcomes. Lincoln was humble enough to dare not equate God’s will with that of either side, saying, “The prayers of both could not be answered. That of neither has been answered fully. The Almighty has His own purposes.”
Sounds Local: A side project of his side project: Christopher Elliott, aka Buzzard, aka Satiricus Doomicus Americus, releases new music
By SHERYL HUNTER
Most local music fans know Christopher Elliott as half of the indie folk duo Austin & Elliott. Montague resident Elliott, and his partner Lisa Austin, have played their edgy brand of acoustic music at Coop concerts and other local venues for many years now. The songs he’s written for the pair sometimes included elements of darkness, but this material has nothing on Elliott’s recent solo projects.
Speaking of Nature: A rare visit from our largest woodpecker: At long last, a Pileated Woodpecker came to explore my dead pines
By BILL DANIELSON
Last Friday morning I woke up with a splitting headache and bloody sinuses. Every muscle in my body ached and I was utterly exhausted even after a full night of sleep. I walked out to check on the wood stove, then sat down and contemplated my next move. The threat of inclement weather and my general physical state combined to convince me that going to work was not an option. So I filled out the paperwork for a sick day and then went back to bed.
A generous food writer and her biscuits: Remembering Nathalie Dupree, ‘the Julia Child of the South’
By TINKY WEISBLAT
Nathalie Dupree died last month at the age of 85. Known as one of the doyennes of Southern cooking, Nathalie was a chef, cookbook author, and television personality.
‘There’s a majesty to grief’: Poet and UMass professor Peter Gizzi wins prestigious 2024 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry
By CAROLYN BROWN
Peter Gizzi, professor of poetry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, recently won the 2024 T.S. Eliot Prize for Poetry, one of the world’s most prestigious poetry awards.
‘Eyes on Freedom’: Audio documentary on Wally and Juanita Nelson will premiere at the Sunderland Public Library next week
By CHRIS LARABEE
Civil rights activists, war tax refusers, supporters of local agriculture and advocates of simple living Wally and Juanita Nelson left an outsized impact during their decades in Franklin County.
Inspired by Pessoa and his many personas: New anthology features American responses to a Portuguese poet
By TINKY WEISBLAT
Charles Cutler of Hawley first became fascinated by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa in the early 1960s when Cutler was in Lisbon on a Fulbright Scholarship. Pessoa turned into one of his favorite writers to teach as a professor at Smith College for more than 40 years.
Valley Bounty: For the love of chocolate: Richardson’s Candy Kitchen maintains sweet relationships in a farming community
By LISA GOODRICH
Richardson’s Candy Kitchen in Deerfield celebrated its 70th anniversary last year. The Woodward family has operated the business since 1983, when they took over where the Richardsons left off. Owner Kathie Williams (née Woodward), grew up in the business, which has always had strong ties with the local farming community.
Not just numbers on a page: The impact of underfunding on children and education workers across the state
By DOUG SELWYN
Massachusetts Senate President Karen Spilka recently stated that she was hearing from senators around the state that schools within their districts were badly underfunded and so it was time to re-examine the state’s approach to funding, which is welcome news. I hope that President Spilka and her colleagues take the time to listen to and take seriously the stories that those actually working in the schools have to tell about the impact of underfunding on the children and education workers across the state. It is one thing to look at funding formulas, and quite another to realize that the numbers on the page carry a real impact on the lives of real children. That became very clear to me at a recent Zoom on educational funding.
Faith Matters: Faith mattered to Jimmy Carter: Mourning the loss of the former president who had the soul of a prophet
By BEN TOUSLEY, M.DIV
Listening to Jimmy Carter’s funeral service on Jan. 9, a national day of mourning, I found myself choking up as they brought his casket into the cathedral. My emotion certainly wasn’t because Carter’s life, at 100, had been cut short. He had lived out his calling as peacemaker, house builder, disease preventer and the like.
Sounds Local: She’s a little bit country: The Rendezvous hosts a special evening of honky-tonk music with Betsy-Dawn Williams
By SHERYL HUNTER
For three and a half years, multi-instrumentalist Michael Pattavina of Greenfield has hosted the Bluegrass and Beyond session at the Rendezvous in Turners Falls. These sessions occur on the last Friday of the month except during December and the warm weather months of May through August. This month’s session will be held on Friday, Jan. 31 at 9 p.m. and will be an evening of honky-tonk music with special guest Betsy-Dawn Williams.
Speaking of Nature: A spa for snakes: Finding signs of garter snakes and their skins in my woodpile
By BILL DANIELSON
It was a Sunday and a big storm was on the way. The morning was fairly calm, but clouds had moved in and there wasn’t much time before the snow started to fall. In a perfect world I could have simply kicked off my shoes and settled in for a quiet winter morning, but we don’t live in a perfect world. Instead, we live in a world that requires firewood to be moved from time to time, and, like it or not, it was time.
Longevity noodles to welcome a new year: An aptly shaped food for the Year of the Snake
By TINKY WEISBLAT
Early Wednesday morning (Jan. 29) we will welcome the Year of the Snake. As readers may know, the Chinese Zodiac comprises 12 signs. Each is assigned an animal, and the animals repeat in a 12-year cycle. This roughly corresponds to the time it takes Jupiter to orbit the sun.
Dance for your rights: Post-Inauguration Hangover Party Saturday night will benefit ACLU, Planned Parenthood
By ERIN-LEIGH HOFFMAN
Tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 25) at the Rendezvous, the band The Frost Heaves and Hales will play a show that band member Daniel Hales thought he’d never do again.
Become a filmmaker in two weeks: GCTV will hold fifth annual Lights! Camera! Greenfield! short film contest
By MADISON SCHOFIELD
Lights! Camera! Greenfield! is back for Greenfield Community Television’s fifth annual film sprint competition, challenging aspiring filmmakers to make a short film in just two weeks.
Your Daily Puzzles
An approachable redesign to a classic. Explore our "hints."
A quick daily flip. Finally, someone cracked the code on digital jigsaw puzzles.
Chess but with chaos: Every day is a unique, wacky board.
Word search but as a strategy game. Clearing the board feels really good.
Align the letters in just the right way to spell a word. And then more words.
