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 Centennial Spending Objections  – (PIP #95) By Louise Peloquin No consensus among City Council members discussing centennial spending. L’Etoile – Front page, January 23, 1926 OBJECTIONS TO THE $35,000 VOTE FOR THE CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION __________ Councilor Campbell says it is beyond the city’s means. __________ ONLY $15,000, SAYS MR. STEARNS…

This coming Tuesday is the Special Primary for the 1st Middlesex State Senate District which became vacant when Edward J. Kennedy passed away last October. The district includes Lowell, Dracut, Dunstable, Pepperell and Tyngsborough. In the Democratic primary, the candidates are State Representatives Rodney Elliott and Vanna Howard, both of…

BULLIES By Gregory F. DeLaurier I was born and raised in a small tough working-class city up in Northern New York. Wrote a novel about the place. Growing up there, you had two choices—be bullied or be a bully. For the first few years of my life, say from kindergarten…

The Knockout Punch By Jerry Bisantz I got hit with a bomb. It happened at the supermarket yesterday. As I rolled my cart with the single wobbly wheel up and down the aisle, my eyes fell upon one of the most beautiful women I have ever seen. To me, it…

Chinese, If You Please By Leo Racicot Chinese food never struck my uneducated palate as being exotic because from as far back as I can remember, the family liked to feast downtown at Chin Lee’s restaurant. (Unfortunately, these were unenlightened times and the place was referred to as “The Chink’s”…

Welcome to this week’s edition of Seen and Heard, in which I catalog the most interesting things I’ve seen, heard and read over the previous seven days: YouTube: Mark Carney’s Speech at World Economic Forum – On Tuesday, January 20, 2026, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney gave a speech at…

Planning Lowell’s Centennial – (PIP #94) By Louise Peloquin      By rallying together, combining efforts and forging alliances, Lowellians tackled centennial celebration arrangements. L’Etoile – Front page, January 9, 1026 THE SPLENDORS OF THE CENTENNIAL FESTIVITIES __________ Grand four or five-day pageant with 1,200 extras at South Common. – Magnificent…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Daughters of the Bamboo Grove: From China to America by Barbara Demick is a stellar piece of journalistic reporting in book form, laying bare in well-researched details the far-reaching impacts of China’s One Child Policy. For more than 30 years,…

The Lowell City Council had a busy meeting on Tuesday, January 20, 2026. Funding the Lowell High construction and renovation project was foremost among the items discussed. Last month, the council rejected a proposed loan order of $39 million to pay the increased costs of the project. Now, the city…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Massachusetts, for long the nation’s undisputed leader in education, is slipping. It has been slower than other states to rebound from the pandemic. Too many third grade children can’t read. Only 1/3 of MA 4th graders & MA 8th graders read…