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In this week when we celebrate St. Patrick and all things Irish, it’s natural to think back on the history of the Irish in Massachusetts – the firsts, the lasting contributions and then the prejudice. In his Boston Globe column today, Kevin Cullen tells the story of Barney McGinniskin – “the first Irish cop,…
Read More »The Huffington Post today has an interesting feature about authors who have had success with books they have published themselves. There’s a long tradition of this type of entrepreneurship. Blogging, websites, e-books, and other innovations have taken self-publishing to a whole new and higher orbit. The means of production are now…
Read More »Read the NYTimes report on last night’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame annual induction ceremony. The class of 2011 is an eclectic bunch and the presenters and performers on the program made it even more so. When you read about these events or watch them on TV, you plug…
Read More »MassMoments advises us today that on this day – March 15, 1820 – Massachusetts lost the over 30,000 square of the “province” of Maine. The relationship between Massachusetts and Maine was always rocky from the 1650s to the separation – with Maine feeling discontented by the political control, the great distance…
Read More »The following account of an 1833 Yankee v Irish riot in Lowell was recently forwarded to me by one of Lowell’s foremost historians. Because it includes details of Hugh Cummiskey being shot by the rioters and because this is Irish cultural week, I’ve reproduced the story below: Riotous. On Friday…
Read More »Erica Noonan writes from the Globe MetroDesk of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s initiative with five women’s liberal arts colleges – Barnard, Bryn Mawr and the Massachusetts colleges – Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley – now known as “The Sisters.” The focus of this partnership is “to increase the participation of…
Read More »MassMoments reminds us today that on this day – March 14, 1794 – Massachusetts native Eli Whitney applied for a patent on one of his many inventions – the cotton gin (engine). This machine was simple but it made separating the seeds from the field-grown cotton less time consuming and thus…
Read More »When I moved in during the Fall of 1995, the heating system of my new house consisted of individually controlled, electric baseboard heaters. I thought about switching to a more conventional heating system but decided to wait until Spring. That February, my electric bill was more than $700, and that…
Read More »Tom Wolfe titled one of his books “A Man in Full,” and the word “full” came to me when I tried to think of a word to describe the story that Andre Dubus III tells us in his fiercely honest new memoir “Townie.” He grew up between two worlds, the…
Read More »Jack Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922; jazz man Charlie Parker died one March 12th. From the Barnes and Noble people, here is a literary comment on author Jack Kerouac and jazz man Charlie Parker. Thanks to Alan Crane on Facebook for the link. For the schedule of Kerouac…
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