Read NYTimes columnist Gail Collins today and feel good about our government leaders, at least some of them, working together to get some stuff done and move the sprawling nation forward a few feet just as we get set for another yearly starting line. Read her opinion here, and get…
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Our blogging colleague Kad Barma called attention to this item: Lowell filmmaker and photographer James “Jim” Higgins won the Grand Jury Prize in the 2010 Screaming Ant Film Festival, which is a huge deal even though some of us have not heard of this annual online festival. His film “A Fairy’s Tale”…
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I wrote the first draft of this poem in 1976, and worked on it on and off for a long time. I had in mind the extensive outdoor lighting displays in Dracut (the town) and Lowell, but especially as it evolved the dense array of Christmas decorations in Pawtucketville, between Mammoth Road and…
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Read the boston.com article here and see US Rep. Niki Tsongas’s comments.
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This reminder was sent by Jim Dyment of VYU arts magazine and the Whistler House Museum of Art: “Another neighborhood comes back to life as the Appleton Mills building on Jackson Street nears completion. It’s been under construction for months and this project is one more step in the process…
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The word downtown is that Steve O’Connor’s collection of short stories, “Smokestack Lightning,” is one of the hot local gift items for last minute shoppers. It’s a little big to go in a stocking, but fits nicely under the tree. Available at Barnes and Noble, Brew’d, Dharma Buns, Welle’s Emporium,…
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America’s First Poet, she is called. Anne Bradstreet of North Andover, originally part of Andover in the mid-1600’s when she moved to the frontier with her family from Cambridge (then Newtowne). She had sailed from England in 1630 with her husband to avoid religious persecution as Puritans. She was 18…
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This essay was first heard as a radio essay on the “Sunrise” program of WUML, 92.5 FM, at UMass Lowell. Executive producer Chris Dunlap assembled writers in the area for the daily essay feature, a popular component of the morning public affairs show. I shared this essay with rh.com readers last…
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In today’s NYTimes, historian Jill Lepore, who has spoken in Lowell in the Parker Lectures series, writes that Longfellow’s famous poem about Paul Revere was prompted more by the coming Civil War than by the poet’s recollection of the Revolutionary War. Read the article here, and get the NYT if you…
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Read the NYTimes report on the historic vote in the Senate. Having already been passed by members of the US House of Representatives, the bill will now go to President Obama for his signature. Let’s remember the early leadership role played by former Congressman and now UMass Lowell Chancellor Marty Meehan on…
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