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The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Newton Center Green in Massachusetts was packed on Saturday, despite temperature in the 30’s and a biting wind. A 10-piece local brass band energized the crowd with a rousing Saints Go Marching In. There were young and old, black and…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner won the Pulitzer Prize for Non-Fiction in 1995 and was reissued with an afterword in 2023. This is a BIG book not necessarily in length…
Read More »Tuesday’s Lowell City Council was a long one, mostly because the council had cancelled its prior meeting which fell on St. Patrick’s Day. The public portion of this meeting took 3 hours, 45 minutes. For councilors, it was even longer since they went into executive session after that. **** The…
Read More »Time of the End of the Season Part Four By Bob Hodge Bob Hodge grew up in Lowell and went on to graduate from Lowell High (1973) and University of Lowell (1990). He was (and still is) one the greatest runners to come out of this region. He’s also a…
Read More »A Day in South Boston By Rich Grady On March 17th of this year, I drove across the Summer Street Bridge from Downtown Boston toward Southie, heading for Castle Island and the strand along Pleasure Bay. There, I would meet other Minutemen from around New England to muster for a…
Read More »Palm Sunday By Leo Racicot I’m not much for religion, not a churchgoer. Every year though, I try to make it to Palm Sunday services. I like the literal joy of the proceedings: the priests don bright red vestments for this celebratory day, the incense has a dual sensory effect; the…
Read More »Obituary: Jurgen Habermas, 96, Thinker Who Heralded ‘Public Sphere,’ Is Dead – Last weekend different online sources I follow mourned the death of Jurgen Habermas with great affection and respect. While I was vaguely familiar with the name, I had no idea who he was, so when his obituary showed…
Read More »Spaces for Wise Phrases – (PIP #101) By Louise Peloquin L’Etoile – March 1, 1926 __________ The L’Etoile print shop on 24-26 Prince Street had no modern technology to set up newspaper layout. Innovative ways to “meubler l’espace” (furnish the spaces) had to be found as we saw in…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Heart the Lover by Lily King shares some themes with What We Can Know by Ian McEwan, the book I reviewed two days ago. They’re both set against the backdrop of academia. King focuses on four young people in college, their spirit…
Read More »Because the regularly scheduled Lowell City Council meeting this week fell on St. Patrick’s Day, the council canceled its meeting, so instead of writing about local politics, today I’ll share an essay I wrote as part of Lowell’s bicentennial observance. However, instead of the founding of the mills and the…
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