The Somerville News Blog

Did you miss me? Really? I doubt it

Reality Bites by James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not neccesarily reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News)

It has been way too long to go without “opening a vein” as someone once said to me. I used to relish the opportunity to rant and ramble in these pages because it is very cathartic and I truly enjoy writing, but putting your own opinion out there with your name on it is not as easy as it seems. Okay, maybe it is to the nut-jobs who enjoy sensationalizing things to get their point across - there are several of those mentally deficient people running around this city, no doubt.

This is what happens when you don't look in your own backyard

Reality Bites By James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Ok, I took a break from writing my personal opinion here to focus on other newspaper business. So what – at least my family got a temporary break from cringing over my latest public declaration. Fact is, I never realized how many people gave a crap about whether I might write week to week - until this past week – when more than a few people asked when I would return.

Well here I am – and instead of writing about something that will make you all warm and fuzzy inside, I am going to bitch about St. Ann’s. Yes, you read that right.

This past weekend was the end of the yearlong celebration of St. Ann’s 125th Anniversary – and I knew nothing about it until two days beforehand. Now before you get into the “why does he think he is special” routine, read on and understand.

Rudeness, disloyalty and revenge – now that’s entertainment!

Reality Bites by James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

(Editor’s note: OK, I am NOT being lazy. I just found this one from November 2003 and thought it would be cool to retread it. I think that Joe Curtatone is doing a great job as mayor, and it’s nice to look back and see what has happened since this time.)

I sometimes wonder what drives us to do the things that we do in everyday life. A combination of mutual lack of respect, no common courtesy and blatant rudeness pervades our lives daily. If we aren’t being bombarded by it on TV, then we hear about it on the radio, and when those two mediums aren’t available, it can creep up on us in the grocery store, the mall, even in our neighborhoods. There doesn’t seem to be a safe place from this type of insanity anymore.

The dichotomy between over-exposure and OCD

Reality Bites By James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

(Editor’s note: three weeks in a row I wrote about my personal life in detail, so I figured I would look at some old columns of mine and I liked the manic qualities of this one – I hope you enjoy it as much as I did writing it – JN)

Maybe I’m getting older, who knows. I seem to be evolving into a very opinionated person, while at the same time, trying to stay open minded about an array of important issues. An interesting conundrum. I want to be informed, but I don’t want to know too much, nor do I want to hear about it all the time.

I’ve been thinking about this for a while now - there’s overexposure all around us – in professional sports, the entertainment industry, politics – even not-so-newsworthy stories can transform themselves into something bigger than they need to be. Perfect example of overexposure transforming a nobody into a somebody: Paris Hilton.

As the world turns and the cheese melts, I recap the last eight months

Reality Bites By James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Maybe it’s a slow week around the city, but not in the world of Jamie Norton. I just realized I referred to my personal life in that manner last week, and I’m starting to think it might be a little creepy. You be the judge. Once again, rather than comment on world politics or the state of the city, I find myself writing about my personal life.

This is a double-edged sword for me. My family cringes whenever I do this, but the general population, for one reason or another, seems to be interested in the details of my personal life, and I cannot for the life of me figure out why.

What do a new car, two birthdays, this paper’s weblog, three women and Michael Buble all have in common?

Reality Bites by James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

What do a new car, two birthdays, this paper’s weblog, three women and Michael Buble all have in common?

Well, not much, unless your name is Jamie Norton, and you just lived the last ten days of my life. Notice I didn’t mention my trip to the medium last week or visiting a particular person’s grave. I figured I would just let that issue lay in last week’s Reality Bites, and leave it there, for now anyway.

Trying to find my way through life – with a happy Medium

Reality Bites By James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

OK so this is one of THOSE Reality Bites where members of my family cringe because I am going to ramble about my personal life - even though I always think nobody bothers to read my ramblings – so who cares what I write about.

So here we go. Without being too personal, let’s just say I have had some guilt and unresolved emotional issues I have been carrying inside me for the better part of the last 10-plus years.  Most of them revolve around a certain person who was in my life in a big way for many years and who was my closest friend until she was killed in an accident 11 years ago.

Fly like an eagle – or like a jumbo jet anyways…

Reality Bites By James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

You know for a while there, I thought I was losing my mind. Every once in a while a jet would fly what seemed to be 30 feet above the house. It was so loud you would swear it was about to rip the roof off the house. So I would not think of it all that much because it, quite frankly, didn’t happen so often that you would notice it, really.

Then it started happening more and more. I started asking others if they heard it too, and they had.  I wasn’t alone, and I wasn’t crazy.  Well maybe I’m a little crazy, but I doubt it can be attributed to planes flying low overhead.  That’s a separate Reality Bites, thank you.

Charles Chisholm is running again

Reality Bites by James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Charles Chisholm is a candidate for Ward 6 alderman this year, and he sat with us at our last contributors meeting, where some of us have known him almost our entire lives and to others he was a new face in a real race.  He is no stranger to local politics.  His professional and political careers started around the same time in the mid to late 1960s, and there seems no slowing down for him 40 years later.

A life-long resident of the city, Chisholm grew up in East Somerville where he lived until 1982, when he moved to College Avenue and still lives today.  That was the year he started working at Bunker Hill Community College (BHCC) as a math professor. When he retired from there in 2003, he was the head of the math department for the college.

“Summer’s here and the time is right…for dancin’ in the streets”

Reality Bites By James Norton

There was dancin’ at the fireworks last week – literally and figuratively.  I myself  opted to stay home, but my father took my kids to see the show.  He told me there were plenty of candidates, pod people and pod people wannabes floating about and I wasn’t surprised in the least.

The interesting interaction on our website regarding the event ranged from people saying it was great for the community to those who wanted to speculate as to why waste the money and how much it cost the taxpayers for the overtime for DPW workers, police details, etc – you know what?  Who gives a crap?  The cost benefit of increasing community pride far outweighs whatever the final actual costs become and it’s clearly just another case of online bitchers and moaners who have nothing better to do than hate the administration for everything it does.

Don’t knock the Roc

Reality Bites by James Norton

Rocco J. Antonelli, Sr., a born and raised Somerville native may now live in Andover, but his heart   never left here.  The acclaimed businessman sat at our contributors meeting two weeks ago and shared some of his life story with us.  Some of us who knew him before that morning had no idea of the accomplishments the young at heart 84 year old had achieved in his personal and professional life.

“I loved playing basketball” he said, which seemed an understatement considering he graduated from Somerville High with honors with an “Outstanding Scholar Athlete Award” and went on to Tufts University briefly until World War II.

"As a Naval Officer, he was highly decorated for bravery with four Bronze Stars.  When asked of his experience being present at the surrender of the Japanese on September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, he stated, “it was truly an honor to be there to witness such an important event in world history."

Another Tony Robbins moment in an oh-so special world.

Reality Bites by James  Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Life is funny sometimes and the people we encounter as we navigate through it are even funnier.  In years past, I would be less tolerant than I am of people now and I look back and laugh at some of the situations my own sense of “pride” put me in.

Today, as I close in on 40 years above-ground, I can say that other than some obvious common sense issues I have never resolved, I am wiser and more diplomatic when it comes to human interaction.  Now don’t get it all twisted – I won’t be nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize anytime soon, but, after what I’ve been through personally - especially in the last year, I think I have emerged with a fairly level headed sense of reason.

Commenting on the website/weblog – the dos and the don’ts.

reality bites by James Norton

The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

Over the past few years, we have posted many of our print edition stories on our website and we have allowed comments to remain, for the most part, anonymous.  This has allowed for the exercise of free speech in a way and manner for local people to voice their opinions that hadn’t been seen or heard of before.

We are very proud of our website and have held off converting to another format to maintain the integrity of free commenting and as we reached the milestone of averaging 1,000 unique hits per day, it gave me an opportunity to reflect on the process since it began.

Comments have been consistent lately on almost every posted story, but historically the stories with the most “lively” interaction have involved either political or tragic developments.  The most recent being the awful crash on Highland Road with over 140 comments at the time I wrote this column. 

Memorial day 2007 – a time for reflection, a time to look ahead

reality bites by James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

The main focus on this past holiday is to pay homage to the brave efforts of our servicemen and women over the years for our country and for our own personal freedoms as citizens of this great country.  It’s a day devoid of politics and filled with honor and respect – I wish there were more days like that.

The secondary focus is obviously to enjoy the fantastic parade and come together as a community, as friends and as family.  Again, I wish there were more days like that.

Changes come when you least expect them

reality bites by James Norton

(The opinions and views expressed in the commentaries of The Somerville News belong solely to the authors of those commentaries and do not reflect the views or opinions of The Somerville News, its staff or publishers.)

There comes a time in your life when you take personal inventory.  Okay, maybe it happens more than once, but that’s okay.

If you’re smart, you move away from the things which cause you personal pain, but we as humans are rarely that smart.  We rely on the comfort level we enjoy even in the midst of the most awful of personal situations.
 

And so yet another dance is complete and Jack Connolly is returning to the Board of Aldermen.

reality bites By James Norton

What seemed to be a sleepy little special election turned into a feeding frenzy for the infamous pod people.  It would be fair to say that even the so called “progressives” have been inducted into the pool of political bottom feeders this time because in the last few days they certainly showed their teeth, finally.

Over the last week, there has been much rumination on our weblog regarding the different political pieces distributed by both sides of this battle.  The lines were clearly drawn and there was much to debate regarding the validity of certain claims.  The weblog was flush with one-sided, misinformed rants directly and indirectly aimed at purposely misleading the issues - from gang members in the Youth Center to sketchy endorsements and everything lumped in between.

Reality Bites for the week of Dec. 6

Reality Bites by James Norton for the week of Dec. 6

“That’s what friends are for”
 

Assuming you made it past the title of my column, I have to start right off by explaining that I’m not writing a puff piece extolling the virtues of being a good friend and other such blather.  The title specifically refers to the name of the #1 song of 1986 according to Billboard Magazine.
  Needless to say 1986 wasn’t a watershed year in pop music.

Reality Bites for the week of Nov. 1

Reality Bites for the week of Nov. 1

“I’m going to need an ID that has your birthday on it”
 

Maybe it’s lack of sleep, I don’t know, but I seem even more irritable than usual lately.  I decided to come up one rung on the ladder of “phoning it in” this week by creating a list of things I think are obtuse, pedestrian and supercilious at best.
  This past Tuesday morning, a five term Congresswoman from California was stopped from boarding a one-way flight from Boise to Cincinnati because she was on the terrorist watch/do not fly list.  I couldn’t figure out what’s funnier – the United employee laughing when she was handed a US Congress ID or that someone was traveling from Boise to Cincinnati, one-way.

Reality Bites by James Norton for the week of Oct. 18

Reality Bites by James Norton for the week of Oct. 18

The winds of change are upon us and some say it’s a new day. I would agree.
  It’s nice when things actually start happening that give promise to the future of our great city.  While the local political landscape has seen its share of change over the past ten years, for me it was very surprising until now that other issues have remained stagnant for so long.  Recent events should help change this.

Reality Bites for the week of Oct. 4

Reality Bites for the week of Oct. 4

Don’t like what’s going on in this city?  Go fluff yourself
   

I spend a lot more time than most people in a lot of different cities and towns in the Commonwealth as a result of my main source of income – as a real estate appraiser.  I can tell you from personal experience that every one of them has their own little idiosyncrasies, putting it mildly.  Some are family and group event driven, some are industry driven, some are college driven and then the rest seem to be politically driven.