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Boston rings in a bright holiday theater season

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

Holiday theater can silly, sweet, stupid funny, and it can be great art. From classic classics, new classics, and reinvented classics to irreverent wonders, here are seasonal offerings worth unwrapping.“The Nutcracker,” Through Dec. 31, Boston Opera House“We at the company don’t think of (‘The Nutcracker’) as entertainment, we think of it as a serious piece of art,” Boston Ballet Artistic Director Mikko Nissinen told the Herald earlier this season. “I choreographed it to be incredibly difficult for the dancers for a couple of reasons. I know I have a tired company on December 31st, but I also know I have a better company.” So, sure, nostalgia and the Christmas connection fuel a love for the piece, but remember it’s a grand piece of art, complex and compelling. Bostonballet.org“Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer: The Musical,” Sunday, Shubert TheaterMisfits as heroes! Come see the songs, message, and characters you love — Hermey the dentist elf, Bumble the Abominable Snow Mon...

Siblings Asa and Lilianna both like karate

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

Lilianna and Asa are an amazing sibling group hoping to be adopted together. Older sister Lilianna (Lilly) is very outgoing. She is described as active, fearless, and strong-willed. Lilly also has a side she describes as “classy,” such as enjoying getting her nails done and putting on makeup. She attends karate class and really enjoys it. Lilly also loves art, enjoys watching cartoons, and helping her foster mother in the kitchen. In school, she performs at grade level. Lilianna is severely allergic to cats and dogs and families with cats will not be considered but her social worker would consider a family with a hypoallergenic dog.Asa, the younger brother, has an introverted personality. He also likes karate class. Asa likes indoor activities like mind-stimulating games that include problem solving, drawing, and playing with cars. He also loves going to the park. In school, Asa performs above average compared to his peers.Lilly and Asa will bring joy to a home that can provide them...

Can I divide Social Security as asset in divorce?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

Q. I have decided to represent myself in my divorce because I am good with numbers, and this is really all about numbers.  Our children are grown so the sticky parenting stuff is not part of our case.  We have exchanged financial statements and my husband’s lawyer wrote up an agreement that they want me to sign.  They say it is an equal division of all of our assets, but it is not.  My husband refuses to include the value of his Social Security in the asset division.  I did not hire a lawyer but I hired someone to value our Social Security and his is much larger than mine.My husband has a big job and his Social Security is worth three times the amount of mine because I became a teacher ten years ago and stopped paying into the Social Security system. I want to make sure I have enough assets to live well in retirement.  My husband will be able to live out our plan of buying a condo on the Mediterranean. I should have the same abilities.Asset division should be truly equal and fair in...

‘Billion Dollar Babies’ explores Cabbage Patch craze

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

Forty years ago a toy baby doll prompted a nationwide fad. Which prompted a Black Friday riot like no one had ever seen.Over, yes, a doll.“Billion Dollar Babies: The True Story of the Cabbage Patch Kids” is an engrossing 40th anniversary documentary that gets the complicated history and puts the aftermath in perspective.Toys fads are eternal, from ‘30s Shirley Temple dolls to Barbie, Ken and GI Joe. Where do the Cabbage Patch Kids stand in toy history?“At the top. I mean there’s no question they are at the top of the toy fad phenomenon,” said toy historian Jonathan Alexandratos in a Zoom interview.“What Cabbage Patch managed to do is they took a really old idea — the baby doll in the US goes back to 1850 — and basically promised so much more than a doll.  Cabbage Patch hit at a certain intersection of American history where their success is extreme, but also, entirely understandable. On top of that, you’ve got camcorder footage of people wielding baseball bat...

Dear Abby: Widow wants to cut ties with former BIL

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

Dear Abby: My husband passed away four years ago. I started dating my current beau two years ago. We are great friends. We are supportive of each other and enjoy our new life together.I have drifted apart from my late husband’s side of the family. We’re still friendly but don’t have as frequent contact as we used to because we all live great distances apart. I care a lot for my former sister-in-law, but my brother-in-law was rude and distant to my beau when they visited me. It rubbed me the wrong way. I never liked him anyway, and neither did my husband. The only reason we spent time with them is because of his wife.Now that I’m moving forward with my new life, I no longer want them staying with me on visits and vice versa. I plan to continue phone contact with my sister-in-law and other family members from time to time. Am I handling this properly? I feel guilty sometimes, but I’ve never experienced anything like this before because my husband and I we...

Dead, wounded or AWOL: The voices of desperate Russian soldiers trying to get out of the Ukraine war

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

In audio intercepts from the front lines in Ukraine, Russian soldiers speak in shorthand of 200s to mean dead, 300s to mean wounded. The urge to flee has become common enough that they also talk of 500s — people who refuse to fight.As the war grinds into its second winter, a growing number of Russian soldiers want out, as suggested in secret recordings obtained by The Associated Press of Russian soldiers calling home from the battlefields of the Kharkiv, Luhansk and Donetsk regions in Ukraine.The calls offer a rare glimpse of the war as it looked through Russian eyes — a point of view that seldom makes its way into Western media, largely because Russia has made it a crime to speak honestly about the conflict in Ukraine. They also show clearly how the war has progressed, from the professional soldiers who initially powered Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion to men from all walks of life compelled to serve in grueling conditions.“There’s no f—— ‘dying the death of the br...

With antisemitism rising as the Israel-Hamas war rages, Europe’s Jews worry

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

GENEVA (AP) — As he sits in Geneva, Michel Dreifuss does not feel all that far away from the Hamas attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel’s subsequent bombardment of Gaza. The ripples are rolling through Europe and upending assumptions both global and intimate — including those about his personal safety as a Jew.“Yesterday I bought a tear-gas spray canister at a military-equipment surplus store,” the 64-year-old retired tech sector worker said recently at a rally to mark a month since the Hamas killings. The choice, he says, is a “precaution,” driven by a surge of antisemitism in Europe.Last month’s slayings of about 1,200 people in Israel by armed Palestinian militants represented the biggest killing of Jews since the Holocaust. The fallout from it, and from Israel’s intense military response that health officials in Hamas-controlled Gaza say has killed at least 13,300 Palestinians, has extended to Europe. In doing so, it has shaken a continent all too familiar wit...

Skyscraper-studded Dubai has flourished during regional crises. Could it benefit from hosting COP28?

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — In a city known for its excesses, whether reaching toward the sky with the world’s tallest building or hard partying at its beach resorts and bars, Dubai has pulled off another record-breaking feat in the rolling dunes of its desert outskirts. Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park, named for the ruling sheikh of Dubai, stretches across some 122 square kilometers (47 square miles) and represents a pledge of billions of dollars by this city-state to reach its goal of becoming carbon-neutral by 2050. It’s a solar-paneled gamble in a city where casinos have yet to arrive — though it always seems to be betting big no matter the risk. Rising rapidly from a creek-bound pearling village to a city associated with international glamor, Dubai has a long history of finding economic success amid the war-ravaged woes of the wider Middle East. Its ruling family likely views the upcoming United Nations COP28 climate talks as another such opportunity, though it...

Winter Weather Advisory in effect for western counties through 2 p.m. Sunday; slick roads Bridges, overpasses and untreated roads are most likely to become slippery

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

Accumulating snow could cause hazardous conditions on Chicago area roadways, especially through Sunday morningBridges, overpasses and untreated roads are most likely to become slippery, especially in areas west and northwest of the Chicago metro.  The snow is expected to taper in the afternoon, providing some relief for holiday travelers around the region.  It's the first widespread accumulating snowfall of the season, so it's a good time to review winter driving tips.

Austin Police investigating east Austin homicide Saturday

Published Thu, 20 Feb 2025 19:12:36 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- The Austin Police Department said it is investigating a homicide late Saturday. Police said the homicide happened near 2500 Sol Wilson Avenue, which is in east Austin. MAP: Where have Austin’s homicides occurred in 2023? APD said it will share more information at a media briefing. This is a developing story and will be updated.