Rosalie's Blog

By Rosalie Tirella

What a great day to own a dog! To ride with my new dog Jett in my car - he feeling full of himself (finally!) - me having a blast watching a once abused dog grow more confident. (In Kentucky, where Jett’s originally from, the men treated him rough.) Which is why I don’t make Jett heel - he can lead me anywhere on our walks! I feed him apple slices, too, and carress his little chest while cooing: “Oh, you’re a brave little man!”

I take Jett everywhere and he meets everyone! He is so tentative, but I know he will come around … .

“Here,” I tell a friend, giving her a dog treat, “give Jett a cookie!” And Jett gets his cookie! (she must throw it at his paws and look away the first time. A few times later and Jett walks up tp her and takes the treat from her hand)

“Look! Here’s a Worcester park! Let’s go!” I say to Jett, and I open the car door and out Jett pops, and we play tag in the park! Jett is running circles around me; I am pretending I wanna catch him! When I tire and sit on a park bench my little pal stops running, walks over and stares at me, as if to say: “Why are you sitting this game out?” Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

We will see if this bullshit continues at tonight’s Worcester City Council meeting: the not-so-latent attempt to pull the rug out from under the sturdy feet of Dr. Melinda Boone, Worcester’s new school superintendent.

We know that City Counilor Frederick Rushton was a big fan of “connected” school superintendent candidate Steve Mills (now working in some Boston suburb), and that he wanted his boy to get the superintendent job big time. Infact, last year Rushton was the city council member who was most vocal in his opposition to Boone. And he pushed for Mills, who thought he was a shoe in because he worked on Tim Murray’s first political campaign and all that crap.

But, hey, Rushton was powerless and then Worcester Mayor konnie Lukes wasn’t. As then-chair of the Worcester School Committee (as is for all of Wormtown’s mayors), Konnie created a professional search committee comprised of community intelligent non-biased community folks who would look at all super candidates. The search committee recommended the best candidate - Dr. Melinda Boone, a female, Black educator from Norfolk, Virginia. Our school committee OK’d the recommendation and - voila! Worcester actually looked smart, cool and progressive. … Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

Some how the Worcester Public Schools teachers’ union has got it all upside down: Last City Council meeting teacher union head Cheryl DelSignore stood before the Worcester City Council and whined. 124 WPS teachers are getting their pink slips! she announced to our city leaders! Mon Dieu! No art for the kiddies! No extras!

Bull shit.

What concerns this union rep most - and I guess the teachers themselves - is the fact that some of these newly laid off teachers have been in the WPS system for years!

“Twenty three years in the system,” Delsignore gasped to the city council.

This made me think: the teachers’ union is getting nervous. Now, instead of laying off the young, just hired teachers, like they used to when they went toe to toe with the city over contract negotiations, the teachers’ union is starting to lose the “connected” old timers, the people and hacks who have been sucking up precious space in the WPS system for two decades, but maybe hung around because they knew their seniority would be protected. WPS teachers who thought they would never see the day because … the young neophyte teachers would be the first to be let go by the Worcester Public School system. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

Several years ago, when I first began InCity Times, I wrote a column about the Telgram and Gazette’s ANCIENT columnists: Ken Moynihan, Al Southwick, Bob Nemeth and, of course, the least talented of the T & G geriatric ward, Sid McKeen. I wrote the story after I had just read all of the above columnists’ op-ed pieces for the week and lo and behold!!! the four T & G geezers had all written about their poor health. One of the oldsters had written about his trip to the hospital emergency room, another about all the pills he had to take, dragging the reader through his med regimen. And to top it off, I had overheard this nugget in a restaurant: “Al Southwick had a lot of trouble … getting out of his chair.

This was both hilarious and sad!

Here we were, Worcester, the second largest city in New England, the city on the move, the city on the rise - and we had op-ed writers - writers who wrote for our paper of record! - opining about Milk of Magnesia. None of these guys was/is younger than 85! The T & G had been home to these Grumpy Old Men since World War II. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

Last night I sat before a little TV set mesmerized - absolutely mesmerized! - by all the whackiness that was flying around the august City Council chambers. You should have been their, folks! OR: You should have at least watched last night’s Worcester City Council meeting on your TV set! You could have sliced the rancor and the nuttiness with a meat cleaver! It was “Reno 911″ Worcester style! What a gas, gas, gas!!!!

Here we go: Nutty Scene #1: Sam Rosario. Rosario, a duplicitous blowhard whom everyone in Worcester thinks is a duplicitous blowhard, is representing the liveries in their quest to become taxis. Sammy is a guy who once told political opponent Joe Cassella to step out of a three-way city council primary race because he (Cassella) had no chance of winning - it was really a race between him (Rosario) and the incumbent (dope Joff Smith). That was before Cassella trounced him and then went on to run against Smith in November and do fairly well - and seemingly (thank God!) put an end to Rosario’s political aspirations. Well, last night Sammy went bonkers. Click to continue »

By Rosalie Tirella

So sad. So heartbreaking. My quest for a new best friend (dog) has been a real heartbreaker.

The last few times I adopted a pooch I seemed to find my canine soulmate within a week or two. I adopted both my fabulous dogs from the Worcester Animal Rescue League: “Bailey,” a big-boned Nova Scotia Retriever, 5 years ago, and “Grace,” a Lab/Beagle/Australian Cattle Dog mix (a classic “Heinz 57,” as my vet put it), 15 years ago.

Both were fantastic finds.

Grace was sweet and quiet and loved to ride shot-gun in the jalopy I happened to be driving at the moment. As I’d drive, Grace would have her front paws firmly planted on the two bucket seats in front and her rear legs a hold of the back seat. She could handle anything the road through at us! Curves, pot holes - my quick braking. She once fell head over paws into the front seat as the dope infront of me stopped short and damn near killed me and Gracie. Once, on Route 20, I almost drove headlong into a speeding 18 wheeler (don’t ask). After that two-second brush with death, Grace and I turned and looked at each other - at the same time. Yes, she had been scared shitless, too. Click to continue »