History

Common Cold

For the first time this month the morning air was cold enough to hurt your hands if you spent more than five minutes outside. I didn’t wear gloves when I took our pup across the street. My charge was in no rush, of course, because his twice-a-day jaunts are great adventures. We…

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Battle of the Bulge – December 16, 1944

Sixty-seven years ago today, early in the morning of December 16, 1944, a half million German soldiers achieved complete surprise by attacking the thinly held American lines along the Belgium-Luxembourg border. By the time it was over weeks later, 80,000 American soldiers had been killed, wounded or captured. In his…

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Joel-Lowell Rhymes

Just back from an inspiring “performance” by Billy Joel in Durgin Concert Hall on UMass Lowell’s South Campus. For two hours the music mega-star engaged in a lively conversation with the audience, using a green laser pointer to call on this or that eager person in a sea of hands.…

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Christmas Lights

I drove downtown about 30 minutes ago and stopped near City Hall. In my side mirror, the mid-section of Merrimack Street behind me sparkled. People sometimes say Lowell is a “little big city”—and that’s what it looked like at 5 p.m. with the going-home traffic filling the intersections and the Christmas…

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