A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday. 

Event: Lowell Folk Festival – The folk festival happened in Lowell this weekend for the 39th time. As has been my habit recently, I visited on Saturday afternoon. Our first stop was the Market Street Stage to hear the Northern Kentucky Brotherhood Singers, an African American a cappella gospel singing group. They were very good. Before their performance, I stopped at the Polish food booth and ordered a “Polish plate” which contained kielbasa, 2 pierogi, a bowl of Kapusta (cabbage soup), rye bread and a pickle. It was delicious. When the 45 minute long performance ended, we wandered around to the various stages: Arcand Drive, St. Anne’s Churchyard, Boarding House Park and Market Street and checked out the crowd which was impressive. 

Book Review: “Mailman: My Wild Ride Delivering the Mail in Appalachia and Finally Finding Home” by Stephen Starring Grant. The author of this 2025 memoir worked as an advertising consultant for corporate America for several decades. The nature of the work allowed him to do it remotely before that became common, so him, his spouse and their two children lived in Blacksburg, Virginia, which is deep in Appalachia but also home to Virginia Tech. Moving there was a homecoming for Grant whose father had been a professor at the school. But when Covid struck in early March 2020, businesses cut their advertising budgets and he lost his job. Because he was at high risk for cancer, he desperately needed health insurance so he applied for and was hired to be a rural letter carrier in his home community. It was a massive pay cut but he needed the benefits and hoped he would quickly find something in his own field. He did find another job but only after a year at the post office which is the period covered by this memoir which I found amusing, interesting and at times moving. I already held USPS and its employees in high esteem. This book boosted that although he warns that poor management and unwise policies risk undercutting the faith ordinary people have in our postal system. 

Guided Tour: Massachusetts State House. I’ve been to the State House several dozen times for many different reasons but never as a tourist. That changed on a recent Friday when a routine doctor’s appointment was finished by 9:45 am which left me with some free time in Boston on a beautiful summer day. When I have visited other states, I’ve toured their state houses so I figured, why not my own? I walked there, went through security, and found my way to Doric Hall (named for the style of columns in the middle of the room). A tour was just about to begin. A couple for the Netherlands and a guy from California were my fellow tour goes. The young man who led the tour did a superb job. Despite already knowing much about the political history of Massachusetts, I learned much that was new. These tours are free and are operated by the Massachusetts Secretary of State’s office. On the day I was there you could just walk in and jump on a tour but in quieter times of the year it would probably be best to call ahead of your visit just in case. Related to this, I traveled from Lowell to Boston on the MBTA’s commuter rail and was able to take advantage of “Free Friday.” On Fridays in June, July and August, everyone can ride commuter rail for free. My trip down was on the 7:30 am train which wasn’t busy, but when I returned to North Station at 2:30, the place was packed with people with many young families. It was nice to see so many taking advantage of this free service. 

Op-Ed: “The Democratic Party Needs Shaking Up” by Mara Gay, New York Times, July 16, 2026. This essay is a response to centrist Democrats who now assert that the Progressive candidates who have won primaries in New York and Colorado and who are poised to become nominees elsewhere, will doom the party to defeat because they are too progressive for much of the country. Gay argues that even if that’s the case, moderate/centrist Democrats have irretrievably lost the allegiance of many of the party’s voters who believe that the Democratic establishment is weak and needs shaking up. “These Americans believe that the Democratic Party and its leaders are not up to the task before them.” I am in full agreement. The Democratic establishment gave us a flawed nominee in 2016 (Clinton); failed to aggressively hold Trump accountable after he left office in 2021; and covered-up Joe Biden’s decline until he was forced from the 2024 race, too far along for a strong nominee capable of beating Trump to arise. So yes, time to try something different. 

Essay: “A Canvas as Big as the Country” by Susan Tallman in the July 2026 edition of The Atlantic. This year is the bicentennial of Lowell, Massachusetts. It’s also the bicentennial of the artist Frederic Church. Best known for his magisterial landscape paintings of natural places in America, Church is one of the best-known members of the Hudson River School of Painting. This essay asks how Church went from being one of the most popular paintings in America to one whose art is easily findable in a museum because it’s in the room that never has anyone else in it. I wouldn’t go quite that far although if I was to list my ten favorite painters, Church wouldn’t be on it; and if I were to list my ten favorite types of paintings, big natural setting landscapes wouldn’t make it either. Yet I’m always drawn to these types of paintings, probably because I place them in historical context. Created before photography, the only way for people in one part of the country to experience the beauty of other parts of the country was by looking at paintings (except for the rare instances of people traveling).