It is the oldest vernacular language in Europe; it is “unique,” “complex,” and “primal.” Those are some of the words author Manchán Magan uses to describe the Irish language. Throughout the month of March, Trasna is featuring Irish language writers. We begin with Manchán Magan and his recent 2020 publication,…
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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Never has our capacity for patience been so frighteningly tested as in the pursuit of vaccines. I have written about finally connecting and getting my first shot. (Fingers crossed for the second shot.) Examples abound of others still…
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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. iding and abetting an armed insurrection against the peaceful transition of government at the Capitol January 6 wasn’t enough for the Covid rules-flouting, grandstanding hypocrite and perhaps most despised member of the U. S. Senate – Texas’…
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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The most bipartisan impeachment in our nation’s history ended up ten brave enough Republicans short of conviction. So we finished in a place that seemed certain from the outset. Still, a majority of the U.S. Senate voted to…
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Friday’s Lowell Sun had a story by Emma Murphy (“Does pocketwatch put Lowellian at Lincoln’s death bed?”) about Jonathan Ladd, a Civil War soldier from Lowell who may have been present in the room where Abraham Lincoln died on April 15, 1865. I’m quoted in the story saying I was…
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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Black History Month feels different this year. It’s not just because of the apparent increase in special programming on television and the expansion of relevant articles in the print media, though both of those have burgeoned. Nor is…
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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell is a gift. It’s the story of William Shakespeare’s son Hamnet, who died of the plague at the age of 11, leaving behind his twin sister, Judith, older sister Susannah and mother, Agnes Hathaway.…
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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Cold grey days, snow and ice, long waits for vaccines, Zoom fatigue, all add up to wonderful opportunities for reading, with fiction being an especially enticing escape. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward, came out in 2011, won…
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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. When will we become eligible for COVID immunization? How will we be informed? Where is the state on moving from Phase One to Phase Two? Where will we be able to go to get the vaccine? How do…
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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. He’s gone. With pomp, puffery and pettiness, the worst President in U.S. history has left a White House and Washington defiled by Donald Trump’s four painfully long years. The bill of particulars is too numerous to recount, save…
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