VOL. 117 - NO. 52 BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, DECEMBER 27, 2013 $.30 A COPY ❄ 1 Celebrate First Night Boston ❄20 ❄ 3 ❄ ❄ Happy ❄ New Year from Pamela Donnaruma and the Staff of the Post-Gazette Ice Sculptures are a favorite of Boston’s First Night Celebration and all will be available to see from 2:00 pm to 12:00 am. (Photo courtesy of entertainmentdesigner.com) It’s that time of year again city and Socially Scene is Night announcement: But- 2014 where we find ourselves ask- bringing you a detailed list- ton holders will get a chance ing the question, “What am ing. If you’re looking to see the U.S. Figure Skat- I going to do for New Year’s for more information on ing Team before Sochi with Eve?” Luckily Boston has one events or where to purchase a buy-one-get-one-free deal News Briefs of the most festive celebra- your buttons you can visit for the 2014 Prudential U.S. tions in the country with www.firstnightboston.org. Championships. by Sal Giarratani more activities than you can Also, Boston be sure to hang This January, Boston will imagine. First Night is full onto those buttons as Mayor of events all throughout theMenino made his last First (Continued on Page 8) If You Like Your Medicine, You Can Keep Your Medicine? Remember all those false promises that Presi- Welcome Mayor Walsh, Thank You Mayor Menino dent Obama kept saying. “If you like your health by Sal Giarratani plan, you can keep it.” Ditto for your doctor. Well, Boston’s economy continues now it turns out you may not be able to even keep to grow and prosper. Our your current medicines unless you pay through neighborhoods have always the nose. been his number one prior- Liberals are saying nobody lied, but these ity. You cannot have a statements were certainly misleading us. Now strong city without strong we are being told you can keep your current doc- neighborhoods tor if you are willing to pay more to do so. I thought On Monday, January 6th, this thing was called THE AFFORDABLE CARE new Mayor Martin Walsh ACT? will pick up the mantle of Volunteer Fire Departments the Menino legacy and carry Latest snafu over Obamacare. If someone works the city into its positive on a town’s volunteer fire department and they looking future. Marty Walsh work over 30 hours a week, does these trigger the is ready for the job and is Obamacare mandate? Small town fire chiefs are looking forward to helping asking the IRS for an answer to the question but Boston continue forward to date, the federal government has not responded Mayor Elect Martin Walsh with a positive vision for Mayor Thomas M. Menino to the question. Boston will soon have a Boston and all the better days and Boston will move forward Air Force War on Christmas brand new mayor in a few ahead. Walsh like Menino is together to meet any chal- Recently, it was reported that at one air force days. Five-term Mayor a hands-on mayor who sees lenges to be faced. base, a Nativity set had to be deconstructed after Thomas M. Menino has City Hall in partnership with Boston seems to always someone complained they found it insensitive. retired after serving the all its diverse neighborhoods elect the mayor it needs at What about being insensitive to Christians at citizens of Boston for two with each having a unique any given time in its history. Christmas time? decades. He was a mayor for personality. Mayor James Curley was at (Continued on Page 10) all people. Tireless in his Walsh, like Menino before City Hall when I was born. commitment to taking him, is ready for the chal- Boston into the 21st century, lenges that await him. He (Continued on Page 10) THE POST-GAZETTE SATELLITE OFFICE IS NOW OPEN AT 35 BENNINGTON STREET, EAST BOSTON This office is open on Tuesdays from 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM and Thursdays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PMPM, for the convenience of our East Boston and North Shore clients and contributors Call 617-227-8929 for more information Page 2 POST-GAZETTE, DECEMBER 27, 2013 Stirpe by Prof. Edmund Res Publica Turiello Nostra by David Trumbull A weekly column highlighting some of the more interesting aspects of our ancestry...our lineage...our roots. What’s Your Favorite Christmas Movie? Democrats’ favorite Christmas movie is “Miracle on 34th Street.” LATIN LITERATI Republicans’ favorite Christmas movie is “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Cicero, statesman, man of I first heard that aphorism at a holiday estant and Catholic believers shown in the letters, orator, master of party over a decade ago. It’s been around picture. That alone must drive some liber- composition and the most longer than that and I haven’t been able to als nuts when the film is broadcast over the upright man in all of Roman determine who first said it and when. public airwaves. history. This period also So as we continue to celebrate all twelve But the game can be played the other way. produced the famous Roman days of Christmas (I hope you do, for it Wonderful Life presents negative stereotypes historian named Sallust. The is a pity to limit the joy to one day), let’s of bankers, so much so that when it was commentaries of Julius Cae- examine the statement and the motion released some Hollywood observers (but not, sar on the Gallic Wars pictures. as is erroneously asserted on some liberal are included in this period On the face of it the saying makes sense. websites, the Federal Bureau of Investiga- and lastly there was Varro, After all, what better movie for adults who tions) charged that it was a vehicle for com- the most learned of Roman still believe in Santa Claus than Miracle munist propaganda. The charge is easy to scholars, and most prolific of on 34th Street? Besides (watch out for plot ridicule today, but in the 1940s communist Roman authors. spoiler) the picture’s crisis is resolved when infiltration of the motion picture industry The Augustan age boasts a huge federal government agency — the was a real and serious threat to American of the famous Roman poets, Post Office — comes to the rescue. And with values. Now look at the favorable treatment Vergil, Horace and Ovid, the a divorced mother rearing a child alone, — not to mention free advertising — that great and popular historian, Miracle features a non-traditional family, Miracle gives to two large department stores! Titus Livy and of course surely a plus in the eyes of liberals. Main Street Republicans surely must find Vitruvius, the author of a vol- It’s a Wonderful Life, on the other hand, that refreshing compared to the negative ume called “The Ten Books celebrates the infinite worth of an individual views of business that Hollywood gives us of Architecture.” human being, a worth that far exceeds even today. Horace, as imagined by the biggest financial fortune. In Wonderful The lesson? It’s just a movie! Enjoy them Anton von Werner. The Silver Age offers Tacitus, the most signifi- Life the hero’s crisis is resolved (another both, or whichever ones you choose to watch In many previous col- cant author of the period. plot spoiler) by the spontaneous voluntary this holiday season. Santa’s list does not umns over the years, refer- Juvenal, the most represen- action of family, friends, and local commu- include your political affiliation, but he does ence has been made to tative poet, Martial, famous nity; emphatically not by the government. have a lump of coal for those who would strip scholarly personalities like for his Latin epigrams and The film also shows people in fervent prayer, our public life of all sense of Wonder at the Vergil, Horace, Lucan and Lucan, the epic poet. This not to some generic higher power but to the Love of God and thankfulness for all Miracles Cicero. I thought it would period also produced Pliny God of the Bible as worshipped by the Prot- big and small. be most appropriate at this the Elder, the author who time to list most of these is called the most learned celebrated literary giants of man of the Silver age. Pliny Roman antiquity in some the Younger was also famous Reminder ... kind of chronology and during this period. He wrote then offer a few words of of the eruption of Vesuvius, Callahan Tunnel to Close explanation about each and the persecution of th one. We can start by divid- the Christians. Then there Starting Friday, December 27 ing all of Roman literati into were Seneca, the tutor of The Callahan Tunnel Rehabilitation on the project website, www.mass.gov/ four general categories as Nero, and Quintilian, whose Project will completely rehabilitate the massdot/CallahanTunnelRehab. follows: work gives a complete Callahan Tunnel which carries traffic north- Prepare for increases in your travel time 1. The Early Age or the Age course of instruction in bound from Boston’s North End to Logan to your destination when the tunnel is of Greek Influence, rhetoric. International Airport and Route 1A in East closed and plan your trip accordingly. 2. The Golden Age, which Finally, The Later Empire Boston, beginning on Friday, December 27, To sign up for the project email list or is further subdivided into offers Suetoneus, who is 2013. communicate with the project team, send The Ciceronian and the most famous for his “Lives Printable detour route maps are available an email to [email protected].