Author Archive

Living Madly: The God of Doors

Living Madly: The God of Doors By Emilie-Noelle Provost One of my father-in-law’s favorite sayings was: There’s always the unexpected. No matter how carefully our plans are laid out, or how much we might want a particular thing to happen, or not, the possibility that something unforeseen will derail our desires…

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Joyeux Noël

Joyeux Noël (PIP #12) By Louise Peloquin A meeting takes place in the long rectangular room where jacks-of-all-printing trades feed linotypes with a cornucopia of lead letters. They are working on important December issues – important because the holidays bring an abundance of ads, important especially because local events, duly…

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Richard Howe Substack: Dec 17, 2023

The Lowell City Council met Tuesday night. Councilor Corey Robinson participated in this meeting via Zoom. He had two motions on the agenda. As they did last week, his colleagues voted to table Robinson’s motions which means no action was taken on them. Other than speaking on a point of…

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All in the Family

Norman Lear died last week at age 101. The longtime television writer and producer revolutionized TV with “All in the Family” and the shows it spun off such as “Maude,” “The Jeffersons,” “Good Times,” and others. I was in the eighth grade when “All in the Family” debuted on January…

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An Eye on the Sky

An Eye on the Sky (PIP #11) By Louise Peloquin As winter looms, we wonder how snowy and cold the season will be. There was no “Weather Channel” or “Weather Radar” app a hundred years ago. Nonetheless, L’Etoile‘s readership obtained meteorological news. Surely, Lowell’s Franco-Americans studied the crystal ball in…

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Richard Howe Substack: Dec 10, 2023

The consequences of Councilor Corey Robinson’s pending criminal charges dominated Lowell politics again this week. The Councilor is not due back in court until early January, however, on Tuesday he participated in a Council meeting for the first time since his mid-November arrest. In spite of six of the ten…

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Pearl Harbor: Dec 7, 1941

A version of this post appeared here on Pearl Harbor Day 2017.  On Sunday, December 7, 1941, several thousand people attended that day’s Moses Greeley Parker lecture at the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. Admission was free, the doors opened at 2:15 pm, and the event began at 3 pm. The performers…

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Franco Patriotism

Franco Patriotism (PIP #10) By Louise Peloquin “The Patriotism of the Franco-Americans” (1)      Miss Yvonne Lemaître, distinguished woman of letters, published a very interesting piece in Boston’s “Transcript” the other day. “Why François fails to fight” is an analysis, or rather a review, of the recent events, in Canada…

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Richard Howe Substack – Dec 3, 2023

There was no Lowell City Council meeting last week. Normally the meeting would have been held on Tuesday night, but the preceding Thursday was the Thanksgiving holiday and I believe City Hall was closed entirely on Friday which is the day on which the Tuesday night agenda must be finalized.…

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