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All Aboard! By Leo Racicot Our mother never learned how to drive. As she told it, the first time her Lowell High School driving instructor took her out on the road, she drove straight into a ditch and said, “Never again!” As a single girl, she worked at Abbott Worsted in Forge Village, a…
Read More »A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday. Article: “Could Massachusetts become the first state to repeal legalized marijuana?” by Bryan Hecht, Boston Globe, July 6, 2026. It looks like this November there will be a ballot question asking voters to repeal the ballot question…
Read More »Tour de France 2026 – Last Stage By Louise Peloquin On July 4th, the Tour de France took off from Barcelona for the first time, and offered spectators a magnificent view of cyclists whizzing by Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia. This brief is for readers who enjoy following the Tour…
Read More »Goddesses and Men By Stephen O’Connor When I was a child, my parents gave me an oversized storybook entitled Pegasus. On the cover, a brilliant white stallion charged heavenward on great feathered wings, bearing the young Bellerophon. I was smitten. My interest in classical mythology has never waned. One Christmas,…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Where the Serpent Lives by Daniyal Mueenuddin, is a totally captivating novel starting in 1950’s Pakistan, colored by the caste system that frames the past, present and even future for its people. The backdrop is the turbulence following Partition, the…
Read More »The Lowell City Council met on Tuesday, July 14, 2026. No single issue dominated the meeting although there were several interesting public policy discussions that I’ll review today. **** Underage drinking – A trio of motions addressed the presence of minors in establishments that serve alcohol. A steady stream of…
Read More »Recollections of the Irreplaceable David Daniel By Ed DeJesus Deeply saddened by the loss of my dear friend and mentor, Dave Daniel, and mired in Florida commitments that kept me from attending his glorious Celebration of Life (fondly recounted to me in Steve O’Connor’s email, then embellished by others with…
Read More »Living Madly: I Hate Summer By Emilie-Noelle Provost Although I appreciate fresh local vegetables and not having to scrape ice off my windshield, summer and I really don’t get along. Every May, I’m overcome by a sense of dread because summer is coming, and there’s nothing I can do to…
Read More »A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday. Book Review: This Land Is Your Land: A Road Trip Through U.S. History, by Beverly Gage (2026). A professor of American history at Yale, Gage won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023 for her biography of J. Edgar…
Read More »2026 FIFA World Cup – Fans, Feelings and Facts By Louise Peloquin Even the most indifferent to the world’s most popular sport have been caught up, at least for a few moments, by some of the many viral images around the 2026 FIFA World Cup competition. It runs from June…
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