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One of the things that has distinguished Lowell from other similar sized cities in post Industrial America is its willingness to keep moving forward. Some efforts work well, others don’t. But the critical thing is to keep trying. Today, we dipped back in the archives and found four such stories,…
Read More »CROSS OF SNOW By Nicholas Basbanes 461 pp. Knopf. For many years my relationship with poetry might best be described as admiration from a distance so I would not normally pick up the biography of a poet. But the city of Lowell is a constant tug on my attention which…
Read More »While we were busy with Baseball Week (or maybe “Fortnight” since it lasted for two weeks), Linda Hoffman has added a couple of new posts to her Apples, Art, and Spirit blog. Pedaling for Peace In this June 28, 2020, post, Linda writes about Sam Gloyd who is making a…
Read More »Paul Hudon: Diary in the Time of Coronavirus (10) Another set of pandemic observations from our riverside correspondent Paul Hudon. We held this post during Baseball Week but the content remains timely. June 21 Something of what we’ll call gallows humor from Mike Nichols and Elaine May, one of the…
Read More »Jay Pendergast: A Singular Man By Steve O’Connor My best guess is 1978. Summer workers for the Neighborhood Youth Corps had painted an Irish-themed mural on the back of a building facing Worthen Street. Naturally, after the dedication, the crowd meandered over to the Old Worthen. It was a beautiful…
Read More »A Perfectly Strange Day at the Beach by Henri Marchand This essay, written in July of 2008 during the last economic crisis, seems apt for our current times. On a recent Sunday morning, a two weeks before the 2020 July 4th holiday, we took our first ride to the beach…
Read More »For the month of July, here on Trasna, we will be highlighting some of the literary and artistic events cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Featured this week is the West Cork Literary Festival, an annual, weeklong celebration of writing workshops offered by some of the finest Irish and international writers.…
Read More »The Art of Getting Home: Bart Giamatti and the 1952 Saint Patrick’s Girls Softball Team By Christine O’Connor No one has ever written about the game of baseball with more intelligence and beauty than former Baseball Commissioner Bart Giamatti. In one of his many essays on the subject he described…
Read More »William Henry Merritt By Eileen Loucraft Back in the early days of professional baseball, Lowell produced a star catcher named William “Billy” Merritt. William Henry Merritt was born in Lowell on July 30, 1870 to William and Mary (Cleary) Merritt who were Irish immigrants. He attended Lowell schools and the College…
Read More »Baseball By The Numbers A Confession By Jerry Bisantz I admit it. I am bad at math. So, why do I love baseball so much? And, please, don’t give me all that Kevin Costner “Field Of Dreams” playing catch with your Dad poppycock. Anyone who really knows baseball knows “Bull…
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