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…
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…
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.…
Congratulations to the organizers of today’s Lowell African Festival for another wonderful event. After a long string of nasty weather, they could not have had a better day for the festival weather-wise. I stopped by late this afternoon and found a big crowd enjoying the steady stream of live music…
I bumped into the always interesting Jerry Bisantz today and asked him to send me info about his upcoming Image Theater event. Please consider attending. Three original short plays and three short films will be presented by Lowell’s Image Theater on Friday, June 21st upstairs at The Old Court Pub…
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”…
This coming Saturday (June 15, 2013) is the 13th annual Lowell African Festival. Events begin at 11 a.m. at the Sampas Pavilion on the banks of the Merrimack River and continues until 7 p.m. Those eight hours will feature food, culture and entertainment. The world’s second largest and second most…
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,…
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…
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…