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Mass Moments, the electronic almanac of Massachusetts history, reminded us that yesterday was the 336th anniversary of the start of King Philip’s War which, when measured by the percentage of population killed, was the deadliest war in the history of North America. Although the fighting broke out in Plymouth, it…
Read More »The Globe’s writers have stepped up their game for the crime saga unfolding in real time in Boston. In today’s paper, commentators James Carroll and Kevin Cullen have their say about the James Whitey Bulger horror show. Carroll has a masterful essay that puts the crime story in perspective, both…
Read More »In today’s NYTimes, opinion writer Charles Blow thinks about poverty. Read his column here, and get the NYT if you want more. I’ve never heard of unemployed people voting to limit how many weeks they’ll be eligible for unemployment checks or people without medical insurance voting to deny themselves access…
Read More »To celebrate St. Jean-Baptiste Day in 1880, the Lieutenant Governor of Québec, Théodore Robitaille, commissioned Calixa Lavallée to compose O Canada to a patriotic poem by Adolphe-Basile Routhier. Born in Quebec – in 1857, Lavallée moved to the U.S. and lived in Rhode Island where he enlisted in the 4th…
Read More »In 1996-97, there was a lot of activity in Lowell around a concept called “Lowell: The Flowering City.” At the Gorham Street/Back Central branch of Enterprise Bank you can see a tall sign with the logo from the project, a gesture meant to help shift the nickname of the city…
Read More »In today’s NYTimes, columnist Tim Egan offers a eulogy for Clarence Clemons and tells what it meant for him to see a black guy and a white guy making music together. Read his essay here, and get the NYT if you want more.
Read More »Mediabistro.com reports that Penguin Books’ new app for Jack Kerouac’s legendary novel “On the Road” is selling well and ranked at #4 on Apple’s iPad apps list. Read the news bulletin here.
Read More »I’m thinking about stories this morning, when media waves around here are dominated by reports about the capture of criminal Whitey Bulger near Los Angeles. What about all the people whose lives are entwined with this man’s almost stranger-than-fiction life story? Consider the trail of death and destruction he dragged behind…
Read More »MassMoments reminds us that on this day – June 23, 1831 – the Legislature granted the Massachusetts Horticultural Society permission to purchase land to establish an experimental garden and a rural cemetery.This decision led to the creation of the landmark Mt. Auburn Cemetery – the first large-scale designed landscape open…
Read More »On this day in 1944, U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, popularly known as the “GI Bill of Rights’’ – an unprecedented act of legislation designed to compensate returning members of the armed services–known as G.I.s–for their efforts in World War II. Edith Nourse…
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