Tobin Sprout makes a stop at Arts at the Army next Sunday. L to R: Steve Vermillion, Tommy Schichtel, Gary Vermillion, Tobin Sprout. — Photo by Wayne Pickard

By Blake Maddux

As a member of the scrappy indie rock band Guided by Voices from 1986-1997, Tobin Sprout played on and wrote songs for beloved lo-fi classics such as Bee Thousand, Alien Lanes, and Under the Bushes Under the Stars. Between 2012 and 2014, he did the same for six releases that appeared after the band’s “classic lineup” reunited in 2010.

Arrests:
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Rudolph Harris, of Lowell, November 3, 10:40 a.m., arrested at Washington St. on a warrant charge of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

Like digging in the dirt? Been curious about why not all dirt looks the same?
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Join the Somerville Public Library for a family-friendly, hands-on virtual workshop that encourages urban explorers of all ages to get outside and pay closer attention to the world around them. Dig up some samples and learn to categorize the different types of dirt to discover what makes the dirt in your neighborhood unique.

The Charter Review Committee wants to hear from you! Join us for topic-specific small group discussions on how to improve Somerville. November 8  topic is Citizen Participation Mechanisms at 6 p.m.

The Serving Seniors 2021 honor roll: Courtney Libon (De Novo Center for Justice and Healing), Courtney Johnson (SCES Social Worker), Paula Nazaire (Anodyne Home Health Care Aide), John Marshal (Adult Family Care caregiver), Marsha Gerstein (Money Management Volunteer), and Fred Berman (Somerville Office of Housing Stability)

Somerville-Cambridge Elder Services (SCES) recognized six people who are doing essential work to support the independence and dignity of local older adults at Serving Seniors 2021.

The annual awards ceremony was held virtually on November 4, though most of the award presentations were pre-taped.

— Photo courtesy of Context Architecture

Community Meeting – Monday, December 13 at 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.

After feedback from the City Council and community members, they have rescheduled and reformatted the Public Safety Building meeting originally scheduled for November 10th. On December 13 at 6:00 p.m. they  will have a virtual kickoff to envision a new 90 Washington Street. Attendees will be able to provide input on the public safety building project and talk with community members and neighbors about the opportunities on the rest of the site. What would you like to see here? What are your concerns? How can we create a cohesive site that also connects with the rest of the neighborhood?

(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 Ian Halim

Yeast gives us a way to start understanding nitrogen’s role in living things. But I’ll need to start by explaining why yeast is so important. Not only does it make bread rise and ferment sugar into alcohol, but it also offers a powerful way to begin investigating many key questions in biology.

Before the systematic observation of modern science, a lot of evidence seemed to support the idea that living things could arise from non-living things. Maggots, for instance, seemed to burst forth from rotting meat. People didn’t notice the tiny fly eggs. And since yeast floats in the air and dust – settling by chance on grape skin or bread dough –it wasn’t always clear that it was really something separate from the grape juice that it ferments into wine, or the barley mash that it turns into beer. The Dutch scientist and microscope-maker, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723), was the first to see yeast globules under a microscope, but mistakenly thought they must be a component of crushed cereal grains. In the fourth century BCE, Aristotle expressed the theory of spontaneous generation, that living things could arise from inanimate matter. And for more than two thousand years, many believed it. 

By Jim Clark

Somerville Police officers were dispatched to the Assembly Row area last week on reports that a man had grabbed several pairs of sunglasses from the Sunglass Hut and ran out of the store towards the train station.

Officers located a man matching the provided description walking into the train station along with another male and a female.