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I’m doing research for an essay about hyperlocal blogs like richardhowe.com, and I’d like to hear from people who know of similar blogs that focus deeply on a single place’s culture, politics, and history (the traditional past and moving-target history as it happens). Examples can be single-author blogs or multi-author and be…
Read More »Thoughts about a milestone from one of our Lowell-linked contributors flung not so far out into the Atlantic, namely, on the Vineyard–PM . My personal odometer spins to a big, bottom-heavy number on Monday, and it has got my attention, prompting me to write and share a few random notes.…
Read More »Political analyst Ron Brownstein has a new essay in National Journal about the “upside down” employment situation in the US, with more older people staying in their jobs out of necessity or choice and fewer younger people able to get started on the job ladder. I picked this up from…
Read More »Yesterday’s NYTimes included an article by Elisabetta Povoletto about a painting made by Jack Kerouac and Italian artist Franco Angeli in 1966 when Kerouac was visiting Italy. Titled “The Deposition,” the subject of the artwork is the removal of Jesus from the cross upon which he was crucified. Kerouac was…
Read More »The tropical air and jungle rain this morning reminded me of mornings on the island of St. Lucia in the Caribbean, when the sky would open and drench the warm air and lush countryside. These prose poems were first published in “The Offering,” a literary magazine at UMass Lowell.—PM . Hibiscus…
Read More »It’s been a long time since I dragged NYTimes opinion columnist Tom Friedman over to rh.com, but today’s essay in the paper bears reading because of the big-picture commentary. Without panicky hyperventilating, Friedman makes a case that we have met the Earth’s enemy, and it is us. The solution is…
Read More »Here’s a fine example of what’s wrong with the national Republican party. Read this guest column in the NYTimes by Peter A. Diamond, an economics professor at MIT and Nobel Prize winner.
Read More »In her opionion column in today’s NYTimes, Maureen Dowd writes about the child-abuser priests in Ireland and a hero among the clergy, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, which reminded me of a dramatic moment in Jack Neary’s play “The Porch.” I hope many of our readers were able to see the Actors Inc.…
Read More »BBC.com reports that a new study in the United Kingdom has assigned a monetary value to “nature” in the nation. The figure is in the billions. Some would say the value is “priceless” when you are talking about clean air and clean water, for example. The “Flowering City” plan released…
Read More »Some months ago in a comment on this blog, Prof. Bob Forrant of UMass Lowell used the term “capital strike” in suggesting that big businesses appear to be sitting on record profits when they could be stimulating the economy, creating jobs, and moving the nation ahead. Here is a passage from opinion column…
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