Author Archive

Due to the coming wind and rain storm, this weekend’s tours of Lowell Cemetery have been rescheduled to Saturday, October 3, 2026, and Sunday, October 4, 2026. Both tours begin at 10 a.m. from the Lawrence Street Gate.

Words By Leo Racicot “Expert use of language is to me a perpetual joy.”  Noel Coward Ever since when in first grade I intuited the Beatrix Potter sentence Mrs. Hare printed on the blackboard, I’ve felt words are pearls of great value. There are writers whose belief is the opposite.…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Article: “Keepers of a Shrine to Cable TV Decide to Cut the Cord” by John Koblin, New York Times, September 13, 2026. There was a place in Denver, Colorado, called “The Cable Center” which was funded by…

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.…

There was no Lowell City Council meeting this week so in today’s newsletter I’ll write about some Lowell political history, specifically our representatives in Congress since 1960. 1960 – F. Bradford Morse – Republican Edith Nourse Rogers had represented Lowell’s Congressional District since 1925. When she died on September 10,…

Nun Too Happy! By Leo Racicot The good Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur would be horrified to see or worse try to read my spidery, hieroglyphic scrawl; they labored tirelessly to drum into us students the Palmer Penmanship Method. I sometimes can’t read my own writing a minute after writing it.…

Living Madly: Lighter than Air By Emilie-Noelle Provost Joy can be hard to come by these days. In my case at least, the last seven years have often felt like one long street fight. In early 2019, my mother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. The following year, because of the…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Article: “Dear Client, thieves may be eyeing your home. No worries.” By Ron Lieber for New York Times on August 31, 2026. This longtime Times business columnist returned from vacation to find a letter from the bank…

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.…

The Lowell City Council met on Tuesday, September 8, 2026. The council is still on its twice-monthly summer meeting schedule which typically yields a very long meeting, however, this one lasted just over two hours, which is concise by summer standards. Contributing to the brevity of the meeting was the…