Author Archive

Master of the Essential By David Daniel My father was forever busy, but what he busied himself with bears examination. Like there’d be a pressing need to fix a leaky faucet or replace a broken stair tread—always something wearing out in the small Cape Cod-style house where our family of…

Coffee shop musings: Contentment By Bob Hodge Neil Young “Comes a Time” album of that moment. On that turntable and console with the 8 track. It is an icy cold January morning 1979. I hop in my 69 Mustang and turn it over it shivers to a start—sweet. So many…

That Time of Year By Stephen O’Connor            I feel like some old engine          Done lost my drivin’ wheel.                                -David Wiffin Rob Rafferty always sat on Billy…

Protection for the challenged – (PIP #35) By Louise Peloquin       “Invalid” is no longer appropriate to designate the physically-challenged. However, fifty-seven years ago, it was not deemed offensive, insulting or derogatory. The June 4th peek into the past – “Voilà my solution” – dealt with work. This week’s provides…

The Lowell City Council held a special meeting on Tuesday to consider the city’s FY2025 budget. Although the meeting lasted more than three hours, the council mostly just ratified the budget proposed by City Manager Tom Golden. In a way, this meeting was a legal formality since two things that…

Lowell resident Belinda Juran compiles an incredibly email newsletter that she distributes to subscribers every couple of weeks. The newsletter lists dozens and dozens of events and activites in Lowell and serves as an excellent community calendar. Belinda graciously granted me permission to repost her newsletter here on richardhowe.com to…

Today is the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the invasion of Normandy by the Allies. More than 2,500 Americans were killed that day, June 6, 1944, including several from Lowell. In the months that followed during the fight across France, many more were killed. Here are the stories of some of…

“Voilà my solution” – (PIP #34) By Louise Peloquin Over the last two weeks, our peeks into the past have presented local stories covering life journey episodes. (1)  This one deals with the most time-consuming of all – work. The text, perhaps a foreign news agency dispatch, offers a humorous twist on…

A pair of recent Lowell Sun articles on the Lowell Planning Board’s review of the city’s proposed master plan update grabbed my attention so that topic will be the focus of today’s newsletter. (There was a City Council meeting Tuesday night, but it was conveniently uneventful.) The Lowell Planning Board,…

Philosophy and the Insect By Stephen O’Connor  As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods. They kill us for their sport.      –Shakespeare My father was a religious man, a devout Catholic who got down on his knees every night to pray. Though he regarded Catholic theology as the…