Visited: Boott Cotton Mills Museum – With out of town guests expressing interest in Lowell’s history, we all headed to the Boott Cotton Mills Museum this week. Admission is $6 for adults and $4 for seniors. A demonstration in the weave room takes place every 30 minutes and lasts for 15. An NPS person explains how the looms worked then they start up a dozen of them so you can see them in action. When this museum first opened in the late 1980s, all 80 looms in the weave room ran simultaneously. The concept was that if you saw one in operation, you’d see how a loom worked, but if you stood in a room with 80 looms running, you’d have a better feel for the experience of the workers. I can attest to that. With all running, the noise and vibration were very powerful and imaging dealing with that all day made a strong impression. The exhibits on the second floor came next. I always find something interesting that I missed on prior trips (or they rotate the artifacts on display). Under a portrait of Daniel Webster, the wall text explained that in 1820, the US government established something called the “Spanish Claims Commission” and funded it with $5 million. This was a mechanism for ship owners who  lost vessels or cargo to Spanish pirates. Webster represented many Boston Merchants before the commission and won more than $1 million of the $6 million total for his clients, some of whom used the money to fund a textile mill in Waltham and then the early mills in Lowell. I was looking forward to seeing the NPS film on Lowell but the theater was roped off. Blocking the entrance was a sign that read in part, “Please let us know (with a link to a website) if you have identified any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.”

YouTube: Spurs at Knicks Game 4 Highlights – I confess. I’m a closet New York Knicks fan. I would always prefer the Celtics but once they are out of the picture, I like the Knicks. That might go back to the early 1970s when they twice won the NBA championship with Willis Reed, Walt Frazier, Bill Bradley, Dave DeBusschere and others. That team crushed my spirits in one of those playoffs by defeating the Celtics in the Eastern Conference finals, but that was mostly because Celtics legend John Havlicek injured his shoulder and had to play one handed. Scrapiness seems like an overused word but it fit those Knicks teams. Fast forward to this iteration, last year I watched more live NBA than I do now (which is basically none due to other priorities) and really liked the present team. That could be influenced by three Knicks starters being Villanova graduates and my fondness for that school dates back to its entry into Big East Basketball in 1980, my first year at Providence College which was a founding team in that conference when it was born the year before. Also, I really like cities and resent how many Americans trash urban living. NYC is always the star of both sides of that show, and I feel defensive about the place and want it to succeed. (The Yankees and Mets are fine, I’m ambivalent about the Rangers, and am happy to see the Giants and Jets flounder in their current manifestations). As much as I want the Knicks to win the championship, I didn’t mind them losing game three, mostly for tangential reasons (i.e., a certain VIP who attended the game). In Game 4, the Knicks were down by as much as 29 at some point, but San Antonio kept tossing up 3-point shots and, as the Celtics showed us, teams that live by the 3 pointer also die by the 3 pointer when they don’t go in. The frequent misses gave the Knicks just enough time to close that big gap. A last second Knick shot bounced out of the rim, seeking to save the Spurs from ignominious defeat, but a Knicks player timed his jump perfectly and delicately tipped the ball in the basket with 1.8 seconds to go, sealing an historic come from behind victory for New York. 

Newspaper: “It’s doubtful Boston will enjoy hosting” by Dan Shaughnessy, Boston Globe, June 11, 2026. I wanted to include something about the World Cup, which in the past I’ve really enjoyed, but somehow this year when it’s right here in this hemisphere with games being played here in the Commonwealth, I find myself not that interested. Consequently, Shaughnessy’s standard cynical take fits the zeitgeist of the moment. He accurately observes that despite hundreds of thousands of US young people growing up playing soccer – something he finds praiseworthy because of the egalitarianist nature of youth soccer – that has never translated into “ticket-buying fandoms” which is true. The New England Revolution team has played here for 30 years but we’ve never followed that team with anywhere the intensity we grant the Celtics, Bruins, Red Sox and Patriots. As Shaughnessy put it, “Sadly, our reaction to the World Cup runs the gamut from annoyance to apathy.” Personally, I’m perplexed by my current attitude. Four years ago, I paid close attention to the World Cup and watched several matches in the entirety. I discovered that to enjoy soccer, you must watch all of it. With other sports, you can be reading or scrolling through your phone while the action unscrolls. If something big happens, you hear the cheers and are assured you’ll see a reply and commentary in an instant. But soccer doesn’t stop so there are few replays. Plus, soccer will be very boring with nothing happening for long stretches of a time and then in an instant, something incredibly interesting and exciting happens but it’s over in a flash. If you haven’t been watching all along, you miss all the context which adds real value to the high points. At least that’s my take. Maybe I’m just at a point in my life where I’m not that into sports. I won’t get into the reasons for that other than to say there is so much else I’d rather be doing, live sports has faded away from my areas of interest.

Newspaper: “Freedom Trail, at 75” by Ariela Lopez, Boston Globe, June 11, 2026. The Freedom Trail, a red bricked path that connects 16 colonial-era historic sites in Boston, was dedicated on June 11, 1951. Originally, signs on street corners guided visitors along the Trail. In 1958, the city painted a red path on the sidewalk as a guide. In the 1990s, the painted line was replaced by embedded red bricks which is how it stands today. More than 4 million people travel the Freedom Trail each year. Personally, between my own immersion in local history and Google maps on my phone, it’s been a long time since I even noticed the red brick trail despite being on and near the Trail with some frequency. But tourists seem to love the ease of navigation that it affords. Reading this article brought to mind a push in Lowell several years ago to create a similar line on downtown sidewalks that would guide visitors around the many historic sites in the city, especially the route from the National Park Visitor Center on Market Street to the Boott Cotton Mills museum on John Street. Those of us who live here know the route well, but it’s not as intuitive for an out-of-town visitor and the little confidence boost that would come from a visual trail to follow might mean the difference between a visitor limiting their stay to Market Street and not experiencing or seeing all the other things the city has to offer.