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DAVID SCHARFENBERG
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Baseball ‘takes away a lot of hurt’
This week, I had an hour long chat with Oil Can Boyd.
Truthtelling
John Walker Lindh, better known as the American Taliban, was in US custody in Afghanistan in December 2001. And counter-terrorism prosecutor John DePue had a question: could he be interrogated without a lawyer present?
Looking Ahead
Neal Stephenson's novels have been called everything from science fiction to postcyberpunk.
Two months ago Hans von Spakovsky of the conservative Heritage Foundation, de facto apologist for a new wave of conservative-inspired voter ID laws, appeared on PBS NewsHour to defend the cause.
Art Dept.
Thirty-five black-and-white photographs ring the exhibition space at TSETSE Gallery on Empire Street in downtown Providence. Here a man with a bushy goatee sitting on a motorcycle, there a woman covering her face with her hair.
Week In Review
It was quite the week in local news and here at Chez Phoenix .
Can new director John W. Smith polish Providence's hidden gem?
The Rhode Island School of Design Museum is one of New England's — and America's — most underappreciated and underperforming cultural treasures.
Protest Dept.
May Day, the international workers day, is just around the corner. But organized labor, here in Rhode Island, is not in a particularly celebratory mood.
At the Movies
Last I checked in with Dave Dvorchak — Providence Community Library office manager, film geek, Renaissance Man — he had found a long-forgotten cache of 16-millimeter movies owned by a defunct consortium of Rhode Island libraries.
Pot is not a crime
The often frustrating push to get a workable medical marijuana regime up and running in Rhode Island has received plenty of ink in recent years. But the state's pot politics don't end there.
Vinylution
For the casual music fan, the record store might seem an anachronism in the age of the iPod. And in a way, it is. That's no small part of the charm.
In this 15th annual edition of the Providence Phoenix 's Best issue, we highlight people and organizations who are doing exceptionally good work — local heroes who often labor behind the scenes, but are changing their communities for the better.
Under the Sea
Robert Ballard, the charismatic professor of oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, has had an illustrious career as a marine explorer. But he is best known for discovering the Titanic on September 1, 1985.
Mea Culpa
This week, Providence mayor-turned-Congressman David Cicilline appeared on WPRI-TV to apologize.
Public Works Dept.
Kennedy Plaza, in the heart of downtown Providence, has long been a problem. Seedy, unwelcoming, it is a troubling — if helpful — reminder of the poverty and addiction that still plague the renaissance city.
Giggles
Stand-up comic and actor Lenny Clarke has carved out a career as a Northeastern everyman — a wise-cracking, self-deprecating, heavily-accented jokester with an appealing obnoxious streak.
Jekyll and Hyde
There is a strange duality to businessman Anthony Gemma's all-but-official Congressional campaign.
Features Dept.
Michael Healey, best known as the amiable spokesman for former Attorney General Patrick Lynch, has nicknamed independent investigative reporter Jim Hummel's stories the "Hummel Pummel."
As the ProJo Turns
Turn to the comics in this week's Providence Journal and there, near the top of the right-hand column, you'll find cartoonist and provocateur Garry Trudeau's "Doonesbury" in its usual spot.
Making It in Rhode Island
As the economy coughs its way toward something resembling recovery, politicians and economists are pointing to a surprising elixir: manufacturing.
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