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Bob Dylan’s Vocal Chords for Susan O. By David Cappella The speech pathologist sits on the icy aluminum bench beside me, as we watch the hockey game, chilly in the refrigerator cold of the skating rink. Outside squats a New England heat wave, one of those cursed Bermuda highs that…
Read More »Nancye Tuttle shares with us the following remembrance of the late Lowell native Olympia Dukakis who passed away on May 1, 2021. Nancye’s story was first published in the Lowell Sun on May 5, 2021, and may be viewed here. Remembering Olympia Dukakis By Nancye Tuttle An interview with Olympia…
Read More »David Daniel reminds us that it’s time for baseball with these memories from local sandlots: Triple Play By David Daniel Chatter Surround sound. C’um baby C’um baby No batter No batter On the mound it reaches you from behind, an infield arc of voices. Chuck hard, baby, chuck hard From…
Read More »Yesterday I wrote a profile of Gustavus Fox, a Lowell resident who served as the Assistant Secretary of the Navy during the Civil War. In composing that article, I came across a letter from Montgomery Blair to Fox dated January 31, 1861. Blair, who Lincoln would appoint to his cabinet…
Read More »Gustavus Vasa Fox (1821-1883) was born and raised in Massachusetts and spent much of his life in Lowell. He was a graduate of the United States Naval Academy and served as an officer in the Navy from 1841 to 1856. After his resignation from the service, he returned to Massachusetts…
Read More »Boarding School Blues By Louise Peloquin Chapter 11: Cinephiles The atmosphere during lunch was as icy as the showers. On the menu that day was French-Canadian cottage pie called “Pâté chinois” (Chinese Pâté). Blanche had never understood what was “Chinese” about a layer of ground beef topped with kernel corn…
Read More »The recent death of Academy Award winning and Lowell-born actor Olympia Dukakis at age 89 got me thinking about Lowell’s contributions to American movies and television. There are many. Dukakis, the cousin of former Massachusetts governor Mike Dukakis, was born in Lowell in 1931. Her parents, Constantine and Alexandra (Christos)…
Read More »Ann Lord, a native of Manchester, NH, but a longtime resident of Alaska, recently reviewed Tom Sexton’s Cummiskey Alley: New and Selected Lowell Poems in the Anchorage Daily News. She recently shared the review with us. Here it is: Tom Sexton, a longtime University of Alaska Anchorage professor who retired in…
Read More »The Band that Never Got out of My Basement By David Daniel Like everyone, I was in a band once. Before guitars, drums, and keyboards replaced the accordion, bongos, and the ocarina as the staple instruments of rock-‘n’-roll. I was fourteen. The band was me (Manny LaPlante), my big brother…
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