The following might sound like it came out of the movie “Dave,” in which a presidential look-alike who runs a temp agency (Kevin Kline) winds up being secretly installed as president after the real prez has a stroke. At first manipulated by an evil chief of staff (Frank Langella), “Dave”…
Today’s Globe has the first in what it promises will be “a series of occasional articles” about the University of Massachusetts. Read about UMass Amherst’s struggle to improve itself and compete against other public universities in states near and far in the first article, and consider buying the Globe if…
Longtime classroom teacher, writer, and educational consultant Frank Thoms, a familiar downtown resident, will read from and sign his new book about teaching on Thursday, Sept. 23, 7:00 to 8:00 p.m., at UMass Lowell’s Barnes and Noble Downtown Bookstore, 151 Merrimack Street. In his book, “Teaching from the Middle of the…
SUN reporters continue to track the Pawtucket Falls Dam issue. Read today’s front page story here, and consider subscribing to the paper if you appreciate the reporting.
Author Jane Brox will be reading from her new book, “Brilliant: The Evolution of Artificial Light,” this Thursday, Sept. 9, at 7 p.m., at the Andover Bookstore, 89 Main Street. She is a marvelous writer, and in this book she takes on a subject that so surrounds us that most…
What to say about political and cultural commentator Frank Rich in today’s NYT? He’s on a tear against Left, Right, and Center. The only satisfaction he finds in our messed up world today is Jonathan Franzen’s new and already-blockbuster novel “Freedom,” which Rich says nails the psyche of the time like…
Following is a quote from a former director of Canada’s national arts agency. I would differ slightly in saying what he did because artists don’t have a monopoly on dreaming or creativity. Engineers, scientists, teachers, nurses, detectives, parents, soldiers, public administrators—people in all positions in life, old and young, are capable of…
I met Robert Reich in Lowell in 1981. Anyone who attended the annual Lowell Conference on Industrial History (LCIH) that year, when he was invited to comment on one of the scholarly papers, remembers how he stole the show with his brilliant, insightful, brief remarks about the relationship of government and…
NYTimes columnist Timothy Egan today writes about the “summer home” owned by all Americans, by which he means the vast tracts of public land and majestic national parks around the country. Lowell’s national park is about a place held in common by Americans, too, as well as an idea: the…