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While scrolling through the Netflix home page recently, I came upon Notre-Dame, a series produced in France which was “inspired by true accounts from French firefighters” who helped save the historic cathedral from complete destruction in the 2019 fire. While the fire is the through-line of the six-episode series with…
Read More »The United States Veterans Administration (VA) celebrated Women’s History Month with a blog post highlighting women who led the fight for better health care for women veterans. One of those recognized was Edith Nourse Rogers, who represented Lowell in Congress for 35 years until her death in 1960. Below is…
Read More »The bitter cold we endured this weekend brought to mind other weather extremes. For me, the Blizzard of ’78, which struck on February 5, 1978, has always been tops in that category. I lived through it as a 19-year-old student at Providence College in Providence, Rhode Island. As bad as…
Read More »When Lowell received its town charter in 1826, the “domestic” water needs of most people – water for drinking, cooking, and washing – were met by wells that were scattered throughout the area. Also, anyone living near a river, a stream, or even a canal, could and did draw water…
Read More »Sonic Boom by Paul Marion The plane crashed. The pilot survived. I don’t know if I saw this or was told about it by my parents or remember the incident because I heard others describe it. In my mind I see myself in real time either standing in the…
Read More »Two weeks ago Friday I found myself at Logan Airport’s Terminal C at 8:30 at night awaiting the arrival of a family member in bound for a Christmas visit. Despite having had two earlier flights cancelled by the mammoth storm that had engulfed much of the country that day and…
Read More »December 25, 1922, fell on a Sunday. The weather was seasonal with no storms to disrupt the holiday. Local merchants were happy with their volume of sales, and downtown streets were crowded with shoppers, especially on the Thursday night before Christmas. All the streetcars were packed that evening with people…
Read More »Louise Peloquin reports on the World Cup from the streets of Paris . . . “Grande tristesse, grande fierté” (Great sadness, great pride) By Louise Peloquin Today December 18th, after 1978 and 1986, Argentina won the World Cup for the third time. France will have to wait another four years…
Read More »The Spirit of Uncle Arthur at Christmas By Charles Gargiulo I remember reading somewhere that a great songwriter is somebody who can say more in just a couple of lines than most people can say about the same subject if they talked all night about it. If that’s the case,…
Read More »You Don’t Belong Here: How Three Women Rewrote the Story of War by Elizabeth Becker Review by Richard Howe In the final chapter of her excellent book, You Don’t Belong Here, Elizabeth Becker writes that in 2015 she traveled to Cambodia to testify in war crime trials for some surviving…
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