Page 18 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, May 31, 2024 SPORTS | FROM PAGE 17 den to a school record 17-3 regular season and 20-4 overall campaign. Yesterday’s starting lineup was as follows for Malden: senior captain Ryan Coggswell leading off (2B), senior captain Jake Simpson (SS), Bowdridge (P), senior captain Zeke Noelsaint (CF), junior Bo Stead (C), sophomore Ryan McMahon (3B), junior Chris Macdonald (1B), sophomore Billy Gavin (RF) and junior Brayan Jose (LF). Other team members are sophomores Joe Hatch, Eudy Francisco and Matt Candelario Da Costa and freshman Tommy Cronin. A win for Malden yesterday would push them into a fi rstround matchup on the road at Catholic Conference’s St. John’s Prep in Danvers on Saturday at 4:00 p.m. Meenakshi Keshwani is the library’s featured artist for June T he Malden Public Library will be displaying artwork by Meenakshi Keshwani during the month of June. Her paintings are often modern Indian art that navigates the intersection of tradition and innovation, weaving together bold colors, diverse textures and nuanced narrative to refl ect the evolving pulse of a dynamic society. There will be an Artist Reception on Thursday, June 6, from 6-7 p.m. and everyone is welcome to attend. COLLECTING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS Y ou can claim your social security benefits once you reach age 62. However, if you begin collecting at age 62, your benefi ts will be permanently reduced by 25% to 30%, depending on your birth year. Furthermore, if you begin collecting at age 62 and you are still working, you will have your benefi ts further reduced once your income exceeds a certain level. Once you reach your full retirement age, you can earn as much as you want without suff ering a reduction of benefits. For those born in 1960 or later, the full retirement age is 67. If, for example, you were born in 1958, your full retirement age would be 66 and 8 months. The Social Security Administration (SSA) has a table that you can go by to determine what your full retirement age is and how much your benefi ts will be reduced by claiming early and how much they will be increased by waiting to age 70 to collect. If you wait beyond age 70 to collect, you will not receive any higher benefi t. If you delay collecting your social security benefi ts until after your full retirement age, your benefi ts will increase 8% each year until age 70. One benefi t of this strategy is if you were to die at age 71, your surviving spouse who was married to you for at least 10 years would receive 100% of your monthly benefi t. If that surviving spouse did not have a higher monthly benefi t under his or her own work history and did not have a suffi - cient state pension to live on, as well as signifi cant liquid assets, that could be very important for the surviving spouse in order to continue with his or her standard of living. If a spouse collects benefi ts under his or her spouse’s work history, those benefi ts will be permanently reduced if that spouse begins collecting prior to his or her full retirement age. If you were to die after reaching your full retirement age, your surviving spouse would then be able to collect 100% of your monthly benefi t, including the increased benefi t you might be receiving as a result of waiting until age 70 to collect benefi ts. You can claim a surviving spouse social security benefi t under your deceased spouse’s work history at age 60 and then transition to your own work history at your full retirement age assuming this would result in a higher monthly benefi t. Furthermore, you could even wait until age 70 to collect under your work history resulting in even a higher monthly benefi t. I would suggest establishing an account on the www.ssa.gov website to review your work history and to make sure all of your earnings have been posted properly. Go onto the retirement calculator tab to project your estimated benefi ts based upon retiring at full retirement age or at age 70. You would input your expecting earnings as well. If a divorced spouse remarries, he or she would lose the opportunity to collect benefits based upon the previous spouse’s work history. That is a real important consideration for divorced couples. . Joseph D. Cataldo is an estate planning/elder law attorney, Certifi ed Public Accountant, Certifi ed Financial Planner, AICPA Personal Financial Specialist and holds a master’s degree in taxation. The Malden Public Library will display artwork by Meenakshi Keshwani. (Courtesy of the Malden Public Library) HISTORY | FROM PAGE 3 starring role of John Proctor in Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible,” the modern adaptation of the Salem Witch Trials. Though this was an off -Broadway production, soon he was invited to play on Broadway as El Gallo in the musical “The Fantasticks,” based on famous French poet Edmond Rostand’s play “The Romancers,” which in turn included elements of the Romanian mythological story “Pyramus and Thisbe,” Shakespeare’s “Romeo and Juliet” and “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” and Donizetti’s opera “The Elixir of Love.” Critics and the audience also applauded his bitter and crippled puppeteer Paul Berthalet from the road show production of Gower Champion’s “Carnival,” and his voice was called one of the fi nest on the stage. In 1963, he brilliantly played Indian Chief Bromden in the stage version of Ken Kesey’s novel “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest” (costarring Kirk Douglas and Gene Wilder). In the 1970s and 1980s, Ed Ames starred in the famous John Kenley summer stage productions. Ed Ames played such starring roles as Charlie Anderson in Gary Geld’s musical “Shenandoah,” Tevye in Jerry Bock’s musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” Don Quixote in Mitch Leigh’s “Man of La Mancha” and King Arthur in Frederick Loewe’s “Camelot.” His role as Emile de Becque in one of the greatest American musicals, “South Pacifi c,” became his actor’s triumph. Ed’s charisma and psychological depth won the audience momentarily. Ames also starred in the musical version of George B. Shaw’s play “Androcles and the Lion” and played Lord Capulet in the famous Milton Katselas production of “Romeo and Juliet” in Los Angeles. Ed Ames has successfully directed regional and national companies. In 1994, he was selected for the Performers Hall of Fame in Northern California for excellence in stage performances. Another outstanding singer, Elvis Presley, said, ‘‘Singers come and go, but if you’re a good actor, you can last a long time.” According to Ames, his love for acting and singing closely intervened in his career: “Acting is a representation of life. So is singing, and I approach a song as I would a short dramatic scene.” Ed and TV: from Native American to alcoholic sheriff Ames’ fantastic performance in “One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” as well as his appearance (dark eyes and hair and slightly rugged face features), led to his invitation by 20th Century Fox for the role of Mingo, an Oxford-educated Cherokee, in the ABC TV show “Daniel Boone,” about the famous U.S. explorer and frontier. Ames decision to play in the show was based on realistic motives, including reliable payment for the production. As he said in a TV guide in 1968, “You’re an actor, so you act. Work is tight, and if you get a decent part on Broadway every three years, you’re lucky. Whereas you can just keep hackin’ ’em out week after week on TV. And then, of course, you have to eat.” So, Ames signed a fi ve-year contract with the show, though he was sure that it would not last long. However, his own very talented acting disproved his predictions. The show became a great success. Ames learned how to be a real Indian and played his role without any exaggeration, respecting his character and really living his life. When he performed a Cherokee song of death on the episode “Not in Our Stars,” he sounded authentic; his vocabulary and pronunciation were flawless. Maybe Ed’s linguistic talents helped him with it (he knows half a dozen languages). Ames’ acting was so convincing that many Native Americans considered him one of them. Ames even received a letter from the Arizona Indian Association saying, “You have done more for the Indians by your excellent characterization than all the missionaries, government offi cials, and book authors combined.” Despite the huge success of the show, after four years, Ed Ames understood that his singing career was suff ering. Also, he didn’t want to always be seen as Mingo. As he explained, “Television series are a great hazard. The more successful the show, the more identified with the characters you become.” In 1968, he decided to leave the show because he wanted “to do two feature fi lms” and “to go on extended tours... to consolidate my career and... return to Broadway... if the role is right.” Ed was a guest star on numerous TV dramas and shows as a singer and as an actor. Among them were “Murder, She Wrote,” “Santa Barbara,” “The Rifl eman,” “Personality,” “Kraft Music Hall” and “Land’s End.” His role as the alcoholic sheriff Thompson on “The Heat of the Night” again won the audience. Ames liked the “Heat” script “because it deals with police brutality. It takes another look at ethnic prisoners and the police. It doesn’t turn the guy into a monster. He was a man who had helped people, but when he went bad, there was no system in the community to deal with it.” To be continued… (Inna Babitskaya is a Malden historian, a Member of the Malden Historical Commission and author of historical books “From Maldon to Malden,” “Time of Converse” and “Fellsmere Park – Emerald of Malden.”)
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