Author Archive

A Classical Education By Stephen O’Connor A woman who I suppose was trying to impress upon me the extent of her minimalism once told me that she could live a perfectly happy life without a television or radio, without coffee and dessert, without wine, and without music. That final bit…

Lowell First to Protest – (PIP #66) By Louise Peloquin      Journalists all over the globe have gone into overdrive covering the latest economic roller coaster rides. 101 years ago, price wars and currency issues made the news. L’Etoile – July 15, 1924 A gasoline price war is suggested ——-   …

The Lowell City Council had a light agenda on Tuesday night so today I’ll step back from current city politics and share some history. I’ve long been fascinated by all the important events that seem to have happened over time in the middle of April. As is almost always the…

On Thursday, April 17, 2025, more than 100 people gathered near the Cambodian monument at Lowell City Hall to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the start of the Cambodian Genocide. Congresswoman Lori Trahan spoke at the vigil. Here is my transcript of her remarks: We gather here to reflect on…

The Liberty Pole Capping By Rich Grady I attended The Liberty Pole Capping in Bedford, Massachusetts, on April 12th. It was a first for me, but if I knew what I had been missing, I would have made a better effort to witness it before now. Here’s a description of…

Living Madly: Joann Fabrics Closing is Yet Another Assault on Women By Emilie-Noelle Provost This past February, Leonard Green & Partners, the California-based private equity firm that owns Joann Fabrics, announced that it was closing all 800 of the store’s retail locations. According to news sources, this decision was made…

The town of Dracut, Massachusetts, was incorporated in 1701, covering 21.3 square miles along the Merrimack River and border of New Hampshire. From a population of 1173 people at the time, 439 men of colonial Dracut served in the War of Independence, some 37 percent of residents, according to Donat…

You cannot keep Spring from coming (1) – (PIP #65) By Louise Peloquin Again the blackbird sings; the streams Wake, laughing, from their winter dreams And tremble in the April showers The tassels of the maple flowers. – John Greenleaf Whittier ***** From L’Etoile’s April 1925 columns, on resurrection, fashion and commemoration, L’Etoile –…

The main event at Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was a presentation by Skanska, the city’s project manager, on a new setback in the Lowell High School building project. When workers cut through the cement slab at the bottom of the 1922 building, they discovered that the soil underneath the…