Living Madly: A Cup of Kindness By Emilie-Noelle Provost You’ve probably seen the homemade signs hanging in stores and restaurants, the ones imploring customers to treat their workers kindly. As public-facing employees, waitstaff, store clerks, and baristas have borne the lion’s share of abuse dished out by belligerent consumers over…
Charlie Gargiulo’s Lowell memoir, Legends of Little Canada, was recently reviewed in Beat Scene magazine, a UK print publication the covers the Beat Generation (Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, et al). Here’s the review, reposted with permission of Beat Scene: Reading this new book one gets the feeling it has been…
Please welcome our newest contributor, Rich Grady: The Measure of Love By Rich Grady My wife, Lauren, and I grew up in the same town – Braintree, MA – with many of the same friends. We were planning to make the rounds of family and friends in other parts of…
For those of us longing for a Lowell City Council meeting that shared a strategic vision for the city rather than debating which pothole to fill next, Christmas came early this year when Mayor Dan Rourke, at last Tuesday’s council meeting, briefed the council and everyone else on a strategic…
This past Saturday I visited Western Avenue Studios, which is the largest collection of artists in a single place east of the Mississippi River. The quality of the art on display and for sale was amazing. There was something for every taste and price range. Western Ave will be open…
Paul in Paris By Louise Peloquin Beatles fans, this is for you and is dedicated to the late Malcolm Sharps of Liverpool. The 2023 edition of The Lowell Review devoted an entire section to the Beatles. Charlie Gargiulo’s “Legends of Little Canada” also evokes their magic. (1) The memories shared…
In last Sunday’s newsletter, I mentioned a Lowell Sun report that the city of Lowell had imposed a $300 per day fine on the Eliot Church for failing to clear trash from its property. As I predicted, the matter came up at Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting. Councilors self-righteously criticized…
Notre Dame Inauguration New Flash By Louise Peloquin Barely 24 hours before the ceremony, The Archdiocese of Paris and the Élysée Palace (France’s “White House”) announced that the weather has flipped the December 7th Notre Dame inauguration ceremony set to welcome over 50 heads of state. Several of the main…
Notre Dame, the Limestone Phoenix By Louise Peloquin Victor Hugo’s bestselling gothic novel Notre-Dame de Paris, published in 1831, roused public interest in the deteriorating cathedral and led to its restoration between 1844 and 1864 spearheaded by architect Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. Just as, on November 8th, the cathedral’s 8 restored bells tore…
Crime or Insanity? – (PIP #49) By Louise Peloquin On April 15th 2019, the New York Times featured the following headline: “Fire Mauls Beloved Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris.” 95 years earlier, Little Canada’s beloved cathedral would have suffered the same fate were it not for a young woman’s acuity and responsiveness. Here is L’Etoile’s front-page coverage…