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I lived in Stockton, California, for about seven months in 1967. My father had taken a job grading wool for the Cal Wool Co-op; the move didn’t work out, and my family was back in the Lowell area by the end of the year. Stockton felt a lot like Lowell…
Read More »“The Great Gatsby” often tops the list of the best American novels. It’s a strange choice, really, but then maybe not. You would think the best novel would play out on the western frontier or take place during the Civil War or involve the Mississippi River or Plymouth Rock somehow.…
Read More »This will be a good day to stay above it all and catch a breeze if you can find one. “Commute” by Richard Marion (c) 2012 See more artwork at www.richardmarion.net
Read More »Frank Bruni’s column for tomorrow’s NYTimes covers the encouraging trend of city greening, from New York City to places around the country. Read his thoughts here, and get the NYT at home or online if you want more of this kind of writing. This is “Flowering City” stuff in the…
Read More »My wife and I enjoyed a sunny day in Boston this week and left the city convinced that it is looking as good as it ever has. Our destination was the waterfront, Fan Pier, where we expected to go to the Institute for Contemporary Art—but the weather was simply too…
Read More »In honor of the gardens all over the city, a summer composition from the 1980s. “Tomatoes Box” by Richard Marion (c) 2012. See more artwork at www.richardmarion.net
Read More »“The Worker” by Brian Herrmann At the forefront of Lowell’s historical gateway downtown resides a sculpture titled “The Worker.” This work, constructed in 1985 by Elliot and Ivan Schwartz, depicts an Irish canal worker widening the canal ways of Lowell. This work, along with several others, was placed into the…
Read More »NYTimes opinion writer David Brooks keeps me reading his column because I appreciate his thoughtfulness if not his core analysis. Today’s column deals with inequalities among American children as described in recent scholarly research. After painting a picture that should worry everyone, he winds up with a cliche ending that blames President…
Read More »Congratulations to the Bread & Roses Centennial committee in Lawrence for a massive success in the use of social media. On Facebook, the organization’s page has 1,081 followers (LIKES), which is an extraordinary number for a local history initiative. This is not Ashton Kutcher in Hollywood, but all the folks working…
Read More »On August 31, 1837, an important man from the Greater Merrimack River Valley spoke to members of the Phi Beta Kappa Society of Harvard College in Cambridge, Mass. His address that day is considered by some to be ‘America’s Declaration of Intellectual Independence.’ Here is Ralph Waldo Emerson’s ‘The American…
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