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Over the next few weeks I will write about the Lowell City Council elections that took place between 1943 and 1965. The former date is the first election held after the city adopted the Plan E form of government; the second date is the first year covered by my Lowell…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Backyard barbecues, beach parties, fireworks, and concerts featuring the 1812 Overture – all traditional parts of the holiday celebrating the independence of our nation.  What’s wrong with this picture?  Why, the 1812 Overture, of course. This marquee finale…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Hill of Beans, the newest novel by Les Epstein, for 36 years head of the Boston University Creative Writing Program and author of 11 books, including King of the Jews, San Remo Drive, and Pandaemonium,  is another of this writer’s novels…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Instructions for a Heatwave  is another intriguing narrative about a dysfunctional family by Northern Irish novelist Maggie O’Farrell. Set in a 1976 heatwave in the U.K., the novel focuses on the family of Gretta Riordan, an Irish grandmother,…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Persist by Massachusetts Senator and failed Democratic Presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is the kind of memoir that breathes life into a policy tract.  Warren’s campaign mantra was that for each of society’s problems, she had a plan.  She still…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barrons own blog. Paul Levy was the much-admired executive director of the Mass Water Resources Authority, who, from 1988-1992, led the stunningly successful cleanup of Boston Harbor.  He had previously chaired the Mass. Department of Public Utilities (1983-1987) and followed that…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. After the failure of last week’s Senate vote on creating an independent commission to review the events of January 6th, attention has increased on the need to do something to end or modify the filibuster. Sadly, Democratic Senator…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. In what rational universe could a democratic institution have 54 votes to advance an idea and 35 votes against, and the proposition fails? It would also have failed if there were 59 votes for it and just one…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips is a first novel set in the isolated Russian peninsular community of KamChatka, after the demise of the Soviet Union.  It’s hard-scrabble living even in its principal city of Petropavlovsk.  The story grabs…