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“That is what matters most” – (PIP #97) By Louise Peloquin Over the past four weeks, our “peeks into the past” have focussed on Lowell’s centennial. The following “PIP” shows Lowell officials putting final touches to the city’s hundredth birthday party, the March 1 afternoon program and an example of…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Paper Girl: a Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America by journalist Beth Macy is a perfect complement to my just-reviewed Buckeye by Patrick Ryan. Think of Paper Girl as small-town Ohio, part 2, the contemporary, non-fiction version. Macy grew up in Urbana,…
Read More »To help commemorate Lowell’s bicentennial, I’ve written a new book. Lowell: A Concise History tells the city’s story from the arrival of the first English explorers in the early 1600s up to the present day with a focus on immigration and industrialization. It’s a short volume for the casual reader…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Buckeye by Patrick Ryan is a beautifully written novel about a fictional town in Ohio (Bonhomie), not far from Toledo. If you’ve ever lived in a small town, it may feel like home to you. The span is immediate pre-World…
Read More »Work Life: Part 2 By Leo Racicot When it became clear I was going to be trapped in Las Vegas indefinitely, I figured I’d try to get a job. With some library experience under my belt, I hoped to find work with one of the city’s libraries: a main library…
Read More »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. Because the Olympics and the Super Bowl both came this week, this edition is exclusively about TV: TV: Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony –…
Read More »Having a Ball – (PIP #96) By Louise Peloquin Have you recognized any names among the 100 + listed below distributing tickets for the Lowell Centennial Ball? L’Etoile – February 20, 1926 TICKETS FOR THE CENTENNIAL BALL __________ On the evening of March 1, admission to the Auditorium will require…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Flesh by Hungarian-British author David Szalay was recently announced as the winner of the 2025 Booker Award. Although the Booker board called it “a propulsive, hypnotic novel about a man who is unraveled by a series of events beyond his…
Read More »Before getting to the February 3, 2026, city council meeting, here are the results of the same day’s special primary election for the state senate seat left vacant when Edward Kennedy died last year. In the Special Democratic Primary, State Representative Vanna Howard defeated State Representative Rodney Elliott. Here are…
Read More »Time of the End of the Season Part Two: Bubblz—LA–Broken Arrow By Bob Hodge Bob Hodge grew up in Lowell and went on to graduate from Lowell High (1973) and University of Lowell (1990). He was (and still is) one the greatest runners to come out of this region. He’s also…
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