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One of our far-flung correspondents, Tom Sexton, checked in with a new poem from the apple yards of Maine, where he is counting icicles and writing a memoir about growing up in Lowell. In the great tradition of apple poems by Lawrence High School-grad Robert Frost and others, Tom gives…
Read More »Thanks to “Merrimack Valley Magazine” for the kind words about “Mill Power” in a review in the new March/April 2015 issue. Here’s the link for the “Mill Power” review And here’s the link for the MVM site and several articles and features that are online. Please look for and buy…
Read More »If a speech can make a difference, this is one. President Obama did well in Selma, Alabama, yesterday. “Our march is not over.” “Moral imagination.” “The single most powerful word in our democracy is ‘we’.” “What has not changed is the imperative of citizenship.” “Give voice to the voiceless.” This…
Read More »Doing winter cleaning last week at our house, we found some old newspapers, which are always a fascinating window on the past. In this case, hostilities in Europe during World War II were reaching a climax. One can imagine what it was like in the city reading the reports on…
Read More »I’m encouraged by the evidence of civic activism around different interests in Lowell. Almost overnight, a group emerged with shared interest in the upcoming design changes around the Lord Overpass and Thorndike-Dutton corridor. For a while now there’s been a coalition of folks who care about bike-riding and how the…
Read More »It is still freakin’ cold out there, so I’m posting another Caribbean composition from the vault.—PM . Hibiscus Lane 1. One nimble gecko scaling a mosquito net remains the only lizard we’ve seen in a week on the island whose old name, Hewanorra, means “where the iguana is found.” Purple…
Read More »The key documents related to the Pawtucket Falls Dam court case, plus a statement from the National Trust for Historic Preservation, are available on the website of the Lowell Heritage Partnership at www.lowellheritagepartnership.org
Read More »Snow permitting—-Here’s an announcement from the Tewksbury Library: The Tewksbury Public Library invites the public to a special program on Wed., Feb. 18, at 7 pm at Tewksbury Public Library, with author Paul Marion, who will discuss his new book, “MILL POWER: The Origin and Impact of Lowell National Historical Park,”…
Read More »The shame of the result in the court case about the future of the Pawtucket Falls Dam is the lack of trade-off and balancing of interests in the court’s decision. Enel is already generating green energy and making money on the hydro-power system, otherwise they would not be operating in…
Read More »This is a cross-post from LowellIrish where historian Dave McKeon comments about cartoonist Thomas Nast and his apparent ant-Irish and anti-Catholic cartoon attacks. He offers another side of Nast – who by the way wasn’t very fond of Ben Butler and subjected him to the Nast-y cartoon pen. He asks…
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