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Helpful hints from La ménagère (1) – (PIP #21) By Louise Peloquin Among L’Etoile’s briefs were helpful hints for the homemaker – tips on cleaning, sorting, sewing, anything to facilitate household management. These appeared regularly for an all-inclusive target readership – from the Maman of a large family to the immigrant who crossed…
Read More »The continued existence of the Smith Baker Center was back before the Lowell City Council on Tuesday night. For several years, the demolition of this former church has seemed inevitable, but the Council struggles with making the formal decision to tear it down. As I wrote on this same topic back in…
Read More »One Man’s Trash Is A Young Boy’s Treat By Ed DeJesus It’s funny how certain things can trigger a series of memories. We live in a thirty-three-story high-rise in Florida and place our garbage down a trash chute—but haul recyclables down to our dumpsters on level one’s covered garage. I…
Read More »Notre Dame of Paris: Spire Update By Louise Peloquin Two months ago, Notre Dame offered the best perch in Paris to a golden rooster. The brief Gift-wrapped in steel, posted here on December 18th, provides details on the topic. On February 12th, the dismantling of le Coq’s (1) 48-level,…
Read More »“Indifferent to the war” – (PIP #20) By Louise Peloquin The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022 and the war is about to enter its third year. The Hamas attack on Israel occurred over four months ago, on October 7, 2023, and the fighting continues. Conflicts…
Read More »The Lowell Senior Center came up at Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting. Councilor Erik Gitschier raised the topic and the discussion covered inadequate maintenance, slow repairs, responsibilities under the lease, and the longer-term ownership status of the facility. Because the Council meeting was otherwise brief, I decided to focus today’s…
Read More »Living Madly: Small Things By Emilie-Noelle Provost Love and kindness are never wasted. It’s the sort of cliché you might find on a greeting card or in a self-help book. Most people I know tend to scoff at this type of sentimentality. It sounds sappy, too simplistic to have much…
Read More »Kisses – (PIP #19) By Louise Peloquin Heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, bouquets of roses, colorful cards and the year’s gadgets are all exchanged on Valentine’s Day. So are kisses. L’Etoile published the following photo 80 years ago. Pure joy emanates from the low-definition image. A guitarist strums a tune.…
Read More »Tuesday night’s Lowell City Council meeting was largely uneventful, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There was the obligatory winter-time segment on potholes of which there are many. City Manager Tom Golden cited an enormous quantity of blacktop used by DPW workers to fill these holes which seem to…
Read More »Over the past few months, I’ve written several blog posts about Lowell in 1926. Why that year? It’s partly because of the upcoming bicentennial of the city. Yes, “bicentennial” means 200 years ago, but when we observe that anniversary, it will also be important to understand what Lowell was like…
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