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In 1987 four Vietnam Vets concerned with the plight of American Prisoners of War and soldiers Missing in Actions organized a rally of 2500 motorcycles to ride through the streets of Washington DC as a protest. They called it Rolling Thunder. This first event took place on Memorial Day. Once…
Read More »Early settlers of the Massachusetts Bay Colony were both inhospitable and intolerant of those who didn’t share their religious beliefs. These Puritans were particularly hostile to the “devilish” Roman Catholic Frenchmen of Quebec and especially to the Jesuit missionary priests they brought with them. Jesuit conversions of the natives along…
Read More »Above: Entrance to St. Mary Cemetery on River Road in North Tewksbury Yesterday – starting earlier than usual this year, Bill and I made our Memorial Day visit to some family graves at three local cemeteries – St. Patrick and the Edson cemeteries in Lowell and St. Mary Cemetery in…
Read More »We had the windows open until after dark last evening, and the birds were singing and calling loudly, sending the outside into the living room. Feels like a summer morning today. Out early with the dog, and the air was of a quality that registered as summer in my brain.…
Read More »Did I mention UMass Lowell alums Robert and Donna Manning and the $5 million for the development of a new home for Management studies: The Robert Manning School of Business? See below for another post with links to media articles. Robert Manning will be the Commencement speaker at the Tsongas Center…
Read More »Thanks to Lowell Celebrates Kerouac! on Facebook and the blog Reader’s Almanac of the Library of America for this film clip and commentary about Bob Dylan, Jack Kerouac, and Allen Ginsberg. The footage is from November 1975 in Edson Cemetery in Lowell, when Bob Dylan was in the city with…
Read More »UMass Lowell today announced a donation valued at $5 million from alumni Robert and Donna Manning. A new home for the university’s College of Management will be named the Robert Manning School of Business. Read the Boston Herald report here, and get the Herald if you want to read…
Read More »One hundred fifty years ago today, just two days after taking command of Fort Monroe in Hampton, Virginia, Lowell’s Ben Butler made a decision that changed history. Sometime during the night of the 23-24 of May, three slaves who had been digging gun positions for the Confederate forces besieging Fort…
Read More »I, too, wondered at the dearth of commentary about Speaker Boehner’s commencement speech given at Catholic University and especially the letter written by a group of Catholic academics, including some leading members of the Catholic University faculty. I find Washington Post columist E. J. Dionne’s recent column interesting as he…
Read More »“THE PORCH is to eastern Massachusetts what Steel Magnolias is to northwest Louisiana. A deceptively tender play that is also very funny. It’s an inviting place to set a while and will leave you feeling right neighborly.” Broadway World Tickets are moving fast for the four performances of Jack Neary’s…
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