Larry the K's Lineup

  With a year we all want to forget coming to a merciful end at midnight, it’s timely to reprint this column from the end of 2017, when the world was what we used to call "normal." This year, of course, there were no day-after Christmas crowded stores, and far fewer Christmas gatherings. (I would hope none, given the pandemic pleas to stay home from our leaders). But this column is a reminder that, especially during a pandemic, we shouldn’t reinforce raw stereotypes about people. And, more significantly, this column is proof that good deeds can still make a tremendous difference in our lives. Pray for a better 2021 that gets us closer to being able to live our lives for real instead of being stuck in our dreadful, depressing and deeply isolating virtual purgatory. Best wishes for a HAPPY, HEALTHY NEW YEAR! THIS COLUMN appeared in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA on Dec. 27, 2017: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/kessler-the-good-will-always-shine-thr...

ANOTHER BIG LOSS FOR THE CELTICS: The death on Christmas Day, at age 88, of Boston Celtics legend K.C. Jones, was another huge loss for the Celtics in a little more than a month’s time, coming after the death of Celtics legend and broadcaster Tommy Heinsohn in November at the age of 86. Like Heinsohn, Jones won NBA titles both as a player and coach with the Celtics; Jones won eight championships as a player alongside Bob Cousy and Bill Russell and then another three as a coach, as an assistant to Bill Fitch in 1981 and two more as the Celtics’ head coach, as he beat the Los Angeles Lakers in the thrilling 1984 finals and then beat the Houston Rockets in 1986 with the team that included the Big Three and Bill Walton. (He won a 12 th NBA title as an assistant coach with the Lakers.) There were many heartfelt eulogies to Jones written, but none more fitting than Bob Ryan’s column in the Dec. 27 edition of The Boston Sunday Globe. Ryan in that piece made a compelling argument that J...

This second column on the South Attleboro Christmas Dinner was published Dec. 31, 2003 in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA. I was among the many Sun Chronicle staff members who covered the dinner in its 36-year history. In my later years at the paper before retiring in 2017, in my job as Local News Editor, I worked Christmas night to let others have the holiday off, and I could count on the dinner coverage to be the big community news of the paper on Dec. 26. Sadly, that won’t be the case this year after the dinner had to be canceled for the first time in its history due to the coronavirus pandemic. This column stands the test of time, as proof that good people can make a tremendous difference in other people’s lives just by helping out. Enjoy it and the previous one posted from Dec. 31, 2002, and a very Merry Christmas to one and all. THE LINK TO THE DEC. 31, 2003 column, as it appeared online at The Sun Chronicle’s website: thesunchronicle.com/opinion/kessler-cycle-of-generos...

This column was published on Dec. 31, 2002 in The Sun Chronicle after the then-19 th Christmas Dinner was held in South Attleboro. The dinner, which had been held for 36 consecutive years, was canceled for the first time this Christmas due to the coronavirus pandemic.  The dinner, which had been held at South Attleboro Knights of Columbus Hall for decades, had moved several years ago to Attleboro High School after the Knights sold their building on Highland Avenue (Route 123) in South Attleboro. The dinner began as the Ro-Jack’s Christmas Dinner, as it was originally named for the iconic Attleboro supermarket that sponsored it, thanks to Ro-Jack’s owner Jack Hagopian, and the longtime involvement of the Hagopian family.  Ed Tedesco of the South Attleboro Knights of Columbus, a good friend of Jack Hagopian and his wife Rose, provided the leadership to have the Knights of Columbus Hall on Highland Avenue (Route 123) in South Attleboro used as the location for the dinner. Tedesc...

This column, which was published on Christmas Eve 2014, is especially still relevant in 2020, a year when we’ve been depending on --- and needing --- the generosity of others more than ever. (And, yes, NBC will still be showing “It’s A Wonderful Life” on TV at 8 tonight (Channel 10). This year, some local Christmas traditions changed, or had to be canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic. The main gift drives in the Attleboro area --- notably the Christmas Is For Kids in the Attleboro area and Mansfield’s West Side Benevolent Circle efforts --- were still held, albeit with COVID-19 protocols in place, but many other drives only accepted gift cards or cash donations --- no gift-buying by donors. The area holiday dinners weren’t able to be held in person for Thanksgiving, although some drive-through dinners and some drive-thru pickup dinners were held. And, speaking of dinners, this Christmas will have a big void locally, as sadly, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the annual Tedesco ...

  One of the annual miracles of the Christmas season in the Attleboro area has always been the way that the Greater Attleboro Council for Children is able to conduct a major gift drive with hundreds of moving parts --- a drive that annually finds presents for hundreds of needy children in the Attleboro area. With the area, state and nation still in the grips of the surging coronavirus pandemic, the outlook for the 37 th Christmas Is For Kids drive was uncertain, but those volunteers and former volunteers never doubted the resolve of the organization to allow the drive to continue --- and to succeed. In order to bring the drive to another successful conclusion, Christmas Is For Kids Chairwoman Kelly Fox and her committee of hard-working volunteers, affectionately called elves, were forced to alter how they handle matters. They, for example, limited volunteers to 25 at any one time at the donor center at the former Attleboro High and Brennan Middle School building on County Stree...

  When will the adults in Washington, D.C. take over the conversation and tell the madman in the White House to stop all of this crazy talk of overturning a legal election result? That had better happen soon, as the latest bit of news to break --- that there was a heated conversation in the Oval Office about Trump wanting to declare martial law and redo the voting in the states that he lost --- is not only the talk of a delusional man, but it’s how Hitler took power in the 1930s – by voiding all democratic norms. That’s not hyperbole; it’s history, and unless the president’s Republican enablers stop this nonsense, the president will lock up all of the people who didn’t vote for him – and if you think that can’t happen here, you obviously never heard of all the Germans who sat by idly while Hitler exterminated the Jewish people, the gays, Catholics and anyone else who didn’t swear their allegiance to the Nazi Party. It’s high time for more GOP officials than Senate President Mitch M...

  Thursday’s snowstorm which dumped 10-12 inches in the Attleboro area, depending on where you lived, was a rare touch of normalcy in this most abnormal year of 2020. Thanks to the storm, residents for one day, or at least a few hours, didn’t have to be worried about being scared out of their minds by their elected officials (thank you Mayor Walsh and Gov. Baker for scolding and lecturing us daily). No, instead of being subjected to more of what we’ve heard during this endless pandemic – stay home and do nothing even though none of it seems to be mattering or making a damned bit of difference – we had the pleasure of dealing with a lot of snow, something to which there’s a familiar response: Go outside, clear a path to our houses, clean off our cars, shovel or snow-blow our driveways and start your vehicle and move it so you can clean off and around your parking space. For a few precious hours, there were no worries about “contact tracing,” staying 6 feet apart from your snow s...

  It became a tradition, during my nearly 30 years at The Sun Chronicle, to write a yearly column explaining the eight-day Jewish Festival of Hanukkah. I’d do it to educate people to further understanding and also laced the column with plenty of humor to keep it light. After a two-year hiatus, the column returned this year, and was published in the Dec. 12-13 Weekend edition of The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA. I’m grateful to my editors and friends at the paper for agreeing to bring the column back. The link to the column online appears at the end of this column. I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and a HEATLHY New Year that will be a much better year than 2020. Larry Here’s the 2020 “Chanukah Charlie” column. With the coronavirus pandemic upending so many traditions this year, my old friend Chanukah Charlie texted me his interest in reviving his holiday column after a two-year hiatus. He said he felt strongly that with the year we’ve all had, we could...

The fifth and final ballyard sale held by the Pawtucket Red Sox has proved popular with the fans. This story that I wrote, which ran Dec. 9 in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, has all the details. There   may be some sale items left, and if you act before midnight on Thursday, Dec. 10, you can still bid on the auction items at pawsox.com. Pawtucket Red Sox diehards searching for Christmas gifts have ample items to choose from to create their own version of the “12 Days of Christmas” by participating in this week’s fifth and final virtual ballyard sale and auction. While there are no partridges, pear trees, turtle doves, golden rings or swimming swans up for grabs, fans who go to pawsox.com can shop for plenty of inexpensive souvenirs, ranging from $5 bobbleheads and $3 replica jerseys to $2 hats and 25-cent mugs, cups and water bottles --- more than enough bargains to inspire a new carol: “The 12 Days of a PawSox Christmas.” The sale --- which began Saturday and will continue...

As COVID-19 cases surge in Massachusetts and across the country, the NFL continues to push ahead as if 2020 were just another season. As a result of the NFL's tunnel vision, the Baltimore Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers played an  afternoon game originally scheduled for Thanksgiving night on Wednesday (Dec. 2), because of more than 20 COVID positive tests on the Ravens. On Sunday, the Denver Broncos lost 31-3 because they were forced to play with a wide receiver off the practice squad at quarterback. Earlier in the season, the Patriots had to fly to Kansas City on a Monday to play that night after quarterback Cam Newton had tested positive two days earlier, and in the days following the game, cornerback Stephon Gilmore and other players on the Patriots tested positive. The NFL has always exhibited a dangerous combination of hubris and arrogance, thanks in part to its tone-deaf commissioner, Roger Goodell, but the NFL’s  approach to this uniquely challenging season has helped cr...