Menu
We launched this website in March of 2007 and at the end of each year since then, I have posted my Top Ten Lowell Events of the year. On each of the remaining days of 2012, I’ll post one of these lists from year’s past beginning today with 2007: Top…
Read More »A repost from last Christmas – let’s think about how things once were and how much they change and may change again – and never underestimate the power of words and images. MassMoments reminds us today that the Puritans of Massachusetts led by minister Increase Mather thought the celebration…
Read More »A Christmas Eve memory in this excerpt from the 1957 essay “Not Long Ago Joy Abounded at Christmas” by Jack Kerouac: “. . . Christmas was observed all-out in my Catholic French-Canadian environment in the 1930s much as it is today in Mexico. . . .When we were old enough it was…
Read More ». “The Christmas Fruitcake” by Henri Marchand . I think there is no yuletide tradition so endlessly lampooned and so deliciously mocked as the once esteemed fruitcake. Everyone loves chestnuts roasting on an open fire and even plum pudding gets an annual endorsement by the beloved Cratchits, but mention fruitcake…
Read More »I was 20 years old in 1974, a sophomore studying political science at Merrimack College. when John Kerry announced he would not make a second attempt to be elected to Congress in the Fifth District. I had been a volunteer in the 1972 campaign, helping in a modest way in…
Read More »With John Kerry being nominated today to serve as America’s next Secretary of State, his career in elective office is almost certainly at an end. Here is a Lowell-centric record of the eight general elections (and corresponding primaries) in which he appeared on the ballot: 1972 – Congress – 5th…
Read More »Today December 21, 2012 is the Winter Solstice. The solstice marks the beginning of winter in the Northern Hemisphere. The winter solstice also marks the shortest day and the longest night of the year. Have you noticed that the place and angle of the sun is different throughout the year? With the coming…
Read More »I wrote the first draft of this poem in 1976, and worked on it on and off for a long time. I had in mind the extensive outdoor lighting displays in Dracut (the town) and Lowell, but, especially as it evolved, the dense array of Christmas decorations in Lowell’s Pawtucketville…
Read More »Here’s Google’s excellent year in review video: [youtube]xY_MUB8adEQ[/youtube]
Read More »This essay was first heard as a radio essay on the “Sunrise” program of WUML, 92.5 FM, at UMass Lowell. Executive producer Chris Dunlap assembled writers in the area for the daily essay feature, a popular component of the morning public affairs show. I shared this essay with rh.com readers…
Read More »