The increasing popularity of so-called “clean beauty” products, such as those sold by Noel Herbals in Somerville, indicates a rising trend among health conscious consumers. — Photo by Lillian Cohen

By Lillian Cohen

We are constantly concerned with how we look and what we put in our bodies. But what about what goes on our bodies?

The “clean beauty” market has swept through the cosmetic industry, fueled by growing concern over product ingredients and their impact on the environment. Founded on natural safe ingredients and an eco-friendly mindset, the clean beauty industry is largely made up of small businesses. And yet, the clean beauty market is currently worth $5 billion and expected to double in the next seven years, according to Brandessence Market Research, with many larger beauty companies such as Yes To and Neutrogena framing their own products toward similar values in an effort to recapture the market.

This week, Ward 7 City Councilor Katjana Ballantyne announced that she will be running for mayor, in hopes of replacing Mayor Curtatone, who has said that he will not be running for re-election again. Although she is the first to have formally announced, we’re sure there will be others who step forward for your consideration. We wish her and all the others the best in their bids to become our new mayor.

Tipping Cow co-owner Gerly Adrien.

By NaBeela Washington

Despite restaurants and businesses limiting their operations to meet Commonwealth and additional Somerville COVID guidelines, Somerville remains a community that is enriched by local businesses refusing to give up. We recently spoke with one of those businesses, Tipping Cow, an ice cream shop that was founded in 2013.

The Somerville City Council invites the public to join a virtual community meeting on Civilian Oversight of Police and also to take its survey about civilian oversight.

Join the meeting to learn about the Council’s ongoing work to establish civilian oversight in Somerville, and how the public can get involved. The virtual meeting will be held on the Zoom teleconferencing platform on Wednesday, March 24, at 6:30 p.m. The meeting can be joined by phone, online via Zoom, or watch it without signing in on the City’s GovTV channel and YouTube. For details on how to join or watch the meeting, please visit somervillema.gov/CivilianOversight.

Who thought this thing up anyway? Spring forward, fall back. Or is that fall forward, spring back? The only way we can ever be sure is if we’re early or late for church Sunday morning, or whatever it is you do on Sunday morning.

To be fair, there’s usually someone around smart enough to know the difference, if it isn’t you yourself.

Eagle Feathers #225 – Poet’s Perch

By Bob (Monty) Doherty

In the mid nineteenth century, John Townsend Trowbridge’s name on a story was said to be a near guarantee of success. He was a writer of the first degree, having scribed over sixty volumes and abundant publications, many of them adventure stories for boys. Trowbridge’s papers are housed at the Boston Public Library and Harvard University. His admirers believed that nothing written by his pen failed.

Arrests:
*

James Dooley, of Saugus, March 2, 2:22 p.m., arrested at Dickson St. on charges of possession of ammunition without FID card, possession of a firearm without FID card, and trafficking in firearms.

Jonathan Torres-Sindo, of Everett, March 4, 5:14 a.m., arrested in Boston on warrant charges of carrying a firearm without a license, possession of a firearm within 500 ft. of a dwelling, assault to murder, and possession of ammunition without FID card.

*

Article by Michael T. Steffen
Correspondent for Off the Shelf

Tucked in with a good deal of intimations of immortality, in a suggestively boundless discourse on Eastern philosophy, underscored by a belief in reincarnation, with many references to the teachings of Bapucharya, the actual narrative of Paul Steven Stone’s new novel, SOULJOURNER (ISBN: 978-1-912526-4-9, Fahrenheit Press) by contrast beds the loftiness of the protagonist David Rockwood Worthington’s consciousness in the halting mundanity of his current life circumstances, serving a life sentence in a federal prison, haunted by the memories of three failed marriages – the last by murder, hence the prison.

*

Molly Lynn Watt is a lifelong activist, educator, ukulele player and poet living in Cambridge Cohousing since co-founding it almost 23 years ago with fifty others. She has taught poetry writing at Transition House in Somerville and Harvard Institute for Learning in Retirement, has two volumes of poetry published through Somerville’s Ibbetson Street Press, and has been published widely both for her work in education, travel writing and poems. Her poem Civil Rights Update was selected by the Dallas Public Schools to pair with Dr. King’s I Have a Dream Speech for all ninth graders to study. In 1958 she heard Billie Holiday sing Strange Fruit in a Connecticut nightclub just nine months before Billie died and Molly’s daughter was born. The impression Billie’s singing made on Molly catapulted her into the civil rights movement and in 1963 she was jailed with her young daughters in Tennessee for her work in the movement. Her poem, Billie Holiday Sings Strange Fruit, 1958, appears in her volume of poems telling the story of her journey in civil rights, On Wings of Song, Ibbetson Street Press, 2014. The story continues to be relevant as it parallels some of what our nation is struggling with still today. The struggle for civil rights is called our nation’s longest struggle.

In the First-of-Its-Kind Role, Director will identify and address potential issues and help drive policy around Racial Bias, Equity and Inclusion in Middlesex County

Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan today announced the hiring of Antonia Soares Thompson as the newly created Director of Racial Justice Initiatives in the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. In this role, Soares Thompson will deepen and expand the Office’s commitment to racial justice and the fairness of its prosecutorial work, create and implement trainings and education initiatives and develop policies related to racial equity across communities in Middlesex County.