Uncategorized

The Lowell City Council met this past Tuesday evening; however, I was away and didn’t have time to watch the meeting, so I’ll write about it in next Sunday’s newsletter. Today’s topic is “title theft” the term used to describe the fraudulent transfer of real estate. The prompt for that…

Music! Music! Music! By Leo Racicot The very first music concert I attended was at Freedomland, an amusement park in The Bronx. My sister, Diane and I, were in White Plains, New York visiting our aunt, uncle and cousins for three weeks in the summer of 1962. One of the acts…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Article: “AI’s Market Dominance comes With a Warning” by Jeff Sommer, New York Times, July 12, 2026 – This is the “Strategies” column in the Business section. Despite relatively high inflation driven by tariffs and the war…

Mother Earth Grumbles – PIP #111 By Louise Peloquin      “Peeks into the Past” #11 and #54 were a sampling of a local newspaper’s coverage of climate concerns. (1)      As the summer of 2026 is punctuated by horrifying images of extreme weather all over the globe, these two stories…

There was no city council meeting this week so today we have more Lowell political history . . . **** Over the course of four weeks earlier this summer, I posted mini biographies of those who have served as mayors of Lowell since the receipt of the city charter in…

What Haberman and Swan’s New Trump Book Gets Right Rev. Steve Edington [Text of this op-ed as it ran in the July 17, 2026, issue of the New Hamshire Union Leader] I tried to purchase a copy of Maggie Haberman’s and Jonathan Swan’s Regime Change at my local Barnes &…

Amusement Parks of the 1960s By Leo Racicot Canobie Lake Park in Salem, New Hampshire, was a favorite getaway for families seeking escape from city life, the daily grind, especially on weekends. Marie took us there many times over the years in her Rambler. It was a quick trip over…

A weekly report on things I’ve read, heard and seen since last Wednesday.  Book Review: Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs by Antony Beevor (2026). Earlier this year a glowing review of this book caught my attention and, since I’m already a big Antony Beevor fan (he’s a military historian…

Forest Fires – PIP #110 By Louise Peloquin     American media have largely covered the unprecedented inferno consuming southern Europe. From January to the end of July, wildfires destroyed approximately 287,000 acres in France. In the Gironde region, over 220,000 people were forced to evacuate. Mayor Thomas Cazenave of Bordeaux,…

Here’s another tribute to the late David Daniel (1945-2026) from longtime friend Bill Crawford. He and Dave met long ago as fellow US Army soldiers and remained in close contact until Dave’s recent passing. Bill, a writer and photojournalist, composed this poem while on a road trip from Death Valley…