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Cartoons by Nicholas Whitmore
From this week’s headlines . . .
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From the Archives: Meeting President Bush (41)
Last week’s funeral service for Congressman John Lewis with eulogies offered by three past Presidents was on my mind as I scrolled through the archives for this week’s look-back post. And so I selected this piece about another former President whose stature has only improved with recent events. Me and…
Read More »New Post on Apples, Art and Spirit Blog
Linda Hoffman has two new posts on her Apples, Art, and Spirit blog. In “The Sermon of the Blue Heron” Linda deftly captures this time of year – halfway between spring and fall, with early flowers a distant memory and fruit trees only just reaching harvest time. (Or as I mentioned…
Read More »Woke Columbus
WOKE COLUMBUS By Stephen O’Connor It’s 1492. Christopher Columbus is leaning on the taffrail of the Santa Maria, writing in his log. He raises his head, brows knit, looking toward the horizon as he polishes the lens of his telescope with a lace handkerchief. Finally, he tucks the handkerchief into…
Read More »Time to Find the Best Donuts
Time to Find the Best Donuts By Chris Geggis Figuring out the best donut shop, that is not one of the multitudes of Dunkin’ Donuts in the Lowell region started out innocently enough. I had a meeting in our office building at Connector Park in the Spaghettiville conference room. I…
Read More »The Lost Towns of the Quabbin
The infrastructure that supports urban living has long been of interest to me. We turn a faucet and clean, safe water flows out, as regularly as the sun rises each morning. Making that happen was a great achievement of government, one of many that we often take for granted. But…
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Lowell Folk Festival: 1990-94
1990 Friday, Jul 27, 1990 – Saturday, July 28, 1990 – Sunday, July 29, 1990 The first Lowell Folk Festival, after three iterations of the National Folk Festival in Lowell, was a great success. The South Common remained the site of the evening performances, but Boarding House Park was added…
Read More »National Folk Festival in Lowell: 1987-89
The National Folk Festival was founded in 1934 in St. Louis. Since then, it has been run by the National Council for the Traditional Arts. The Festival moves from place to place, typically spending three consecutive years in one location. That was the case in 1987, when the National Festival…
Read More »How I came to have an autographed photo of John Lewis
How I came to have an autographed photo of John Lewis By Jacquelyn Malone My admiration—indeed, my awe—of John Lewis goes back to the 60s when he was hardly out of his teens. His first civil disobedience event occurred in Nashville, Tennessee, the place I consider my hometown (though I’ve…
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