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Ticks are a problem – protect your dog

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

Dear Dr. John,There has been some recent coverage regarding ticks and the problems they transmit. Apparently, this has become more of an issue this year due to the warmer winter that we had with less snow. Is this true? I heard about two other diseases that ticks can transmit to dogs, but even humans as well. How concerned should I be with these two emerging diseases or are they really that new? My dog does take a monthly chewable flea and tick medication for 8-9 months a year and it seems that giving it year-round should now be considered. What do you advise? B.A.Dear B.A.,As you point out, there has been some recent news coverage in the New England area regarding tick-borne diseases which seem to be on the rise due to warmer weather. It has been enough of an issue that the Centers for Disease Control has called Massachusetts an endemic area for one of the two conditions you refer to, namely Babesiosis. The other illness Anaplasmosis. There are two other tick-borne pathogens that w...

Checking out interviewer’s background a savvy move

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

Q. I have an interview next week and looked up my interviewer’s background. Can I say that or does it seem like I’m stalking?A. Good question and first, congrats on the interview! It’s excellent that you’re preparing for it. Yes, feel free to point it out.When I worked in recruiting and candidates mentioned they looked up the interviewers or just mentioned their work history (implying that they looked them up), it showed they were interested in the role. As a recruiter or hiring manager, I’d be more concerned if you didn’t than if you did.Q. I’ve been applying to jobs and not hearing back. I’m emailing contacts for networking calls, researching companies. What else should I be doing?A. One of the keys to landing a new job is persistence and consistency and it sounds like you have both fronts covered. Two words: keep going! I’d add mock interviewing to the mix so you’re prepared and ready. What will you wear? Have a go-to in...

Girls hockey All-Scholastics and All-Stars

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

DREAM TEAMJenna Chaplain (St. Mary’s)McKenna Colella (Duxbury)Caroline Doherty (Hingham)Maggie Lynch (Archbishop Williams)Anna McGinty (Duxbury)Madeline Mrva (Shrewsbury)ALL-SCHOLASTICSVictoria Apostolakes (Billerica/Chelmsford)Jennifer Birolini (Pembroke)Taylor Bruno (Methuen/Tewksbury)Kaitlyn Bush (HPNA)Maeve Campbell (Plymouth)Angelina Catino (St. Mary’s)Allison Corrieri (Acton-Boxboro)Danielle DeJon (Malden Catholic)Carolyn Durand (Canton)Annie Ettenhofer (Winchester)Sarah Francis (Notre Dame)Bridget Gray (Belmont)Emma Holmes (Winthrop)Julia Holmes (Winthrop)Emily Johns (Algonquin)Avery Johnsen (Falmouth)Caitlin Kelley (Bishop Feehan)Audrey Koen (Canton)Rose MacLean (Andover)Marisa Montoya (Shrewsbury)Grace Mottau (Archbishop Williams)Eliza O’Sullivan (Andover)Maggie Pierce (St. Mary’s)Taylor Ryder (Shrewsbury)Remoré Serra (Billerica/Chelmsford)Penny Spack (Peabody/Lynnfield/NR)Sophia Visceglio (Sandwich)Lauren White (Notre Dame)HONORABLE MENTIONOlivia Avellar (Cape Cod)Meghan B...

What to know when hiring a divorce lawyer

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

Q. I’m trying to hire a divorce lawyer and finding it more challenging than I expected.  Appointments are weeks out, I get calls back from paralegals and not the lawyers. All they do is ask questions.  I am hoping to separate over the summer so we can figure out a parenting plan and let our kids get used to things before they go back to school in September.A. Don’t be offended that you are getting return calls from paralegals as opposed to the lawyers themselves.  It is the paralegal’s job to get some background information from prospective clients and pass it along to the lawyers.  Indeed, before talking with a potential client, the lawyer is going to want to know something about the case in order to have a meaningful discussion with you. Do you want to be charged a few to several hundred dollars for the lawyer to ask questions to elicit your biographical / statistical information?  It is far more cost effective to have the paralegals get the background so we know can offer at leas...

For David Wax, all roads lead from Mexico

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

You must change your life.David Wax heard a voice whispering this command to him during a summer trip to Mexico in 2001.“That’s when I first heard Mexican folk music, Son Mexicano, and this particular style called huapango music,” Wax told the Herald. “At that moment, I felt a deep resonance with the music but I didn’t know it would change my life.”Since that first trip, that command has pestered Wax. It nagged him after he graduated from Harvard in 2006 and headed back to Mexico for a yearlong fellowship to study regional folk. It may have nudged him to build with bandmate and wife Suz Slezak a barn in Charlottesville, or pushed him toward his relationship with Slezak.Wax gave the words their due in the title track of new David Wax Museum record, “You Must Change Your Life.” It’s a record that charts his deep love for and complex relationship with Mexican folk.“(After studying music in Mexico) I felt like I could bring all these instruments and influences and rhythms and song struc...

Catalina Sandino Moreno faces fears in new season of ‘From’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

“From” is the hit horror series where anyone who enters a small town discovers they are trapped. They can’t leave and, worse, are at the mercy of murderous monsters who only come out at night.For Catalina Sandino Moreno and Eion Bailey who play trapped, stressed out parents Tabitha and Jim Matthews stuck with their two children Julie and Ethan, it’s no surprise the series continues for a second season Sunday on AppleTV+.With the pandemic, Bailey, 46, noted, “We were all trapped in a place we couldn’t escape when the show started. That’s exactly why I figured this would find some success and go on.  Because this resonates with people. We’ve all felt in the last couple of years, feeling stuck and not knowing what to do, how to get out.“Allegorically, I think the show really fires on all cylinders and I’m not surprised that people connect with it.”Added Moreno, 41, in a joint Zoom interview, “Everyone was scared of this virus that we didn’t quite know what it wa...

To end a war, ask questions

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

Q. My ex is such a liar! He makes up stuff and tells me it happened his way, when I know it didn’t. My friend told me that was “gaslighting” and that was a trait of being a narcissist. What can I do if ex is a narcissist? What’s good ex-etiquette?A. First of all, let’s take a look at what gaslighting is and whether you are truly a victim of it. Gaslighting, from a practical sense, is knowledge that something you are saying is untrue by distorting reality and forcing the other person to question their own judgment and/or intuition. The key to this definition is “the knowledge that something you are saying is untrue.”This is an important distinction. When mediating divorcing couples, most don’t see eye to eye, but that doesn’t mean they are lying, nor does it mean they are gaslighting. It could simply mean they have a different perception of what happened.I often try explaining what happens when two people witness an accident. If you are standing on the north corner of an intersection...

Carlyss Peer back on the case in Season 2 of ‘Dalgliesh’

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

England’s Carlyss (pronounced Kar-lease) Peer gets Stateside exposure as a determined Scotland Yard detective with AcornTV’s 1970s-set “Dalgliesh.”Adapted from P.D. James’s 14 critically praised murder mysteries starring the very serious and cerebral Scotland Yard Detective Chief Inspector Adam Dalgliesh (pronounced DAL-gleesh, again played by Bertie Carvel), Season 2, which begins Monday, again offers three separate cases from three of her novels.For Peer, Detective Sergeant Kate Miskin, now a key member of the Special Investigation Squad under Dalgliesh, has been a career changer.In Season 1, the misogyny and racism Miskin routinely faced was blocked once Dalgliesh chose her to be on his team.  “From those first episodes where she’s sidelined by the police force and then seeing her blossom with Dalgliesh with all of his talents, that’s an exciting journey,” Peer, 27, said in a Zoom interview from London.“He sees her potential. She’s delighted to be working with s...

Editorial: US-Mexico must put aside animosity to stop fentanyl

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

A round of indictments against a major Mexican fentanyl trafficking ring recently presents an opportunity to hobble the multinational drug enterprise killing people on both sides of the border — but only if leaders in the United States and Mexico can stop sniping at each other and overcome a rift between them.U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, announcing the indictments against Sinaloa cartel leaders and other alleged drug traffickers, called it “the largest, most violent and prolific fentanyl traffic operation in the world.” But it didn’t take long for Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador to question the investigation that led to the charges against Los Chapitos, four sons of the infamous drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, known as El Chapo and believed to have handed leadership of the Sinaloa cartel to his sons. López Obrador, widely known as AMLO, accused the U.S. government of spying and violating Mexico’s national sovereignty.Such discord is, unfortunately, not unexpected c...

Sports-loving Nicholas wants to be on a team

Published Sat, 22 Feb 2025 11:30:11 GMT

Nicholas is a sweet and polite boy. He loves pets and is compassionate to all who know him. He also has a very funny sense of humor and can joke around easily with others. Being well-groomed and clean is very important to Nick.In his free time, Nick loves to listen to hip-hop music and play basketball. He also enjoys video games but would prefer to be outside being active and burning off his energy. Nick has many friends, is very sensitive to others’ feelings, and tries to help out those who he feels are struggling. He is a role model in his program. When a new kid arrives, Nick takes them under his wing and mentors them. He comforts other kids when they are upset. He is very well-liked by both peers and adults in his living setting. Nick is a loyal friend.He receives support services in school to help with expressive and receptive language and reading. Nick performs very well in math. He recently moved in with a foster family and is doing great in a family environment.Nick wo...