One of our occasional contributors who tracks money, politics, sports, pop culture, Lowelliana, and his own dreamlife (a la Jean-Louis K.) is on special assignment for rh.com while the First Family tries to get a moment of tranquility on “the Island.” Our man on the scene Ray LaPorte from Pawtucketville Nation will file regular posts…
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My wife and I did the be-a-tourist-in-your-own-state thing again yesterday as part of our “stay-cation” approach this summer. We started and ended our day in Andover, but spent most of the bright blue-sky day in Boston, which looked very good in the parts we visited. Boston King Coffee on Main Street…
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Room installation Harmony in Blue and Gold: The Peacock Room James McNeill Whistler, 1834–1903 Oil paint and gold leaf on canvas, leather, and wood Gift of Charles Lang Freer A note in today’s Lowell Sun tells us that the famed and now restored “Peacock Room” in the Freer Gallery of…
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Development of “Mile of Mills” Riverwalk along the Lowell Canalway in Lowell – $1 million boston.com is reporting that Massachusetts has received $6.1M from the Federal Highway Administration for 12 projects across the state, including $1M for additional work on the Canalway in Lowell. Read the full article by Matt…
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Jennifer Myers in today’s SUN reports on the latest step in the City of Lowell’s effort to redevelop the Smith Baker Center on Merrimack Street near City Hall. Kudos to the SUN for making this Page One news. Her Facebook page has additional comments also. Allen Ginsberg and friends reading…
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Following is an excerpt from the poem “Dearborn Suite” in the collection “News of the World” by Philip Levine (Knopf, 2009). . Dearborn Suite . 1. Middle-aged, supremely bored with his wife, hating his work, unable to sleep, he rises from bed to pace his mansion in slippers and robe,…
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MassMoments reminds us that on this day August 15, 1919 policemen in the City of Boston seeking better wages and working conditions voted to unionize. Wages for the policemen were meager – about 29 cents an hour – and stagnant for decades. Their workday was long and they worked 13…
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University of Texas economist James K. Galbraith takes a crack at explaining what is going on with the economy and what Team Obama got wrong in 2009. Read his op-ed piece in the LA Times that I picked up from poet Garrett Hongo on Facebook.
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In today’s NYTimes, financial titan Warren Buffet has some words for the Congressional super-committee as they look for ways to get the nation’s financial house in order. For a start, raise taxes on those people most able to afford to contribute more to the federal pot. He points to the example…
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For a few weeks now there has been lots of activity at a certain Facebook site “You know your from Lowell if….” (It was tempting to break out my English teacher red pencil on the title but it’s not a class assignment!) For the most part it has been interesting…
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