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Fill your summer with music at Boston museums

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

Art! Music! Summer! Let’s do them all at once!While the concert calendars of stadiums and clubs have been filled with the welcome-if-expected summer fare, a few alternative venues are offering more unique musical experiences. This week the Museum of Fine Arts rolls out its Concerts in the Courtyard series. In August, the Institute of Contemporary Art hosts three vinyl Friday events. All summer long, the Museum of Science goes old school on Fridays and Saturdays with a classic laser light show set to Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon.”Maybe skip the $18 beers and nose-bleed seats for a sonic adventure paired with a Mary Cassatt oil painting or exhibit on artificial intelligence.Concerts in the Courtyard, Museum of Fine ArtsThursday through Aug.  24Tucked into the MFA’s Calderwood Courtyard is one of the city’s coolest, most-intimate concert spaces. Just like in years past, the museum has curated a diverse and delightful line up. The Thursday night sets will include performances fro...

How to help your child cope when a beloved pet dies

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

How your child reacts to your pet’s death will depend on their age and developmental level. When children display emotions like sadness, it’s important to validate them.During my own childhood, I remember when a pet died, my well-meaning mother told me I shouldn’t dwell on being sad. It’s natural to want to protect your child from unpleasant emotions. But letting children experience them helps them build coping skills for the future.Here’s what you can do to help your child deal with the loss of a pet.Explain your own sadness.If your emotion isn’t obvious, this may confuse your child. It’s OK to let them see you cry. Keep in mind, though, that not all children — whatever their age — express their grief through sadness. Anger is also a common way to express grief. Understanding this is important so you can help them learn to work through it.Remember, grief-related emotions can come and go, sometimes without warning. It may take longer than yo...

Yankees Notebook: Aaron Boone sees Giancarlo Stanton ‘getting there’ at the plate

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

DENVER — It’s taken some time, but Giancarlo Stanton is starting to look like the hitter he and the Yankees expect him to be.While the team’s offense is struggling mightily, Stanton crushed a two-run home run in the first inning of Friday’s loss to the Rockies. In doing so, the slugger gave the Yankees their only runs of the game.Entering Saturday’s game, Stanton had 11 RBI and 11 hits in his last 11 games. He also totaled seven runs scored, three doubles and four homers over that span while registering a .290/.386/.684 slash line and just seven strikeouts. The 33-year-old also torched an opposite-field three-run homer in Saturday’s matchup.“He’s getting there,” Aaron Boone said Saturday afternoon. “It’s timing. It’s rhythm. It’s that subtle load that he has within his legs and his hands. So he’s getting into that good position to make a good swing decision.”Stanton has appeared far more comfor...

Older workers to fill 150M more jobs around world by 2030

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

NEW YORK — A global study from Bain & Company has found that 150 million jobs will shift to workers over the age of 55 by 2030. That figure is nearly equal to the entire working population of the US. In the Group of Seven (G7) countries, Bain predicts these experienced workers will comprise a quarter of the workforce by the end of the decade — nearly 10 percentage points higher than in 2011.This trend is most pronounced in high-income countries. In Japan, for example, workers 55 and older will approach 40% of the workforce by the end of the decade. In Italy and Germany, the number is around 30%. This shift is playing out in low- and middle-income countries as well. China’s population of individuals 65 and older is set to double by 2050, and Brazil’s proportion of workers over age 55 is creeping up to the midteens.Over the last two decades, fewer young people are entering the workforce, and a long-term trend toward earlier retirement is slowly going into reverse...

Editorial: John Kerry should be fired [+video]

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

John Kerry just told taxpayers to go to hell.That’s ironic because he’s the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate who is supposedly the nation’s champion for the planet. But while he’s trying to turn down the heat, he’s firing up the secrecy.History will remember that the nation’s first global warming warrior was the least transparent official in the Biden administration. That’s not an enviable distinction.The globetrotting former Bay State senator and failed presidential candidate is basically kicking sand in everyone’s face.Kerry testified before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Accountability Thursday that his post is unlike any other special envoy before him. We agree, wholeheartedly.Wildfires, floods, record temperatures, pollution, and all related worries must be examined if we’re going to preserve the only home we have. But, and here’s where Kerry is “stupid” — to use his own...

Keep co-parent in the loop about new partner

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

Q. My ex and I broke up three years ago. I have been dating when the kids are with their father, never mentioning anyone because I’ve never been serious until now. I would like to date someone exclusively. Actually, more than exclusively. We are planning a life together. My kids are young, 8 and 9, and know him as a friend. He has been at our home for dinner quite a few times over the last six months, but my co-parent has no idea. I’m trying to get the timing right. Who do I tell first that we are a couple? The kids or their dad? What’s good ex-etiquette?A. I’m sticking my neck out here, but if he’s has been to your home for dinner “quite a few times” over the last six months, I venture to think both your kids and their dad already know he’s someone special.If your kids have kept it a secret that he’s been to dinner, then your kids are the only ones I have met who don’t pass on information to their other home.So that means daddy probably already knows you have “a friend.” He probabl...

‘Anything is possible’ for Annie Murphy in voicing ‘Praise Petey’

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

For Annie Murphy, being heard but not seen in the wild, weirdly outrageous and dementedly funny Freeform animated series “Praise Petey” is a little bit of creative heaven.“Weird’s the word that I use about ‘Petey,’” the “Schitt’s Creek” Emmy winner began.  “It’s an incredibly hilarious, incredibly bizarre trip into the mind of Anna Drezen who in my opinion is the funniest woman on the face of the earth.”An actress and comedian, Drezen is best known as the head writer for “Saturday Night Live.”“I knew this was the job for me,” Murphy, 36, continued, “when I read that Petey, my character, was dating a literal plank of wood. It’s that kind of bizarre. Since anything is possible when you have animation, they really went for it.”Murphy discovered it’s in the recording booth that “Praise Petey” really takes shape.  “We do all the recording and then they animate according to what we’ve recorded. It’s such a strange, new world for me, voice acting.  What’s grea...

Many health benefits to neutering your dog

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

Dear Dr. John,My boyfriend and I share in the ownership of a nine-month-old Brittany Spaniel. He is slightly hyperactive to say the least. Our difference in opinion comes down to whether we should neuter our dog. Are there any negative side effects? My boyfriend is convinced that this would make our dog lazier and fatter and take away his high level of energy. Frankly, slowing him down some might not be such a bad idea. I have always heard and believed that it was advisable to neuter male dogs much like it is important to spay a female dog. I’m convinced that this is a bit of a macho thing. Lastly, how soon should we have this done if we are to go forward in agreement on the subject? B.V.Dear B.V.,For a very long time, the benefits of neutering male dogs have been well understood. I list the following in no specific order of importance. The benefits include eliminating the risk of testicular cancer, greatly reducing any chance of prostatic disease such as hypertrophy or neoplasia, p...

Greedy ex puts child support before educational goals

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

Q. When my ex and I got divorced several years ago, I moved to Virginia.  My youngest child is heading to college in the fall, having chosen to attend a state school in Virginia.  She can get in-state tuition by transferring her residence to mine without waiting a full year and proving residency.My ex does not agree to this because she wants me to continue paying child support.  I pay $250 per week.  Our break on tuition is $15,000 for in-state students and we are obligated to equally share the cost of college once the 529 money is gone.  I’ve tried to explain the math to her but the more I talk the angrier she becomes.  Our daughter wants to go to medical school and wants to preserve as much of her 529 as possible to use toward medical school.  If she is an in-state student, her 529 will cover all of undergraduate expenses and there will be significant funds left over for her later use.  If she is an out- of- state student, she is likely to run out of money in her senior year.What ...

TV Q&A: Why are scenes missing from old reruns?

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 11:10:25 GMT

You have questions. I have some answers.Q: I watch the original “Perry Mason” on MeTV. I like the early episodes where they often show Perry, Della Street and Paul Drake at home, and other scenes that aren’t there anymore. Do you know why these scenes disappeared?A: You have touched on a dilemma for viewers of older television shows: the adding of more commercial time than the shows originally held.The amount of content in commercial shows has shrunk steadily from more than 50 minutes an hour to about 40, with the remaining space filled with ads. When older shows are replayed today, content is often cut or sped up to make room for more advertising.MeTV’s statement on its content policy calls for “preserving the original viewing experience for all our series as best we can. For example, this is why we air the original opening and closing credits full screen. We also don’t add intrusive banner animations over shows. Additionally, MeTV airs significantly less commercials pe...