Prayers, Pies and Prizes By Leo Racicot I’d be lying if I said our mother looked forward, as did so many of the parents of our Saint Patrick’s School classmates, when the school year rolled around to school community-related activities such as raffles, school fairs, bake sales, paper drives. As…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Author Interview: Min Jin Lee on CSpan’s America’s Book Club hosted by David Rubenstein. Lee is a Korean immigrant who came to the United States with her family at age 7. She did well academically, graduated from…

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.…

Last Sunday afternoon, I sat at my kitchen table and filled in the ovals on my 2026 state election ballot. Earlier that day in my newsletter, I had described the eight ballot questions and the consequences of yes or no votes, so I felt well-prepared to mark my ballot. Imagine…

Epistolary By Leo Racicot I suppose my lifelong love of letters and letter-writing began when I discovered The Letters of Emily Dickinson. I was young, maybe 15 or 16. I also at the same time came across the Letters of Vincent van Gogh.  The discovery was revelatory; the idea that the personal correspondence…

Living Madly: Crazy Ed Emilie-Noelle Provost When I was growing up, there was an older man who lived in my neighborhood named Crazy Ed, at least that’s what everyone called him. I never knew his real name. Crazy Ed lived in a basement apartment in a working-class tenement next to…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Article: From bus driver to professor, he keeps RI workers’ history alive, by Carlos Munoz in Boston Globe, September 27, 2026. This is the story of Scott Molloy, who was hired as a Rhode Island Transit Authority…

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.…