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Kerouac Connections – Meet Cousin Hervé – (PIP #43) By Louise Peloquin      “Leo with Louis at L’Etoile, 3rd peek into the past, posted on October 5, 2023, presented Jack’s father. See the link. This October, let’s meet Jack’s 1st cousin Hervé – another French-speaking Franco-American from Lowell, an adventurer,…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Donald Trump may claim he’s immune to prosecution for multiple crimes to overturn the 2020 election results, but you can read the Government’s just-released response to federal District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan showing why he acted as a private citizen…

Ballots for those who will vote by mail are beginning to arrive at the homes of Lowell residents this week. Besides all the elected offices, there are also five referendum questions on this ballot. They haven’t received a lot of attention so I’ll start with a quick synopsis of each:…

My Back Pages and Dermot’s Theory By Stephen O’Connor In the winter of 1985, I was 29 years old. The snows melted away, and so did my time in that golden decade. As I approached my thirtieth birthday, people said to me, “So, how does it feel? The big 3-0…

Dropped Baby By David Daniel If you were around forty years ago you may remember the story.   A fire in a triple-decker tenement in Lowell, Massachusetts, on a December night so cold that the hydrants froze and firefighters had to use blow torches to open them. It was all…

Lowell celebrated Keraouc’s future friend – (PIP #42) By Louise Peloquin      An October gathering of Kerouac’s friends and admirers would definitely have included Fr. Armand Morrissette, O.M.I. (1910-1991) who recognized in adolescent Jack a talent which would become no less than stellar. “Father Spike” championed Jack even into eternity when,…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. Most Vice-Presidential debates are a two-day story, quickly forgotten. I hope that this one follows suit. Viewers who appreciated the largely civil tone of the debaters appear to rate it  largely a draw, with a slight edge…

Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting took just under two hours to complete. No single issue dominated. In keeping with the civil engineering focus of this city council, motions and reports on traffic, parking, and related matters came up repeatedly. Nothing seems to delight this council more than a discussion on…

Philip A. Donahue passed away on September 17, 2024. (His obituary is available here.) His brother, Richard K. Donahue Jr., delivered his eulogy at his funeral mass at the Immaculate Conception Church in Lowell on September 27, 2024. Richard consented to the publication of his eulogy here: Eulogy for Philip…

Instruction – (PIP #41) By Louise Peloquin A hundred years ago, a call for instruction. L’Etoile, September 3, 1924 Instruction  (Of Liberty)         Our little schoolchildren, with schoolbags strapped over their shoulders, will soon return to school.      Vacation time and endless games will have lasted the lifespan of…