Menu
The NYTimes today reports on dismal results in a recent national test on science knowledge administered to 4th, 8th, and 12th graders (the 12th grade sample is much smaller than the elementary school samples). Read the results here, and get the NYT if you want more. But the results showed…
Read More »NYTimes columnist David Brooks today says it’s imperative that 21st-century America be a talent magnet to stay at the front of the pack in the global economic and social long-distance race. For our purposes on this blog, substitute Lowell and/or Merrimack Valley every time he mentions America, and think about…
Read More »Pawtucket Congregational Church in Lowell, Massachuestt – National Register of Historic Places -2007 Today Secretary of State William F. Galvin – who also chairs the Massachusetts Historical Commission -announced that the Historical Commission is accepting nominations for the 33rd Annual Preservation Awards Program. This award program recognizes preservation projects and individuals that…
Read More »“. . . There was at the time of the Civil War, a group of young men and women hardly more than boys and girls, who frequented our house, played croquet on the lawn and bowled in the long, low bowling alley; old when I remember it, and covered from…
Read More »Tom Sexton sent a new poem from the coast of Maine where he’s wintering more easily than in the Alaskan icebox. He’s working on a new book of poems. Lowell (and all that that contains) is the subject. Look for the new collection in the fall. In the meantime, mark…
Read More »Marie just did a post about efforts to save the Wilderness Battlefield in Virginia, the place where Lowell resident Henry Abbott was killed in action. Above is a photo of his monument in the Lowell Cemetery, which sits alongside an identical monument for his brother Edward, who was killed earlier…
Read More »As the Sesquicentennial remembrance of the American Civil War begins, battles continue for ground considered sacred by many but just land and areas ripe for commercial development by others. Back in July we blogged about the plans for a new casino – too close for some to the blood-soiled battlefields…
Read More »In the Boston Globe Magazine today, the Boston Uncommon feature highlights author Andre Dubus III of UMass Lowell and Newbury because he has a new book due out in February, “Townie,” a memoir about growing up and boxing and writing in Haverhill. Read the Q & A here, and get the Globe…
Read More »The following anecdote comes from writer Steve O’Connor, who got the report from a comrade downtown. Without revealing the protagonist so that he won’t get accosted at a later date on Central Street, I want to share this example of one man being a Superhero of the City for the…
Read More »We’re deep in the keep of winter now. This one feels like an old-fashioned winter. New England memory adds snow to past seasons. Lean winters don’t stick in the mind. There’s more talk of Florida lately now that we are past the holidays and snowbirds are jetting south for their weeks…
Read More »