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‘Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, and Frau Schwartze’ by Theodore Roethke
With so many gardens going strong and greenhouses putting out their last tomato plants and marigolds, I was reminded of this poem that was a favorite of mine when I started writing. —PM . Frau Bauman, Frau Schmidt, and Frau Schwartze Gone the three ancient ladies Who creaked on the…
Read More »‘Pulled Papers’
Where does this expression come from? So-and-so pulled papers to run for some political office. A Google search yields a bunch of references in Massachusetts newspapers. Revere. Waltham. This expression describes the act of requesting nomination-signature forms for a certain political office from the appropriate official in a town or…
Read More »Comin’ at Ya
‘Merlot Line’: B’s Trivia
Okay, I’m a hockey fan, but I’m not a “heek” (a hockey geek). I’ve heard the TV play-by-play announcers refer to the “Merlot line” of Gregory Campbell, Daniel Paille, and Shawn Thornton, one of the Bruins’ supporting lines. What are they talking about, I wondered? I could have Googled the…
Read More »Pie-Yay. The French way. Paille.
These Bruins are fun to watch. The first two games of the NHL championship series have been as good a display of hockey as I remember seeing. One of the TV announcers quoted a writer who declared, “If these two teams played 100 games, each would win 50.” Maybe so.…
Read More »Former First Lady Laura Bush & Jenna Bush Hager
I don’t know if the program was un-partisan, bipartisan, non-partisan, or post-partisan, but last night’s uplifting presentation by Former First Lady Laura Bush and her daughter Jenna Bush Hager left me feeling that Mrs. Bush has a lot of good work left to do in what she called “the afterlife”…
Read More »‘The Danger of a Single Story’ (book excerpt)
Following is another excerpt from my book about the origin and influence of the national park in Lowell, which was written for the National Park Service in 2011-12. If the publishing process goes as planned, the book should be available in spring 2014. ‘Duey’ Kol, who speaks in this section,…
Read More »Bruins Sweep & Skate to Cup Finals
What a night for the Boston Bruins. Nobody expected a sweep of the vaunted Pittsburgh Penguins, but there you have it: two goals by the Pens in four games. Kudos to the B’s “Immense Defense.” Tuukka Rask has earned a place in goalie royal-dom (I think we should just call…
Read More »Hockey Talk
Between the UMass Lowell River Hawks skating and blasting their way into college hockey’s Frozen Four in Pittsburgh this spring and now the surging Bruins, one win away from the Stanley Cup Finals for the second time in three years, our region is in prime condition for a spell of…
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