Spring 2010 Editor’s Note

In March, baseball returns to the Boston area’s bloodstream.

Yet football fever persists – and not just for diehards of the NFL draft. The Independent Women’s Football League (IWFL) plays all spring long. One of its best squads – the Boston Militia, fresh off a 9-1 campaign – calls Somerville’s Dilboy Stadium (110 Alewife Brook Pkwy) home.

The team has other Somerville ties as well. Linebacker Sharyn Wacht teaches at Somerville High School. Linebacker/running back Kim Hickey attended SHS. The team also held offseason workouts at the SHS gym.

We hope you enjoy our story on the Militia (“One Team, One Dream”), featuring the photography of Kelly MacDonald and the design of Laura Vivenzio. Tickets for Militia home games are only $5 for Somerville residents and free for senior citizens, SHS students and children under 12 accompanied by an adult. That’s a bargain, especially when you compare it to Red Sox single-game tickets ($12 to $328).

Speaking of spring spending: Not a week goes by, it seems, without a restaurant opening (or announcing an opening) in one Somerville square or another (“The 411 on 8 New Joints”). Reporter Linsey Herman has penned profiles of eight new establishments, one of which is a Davis Square project helmed by Ken Kelly, owner of Precinct (70 Union Sq) and The Independent (75 Union Sq).

Since we launched Scout one year ago, one of our recurring sections has been a column by Joe Grafton, Executive Director of Somerville Local First. Reporter Kristen Grieco proposed a twist on this column that we couldn’t resist (“The Local Anesthetic”): What if, for 30 straight days, she shopped exclusively at independently owned Somerville businesses – not a single trip to Target, Market Basket, Shaw’s, Costco or CVS?

Among the things Kristen had trouble finding were Purina cat food; a good book selection (outside of the library); mascara; and serious stationery (yellow legal pads, reporters’ notebooks, that type of thing). If you can find those products at an independent Somerville shop, please tell us where. We’d love to know. –Ilan Mochari