Tony Sampas photographed this fading wall mural advertisement for Uneeda Biscuit on Merrimack Street. Prompted by Tony’s photos, I did some quick internet research on Uneeda, which I assumed was another Lowell-based cracker such as Bradt’s. I was wrong. According to Wikipedia, Uneeda was a late 19th Century product of…
Read More »
Interested in what needs to be done to improve workforce development in the state? Read what Lowell’s John Schneider has to say. He’s vice president of MassINC and director of its New Skills for A New Economy Program as well as a moving force in the Gateway Cities initiative. John…
Read More »
Read E. J. Dionne’s latest column from the Wash. Post, which I picked up from realclearpoltics.com. He says US Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia, the one not running for re-election, is a rare political bird, a Jacksonian Democrat who measures the health of the society from the bottom up not…
Read More »
The public is invited to a panel discussion about “Egypt’s Future” on Tuesday, Feb. 22, in the O’Leary Library Auditorium, Room 222, 61 Wilder Street, on the South Campus of UMass Lowell. A reception with refreshments starts at 5 p.m, with the program follwing at 5.30 p.m. Presenters will include…
Read More »
Some might wonder about how elected officials take up certain topics. Lately here’s been some buzz about Senator Susan Fargo’s push to name the iconic Rex Trailer as the Commonwealth’s official cowboy. Now it’s a regional school sports league on a legislator’s radar sceen. There’s a story in today’s Eagle Tribune…
Read More »
The SUN story this week about performers for the upcoming 25th Lowell Folk Festival sent me to the vault to find a non-web “log” entry before the blog days about the origin of the Festival. I was cultural affairs director of the Lowell Historic Preservation Commission at the time. After…
Read More »
All writers, non-writers, and anti-writers, please take notice. This estimable hyper-local blog will host the Third Annual Community Haiku Project in April as one of Lowell’s contributions to National Poetry Month. Start your creative engines, and put on your haiku shoes because we’ll be looking for the choicest of the…
Read More »
MassMoments tells us that on this day – February 11, 1812 – the political weapon known the “gerrymander” was born with the stroke of Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry’s pen. The practice of gerrymandering in America predates the invention of the term, but it was this Massachusetts law that gave rise to the…
Read More »
NYTimes columnist David Brooks today has a stark warning for all readers: We are on track to be financially consumed by our own federal government debt. I’m copying a large chunk of his column below because he spells out the situation clearly. Reading this, I’m reminded of the late Paul…
Read More »
See Forbes Magazine’s recent list of the 20 most miserable cities in the US. Lowell didn’t make this list. California looks bad here. Number one on the list is Stockton, Calif., where I lived for about six months in 1967 when my father was working as a wool grader for Cal…
Read More »