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My colleagues Dick and Paul have shared their memories of those days in early February of 1978 known now as the Blizzard of 1978. Checking the archive I found this narrative of my own experiences. I remember the Blizzard of ’78 as a challenge to dig out and feel reconnected…

Please note that due to extreme weather (cold cold cold) forecast for today and tonight, the Tewksbury Public Library has postponed my talk scheduled for this evening about my new book, “Mill Power: The Origin and Impact of Lowell National Historical Park,” until later this winter. Watch here for the…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. When two-term Massachusetts Senator Ed Brooke woke at 3:30 in the morning on November 7, 1978 the election was already over.  And just after 8 p.m. that evening, as the first votes trickled in, his long-time aide Roger Woodworth…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. I confess to being seduced by Governor Deval Patrick. Not literally, of course, but almost always being won over by his charm.  It happened the very first time I met him at a house party, nine years ago, when…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barrons own blog. I have never been a fan of Al Sharpton.  I look at him and see Tawana Brawley,   the late eighties phoney rape case that Sharpton embraced in such an inflammatory way.  I have always seen him as someone who has…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Most of us probably find ourselves somewhere around the center of contemporary political thought, whether it’s to the right of center or left of center. Our movement in elections often determine outcomes, and we’re usually out of touch with…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Tonight’s televised benign if mildly tense debate between Charlie Baker and Martha Coakley was clearly a draw, which may have been the defensive  objective of all concerned. Comfortably  moderated by WGBH talk show hosts Jim Braude and Margery Eagan,…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The best baseball book of 2002 was Boston Herald reporter Howard Bryant’s Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston.  Even growing up with the Red Sox, until reading the book years ago at the insistence…