The Smithfield Times May 2018

COMPLIMENTARY

MAY 2018

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Photos: Albert Tavakalov/The Smithfield Times and John J. Salois.

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Smithfield Family Fun Day Shines Even Though The Sun Did Not Show Up

By Paul Lonardo

Last spring, the town of Smithfield had an Easter Egg Hunt, held at night with glow in the dark eggs, which was very well received by town residents. Because Easter came so early this year, it was decided that they would do something different to bring the community together and share a good time. This year’s incarnation was called Family Fun Day, and it was held on Tuesday, April 17 at Deerfield Park.

The people on the all-volunteer committee that put the town’s Christmas parade together the previous two winters were called upon to arrange this event, and in the process the Smithfield’s All Lit Up Christmas Parade Committee were renamed

Megan Devlin from Pineledge Stables takes Kaia Wennerstrom for a pony ride.

Photo Albert Tavakalov/The Smithfield Times.

the Smithfield Special Events Committee. It started out small, according to Kate McAdam-Prickett, cochair of the committee who helped make Family Fun Day happen. “We planned to invite a few kid-friendly businesses, set up some tables, and have a raffle, but then it blossomed into this really great event, with pony rides, special performances and a DJ! For our first time having this event, we couldn’t believe how many people turned out and what a success it truly was.”

This family-oriented community event began at 10 a.m., and with the unseasonable cool temperatures we have been seeing during the month of April, the only question seemed to

Photos: Albert Tavakalov/The Smithfield Times and John J. Salois.

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Fun Day

Thank you!

Town Manager Randy Rossi

The Smithfield Times

Smithfield Fire Department and Sparky

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Smithfield Department of Public Works Anderson Winfield Funeral Home

East Smithfield Library Serena & Renee Roy

Stop n Shop

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The Village at Waterman Lake

St. Philips School

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Smithfield Recreation Smithfield Recycling

Rep. Tom Winfield, Chair Smithfield Special Events Committee

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Officer Gary Masterson, Smithfield Police Department

Kate McAdam-Prickett, Co-Chair Smithfield Special Events Committee

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Chief Bob Seltzer

Marie K. Jennison, Excite Dance Team

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Captain Ken Brown

Mastery Martial Arts J-Dapa performers RI Army National Guard Greenville Library Alice Schlemmer

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Buddy the therapy dog

Pure Haven John Salois Chris Benoit Judy Paolucci, Superintendent of Schools and the Smithfield School Department

Sergeant Cory Carpenter Charlie Walsh Karen Armstrong Dorothy Swain Ann Marie Donahue Bob Caine

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BETTER HEARING. BETTER LIFE. be if the weather would cooperate. Despite the Fall-ish feel in the air, no rain dampened the festivities and the event went off as planned. In fact, it far exceeded expectations, according to Kate.

The people may have been wearing jackets and sweatshirts, but they were wearing lots of smiles as well.

The local business community really stepped up, donating everything from the food and beverages to the entertainment and prizes that were given away. Stop & Shop, Dave’s Market and DePetrillo’s Bakery were all very generous. “It was amazing how many people were so giving to us,” Kate said. Many people donated their time. Home Depot, Mastery Martial Arts, Greenville Library as well as some of the local schools, like St. Philip and Bright Start Academy, all got involved.

“We asked them if they wanted to have demonstrations,” Kate said. “It would be a great way to get the word out about their summer programs, even their fall programs, so it was good for

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them as well, in terms of advertising and marketing.”

All of the businesses donated gifts for the raffle, which was very successful, with more than $500 worth of raffle tickets being sold, and many people winning something. The funds raised would go toward the Christmas parade, or another town event.

This year they restricted the business participation to Smithfield businesses only. “It would have been mayhem if we had more,” Kate says. “We had people coming up to us all day, giving us their business cards for next year wanting to be a part of it.” So next year it promises to be even bigger and better.

The day also featured activity stations, touch-a-truck, face painting, pony rides, and music by DJ Jim Gagnon, from Celebrations Entertainment kept people moving. There was a massive rock wall donated by the National Guard that only the bravest of the brave dared to climb. Buddy, the therapy Golden Retriever from Winfield

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Funeral Home was on hand to greet people, as was Sparky the Fire Safety Mascot. There were also performances

by J-DAPA, Johnston Dance And Performing Arts, a theater group in which a lot of Smithfield children participate.

Belle and Mrs. Potts from Beauty and the Beast were in costume, performing, with some of the singing done by students from Smithfield High School.

By all measures, Smithfield Family Fun Day was huge success, with people and businesses anxious to see something like that happen again before next year.

Kate hinted that The Committee, which also consists of: Rep. Tom Winfield Chair of the committee, Chief Robert Seltzer, Captain Ken Brown, Sergeant Cory Carpenter, Ann Marie Donahue, Karen Armstrong, Charlie Walsh, Dorothy Swain, and Bob Caine may have something in the works this summer, but she was not at liberty to disclose any details. So, stayed tuned for more information on that. We will get the word out as soon as we hear.

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INSIDE TOWN GOVERNMENT

Building and Zoning

By Ron Scopelliti

When you visit the Building and Zoning Office at Smithfield Town Hall, one of the key things you’re likely to notice is what isn’t there – filing cabinets overflowing with permit applications, engineering drawings, and all the paperwork commonly associated with such offices. That’s because over the past year, the department has moved to a more streamlined, efficient, and predominately paperless on-line permitting process.

“We’ve gone from busting at the seams, looking for more space, to having empty file cabinets in nine months,” said Building and Zoning official James Cambio.

The new online permitting procedure has been one of the biggest changes since Cambio took over as head of the department last year, having previously served in a similar capacity in East Providence.

The department’s main responsibilities, as outlined on its website, are interpreting and enforcing the state’s building and housing codes, and the town’s zoning ordinances. They also enforce various other state and town regulations, as well as the Americans with Disabilities Act. In addition to Cambio, the department has three other full-time employ-

Smithfield Building and Zoning Official James Cambio displays some of the information available through the new ViewPoint Cloud online permitting system.

Photo by Albert Tavakalov/The Smithfield Times

ees: a building inspector, a clerk, and a zoning/property maintenance inspector.

They also have a part-time electrical inspector, and a part-time plumbing/mechanical inspector.

The small department is currently handling a bit of a building boom in town.

“We have a lot of single-family lots,”Cambio said, pointing out develop-

ments in the areas of Log Rd., Mountaindale Rd., Clark Rd., and Burlingame Rd. “They’re putting up a lot of big houses,” he said. “They’re building $700,000 houses and they’re selling.”

There are also four large condominium developments, as well as projects in the town’s industrial/office corridor on Rte. 7.

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Cambio said that the new online permitting system “makes everybody’s lives a lot easier,” when it comes to handling the multitude of permits and associated documents that go along with such development.

The ViewPoint Cloud system, which was instituted as part of a statewide initiative, is now the only way for homeowners and contractors to apply for Building Permits, Demolition Permits, Electrical Permits, Mechanical Permits, Moving Permits, and Plumbing Permits.

“It’s a very user-friendly system,” Cambio said. He noted that builders are particularly fond of it, because they no longer have to travel to the office to complete paperwork, but can do it from their homes or offices. And, since it’s a statewide system, when contractors create an account for one town, it’s valid throughout the state.

It also streamlines the entire permitting and review process by integrating other town departments.

“When a permit application is received,” Cambio noted, “it automatically goes to fire and building, so the initial reviews can be done simultaneously.” Engineering and zoning are also integrated into the system, so instead of documents being passed back and forth between departments, they can now be reviewed and approved simultaneously in the ViewPoint Cloud system. Cambio said that all actions taken on the documents are date-stamped and time-stamped online.

“It’s easy to track,” he said of the process. “If there’s a delay, it’s easy to find out where and why.”

For people who are intimidated by the thought of applying online, the Building and Zoning Office maintains a kiosk, where they can guide people through the process.

“If people don’t feel comfortable doing it, they come here and we walk them through it,” Cambio said.

While he noted that Smithfield residents are generally well-educated and knowledgeable about the town’s building and zoning policies, he’s hoping to improve access to information on the web site, which already has an extensive FAQ and a number of downloadable documents. And the door is always open for people to come in and ask questions.

“We welcome people to come in with any building and zoning issues,” he said. “That’s really what we’re here for - to give people the right answers and make sure things are done correctly.”

“I think people have the wrong idea with the building department sometimes,” Cambio said. “There’s a building code; and that code is to protect people - it’s not to make people’s lives more difficult. And that’s why we insist that people follow the code. It’s in their best interest to see that things are done the way they’re supposed to be.”

The Building and Zoning Office is located on the lower level of Town Hall. For more information, call 233-1039, or visit www.smithfieldri.com/building-zoning.

To access the ViewPoint Cloud online permitting system, visit smithfieldri.viewpointcloud.com.

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Inside the Brown Bag

By Peg Brown

The First of May…

May Day — not to be confused with the internationally used distress signal, “mayday.”

Who knew? Remember that I did not grow up in New England, and therefore had a childhood devoid of May breakfasts and May Day baskets of treats shared with family, friends and neighbors. And I was not raised in the Catholic faith, so I never had the opportunity to crown a statue of the Virgin Mary with a wreath of flowers or celebrate the day as a feast day for the Catholic patron saint of workers, St. Joseph.

It wasn’t until I went to college in Southern Pennsylvania, that I met the festive side of May Day with all its pageantry.

Full disclosure—it was a liberal arts, all-woman’s college. Perhaps the highlight of the spring each year was the election of the Campus May Queen and her court, all of whom in the English tradition would be crowned with flowers and proceed to do the traditional May Day dance, complete with multicol-

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ored ribbons streaming from the hastily constructed may pole in the center of campus.

I’d had very little experience in electing queens. I do remember coming home from kindergarten, finding Mother in the kitchen ironing while she listened to a radio broadcast of the crowning of the very young Queen Elizabeth II. I also, of course, witnessed, albeit from afar, the crowning each year of the homecoming king and queen and the king and queen of the spring proms.

However, the selection and the crowning of the May Queen and her court made these early highly envious selections pale by comparison. This process also, I only witnessed from afar.

There were certain criteria for these honors that unfortunately, like those required for homecoming and prom queen, I did not possess. In college the criteria expanded from just having a high level of attractiveness and popularity. These young women of the court almost always included the leadership of the student body—those who ran student government, were the best athletes, sat on the judicial committee, starred in our theatre and dance productions, and of course, were good students. Except for occasional A’s and high B’s, I met none of these requirements. I never did get to wear those beautiful white gowns, bend over to receive my wreath of daisies, or dance around the may pole. I’ll admit I would have loved to be the center of all that pomp and ceremony—just once.

Attending graduate school in Rhode Island introduced me to the traditions of May Breakfasts (most often hosted by enterprising churches and non-profit organizations), and the traditional May baskets that were almost always made of discarded margarine cups, creatively disguised with crepe paper, containing fudge, cookies, and sometimes flowers.

Nowhere in this rather disjointed education in the traditions of May Day did I have a glimpse of the roots and historical significance of these celebrations. Records of events dating back to Roman times and in countries all over the world are evidence that May 1, or early spring, included celebrations of the awaking of the earth and a celebration of fertility. Originally associated with religious themes, as Europe became more Christianized, these evolved into more secular forms of celebration.

Perhaps many of us forget, or never knew, the very serious

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side of May Day. I do vaguely remember from the early 1950s watching the small black and white screen of my grandparent’s television as tiny images of thousands of tanks, weapons and soldiers paraded through Red Square in Russia on May 1 in a demonstration of the power of the Soviet Union, its communist philosophy, and its grounding in the words of Marx and Engels, “Workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains!” All of which I failed to understand as a preteen.

The real surprise to those of us who are not familiar with the labor movement in the United States would be that the May Day labor tradition is not rooted in the Soviet Union, but in 1886 in Chicago during what is known as the Haymarket affair.

As socialist organizations began to develop in many of our major cities, often attracting anarchists into the fold, agitation to address poor working conditions in factories, 12 to 16 hour workdays, and low wages, peaked. Large numbers of workers in Chicago led a crusade to implement an 8-hour workday.

The crusade spread rapidly across the country. It is reported that on May 1, 1886, “more than 300,000 workers in 13,000 businesses walked off their jobs on the first May Day celebration in history.” Worried that the walkout would turn as violent as a previous railroad workers strike that saw police and soldiers kill hundreds of striking workers, Pinkerton guards and police braced for the worst. For over six months, confrontations with striking workers occurred in the streets, resulting in several deaths and many injuries.

Following a call for a public meeting to confront the issue of police brutality, chaos erupted in Haymarket Square. Language became inflammatory, shots were fired, and a bomb was thrown, resulting in several fatalities on both sides. Anarchists were arrested, trials labelled as mockeries of justice took place, individuals were hung, and one prisoner committed suicide.

“In 1889, the International Socialist Conference declared that, in commemoration of the Haymarket affair, May 1 would be an international holiday for labor…” now celebrated in almost 70 countries around the world. However, it should be noted that during the Eisenhower-McCarthy red scare decade of the 1950’s, in an effort to distance the US from what was perceived as the Communist Threat, the president declared May 1, “Loyalty Day”—“a special day for the reaffirmation of loyalty to the United States of America and for the recognition of the heritage of American freedom.”

So, on this May 1, as you stand in line for eggs, bacon and pancakes at your favorite May Day breakfast venue and fill that May basket for your neighbor, take a moment to reflect on the long history and diverse and multiple origins of this special day.

Note: In case anyone needs a May Queen, I still have my white wedding gown from my first marriage tucked away under the bed. I’ll be waiting for an invitation!

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May 2018

The Power of a Mother’s Love

By John J. Tassoni, Jr.

A mother’s love for her children is one of the strongest forces in the universe.

A mother’s love is also a reflector of hope, happiness, legacy and tradition.

I have realized this more in the past few weeks as I had set about the task of burying my mother. As I began to sift through photos, documents, and mementos, it became increasingly clear just how much she did for our family.

Having a father that worked seven days and late hours meant that my mother took on the majority of responsibilities in caring for four children. She was the one who took us all to school activities and sporting events. She took care of us, 24/7, especially me, because I was such a sickly child.

Like many mothers, mine was the rock of our family. She kept us in line and kept us together. She taught us respect, good manners, to be kind to others, and to help those in need. I believe I became a public servant because of her example. We weren’t a family of means, but we were a family of great wealth in love.

She loved Sunday dinners when the entire family would gather. She poured her heart into those meals because we were all there with her.

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E is for her Eyes with love light shining, R means Right and Right she’ll always be.

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AL BRUNO’S SMITHFIELD REMEMBERED

Georgiaville’s roller skating rink

By Laurence J. Sasso, Jr.

This is the fourteenth article in an occasional series about Smithfield locations that have either been forgotten by time or are no longer remembered for what they once represented. The locations are selected from a list compiled by former Smithfield Building Official Al Bruno. A profile of Mr. Bruno, now 86, was originally featured in the January, 2017 edition of The Smithfield Times. The first installment of this series ran in February 2017.

“As I teenager I loved to dance, but I couldn’t roller skate 10 feet,” Al Bruno declares as he recalls the roller rink that once drew hundreds of patrons to the village of Georgiaville.

“I tried it out one night when a neighbor lent me a quarter to rent a pair of skates. I put them on, went about 10 feet, and landed on you know what. That was the end of my skating career.”

Fortunately for the succession of rink owners/managers there were plenty of other patrons to support their endeavors.

Established by “Colonel” Walsh as a dance hall located near the beach on the shore of Georgiaville Pond, the business relocated to 23 Farnum Pike after a fire in the 1930s. According to Mr. Bruno’s best recollection, the new facility was about 200 feet long and 125 feet wide and had a “beautiful wood floor to skate and dance on.” Henry Walsh, the Colonel’s son, managed it. Apparently, for a while, at least, the building hosted both dancing and roller skating.

Another life-long town resident, Shirley Lacroix, 89, told The Smithfield Times that as a youth her late husband Edward was a pin setter in a bowling alley that also occupied the rear

of the building.

“They played great music to skate or dance to, and there was plenty of room to enjoy yourself,” Al Bruno recalls of the spot, which through the years went successively by the names Walsh’s, Norman Barber’s Roller Rink, and John Rose’s Skateland.

A popular recreation destination in the heyday of roller rinks, the place offered lessons, hosted competitions, and was home to a skating club as recently as 1971. Youth groups in town held skating parties there, and couples often headed to the floor to enjoy a date.

The fate of this particular business seemed to be entwined with fire. In the early 1970s the rink was consumed by a ferocious blaze. Donald Brown, deputy chief of the Georgiaville Volunteer Fire Company at the time, recalls it as a rather spectacular conflagration during which his brother Wayne, not long a member of the company yet, was fighting the fire from the roof when it fell in. He safely escaped the collapse but recalls its dramatic impact to this day.

The site is now occupied by an apartment building shown in the photo above.

Current Photo by Albert Tavakalov/The Smithfield Times. Old photo courtesy of the website Forgotten Rinks of the Past. Additional sources: Shirley Lacroix and Donald Brown.

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New Basketball Coach Sees Bright Future For Bryant University Hoopsters

By Paul Lonardo

Jared Grasso was recently named the new head coach of the Bryant University men’s basketball team, replacing Tim O’Shea, who had been at the helm since 2018. Grasso, 37, becomes the eighth head coach in Bryant program history, and the second at the Division I level. He arrives with sixteen years of experience coaching Division I basketball.

Grasso says he knows the area well and has friends here.

Also, having been involved in the Atlantic 10 Conference, he has played against URI and was familiar with the NEC, so he knew all about the basketball program at Bryant. “Seeing some of the success that the other athletic programs have had here is what makes it such an exciting opportunity for me,” Grasso says.

Grasso has a deep, abiding passion for the game of basketball, and he will be bringing his energy, enthusiasm and experience to build the Bryant basketball program into a tradition of winning and competing at the NCAA level.

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tant coach at Iona College in New Rochelle, New York, where he helped the Gaels advance to the MAAC Championship Final seven times, including a conference-record six straight appearances, and winning the MAAC Tournament Championship in each of the last three seasons.

He is known for his Jared Grasso, Head Coach, Bryant University Men’s Basketball Team high-level recruiting everywhere he’s coached, and for a characteristic ability to develop strong relationships with each student-athlete, the result of which makes his players the best they can be both on the court and in the classroom.

Right now, Grasso says he is focused on building relationships with the players he inherited, taking the time to get to know them, but also having them get to know him and what makes him tick, so that they understand the values that he wants to build the program around.

“Recruiting is the life-blood of any program,” Grasso says.

“So, myself and my staff, as we put it together, will be hitting the road looking to upgrade our talent level to put ourselves into position to compete for championships here.”

As Iona’s recruiting coordinator, Grasso has been instrumental in the recruiting and coaching of a group that includes eleven MAAC first-team all-conference selections, three MAAC Player of the Year honorees, and one MAAC Rookie of the Year. Iona has seen twenty-two players play professionally over the last seven seasons between the NBA, NBA G-League and international opportunities. The Gaels are the only NCAA Division I program to send a player to the prestigious Portsmouth Invitational Tournament for five straight seasons.

Grasso is also currently working on putting together his coaching staff, bringing in people who he knows and trusts and who share the same vision he does—building a perennial power in the NEC. Before coaching Iona, Grasso spent four seasons on the staff at Fordham, including a stint as interim head coach. Prior to

May 2018

that, he spent the 2005-2006 year as assistant coach at his alma mater, Quinnipiac, where as a player he enjoyed a stellar four-year career as a starting guard and was team captain his junior and senior years. Grasso currently ranks 22nd on the Bobcats’ all-time scoring list with 1,134 career points. He is fifth on the all-time list in assists with 404 and ranks fourth all-time in three-point field goals with 216. He graduated from Quinnipiac with a degree in Mass Communications in May 2002 and was elected to the Quinnipiac Athletics Hall of Fame in 2014.

An exceptional player himself, Grasso had aspirations to continue playing basketball after college. “My senior year, my plan was to play professionally overseas,” he says. “I was in the process of getting dual citizenship in Italy when I hurt my back. I ended up getting back surgery, and once that happened I decided to go the coaching route as soon as I could.”

Grasso’s father was a coach, so he had that in his blood. He ended up getting a graduate assistant spot with Hofstra University, where he began his coaching career in 2002, before joining the staff at Hartford the following year, where he stayed until 2005.

It’s been quite a journey for Grasso, who is a native of Syosset, New York and a graduate of St. Anthony’s High School in South Huntington, where he earned honorable mention All-American honors as a senior by averaging 23 points, seven

rebounds and eight assists per game. He is a husband and a father. He and his wife, Andrea, have an infant son, and they will be welcoming a new baby into the family in September, just in time for the start of the basketball season. He currently resides on Long Island, and he will be going back and forth from here to New York over the summer. Once the new baby arrives, the plan is for his family to join him here in October and have the family move to New England completely.

Coach Grasso will be very busy over the next six months leading up to the season, and we wish him, his family and the Bulldogs a lot of success this year and in the future.

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And furthermore

Time to drop it

By Laurence J. Sasso, Jr. It’s time to drop some things. They’ve had their moment.

• For example, it’s clearly well past time to drop “drop the mic.” Originally, introduced by comedians and singers as a dramatic and startling way to punctuate the end of a performance, it has now migrated to commercials promoting everything from cell phones to furniture. Where once it might have been amusing, now it is plain stupid and worse than that, totally mundane. Drop it!

• Also, let’s drop the pants. Wait, let’s re-phrase that. It’s time to end the slim jeans/pants thing, especially with brown shoes. Aren’t we about one step away from Li’l Abner yellow shoes territory? (If you don’t understand the reference Li’l Abner was a popular comic strip set in a mythical hillbilly hamlet called Dogpatch. Created by Al Capp, the strip ended in 1977 after 43 years of entertaining and alienating (some) readers. The central character, Li’l Abner Yokum, wore high top yellow shoes.) Also, those extra tight legged pants can’t be easy to get on and off, and they don’t look good on more than a few of us.

• Next, there’s insane pancake toppings. Combinations of gunk that would be difficult to tolerate on an ice cream sundae are touted as the latest greatest thing to hit the surface of PANCAKES and sometimes waffles. How little do you have to like the delicate taste of a well-made pan or griddle cake to obliterate it with fruits and candies and syrups and sprinkles and who knows what else? Good old maple syrup, and not too much of that, is just fine. Drop the slop.

• In a much more serious vein, it is long, long, long past the time to discount and do away with the term “fake news”

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when it is used in reference to legitimate news outlets which carefully edit, vet, and fact check their stories. It is a disservice to the very essence of democracy. Drop the propaganda vernacular!

• Back to the lighter side. Okay, strip away the legends, the loyalties, and the traditions and professional sports is really just a business. Even more disturbing to some of us, it’s the entertainment business, which may account in part for some of the elaborate pantomime celebration scenarios that football and baseball players have developed (like the act the Red Sox outfielders perform at the end of games). Not to be a wet blanket or stuffed shirt, but this stuff used to be considered “hot-dogging” and was verboten by managers and coaches. Come the days of huge contracts and players unions and things changed (we won’t even get into taking a knee here). Rob Gronkowski, Gronk of The New England Patriots, spiking the ball after a touchdown, seems to have patented just about the perfect way to express elation. It’s swift, it’s emphatic, and, frankly, it’s kind of awesome. Drop the silent movie scenes and such!

• It is probably harder to stay abreast of language changes today than it ever has been. Cell phone apps and programs such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook have all widened the playing field when it comes to inventing new words and phrases. Contexts for inventing linguistic forms and creating new words have multiplied. However, there are certain concepts that you instinctively know are better off being discarded the moment they appear. So, when anyone older than a middle schooler says you are cray cray, (meaning crazy) tell them nay nay, it is they they who are coo-coo. _______________________________________________ On Monday May 28, Balfour-Cole Post 64 American Legion and the Smithfield Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 2929 will host the annual town observance of Memorial Day. It begins at 10:30 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial in Deerfield Park. The program is offered in remembrance of those who served and made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation in all wars. It isn’t necessary to drop your plans to celebrate the beginning of the warm weather months with a barbecue or a picnic. Just push them back long enough to give some time to honor those who gave all the time they had to give.

May 2018

‘Something Rotten’ aims to capture the sweet smell of success

Novel concept promises laughs and much japery May 15 – 20 at PPAC

By Laurence J. Sasso, Jr. Ever wonder how the idea of musical theater came into being? Well, even though the show Something Rotten purports to explain the whole thing, you won’t find out the truth from watching it. However, you will see what it might have been like.

This tongue in cheek production, which is set in 1595, aims to demonstrate how a pair of William Shakespeare’s rivals try to steal a march on the bard by adopting the idea of offering the world’s first musical.

A soothsayer reveals that the future of theater will be rife with such productions. The concept comes as a revolutionary idea to the Elizabethans. Struck by the novelty of it, Nick and Nigel Bottom, two brothers who run a theater in competition with Shakespeare, set out to steal his audience with this new invention and crowd old Will off the stage.

The spoof that ensues takes full advantage of the chance to send up the genius of Shakespeare at the same time it borrows characters to parody from his most famous works as well as other familiar modern era productions, and shamelessly mocks the masterpieces which are at the heart of his canon.

An original musical comedy with a book by John O’Farrell and Karey Kirkpatrick and music and lyrics by Karey and Wayne Kirkpatrick Something Rotten opened in 2015 on Broadway and received 10 Tony nominations, with Christian Borle, the actor playing Shakespeare, ironically earning the one award they received.

Something Rotten began touring in January 2017 in Boston and will end its road run at the Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) this month where it is on stage May 15 to 20.

Maggie Lakis has been with the show for the entire tour.

She plays Bea, wife to Nick Bottom. Her real life husband, Rob McClure, portrays Nick.

In the time-honored practice of Shakespearean characters Bea gets to adopt disguises of both genders as she goes about trying to advance Nick and his brother’s cause, despite disagreeing with Nick’s methods.

“It’s a real fun role. I get to play her playing other roles,” she declares. “It’s a great role, a dream role.”

A native of the Philadelphia area, Lakis went to Temple University, leaving “just shy of graduation” because she was getting regular work in theater. She first toured ten years ago with the show Avenue Q, a piece that employs three human characters and 11 puppets. Rob McClure was also part of the tour. She has

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done a little bit of television work, appearing in an episode of Boardwalk Empire, but the bulk of her experience has been on stage.

Her appearance at PPAC marks her first visit to Providence, and she says she has been looking forward to it.

Ms. Lakis notes that she feels privileged to be an actor. “You get to tell a new story and make people laugh every night,” she comments, adding “you get to play make believe for a living.

What could be better than that?”

For more information about Something Rotten and to order tickets call PPAC at 401-421-2787.

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At Trinity Rep – ‘Native Gardens’ will grow on you Review by Laurence J. Sasso, Jr. Who would think that a suburban conflict between philosophies of gardening would become heated enough to resemble the 19th century enmity between open range cattle ranchers and fence-loving sod-busters? Yet, that is a fair approximation of what happens in the Karen Zacarias play Native Gardens.

Now running at Trinity Repertory Company through May 6, the comedy, which sometimes also pierces like a horse-crippler cactus, is on stage in the Sarah and Joseph Dowling, Jr. performance space, downstairs at the Lederer Theater Center, 201 Washington, Street, Providence. Christie Vela directs.

On an impressive set, which represents the backyards of a pair of adjacent, stately 1908 era vintage homes in Washington, D.C. the lifestyles and attitudes of two different generations with decidedly different outlooks collide.

The scene includes a huge oak tree and lush looking ornamental plants, as well as weedy natural outgrowths, and reflects the depth to which modern sensibilities are shaped by deeply held cultural points of view.

The polarities that emerge are explored with razor sharp comic salvos. However, the exchanges are often infused with large veins of darker political and ethnic presumption too.

On the surface the feud which erupts between new neighbors Pablo and Tania Del Valle and Frank and Virginia Butley is about their conflicting attitudes regarding horticulture. In fact, though, it is more about their inherent preconceptions and values.

Frank, a retired, government bureaucrat and Tania, a

Ph.D. candidate and mother to be, are both passionate about gardening, but they approach it from very dissimilar perspectives.

He is a traditional gardener, unconcerned about using pesticides, willing to import any decorative plants that will enhance his opportunity to take first place in the annual area horticultural organization’s best garden contest. (He regularly wins only an honorable mention.) She is a fierce advocate of indigenous planting (i.e. native species), and organic methods of cultivation and pest control.

For her the best garden is one in which nature dictates the components and governs their development. Frank prefers to assemble the most impressive specimens he can find.

Zacarias, the playwright, makes ingeniously clever and effective use of the metaphors present in these contrasting beliefs about gardening to reveal how age, heritage, and inherited biases shape her characters’ world views.

Pablo, born in Chile, is a rising star in a prestigious Washington law firm. His wife Tania, a native of New Mexico, is of Mexican heritage. Frank is a WASP. Virginia, a pioneering female aeronautical engineer, is of Polish descent.

The younger Dell Valles are liberal, multi-cultural, and socially conscious. The Butleys, older and more conventional, are conservative, more traditional, and mostly obtuse about ethnicity. Virginia, a trail-blazing woman in a historically male profession is an interesting mix of feminist flag bearer and skeptic. “We needed to be twice as good to get half as far

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[as the men]” she declares in one barbed exchange with Tania.

Yet, her default attitudes reflect the paradoxical view that having attained hard-earned status in the inherited system she is loath to see it dismantled.

Despite their antipathies, the couples start off well enough.

Tania is pregnant. Frank and Virginia are friendly and solicitous. Pablo is pre-occupied with work. Driven to become a partner in the law practice, he is presented with the opportunity to score some big points with the senior partner after he impulsively invites the whole staff to come to the house for a barbecue. That the lead partner agrees to attend is a major coup.

Frank, who is absently absorbed in his plans to impress the judges with his garden, is shocked by Tania’s virulent opinions about his prize hydrangeas and the methods he uses to cultivate and protect them from pests. They fight angrily.

When Tania and Pablo accidentally discover that a substantial portion of Frank and Virginia’s garden is actually on their side of the property line, it raises the stakes of the dispute into the red zone. Pablo wants to take possession of the land and spiff up the boundary with a new fence which will obliterate most of Frank’s plants. Virginia asks him to hold off until after the judging, but that would conflict with the barbecue and leave the Dell Vallees’ yard looking unkempt when his law firm associates come to the party. The dispute escalates to the boil over point, but nature intervenes when Tania’s baby arrives.

If this description makes Native Gardens sound more savage than funny, blame this writer for misstating the emphasis. The humor is as incisive and effective as the sarcasm and attacks. The playwright has just as deft and sure-handed a skill for the punch line as she does for the punch in the nose.

Anyway, in a brief coda everyone makes nice, the arrival of the child having provided a new perspective centered on the future.

As Tania, Maria Gabriela Rosado Gonzalez, a second year student in the Brown/Trinity Rep MFA program, is at her best in the passionate scenes. Her comic timing is good too.

Only in her delivery of the necessary connective exposition might she seem a bit less pat.

Daniel Duque-Estrada is fine as Pablo, earnestly demonstrating his ambition while keeping his innate impulse toward decency in sight. He is both funny and convincing.

A veteran of more than 125 productions, Trinity treasure Tim Crowe is sublime in the role of Frank. He hits every note and embellishes them all with grace, wit, and nuance. There aren’t enough good adjectives to fully praise his talent.

Likewise, Anne Scurria, with more than 100 productions to her credit, acquits herself wonderfully as Virginia. Her finely honed skills never fail her as she makes her part resonate at every level.

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19

Remembering Our Police

By Jim Ignasher

Pikeville, Kentucky, with a population just under 7,000, is a small rural community in the eastern part of the state. On March 13, 2018, Pikeville police officer Scotty Hamilton and a state trooper were investigating a suspicious automobile parked on a quiet road. After questioning the men inside the car, Hamilton went to check on a nearby home while the trooper stayed with the vehicle’s occupants. Shortly afterward a series of shots rang out, and backup officers found Patrolman Hamilton dead with a gunshot wound to his head.

Officer Hamilton was a 12-year veteran of the department, and was deeply mourned by the community he served. Some may be surprised to learn that he was the 30th American law enforcement officer to die in the line of duty since January 1st of this year. Next May, his name, along with others, will be added to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. May is the month we traditionally honor our fallen military veterans, but it’s also the month America recognizes its law enforcement officers. This seems appropriate, as many officers are also military veterans.

The idea of a specific month for honoring police officers

dates to 1962 when President Kennedy proclaimed May 15th as “Peace Officers Memorial Day”, a day to honor fallen law enforcement officers. The week of May 15th has since come to be known as National Police Week.

Police work has always been difficult and dangerous. We tend to think that officers working in major metropolitan areas face greater risk, and perhaps they do, but history has shown that officers have also died while policing small rural jurisdictions.

In 1972 a movement was begun to erect a national memorial to honor all law enforcement officers who have given their lives in the performance of their duty. The early 1970s was a tumultuous time in the history of American law enforcement as leftist radical groups began to carry out pre-meditated assignations of police officers by luring them into ambushes. However, it took twelve more years before legislation authorizing the memorial was enacted, and then the memorial wasn’t completed until 1991.

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The memorial is primarily composed of granite, carved into which are the names of more than 21,000 federal, state, tribal, railroad, college and university, and local law enforcement officers who’ve died in the line of duty since our nation’s founding.

Not all officers have died by gunfire. So far this year, (2018), New York State Trooper Michael J. Anson, and FBI Special Agent Melissa S. Morrow, have succumbed to long-term 9-11 related illnesses. (The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center is still claiming lives.)

On January 5, 2018, Lieutenant Christopher Robateau of the Jersey City Police was killed when he was struck by a passing car at an accident scene.

On February 26, Sergeant Mark J. Baserman of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections died after being attacked by an inmate.

On March 2, Hickman, Kentucky, police officer, Rodney Scott Smith, drowned when his patrol car was caught in a flash flood.

Edgecomb County, North Carolina, Deputy Sheriff David Lee’Sean Manning was killed in a vehicle pursuit on March 11.

The following day Reserve Officer Christopher Michael Lawton of the Zachary, Louisiana, police, was deliberately run over by a car driven by a man wanted on felony warrant.

On March 21, Officer Andres Laza-Caraballo, of the Juncos Municipal Police, Puerto Rico, was killed when, while off duty, he intervened to stop a felony assault in progress.

Before the creation of the national memorial, it’s doubtful that anyone realized just how many officers in America had made the ultimate sacrifice, for record keeping on such incidents was virtually non-existent. Even as information was being gathered, many police departments didn’t know about their own fallen officers; partly because the institutional memory of most police organizations only went back as far as what its senior officers could remember, and partly because some incidents occurred decades before those senior officers were born.

Even today, historians are discovering old newspaper articles relating to line-of-duty-deaths that some police departments are unaware of. The names of these officers are also added to the memorial Some recent discoveries include Gila County Arizona Deputy Sheriff John Franks, who was shot on April 9, 1918 while attempting to arrest a man for felonious assault.

On July 11, 1920, Patrolman Russell S. Wooten of Hazard, Kentucky, suffered a fatal head injury while attempting an arrest.

On April 22, 1944, Chief of Police Virgil Smith, of the Beattyville, Kentucky, Police, was killed by a prisoner he was guarding.

And on October 20, 1949, Navaho Tribal Police officer Hoska Thompson succumbed to exposure while serving civil papers in the area of Sawmill, Arizona.

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There will no doubt be more such discoveries as time goes on.

To date, there are fifty Rhode Island law enforcement officers who have died in the line of duty. Two with a Smithfield connection include Smithfield Police Sergeant Norman G. Vezina, who drowned on December 10, 1968, while attempting to rescue a small child who’d fallen through the ice on the Lower Sprague Reservoir, and Providence Sergeant Steven M. Shaw of Greenville, who was shot while searching for a robbery suspect in a house on Benedict Street.

In case one is interested, the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial has a website, www.nleomf.org/memorial/.

There is also a website called “Officer Down Memorial Page”, www.odmp.org, which keeps a daily running count of all fallen officers from across the nation.

This year, as in previous years, thousands will gather for the candlelight vigil at the National Law Enforcement Officer’s Memorial in Washington, D.C., where the names of the recently fallen will be read. As of this writing, thirty-six American law enforcement officers have died in the line of duty so far this year. By the time this goes to press that number will have risen, and if recent yearly statistics are any indication, the total for 2018 will climb to over one-hundred! *This article was submitted prior to Yarmouth Police Officer Sean Gannon was killed in the line of duty.

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Daniella DiPaola brings a human touch to robotics SHS alumna introduces McCabe students to ‘Jibo’

By Ron Scopelliti Anna McCabe Elementary School students welcomed an unusual quintet of visitors on Tuesday, April 3, when Smithfield High School graduate Daniella DiPaola introduced grades 3 through 5 to four Jibo robots.

Jibo, the Boston company that Daniella has been involved with for three years, bills its namesake product as “the first social robot for the home” – a robot for consumers that provides companionship as well as assistance.

Daniella, who has worked full-time with Jibo for nearly two years, first got involved with the company while earning a BS in engineering psychology at Tufts University.

“From a pretty young age I was really interested in math and science,” she says, “and I knew I wanted to pursue that once I got to college.” Her primary interest was the way people interact with technology, and the engineering psychology program proved to be “the perfect blend” combining how technology is created with how people think, feel, and work with it.

She began working with Jibo as part of a capstone project at Tufts, and became a fulltime employee after gradu-

22

ating. The social robot seems to fit perfectly with the interests that led Daniella to her major.

“Jibo’s enabling us to interact with technology in a more personal way,” she says. “You feel like you’re talking to a ‘someone,’ rather than a ‘something.’” This is reflected in the way that, throughout her interview with The Smithfield Times, Daniella referred to Jibo as “he,” and never as “it.”

While Jibo can perform many of the same functions of devices like Amazon’s Echo and its Alexa app, Daniella says

that he goes far beyond that. Though he is meant to live in a consumer’s home and help with daily tasks, Jibo’s role in the home is more like that of a companion than an appliance.

She explains: “He dances; he tells jokes; he’ll give you a fun fact every day.

So he’s kind of a buddy in your home.”

Jibo’s cameras, voice recognition technology, and sensors give him an awareness of his environment, and allow him to react to it.

“So imagine you’re walking into your kitchen,” Daniella says. “Jibo recognizes your face, and then he’s able to proactively greet you, and maybe offer you a fun fact or the weather.”

In her position as a “user experience researcher” at Jibo, Daniella collects and analyzes a combination of qualitative and quantitative data, using methods that include interviews, observation, and surveys, to understand the relationship between users and their Jibos.

“For me,” she says, “I’m researching what it’s like to have robots in somebody’s home for 30 days. And this is the first time that anyone’s really ever studied that.”

While Jibo is currently considered a consumer product, Daniella says that he has been tested out in classrooms, and she visits schools regularly.

Her visit to McCabe came about after getting together for coffee with McCabe fifth-grade teacher Sandra Lenore and Smithfield High School Spanish teacher Lora Calise, both of whom she has remained in touch with since a Smithfield High trip to Spain during her senior year.

After a general presentation to the third, fourth, and fifth grade classes, Daniella gave fifth-graders a chance to interact more closely with Jibo, and

May 2018

Ed Duffy share their thoughts on how Jibo could contribute to their lives both at home and at school.

“They had a lot of really good questions,” she says, “and they were brainstorming a lot of ideas about how they could see Jibo interacting in their household and their classroom.”

These included having Jibo take attendance, aid teachers in instruction, act as a student’s partner in a project, and help with homework.

Daniella sees Jibo as a way to introduce math, science, and technology to students who may not be engaged by more traditional gateways into the subjects.

“Some pieces of educational technology are geared towards one type of person,” she says. She can see students being drawn by Jibo’s social interface to “create a play back and forth with Jibo, or create a stand-up comedy show with Jibo as a sidekick.”

“Being able to add Jibo into those contexts,” she says, “opens up coding and programming to a whole different type of person.”

While Daniella didn’t do any programming during her time in the Smithfield schools, she credits her experiences in high school with helping foster her interest in math and science.

“The high school’s science department was awesome, and they offered so many different classes,” she says. “All my science teachers were amazing.”

She also notes the influence that SHS math teacher Adelio Cabral had.

“I remember being really excited about math and science,” she says, “and Mr. Cabral kind of matched that enthusiasm.”

She says the fact that he was so enthusiastic about the subjects, and so well-liked by other students helped her feel comfortable with her love of math and science.

She found that level of enthusiasm to be alive and well among her McCabe School audience, noting that after her presentation, there were 20 to 30 students lined up to ask questions.

“I thought that was awesome,” she says. “They seemed to be really engaged.”

Asked what advice she would offer to students who would like to follow in her footsteps, Danielle says she’s particularly interested in technologies that let children create and learn about math and science in the physical world around them.

“I would just say, ‘make stuff,’” she says, pointing to powerful-but-accessible creative resources like Roblox, Minecraft, and Scratch.

“I like things like Arduino kits, 3-D printing, and modeling,” she says. “LittleBits is a big one as well. And even Legos - Lego Mindstorms and NXTs are great.

“The more you make things, the more you learn, and the more you know what you like or don’t like.”

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23

A New Season of Softball Begins in Smithfield

By Paul Lonardo The Smithfield Girls’ Softball League (SGSL) is celebrating its 47th season of action, and this year it will be extra special because it will mark the first time that the town’s softball and baseball leagues will be having their opening days together, sharing the same festivities and fields.

Although the leagues have already begun playing regular season games, Opening Day is an annual rite of passage that officially marks the start of the new season. This year it took place on April 28 at Whipple Field at noon. The event was kicked off by a parade beginning at 10:30 a.m. Boys and girls from both leagues participated, about 500 players collectively. They started from St. Michael’s Church on Farnum Pike, which served as the staging area. From there, the parade proceeded along St. Michael’s Way, down Whipple Avenue to Fenwood Avenue, and then into the Whipple Field Complex, where the ceremony took place. There was a traditional salutation, and speakers addressing the players, parents, coach-

es and other supporters. Players were introduced, an Honor Guard was present, the National Anthem was sung, and the First Ball was thrown out.

There was a full slate of games on the schedule in both leagues, which began immediately after the ceremony. Typically, the Smithfield Girls’ Softball League plays all their games at Whipple Field, while the boys have a select number of fields around the town where they play. However, on this day, four fields at the Whipple Field Complex were used simultaneously by the boys and the girls, and they played right through until dusk. Then, around 7 p.m., there was a brief break in the action between games while a few words are spoken in recognition and appreciation of the new lights at the fields, which were switched on for use for the first time by the SGSL. This night, there were our night games being played simultaneously, two girls’ games and two boys’ games.

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but they had not been authorized for use until last fall, after the recreation league season was over. Going forward, a select number of softball games will be played on Friday nights under the lights, which all of the girls in the league are sure to enjoy.

The SGSL has teams competing at several age levels this year, including 6U, 8U, 10U, 12U and 14U, with four to five teams in each age group. The amount of teams that are carried is dependent upon the registration numbers, and girls from other towns are always welcome to play. While they do attract players from many neighboring towns, the league is predominantly made up of Smithfield girls. Stephen Keene, the league’s Public Relations Director, sees an uptick in the registration for the younger girls, but a slight drop off with the older girls in the 16 and 18 year-old age range, which Keene says is not at all unusual because these are ages where former players start to get their driver’s licenses and get involved in other activities in high school, or may be going to college or working part time.

The SGSL is instructional but also competitive, and always fun.

In the U6 and U8 divisions, the coaches pitch to the players, but once players get into the U10 and above, the girls pitch to each other, and it is fast pitch.

Opening day this year promises to be memorable, and that’s just what the planners of the event were striving for. Mario Vendittelli, the President of the Smithfield Girls’ Softball League, and Shane Moore, the President of Smithfield Little League, along with members of their boards, put a lot of work into organizing this special day.

“We wanted to do it the right way,” Vendittelli says. “We want it to be an experience for the boys and the girls. Something fun. Something different. There aren’t many events that bring the town together, but this was one of them. And that’s ultimately what it’s all about. Baseball is baseball and softball is softball, but at the end of the day, we’re all residents of the town.”

What more can you say, except; “PLAY BALL!” For more information visit: https://www.facebook.com/smithfieldgirlssoftball/ or contact Mario Vendittelli mvendittelli29@ gmail.com

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IMHO Doing what I can to get ahead

By Ron Scopelliti Living the freelance lifestyle means always being on the lookout for business opportunities. So, in the process of writing this month’s feature on the Smithfield Building and Zoning Office, I couldn’t resist checking out a PDF guide to starting a business that I found on the town’s website. Having started a business before, there wasn’t much that surprised me, except for one unexpected fact: Smithfield charges a $100 business and license fee for anyone who wants to practice phrenology in town.

Phrenology, for those of you who have more productive things to do than keep up with debunked pseudosciences, involves studying the shape of people’s heads to gain insights into their character and intellectual faculties. It fell largely out of fashion by the first few years of the Twentieth Century, though the British Phrenological Society soldiered on until 1967. I think we can attribute that to the same British steadfastness that keeps them building sports cars with wood-

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Phrenology seems to be all but non-existent in our area. So far I haven’t been able to find a single phrenologist in Rhode Island.

There’s a New England Institute of Phrenology Facebook page, but there’s nothing on it, so I’m not sure if it’s a real organization. There definitely was, for a brief time, a Boston Phrenological Society. But as far as I can tell they haven’t met since 1839, and the main subject of that meeting was the lack of activity among the members.

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Anyway, when I found that the town had this licensing fee, despite the fact that nobody seems to be chomping at the bit to open a phrenology practice, my first question was, “Why does it exist? My second, and more interesting question was, “Why does the existence of this fee suddenly make me want to become a phrenologist?”

I soon realized the folly of this line of inquiry. The question shouldn’t be “Why become a phrenologist?” The question should be, “Why the hell not?”

We’ve entered a cutthroat age when you have to do whatever you can to earn a living.There is no more “social contract.”

Employers are less likely than ever to reward the loyalty of their workers with job security and benefits. More often than not, they’re willing to avoid benefits altogether by offering 30-hour “part time” jobs, and requiring employees to work overtime if they wish to remain employed. That’s assuming that you’re not a cashier or a bank teller who’s been replaced by a machine.

How absurd have things gotten? Otherwise sane people have decided to earn extra money by picking up strangers to ride in the back seat of their personal cars. Given the alternative of transporting hurling drunks in the back seat of my car, opening a phrenology clinic seems downright sensible.

And there are other advantages to starting a phrenology practice. I’ve already documented the dearth of competition in the field. And there’s little chance of my job being lost to automation – who ever heard of an Automatic Phrenologist Machine?

People might say it’s unethical for me to practice a profession that I clearly don’t believe in. I can’t deny that it is a valid point. But I could hang a disclaimer on the wall of my shop reminding people that my services are “for entertainment purposes only.” And even though I don’t believe in phrenology, I have been known to be wrong. Like that time I predicted that Facebook would never be as successful as MySpace.

And what if it turns out that the medical establishment suddenly discovers that phrenology is legitimate? When I was a kid people laughed about medieval barbers using leaches to treat illnesses, and now they’ve been found to have valid medical uses. If the same thing happens with phrenology, I could be in on the ground floor of a new trend. Not only could I have a thriving business – I could also open a school for phrenologists where I could train people to start their own franchises.

Maybe I’m completely missing the boat here. Maybe instead of starting up a business that has a permit fee in town, I should be looking at a business that doesn’t. For a while, I’ve been thinking of developing an app that would exploit Smithfield’s existing connection with ocean explorer Dr. Robert Ballard. I wonder if he’d consider teaming up for an underwater ride-sharing app called SCUBER?

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A Real Estate Agency offering a personalized and friendly approach to reopen at a new location in Smithfield

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Ed Duffy started his career in real estate in 1993 and worked with a popular local agency for many years, receiving numerous awards and accolades, before deciding to follow his own business ideas. At this time, he decided to open Alltown.

“Alltown Real Estate will take pride in the work we do for our buyer and seller clients,” Duffy explains. “In a real estate world filled with the need for quick profits and immediate gratification, we will methodically perform the tasks at hand for our clients to the letter of the law. We’ll continue to operate under the highest level of morals and ethics possible. We will enlighten our competitors and share information when mutually beneficial.”

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This agency has also built a strong referral network from previous clients, attorneys, bankers, accountants, and loan officers.

Duffy takes pride in Alltown’s constant contact with clients and his open door policy, as this welcoming approach continues to fuel the agency’s success.

“If you have a question or concern, and I can be of assistance, I am highly approachable,” Duffy explains. “We are Main Street, not Wall Street. I believe business should be transparent. We are unique because we offer personalized real estate services; we professionally evaluate your situation as a buyer or seller; and implement an action plan for success.”

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31

Opportunity to Learn

By Dr. Judith Paolucci Whether it is management books or education books, professional texts are written each year not to teach us something we don’t already know, but to remind us of what we should be doing to perform well in our chosen field. Goodwin and Hubbell’s The 12 Touchstones of Good Teaching: A Checklist for Staying Focused Every Day, is a professional text available through ASCD (www.ascd.org). Each of the 12 touchstones is not new but all are worthy reminders to all involved in education.

The first chapter of the book is titled, “I use standards to guide every learning opportunity.” If everyone connected to schools (parents, teachers, administrators and students) could only read one paragraph from the entire chapter, I would choose the fifth paragraph of this chapter, which reads, in part: “... the school-level variable most strongly correlated with higher student achievement is a factor called “opportunity to learn” - the extent to which a school (1) clearly articDr. Steven D’Antonio Dr. Jennifer D’Antonio

ulates its curriculum, (2) monitors whether the curriculum is actually taught, and (3) aligns its curriculum with assessments of student achievement (Marzano, 2000).”

Developing a clearly articulated curriculum is a goal of Smithfield Schools. This year, teachers have been engaged with writing curriculum for English Language Arts. The curriculum development team reviews outcomes, assessments, instructional materials, and methods, which will then be posted on our curriculum page. Teachers have been meeting all year to make modifications to the current curriculum to ensure that concepts are aligned across grade levels.

We are also looking at the assessments and rubrics currently in place both for the purpose of ensuring that the written curriculum is taught and for gauging student progress. Common student assessments provide teachers with opportunities for rich dialogue about student learning and effective instructional practices.

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This work is substantial, especially if one remembers that teachers’ time is primarily spent on designing and delivering instruction to the students they serve. Carving out time for curriculum and assessment development is not easy and we appreciate the time educators have set aside for this purpose.

Of course, the development and application a clearly articulated curriculum and common assessments can only be good if the curriculum and assessments are of high quality. Ensuring that curriculum is based upon high standards ensures as well that we are have high expectations for our students. Students “usually rise to meet our expectations” (Goodwin and Hubbell, p. 7).

Our role as school and district administrators is not simply about policing classroom instruction to assess whether or not teachers are teaching the articulated curriculum and are focused on high standards, but instead is about providing teachers with clear expectations for their work and the professional development and time they need to be successful. To be sure, though, frequent classroom observations help us to see if all are interpreting standards in the same way. All Smithfield district and school administrators visit classrooms each week and we know that teachers can sometimes feel under the microscope. However, we look more closely at the focus of lessons, the engagement of students, the quality of instructional materials, and the routines established in their classrooms than in what specifically the teacher is doing at each moment in time.

While some may interpret standards-based education as a one-size-fits-all, bland approach to instruction, Goodwin and Hubbell remind us that “when everyone gets on the same page about what’s important for students to learn (i.e. standards), teachers can devote their time and energies not to figuring out what material to teach but, instead, to determining how to teach that material in a way that engages and enlightens students and, when possible—accelerates their learning” (p. 14).

We want this to be the focus of teachers’ work in Smithfield.

Goodwin, B. & Hubbell, E. R. (2013). The 12 touchstones of good teaching: A checklist for staying focused every day.

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Senior Scene

By Paul V. Palange One of the enjoyable aspects of journalism is that it’s a people business. You meet so many interesting, unique, coura- ensures her visits to McCoy are special. That’s indicative of the geous and talented individuals, and you come to appreciate type of person he is. the privilege of being allowed into their lives for various rea- The 66-year-old continues to be involved with a number sons and periods of time, depending on the story you’re work- of charities and sits on several charitable boards. He is on the board of the Pawtucket Soup Kitchen, the Bristol County ing on.

When you climb the proverbial career ladder, you contin- Savings Bank Charitable Foundation and Meeting Street. He ue to deal with numerous people, and you might have the is also a trustee of the Pawtucket Boys & Girls Club. Mike good fortune of establishing a few relationships that transcend created the Pawtucket Red Sox Charitable Foundation that work without compromising anyone’s ethics or what it takes supports numerous organizations throughout New England, and he is a past recipient of the Fall Rivto get the job done. That’s happened to er Diocese’s Timothy Cotter Friend of me, and luckily one of the people with Catholic Education Award. whom I have formed a bond is Michael “A genuine appreciation of our fans,” Tamburro, former president of the Pawis what Mike says drives much of his tucket Red Sox and now a co-owner and community involvement. “An organizavice chairman of the organization. tion is not a successful organization until I needed to reveal that before encourit helps its community to stand tall. It’s aging people to attend Mike’s induction part of our DNA.” And the new ownerinto the Pawtucket Red Sox Hall of Fame ship of the team, he added, is making the on May 26 at McCoy Stadium. Also encharitable foundation “bigger and better” tering the Hall then is former Boston Red to provide assistance to those who are less star Fred Lynn, who played one full seafortunate. son in Pawtucket.

Mike came to Pawtucket in 1977, Michael Tamburro, former president of the I plan to attend the ceremony with my Pawtucket Red Sox and now a co-owner and teamed up with Ben Mondor, who wife, Andria, and our daughter, Olivia, and vice chairman of the organization. bought the club out of bankruptcy, to because Mike and his wife, Anna, are in engineer a remarkable turnaround. Unour family’s hall of fame. The Tamburros have embraced our daughter, Olivia, who is on the autism der the leadership of Mondor, who passed away in 2010, and spectrum. They treat her with an incredible amount of affec- Tamburro, the Boston Red Sox’s Triple A affiliate became one tion and connect with her on a genuine and personal level that of the most successful franchises in all of professional baseball. parents such as us wish was more common. In addition, Mike During the transformation, Mike served as general manager from 1977 to 1984, and as president from 1985 to 2015.

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was the longest game in professional baseball in 1981, a 33-inning affair between the PawSox and Rochester Red Wings that was stopped after 32 innings and then completed on June 23, when Rochester returned to McCoy. “The fact that an event of that significance occurred at the little ballpark in Pawtucket, Rhode Island, was the first major step of putting us on the map, of successful development,” Tamburro said.

After Tamburro joined Mondor, the PawSox went from drawing 70,000 fans in 1977 to 560,000 fans or more for 15 consecutive years between 1999 and 2013. The PawSox also had a stretch of six straight seasons with an attendance of 600,000-plus from 2004 to 2009, which marked an annual increase of nearly 10 times since that first year in 1977.

Tamburro, who was inducted into the International League Hall of Fame in 2012, is the only person to earn the International League’s Executive of the Year Award five times. He is a past member and former chairman of the board of trustees that is the governing body of minor league baseball, a founding board member of Baseball Internet Rights Corporation and a director of the International League. Mike also served as chairman of the Presidential Search Committee charged to find a new president of minor league baseball for 2008 and beyond.

Mike says his induction into the PawSox Hall of Fame “is an organizational award” that he wouldn’t have earned without

the help of many people. “We had a great staff for a long time.

I am proud of so many people that have gone on to do other great things both in and out of professional baseball. … And I’m glad to be involved with Larry Lucchino (chairman of the PawSox and a co-owner), Dr. Charles (Dr. Charles Steinberg, president of the PawSox), Dan Rea (general manager and executive vice president of the club) and a great young staff.”

Mike said he is not ready to retire, and that he will continue to battle for the construction of a new ballpark at the Apex site in downtown Pawtucket. “This is a wonderful opportunity for the state, for the ballclub and most importantly for the revitalization of a great, old city.

“With a little imagination and hard work, we can create something special out of the Apex site. … We need to believe in ourselves again as a state. We can’t be afraid to do great things,” he said.

May 26 is a great opportunity to show appreciation for someone that continues to labor to provide family entertainment at affordable prices. The induction ceremony will occur between games of a doubleheader with the Lehigh Valley IronPigs that starts at 4:05 p.m., and a patriotic fireworks display will be set off after the second game. In Triple A, doubleheaders consist of two seven-inning contests.

McCoy Stadium is located off Division Street in Pawtucket, and tickets can be purchased at the box off there or online at pawsox.com. And remember there is a senior discount.

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50 Years Ago

May, 1968

By Jim Ignasher On May 30, the Panzarella-Silvia Memorial was dedicated at the intersection of Whipple Road and Douglas Pike.

Army Lieutenant James F. Panzarella was the commanding officer of Company A, 196th Light Infantry Brigade. Army Staff Sergeant Clifford William Silvia was attached to the 25th Medical Battalion of the 25th Infantry Regiment. Both men were from Smithfield, and both were killed within a few weeks of each other while serving in Vietnam.

— On May 10 the Smithfield High School band gave a spring concert in the school auditorium.

— Leon Carney of Greenville was elected President of the Smithfield Jaycees.

—

The dedication ceremony began with a parade which left the Town Hall at 8:45 a.m. The procession included family members of the servicemen, civic leaders, members of the Town Council, buglers and drummers, police and fire vehicles, as well as numerous townspeople showing their support.

Boy Scout Troop 3 of Greenville held a Mother’s Day breakfast on May 12. Eagle Scout William LeBlanc was the main speaker. Michael Kiely and Richard Gill were voted to attend the Order of the Red Arrow, an honor for which they were selected by the rest of the troop.

—

—

David A. Brann of Greenville was serving aboard the aircraft carrier U.S.S. Boxer.

Old Stone Bank was offering a Capitol Savings Account that would yield 5% interest per year.

Lieutenant Steven F. Wyman of Esmond was cited for his outstanding performance during his flight training at Vance Air Force Base in Oklahoma.

U.S. Army SP4 Paul Trask was serving with the 124th Transportation Battalion.

U.S. Air Force Sergeant Angus E. Bryant of Spragueville returned home from duty in Germany where he’d been stationed for three years.

Ralph Iannitelli of Greenville was presented with the American Legion Reserve Officers training Corps Gold Medal for Military Excellence at the 16th Annual Air Force ROTC Presidents Review held at Denison University.

— The Apple Blossom Club of Smithfield received the Carolyn B. Heffenreffer Silver Bowl Award, and the National Council Blue Rosette for Achievement Award in Home and Garden, for their work relating to civic beautification within the town of Smithfield. Among their recognized projects was the planting of nine pink-flowering Hawthorne trees in Greenville center.

Those present to receive the awards were Mrs. Harry Judson, Mrs. Joseph Casale, Jr., Mrs. Elwood Kelley, Mrs. Richard Illingsowrth, Mrs. Prescott Williams, Mrs. Adrien Leboissonniere, Mrs. Raymond Shirley. Mrs. Roland Smith, and Mrs. Lionel Jarvis.

36

May 2018

— Miss Linda E. Aitken of Greenville won the Miss University of Rhode Island beauty contest and the right to compete in the Miss Rhode Island pageant on June 22.

— The 8th Annual Apple Blossom festival was held May 19th at the Smithfield High School. Entertainment included music, dancing, and a contest in which young women competed for the title of Miss Apple Blossom Queen of Rhode Island for 1968.

— Perhaps there are some who remember a building that once stood on Route 44 in Harmony known as the “Cutler Stand”, a.k.a, “The Philip’s Place”, and “The Old Tavern”. The building, which dated to circa 1800, was slated for demolition in May of 1968, but certain architectural features such as doors, windows, and fire places were to be salvaged.

— On May 22 the United States nuclear submarine, U.S.S. Scorpion, was lost with all hands about 400 miles west of Azores.

Theories as to what happened range from a catastrophic internal malfunction to a torpedo strike. Today the remains of the vessel lie in 9,800 feet of water.

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CROSSWORD PUZZLE

53. Reasons behind 54. Christian recluse 56. Removes 57. Repents 58. Energy 59. Tailless amphibian

CLUES ACROSS 1. As fast as can be done 5. WC’s 9. Religious retreat 11. Warfare 13. One you wouldn’t expect 15. Disease-causing microorganisms 16. For each 17. Grammatical term 19. One point east of southeast

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21. __ Dern, actress 22. Popular HBO drama (abbr.)

23. Shampoo 25. Scale drawing of a structure 26. An enclosure for confining livestock 27. Goat-like mammal 29. Cigar 31. Appear 33. “Westworld” actress __ Rachel Wood

34. Leaked through 36. The highest adult male singing voice 38. Musical group __ Soundsystem 39. Aurochs 41. Crazy (Spanish) 43. Swiss river 44. Strains 46. Frock 48. Found in most body tissues 52. Cool!

CLUES DOWN 1. Not awake 2. Type of dessert 3. They __ 4. Retired Coast Guard admiral 5. Gene positions 6. Exclude 7. One who is bound 8. Where drinks are served 9. Small vipers 10. Blackbird 11. Adventurer 12. Shade 14. A way to gain 15. A salt or ester of boric acid 18. Monetary units 20. Removed 24. “My country, tis of __” 26. Horses 28. Drives back by force 30. Bold, impudent behavior 32. Rates 34. Types of nerves in males 35. A ridge of sand created by the wind 37. Wind instrument 38. Pakistani city 40. Dry or withered 42. Delivered a speech 43. Peak 45. Small waterbird 47. Days falling in mid-month 49. Elvis’ daughter 50. Flat and smooth 51. Dallas Cowboys great Leon 55. What cows say

May 2018

FUREVER HOMES needed C L E M

sudoku

Snuggles are my fave and I love to smile all day long! I love to play with humans and likesized doggies, go for walks and car rides, and learning new things. I know lots of tricks which is why all the humans say I’m so smart. I have a smile that has been known to melt hearts and a marking that makes me look like I have one eyebrow. I’m currently hanging out at ADRI Adoption Center & Pet Services located in RI while I wait for that perfect someone to come and fall in love with me. Contact my rescue if you think I could be a good fit for you! www.allbreedrescuevt.com

Susie

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Sweet Susie Q will steal your heart! She can be a little shy at first but with a gentle hand she will soon be your new best friend. Being around other dogs gives her confidence and she has loved every dog we’ve introduced her to. Susie is currently in a foster home in RI and as much as she loves it there, she can’t wait to have a home of her own. Please fill out an application at www.abandoneddogsofri.com Sudoku puzzles are formatted as a 9x9 grid, broken down into nine 3x3 boxes.

To solve a sudoku, the numbers 1 through 9 must fill each row, column and box.

Each number can appear only once in each row, column and box.

You can figure out the order in which the numbers will appear by using the numeric clues already provided in the boxes.

The more numbers you name, the easier it gets to solve the puzzle!

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If you are interested in Clem or Susie Q, please contact us at www.abandoneddogsofri.com or come visit at ADRI Adoption Center & Pet Services located at 29 Paris Irons Road, Glocester, RI. Thank You! 39

Stargazing Astronomical Potpourri for May

By David Huestis, Historian, Skyscrapers, Inc. I never tire of observing “burning rocks” falling from the sky. While these remnants of comets or pieces of asteroids really do not burn as such, they do disintegrate due to friction as they slam into Earth’s dense atmosphere at supersonic speeds.

Though I haven’t kept a consistent record of all the meteors I’ve seen, I think a conservative estimate of my meteor counts from the early 1970s to present would total between 1,5002,000 observations. That’s a lot of hours scanning the skies for the opportunity to view the sometimes brilliant demise of a piece of solar system debris. But occasionally one is rewarded with a fireball that lights up the sky during its fiery demise.

The upcoming May Eta Aquarids meteor shower provides everyone an opportunity to observe 10-15 shooting stars per hour at peak on the night of May 6-7. However, to view these “burning rocks” to best advantage you’ll have to observe between midnight and dawn on the morning of the 7th. This very old stream of particles was shed by Comet Halley many LINCOLN l NORTH PROVIDENCE l CUMBERLAND SLATERSVILLE l SMITHFIELD

eons ago, and due to its orbit is best seen in the southern hemisphere. And in fact, the Eta Aquarids are our southerly neighbors’ best display of the year. These swift and yellow shooting stars enter the Earth’s upper atmosphere head-on at 41 miles per second.

The meteor shower’s name comes from the fact that the meteors radiate from the constellation of Aquarius. Aquarius will be about 12 degrees above the east-southeast horizon at the 4:00 a.m. hour. The Eta Aquarids radiant point is in the Water Urn asterism (looks like a Y-shaped group of stars). While the meteors appear to radiate from this region of the sky they can be seen anywhere. Unfortunately a bright waning gibbous Moon will be in the nearby constellation of Capricornus, thereby reducing the peak number of meteors a little. However, because the Eta Aquarids come in so fast, you can still expect a few bright ones to be seen despite the Moon’s presence.

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IN ACCORDANCE WITH RI GENERAL LAW ON 30-DAY REQUIREMENT, THE FINAL DAY FOR UNREGISTERED VOTERS TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN ORDER TO PARTICIPATE (VOTE) AT THE ANNUAL SMITHFIELD FINANCIAL TOWN MEETING IS TUESDAY, MAY 15, 2018 IN THE TOWN CLERK’S OFFICE, TOWN HALL, 64 FARNUM PIKE, SMITHFIELD, RI, 02917.

THE FINANCIAL TOWN MEETING IS THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2018 AT 7:00 P.M. AT THE SMITHFIELD HIGH SCHOOL, 90 PLEASANT VIEW AVENUE. REGISTRATIONS ARE RECEIVED DAILY FROM 8:30 A.M. TO 4:30 P.M. AT THE TOWN CLERK’S OFFICE. YOU CAN DOWNLOAD A VOTER REGISTRATION FORM BY VISITING WWW.SEC.STATE.RI.US/ ELECTIONS AND MAIL THE COMPLETED FORM TO THE TOWN CLERK’S OFFICE (address above).

For the Smithfield Canvassing Board: Carol A. Aquilante, CMC, Town Clerk

May 2018

For many casual stargazers Aquarius can be a little difficult to recognize even without bright moonlight. But look towards the east-southeast and scan around the sky. The meteors can appear anywhere. The Moon will rise around 1:33 a.m. locally, so you can use it as a general guide to find the sky location.

Dawn’s early light begins early at the beginning of May, so the eastern sky will begin brightening around 4:30 a.m.

In addition, that same morning you can glimpse Mars and Saturn. Pumpkin colored Mars will be to the upper right of the Moon and to the left of the teapot asterism in Sagittarius.

Meanwhile, Saturn will be farther up and to the right of Mars, to the left of the teapot’s lid. You can locate Saturn ahead of time on the morning of the 4th when it will be less than two degrees from the Moon. That same evening, Venus and Taurus’s bright star Aldebaran, plus the Hyades and Pleaides star clusters will be above the western horizon after sunset. It promises to be a beautiful sky scene to photograph.

For several months there has been a dearth of planets in the pre--midnight hours for casual stargazers to explore and enjoy. That situation has been gradually changing as we transitioned from winter into spring. Jupiter is now visible before midnight during a reasonable hour. Recently it has remained low in the east during the open nights at the local observatories. However, on May 9, Jupiter is at opposition, meaning it is opposite the Sun in the sky. When the Sun sets Jupiter will rise. This time is also when Jupiter is at its closest to the Earth, this year just over 409,000,000 miles away. It will still be a few weeks before Jupiter will rise high enough in the sky to clear tree-lines and interfering buildings from many locations. My June column will contain a Jupiter observing guide for those of you with telescopes, or for those of you who wish to be well informed when they visit Rhode Island’s finest observatories.

Once Jupiter is positioned higher in the sky and away from horizon haze will a keen-eyed observer see a wealth of detail.

For those of you who can’t wait until next month, Jupiter is currently in the constellation of Libra. Libra, the Scales, is not one of the most recognizable constellations to identify.

So on May 9th Jupiter rises at 7:35 p.m. in the east-southeast

sky within Libra’s borders. Jupiter will be the brightest object in that area of the sky so it will be easy to locate. Bright star Spica, in neighboring Virgo, will be about 24 degrees to the upper right of Jupiter.

Later during the summer Saturn and Mars will be well placed for observation. I will write about observing these two worlds in a future column.

If you do not have your own telescope but wish to explore the heavens in more detail, please visit Rhode Island’s observatories during their free public observing sessions. Seagrave Memorial Observatory (http:/www.theskyscrapers.org) in North Scituate is open to the public every clear Saturday night. Ladd Observatory (http://www.brown.edu/Departments/Physics/Ladd/) in Providence is open every clear Tuesday night. The Margaret M. Jacoby Observatory at the CCRI Knight Campus in Warwick (http://www.ccri.edu/physics/ observatory.htm) is open every clear Thursday night. Frosty Drew Observatory (http://www.frostydrew.org/) in Charlestown is open every clear Friday night year-round. Be sure to check all the websites for the public night schedules and opening times before visiting these facilities, especially as we approach the summer months when the sun sets much later.

Clear skies to everyone!

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GAME REVIEW: Game review: Jalopy

By Ron Scopelliti Have you ever wanted to travel the dreariest roads in Eastern Europe, accompanied by an annoying, elderly uncle, while driving one of the most unpleasant and unreliable cars of the late twentieth century? Neither had I until I reached my first destination in Jalopy, a sometimes-frustrating, sometimes-charming, but always utterly unique indie PC game developed by MinskWorks and published by Excalibur Games.

Though it’s technically a driving game, Jalopy is more about resource management than carving corners.

The single-player game starts when your eccentric Uncle Lütfi convinces you to leave East Berlin in an old “Laika 601”a thinly disguised version of the infamous East German Trabant coupe. From there, the goal is to keep moving, picking up supplies you find on the road, trading road trash for gas and tires, and trying to make it to the next city before the Laika runs out of fuel or requires the next in a seemingly endless series of repairs.

The key attribute that Jalopy requires of its player is patience. Simple tasks can be rather cumbersome. For instance, adding gas to the car requires you to unlatch the hood from inside the car, get out and raise the hood, pump the gas, close the hood, open the passenger door, take your wallet from the glove compartment, go inside the gas station to pay, go back out, put your wallet back in the glove box… The bottom line is that nothing in the game is quick and easy.

Game saves are also a bit funky. Saving a game before you quit doesn’t mean you’ll return to the same spot when you continue your game. Instead, you’ll return to the last place

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that you slept. This means that each gaming session requires you to keep playing until you’ve made it to a motel, lest you lose all your progress for that session.

Somehow, the clumsiness of the tasks fit in with the overall feeling of the game. It’s a game where driving from Berlin to Dresden presents a challenge not because you’re dodging zombies or fleeing spy hunters, but because you’re facing the far greater horror of maintaining a banal existence on meager funds in an environment where everything seems to be going against you. In other words, it’s a lot like real life.

The scenery is as stark as the Laika’s interior, until it starts to rain and things go from stark to downright dismal. Graphics are simple and angular, except for the bizarre herringbone texture of Uncle Lütfi’s sport coat, which has a surreal way of staying still while the coat moves beneath it. It’s oddball touches like this, and like Uncle Lütfi’s reminiscences of the Eastern Block, that give the game much of its charm.

As for the actual driving, I’d compare the overall feel of the Laika to a 1970s Dodge Dart running on a third of its cylinders, with four completely worn shocks and iffy idler arm bushings. The brakes of the Laika, however, are far superior.

Though I experimented with using an Xbox controller for driving, I eventually went back to keyboard/mouse controls.

Steering wheels were originally supposed to be supported, but this option never made it to the final game release.

So Jalopy offers a rather clumsy experience driving in a slow-moving car with an annoying uncle through a bland landscape. And while it’s not a game I’m tempted to play for hours on end, I’m glad I bought it. Maybe because it’s so completely unlike any other game I own. If you’ve got the patience, Jalopy offers a one-of-a-kind gaming experience, at the relatively low cost of $14.99 from gog.com or Steam. It’s available only for PC, and runs on Windows 7, 8, or 10.

May 2018

Payne’s Picks

May 2018

By Sarah Payne MOVIES RELEASES

MOVIE ON DEMAND

Tully – May 4th Charlize Theron gained thirty five pounds Downsizing For a movie that preaches about the evils of to play Marlo, an exhausted and overwrought mother of three who is gifted a night nanny named Tully. The film, directed by Jason Reitman (Young Adult and Juno), takes a very raw, unfiltered approach in its exploration of motherhood.

What’s interesting is Theron herself is a mother of two adopted children, but she’s never actually given birth. In his review of the film, Owen Gleiberman from Variety writes, “Offhand, it would be hard to think of another movie that dug into the messy, overwhelming, how-the-hell-am-I-gonna-getthrough-this? aspects of motherhood the way this one does.”

Life of the Party – May 11th

Melissa McCarthy’s movies may not be indie or Oscar-worthy, but her physical comedy is unmatched. And I just love that her and her husband, Ben Falcone, work together so often. Life of the Party is actually the third movie they’ve co-written together (the other two were The Boss and Tammy), and I wouldn’t be surprised if Falcone makes a guest appearance in this one as well (as he often does). McCarthy plays a sheltered and recently divorced housewife who gets a second chance by going back to college – with her daughter. It’s bound to be silly, but McCarthy’s movies are the best kind of silly.

MOVIE REVIEW A Quiet Place Last month I previewed A Quiet Place, John Krasinski’s horror film and first big directorial debut. It got a ton of buzz and was so popular opening weekend that all the early showings were sold out locally, which meant I actually had to travel all the way to Providence to see it! So is the movie all it’s been hyped up to be? Yes and no. The idea that there are creatures (perhaps aliens, we never find out) who hunt humans based on sound alone is an interesting premise.

Kraskinski makes it even more interesting by making Emily Blunt’s character pregnant, which adds a whole other level of anxiety for the viewer. How is she going to go through labor without making a sound? How will they keep the baby quiet and safe? Krasinski and Blunt (who are actually married) have great chemistry, even without dialogue. The plot isn’t without its flaws, though, and as with any horror flick, there’s a certain amount of suspension of disbelief needed on the part of the audience.

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human excess, I find it just a bit ironic that Downsizing has a runtime of two hours and fifteen minutes. I’d say at least half of this movie should have been left on the cutting room floor. Starring Matt Damon, Kristen Wiig, and Christoph Waltz, Downsizing imagines a world where people can shrink themselves in order to live more comfortable, environmentally-friendly lives. It’s marketed as a comedy, but I can attest that laugh out loud moments are few and far between. Not even Wiig – the queen of comedy - can save Downsizing, mostly because she only appears in the first twenty minutes of the movie. After that, the plot meanders as Matt Damon’s character encounters different people all over the world on his downsizing journey. I can’t help but wonder what director Alexander Payne’s original intent was for the film. It doesn’t fit any genre, which may be why it’s so frustrating.

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What is an Opioid and why is there an epidemic?

By Diane L. Marolla, LICSW “Most people who become addicted [to opioids] like me do so after a prescription for a painkiller following a medical procedure. Once the phenomenon of craving sets in, it is often too late,” Jaime Lee Curtis Undeniably, the opioid epidemic and how to address it has been a topic of concern that has been in the forefront of our local, state, and national elected officials. It is an issue that has affected our families, our friends, our school systems, our healthcare system, our police departments and our economy. The epidemic has everyone scrambling to try and stop the addiction, the overdoses, and the deaths that are occurring on a daily basis. All of us, in some way have been affected by this epidemic. Given that it is has been an important news story, and an issue that has affected so many people personally, I thought I would dedicate May’s article to break the topic down as there are so many myths and misconceptions about the root cause of the problem, and why so many individuals are dying on a daily basis.

What is an opioid?

Simply stated, an opioid is a narcotic. Opioids can either be a legally prescribed drug or an illegal drug. Examples of legally prescribed opioids are Oxycontin, Hydrocodone (Vicodin) and Morphine. Legally prescribed opioids are prescribed for pain and are meant to be a short-term solution to alleviate pain. They have and can also be used for individuals who are at the end of their

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life to alleviate pain and suffering. Fentanyl is an opioid that we hear about in the news daily. Fentanyl is a “synthetic” opioid that is more potent than Morphine. Fentanyl is a legal drug; however, it is now hitting the “streets” and coming into our country from other countries illegally. Fentanyl is a potent and deadly drug if misused or combined with other drugs. Heroin is an example of an illegal opioid. Statistics are showing that new users of heroin started out taking legally prescribed prescription drugs.

Can I get addicted to an opioid that has been legally prescribed by my doctor?

The simple answer to this question, unfortunately is yes, if you misuse or overtake the medication other than for short term use. Many individuals who have become addicted to opioids were prescribed the medication to alleviate pain after a medical or dental procedure. They are unaware of the potency or the addictive qualities of the drug they were taking. They thought it was something that was safe to take as it is prescribed by a doctor.

Unfortunately, I have heard many stories from individuals who became addicts simply because they had a procedure and were given a 30-day supply of the opioid. I recall being prescribed a 30-day supply of Hydrocodone when I tore my rotator cuff.

Although I did not want to take the medication, the pain was excruciating, particularly at night, so I did take it. I didn’t get addicted thankfully but did seek an effective alternative therapy (acupuncture) to alleviate the ongoing pain.

Opioids in essence trick the brain and body in not feeling pain.

Opioids attach to the receptors in our brain and body. They slow breathing and have a calming effect. People initially take them, so they feel good, but as the addiction takes hold of them, they become dependent on them, and ultimately become addicted where they cannot get through the day without the drug.

Why is this such a big problem now?

In the research that I have done, the epidemic was started by the pharmaceutical company who makes Oxycontin. This drug was marketed as a safe way to treat pain. Other drugs like Vicodin and Percocet were also aggressively marketed to treat pain.

Whereas the pharmaceutical companies knew how dangerous and addictive these drugs could be, they did not disclose this information to the physicians who would be prescribing them.

The pharmaceutical companies made millions of dollars in profits marketing these drugs. This is why they are now the target of states suing them for the opioid epidemic. Rhode Island is one of

May 2018

the states who has joined other states in suing the pharmaceutical industry.

I hear so much about this, but what are the facts?

• According to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, 115 Americans die every day after overdosing on an opioid.

• The American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) reports that the leading cause of accidental deaths in the United States is due to drug overdoses. ASAM also reports that prescribing rates of opioids among adolescents doubled from 1994-2007.

• HHS.gov (The Department of Health and Human Services) reports that the economic cost of the opioid epidemic is $504 billion.

Where can I get help for myself or a family member who is addicted to opioids ?

Locally and nationally we have a wealth of information to help us help someone else. If you or a loved one is addicted to opioids here in RI, we have a local telephone number (1-401-942-STOP) that is staffed 24/7 to help. Additionally, the Department of Health (www.health.state.ri.us), The Department of Behavioral Health and Development Disabilities (www.bhddh.ri.gov ) and the Substance Use and Mental Health Leadership Council (www.sumhlc. org) all contain resources to help individuals with addictions.

COMMUNITY EVENTS Smithfield High School Class of 1968 is having its 50th Class Reunion on Saturday, June 16, 2018 from 1:00 pm to 6:00 pm at the Portuguese American Social Club, 32 Fenwood Avenue, Smithfield. The cost is $30, RSVP by June 9 to Carol A. Mazzeo ~ camazzeo3@gmail.com, 401-465-4096. Dress code: Summer Casual Charity Dog Wash Sunday, May 6th from 8 to 4 at Village Paws 615 Putnam Pike , Greenville. 100 % of the charges will be donated to benefit Jenny’s Hope Dog Rescue. Small dogs,$15 (2 for j25) Medium size $25. Large size $30. Giant $45. Includes nails trimmed,ears cleaned, haircuts & brushing extra. Coupons do not apply. 949-5000 Smithfield Tree Day May 5, 2018 The Smithfield Conservation Commission will hold their annual tree sale on Saturday, May 5, 2018 at the front of McCabe School on Pleasant View Avenue. This year the event will begin at 9:00 a.m. and will run until either the plants sell out or noon. We ask that there be no early birds.

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Archambault Legislation Paves the Way for Implementation of Red Flag Policies Senator Steve Archambault (D-22) today called attention to a law he spearheaded last year requiring police officers to receive mental health training as one of the keys to effective implementation of so-called Red Flag policies designed to keep guns out of the hands of people who are a danger to others or themselves.

Senator Archambault said, “Our political discourse often seems polarizing and divided, particularly on gun control. However, I believe that there is common ground. Most of us can agree that firearms should not be in the hands of dangerous individuals. We have been able to build upon that common ground in Rhode Island in recent years[MP1] . “ Archambault pointed to new laws taking firearms out of the hands of people who commit domestic abuse and ensuring that when people are involuntarily committed because they are deemed a danger to themselves or others that data is incorporated for purposes of background checks when a gun is purchased as examples.

He noted that the Red Flag bill currently being considered in the General Assembly is in this tradition. The legislation creates an “extreme risk protective order,” which would allow authorities to disarm threatening individuals, while also providing them due process. Archambault is co-sponsoring this legislation, along with all but 2 members of the State Senate A new law adopted last year, which Archambault sponsored in the Senate, paves the way for effective implementation of the so-called Red Flag bill. It requires that all law enforcement officers receive a minimum standard of mental health training.

Archambault noted that many departments have gone well beyond the minimum requirements and provided even more robust training..

“The new training in the handling and defusing of mental health crisis situations is beneficial to all involved,” said Senator Archambault. “Nearly 1-in-10 of all law enforcement calls involve a person with mental illness.”

543 Putnam Pike Smithfield, RI 02828 401.232.9600 • www.smithfieldtimesri.net John J. Tassoni, Jr., Publisher john@jtsentinelgroup.com

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Archambault went on to say, “Thanks in part to the mental health training of Rhode Island’s law enforcement officers, the Red Flag bill is one more sensible step that we can take as a state to address gun violence in our communities while balancing constitutional rights. And our police officers are ready for the job.’

CORRECTION - The April issue of our monthly Town Government column lists full timers of the Recreation Department. The correct names are Matt Robert and Tom Cainis.

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May 2018

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