The sky was aglow over the hotspot in the Merrimack Valley on Friday night September 17th. By Diane Tufts
Bliss Salon & Spa (419 Andover St. North Andover, MA.) was overflowing with “the beautiful people” for a night of style and schmoozing. The gorgeous runway models: Jeanine, Theresa, Jenny Mac, Maria, Erin, Aleene, Leslie, Kristen, Michelle, Francine, Jessica & Pocahontas worked the runway through the state-of-the-art salon like seasoned pros. The makeup, the hair, the shoes, the clothes…I was in girly-girl heaven! The exquisite hair and makeup was expertly done by (owner) Belinda Gosselin, Monica Tufts, Ernestine Picardi, Grace Fernandez,and Nikki Capostagno.The gorgeous clothes were from the Merrimack Valley area shops and boutiques of: FABULOUS Boutique of Lawrence (fabulousLawrence.com), DRESS CODE of Andover (dresscodestyle.com), and APPLESEED’S of North Andover (appleseeds.com).
The silks, cardigans, ruffles, tweeds, scarves and lovely frocks of all shapes and sizes covered the entire spectrum of lucious fall colors and textures. Denim jackets, tight black pants, wrap dresses…as well as colorful cocktail dresses of all styles (lace, strapless, off-the-shoulder, fringed, haltered, short, long & leather) were strutted atop of some pretty hot shoes and boots! Belts were a noteable accessory in the show, as were the gorgeous jewelry pieces from the area’s top shop for bling: ROYAL JEWELERS of Andover (RoyalJewelers.com).
The evening featured a signature “Blue Bliss Martini” and delicious wines provided and served by McAloon’s Liquors of North Andover. The spa and the well-stuffed gift bags were festooned with colorful floral arrangements generously donated by HOLLAND FLOWERS of Bradford (HollandFlowerShoppes.com). The delicious food fare was supplied area favorites: GAETANO’S ITALIAN CUISINE of Methuen (Gaetanomartinibar.com) and STACHEY’S PIZZA of North Andover (Stacheys.com). The beautiful models rocked that runway to music provided by D.J. Sean at GET DOWN TONIGHT ENTERTAINMENT (getdowntonight.com) and were photographed by ROCK RIDGE PHOTOGRAPHY.
It was a wonderful evening of style, music and fun for a truly deserving cause. I want to thank owners Belinda and Fran Gosselin and organizer Monica Tufts and the style magicians at BLISS SALON & SPA for their months of hard work putting together this event, and I hope that it is the first of many annual fashion events at your amazing showplace location in lovely North Andover Massachusetts.
* AUTISM SPEAKS is an organization near and dear to the hearts of the ladies of BLISS, and was the recipient of funds raised at the event. The organization funds global biomedical research in the causes, prevention, treatments, and cure for Autism. It brings hope to all who deal with the hardships of autism. (autismspeaks.org)
Tired of desk toys that only do one thing? Frustrated by magnets that refuse to pull their own weight? Each set of Buckyballs contains 216 powerful Rare Earth magnets that can be shaped, molded, torn apart and snapped together in unlimited ways. Make sculptures, puzzles, patterns, shapes, stick stuff to the fridge, invent a new game. Get hooked on Buckyballs! The Beehive, 38 Front Street, Salem, 978-744-0663, 
Jewelry for ALL Occasions
Volcano!
‘do Salon
San Francisco based designer Jeanine Payer believes jewelry is more than skin deep, embodied here in this bold, multi-layered necklace with a floating rough-cut aquamarine and a hand-engraved silver pendant. Designers like Jeanine are why Jambu has won Best of the Northshore two years in a row. This and many other special pieces available at…Jambu Inspired Jewelry, 38 Atlantic Avenue, Marblehead, 781-639-9600, 
Elegant or Casual
Truely Unique
Pet Lover Charms
Do you feel you are taking too much medication to treat your depression? Do the side effects of medication outweigh its benefits? Does depression still have control over your life? You are not alone. Depression can affect anyone regardless of age, race, gender or lifestyle and even with treatment, depression can mean a lifetime of suffering.
Dr. Mahshid Mirghassemi, D.D.S, of Liberty Tree Prosthodontics is a highly trained North Shore dentist specializing in Prosthodontics. She received her Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from New York University and her Post Doctorate degree in Prosthodontics from TUFTS. Her remarkable dedication to both the art and science of dentistry ensures an anxietyfree experience and unparalleled results for her patients.
Are you or a loved one frustrated with your medical care? Would you like to see your doctor when you need to, on time with no waiting? Imagine sitting down for relaxed discussions of all your concerns with your doctor himself, not a substitute. Would you like to come away with clear answers, ready to begin a treatment plan that you understand? On nights and weekends, wouldn’t you like to call your doctor directly on his cell phone?
years of experience in treating patients with the highest level of care. They strive to stay abreast of the latest in technological advances by regularly attending continuing education courses and seminars.
practices on the North Shore is located in this historic seaport community. Is hiding chipped, stained or crowded teeth making you self-conscious about some aspect of your smile? Do you have a painful tooth or bleeding gums? Have you made a decision to take action but you do not know where to go? If so, you owe it to yourself to visit the prosthodontic practice of Dr. Jeffrey Dornbush.
Fashioning an identity around the word for a reanimated corpse can make spontaneity tricky. Of course, when your last name is Zombie, people come to expect certain things. Luckily, Rob Zombie—the Haverhill-raised shock rocker, horror film director, comic book author, and sometime amusement park ride designer—has pretty much always lived up to his chosen moniker.
Rainn Wilson, Ellen Page, Kevin Bacon, and Liv Tyler; the next installment of his latest comic book series, The Haunted World of el Superbeasto; and prepping for his next writing and directing project, which he’s not ready to announce, though he describes it as “pretty weird, pretty out there.” He’ll also be touring through the fall with Alice Cooper, his old childhood hero (October includes a performance in Worcester, as well as in Portland, Maine).
Architect and designer Sebastian Carpenter turned a once-forgotten Wenham house into the daring and contemporary home of his dreams. By Regina Cole, Photographed by Eric Roth
known landmark is the Coolidge Estate, the 571-acre site of what once was the home of lawyer, financier, and former MIT Corporation member William Coolidge, who died in 1992. The jewel in the estate’s crown is Coolidge’s 24-room Georgian-style mansion, at which visitors can marvel from the surrounding sprawling grounds.
proprietor, was officially granted a charter. The Society, which was formed by a group of “practical farmers,” set a goal to “promote and improve the agricultural interests of farmers and others in Essex County.” Nearly 200 years later, the basic mission of the Essex Agricultural Society—to educate its public about and to promote the importance of agricultural activities in an atmosphere of fun and excitement through the medium of the Topsfield Fair—hasn’t changed, but the Fair itself certainly has.
Richard Adelman owns and operates this rural Topsfield vineyard, which churns out a variety of hand-crafted wines. Open on Sundays in the summer, Alfalfa’s hours extend to the whole weekend in the fall, meaning there’s more time to take in wine tastings, culinary events, even the occasional class, from vineyard management to—yep, belly dancing. 267 Rowley Bridge Road, 978-774-0014, 
With the holidays approaching, now is the time of year when our thoughts turn toward turkey. For Raymond “Jim” Rischer, however, the birds are a way of life. Rischer’s parents started Raymond’s Turkey Farm in Methuen 50 years ago with 24 birds. Today, he runs the business with his wife, Patt, and their three grown children. Together, they raise 20,000 Broad Breasted White Holland turkeys a year, nearly half of which will soon head to a holiday table near you.
Danvers native Brian Kelly is steady at the wheel of his homegrown auto empire, within which top-quality products—and family—matter most. By Lauren Carelli
Kelly also holds that providing reliable and economical transportation is important to people in the community, and he trusts all of the cars that he sells. “I believe in driving the product that I sell,” he says. “I trust all of the cars [on the lots], and I wouldn’t sell something that I didn’t believe in.” In case you’re curious: Kelly himself drives an Infiniti M.
m the most joy.
Founding director of the new art new world cooperative and artist in residence at unity on the river, Amesbury
The sun has set on another summer, meaning tall, frosty cocktails and weekends at the shore are now merely memories. But fret not; with mercury falling and sunlight becoming scarcer each day, patrons can cozy up to the bar at Bin 28 in Andover for the ultimate autumn cocktail.
The husband-and-wife team behind New England Cranberry.
Hale Street Tavern, Beverly Farms. favorite of: Sam Hunt, chef, 15 walnut, Hamilton.
J.T. Farnham’s, essex.
favorite of: Peter Capalbo, chef, tryst, Beverly.
the selection is.”
Tacos Lupita, lynn. favorite of: Matt O’neill, executive chef, the blue ox, Lynn.
is the best around and the presentation is fantastic!” he says.
served with drawn butter.”
n Beverly. I love anything they make for Sunday breakfast, especially the frittata.”
Landry is amazed by how smoothly the ingredients in his favorite dish go together. “It’s really not fancy,” he says. “In fact, it’s pretty straight-ahead. But it’s so well-balanced—the sweet, the sour, the salt, the fat. And the ingredients complement each other perfectly. I don’t like dishes in which ingredients just don’t go together, like mashed potatoes with wasabi. They don’t belong in the same dish. These ingredients definitely do.”
Meet the Candidates Governor Deval Patrick and gubernatorial hopeful Charlie Baker break down their candidacies—right down to their caffeine intake—in a warm-up for Super Tuesday. By, Andrea Fox
Next: the potato leek soup topped with crispy smoked bacon. This is a hearty, rustic soup flavored with leeks, Yukon Gold potatoes, chicken stock, cream, herbs, and a little bacon fat—very satisfying, with an earthy, potato taste.
he main course was the chicken morel with wild mushroom cream sauce, potato pie, and broccolini gratin. The skin of the boneless chicken breast is beautifully crisped, while the meat is moist and quite flavorful, which, according to Chef Demers, is the result of two days of brining in spices, herbs, and brown sugar. The dish pairs nicely with the Sonoma Valley Murphy-Goode Fume Blanc that smells of stone fruit (peaches, plums, and the like) and tastes crisp and dry, with hints of pineapple.
Stay
In the mid-1980s, an immigrant boy was sent by INS to be examined by an orthodontist to determine his age. His Cambodian birth records were destroyed by the Khmer Rouge, the Communist supporters whose movement and power grab killed millions in Cambodia. The orthodontist guessed that the boy was born between 1970 and 1972; the boy settled on the latter as his birth year.
Sam meas, born sombo, also knows about loss. His journey began in the Kandal Province of Cambodia, where the Khmer Rouge invaded his village and took his father away for “re-education.” Meas assumes his father was executed. Young Sombo was sent to a refugee camp along the Thai-Cambodian border with his mother and her sisters, but when Vietnamese Communists invaded that camp, Meas was separated from them. His cousin grabbed him and together they escaped, along with other refugees, to Thailand’s Kao I Dang, yet another refugee camp.
In addition to having English spoken around him at all times, Meas was able to further master the language through television—particularly soap operas. “I know all the stuff about ‘General Hospital,’ ‘Days of Our Lives,’ you name it. I know the whole thing,” Meas says. “One day, I mustered enough courage to ask my foster sister, ‘Rachel, how come there’s no ending to any of these stories? It goes on forever.’ And she just started laughing.”
In 2008, meas’s political passions were ignited. Actually, he had been an interested observer of American politics since the 1992 Democratic presidential primary, when he watched a debate between Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton and former Senator Paul Tsongas. While in school, Meas met Tsongas, which sparked his interest in politics.
“So one thing led to another, and I said, ‘You know what? We are fighting two wars at the cost of a trillion dollars so the people in Afghanistan in Iraq have the right to choose their representatives,’” Meas says. “I decided I wanted to do something.” With a flare for the dramatic, Meas woke his wife up in the middle of the night and told her he was going to run for Congress.
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