— Photos by Claudia Ferro

Joel Light was the special guest last Thursday at the Somerville COA’s Project Outlook’s monthly meeting. Members enjoyed an afternoon singing a medley of popular songs with Joel. Project Outlook is a group of residents with low or no vision who enjoy getting together for camaraderie and socialization. Project Outlook has been active for over 30 years. Join the conversation, they look forward to meeting you. They meet the fourth Thursday of each month. All are welcome. For more information, please contact Claudia Ferro or Molly Pagliuca at 617-625-6600, ext. 2318.

By Erica Voolich

Many teachers have great ideas on how to make their classrooms a better place for their students to learn math. The teachers’ ideas frequently outrun the budget schools have for supplies and their own ability to subsidize their classroom. The Somerville Mathematics Fund tries to fill this need through the generosity of their donors with grants up to $500.

(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 Denise Cosby

My name is Denise Cosby.  I am a resident of Cambridge, MA. On May 18, 2009, I received a call alerting me to get to a hospital because my 21-year-old son Justin Cosby had been shot.  The next morning my son succumbed from his injuries and died. This was the most devastating call I had ever received.  This call was indeed a mother’s worst nightmare. 

Join MassDOT this Wednesday, January 31, at 6:00 p.m. for an in-person public information meeting at the Somerville Central Library for the Maffa Way/Mystic Avenue Bridge Superstructure Replacements Project. The meeting will feature a presentation delivered by project team members after which attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and provide comments.

The city’s Office of Immigrant Affairs’and Somerville Asian Family Network Lunar New Year event took place at East Somerville Community School last Sunday afternoon. — Photos by Joei Chan

By Joei Chan

The City of Somerville’s Office of Immigrant Affairs and Somerville Asian Family Network  hosted its first-ever Lunar New Year event on January 28 at the East Somerville Community School. Open to the general public, the event was well received as around 300 people of all ages came to celebrate.

*

One of the best things about this salad is that everything can be made in advance and assembled right before you’re ready to serve it. Whenever I have leftover bread, I also like to make croutons so I have them on hand pretty much most of the time. See the recipe below for the salad and a link for the crouton recipe.

The quaint old custom of looking to an oversized rodent every February 2 for a generalized weather forecast for the following immediate future is warmly amusing to some, irksome to others.

Groundhog Day is a popular North American tradition observed in the United States and Canada. Its origins are traced to the Pennsylvania Dutch superstition that if a groundhog emerges from its burrow on the given day and sees its shadow due to clear weather, it will go back into to its den and winter weather will continue for six more weeks. If it fails to see its shadow because of cloudiness, then spring will invariably arrive early.

*

Reviewed by Karen Klein

This publication is significant as it is not only the first English language anthology of Uyghur poetry, but also an overview of the history, culture, and poetics of the Uyghur people, which is admirably provided in the introduction by poet, editor, and translator Aziz Isa Elkun. Most English-speaking persons in the West are only aware of the Uyghurs due to media reports of Chinese oppression and persecution of them.