Author Archive

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.…

A couple of fiscal matters from Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting warrant discussion. The first was a transfer of $1.1 million from the FY24 Certified Free Cash Account to the Lowell Police Department “to support various equipment needs.” As a reminder, “free cash” – which is the source of these…

Houdini: Recalling A Legend By Henri Marchand Harry Houdini died on Halloween, one-hundred years ago at the age of 52.  In those short fifty-two years he took the world’s imagination by storm and in so doing became an astonishing American legend.  Although he is best known as a magician and…

Review of “Boarding School Blues” Book by Louise Peloquin Review by Charlie Gargiulo “Boarding School Blues” is a fictionalized memoir by Louise Peloquin about Blanche, a 13 year old girl from a very traditional and loving French-Canadian family in Lowell whose life takes a dramatic turn when she is sent…

Sweet Remembrances: Halloween Candies of the 1950s and ‘60s By Leo Racicot Part of the magic of trick-or-treating for kids in the 1950s and ’60s was the different kinds of candy we’d find when we got home and dumped the contents of our trick-or-treat bags on the bed or the…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Book Review: Sword Beach: D-Day Baptism by Fire by Max Hastings (2025). Hastings is a well-known British journalist and military historian. This book details the experience of the British forces at one of the five beaches on…