We don’t like it, but we write about guns and shootings on this blog because that’s part of what happens in our lives. Fortunately, we live in a place that offers many ways to uplift and enrich us day to day. Dick wrote about the Bread and Roses Festival in Lawrence on Labor…
Earlier this week I posted something on Facebook regarding the start of school which prompted a conservative friend to comment on the benefits of “neighborhood schools,” a term I haven’t heard in a few years. It might surprise readers to learn that I am a proponent of neighborhood schools only…
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…
“I Believe in an America Where the Separation of Church and State is Absolute” Don’t miss David Pevear’s story in today’s Lowell SUN on the role of Catholicism in the 1960 Presidential election – it includes an interview with Lowell Attorney and life-long Democratic operative, activist, advisor and…
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…
From the UMass Lowell Office of Public Affairs: “First-year students are officially welcomed to the university community at Convocation on Tuesday, Aug. 31 at 10 a.m. at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell. The keynote speaker is Bill Strickland, winner of a MacArthur Foundation ‘genius grant’ and more than 10…
The National Park Service has opened a $27 million visitor center overlooking the famous “Old Faithful” geyser at Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming. Today’s NYTimes reports on the “cathedral to the shrine of nature.” We can be proud that Lowell is on the same distinguished list of important American places…
Don’t miss Lowell’s own Shakespeare in the Park experience this Sunday, Aug. 29, at 4 p.m., when the New England Shakespeare Festival brings its populist brand of the Bard’s work to Boarding House Park on French Street. The play is “Twelfth Night,” originally titled “Twelfe Night or What You Will,” a “madcap comedy…