Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

As I was writing the story of the old television shows a few weeks back, I started thinking about the commercials we grew up watching. I enjoy some TV commercials like the GEICO ads. They are clever and amusing. But I wonder if people will remember them and even be able to recite some of them word for word in 20, 30, and even 40 years? I doubt it. Who could ever forget the old ad against littering that shows the Native American with the tear in his eye?

— Photos by Ewan Henrie

On Saturday, November 7, Somerville community members were invited to spend a couple of hours outside, meet people nearby, and leave their street a little better than they found it. This was the second citywide cleanup as part of Somerville’s Year of the Neighbor initiative, a yearlong push to strengthen connections, build community, and tap into everyone’s ability to have a positive impact across Somerville. To learn more, visit somervillema.gov/neighbor

Kaliopy Kaliontzis

Kaliopy Kaliontzis, 94, of Somerville, passed away peacefully on November 6, 2026. She was the beloved daughter of the late Alexander and Anastasia Kaliontzis and sister of the late George Kaliontzis and his late wife Ernestine. She leaves behind her loving nieces Joanne Kaliontzis of Boston and Maria Tinglof and her late husband Michael of Matlacha, FL as well as two great-nephews, Seth and George.

The Somerville City Council is fashioning an ordinance aimed at regulating parts of AI usage by the city.

By Harry Kane

Somerville may soon be adopting an artificial intelligence ordinance to provide acceptable-use policies that govern AI technology and its physical infrastructure.

The Magoun Broadway Reconstruction Project open house provided the latest info for the public’s perusal.

By Keith Foster

The City of Somerville provided an updated design open house for the Magoun Square Reconstruction Project for residents on November 4 at the Arthur D. Healey School.

City offices, Somerville Public Schools, and district offices will be closed today, Wednesday, November 11, for Veterans Day. Trash, recycling, and yard waste collection will be delayed by one day. No street sweeping on Wednesday.

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

By Emma Lebwohl

Somerville is facing a $5.4 million budget deficit. Even so, the City Council is about to pass an ordinance that its own City Solicitor says would likely not survive a legal challenge. Defending it could cost the city millions, and it would slow down nearly everything the city buys. Residents still have time to stop the ordinance, but only until  Thursday’s hearing.

Somerville poets Gary Duehr and Denise Provost at the Bromfield Gallery in Boston this Sunday for a reading of their work. Poet Bernard Horn joined them.

Eagle Feathers #367 – Flanders Fields

For the last one hundred years, much of the world has paid homage to November 11, 1918. On this day, commencing in 1919, the annual celebration of the end of World War I, or The War To End All Wars began. It was called Armistice Day in the United States and France, and Remembrance Day in England and Canada.

We see them every year, and we regard them with awe and deepest admiration. Stoic and humble in countenance, they seem to simply play their part in our ritualistic celebration of their courageous contributions to the well-being of our nation. The well-being of ourselves as a society.