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Young brides were given a copy of the Fanny Farmer Cookbook as a must-have staple to begin married life. Middle class housewives and “ladies of the house” used it religiously. Later, it became the basis of those science of home economics classes taught in public high schools. The Fannie Farmer…
Read More »Yesterday the Patrick/Murray Administration announced an increase in critically needed funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), increasing the maximum benefit to help low-income residents in Massachusetts heat their homes this winter. The Commonwealth is expected to receive an additional federal funding increase in the coming weeks that…
Read More »On Facebook from David Bernstein – writer for the Boston Phoenix – this heads-up: Joe Kennedy III just released a statement “announcing today my intention to explore a candidacy for the United States Congress in the Fourth District of Massachusetts.” This looks like an interesting development for the future of…
Read More »With the city of Lowell just having elected its youngest mayor and one of Irish descent – Patrick O. Murphy, it’s interesting to read the MassMoments story today about Hugh O’Brien. O’Brien was sworn-in on this day – January 5, 1885 – as the city of Boston’s first Irish-born Mayor. O’Brien’s swearing-in…
Read More »MassMoments reminds us today that Harry “Bucky” Lew – the first African American to play professional basketball – was born in Lowell, Massachusetts on January 4, 1884. On this day …in 1884, Harry Haskell Lew was born in Lowell to a family that had long been active in the struggle for…
Read More »Thanks to reader Maxine Farcus for forwarding this great 1949 holiday-time photo showing Lowell’s first and longtime favorite “downtown” Chinese restaurant Chin Lee’s. The sign is at Kearney Square marking an earlier location. By the time it closed it was located on Merrimack Street upstairs on the 2nd floor adjacent to…
Read More »January is National Mentoring Month. I’m so thankful for those who mentored me… first it was the nuns – particularly Sister Mary of Charity, GNSH at the Immaculate (she was from Lowell – a Welch, I think) who saw my potential as a would-be teacher… then it was women professors at Lowell…
Read More »On this day – January 2, 1960 – appearing before the press in Washington, DC in the Senate Caucus Room – Senator John Fitzgerald Kennedy of Massachusetts – announced his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination. Despite his youth and being seen by some as lacking experience in foreign affairs…
Read More »From the Tewkbury Patch and writer Katie Curley-Katzman – I borrowed this interesting chart comparing the unemployment rates in Merrimack Valley communities between November 2010 and November 2011 and between October and November 21011. While there is other data that can be considered, at least the comparison of these numbers from…
Read More »A New Year’s Eve tradition was popularized on this day – December 31, 1929 – when band leader, Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians played “Auld Lang Syne” at the stroke of midnight in the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City. “Auld Lang Syne” is a poem written by Scotsman…
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