Reflections on the Water By Leo Racicot When I was a kid, I thought every city had as many canals as my hometown, Lowell, did. Canals seemed to be everywhere, crisscrossing the majority of the city; in summertime, brief, cooling interludes between long stretches of hot pavement. I didn’t think this…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Headline: “A Forceful Rebuke: Democrats Sweep Congress, Delivering Blow to Republicans” New York Times, November 5, 2026. This was the front page of the Times two days after the election. (The edition on the day after was…

VETERANS DAY PRAYER  By Rocky Provencher (Nov 2023) Rocky Provencher was born and raised in Lowell. He attended city schools from the Lowell Day Nursery through Lowell Technological Institute (now UMass Lowell). He spent his career working in Lowell’s mills and was a long time Lowell Folk Festival volunteer. He…

This post originally appeared on this site on November 6, 2021.  An American in Paris By Louise Peloquin On September 16, 1940, the US passed the Selective Service Act allowing the draft of eligible men for military service. Hence, Laval U. Peloquin, one of nine children born to French-Canadian immigrants…

The stunning performance of Democratic candidates in the rest of the country in Tuesday’s midterm election has dominated the news. Still, there was also an election here in Massachusetts, so I’ll begin today’s newsletter with the results of the races beginning with our state legislators: State Senator Vanna Howard (Dem)…

October Reflections by Henri Marchand Fall is little over a month old but well underway.  It officially began September 22 with the autumnal equinox, but for me fall began, as it always does, the first week of September, right after Labor Day.  After all, that’s when we return home from…

Sun Up, Sun Down By Leo Racicot Part of the everyday fun of home life in the 1960s was having the city newspaper, The Lowell Sun, arrive afternoons around 3 or 4 o’clock. The paperboy would tuck our copy between the porch doors, safe from weather and wind. In those days,…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Article: “Books Everlasting: The startling renaissance of reading, from the shop floor up” by Nathan Heller, New Yorker, October 26, 2026. In last week’s Seen & Heard, I wrote about a podcast featuring James Marriott, a London…

Two years ago, Louise Peloquin began sharing excerpts from L’Etoile, a French-language newspaper published in Lowell from 1886 to 1957. At my urging, she has agreed to compile some of her previous posts with added contextual information into a book manuscript to be called, L’Etoile: A Star on Prince Street.…