(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)

Dear Editor:

Animal shelters in Massachusetts are under intense pressure from a Utah-based group, Best Friends Animal Society, to achieve its dangerous and shortsighted fixation on making every shelter in the U.S. “no-kill” by 2025. This push may make for good marketing, but it ignores the reality of the animal overpopulation and homelessness crisis, and it fails animals and communities.

By Dennis Fischman

The epistolary novel is a story that’s told mostly or entirely in correspondence between two people or more. It’s a classic genre, with examples as old as Pamela (1740) and Frankenstein (1818) and much more recently, The Color Purple (1982) and The White Tiger (2008). There have even been murder mysteries in this format: think The Documents in the Case by the classic mystery writer Dorothy Sayers (better known for her series starring Lord Peter Wimsey).

Michette restaurant will be participating in the 13th annual Foodie Crawl on Tuesday, September 17. — Photos courtesy of Michette

By Harry Kane

In the spirit of friendship, teamwork and mutual support among local restaurants in East Somerville, an annual fundraising event hopes to build camaraderie among businesses and bring new patrons to their establishments. 

Life in the Ville By Jimmy Del Ponte

(This article first ran in the August 31, 2013 edition of The Somerville Times)

My fear of the first day of school changed entering grade 9 in 1968. I was going to public junior high fter eight years of parochial school. Let me elaborate a little. Eight years of bossy, grouchy, mean spirited nuns. I still can’t believe my parents paid good, hard earned money to send their three kids to a place where they were berated, embarrassed and abused. I got off easy, but some of the poor kids may have been scarred for life.