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ThursdayScene THE BOSTON GL OBE THURSDAY, DECEMBER 21, 2017 | BOSTONGL OBE.COM/LIFESTYLE

SAMANTHA STAMAS/GLOBE STAFF/AP

Holiday suggestions worth hearing New audiobook releases touch on literary fiction, Sherlock, silence, and space

By Christina Thompson GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

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big stor y in publishing these days is the stupen­ dous growth in the once­ sleepy category of audio­ b o o k s . S a l e s a r e through the roof; cata­ logs are exploding; libraries are having to rewrite their bud­ gets to accommodate the demands of their users. So, in this season of giving, why not consider an audiobook (or a gift card with suggestions) not just for your ancient aunt or retired father but for al­ most anyone on your list. To get you started, here are a few recent releases.

“Astrophysics for People in a Hurry’’ and “Cosmos’’ (Blackstone and Brilliance) Here’s a great pairing, especially for people who like to be educated while they are being entertained. “Astrophys­ ics’’ was written and is narrated here by astrophysicist and science educator Neil deGrasse Tyson, host of the TV series “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey.’’ Tyson has a marvelous voice, deep and calm­ i n g , a n d a s a n y o n e w h o h a s e v e r watched him knows, he has the science popularizer’s gift of being able to make even the most abstruse material fasci­ nating and easy to understand. Add to AUDIOBOOKS, Page G5

DANCE

MOVIES

Kurtis Blow is MC, but those beats are Tchaikovsky’s

A ‘Jumanji’ for the video­game generation

By Terence Cawley GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

In 1979, Kurtis Blow’s “Christ­ mas Rappin’ ” became the first hip­hop song ever released on a major label, paving the way for the man born Kurtis Walker to be­ come rap’s first true solo star with his iconic follow­up single “The Breaks.” Nearly 40 years later, Walker’s still spreading holiday cheer as the MC for “The Hip­Hop Nutcracker,” which comes to the S h u b e r t T h e a t r e T h u r s d a y through Saturday.

Walker has been involved with

By Tom Russo GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

the show, in which a dozen hip­ hop dancers and an onstage DJ put a modern spin on Tchaik­ ovsky’s classic ballet, since its 2014 premiere at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. Director, choreographer, and co­creator Jennifer Weber originally wanted to combine hip­hop dance with Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons,” but when the theater pitched “The Nutcracker” instead, Weber was game.

UNITED PALACE OF CULTURAL ARTS “There’s something really in­ teresting about classical music be­ Kurtis Blow is MC for “The Hip­Hop Nutcracker,” at the ‘‘HIP­HOP NUTCRACKER,’’ Page G7 Shubert Theatre Thursday through Saturday.

What threatened to be cynical exploitation of an ele­ gant, critically lauded picture book instead proves to be something more palatable in the rollicking , if loosely adapted, “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle.”

Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, and Jack Black might not seem the likeliest casting for breathing life into the rich black­and­white pastels of Beverly­based illustrator Chris Van Allsburg (“The Po­ lar Express”). But the group’s thematically, comedically broad inversion of the source

material is consistently enter­ taining, and squeezes in some n i c e l y p l a y e d c h a r a c t e r growth to boot.

Some might remember Robin Williams’s 1995 “Ju­ manji” feature also took liber­ ties with this Pandora’s box tale of a mystical board game, particularly in rendering the zoological chaos that it expec­ torated into the real world.

But the quasi­sequel gets into wholesale changes straight­ away, scoffing at the fustiness of board games, and imagin­ ing that Jumanji morphs it­ self into a video game to maintain its dark allure. ‘‘JUMANJI,’’ Page G5

Inside TELEVISION

BOTTLES

PHOTOGRAPHY

ELVES AND ORCS IN MODERN­DAY LA

ANCHORING A TRADITION

SOMETHING CLICKED

Will Smith stars as a fed­up cop in Netflix’s pricey fantasy­thriller ‘Bright’

This holiday craft beer’s been going strong and getting stronger for 43 years

Exhibit samples Jay Hale’s treasure trove of concert images from the Middle East

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ThursdayScene THE BOSTON GL OBE THURSDAY, OC TOBER 19, 2017 | BOSTONGL OBE.COM/LIFESTYLE

A Donald Murray homecoming After nearly 20 years, the papers of the beloved teacher and award­winning writer have found their way back to the UNH campus in Durham

BY JAMES SULLIVAN | GL OBE CORRESPONDENT DURHAM, N.H. — When Hannah Starobin was a child, her family planned a summer trip across the coun­ try. Her father, the writer Donald Murray, worked as he drove. He dictated while his wife, Minnie Mae, typed notes, on a typewriter perched on the Ford van’s center console.

Murray was the lion of the renowned writing program at the University of New Hampshire, known to Boston Globe readers for his long­running, much­loved Over 60 column (eventually retitled Now and Then), his last one published shortly before his death in 2006 at age 82.

When he wasn’t writing or teaching, he was thinking about his craft, always. “Writing, for me, has always been a necessary, secret act of selfishness — and survival,’’ he once wrote.

“He loved nothing more than a stationery supply, a chart, a plan,” recalls Starobin, a psychotherapist in Westchester County, New York. Her father, a journalist

and author of more than a dozen books, kept squares of paper in his shirt pocket for notes, she says: “He was con­ stantly writing in his head.”

Murray, who was born in Boston and grew up in Quincy, was a meticulous archivist of his own work, keeping an ever­present “daybook” of his ideas, rough drafts, revisions, poems, short stories, and much more.

For nearly 20 years, those daybooks and other yields from Murray’s desk sat in more than 100 archival storage boxes at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Pe­ tersburg, Fla., awaiting future generations of writing stu­ dents. Now, in a move that some admirers felt long over­ due, Murray’s papers recently made their way back home to the UNH campus in Durham.

“It’s nice to have them back,” says Starobin.

Murray was a big man, and he had the corner office in the English department, says Rebecca Rule, the Yankee MURRAY, Page G7

AP

THEATER

In New Rep’s ‘Oleanna,’ a power play in academia

By Don Aucoin GLOBE STAFF

WATERTOWN — In the New Repertory Theatre pro­ duction of David Mamet’s “Oleanna,’’ an angry young woman, having turned the tables on an arrogant mid­ dle­aged man she accuses of abusing his power, spells out the new state of play in un­ equivocal terms.

“You can’t do that any­ more,’’ she tells him. “You. Do. Not. Have. The. Power.’’

Hear that, Harvey Wein­ stein? And all the would­be Harveys out there: All clear?

This is not to say, howev­ er, that Mamet’s own sym­ pathies necessarily lie with

the woman in his intermit­ tently gripping but often te­ dious 1992 two­hander. In­ deed, anyone looking to for­ tify the oft­stated case that Mamet, the quintessential macho playwright, can’ t write fully dimensional fe­ male characters will find ample evidence in “Olean­ na.’’

A college undergraduate named Carol, played with unremitting intensity by Obehi Janice, is struggling mightily in a class taught by a middle­aged professor named John (Johnny Lee Davenport). Wearing a yel­ low sweatshirt and a red ‘‘OLEANNA,’’ Page G4

OCT 19, 2017–JAN 21, 2018

Inside

COMEDY

A ‘DAILY’ DOSE Roy Wood Jr., a ‘Daily Show’ correspondent, brings his standup act to town G3

MUSIC

MONK MADNESS New England Conservatory is hosting a celebration of piano great Thelonious Monk G5

PHOTOGRAPHY

‘Cheap, quick, and dirty, that’s how I like it!’

By Mark Feeney GLOBE STAFF

MEDFORD — What’s likely this year’s freshest, loosest, and most exciting art exhi­ bition is also the most ephemeral. “Robert Frank: Books and Films, 1947­2017,” an elaborate pop­up, opened at Tufts Universi­ ty’s Tisch Library on Oct. 7 and closes Nov. 5.

The ephemerality extends beyond dura­ tion. The catalogue is a newspaper — yes, an actual, hold­it­in­your­hands newspaper — a 64­page special edition of Germany’s Süd­ deutsche Zeitung. Don’t worry, it’s in Eng­ lish. The show’s several hundred images — none of them framed or matted — are print­ ed on long sheets of recycled newsprint. Oh, and both show and catalogue are free. So

ROBERT FRANK

Robert Frank’s “Welsh Miners” from 1953, on exhibit at Tufts University. maybe subversive is a better description than ephemeral.

Subversion is something Frank has few peers at. Certainly, no other major living art­ ist has been so unpredictable and contrarian for so long: Frank turns 93 next month.

His book “The Americans” (1958) trans­ formed photography, with its seemingly ca­ sual blend of skepticism and lyricism, alien­ ation and myth. Yet Frank soon gave up pho­ tography for experimental film. After a decade devoted to filmmaking, he took up FRANK, Page G7

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Editorial

T h e B o s t o n G l o b e

M O N D A Y, N O V E M B E R 2 7 , 2 0 1 7

Opinion BOSTONGLOBE.COM/OPINION

Editorial

Online learning can ease economic inequality

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igital learning is often seen a complement to sit­in­the­classroom colleges courses, but at a recent conference at MIT, experts convinc­ ingly portrayed innovative online offerings as a key tool for helping those of modest means move up the economic ladder.

College degrees pay off. But low­income students often face family, financial, or work constraints that keep them from pursuing higher education full­time or even on a regular nights­and­weekend basis. Citing the fact that 36 million Americans have some college but no degree, key­ note speaker Ted Mitchell, president of the American Council on Education and a former federal undersecre­ tary of education, said the American higher education sys­ tem is “leaving too many students along the side of the road.”

And though Massachusetts is a comparatively well­ed­ ucated state, the same problem exists here. Chris Gabrieli, chairman of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Educa­ tion, noted that those who have a bachelor’s degree make, on average, about twice as much as those who don’t. Still, 1.5 million working­age Massachusetts residents either

have only a high school diploma or, if they have taken some college courses, have not obtained any kind of de­ gree. That despite the fact that almost a third of working­ age residents without a degree say they’d like to pursue one.

The Baker administration hopes that flexible, expand­ ed digital learning opportunities will help them achieve that goal. One subject that came up repeatedly at was the importance of college courses built around mastering competencies, something that students can work on at their own pace and on their own schedule, rather than on spending a specific amount of time in the classroom.

A second: College credit for prior learning. By identify­ ing and giving credit for legitimate skills already obtained, colleges can ease the path toward a degree. That’s particu­ larly important for those who have served in the military, since their careers often included high­quality training.

Meanwhile, several leading employers showcased their own efforts to make digital learning work for current and prospective employees. Partners HealthCare, the state’s largest employer, announced it will make a new online health care­management program, offered through the

University of Southern New Hampshire, available to all its employees on an affordable basis. General Electric pledged to interview for jobs any state resident who com­ pletes a “MicroMasters” program in cybersecurity, artifi­ cial intelligence, supply­chain management, or cloud computing offered through the online­learning platform edX.org.

So how to push these trends along? One problem is that federal financial aid is generally not available for competency­based online learning. Meanwhile, more em­ ployers should take their cues from Partners and GE in encouraging digital education. And more colleges should get in the game with affordable, for­credit online offer­ ings.

The Baker administration, which sponsored the con­ ference and will soon appoint a commission to explore ways to expand online learning opportunities in areas critical to the state’s economy, should be applauded for its efforts here. This kind of wonky work often get over­ looked, but it’s an important effort to create a future where more residents can share the benefits of our knowl­ edge­based economy.

Tyranny of the lobbyists

By David Dodson

“T

axation without rep­ resentation is tyranny!” was the ral­ lying cry 244 years ago when a crowd of Boston patriots dumped 342 chests of tea into Boston Harbor. But if those same freedom­loving colonists lived among us now, they’d have a strong lesson for us: America is suffering the same tyranny to­ day.

Earlier this month House Speaker Paul Ryan released the tax bill, written in secret by the Republican Party, with 429 pag­ es of proposed changes to the tax code. He then pressed the members of Congress to vote on it in 13 days. They did what they were told. Without floor debate, or thoughtful review, nearly every Republican repre­ sentative came out in support of 429 pages they almost certainly never read.

The Internal Revenue Code is now 74,608 pages long, and buried in those tens of thou­ sands of pages is a tax scheme that virtually no American un­ derstands. Therein lies the de­ ceit: We rely on a system of rep­ resentative democracy. We en­ trust others to represent our interests. It is not our job to read those 74,608 pages, which is why when they tell us it’s a middle­class tax cut, we believe they are telling the truth.

We entrust them while the rest of America takes on equally important jobs, like teaching our children, fighting overseas, digging coal, or making cars.

Every day the middle class does its part, while our representa­ tives in Washington, who have taken an oath, continue to fail to do theirs.

Both parties play the same tyrannical game. During the

last 35 years, while control of the Senate and the House has been nearly equally shared by Republicans and Democrats, the number of pages in the tax code has tripled. Representa­ tives from both parties continue to write paragraphs they know will never be seen by those they were elected to represent.

In recent weeks, the leaders of the House and Senate have been delivering soundbites from behind a podium decorat­ ed with a blue logo and the words “Tax Reform”— profess­ ing they have simplified the tax code for the middle class.

What most Americans are shown is the top tax bracket of 39.6 percent. What we fail to see, though, are the thousands of pages that allow wealthy peo­ ple to avoid ever paying that rate. To illustrate this, Warren Buffet generously released his 2015 tax return to the public, showing he paid taxes at a 15.5 percent rate — the rate some­ one making $50,000 per year would pay.

The same is true for corpora­ tions. We are told that corpora­ tions pay a 35 percent tax rate, when in fact many pay nothing at all, and on average they pay only 17 percent.

I’m not coming from a place of sour grapes here. I am lucky enough to be a one percenter, and I’m telling you: The tax bill was not written for the middle class. It was written for people like me.

President Trump, who re­ fused to release his own re­ turns, acknowledged that he paid very little in taxes. “That makes me smart!” he bragged, to which those of us in the top 1 percent rolled our eyes. Why? Because any businessperson knows wealthy people don’t have to be smart to pay lower

taxes. The game is rigged in our favor. You don’t have to be smart to win when you get to write the rules.

Samuel Johnson said the taxation system of King George was “a mere cobweb, spread to catch the unwary, and entangle the weak.” That’s the same out­ rageous game our representa­ tives are playing against us to­ day. We’ve been fooled into thinking the tax code is just too complicated for the average American to understand. But that’s hardly a line of thinking Sam Adams or Paul Revere would have accepted.

There is the saying: “Those with the gold get to make the rules.” But that is how great eco­ nomic systems fail, not how they thrive. Real tax reform, the kind we should insist on, will be about creating a system that doesn’t favor those with power or access. It’ll be simple and un­ derstood by all Americans — much like the tax code of our grandparents, who lived during a time when America won two world wars and ushered in an­

other industrial revolution.

If we really want to make America great, we’re going to need to chuck those 74,608 pag­ es into the harbor and insist on a truly reformed tax system that represents the interests of an in­ terstate truck driver as faithfully as a millionaire. Letting lobby­ ists for the moneyed classes build ever more complex tax rules that even our representa­ tives don’t understand is 21st­ century tyranny.

David Dodson is a general partner of Futaleufu Partners and a lecturer in management at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

AP

400 1913

504 1939

abcde Fo u n d e d 1 87 2 JOHN W. HENRY Publisher

BRIAN McGRORY Editor

VINAY MEHRA President

ELLEN CLEGG Editor, Editorial Page

LINDA PIZZUTI HENRY Managing Director

CHRISTINE S. CHINLUND Managing Editor

16,500 1969

SENIOR DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS Mark S. Morrow Jennifer Peter

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS Janice Page Arts and Newsroom Innovation Marjorie Pritchard Editorial Page David Dahl Print and Operations Jason M. Tuohey Digital Platforms and Audience Engagement Dante Ramos Ideas Larry Edelman News and Features

26,300 1984

60,044 2004

BUSINESS MANAGEMENT Peter M. Doucette Chief Consumer Revenue Officer Jane Bowman Vice President, Marketing & Strategic Partnerships Doug Most Director, Strategic Growth Initiatives Dan Krockmalnic General Counsel Dale Carpenter Senior Vice President Print Operations Paul Higgins Vice President, Finance

74,608 2017

Charles H. Taylor Founder & Publisher 1873­1921 William O. Taylor Publisher 1921­1955 Wm. Davis Taylor Publisher 1955­1977 William O. Taylor Publisher 1978­1997 Benjamin B. Taylor Publisher 1997­1999 Richard H. Gilman Publisher 1999­2006 P. Steven Ainsley Publisher 2006­2009 Christopher M. Mayer Publisher 2009­2014 Laurence L. Winship Editor 1955­1965 Thomas Winship Editor 1965­1984

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Ideas

B o s t o n S u n d a y G l o b e

FEBRUARY 25, 2018

Brainiac

BIG IDEAS IN LITTLE BITES

ETHICAL DILEMMA IDEAMOJI

Manhattan in ancient Mexico

Elizabeth Swaney isn’t a world­class freestyle ski­ er. Yet there she was, cruising dutifully down the half­ pipe in PyeongChang alongside Olympic greats. The American­born entrant competed for Hungary, land­ ing a spot on that country’s squad by exploiting the sport’s points system. She didn’t medal, but she did rack up a mountain of vitriol and mockery online.

Comparisions came quick with Pita Taufatofua, the shirtless Tongan taekwondo­er, who finished 114th out of 116 cross­country skiers and Mexican Germán Madrazo, who finished dead last. Cheap trick or legit competition? Here are two views:

It’s only been a decade or so since ar­ cheologists discovered Angamuco, a long­lost city built in central Mexico starting around 900 AD. Laser­scanning technology LI­ DAR now reveals 40,000 building foundations there — about as many as in Manhattan.

Blood test for brain injury FDA gives speedy approval to test that picks up UCH­L1 and GFAP pro­ teins, which are thought to be re­ leased after concussions. But some scientists question validity of these biomarkers, and fear a negative test result will discourage further treat­ ment even when warranted.

Carol Hay, philosophy professor at UMass Lowell: “It’s worth noticing how differently the court of public opinion treats these athletes: Madrazo and Taufatofua are held up as heartwarming examples of scrappy en­ durance in the face of overwhelming odds, while Swaney is tarred as manipulative and pathetic. Plenty of past Olympic Games have had incompetent media darlings (Eddie the Eagle in 1998, the Jamaican bob­ sled team in 1988) but there hasn’t been a single woman permitted to occupy this role. Given how poorly we view ambitious women in general, this probably shouldn’t surprise us. Participants who at­ tempt to compete despite being manifestly unquali­ fied are essentially making a public relations gamble.

But as Swaney demonstrates, Machiavellianism in women just doesn’t sell.”

Sorry, E.T., we’re busy To search for extraterrestrial intelli­ gence, scientists need cutting­edge computer chips. But amid surge in cryptocurrency prices, bitcoin miners snap up graphics­processing units, creating shortage for alien hunters.

— DANTE RAMOS

Frank Shorr, director of the Sports Institute at Boston University: “As a fan of the Olympics growing up, I thought the only thing better than watching both the Summer and Winter Games was months later seeing Bud Greenspan’s extraordinary documentaries about them. Greenspan weaved the tales of the struggle. The struggle to get there, the struggle to compete. Those stories were rarely about the gold medalists. Look, we all want to be winners, but that just isn’t possible. The Games have standards, and that ought to be good enough. If we are truly going to ‘bring the world together,’ we need these athletes, these stories, if for nothing else but to remind us that sometimes trying is more important than winning.

Greenspan would be proud.”

In an informal poll on Twitter by @GlobeIdeas, most people blamed the Olympic rules that allowed Swaney to compete. “Not her fault. Fix the rules,” said 75 percent of respondents. Only 25 percent chose “Has she no shame?”

— ALEX KINGSBURY FAZRY ISMAIL/EPA­EFE/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK

CSIRO

ON SECOND THOUGHT In a refreshing example of acting quickly, the journal PeerJ issued a warning about a paper just six days after the original article appeared. The reason: readers spotted something fishy with the materials used in the study — about the produc­ tion of methane used to supply rice paddies with oxygen — and the authors of the article readily agreed. Five days later, PeerJ retracted the paper, which the authors plan to resubmit using new materials.

Eleven days is very speedy for a retraction, but not a record. That title likely goes to the Euro­ pean Heart Journal, which in 2014 yanked an ar­ ticle after only 48 hours. The paper had alleged that the sloppy work of a Dutch researcher had led to some 800,000 deaths. On the other ex­ treme is the Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Ge­ neeskunde (the Dutch Journal of Medicine), which in 2003 retracted a curious case study about a young man who died after coughing up a quart of what evidently was urine. Except that the case was a fake — something it took the jour­ nal 80 years to recognize officially.

— ADAM MARCUS Retraction Watch

{ 50 words } Walking through Christopher Columbus Park to catch the ferry home, I came upon a hop­ scotch painted on the ground. Without any hesitation I jumped on it. Feeling a sense of pride, I could hear a woman yell over, “good for you!” “Thanks,” I responded. “You have to keep on moving.”

— MARILYN STARSIAK, Hingham Have a true story about Boston you can tell in exactly 50 words? Submit yours to 50words@globe.com.

STATUE PHOTO: DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF; PARK PHOTO: INGFBRUNO/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Uncommon Knowledge B y K e v i n L e w i s Fait accompli The very fact of something taking effect makes people more likely to accept it, new re­ search indicates. Right after a ban on selling plas­ tic water bottles took effect in San Francisco, res­ idents reported more positive attitudes towards the ban than when they were asked right before it took effect. When interviewed right after a ban on smoking in certain areas took effect in Ontar­ io, smokers reported having smoked less in those areas in the past — as compared with smokers who were asked right before the ban took effect.

Likewise, Americans reported more support for President Trump right after his inauguration than immediately before.

Laurin, K., “Inaugurating Rationalization: Three Field Studies Find Increased Rationalization When Anticipated Realities Become Current,” Psycho­ logical Science (forthcoming).

Neighborhood attractions Analyzing data on residential property sales and exploiting the timing of the unexpected lift­ ing of a moratorium on new strip clubs in Seattle, economists found “no statistical evidence that the presence of strip clubs was associated with any abnormal property price declines,” while “the evidence suggests some excess price apprecia­ tion for properties located 1,000 to 2,000 feet

from clubs.”

Brooks, T. et al., “Strip Clubs, ‘Secondary Ef­ fects,’ and Residential Property Prices,” Real Es­ tate Economics (forthcoming).

didates have only a modest effect on citizens’ voting decisions,” such that voters are really just considering party affiliation, not ideology. As a re­ sult, ideological moderation is worth only 1 or 2 percentage points for congressional candidates.

Tausanovitch, C. & Warshaw, C., “Does the Ideological Proximity between Candidates and Voters Affect Voting in U.S. House Elections?” Po­ litical Behavior (forthcoming).

Seeing is believing In a series of experiments, researchers at the University of Chicago showed people a brief vid­ eo clip of someone performing a difficult action (e.g., yanking a tablecloth from under tableware, throwing darts, doing the moonwalk a la Michael Jackson, juggling bowling pins). After watching the video clip over and over many times, people become significantly more confident in their abil­ ity to perform the action than if they’d watched the video once or received non­visual instruction.

They were also more confident than their own actual performance might justify. In other words, binge­watching led to overconfidence.

Kardas, M. & O’Brien, E., “Easier Seen than Done: Merely Watching Others Perform Can Fos­ ter an Illusion of Skill Acquisition,” Psychological Science (forthcoming).

Quick, read this In several experiments, participants had to choose between identical tasks with different payouts. Each task was also said to “expire” after either a short or long period of time — though, in both cases, the expiration deadline was always longer than the time participants were told they’d have to complete the task. In other words, the expiration deadline was specious. Neverthe­ less, a significant fraction of participants chose the task with the lower payout when it had a tight deadline, suggesting how easy it is to create an illusion of urgency. This was particularly true for participants who thought of themselves as busy.

Zhu, M. et al., “The Mere Urgency Effect,” Journal of Consumer Research (forthcoming).

Unrepresentative By comparing the ideological positions of vot­ ers and candidates for the US House of Repre­ sentatives, political scientists found that “the ide­ ological positions of individual congressional can­

GETTY

Kevin Lewis is an Ideas columnist. He can be reached at kevin.lewis.ideas@globe.com.

ThursdayScene

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THE BOSTON GL OBE THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2018 | BOSTONGL OBE.COM/LIFESTYLE

RON BATZDORFF/NBC

Glenn Howerton (left) and Patton Oswalt in “A.P. Bio.”

TELEVISION

High marks for the class clowns in ‘A.P. Bio’

By Matthew Gilbert GLOBE STAFF

It’s a sign of the times that Glenn Howerton, the star of NBC’s new sit­ com “A.P. Bio,” will be unfamiliar to many of the network’s viewers. Hower­ ton is in the ensemble of one of the most enduring comedies of the past two decades, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” which has run for 12 seasons and has already been renewed for two more. Indeed, after the next two seasons, “It’s Always Sunny” will tie — ironically, if you’ve watched the show — the super wholesome “The Ad­ ventures of Ozzie and Harriet” for the longest­running live­action sitcom ev­ er.

But “It’s Always Sunny,” about the debauchery of a group of friends — in­ cluding pretending to be intellectually challenged to get welfare, going to an ‘‘A.P. BIO,’’ Page G3

THEATER

Ambition, racial justice collide in ‘Hype Man’

By Don Aucoin GLOBE STAFF

After a police shooting of an un­ armed black teenager, a hip­hop per­ former named Verb decides it’s time to create music that takes a stand against racial injustice in “Hype Man: a break beat play,’’ declaring: “I got things I want to say. I’m gonna say it.’’

That’s a stance Verb has in com­ mon with Idris Goodwin, the gifted dramatist who wrote “Hype Man,’’ and also, crucially, with Company One Theatre and its artistic director, Shawn LaCount, who is helming the outstanding world­premiere produc­ tion of Goodwin’s new play­with­mu­ sic.

“Hype Man’’ has things to say and it says them, emphatically, without shortchanging the imperatives of sto­ rytelling and characterization. Com­ pany One’s production sizzles with the ‘‘HYPE MAN,’’ Page G4

Inside THING TANK

KEEPING TRACK OF TECHNOLOGY From Fitbit trouble to Internet shorthand, a review of the week online G2

MUSIC

A WORLD OF INFLUENCES Rostam explores musical connections, wherever they lead G3

PHOTOS BY PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF

A PATTERN HERE A new Museum of Science exhibit looks at the math in nature and all around us B y Ja m e s S u l l i va n | G l o b e C o r r e s p o n d e n t

F

irst, a few hard facts about the newest exhibit at the Museum of Science: It’s 1,700 square feet. It features 30,000 LED lights. It’s com­ posed of 86 large mirrors.

Metaphysically speaking, however, the Mir­ ror Maze is much more than the sum of its parts. It can show you forever.

Through the optical illusion of an interlocking network of angled mirrors endlessly reflecting images off each oth­ er, the maze offers a profound — and fun — glimpse into the halls of infinity. It’s the centerpiece of a new traveling exhibit, “A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature,” that opens Sunday and runs till April 25.

The exhibit, first developed for the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, aims to demonstrate math pat­ terns as they occur in the natural and physical world. Be­ MIRROR MAZE, Page G5

The “A Mirror Maze: Numbers in Nature” exhibit at the Museum of Science features a mirror maze (above) and other items like a 3­D model of a human lung (right) and the hexagonal pattern of a honeycomb (below right).

Workers install panels for the mirror maze (below left).

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Editorial

T h e B o s t o n G l o b e

M O N D A Y, D E C E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 1 7

Opinion BOSTONGLOBE.COM/OPINION

Editorial

It’s now or never for UMass Boston

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t’s now­or­never time for the Univer­ sity of Massachusetts Boston — time to stop talking about its huge poten­ tial as an urban institute of higher learning and do what it takes to make it happen.

Unfortunately, after a year of fiscal chaos and unsettled leadership, UMass Boston still must prove itself worthy of such commit­ ment.

In July, the interim chancellor, Barry Mills, took over after J. Keith Motley resigned as chancellor amid controversy over budget­ ary matters. Mills plans to leave next sum­ mer, at which point UMass Boston hopes to appoint a permanent replacement. Mean­ while, the interim chancellor is overseeing ef­ forts to reduce a deficit that at one point was estimated at $30 million.

Martin T. Meehan, the president of the entire University of Massachusetts system, now pegs the deficit at $8 million. The plan is to bring it down to $5 million when the cur­ rent fiscal year ends, on June 30. Meehan

said he’s leaving it up to Mills, the former president of Bowdoin College, to figure out how to do that.

But Mills’s deficit reduction plan has got­ ten off to a rough start. Staff reductions and a hiring freeze that is supposed to save $3.5 million targeted, among others, a janitor with mental health and physical challenges — who was two years away from his ability to retire with maximum benefits. That ham­ handed move raises concerns that the cuts unfairly target employees at the lower end of the pay scale at the expense of highly paid employees who are politically connected.

Meehan should assure that future reductions are done more equitably across the board.

Meehan should also be expected to make sure that UMass Boston gets its fiscal house in order before a new chancellor is installed.

Financial stability is a must; great candidates won’t come forward if they know they are walking into a fiscal and infrastructure disas­ ter. It is also critical that UMass Boston show the state it can manage the money needed to

fix its crumbling underground garage. So far, Governor Charlie Baker is committing $78 million for the repair project; more is needed.

To help in the search, Meehan has enlist­ ed the help of Freeman A. Hrabowski III, the longtime president of the University of Mary­ land, Baltimore County (UMBC). Hrabowski, who is credited with helping to establish one of the most successful urban public research universities in the country, is being paid a $25,000 consulting fee; according to a Mee­ han spokesman, it will be donated to scholar­ ships at UMBC. Here’s some of Hrabowski’s advice, at no cost to anyone: First, UMass Boston needs to demon­ strate to the public that it knows how to manage its funds well. Then, the state needs to ask itself if it wants its public institutions — including UMass Boston — to be universi­ ties that “large numbers of students, includ­ ing well­prepared students, will seriously consider,” Hrabowski said in a telephone in­ terview.

The next leader also needs to know “there is a plan” and that Meehan, the UMass board, and the public are working together to address problems.

Finally, “the state needs to understand the role of a public urban research university and the important role it can play in the econo­ my.” To do that, Massachusetts has to “look in the mirror” and decide whether it has the de­ sire to make UMass Boston “an institution of choice” and not just “an institution for ‘those people’ who are less advantaged and who have no other choice,” said Hrabowski. His verdict: “I think UMass Boston has tremen­ dous potential to become one of the nation’s leaders among urban public universities.”

Of course, that’s been said many times be­ fore. Absent real commitment to harness the potential of UMass Boston, and clarity of vi­ sion set by the system’s top leadership, Mas­ sachusetts might as well auction off this valu­ able waterfront property for private develop­ ment and stop paying lip service to a mission it has yet to fully embrace.

RENÉE LOTH

A memorial in green AP

Y

ou’re walking along in the vast Harvard Forest in Petersham, the air sharp and redolent of fall­ en leaves, when suddenly you reach a brightly painted wooden barrier. “Trail closed,” it reads.

“Safety hazard.” It’s the first stop of the Hemlock Hospice, an art installation and interpretive trail by designer David Buckley Borden and his team of forest ecologists. As its name suggests, the mile­long project is an elegy for the New England hem­ lock forest, which is dying. “People who walk these trails expect a certain experience and then they run in­ to this,” said Borden. “It’s meant to jar them, to say, ‘You have to think about your woods in a whole new way.’ ” Part sculpture, part pedagogy, part citizen sci­ ence, the project speaks largely in artistic meta­ phor. But the popular Black Gum trail really is off­limits to the public, because its towering eastern hemlock trees have been infected by the invasive woolly adelgid. These tiny bee­ tles suck all the nutrients out of the hem­ lock’s needles and leave ghost trees, bare and vulnerable to toppling over in the wind. Another stop along the hospice trail offers visitors a row of brightly decorated hard hats.

Smaller than George Washington’s eye on the US quarter, the adelgid probably arrived from Ja­ pan on a shipment of ornamental wood. It was first noticed in Virginia in 1951 but was mostly contained until the climate began warming. Then it started a steady, deadly march northward.

Whole forests have been decimated; there are almost no large stands of eastern hemlock in Pennsylvania, where it was once plen­ tiful enough to be named the state tree. “You can track this very predictably up the East Coast,” said Aaron Ellison, senior research fellow in ecology at Harvard University.

The bug has no known lethal parasites, and attacking it with a chemical insecticide has dire implications for the rest of the environment. It may be possi­ ble to save a few isolated legacy trees, but nothing can be done on a landscape scale. Even

Hemlock Hill at the Arnold Arboretum is completely infested; with about one­third of its 1,900 hemlock trees gone. “It’s more like Birch Hill now,” said Ellison.

Well, birches are nice; what does it matter if the hemlock disappears? For one thing, the hemlock is what is known as a foundation species; its role in the forest can’t easily be swapped with another tree. Because it is a conifer, it begins photosynthesis in late winter — pulling in water at the roots, stabilizing the land, and preventing flash floods. It’s a cultural touchstone for New England; Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost wrote some of their most famous poems about the familiar wood­ land sentry. And the hemlock is a marker for cli­ mate change — the canary in the forest. The adel­ gid can’t survive if temperatures reach about 13 degrees below zero Fahrenheit; Petersham, near the Quabbin Reservoir, used to see those temperatures in winter, but Ellison says it hasn’t been that cold for at least 10 years.

“We speak of invasive species as if they have agency,” he says. “But we carried it here.’’

As we walk along the trail, we arrive at a large wood sculpture tipped on its side, looking rather like a giant circular hairbrush painted yellow. It represents a hemlock carcass, and visitors treat it like a shrine, leaving messages scrawled on blue tape and tied to the branches. “We will miss you,” one reads. And: “Sorry, hu­ man race.”

For Borden, who has a degree from Harvard in landscape architecture, the Hemlock Hospice is a way to build awareness of forest ecology, even if he can’t stop the ravaging. “It’s end­of­life care not just for the thing that’s dying, but for the living,” he said. The idea is to “not be overwhelmed by fear and to learn something from the loss.’’

It’s getting late in the afternoon, and turning cold, and suddenly the season’s first sugary snowfall is upon us. Later, I’ll dig through my Robert Frost and find that poem where he describes a crow shaking down the dust of snow from a hemlock tree, which “saved some part of a day I had rued.”

It’s hard not to feel rueful about the fate of the hemlock, some of which have been growing in the Harvard forest for 200 years. But the Hemlock Hospice will be open for another year, a long goodbye for this magnificent tree. Go pay your respects before it’s gone.

Renée Loth’s column appears regularly in the Globe.

PHOTOS BY DAVID BUCKLEY BORDEN

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SENIOR DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS Mark S. Morrow Jennifer Peter

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS Janice Page Arts and Newsroom Innovation Marjorie Pritchard Editorial Page David Dahl Print and Operations Jason M. Tuohey Digital Platforms and Audience Engagement Dante Ramos Ideas Larry Edelman News and Features

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ThursdayScene THE BOSTON GL OBE THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2018 | BOSTON GL OBE.COM/LIFESTYLE

THE WOMEN YOU MISSED IN HISTORY CLASS Recalling a dozen ‘Badass Broads’ who’ve (mostly) been forgotten

BY MACKENZI LEE GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

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he author of the first novel, warriors and rulers, scientists and war heroes.

History abounds with tales of trail­ blazing women long forgotten — espe­ cially those who were nonwhite, non­ Western, or not straight. Take a look at a dozen of the women in “Bygone Badass Broads” so you can begin to see what you missed in history class. Page G7

IMAGES FROM “BYGONE BADASS BROADS: 52 FORGOTTEN WOMEN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD”

Inside

THEATER

TELEVISION

The makers of “Icarus” set out to investigate doping in cycling; instead, they would come to expose widespread Russian corruption.

Subverting gender in Lyric’s sly ‘Orlando’ THEATER

By Jeremy D. Goodwin

SHARING THE STAGE

GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

The intense relationship between dear friends and sometime lovers Vir­ ginia Woolf and Vita Sackville­West was not a scandal in their own house­ holds — the writers’ similarly free­ thinking husbands were reportedly fine with it.

But when Woolf set out to write a light novel as a sort of love letter to her companion, she necessarily had to write in code. So she ingeniously creat­ ed a character based on Sackville­West who is born an enthusiastically hetero­ sexual man and wakes one day to dis­ cover that his anatomy has mysteri­ ously changed to that of a woman, though his — now her — amorous pas­ sions are unchanged.

The fantastical device of having her ‘‘ORLANDO,’’ Page G7

In Lyric’s production of ‘Every Brilliant Thing’ the audience gets into the act G3

BOTTLES

A NEW SPIRIT OF ’76 Samuel Adams’s take on a low­ABV everyday beer is something to celebrate G2 MARK S. HOWARD

Jeff Marcus and Caroline Lawton in the Lyric Stage production of “Virginia Woolf ’s Orlando.”

NETFLIX

Impact of ‘Icarus’ wasn’t in the script

By Isaac Feldberg GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

When the team behind “Icarus” first set out to inves­ tigate illegal doping in cy­ cling, they couldn’ t have known their work on the Os­ car­nominated documentary would spark an international incident with Russia, one with seismic, still­unfolding

repercussions.

In fact, when filmmaker Bryan Fogel first approached Impact Partners, a social­jus­ tice documentary funder based out of New York, with the concept for “Icarus” (now streaming on Netflix), his pitch skewed more personal than political. It was 2013, ‘‘ICARUS,’’ Page G4

12

SATURDAY AUGUST 26, 2017

OPINION Editorial

Arroyo’s firing exposes Latino power gap The termination of Felix G. Arroyo has ended a brief chapter with sordid allegations against the for­ mer Health and Human Services chief. But the con­ troversy isn’t entirely over for the Walsh administra­ tion: The departure of the highest­ranking Latino in city government leaves a gaping hole in an adminis­ tration that already does not have enough Hispanic representation. For all of Mayor Walsh’s well­intend­ ed efforts, Latinos are still a relatively invisible politi­ cal force in Boston, even though they account for nearly 20 percent of the city’s population.

Arroyo was the first official appointed to Walsh’s cabinet. It was a move seen as payback for Arroyo de­ livering the Latino vote with a hearty endorsement of Walsh following Arroyo’s elimination from the may­ oral race. As chief of Health and Human Services, Ar­ royo oversaw seven agencies that serve some of the most disenfranchised populations: Boston’s youth, el­ derly, disabled, veteran, and immigrant residents.

The mayor made the right decision in swiftly firing Arroyo, but Walsh needs to double down on efforts to elevate Hispanic representation.

Latinos account for 92 percent of Boston’s popula­ tion growth since 1980. Paul Grogan, the president of the The Boston Foundation, recently said it best: “There is no Boston Renaissance without Latinos.”

And yet, the Latino power gap remains as large as ev­ er. According to a recent report commissioned by the Greater Boston Latino Network, only 10 percent of the city’s executive positions are held by Latinos, up from 7 percent three years ago. By another measure, reflective representation of Hispanics has actually di­ minished: Their membership on the city’s boards and commissions declined from 7 percent to 5 percent.

According to city officials, 11 percent of the city’s workforce is of Hispanic origin, while 12 percent of Mayor Walsh’s new hires since he took office have been Latino.

When a minority group is not represented in gov­ ernment in a way that mirrors their share of the pop­ ulation, the group’s voices and concerns cannot be fully considered in making policy. “Latino represen­ tation is important to ensure cultural and linguistic competency in the provision of city services and pro­ grams,” said Iván Espinoza­Madrigal, executive di­ rector for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights and Economic Justice. “We want everyone in the city to see that their government is attuned to their needs.”

The numbers also make it clear that there is a need for more mobilization and political organization in the Latino community. That may happen over time, but visible Latino leadership in government — as well as in business and nonprofit sectors — will help accelerate the process. While not all of that re­ sponsibility should fall on the shoulders of the mayor, there’s more work to be done at City Hall.

READERS’ FORUM

‘Free speech,’ from left, right, and middle

The bandwagon is headed for a cliff I wish to commend Jeff Jacoby on his article regarding the “free speech” rally on Boston Common (“On Bos­ ton Common, free speech took a beating,” Opinion, Aug. 23).

At the risk of incurring the wrath of the righteous, I must say that most fair­minded, nonpartisan people rec­ ognize we have a problem — in our country, in our media, and most par­ ticularly on our college campuses — with speech that conflicts with the popular narrative. Tyranny on the left is no more virtuous than tyranny on the right.

The bandwagon leading the pa­ rade to stifle contrary opinions will go over the cliff if it continues to be guided by a compass which points in only one direction. Imposing taboos on discomforting conversations only thickens the walls of the echo cham­ ber. Pretending that beliefs that are not compatible with the prevailing orthodoxy are heretical just fuels the fires of partisanship that are consum­ ing our society.

It’s the mentality that fed the In­ quisition. It takes impressive forti­ tude and conviction for Mr. Jacoby to regularly hurl himself against the lib­ eral tide that surges from the Globe’s editorial page.

their way into our groups and often disrupt our peaceful and civil demon­ strations. I think that this happened during the recent tragedy in Charlot­ tesville, Va. Many of these extremist groups only want to provoke vio­ lence. They thrive on conflict and the national attention it merits to pro­ mote their distorted views. They want to segregate Americans to the point that we have civil war.

We who love our country must re­ sist these divisive efforts to initiate conflict, as we will all lose when cha­ os overtakes our largely peaceful so­ ciety. I worry about the ever­increas­ ing violence that is occurring around the world. We cannot allow extrem­ ists to set the agenda for our future.

MICHAEL PRAVICA Henderson, Nev.

Both speech and thought were stifled

MICHAEL SHEEHY Boston

The left is silenced far more often than the right RE Joan Vennochi’s “Protecting speech we hate” (Opinion, Aug. 15): The right is no stranger to silencing free speech. President Trump has claimed people should be jailed for burning a US flag. The US govern­ ment has attempted to make it a felo­ ny to participate in a boycott of Isra­ el. Leftist protesters are constantly arrested, not for encouraging vio­ lence, but for acts of peaceful disrup­ tion. At times, this even extends to journalists covering protests. The Es­ pionage Act, incredibly, is still law, and has been used to prosecute whis­ tle­blowers who share information

AP

with the press, from Snowden to Manning.

Yet when white supremacists take to the streets and incite violence, then the free speech advocates come out in droves. Stand up for free speech, if you want to. But do it con­ sistently, not just when it’s neo­Nazis practicing it. And stop pretending that attempts to silence the extreme right is why our free speech is under

abcde Fo u n d e d 1 87 2 JOHN W. HENRY Publisher

BRIAN McGRORY Editor

VINAY MEHRA President and CFO

ELLEN CLEGG Editor, Editorial Page

LINDA PIZZUTI HENRY Managing Director

CHRISTINE S. CHINLUND Managing Editor

threat. It is under threat, but the left is prosecuted far more than the right.

GERARD CONNOLLY Roxbury Crossing

Don’t let extremists set the agenda RE the “skirmishes” and arrests ref­ erenced in your coverage of the “free

SENIOR DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS Mark S. Morrow Jennifer Peter

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORS Janice Page Arts and Newsroom Innovation Marjorie Pritchard Editorial Page David Dahl Print and Operations Jason M. Tuohey Digital Platforms and Audience Engagement Dante Ramos Ideas Larry Edelman News and Features

speech” rally (Page A1, Aug. 20): As a longtime activist for over 25 years, one of the things I would notice about our past protests (e.g., pertain­ ing to NATO’s illegal and savage bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999) — many in the Boston area — was that it was difficult to control who would participate in the protests and, as a result, fringe elements with alterna­ tive agendas to our own would work

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A free speech rally in Boston was stopped short by force. The mayor of Boston brags that violence was avoid­ ed and everything went well — ex­ cept for one thing. What happened to free speech? Did anyone actually lis­ ten to the words this group spoke be­ fore their right to speak was removed by force? Did they say a single hateful word? Nada.

What has happened to Patrick Henry’s “Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Al­ mighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!” I used to hear the thought that an American would fight to the death to protect the rights of others to freedom of speech and thought and religion. Not in Boston today. Maybe not in Ameri­ ca ever again. Yes, I understand vigi­ lance against ideologies of hate — I lost most of my family in two world wars — but I have never seen this bully before, not in my home town. If you are not on the correct side, you are now called a racist, and the pow­ erful take away your tongue.

JOHN PHILLIP GUSDON Arlington

Charles H. Taylor Founder & Publisher 1873­1921 William O. Taylor Publisher 1921­1955 Wm. Davis Taylor Publisher 1955­1977 William O. Taylor Publisher 1978­1997 Benjamin B. Taylor Publisher 1997­1999 Richard H. Gilman Publisher 1999­2006 P. Steven Ainsley Publisher 2006­2009 Christopher M. Mayer Publisher 2009­2014 Laurence L. Winship Editor 1955­1965 Thomas Winship Editor 1965­1984

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ThursdayScene THE BOSTON GL OBE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 2017 | BOSTONGL OBE.C OM/LIFESTYLE

A THANKSGIVING MEDIA BINGE Tired of endless football games?

Sample and savor these movie, TV, and podcast offerings with family and friends.

AP

PODCASTS

By Nicholas Quah GLOBE CORRESPONDENT

TELEVISION

THE RADIO ADVENTURES OF ELEANOR AMPLIFIED For those with young kids that you may be trying to pry away from TV cartoons, this is a gem. Follow “Eleanor Amplified,’’ a world­famous radio reporter, as she goes on adventures around the world to get to the truth of things — and to out­ smart some bad guys along the way.

By Matthew Gilbert GLOBE STAFF

FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS Watch it with your family when you’re all stuck together over the holidays; watch it alone when your family is away. Just watch it. You’ll see a beautifully acted and heartfelt show about football that isn’t about football at all. Bonus: Great act­ ing all around, particularly from Connie Britton and the young cast.

36 QUESTIONS Fun, romantic, with just a smidge of melancholy, this “pod­ cast musical” features Jonathan Groff and Jessie Shelton as a couple trying to rescue their teetering marriage using 36 questions designed to inspire love. It’s a little rough around the edges, which is to be expected given its relatively experi­ mental nature, but the verve and charm of the performances more than makes up for everything.

BLEAK HOUSE This PBS­BBC production is one of the best Charles Dickens adaptations out there. Written by master classic adapter An­ drew Davies and built around an epic legal case, the series has everything you’d expect: mystery, romance, comedy, murder, and indelible characters played by a fine cast led by Gillian Anderson as Lady Dedlock. It’s a thoroughly entertaining eight­hour binge.

MAKING OPRAH Go inside the rise of a living legend. WBEZ’s Jenn White ex­ plores the life and legacy of Oprah Winfrey in this tightly pro­ duced three­part documentary that lifts you up with its deeply thoughtful touch.

HEAVYWEIGHT Regret plays a huge role in this show by the endlessly talented Jonathan Gold­ stein, which sees the host embark on ca­ pers to help people grapple with the past.

This makes the show not an obvious choice for Thanksgiving. But “Heavy­ weight’’ is also reflective, funny, compli­ cated, and, in the end, life­affirming.

ROSEANNE A classic network sitcom that’s worth a view or a re­view — except for the last season, which was abysmal and should be eternally banished to no­ wheresville. I mention the pioneering series, which is as much about dysfunction and financial struggles as it is about family bonds and foible­filled behavior, because it’s be­ ing revived next year in the manner of “Will & Grace.”

ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT This influential domestic comedy includes adult gags: It’s hard to find many family series that are appropriate for both ends of the age spectrum. But as it upends everything from taxes to treason and includes one of TV’s best­ever mama’s boys (played by Tony Hale) who spent 11 months in the

PODCASTS, Page G7

MOVIES

By Ty Burr GLOBE STAFF

THE DRESSMAKER OK, maybe not for the little kids, but this enjoyably demented fashionista spaghetti western — in which Kate Winslet’s title character takes revenge on the outback town that bullied her — will tickle everyone else.

HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS Eye­popping martial arts epic with a kick­ass heroine, choreo­ graphed with gorgeous overkill by China’s Zhang Yimou. If you and the family haven’t seen “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” start there first.

HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE New Zealand director Taika Waititi just grabbed the brass ring with the new “Thor” movie, but his last outing was this hilarious comedy­adventure about the friendship between a boy no one wants (Julian Dennison) and cranky old Sam Neill.

MOVIES, Page G7

TELEVISION, Page G7 AP

A ‘Julius Caesar’ that flips the Shakespearean script

By Don Aucoin GLOBE STAFF

Before the opening scene of “Julius Caesar’’ at Actors’ Shakespeare Project, the audience is treated to the sight of a body hanging above the stage, punctuated by the percussive THEATER hammering of music over the sound system.

Although the corpse is wrapped in black plas­ tic from head to toe, we have a pretty good idea who it is.

Thus does director Bryn Boice establish a foreboding mood while suggesting the patterns of fatefulness that will subsequently run through her darkly compelling if sometimes draggy pro­ duction of Shakespeare’s tragedy.

In this all­female “Julius Caesar,’’ it is women

who rule, women who map a strategy to elimi­ nate a figure they view as a tyrant in the making, women who collectively execute that strategy (and that figure), and women who ultimately (to borrow a phrase) “cry ‘Havoc!’, and let slip the dogs of war.’’

Arriving at a cultural moment rife with ac­ counts of male misdeeds, including a photograph of Al Franken treating a sleeping woman as a sex­ ual prop, there’s an undeniable impact to a “Ju­ lius Caesar’’ where the women are anything but helpless.

In adding gender to the equation, the ASP pro­ duction also subtracts it, asking us to consider the play’s questions about power, ambition, and violence in a re­imagined world where men are ‘‘JULIUS CAESAR,’’ Page G5

Inside THING TANK

CELEBRITY CONTROVERSIES From Pink to Lena Dunham to Paris Hilton, a review of the week online G2

TELEVISION

REINVENTION’S GOTTA HAVE IT

MAGGIE HALL

Marianna Bassham, Liz Adams, Marya Lowry, and Bobbie Steinbach in “Julius Caesar.”

Spike Lee has adapted his breakthrough film into a 10­episode Netflix series G3

A10

Editorial

T h e B o s t o n G l o b e

M O N D A Y, S E P T E M B E R 1 1 , 2 0 1 7

Opinion BOSTONGLOBE.COM/OPINION

Editorial

No support for fake service animals

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ucks on planes? Bunnies in restaurants? Al­ pacas in the drugstore?

We increasingly face a menagerie in public places, part of a trend that suggests person and pet are inseparable. Animal lovers grow bolder by the day, often claiming the animals provide essential emotional comfort. What’s the harm of sharing an air­ plane cabin with a pig, right?

Problem is, tolerance for support animals, originally a privilege extended by some businesses, is evolving into an assumed right, at times undermining the needs of people who legitimately must have a service animal to navigate life.

In many cases, passing a pet off as a support animal is an act of small­time fraud. Pet lovers take advantage of websites selling bogus equipment — vests, ID tags, and “certifications” — to designate a pet as an emotional support or service animal. And because there’s wide­ spread misinformation about what kind of legal protec­ tions exist around service animals, the scam is easy to get away with.

Unfortunately, current federal law is vague and con­ flicting. The Americans with Disabilities Act only recog­

nizes dogs and certain miniature horses as service ani­ mals. They are required to be individually trained to perform a specific task for a person with a disability: dogs that fetch items on command, turn light switches on and off, lead blind or deaf people, etc. It can cost up to $40,000, and take several years, to acquire and train a dog to perform some specialized tasks. Restaurants, airlines, and other businesses must accommodate such animals.

The ADA, however, does not cover emotional sup­ port animals, or those whose “mere presence provides comfort.” In other words, CVS can’t be required to rec­ ognize your emotional support parrot. But the rules are muddier on airlines, which are also subject to a differ­ ent set of rules. The Air Carrier Access Act allows pas­ sengers to bring their self­designated and unofficial emotional support pets in airplane cabins.

Pet owners are, consciously or not, exploiting such confusion when they insist on a right to bring pets into non­airline settings. Compounding the situation is the lack of an official certification or national registry for le­ gitimate service dogs; the ADA doesn’t even require them to wear a special tag. Unscrupulous pet owners

By Anthony Flint

can buy a service dog vest for a yellow lab online for as little as $17.99 and bring him to a restaurant, even if his training amounts to little more than “sit.”

That’s why state Representative Kimberly Ferguson filed a bill on Beacon Hill to crack down on abuses. The bill, which will be heard on Tuesday, makes it a civil in­ fraction, carrying a $500 fine, to intentionally misrepre­ sent a pet dog as a service animal. It’s a step in the right direction — one already taken by a dozen states — that Massachusetts lawmakers should swiftly codify into law.

Still, the crackdown doesn’t go far enough; more substantive reform is needed at the federal level. After a particularly horrifying incident on Delta Airlines recent­ ly, where a man was mauled by a fellow passenger’s emotional support dog during boarding in Atlanta, fed­ eral authorities are being pressured to regulate access more strictly. New standards for airlines that can be eas­ ily enforced are long overdue.

Fake service dogs and dubious emotional support animals on planes can endanger public safety. Worse yet, by distracting legitimate service dogs, they may even harm the very people the legal protections for ser­ vice animals are meant to help.

Yet I felt the guilt that only an environmentalist can feel, about the resources that were consumed and the energy spent making this vehicle, in Japan, and shipping it here. We all should be driv­ ing less, and if we do drive, it should be in a fully electric vehicle, recharged with electricity from solar and wind. I could have held out for the new $30,000 Tesla, and just hid my face when I pulled up to the valet in the meantime.

But then I started to feel better. Thanks to improvements in the hybrid system, the new car will use the battery more often and spew less carbon into the atmosphere. They will fix up my old car and sell it to somebody else, who will pay under $10,000 and drive it for another 60,000 miles — to work and for family trips and to see grandparents in a neighboring state.

So I took a deep breath. The next day, I started driving a car un­ adorned with duct tape.

Taking delivery was bittersweet. I took a picture of this year’s model next to the dented silver steed. I steadfastly declined an ar­ ray of options and extras, trying to stay Spartan. Still, pointing out the impossibly shiny vehicle to the staff of nearby Victor’s Diner, I felt sheepish. This was supposed to be a big moment, but dogged by being both a Yankee and a walk­the­walk environmentalist, I couldn’t celebrate the consumerism.

Even my one small homage to recycling was deterred. I hoped to transfer my marker plates, faded green numbers on a dirty white background, honoring the tradition of them being on my previous cars. But I was told in no uncertain terms that the old plates wouldn’t pass inspection, because the Commonwealth wants everybody to drive now with bright red­and­white reflective plates, legible by police and the EZDrive electronic tolling cameras.

In the showroom, the salesmen looked at me quizzically when I insisted on keeping the old plate. But I think I know just the place to hang it on the wall of my basement. They can’t take that away from me.

I

used to drive a BMW, until it overheated on the way to a launch party for my book about visionary urbanist Jane Jacobs. I took that as a sign. That year, in 2009, I bought a silver 2010 Prius that has served me well. It was the butt of jokes, but it was transportation, it was spry, it was home. I changed the way I drove off when red lights turned to green, and it was a rare occasion when I switched from economy to “power mode.” I was righteous in my environmental contribu­ tion, spewing less in emissions every time the in­dash display indi­ cated my propulsion was powered by the battery.

Lately, though, the silver steed has been the worse for wear — cracks in the fender sealed with duct tape, a crumpled passenger door thanks to someone who hit me in a parking lot and didn’t leave a note, and a slightly disturbing loud sound whenever I drove on the highway. The dings and dents and scratches on the rear fender looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. Somebody keyed a side panel — out of sheer principle, I’ve always speculated — on my last days parking in South Boston.

I’m a Yankee who believes in using it up and wearing it out. My first car was handed down, a 1968 Chevrolet Malibu convertible, that I drove, in my Hush Puppies, until the frame rusted out. Next was a sky­blue Buick Skylark, a company car my father no longer needed, with a Dukakis­for­President sticker on the chrome bum­ per. My grandfather offered to trade it in for a Cadillac Cimarron — Spanish for “wild thing” — which I drove until it would drive no more, conking out on I­95 as we were on our way to a Super Bowl party, in the late ’90s, my wife sitting silent next to me in the front seat of the tow truck on the night ride home.

Use it until it disintegrates. The same credo applies to shoes and suits, much to the entertainment of my extended family, who will readily kick a couch to the curb at the first sign of a scuff. But on a recent day at Toyota of Watertown, I succumbed, accepting a generous offer on a trade­in. There was a charcoal gray 2017 Prius V3 on the lot, all full of promise and 88 miles on the odometer, and they were ready to sell it to me.

Anthony Flint is a fellow at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. He can be reached at anthony.flint@gmail.com.

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