The Boston Symphony Orchestra opened its Tanglewood season this past week, and my wife and I were lucky enough to attend Sunday’s performance by the Pops Orchestra with a special guest, Country music star Vince Gill. We had not been to a concert in the Berkshires for about 20 years,…
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Reporter Joel Kost in today’s Sun newspaper puts some gas in the tank of a long-time effort to get the US Postal Service to issue a commemorative stamp in honor of author Jack Kerouac. One of this blog’s loyal readers, Dean Contover, has been leading the stamp charge for about…
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Web photo courtesy of dailykos.com . Holding On to Those Self-Evident Truths By John Wooding . It’s Independence Day. A few weeks ago I became an American citizen. No big deal, really. Thousands of people do this every year. But I have been here for over thirty years, hanging on…
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With Father’s Day a few weeks ago, the following essay by Kassie Rubico came to our attention. A Writing Instructor at Northern Essex Community College, Kassie received a Master of Arts in Creative Writing and Literature at Rivier College in 2008 and an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Pine Manor…
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Yesterday, I received an email message from the staff at WGBH-TV about their plans to broadcast anniversary tribute programs to mark 50 years since the assassination of John F. Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963. I was nine years old when President Kennedy was killed, and that date…
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In the end it was like church. A generational church. A church of humanity. Of joy. Of suffering. Of soulful community. She had brought us together one more time, and there was a poignancy to it because a lot of us who were there are getting “up there” and have…
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Helen Keller – an American author, political activist, and lecturer – was born on this day June 17, 1880. Her relationship with Annie Sullivan – who was sent to live at the Tewksbury Almshouse (now Hospital) after her mother died – is memorialized with a Mico Kaufman sculpture located next to…
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Flag-raising ceremony at City Hall (web photos courtesy of Jennifer Myers) Thurs. June 27, 6 pm Club Lafayette, 465 Fletcher St, Lowell Learn How to Quadrille. Take a dance lesson from Rita Paquin. Free and open to everyone of any age. No partner needed. Fri., June 28, 6.30 pm Ste.…
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That’s the word I used in an early morning e-mail to my friend John Suiter in Chicago, who wrote to me late last night from a city where horns exclaimed victory for the Blackhawks. He described fireworks exploding over Navy Pier and mobs moving down Michigan Avenue. There will be…
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