Final Two Flu Clinics for 2018 Cancelled
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The Somerville Department of Health and Human Services announced today that the city’s allotted supply of flu vaccines for 2018 has been fully exhausted, and therefore the final two planned flu clinics of the year, scheduled for Thursday, November 8, and Thursday, November 20, have been cancelled. HHS does not anticipate receiving additional vaccines, however residents are encouraged to receive the flu vaccine if you have not already done so. Vaccines are generally available by contacting your physician’s office, or at a local pharmacy.

Life in the Ville by Jimmy Del Ponte

Cosmo our Pug

2004-2018

He came to us 14 years ago
As a present for my son
He was going through some surgeries
And a puppy would be fun
When we went to see the litter

Somerville resident Justin Rank was one of many community members who appeared to speak before the Planning Board and Land Use Committee, expressing his views on the proposed new zoning ordinance.

By Jim Clark

On the evening of Tuesday, October 30, the City of Somerville Planning Board and the Board of Aldermen Land Use Committee gathered at East Somerville Community School to hold a joint public hearing on the proposed zoning ordinance.

Members of the community were invited to speak and share their thoughts and concerns over the new zoning regulations that are currently nearing completion.

~Photos by Claudia Ferro
Somerville hosted one of only two parades in the region in honor of Veterans Month in November (the second is the Veterans Day Parade currently planned in Boston for November 11).

“i i on the pi pi” [“eyes” on the pi’s”] won first place in Somerville Math Funds Scrapheap Showdown.

On October 28, 27 high school students on 9 teams gathered in “The Cage” in Cousens Gym at Tufts University to compete in the Somerville Mathematics Fund’s 13th annual Scrapheap Showdown. Instead of just the usual interesting “junk” in the center of the room when the students walked in, there were also piles of foam core. The students were given their challenge: to design and build a catapult on a base of homasote board. The teams worked intensely, designing, building, testing, reinforcing, and adjusting their catapults.

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This past week I was lucky enough to find fresh Mission Figs on sale for $1.98 a pint. Knowing they needed to be used up quickly, I thought I would make up a quick jam that could be used as a topping for hamburgers, oatmeal, crostini, crackers and even grilled cheese sandwiches. The most common figs seen at farm stands in our area are the Mission, available summer through fall, and the Adriatic, referred to as green or white figs, typically available July through August.

Thursday, November 8, 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. at the Fisher Performance Room, Granoff Music Center, Tufts University, 20 Talbot Avenue, Medford, MA.

This workshop is part of a residency celebrating the Liberian Women’s Chorus for Change.

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Decades ago, I remember working on my master’s thesis at Harvard. The thesis was titled Food in the Fiction of Henry Roth. My adviser was a prominent Yiddish literature scholar. At the end of the project she told me, “I thought food as your focus would be trivial, but you proved me wrong.” Food, of course, is now a national obsession, a hotbed for media attention, a subject for scholarship, etc.