Saturday night I refereed a debate between two friends, both from a younger generation than me, over the necessity of air conditioning. One combatant maintained that even here in New England, modern home and building design made artificial cooling a necessity; the other maintained that while A/C is certainly pleasant,…
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“(We hope) that our transportation crisis will be solved by a bigger plane or a wider road, mental illness with a pill, poverty with a law, slums with a bulldozer, urban conflict with a gas, racism with a goodwill gesture.” – Philip E. Slater “Wisdom demands a new orientation of…
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From my vantage point, the real estate recovery is reality and no longer just hype. Here are the Lowell sales for the past week: July 15, 2013 (Monday) 16 Merrimack St Unit 4D for $90,000 29 School St Unit 29 for $174,500 13 Wiltshire Cir for $189,000 356 Wentworth Ave…
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I was disappointed to miss the state Democratic Convention in Lowell last Saturday (although faced with the choice of vacationing in Berlin with my wife or spending a Saturday at the Tsongas Center with a thousand political activists, Berlin wins every time). Thankfully, frequent contributor Jim Peters attended the convention…
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It was last Wednesday, our first afternoon in Berlin. Struggling to stay awake against the effects of losing a night’s sleep by flying across the Atlantic, we found a peaceful cafe with outdoor seating along the banks of the Spree River right in the heart of Berlin for a late…
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For anyone who enjoys history, Berlin should be high on the list of places to visit. I just got back from a seven day visit (which is why I’ve been AWOL from blogging). Beginning with the German History Museum where we say a document preserved in bronze from the year…
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Here’s a video from Van Pech who is a candidate for Lowell City Council. HERE is a link to his website. [youtube]CrUg40Cs9Pw[/youtube]
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Here’s a video from Dan Rourke, a candidate for Lowell City Council: [youtube]lWfkkgO4YwY[/youtube]
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As soon as the Lowell tally in the US Senate special election was announced back on June 25, 2013, most political observers were struck first by the scale of Ed Markey’s victory over Gabriel Gomez in the city (58% to 42%). Then came the intriguing observation that almost the exact…
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For a decade now, my routine on the 4th of July has been consistent: a family cookout late in the afternoon and then in front of the TV to see the Boston Pops perform at the Esplanade. For several years, I’d been slowly growing disenchanted by the evolution of that…
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