Last Outpost Layover By Jim Provencher   Stalled at a kind of boundary line awaiting orders Another afternoon of pink grapefruit, soda & gin People die, places endure In a space of dead treelines and dry creekbeds Chipping away at dense blocks of gravity Noguchi-gouged granite, brutally knocking into the heart…

The Kerouac Renaissance: From Lowell to the World By Steve Edington—Lowell Celebrates Kerouac The Jack Kerouac Commemorative at Bridge and French Streets was formally dedicated in the summer of 1988 two years after the organization, Lowell Celebrates Kerouac, was created to carry forth the idea of honoring Kerouac in his…

“Echoes and Musings” – (PIP #70) By Louise Peloquin 24-26 Prince Street did not have AI-powered software to set up L’Etoile’s layout. Ways to “meubler l’espace” (furnish the spaces) had to be found. Advertising was essential as we have seen in previous “peeks into the past.” (1) Jokes and humorous…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. To the Midnight Sun: A Story of Exile and Return by Stephen Saletan is another search for one’s own identity by researching a close relative, in this case, Saletan’s Russian-born grandmother, Eda Grigorievna Bamuner. As a child in suburban New…

The main event at Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was City Manager Tom Golden’s presentation of his proposed FY26 city budget to councilors. The formal public hearing on the budget is scheduled for the council’s May 27th meeting. A concise PowerPoint presentation identified five “major fiscal challenges.” Increase in the…

Notre Dame Revisited By Louise Peloquin      Since Richard Howe’s April 3, 2023 post on Notre Dame (1), we have regularly covered the cathedral’s meticulous renovation. (2)      A journalist aims at investigating and gathering facts. A tourist plans to take in must-see spots. With the latter in mind, I decided to join…

Living Madly: Loneliness, Third Places, and The Back Table By Emilie-Noelle Provost Much has been written about the current “loneliness epidemic.” For the last fifteen or so years, people everywhere have become increasingly isolated from one another, a problem both exacerbated and accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. People are spending…

Memories of Music in Lowell By Leo Racicot Our mother’s mother, Adele, had the most beautiful, high, clear soprano. She loved to sing. I have only to close my eyes, and I can still hear Come, Come, Come to the Wildwood, I Come to the Garden Alone and Alexander’s Ragtime…

Prom Time – (PIP #69) By Louise Peloquin It’s that time of year again – prom time. Who am I goin’ with? What if I go with a bunch of BFF’s? What if I go alone? What am I gonna to wear – vintage, gothic, random? Are proms still a…

The enrty below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Time of the Child by Niall Williams returns us to the setting for his last novel, This is Happiness. We’re deposited back in the rural Irish village of Faha, where the men work hard and douse end-of-workday frustrations at the local…