Uncategorized

On Friday, February 14, 2025, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance spoke at the Munich Security Conference (MSC). Held each February since 1963 in Munich, Germany, the conference provides a platform for leaders to discuss the most pressing security challenges facing the world and is a venue for diplomatic initiatives and…

A recent Lowell Sun article about the coming rehabilitation of the former Royal Theater building at 484 Merrimack Street recalled a passage from Legends of Little Canada, a memoir by Charlie Gargiulo about growing up in that neighborhood just before and as it succumbed to the Urban Renewal wrecking ball.…

Potions and Powders – (PIP # 58) By Louise Peloquin               Ailments of all sorts have always made people try remedies of all sorts. L’Etoile’s “medicinal briefs” not only informed the readership about popular remedies but also brought in a bit of advertising revenue. Below is…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali is a timely read, a coming-of-age story by the author of The Stationery Store, which also draws on her Iranian background.  Dedicated “to the brave women of Iran,” it is told in the…

The entry below is being cross-posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald has a little bit of Marcel Proust, something of James Joyce, a dose of Freud and a lot of post-WWII PTSD. The landscape is usually desolate, the lighting dark; the often-abandoned buildings are old, dank and soot-stained,…

The highlight of Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was a presentation by City Manager Tom Golden titled “2024 Year in Review.” There is no written version that I can find online, but the LTC YouTube recording captures the full presentation starting 38 minutes into the video. After watching the comprehensive…

A Most Gracious Rebuttal to the Modest Proposal of Annexation By Rich Grady (anonymously) In the spirit of Jonathan Swift . . .  To our dear friends south of the border: It is in the spirit of Monty Hall and “Let’s Make a Deal” that we acknowledge your proposal for…

“Love loves to love love” (1) – (PIP #57) By Louise Peloquin Valentine’s Day celebrates love. Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear. – John Lennon Stories of love regularly spiced the columns of L’Etoile. A love-souvenir sampling below, ends with details…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Trump world is giving us the “madman theory of foreign policy” and a reign of terror domestically. Around the world, he is fashioning himself as unpredictable and irrational, which comes naturally to him and doesn’t have to be “fashioned.” Just…

On Tuesday the City Council voted unanimously to prohibit the use of “second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides” (SGARs) on city-owned properties. Eight residents spoke in support of the ordinance, and one spoke against it. A rodenticide is a pesticide intended to “prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate rodents that are declared to be…