I was expecting “Take Me To Your Leader: Perspectives On Your First Alien Encounter” to offer lots of insightful tips from famous astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on how to behave, what to say, and what questions to ask if a space alien were to come knocking at my front door. In fact, the back blurb […]
Columns
A look at What’sUpNewp’s latest columns.
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Just My Opinion: Independence Day
What is America? We are white, black, brown, red, yellow … we are the rainbow. We are Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, evangelicals, atheist, agnostic. We embrace all who worship and those that do not. We are Latino American Indian, Asian, German, French, English, Italian, Irish, African, Portuguese, Iranian, Israeli, multi-racial and multi-cultural. We come […]
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Involuntary: The independence we struggle to protect
On June 12, at CCRI, there was a free, invitation-only, screening of Involuntary, a 13-minute, short film followed by a moderated panel discussion featuring award-winning filmmakers, Dana White and Chris Knoblock; Rhode Island State Representative Lauren Carson; Elizabeth Shields,MD, a family medicine physician in private-pay practice; Partanja Spann, Director of Rhode Island Outreach for Newport […]
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Three storylines that will define Rhode Island’s housing market this summer
Every week, I have conversations with buyers, sellers, investors, lenders, attorneys, and fellow brokers across Rhode Island. While no one has a crystal ball, a few themes continue to surface that I believe will define our housing market this summer.Earlier this month, I had the opportunity to travel to Washington, D.C. alongside fellow members of […]
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Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about decent medical care
I ran into my friend Bert last night and we got to talking. “I hear you guys talking about medical care, about how it is for-profit and lots of people are using it to make too much money on the backs of communities,” he said. “But my care is great. I go to Oak Street. […]
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Gerry Goldstein: On America’s 250th, where are we heading?
As we approach the Fourth of July and our nation’s 250th anniversary, here is something I learned from a great American, “Publius:” “The accumulation of all power, legislative, executive, and judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many…may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.” Publius did not tell me […]
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Michele Gallagher: Summer in the City-by-the-Sea has something for everyone
The Newport Flower Show, hosted annually by the Preservation Society of Newport County at Rosecliff mansion, is the official bellwether of summer in Newport. It helps that this event is typically planned around the summer solstice when Aquidneck Islanders are clamoring for sunshine and longer days. This year commemorated the event’s 30th anniversary and the […]
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Gerry Goldstein: ChatGPT gets something off its chest
In our era when many worry that Artificial Intelligence is gobbling up jobs, it’s instructive to remember John Henry – and I don’t mean the one who owns the Red Sox and the Boston Globe. I’m talking about the hammer-wielding rock splitter who in 19th Century folklore protested mightily against a steam-powered drill that threatened […]
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Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about sending a 102-year-old home from rehab on a Friday
A 102-year-old man I know is likely to be sent home from rehab today. This 102-year-old man lives in another state. Until three weeks ago, he was driving, playing tennis, and living in his own home. Over the last few months, he developed leg swelling and then shortness of breath, likely the result of some heart […]
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The wisdom we carry: Celebrating the voices of older adults by listening to their lived experiences
“I want to live in a world where we aren’t focused on what aging takes away from us, but rather what it gives to us,” Helen Hames, founder of Age Ambassador and a regular contributor to What’s Up Newp, told a standing-room-only, multi-generational audience last week. “As I began listening more deeply to the older […]
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Dr. Michael Fine: What’s crazy about Hantavirus and Ebola
Hantavirus on a ship, spreading person to person. Ebola spreading in the Democratic Republic of Congo and in Uganda. 13 cases of Hantavirus, with three deaths. Over a thousand known cases of Ebola, with 17 confirmed and about 240 suspected deaths. What’s the world coming to? Is this the Zombie Apocalypse? My first advice is to […]
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Gerry Goldstein: Strength isn’t always what it seems
The pundits and TV talking heads have recently bandied about a relatively new term, “asymmetrical war.” As it suggests, this refers to a conflict in which one of the combatants is militarily far stronger than the other. The term was created in 1975 by the late political scientist Andrew J. R. Mack, whose seminal essay […]
Posted inArts & Culture
This Day in RI History: May 20, 1959 – Susan Cowsill is born
Happy Birthday to Newport’s own Susan Cowsill! The youngest member of the popular family band The Cowsills, who charmed TV audiences in the late 60’s, turns 65 on May 20th. Cowsill was born in Canton, Ohio in 1959, but moved to Newport as a child. She sang and danced on many Top 40 Cowsills hits […]
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Dr. Micheal Fine: What’s crazy about firing the Commissioner of FDA
So the saga aka circus in health care in Washington continues. This week Marty Makary MD, the Commissioner of the FDA, resigned/was fired by RFK,Jr. and the Trump administration. I didn’t know Dr. Makary but I have colleagues who do. We once presented at the same conference and were in a room together, but I don’t […]
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Gerry Goldstein: A pox on curses
I owe Jason Varitek a poem. Driven by the curse of a brain cramp the size of Fenway Park, I attributed his recent bad luck, in getting fired from his Red Sox coaching job, to another significant Sox catcher, Carlton Fisk. I wondered why, in a mass firing related to the sacking of Manager Alex […]
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Tyler Bernadyn: For Bethany, Happy Mother’s Day
Mother’s Day carries a little more weight for me this year. On February 15th, Bethany and I welcomed our son Bowen into the world at Newport Hospital, and somewhere over the last few months, between the sleepless nights, bottles, diapers, and quiet moments holding him at 3 in the morning, I’ve gained a completely different […]
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Raised in the Light: Celebrating Single Mothers and Grandmothers this Mother’s Day
Maya Angelou once wrote, “To describe my mother would be to write about a hurricane it its perfect power.” Talk about a powerful woman raising a powerful daughter! But it was actually Maya’s paternal grandmother, Annie Henderson, that mostly raised Maya and her brother Bailey in Stamps, Arkansas after their parents’ divorce. In fact, it […]
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Gerry Goldstein: These ‘smiths’ worked the forge of language
Had I the heavens’ embroidered cloths, Enwrought with gold and silver light… I would spread the cloths under your feet: But I, being poor, have only my dreams: I have spread my dreams under your feet; Tread softly because you tread on my dreams. That poem,which so touchingly captures the vulnerability of love, is by […]