Menu
Wilder Street
Photo by Tony Sampas
Read More »Author Archive
Putting youth sports in the proper perspective
Recent revelations of child sexual abuse by longtime assistant coaches at Penn State and Syracuse, and the tawdry cover-ups and, until now, minimalist responses, have cast college sports in a very bad light. So it was with some admiration that I read this story in yesterday’s Globe about the response…
Read More »Flags at half-staff today
Governor Patrick has ordered that the flags of the United States and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that fly over public buildings be lowered to half-staff today in honor of Firefighter Jon D. Davies of the Worcester Fire Department, who died in the line of duty on Thursday, December 8, 2011.
Read More »Billy Joel – “Leningrad” – at UMass Lowell
Paul has a terrific review of last night’s visit by iconic performer Billy Joel to UMass Lowell last evening. In his piece, Paul vividly describes how a UML student found his way to the stage to perform a duet of Joel’s song “Leningrad”. Here’s some video of that: [youtube]h39hgyW6fdU[/youtube]
Read More »Brad Marchand TV commercial
I’ve been a lifelong fan of Boston’s professional sports teams, but my enthusiasm has its peaks and valleys. While I don’t consider myself a “front runner”, when teams are playing well, they are more interesting to watch. These days I’m very bullish on the Bruins, catching most of their games…
Read More »Broken infrastructure
Photo by Tony Sampas
Read More »December 13, 1977 – Fatal fire at Providence College
Thirty-four years ago today, ten students died in an early morning fire in Aquinas Hall at Providence College. The following is a post I wrote several years ago. The original post along with the comments it received, is located here: Early in the morning of December 13, 1977, a fire…
Read More »Ignoring the obvious in urban education
On Op-Ed in today’s New York Times by Helen Ladd, a professor of public policy and economics at Duke, and Edward Fiske, a former education editor of The New York Times, tackles the issue of the lagging performance of urban schools in America today. Entitled “Class matters. Why won’t we…
Read More »USPS, RIP???
While in Washington this past summer, I finally made it to the National Postal Museum (pictured above and below) which is part of the Smithsonian Institution and is located right next to Union Station in what was once the city’s main postal building. Although small, the museum was inspirational, showing…
Read More »Daytime TV
My 17 days of face-down recuperation from an eye injury ended yesterday. Vision is gradually returning and it’s now OK to resume normal activities. Just in time; I was becoming addicted to daytime TV. A webcam projecting the television image onto a flatscreen monitor on the floor handled the mechanics…
Read More »