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Seen & Heard: Vol. 11 Television: The Oscars telecast – Sunday night was the Academy Awards show on ABC. I watched it for an hour before moving on with my night (I go to bed early and like to read before that). What I saw was enjoyable. The host, Conan…
Read More »This prose poem appears in my book What Is the City? (2006), which is out of print but sometimes available in used condition on internet sites. Jackie Brady was a champion boxer in Lowell, Mass., in the 1960s. The local scene from the 1980s described here predates the easing of…
Read More »The agenda item that dominated the Tuesday, March 10, 2026, Lowell City Council meeting was a public hearing and vote to amend the city’s Zoning Code to impose a one-year ban on new or expanded data centers in the city. After much public comment and discussion among councilors, the new…
Read More »Mother at the Stove By Leo Racicot “Memories hold the key not to the past but to the future.” Corrie Ten Boom Our mother wasn’t Julia Child but she was no slouch at the stove either, and when she, at a young age, found herself a widow and bereft, she,…
Read More »The Small Town Newspaper – (PIP #100) By Louise Peloquin “Peek into the past” of L’Etoile number 100 brings us full circle. The seven-decade newspaper never skirted its priority, placing Lowell happenings in the limelight, as the last seven centennial PIP’s showed. The two editorials below offer food for…
Read More »The Lowell City Council met on Tuesday night (March 3, 2026). The meeting was dominated by a discussion of a joint motion by Councilors Corey Robinson and Rita Mercier requesting the city manager to “provide the city council with a detailed report on a pathway to secure independent legal counsel…
Read More »Erosion of Democracy’s Norms is Dreadful to Behold Rev. Steve Edington This Op-Ed was originally published in the Union Leader on March 6, 2026. Several years ago, I watched a production of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible” by a community theater troupe in Belfast, Maine. The play portrays the events in…
Read More »The Pollard Memorial Library Foundation recently announced that submissions are now open for the 2026 Elinor Lipman Award for Writing. Born and raised in Lowell, Lipman is a prolific and much-loved author who graciously returns to the city each year for this contest’s awards ceremony. More information about the rules…
Read More »Gulf War Notebook (1991) By Paul Marion In early 1991, I was a freelance writer and editor, often working at home, which was the case during the early days of the Gulf War in the administration of President George H. W. Bush. I was drawn in to the media coverage.…
Read More »Barbers and Barbershops By Leo Racicot One of my favorite trips with Papa was when he’d drive the old Plymouth up to Cupples Square to Dick the Barber’s, to have my hair cut. Dick would give dad a quick clean-up then Papa would lift me up into the same barber’s…
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