And that's when things got weird

There is no need to wait for the  Topsfield Fair  to open this fall:  Hostess  is selling  deep-fried Twinkies  in the frozen food aisle through an exclusive partnership with Wal-Mart. The prepackaged, frozen Hostess treats, a sweet staple at carnivals and fairs, debuted yesterday at some of its stores and will go nationwide on Monday. I went to the Wal-Mart on the Lynnway on Friday in search of the ready-to-heat delicacies, which are available in two flavors, original golden and chocolate. But I came up empty. Unfortunately, they won’t be available locally until next week. The grand visions I had of popping the frozen  crème -filled snacks into the office toaster oven and providing a full review, breaking my diet, for the sake of the story, of course, will have to wait. But I did pick up a basket full of other Hostess products for the staff to tide us over until next week. The gesture sparked a heated newsroom debate: Which Hostess treat reigns suprem...

And I was down for lessons  By Beth Bresnahan  For the Summer 2016 issue of 01907 The Magazine I recently booked the trip of my lifetime: a two-week vacation to Hawaii with a group of friends. Almost  immediately after purchasing the tickets, I downloaded a Jack Johnson album and began fantasizing about how I  would soon be dancing the hula, frolicking in a bikini on the sandy beaches of Maui and catching waves  alongside champion surfer Kelly Slater.  The ukulele and chill lyrics of my new playlist helped me temporarily escape the reality that I have zero rhythm,  not to mention I’m Irish-girl pale and not quite in bikini-ready shape. Oh, then there's the issue that I had no  idea how to surf.  Now, I figured I could fake my way through the dancing with the help of a couple of Mai Tais, and a spray tan along with a few extra spin classes could help me get closer to my desired look. But pretending to know how to  surf woul...

There may be 1.5 billion reasons to buy a ticket for tonight’s Powerball  drawing , but  Massachusetts residents really  don’t need too much of a push to go  place a bet .  Last year   L ottery retailers  in Massachusetts  rang in  more than  $5 billion in ticket sales. Think about  the  math. The state boasts a n adult  population of  about  5.23 million, so it equates to each resident over the age of 18 dropping an average of $957 in lottery tickets annually.  That  ranks Massachusetts as the highest of any of the  52   North American  lotteries in terms of per capita spend.  In fact, tiny Massachusetts ’ per capita spend more than twice that of the next highest state (Georgia).  Combine our  state  lottery sales with the $10 billion a year that residents are estimated to spend at out-of-state casinos and the $5 billion estimated to be spen t  on online...

I took a couple of weeks off from writing my column in December. I wish I could say that I spent that time sunning myself on a tropical island, but really I was concentrating on penning something I had never written before: a eulogy. Since I started at The Item six months ago, rarely has a week gone by that an overdose hasn’t been listed in the police log or that a young person who “died suddenly” or was “stricken at home” has not appeared on the obituaries page. Sadly, it also is rare that the names and faces featured in those obituaries are unfamiliar to me. Childhood friends, former classmates, relatives of friends, and other acquaintances have graced page A2 in recent months, after succumbing to fatal drug overdoses. While rarely revealed within the copy of the obituary, the drug that cut their young lives short is heroin. But even with those dozens of familiar names I’ve seen in print and the numerous stories Item staff has written on the epidemic tearing throu...