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Ernest Hebert: “How ‘The Great Gatsby’ Demeans Working People” Ernest Hebert’s most recent novel, NEVER BACK DOWN, tells the story of the life and loves of Jack Landry, a New England Franco-American working man. Hebert wrote his book as an answer to The GREAT GATSBY and DELIVERANCE, novels that…
Read More »Remembering Peter Stamas, Thursday, Nov. 15, 7 pm, Parker Gallery/Whistler House Join us in paying tribute to one of the great humanitarians of modern Lowell, a man who made enduring contributions to education, his church, Lowell’s heritage, and the quality of life of our community. This is a Parker Lectures…
Read More »This is what Americans want to see, the leaders working together for the common good. As Patty Coffey likes to say, “Bam!”
Read More »This is a shout out to City Manager Bernie Lynch, Assistant City Manager Adam Baacke, the Police Department, and the rest of the City Hall team who helped synchronize the traffic signals between the Thorndike-Dutton streets blend up through the intersections of Dutton-Broadway, Dutton-Market, and Dutton-Merrimack. As a regular on that…
Read More »The web gives us disturbance, uproar, commotion, and confusion for synonyms of “turmoil”—words that fit both the weather forecast and political forecast. A storm is not really an outside force since we are in nature, but there’s a sense that something is coming to get us, to make trouble on…
Read More »My father, Marcel R. Marion, was an enthusiastic observer of American politics and world affairs. He never ran for anything except union steward when he worked in a textile mill in Lowell in the 1940s. He was a wool sorter, meaning he classified types and quailty of wool by examining…
Read More »This is from Bob Dylan’s memoir “Chronicles: Volume One” (2004). Thanks to Jim Cook for the tip. We know all these guys by one name: Dylan, Bono, Kerouac, . . . and Cook. . “One night, Bono, the singer from U2, was over for dinner with some other friends. Spending…
Read More »I went deep into the vault for this poem that I wrote more than 20 years ago. I thought about the poem around 5:30 p.m. today, when I was walking Ringo-the-dog on the South Common in perfect October weather. The scent of dried leaves was all around. The air was…
Read More »The death of George McGovern is something of a milestone for me. I cast my first presidential vote for him in November 1972. The voting age had been lowered to 18 that year in deference to the 18-year-olds who were being drafted to fight in Vietnam. Sen. McGovern opposed the…
Read More »“Rogers Hall produced many distinguished alumnae. Among them, Anne Harvey Sexton, a 1947 graduate, was later awarded the Pulitzer price for poetry. Dr. Mona Meehan went on to become the first female chief of staff appointed to a US hospital at St. John’s Hospital, now part of Saints Medical Center. …
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