Between the Covers By Leo Racicot The Golden Age of magazines was still going strong when I was a kid. Popular publications like LIFE and LOOK Magazines still held their popularity with readers. As someone who’d been weaned from a young age on movies and movie-going, thanks to my father’s…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Article: “Inside Trump’s Great American State Fair” by Jim Puzzanghera, et al, Boston Globe, June 29, 2026. The Great American State Fair is a 16-day event on the National Mall in Washington, DC that runs from June…

A Bigger Splash in a Bigger Heat (1) By Louise Peloquin After an unusually early record-breaking heatwave at the end of May, June 15th temperatures started rising past the three-digit mark to top 106 in Paris on the 24th making the City of Lights the hottest spot on the planet.…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Four hundred thousand people attended the July Fourth Bicentennial Boston Pops Esplanade Concert in 1976. I was one of them. It was a gorgeous summer night, a peaceful crowd enjoying the music and spirit of post-Watergate comity. A…

The Lowell City Council met on June 30, 2026. Today I’ll comment on several issues they covered. A joint motion by Mayor Erik Gitschier and Councilors Corey Robinson and Sean McDonough to “place the Lowell Fire Chief position back into civil service prior to filling this anticipated vacancy” was discussed…

David Daniel, a longtime contributor to this blog, passed away on May 5, 2026, from pulmonary fibrosis. Raised in Weymouth, Massachusetts, Dave was a prolific writer with more than ten novels, more than 200 short stories, and countless essays, reviews and columns. Dave’s obituary recounts more of the fascinating life…

Cats I Have Known By Leo Racicot The jury’s still out on whether I like cats. I must, huh? Through no doing of my own, I inherited two. I’ve also over the years cat-sat for friends. Nobody forced me to do that although I must say there’s really nothing to…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Literary Event: “Three Franco Poets from Lowell” This event was held on Monday, June 22, 2026, at UMass Lowell’s Coburn Hall as part of this year’s Lowell Franco American Festival Week. The three poets were Dr. Joseph…

This post originally appeared on this site on July 1, 2025.  “Lowell has responded splendidly” – (PIP #75) By Louise Peloquin       The National Defense Day program was one of the items on the September 3rd 1924 Lowell City Council meeting agenda. (1)  Posting it seems appropriate on the eve of America’s 250th birthday.…