This week is the beginning of the East Somerville clothing drive, which began on November 13 and will continue through November 24. Hosted by Second Chances, Inc. and Mudflat Pottery School. You can find donation boxes at Whole Foods Market, 45 Beacon St. and Architectural Openings, 16 Garfield Ave. Second Chances reuses and recycles clothing, shoes and accessories so that homeless and lower income people feel confident and valued as they take their first steps toward brighter futures. For for more details go to www.secondchances.org/clothingDriveMudlflat2017. Drop off Monday to Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.

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Somerville Education Foundation (SEF) will meet up tonight, Wednesday evening, November 15, from 6:00. to 8:00 p.m. Want to share ideas or get involved with the new Somerville Education Foundation? Come join in for their third monthly meet-up of the year. This time they will be meeting at Fabville at Somerville High School during open shop hours. Come make something. Now run by Parts & Crafts, you will hear about how the lab works and what they do. Fabville is a fabrication space aiming to complement the collection of professional, semi-professional, and artist-focused spaces already available in and around Somerville. For more information about Fabville, go to https://www.fabville.net. For more information about SEF go to http://www.somervilleedfoundation.org.

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The election is over and it was a clean sweep. All the candidates running for office challenging the incumbents did very well. We wish all of them the very best of luck and hope that next year there will be a continuation of the progress the city is enjoying moving forward.

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Congratulations to all the winners in this year’s city elections. To the many newcomers, we wish you much success in representing our city. To the incumbent aldermen who didn’t win, we thank them for their service to the city and wish them the very best in hopefully continuing to be a part of the future of the city that they all have served these past several years.

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Congratulations over in Medford on the re-election of a fine lady, and so far a very good mayor, Stephanie Muccini Burke. She worked hard and we wish her the very best in her next term. Also, congratulations to all the city councilors and School Committee people over in Medford. We have make an exception with our friend Adam Knight, who won his re-election bid for city councilor. He worked hard, as usual, and we haven’t found anyone that doesn’t like him. Also, congratulations to Erin DiBenedetto, who, though originally from Winter Hill, was re-elected once again to the School Committee in Medford. A nice lady and very sincere. We wish all the candidates who were elected over there in Medford a great next two years for themselves and the city.

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At the DPW this week, the electrical heaters were blowing fuses throughout the building. It seems that someone (we’re not going to say DPW Commissioner Koty) isn’t very popular, not just down at DPW but with the gas company. It appears they removed the old heating unit and installed a new one for the building, but the gas company was supposed to be notified so they could install a larger and newer pipe for the building. Lots of people were freezing in the building (but thank God it wasn’t this weekend). We could hear the nasty remarks about the bosses down there from the workers all the way to the paper’s office. Especially (OK, so we’ll say his name) Commissioner Stan Koty, who should get on the phone and get in contact with that company fast and talk nice to them. We know Stan has a big mouth when he wants to use it, so it’s time for him to use it with the gas company. We hope at least he’s changing the fuses down there for them so they can stay warm. Wear two sweaters!

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Turkey Shoot this Sunday, November 19. Shooting Events start at approximately 10:00 a.m. on the Trap Field: Lucky Target, Adios, Wobbles, Walk-Back, Wolverton Mountain Doo-Dah, and anything else they can think of. Food and Beverages served through the day. Fun for everyone and non-members are welcome. At the Lawrence Rod & Gun Club, So. Lawrence, right off the 93.

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Happy birthday’s this week: One of the nicest ladies here in Somerville, a former Alderman At-Large amongst many of her accomplishments, we wish Helen Corrigan the very best of birthdays. We wished her last week, a week early, but she deserves two wishes for a HB. Happy birthday to local TV celebrity and anchorman Joe Lynch, who is celebrating this week. We wish him a great birthday. Happy birthday also to Sheila Meehan MacEachern, who is celebrating this week as well. A nice lady and well known too. We hope she has a great birthday as well. Happy birthday to the wonderful Marsha Eileen Hamel Urquilla. We know her family – which is huge – will be helping her to celebrate this week. We wish her all the very best A nice lady who, along with her husband, is always thinking of others. Happy birthday to our good friend Artie “Ernie” Mason, a good friend and a great family man who served in Vietnam with distinction and valor. We wish him a great birthday, celebrating with his many friends, wife Susan and his family. Happy birthday to Joe Nardella. A good guy, we wish him a very happy birthday. And finally, to the lady of Local Real Estate, Ms. Betty Levin, a big happy birthday to her.

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The Somerville Times Best of Somerville voting started last week. When you see a business or person on the ballot (on page 3) that you like let us know. If you don’t see a category that you think should be included also let us know. You can email your choices (thebestofsomerville@yahoo.com) or mail them to the office (The Somerville Times, 699 Broadway, Somerville, MA 02144). Show your pride in a person or business or place you like and want to vote for.

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We guess the event of the year to celebrate 175 years as a town and city was successful, but we were disappointed that they chose to have a basic black tie, two-hour thing at Tufts. We remember when Mayor Gene Brune held a celebration of the city back in the 80’s. A huge crowd of hundreds attended and celebrated through the night with dinner, awards and dancing. We know the mayor didn’t decide this – at least we hope not – but whoever chose to do this, we think it should have been a much more inclusive event. After all, you only turn 175 once!

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Have you seen the sign the state road crews put up on rte. 16 just after Mystic Avenue – “Warning delay in traffic due to market opening” – with a big flashing light? Never seen anything like that, have you? Now the state is getting involved in the local stores competition?

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There was a sort of great commercial this past week on Facebook, with George, the owner of Demets boxing up a couple of dozen of his famous donuts. We know we said it before, but it’s a great place that used to be like Dunkin’ Donuts was. Remember on Middlesex Avenue back in the 50’s and 60’s, when it had a counter and served the best donuts? But somewhere along the line they lost that. Demets reminds you of the old fashion coffee shops of yesterday, a place to come enjoy your morning coffee, meet and greet new and old friends and to be waited on by the nicest people you could meet. If you haven’t tried Demets Donuts, head over to Mystic Avenue in Medford, next to Domino’s Pizza. Get a dozen donuts freshly made in the back. P.S. Get one of those fresh egg sandwiches, you’ll want another!

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We have to admit though, that the staff at Dunkin’ Donuts in Magoun Square is one of the friendliest in the city. Always helpful and pleasant. It’s our favorite here.

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For those that don’t know, every now and then we have to repeat: we are a “gossip column” – we print the local gossip going on in the city. We have many people throughout City Hall and other places that feed us stuff on a regular basis. Some of it might be true, but one thing we won’t do is spread malicious lies about people and institutions. We do what newspapers and columns for hundreds of years have done – both online and in print – let you, the public, know what is really going on. The Somerville Times is a weekly community newspaper that will never print a story without facts, like all respected newspapers do. We firmly believe that a story is never about the writer, but about the event or persons involved in the event. This column is separate from the paper and has its own contributors. Just for the record.

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The Somerville High School Class of 1982 welcomes classmates to join them for the 35th reunion. November 25, 7:00 p.m., at Pearl Street Station, 53 Summer St., Malden. Appetizers – No cost – Cash bar.