Larry the K's Lineup

With the Jewish New Year beginning at sundown today (Sunday, Sept. 25), Jews in the United States and around the world are facing an uncertain future due to the sharp rise in anti-Semitism and the increased boldness and hatred of right-wing hate groups --- both online and in person. Their hateful rhetoric is in danger of making the Jewish people sitting ducks again --- and God forbid --- spawn a new Holocaust! This column, which was published Friday, Sept. 23 in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, examines that disturbing trend. The link to the column, as it appears on The Sun Chronicle website, follows: https://www.thesunchronicle.com/opinion/columns/larry-kessler-for-jews-it-hasnt-been-such-a-shana-tova/article_3f28e9be-5028-5112-97a0-182acb7742df.html The Jewish New Year 5783 will start Sunday evening (Sept. 25) with the start of the two-day observance known as Rosh Hashanah and will end 10 days later at sundown on Wednesday, Oct. 5 with the conclusion of the 24-hour solemn fas...

  Larry with daughters Arianna, left, and Alana on his 70th. CUTLINE: Larry is surrounded by his two daughters, Arianna, left, and Alana, while celebrating his 70 th birthday at an area restaurant. (Photo by Lynne Cains) I recently turned 70, and as the saying goes, reaching that milestone is better than the alternative. But hitting that mark also has also convinced me to try to become less of a worry wart --- something I’ve been for the better part of my life. In this column, which I wrote for the September edition of Jewish Rhode Island of Providence, I share my thoughts on being a worry wart, and also offer a few observations on growing older. Here is the link to the column as it appears on the Jewish Rhode Island website: https://www.jewishrhody.com/stories/a-few-things-ive-learned-in-my-70-years,17213? This column appears in the September edition of Jewish Rhode Island of Providence: One of the advantages of growing older has been learning to live more spontaneou...

In a time of great division and bitterness, it’s important to remember that there are good people out there who still reach out to help others. The residents of the Highland Meadow neighborhood of North Attleboro fit into that category. Simply put, they are, as the wizard in “The Wizard of Oz” described it, “good deed-doers.” For the sixth year --- the race wasn’t held in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic --- the neighborhood, led by the youngsters and students who live there --- organized a race on Saturday (Sept. 10) to raise money for pediatric cancer research. It’s been held on Labor Day previously, but this year was changed to Saturday, due to Monday’s steady rain. This was the third or fourth time that I've done the race, and it’s an easy decision to participate in it, because I can jog-walk the mile or so from my house to the race site, do the race --- which is three laps around the neighborhood --- and then jog-walk back again. And the proceeds go to a very laudabl...

The death of Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday, Sept. 8 at the age of 96 has been mourned worldwide, and justifiably so. No other nation's leader, royal or otherwise, was treated by people of hundreds of countries as their leader, too. Indeed, no other leader has made millions worldwide feel better by just being herself, and by being there. Elizabeth first became the leader of Great Britain and the Commonwealth on Feb. 6, 1952, at the age of 26, when her father King George VI, died, and it was truly remarkable that she reigned every day until her death --- for more than 70 ½ years. That’s a record for a monarch that's unlikely to be broken --- and it’s worth noting that she was still on the job two days before her death as on Sept. 6, she met with outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his replacement, Liz Truss, to facilitate the handover of power following Johnson’s recent resignation from the post. But Elizabeth, as has been noted by the many British royal watcher...

  One thing that former President Donald Trump has accomplished is to make Richard Nixon --- who resigned in disgrace over the Watergate scandal on Aug. 9, 1974 --- look like a saint in comparison. Improving Nixon’s legacy is something that the younger me wouldn’t have thought possible. But then Donald Trump changed all that. Between Trump’s role in inciting an attempted coup of the government by marshaling right-wing extremist groups to invade the Capitol on Jan. 6 and to come perilously close to do bodily harm to then-Vice President Mike Pence and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi --- and then his decision to take hundreds of classified documents home with him in a clear violation of United States law, Nixon's place in history has improved considerably. Sure, Nixon orchestrated the cover-up of the Watergate burglary and ensuing scandal, which eventually sent numerous members of the Nixon Administration to jail. But Nixon didn’t attempt to overthrow the government, nor did he mi...

CUTLINE: Tony Conigliaro is shown in his hospital bed the day after the night that he was beaned by Los Angeles Angels pitcher Jack Hamilton on Friday night Aug. 18, 1967. For those like myself who were in attendance at Fenway Park, it's a moment we'll never forget. (Boston Globe file photo on Boston.com)  To commemorate tomorrow’s 55 th anniversary of one of the most iconic moments of the Boston Red Sox’s fabled 1967 Impossible Dream season --- the beaning of Tony Conigliaro on the sultry summer night of Friday, Aug. 18, 1967 --- I thought I’d share this column that I wrote for The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA, as the 50 th anniversary of that moment approached. That column was published on Aug. 16, 2017. At the same time, I’m taking this opportunity to renew my plea for the Boston Red Sox to retire Tony Conigliaro’s No. 25.   Conigliaro, known forever to Red Sox fans of that era as “Tony C,” shares a unique place in the history of the Sox and that magical Impossible ...

  The Red Sox, after an excellent month of June, have been historically awful in July and so far in August and after losing three of four games in Kansas City over the weekend to the lowly Royals, stand in last place in the American League East at 54-56. They’re five games out of the third and final playoff spot in the American League. Given how little Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom did to improve the team that came within two games of going to the World Series in 2021 in the off season --- especially with respect to the bullpen and the lack of a closer --- it shouldn’t come as a surprise how bad the team has become. And there’s no reason at all for optimism, especially with the Red Sox scheduled to play the Atlanta Braves two games at home on Tuesday and Wednesday, which will be followed by a game against AL East rival Baltimore and three more against the New York Yankees. The Red Sox have yet to win a series against the AL East; going 2-2 in a four-game series at Yankee Sta...

CUTLINE:   Larry Kessler and his daughter Alana both won age-group medals in the Hope Health 5k Run / Walk held Sunday, Aug. 7 in downtown North Attleboro. Alana won the 20-29 age group while Larry finished second in the 60-69 age group, his last in that group as next week he will turn 70. The 20th anniversary of the Hope Health 5K Run / Walk to benefit hospice care drew a field of about 150 runners and walkers, who defied the ongoing heat wave by finishing the race. Covering a course revised at the last minute due to road projects in the streets near downtown North Attleboro, the runners did as they've been doing for two decades: raising money for local hospice care. That has been the one constant of the race, which over the years has changed names and distances as it originally had been a 5-miler before being scaled back several years ago to a 5K (3.1 miles). The race almost got changed to a 2.9-miler before the dedicated and longtime race director, Dr. Mark Young, added a loop o...

Larry Kessler is encouraged by his daughter Alana in the final stretch of the Arnold Mills Four Miler in Cumberland, R.I., on July 4th.     CUTLINE:  Larry Kessler trails his daughter Alana, who had already finished the Arnold Mills 4-Miler in 34:17 on the Fourth of July, as he heads to the finish line. He did the race in 58:41.  Alana went back on the course to encourage her very slow father to finish the race. (Photo by Alana Kessler) While the COVID-19 pandemic drags on and shows no signs of ever completely going away nearly 2 ½ years after it began, many of us have decided to get along with our lives, at least as much as possible. I tackled that issue in this column, which I wrote for the August 2022 edition of Jewish Rhode Island of Providence. The link to the column, on the publication’s website, follows: https://www.jewishrhody.com/stories/its-time-for-me-to-rejoin-the-human-race,14665? Last summer, despite being fully vaccinated, I was a long way from fee...

 When I texted a friend and fellow 1950s-60s Boston Celtics fan that legendary center and coach Bill Russell --- the glue that kept those teams together -- had passed on Sunday at the age of 88, he texted back the following: "Greatest winner in team sports history. 11 titles in 13 years. Two NCAA titles. Gold medal in the Olympics. Way more titles than Babe Ruth. Or (Michael) Jordan or even Tom Brady." I couldn't agree with him more, and I texted back the following: "He was the original GOAT! And a decent human being. Celts don't win 11 of 13 without him." Indeed, they do not. My belief in Russell being the greatest of all time, even ahead of Brady and Jordan, has nothing to do with me approaching 70 in a couple of weeks, but everything to do with Russell's legacy. He not only set records that will be hard to be beat --- he and his arch-rival Wilt Chamberlain still hold the No. 1 and No. 2 all-time rebounding records --- but he was a leader on and off th...