And that's when things got weird

The Boston Globe ran a letter earlier this month from a reader who encountered a “grouchy old man” picking up trash at the Park Street subway station while on his way to work. The reader didn’t know who the 81-year-old man was until he revealed his identity, but anyone familiar with former Governor Michael Dukakis’ intense, long-standing passion for keeping the streets of Boston and its surrounding communities litter-free would not at all be surprised by this scenario. While others might think it’s odd for a man of his stature, the longest-serving governor in Massachusetts history and an ex-presidential nominee, to routinely walk the city streets picking up litter, I certainly don’t. And that’s because I have a confession to make – I, too, am a trash picker-upper. The objects that I focus my anti-litter crusade on are primarily scratch tickets. To me it’s an extremely personal mission because, as the former executive director of the state lottery, my signature (which I’ve repeate...

Printed in The Daily Item, Tuesday, August 18, 2015 If music  is  a window to the soul, then  prior to  the spring of 1988 I probably  could  have been deemed soulless.  Granted  I was  only 13 , but  my musical taste  and knowledge  pretty much reflected whatever was getting airplay on WZOU and KISS 108. My music collection  largely  consisted of mixtapes  that  I’d amassed by simultaneously pressing pause, play and record while listening to  the radio  (and inevitably included station IDs and DJ endorsements because I was never quite quick enough with my editing skills).   “New Jack Swing” – a  funky  blend of  hip- hop,  R&B  and pop  music  –  was the emerging  and  dominant sound  that radiated  from my Walkman, as well as  from  most of my friends’.  Keith Sweat ,  Bobby Brown ,  Al B. Sure!...

Printed in The Daily Item | Wednesday, August 12, 2015 Every year from the time I was in kindergarten through high school, my grandmother and I had a standing date for the last week in August. Grammy Anne and I would walk downtown from our apartment in Marian Gardens, and later from her place in the Harbor Loft building, to pick up my back-to-school clothes. There was rarely a need to take the bus to the Northshore Shopping Center, or venture to Boston’s Downtown Crossing, because Downtown Lynn had it all. In my younger years we’d visit Besse Rolfe and T.W. Rogers for dresses that she loved and I reluctantly wore. As I got a little older and a lot more defiant, I was allowed pick out my own styles. I liked the stores on Union Street — Empire, Lerner, Hoffman’s and Randy’s, but my favorites were on Munroe Street and we always headed straight there. If you grew up in Lynn in the ’70s, ’80s and into the ’90s, you likely know that if you didn’t go to Pennyworth’s on Munroe Stre...