Menu
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The Lion Women of Tehran by Marjan Kamali is a timely read, a coming-of-age story by the author of The Stationery Store, which also draws on her Iranian background. Dedicated “to the brave women of Iran,” it is told in the…
Read More »The entry below is being cross-posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Austerlitz by W.G. Sebald has a little bit of Marcel Proust, something of James Joyce, a dose of Freud and a lot of post-WWII PTSD. The landscape is usually desolate, the lighting dark; the often-abandoned buildings are old, dank and soot-stained,…
Read More »The highlight of Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was a presentation by City Manager Tom Golden titled “2024 Year in Review.” There is no written version that I can find online, but the LTC YouTube recording captures the full presentation starting 38 minutes into the video. After watching the comprehensive…
Read More »Artist Richard Marion at his Gallery 21, Hurd St, Lowell, c. 1979 (photo by Kevin Harkins) I’m posting this 2008 essay (later reprinted in 2018) for the benefit of visual artists and other folks in Lowell who have come to the city since the 1980s or later and may not…
Read More »A Most Gracious Rebuttal to the Modest Proposal of Annexation By Rich Grady (anonymously) In the spirit of Jonathan Swift . . . To our dear friends south of the border: It is in the spirit of Monty Hall and “Let’s Make a Deal” that we acknowledge your proposal for…
Read More »“Love loves to love love” (1) – (PIP #57) By Louise Peloquin Valentine’s Day celebrates love. Love is a promise, love is a souvenir, once given never forgotten, never let it disappear. – John Lennon Stories of love regularly spiced the columns of L’Etoile. A love-souvenir sampling below, ends with details…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The Story of Russia by Orlando Figes is an amazing and accessible book on the history of Russia, the central theme of which traces Russia’s mythologies as a key to the Russian character, leadership and major events. There are lots…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Trump world is giving us the “madman theory of foreign policy” and a reign of terror domestically. Around the world, he is fashioning himself as unpredictable and irrational, which comes naturally to him and doesn’t have to be “fashioned.” Just…
Read More »On Tuesday the City Council voted unanimously to prohibit the use of “second-generation anticoagulant rodenticides” (SGARs) on city-owned properties. Eight residents spoke in support of the ordinance, and one spoke against it. A rodenticide is a pesticide intended to “prevent, destroy, repel or mitigate rodents that are declared to be…
Read More »Poet Joseph Donahue, with deep Lowell roots and who teaches at Duke University, has been actively publishing poetry as if he’s being chased by the hounds of Time across the national landscape. There’s a new notice full of praise in the Los Angeles Review of Books addressing his 2024 collection…
Read More »