Josh Resnek – Everett Leader Herald

Greek Salad Rocks With Feta Or Without

By Josh Resnek

Lettuce is about the last ingredient a real Greek salad is comprised of.

Did you know this?

If you didn’t know this, you know this now.

A traditional Greek salad consists of sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, green bell pepper, red onion, olives and Feta cheese.

This classic combination is delicious.

Why is it Greek salad always tastes so much better at a Greek restaurant than it does in our homes?

Well, there’s no need to worry about that ever again if you follow my directions.

Here’s what I do.

I set aside a cucumber, tomato, green bell pepper, red onion and Greek olives – a combination of them.

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— Eye on Everett —

THE BLUE SUIT

Private Conversations between the mayor’s favorite blue suit and Josh Resnek, Leader Herald Editor.

Let’s face it, I don’t anyone, no one, who talks to a blue cloth suit. May I ask you, the reader: Do you know of anyone living or dead who talked with a blue cloth suit?

The author of this column, me, Josh Resnek, editor of the Leader Herald, claims the Blue Suit and I share a close relationship, much like best friends or comrades in arms or brothers and alter egos. The Blue Suit because of his very close relationship with the mayor, allegedly tells me many things about the mayor. The Blue Suit insists everything he tells me is true in the weekly column. Such an affirmative assertion of the truth from a cloth suit is as fantastic as me writing about the resurrection of a human being after they had died and then writing about speaking at length with the resurrected party.

The Blue Suit does not like when I talk about the possibility he is not real. The Blue Suit and I have shared many discussions – and some of them difficult – about his paternity – and who his mother and father were, where they came from, what launderette they were cleaned at and where the Blue Suit grew up and on and on.

Suffice to say, the mayor’s Blue Suit and I know one another very well. We discuss matters great and small about Everett’s politics and the mayor’s manifest city hall machinations as if such a thing were possible.

My claims are the same with each Blue Suit column.

We speak with one another.

We eat with one another.

We laugh together.

We argue.

We endlessly speculate about our favorite topic – the mayor.

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School Committee votes to discuss extension of superintendent’s contract

Four members continue their anti-Tahiliani stance

By Josh Resnek

The School Committee membership decided Monday night to notify as to whether or not they will be inclined to discuss the possibility of a contract extension for Superintendent Priya Tahiliani by December 1st as required by her contract.

The vote was 6-4, and frankly, came as a bit of a surprise.

The wording for the measure is taken from the November 21 School Committee agenda: That the Everett School Committee notify the Superintendent of Schools in writing no later than December 1, 2022, whether or not it wishes to commence negotiations for a successor agreement.

School Committee member Millie Cardello voted for the measure, an unusual move for the senior committeewoman who has shown a propensity to vote as the mayor votes.

The mayor voted against the measure, as did committeemen Jason Marcus, Joe LaMonica and Mike McLaughlin.

The mayor is opposed to Tahiliani and has been for quite some time.

It is no wonder.

Tahiliani filed a complaint against him to the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination claiming racism and sexist behavior.

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— Eye on Everett —

THE BLUE SUIT

Private Conversations between the mayor’s Blue Suit and Leader Herald editor Josh Resnek.

So the midterm elections have come and gone. The great red wave never materialized. The Democrats have held on to the senate. They have lost the House of Representatives, but by such a small margin that for all the hype before the midterm about the sweeping red wave, we are almost back to where we began.

That is, we are a hopelessly divided nation, so politically divided that it gives the word division a new meaning.

How does this relate to Everett, you might well ask yourselves – all of you out there reading this column?

Does it change anything for us?

I asked that exact question to the Blue Suit.

Here’s what he said:

“You know, Josh, national elections have meant nothing to me for years. Elections don’t matter to me. It’s what’s on the flat screen that matters. It’s what’s in the frigde that matters. It’s when I need a good cleaning that the mayor takes me to the cleaners, that matters.

“I guess I was interested in Joe McGonagle this last time around. He’s an interesting character. I have a history with him, that is, the mayor has a history with him. Nearly everyone has a history with him. He’s been up. He’s been down. He’s been all around.

“This last election between him and Mike Marchese came out as I expected, as the mayor expected. It came out as Anthony expected In fact, Mike never had a chance running as an independent. He never had a chance against Joe with the mayor and his forces supporting him. But that’s just the harsh reality about politics here. Everyone get’s to have their moment under the sun. Joe’s moment under the sun has come as a rep. And let’s not forget, as I can never forget, as the mayor can’t forget, as Mike will never forget, that because of Joe, Carlo is the mayor today. Carlo never could have become mayor without Joe.”

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NO NEWS IS BETTER THAN BAD

By Josh Resnek

Many weeks have passed since the Davis

Companies allegedly pulled out of a multi-billion dollar development of the contaminated 95 acre Exxon Mobil site.

The Davis Companies had been prepared to mitigate the site, and then to build upon it a mountain of residential housing and commercial projects as well as new roads and wide open expanses plush with greenery and places to sit under the sun.

The idea was to take this 95 acre contaminated property and to turn night into day.

Davis Companies was ready to go. Their executives were all set to push the shovels into the land and to begin digging when the deal apparently fell apart.

Several people familiar with the project told the Leader Herald that Davis Companies had underestimated the cost of mitigating the environmental contamination of the property.

“They didn’t realize how deep the pollution had seeped below the giant oil storage tanks that dots the landscape of the property,” a source told the Leader Herald.

About the same time, the mayor announced at a public meeting with an off the cuff comment that the Davis Companies was stepping back in order to gain a better price from Exxon Mobil for the property.

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