Notre Dame of Paris: Spire Update By Louise Peloquin Two months ago, Notre Dame offered the best perch in Paris to a golden rooster. The brief Gift-wrapped in steel, posted here on December 18th, provides details on the topic. On February 12th, the dismantling of le Coq’s (1) 48-level,…
“Indifferent to the war” – (PIP #20) By Louise Peloquin The Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022 and the war is about to enter its third year. The Hamas attack on Israel occurred over four months ago, on October 7, 2023, and the fighting continues. Conflicts…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane is as effective a thriller as his previous books, once again taking a deep dive into the social and political environment in South Boston, this time in the lead-up to the 1974 school busing…
The Lowell Senior Center came up at Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting. Councilor Erik Gitschier raised the topic and the discussion covered inadequate maintenance, slow repairs, responsibilities under the lease, and the longer-term ownership status of the facility. Because the Council meeting was otherwise brief, I decided to focus today’s…
Living Madly: Small Things By Emilie-Noelle Provost Love and kindness are never wasted. It’s the sort of cliché you might find on a greeting card or in a self-help book. Most people I know tend to scoff at this type of sentimentality. It sounds sappy, too simplistic to have much…
Kisses – (PIP #19) By Louise Peloquin Heart-shaped boxes of chocolates, bouquets of roses, colorful cards and the year’s gadgets are all exchanged on Valentine’s Day. So are kisses. L’Etoile published the following photo 80 years ago. Pure joy emanates from the low-definition image. A guitarist strums a tune.…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. The City of Newton’s shameful, illegal, and history-making 11-day teachers strike is over. Finally, Newton’s 12,000 school kids are back in class, where they belong. Those of us who have lived in Newton for a long time…
Tuesday night’s Lowell City Council meeting was largely uneventful, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There was the obligatory winter-time segment on potholes of which there are many. City Manager Tom Golden cited an enormous quantity of blacktop used by DPW workers to fill these holes which seem to…
The entry below is being crossed posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. Master, Slave, Husband, Wife: an epic journey from slavery to freedom by Ilyon Woo is the story of Ellen Craft, a light-skinned enslaved woman and skilled seamstress, and her husband William, also enslaved and a skilled cabinet maker, and…