Births per 1,000 residents in 2010

By Matt Carroll, Boston Globe | May 2, 2013

Click here to see a larger, interactive version of this chart.
Additional town-by-town snapshots.

By David Nyhan, Globe Staff

The late Globe columnist David Nyhan wrote the following column in 1987. Since then, it has been reprinted in the newspaper and online many times around this time of year. Nyhan died in January 2005.

THE REJECTIONS arrive this time of year in thin, cheap envelopes, some with a crummy window for name and address, as if it were a bill, and none with the thick packet you'd hoped for.

''Dear So-and-so:

''The admissions committee gave full consideration . . . but I regret to inform you we will be unable to offer you a place in the Class of 2012." Lots of applicants, limited number of spaces, blah blah blah, good luck with your undergraduate career. Very truly yours, Assistant Dean Blowhard, rejection writer, Old Overshoe U.

This is the season of college acceptance letters. So it's also the time of rejection. You're in or you're out. Today is the day you learn how life is not like high school. To the Ins, who got where they wanted to go: Congrats, great, good luck, have a nice life, see you later. The rest of this is for the Outs.

You sort of felt it was coming. Your SAT scores weren't the greatest. Your transcript had some holes in it. You wondered what your teachers' recommendations would really say, or imply. And you can't help thinking about that essay you finished at 2 o'clock in the morning of the day you absolutely had to mail in your application, that essay which was, well, a little weird.

Maybe you could have pulled that C in sociology up to a B-minus. Maybe you shouldn't have quit soccer to get a job to pay for your gas. Maybe it was that down period during sophomore year when you had mono and didn't talk to your teachers for three months while you vegged out. What difference does it make what it was? It still hurts.

It hurts where you feel pain most: inside. It's not like the usual heartache that kids have, the kind other people can't see. An alcoholic parent, a secret shame, a gaping wound in the family fabric, these are things one can carry to school and mask with a grin, a wisecrack, a scowl, a just-don't-mess-with-me-today attitude.

But everybody knows where you got in and where you didn't. Sure, the letter comes to the house. But eventually you've still got to face your friends. ''Any mail for me?" is like asking for a knuckle sandwich. Thanks a lot for the kick in the teeth. What a bummer.

How do you tell kids at school? That's the hard part. The squeals in the corridor from the kids who got in someplace desirable. The supercilious puss on the ones who got early acceptance or the girl whose old man has an in at Old Ivy.

There's the class doofus who suddenly becomes the first nerd accepted at Princeton, the 125-pound wrestling jock who, surprise, surprise, got into MIT. But what about you?

You've heard about special treatment for this category or that category, alumni kids on a legacy ticket or affirmative action luckouts or rebounders or oboe players. Maybe they were trying to fill certain slots. But you're not a slot. You're you. They can look at your grades and weigh your scores and see how many years you were in French Club. But they can't look into your head, or into your heart. They can't check out the guts department.

This is the important thing: They didn't reject you. They rejected your resume. They gave some other kid the benefit of the doubt. Maybe that kid deserved a break. Don't you deserve a break? Sure. You'll get one. Maybe this is the reality check you needed. Maybe the school that does take you will be good. Maybe this is the day you start to grow up.

Look at some people who've accomplished a lot and see where they started. Ronald Reagan? Eureka College. Jesse Jackson? They wouldn't let him play quarterback in the Big Ten, so he quit Illinois for North Carolina A & T. Do you know that the recently retired chairmen and CEOs of both General Motors and General Electric graduated from UMass? Bob Dole? He went to Washburn Municipal University.

The former minority leader of the United States Senate, Tom Daschle, went to South Dakota State. The former speaker of the US House of Representatives, J. Dennis Hastert, went to Northern Illinois University. Dick Armey, the former House majority leader, took a bachelor's degree from Jamestown College. Winston Churchill? He was so slow a learner that they used to write to his mother to come take this boy off our hands.

I know what you think: Spare me the sympathy. It still hurts. But let's keep this in perspective. What did Magic Johnson say to the little boy who also tested HIV positive? ''You've got to have a positive attitude." What happens when you don't keep a positive attitude? Don't ask.

This college thing? What happened is that you rubbed up against the reality of big-time, maybe big-name, institutions. Some they pick, some they don't. You lost. It'll happen again, but let's hope it won't have the awful kick. You'll get tossed by a girlfriend or boyfriend. You won't get the job or the promotion you think you deserve. Some disease may pluck you from life's fast lane and pin you to a bed, a wheelchair, a coffin. That happens.

Bad habits you can change; bad luck is nothing you can do anything about.

Does it mean you're not a good person? People like you, if not your resume. There's no one else that can be you. Plenty of people think you're special now, or will think that, once they get to know you. Because you are.

And the admissions department that said no? Screw them. You've got a life to lead.

(MSPCA Angell)

Boston.com Staff

A local dog was rescued Friday for the second time within the past month.

Lani was first rescued from a hoarder home in Braintree last month along with a dozen other purebred Shar Pei dogs. The dogs were brought to the MSPCA-Angell animal adoption center in Jamaica Plain.

Teri DeFilippo adopted Lani on Tuesday, but when they got to DeFilippo’s home on Church Street in Wareham at about 5 p.m., the dog slipped out of her leash and ran toward Route 6, officials from the adoption center said.

A three-day search for Lani ended Friday when Alyssa Muro, manager of the MSPCA's adoption center in JP, brought one of the dog's litter-mates to the Wareham area to try to find Lani.

Using tips from people who had seen the missing dog, Muro went to the area where Lani had been spotted in the past and was able to lure her close enough to recover her.

"Thanks to her new family for all the work they put in!" Muro wrote on the MSPCA's Facebook page Friday. "In the end, it was someone who had been given a flyer by them this morning and called to let us know where Lani was."

Lani is now back with her new owner, who expressed gratitude on Facebook.

"One million thanks is not enough!" DeFilippo wrote.

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DARREN MCCOLLESTER/GETTY IMAGES

A seawall breached in Scituate Saturday morning amid a lacerating nor’easter that kept pounding, dusk to dawn. Water poured onto Ocean Avenue and surrounding streets, spurring frantic calls from residents pleading for evacuation.

Town officials planned a 5 pm news conference to update the media on the damage from the snow storm. Here is a Globe video of high tides in Scituate, Plymouth and Hull.

Around the south shore, images and reports continued to come in regarding damage from the storm surge.

This video posted Saturday morning by Michael Page shows high tide coastal flooding in Hingham. Page reports by Twitter that Hingham received about 19-inches.

Scituate police sent this photo of a tree down to Your Town Correspondent Jessica Bartlett. You can follow Jessica's coverage on Twitter @jessmayb3.

According to Twitter reports collected by Bartlett Saturday morning, Duxbury is about 90% without power, many roads are impassable and it will be several days until full restoration. A couple hundred people in Hingham are without power. Power was out in Weymouth in the morning, but was later restored.

"Post island road in #Quincy doesn't have water in roads but marsh is full. In the meantime, folks having snow parties,'' Bartlett tweeted around 11 am Saturday.

The Globe's Metro Desk blog reported that more than 2,000 members of the National Guard have been mobilized and many are stationed in communities from Hull to Sandwich, evacuating residents or getting in position in case they need to do so.

“The surge and the flooding there is definitely an issue for us,” said Major General L. Scott Rice, commander of the Massachusetts National Guard. “We’re getting our high-water vehicles out there and in place to start moving people out of there.”

National Guardsmen were already helping to evacuate Hull, where officials had encouraged residents to leave; they are now moving to Marshfield, Scituate, and Weymouth, and Salisbury.

Here is our story posted last night. Globe reporter Akilah Johnson can be followed on Twitter @akjohnson1922.

Go to the boston.com homepage for more updates.

"This has been a top 10 storm for many people and the biggest snowstorm ever in terms of snow totals for others. Portland, ME set a new all-time snow total record,'' Boston.com Weather Wisdom blogger David Epstein wrote in a post that lists snow fall totals for the region.

Meanwhile, the AP reports that the U.S. Postal Service has suspended mail delivery and will keep post offices closed in all six New England states because of the blizzard that has dumped more than 2 feet of snow throughout the region.

Here's a Hingham photo Tweeted by Michael Page of Hinghamweather.com:

The With a huge snowstorm heading toward the region, the Valentine’s Dessert Tasting at the James Library and Center for the Arts, originally scheduled for Friday, Feb. 8, has been postponed until Friday, Feb. 15, at 8 p.m.

“All of our vendors were able to reschedule and will be here,” director Caroline Chapin said. “We’re rescheduling for the safety of our vendors and guests.”

All tickets will be honored for the snow date. To read about this event, click here.

For more information, visit www.jameslibrary.org.

Four master chefs from around the South Shore share their holiday secrets, bound to satisfy your guests — or yourself.

View recipes and pictures here.

Families with children in pajamas, elves in green and red, and Santa Claus himself took a ride on the South Shore Polar Express on Saturday, Dec. 8.

View more pictures here.

Photo by Bruce Rogovin

Elisa Rastelli of Norwell (left), Isabel Mallon of Plymouth (center), and Katy Connolly of Hingham will dance the lead role of the Sugar Plum Fairy in the South Shore Ballet Theatre's production of "The Nutcracker" this season.

Tchaikovsky's seasonal favorite will be performed at Derby Academy in Hingham at 2 and 6 p.m. on both Dec. 8 and 9. A total of 90 children will be split into three casts for the four shows.

The South Shore Ballet Theatre, located in Hanover, offers classes for dancers age 3 to adult. This will be its fifth annual production of "The Nutcracker."

Unlike many Nutcrackers, the SSBT doesn't use adult dancers for the lead roles, said Artistic Director Mathavan McKeon. Every part will be played by dancers age 17 and younger, except for the parents in the opening party scene.

"It's all about the students," said McKeon. "We don't water down the choreography; we make them work hard."

According to McKeon, this Nutcracker uses choreography that has been passed down from generation to generation, and mirrors the dancing seen in major dance ensembles.

"We don't want to be a professional company. We want to be a pre-professional school,'' said McKeon. "If they want to move on to professional careers, they have to learn these skills to be successful."

Tickets for the shows are $15, and all seats are reserved. For more information, visit the SSBT's website.

Hundreds of people from Massachusetts and beyond took a pilgrimage to Plymouth on Saturday, Nov. 17 to celebrate America's original pilgrims. The Thanksgiving celebration included a parade that was a walk through the country's history, with people dressed up representing each time period and war from the 1600's to present day.

View more pictures of the Thanksgiving parade in Plymouth here.

By Jessica Bartlett, Town Correspondent

Republican incumbent Robert Hudlund was re-elected as state senator for the Plymouth and Norfolk District Tuesday, beating out Genevieve Davis with 68 percent of the vote.

Hedlund more than doubled the tally of Davis, winning 55,561 to 25,647.

“I was pretty confident,” Hedlund said on Wednesday. “As a candidate, you have a sixth sense of what’s going on out there, and I was getting good feedback from people I would encounter.”

According to the candidate -- who represents Cohasset, Duxbury, Hull, Hingham, Marshfield, Norwell, Scituate, and Weymouth -- the fact that he won by such a big margin was not too surprising, especially as Hedlund has had similar success against strong candidates in the past, he said.

“In my ‘02 race, I had someone who outspent me significantly, and the results were the same,” he said. “The precedent was there to win big against candidates who have been stronger and those who have been weaker than Davis.”

Hedlund’s reelection secured a 10th consecutive term for the Republican, who is currently one of four of his party in the State Senate. He also won a term in 1990.

Hedlund said that while the big turnout hurt some of his fellow Republicans, including US Senator Scott Brown, who lost Democrat Elizabeth Warren, Hedlund came through well.

Yet moving into a new term, Hedlund wishes there were more Republicans at the Statehouse.

“If anyone spends any time at the Statehouse and actually sees what goes on up there, they would want to have a bigger Republican presence,” Hedlund said. “We really are, in a lot of ways, the watchdogs up there on some of the spending practices and some of the so called ‘good government’ stuff.

"We’re not involved in some of the shenanigans that the probation department and other departments [are in], and a lot of our fiscal efforts have been vindicated in a lot of ways,” he said.

As such, the budget will continue to be a big issue moving into the next term, especially as state receipts are falling short of projections.

“We’ll have a brutal budget to deal with the coming fiscal year. It’s going to be tough. And a lot of the issues I’ve been working on, [there] will be a continuation of that: 40B [affordable housing] reform, we’ve had funding for capital projects ongoing, the Fore River Bridge project, I’ve had some successes with a lot of immigration reform measures, the water rate bill initiative. Some of the things we haven’t got across the finish line we will still be working on.”

In the meantime, this week's Democratic victories still smart for the Republican as politicians at all levels of government look to the next term.

According to Hedlund, who went to watch Romney’s concession speech after his own victory party at Hingham Beer Works, it’s disappointing.

“I really thought Mitt Romney would make a great president after dealing with him as governor. There was a side that didn’t go out into the media…the polls indicated he wasn’t popular in Massachusetts, but working in the building, I saw a side of him that showed me a lot, and I wish that had come out in this campaign. Obama did a good job defining Mitt into something I believe he’s not,” Hedlund said.

As for Warren’s defeat of Brown, Hedlund said he wished the incumbent had been given a full term, “But [Warren] won and we will be interacting with her office in my capacity as state senator, so I wish her well,” he said.

To learn more about Hedlund, visit his website.

To view the results of all the State Senate elections, click here.