Less than two weeks left for the 15th Annual John T. Forcellese Memorial Fund Golf Tournament will be held on Saturday, September 12 at the Falmouth Country Club. To get more information and to sign up go online at www.johns-team.org. A great event every year and a worthy cause. Get a group together and spend a nice day down on the Cape.

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The SOS (Somerville Overcoming Addition) 2nd Annual Candlelight Memorial Vigil will be held Tuesday, September 15 at 7:00 p.m. at Somerville High School. The vigil program starts at 7:00 p.m. Reflect with friends, visit resource tables, and get trained for overdose prevention/ Narcan from 6:15 to 7:00 p.m. For more information and to read more about this go to their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/somervilleovercomingaddiction.com.

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Did you hear about the self-important ego maniac who filed a criminal complaint against and individual in the local court? When they all appeared before the judge, the judge asked the plaintiff (ego maniac), “What did the defendant do”? The ego manic plaintiff answered back, “Nothing. He did nothing your honor.” The judge responded, “Then why are we here if he did nothing?” The plaintiff said, “Your honor, he’s trying to provoke me.” The judge retorts back to the plaintiff, “You’re wasting court time. Case dismissed.” Now this would be funny if it wasn’t for real, in a recent hearing at Somerville District Court.

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Saturday, October 17 at the Holiday Inn, the SHS Scholarship Foundation will be celebrating its 25th Anniversary. Over the years, the foundation has been responsible for handing out thousands of dollars in scholarships to deserving high school graduates. The Foundation idea was started by local publisher Robert J. L. Publicover, Tony Fedele, the headmaster at the high school, former Mayor Gene Brune and several other dedicated and committed community people. A Foundation that started with very little and has now grown to over $1M in scholarships. Call or go online to the Foundation’s Facebook site for reservations and cost of tickets.

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Happy Birthdays this week to some of our Villen friends as well as friends of The Times: Big time happy birthday to well known nice guy Richard Pye, who’s family goes back generations here in the city. We wish him a good time. Another all around nice guy celebrating this week is Victor Moccia, owner of Victor’s Deli. What a nice guy and very popular as well. We wish him a happy birthday. To one of Somerville’s finest, if not the best (we think the best), Patty Oppedisano, who is celebrating this week. What a nice lady and very popular, plus the fact that she has a big following at her workplace in Teele Square on Holland Street. We wish her the very best. Former alderman and a lady who was very active and continues to be so around the city, Ms. Grace Abruzzio also celebrates this week. What a nice lady. We wish her the very best of birthdays. And finally, we can’t forget Marilyn Publicover, who is celebrating this week. She’s the sister of our great friend and benefactor, Bob Publicover. Marilyn just moved to GA from Arizona – there sure must be a difference in temperatures. We wish her a big happy birthday.

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Kind of strange, the mayor is hosting a get-together at the River Bar this Thursday night for Presidential candidate Martin O’Malley from Maryland. We would have thought he was supporting Hillary. Joe is never one to predict, is he?

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Did you watch the Board of Aldermen meeting last week? It was a long meeting but a few interesting things were covered. How about that park sled that is only about a year old that needs replacing, and the cost is just $17K. Yup you heard it right. $17,000 for a slide in a children park. They say the slide has been broken a long time. Why has it taken so long for the attention? By the way, it’s not for nothing, but what has happened to some of the smaller neighborhood parks? We have seen some overgrown weeds in at least three of them, and that’s counting Harris Park, where the slide needs to be replaced.

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A petition with over 600 signatures was presented to the Board of Aldermen regarding the usage of our fields, in particular Lincoln Park and the use of artificial turf. Ward 2 Alderman Maryann Heuston asked for it to be placed in subcommittee for a public hearing. Alderman Katjana Ballantyne, as Chair of the subcommittee, was right on top of it and said the hearing is scheduled for Wednesday, September 16 at 6:00 p.m. at City Hall.

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Guess one of our readers didn’t like the fact we mentioned that candidate for Ward 6 alderman Lance Davis, who says he’s “progressive,” works as Senior Corporate Council for Oracle America, the same corporation that shipped hundreds of thousands of jobs out of the USA over to China. Now, we said last time it’s his choice, like we all have a choice, to work for whoever or whatever we want to. But to virtually hide from it and pretend you’re for the average working person is just wrong. So check out on the following website the contributions not only to Mr. Davis, but to anyone running for public office. Go to www.ocpf.us, fill in the name of the person running and you’re on your way to seeing who is giving what to who. It’s also interesting that candidates get large sums of money from outside of the city for an alderman’s race. We found a few $1,000 dollar donations. Check it out for yourself. By the way, as for the blogger, read again what we wrote. We said, “It’s his choice where to work.” We all have choices in life, don’t we?

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Interesting again that some of the unions here didn’t endorse Alderman at Large Jack Connolly, but did endorse the other three incumbents and Sean Fitzgerald, who’s running for one of the At Large seats. FYI, we hear from Sean’s friends that he is working hard. We know he’s been organizing a ground support and is working hard, in particular in the wards that are going to have races in November. That would be Wards 3, 4 and 6. We’ve seen Sean in action before. He worked for former Mayor Dot Gay and for former Senator Charlie Shannon.

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Meanwhile, over in Ward 3 the constituent Alderman Bob McWatters, even though he has no opponent, is out door to door and he tells us he ran into Lee Palmer, who is running for the School Committee seat in Ward 3. She’s all over the ward and we hear that she has gathered together a large group of people working hard for her election to the open seat.

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Ward 4 has a race, and we saw that both candidates are working hard for the vacant seat on the School Board there. The race to be held in November will be between Jamie O’Leary, a teacher and homeowner here in Winter Hill, and Andre Green, who is raising his family here as well. Both are door to door, and have met with several people in the ward.

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There’s a new web site in town. Check it out at www.somervillema.com. The Somerville Times is on the site. Also check out www.medfordma.com.

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Support local businesses and new businesses this week. Remember that Thurston Spa is re-opening under new management. Don’t forget about Mondello’s Bakery/shop up the street in Magoun Square. What a nice job they did on the interior. Lots of money. Another place that has expanded is our good friends over at Daddy Jones. The outdoor seating on the Broadway end is now open and looks nice. The job they did, even though we saw Peter himself running around working hard.

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The mayor gave his version of the funding situation for the Green Line Extension project at the last Board of Aldermen meeting. He gave a good presentation about it and the Board members voted to support the mayor in making sure that the funding stays and the Green Line continues. There were lot of comments regarding supporting the funding, but interestingly enough, Alderman Mark Niedergang said it has to go forward even if we have to raise taxes to do so. The latest from the state is that the MTA will need over $7 billion to upgrade and support the various extensions, including the Green Line.

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This coming Sunday, September 6th, Cardinal Sean O’Malley will celebrate mass at Saint Anthony’s Parish, 12 Properzi Way, to commemorate the church’s hundredth anniversary. The mass will begin at 11:00 AM and be followed by a gala lunch.

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“Garden Bounty” is the topic of the Wednesday, Sept. 9 meeting of the Somerville Garden Club. Meetings are held at the Tufts Administration Building, 167 Holland St., 7-9 pm, second floor, wheelchair accessible. Club members will share produce from their own gardens, either raw or as an ingredient in a favorite recipe. Their will also be a group exchange of questions and answers in regard to edible gardening. The meeting will also address preparations for the SGC Fall Plant Sale on Saturday, Sept. 19. All SGC meetings are free and all gardeners and garden enthusiasts are invited to attend. Over one third of club members are from neighboring communities; to learn more about the Somerville Garden Club please visit www.somervillegardenclub.org.

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With several years of revitalization under its belt, Somerville’s East Broadway neighborhood is presenting the vibrant flavors of more than a dozen restaurants at the East Broadway Foodie Crawl on Tuesday, September 29th from 6 pm to 8:30 pm. From family-run restaurants will well-kept secrets to some of the city’s newest and hottest eateries, East Somerville’s restaurant corridor features some of the area’s most authentic flavors and hidden gems. A ticket to this tasting tour gives its holder access to more than a dozen restaurants representing five continents and provides food samples and a glimpse of the experience at each. All proceeds from the Foodie Crawl benefit East Somerville Main Streets, which is committed to building a safe, sustainable and prosperous multicultural community by developing a vibrant businesses district at the neighborhood’s heart. Tickets for the Foodie Crawl are on sale now. You can buy them for $20 online and $25 at the door if there are still tickets available. Tickets are available here: http://eastsomervillemainstreets.org/foodie-crawl/foodie-buy-tickets/. For more information, please visit: www.eastsomervillemainstreets.org. The event has a rain date of September 30th.