July 8, 2026: A stake in the Quabbin's 250th

Nearly 100 years ago, 4 Massachusetts towns were dis-incorporated, their populations moved, and the area filled with water to appease the needs of people on the eastern half of the state. In the intervening years, the towns surrounding the Quabbin Reservoir have struggled to get their  needs updated and addressed by the state. This Thursday, folx from those 8 towns have a chance to speak with the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority in person, and perhaps discuss the legislation put forward as well, and we’ll hear from Belchertown's Ed Comeau and Shutesbury's Matteo Pangallo about the reservoir’s true impact on the people and land that surround it.One of the nation’s oldest towns is celebrating America’s 250th anniversary with a trio of plays to bring us closer to the stories of the time of revolution. A Stake in the Ground 1774 is opening at Historic Deerfield and we’ll chat with artistic director of Plays in Place Patrick Gabridge and  director of museum education, Claire Carlson, about this collaboration and theatrical journey back in time. And speaking of the 250th, English has quite a few ways to go about saying that marker more easily, and our interim word nerd, editor-at-large at Merriam-Webster and Jazz a la mode host Peter Solokowski explains the whys of how the language treats these numbers.