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As an outgrowth of my study of Abraham Lincoln for this spring’s “Lowell Reads Lincoln” event at the Pollard Memorial Library, I’ve sought out some additional Civil War-era books for summer reading. One is a yellowing paperback copy of “The Peculiar Institution: Slavery in the Ante-Bellum South” written in 1956…
Read More »The New York Times today profiles Nevada US Senate candidate Sharron Angle’s apparent strategy of avoiding contact with the mainstream media at all cost. Angle is the Tea Party candidate who went from longshot to Republican nominee despite gaining national attention for suggesting the people should pay for their health…
Read More »Today’s decision of the United States Supreme Court in McDonald v Chicago came as no surprise. This case involved a citizen’s challenge of what he considered an overly restrictive gun control law in the city of Chicago. Two years ago, the US Supreme Court clarified the long-ambiguous 2nd Amendment to…
Read More »Under the headline “Brown outpolls Kerry, Obama” a front page story in today’s Boston Globe by Frank Phillips and Matt Viser presents the findings of a recent poll conducted for the Globe by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center. Read the full story here to get the Globe’s spin,…
Read More »In 1868, Lowell resident Charles Cowley wrote the “Illustrated History of Lowell”, a book filled with fascinating facts about our city. Here’s my third weekly compilation of “tweeting” from Cowley’s book: June 19 – In 1686 Col Tyng, Maj Henchman et al purchased from Wannalancet all land in region, leaving…
Read More »The coming week should be one of the busiest of the year in the real estate world. Buyers seeking to claim the Federal first time home buyer tax credit of $8000 must complete their closing by June 30 to qualify (they had to have the property under agreement by April…
Read More »Today’s Globe publishes a major investigative report re-examining the evidence in a 1982 Lowell fire on Decatur Street that killed 8 people. Immediately after the fire was extinguished on March 5, 1982, investigators suspected arson and the trail soon led to 24-year old Victor Rosario who signed a statement incriminating…
Read More »I came across an article from the November 22, 1922 issue of “The American Architect and Architectural Review” on the Lowell Memorial Auditorium. I’ll reproduce it in three parts over the next few days. Part I: The Lowell Memorial Auditorium was created by an act of legislature authorizing the City…
Read More »In a post on his “Talking Politics” blog on the Boston Phoenix website, David Bernstein suggests that the Scott Brown campaign may be violating the state’s anti-scalping law with an August 30 fund raiser at Lowell’s own Lelacheur Park. That night’s Spinners’ game features “Scott Brown bobblehead” night and Brown’s…
Read More »Sixty years ago today (June 25, 1950) the Korean War began. Nearly half a million Americans served in Korea during the war’s three years with 36,000 killed in action, 92,000 wounded, 8,000 missing in action and 7,000 taken prisoner. The Korean War featured the first and only combat (thus far)…
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