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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. I like to think of myself as a glass-half-full sort, looking for reasons to be optimistic even when events in this country seem to be circling the drain and democracy seems more fragile than ever. Realism does…

A Lowell-centric view of the year just completed: Pandemic The Covid-19 pandemic was the biggest story of 2021, both globally and locally. In March, the number of Americans who had died of Covid topped 500,000. By December, more than 800,000, including one of every 100 people over the age of…

 From nine years ago: Fifty-six folks from Lowell, Massachusetts combine to recite “A Visit From St. Nicholas” by Clement Clarke Moore. Produced by Richard Howe of www.richardhowe.com, December 2012.

What was Christmas like in Lowell one hundred years ago? Here are some stories that appeared in the local newspapers in the days leading up to Christmas as well as some ads for local merchants: First Day of Winter: Warmer tomorrow! The weather man promises to repent and make full…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron This is Happiness by Niall Williams is not a book to be read in a hurry.  Set in the remote village of Faha in County Clare, Ireland, the story is set in the 1950’s before electricity came to dirt-poor Faha. …

A Perfect Day By Malcolm Sharps Malcolm Sharps recalls a day in London in the seemingly much safer world of forty years ago: My girlfriend was from Brazil.  Or rather, to me, she wasn’t just from Brazil, she was Brazil, the embodiment of the country, she was bossa nova, she…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. GOP Governor Charlie Baker’s decision to opt out of a third-term election he’d probably have won is part of his appeal to the Massachusetts electorate. His disdain for the all-too-familiar despicable aspects of today’s political discourse has been…

Take Flight By Melissa Contover “Bienvenue a bord mesdames et messieurs” the flight attendant announces over the planes intercom making me feel as if we were already in France. Thank god I retained something, anything, from my French classes which I had taken ever since seventh grade. I could finally…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. Elections matter, and nowhere has this been clearer than in Wednesday’s Supreme Court hearing on abortion. Donald Trump (you remember the erstwhile lothario who was loudly pro-choice when he was openly sleeping around) pledged to name Supreme…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. People are on the move this weekend, eager to celebrate what the pandemic prevented last year. Friends and families gather, grateful that they have survived, much as popular history recounts how the Pilgrims survived their first winter…