Reviews

Tewksbury & Tewkesbury

My association with the town of Tewksbury is long, and I like to think deep.  Many, many years ago I remember attending an event in which several dignitaries from the town of Tewkesbury, England were the featured guest. Honestly, I was there for political reasons, more than historical. At that…

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Letterman, the Early Years

After thirty-one years as a successful late night talk show host, last night David Letterman announced his retirement. The 67 year old entertainer began his career as a weatherman in Indianapolis before moving into comedy writing. In his early appearances on “The Tonight Show” with Johnny Carson, I found Letterman’s…

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The Forstye Saga…Great TV

I often google …“best streaming TV series on Netflix”.  Fortunately, this phase has led me to many excellent hours of quality TV viewing.  One such series is a 2002 production titled The Forstye Saga. I’ve had this PBS production in my queue for at least a year, but despite its four…

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“The Borgias” Cutting the Cord

Over the past year or so I have been wondering if I could actually “cut the cord”…the cable TV cord that is.  And I’m finding there is plenty of very good /great programing available “off the cord”. Case in point…I just finished watching the entire three seasons of The Borgias…

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Rosie’s Cafe

Wanting to grab something quick and light for lunch yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the sunshine and relative warmth to walk from the Superior Courthouse down to Middlesex Street for my first visit to Rosie’s Cafe. Heading in that direction, I always use South Street which allows me…

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Eggroll Cafe on University Ave

A stellar review in yesterday’s Boston Globe North section prompted me to traverse the Richard P. Howe Bridge to get lunch at Eggroll Cafe at 110 University Ave in Lowell. Located just beyond the north campus of UMass Lowell, the Cafe, the trip there from the Highlands and finding parking…

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Stealing from the FBI c.1971

The recent publication of The Burglary: The Discovery of J. Edgar Hoover’s Secret FBI by Washington Post reporter Betty Medsger brings much needed attention to a little known bit of civil disobedience by some anti-war activists back in 1971 that led to the discovery of systemic illegal surveillance and covert…

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Netflix’s “The Fall”, Makes Great TV Watching

    I just finished watching the first season of a great BBC TV series on Netflix…and its available  streaming! The Fall, created by Allan Cubitt and directed by Jakob Vertruggen is a captivating crime drama (and honest, I usually don’t like crime dramas). The main character, Detective Superintendent Stella…

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Review of “Embers of War” by Fredrik Logevall

I just finished reading Frederik Logevall’s Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America’s Vietnam which won the Pulitzer Prize for History in 2012. A professor of history at Cornell, Logevall uses recently released diplomatic archives from several countries to paint a comprehensive portrait of…

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