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After nearly six hours of deliberations spread over two meetings, the Lowell City Council on Tuesday, June 2, 2026, adopted the city’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget of $577,861,191. Although the council cannot increase the budget proposed by the city manager, I believe the final amount was higher than what was…

Things We No Longer See in the Culture By Leo Racicot I’m enough of an old fuddy-duddy to actually miss some of the daily fixtures of life as we knew them in the culture of the 50s, 60s and beyond.     I miss the convenience of the neighborhood mailbox, the…

Magazine: “The Venture-Capital Populist: How David Sacks and the new tech right went full MAGA and captured Washington” by George Packer in The Atlantic, June 2026 – Because of extreme cold, the 2025 presidential inauguration was held inside the U.S. Capital. The smaller venue limited how many could attend in…

La Caverne du Pont Neuf  by JR, Plato and Daft Punk By Louise Peloquin More than 40 years after Christo and Jeanne-Claude literally wrapped up le Pont Neuf, JR is in the process of transforming it into what he calls “the world’s biggest immersive artwork.” (1) From Saturday June 6th…

Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was devoted almost exclusively to the council’s review of the proposed FY27 city budget. The council opted to review the budget department-by-department and worked diligently for three hours until the mandatory meeting stop time of 10 pm arrived. A vote to keep going failed and…

The Pick-Me-Up By Leo Racicot I’m sitting here wondering if the charming American custom of the afternoon pick-me-up still exists. I asked around and got a lot of blank stares. It’s safe to say the afternoon pick-me-up is cousin to the British tea time tradition, that hour of the day when the…

Event: Lowell in World War II Walking Tour: On Saturday, Bob Forrant and I led 30 people around downtown Lowell, sharing stories about the city during World War II. The main theme was how war production temporarily rescued the remaining Lowell mills and boosted employment and wages for Lowell residents…

Toil, Repeat, Rehash – (PIP #107) By Louise Peloquin      Pop quizzes, tests and exams are punctuating student days as the school year comes to an end. This is a time to reflect upon how one can “learn well.” The learning tips provided in the following editorial are not outdated.…

Charlie Gargiulo, a good friend and the author if the wonderful memoir, Legends of Little Canada, sent an email the other day. He had just heard about the recent passing of fellow author David Daniel (who contributed many pieces to this site). The loss Charlie felt on learning of Dave’s…

An innocuous sounding item on Tuesday’s agenda generated the most significant discussion of the evening. This was “Sick Leave Usage and OT Update for FY2026” which included an eight-page document that provided historical data on sick leave usage. When this item was finally reached nearly two hours into the meeting,…