Two days before the 100th birthday of Jack Kerouac on March 12th, I was asked by poet and musician Roger West in France if I could connect people in Lowell with his tribute to Kerouac planned for the hour of the author’s birth 100 years ago, 5 p.m. at home…
Boarding School Blues: Chapter 33 By Louise Peloquin Ch. 33: Cuisses de grenouille Back in October, when the sun kissed the grounds and clement breezes made kaleidoscopic funnels from multicolored leaves, biology teacher, Sister Thérèse of the Child Jesus – Sister T for short – was allowed to hold classes…
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. “Will no one rid me of this meddlesome priest?” King Henry II is said to have muttered out loud, grumbling about Thomas a Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury. Henry wasn’t ordering anyone to whack the troublesome Becket, but four…
Catherine and John Goodwin were iconic figures in the history community of Lowell. Catherine originated the very popular walking tours of Lowell Cemetery and led them for several decades. When age prevented her from continuing, she put out a call for a volunteer to take over the tours. I responded,…
About 20 years ago there was a movie called My Big Fat Greek Wedding which became an unexpected hit. My favorite part of the movie, besides its excellent soundtrack, was the bride’s father, Costas “Gus” Portokalos, played by Michael Constantine. Gus owned a restaurant, of course, and had a remarkable…
The Valley of the World By Jim Provencher You wouldn’t know it today if you were Jack Kerouac heading West the first time, entering El Paso along East Alameda, the blink-bright high-arched sky, the whole world opening up. Jack woke shouting to the morning, This is the Valley of the…
Valley Girl By David Daniel Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by John Carreyrou. Knopf, 325 pp, $27.95. The Dropout Hulu television miniseries (episodes 1-5). Reviewed by David Daniel. ******** In a 2018 60 Minutes segment on health technology company Theranos, its young CEO and founder…
‘Man on a Cloisonné Vase’ By Tom Sexton When I was still a boy with two good legs, the emperor’s men snatched me from my parent’s yard and sent me to the distant frontier to fight. An old man now, I sit unnoticed by a small pond…
At Land’s End with Jack Kerouac By Jim Provencher After all that road-going, coasting into Frisco was always an arrival of respite and relief for Jack Kerouac, shaking off desert dust, bathing in thick ocean fogs, luxuriating in the warm, boisterous scenes of Chinatown, North Beach, Berkeley and Russian Hill. …
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. The hypocrisy of Senate Republicans is breathtaking. They give standing ovations to Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s heroic battle for democracy in Ukraine, they line up to take selfies with Ukrainian Ambassador Oksana Markarova in the Capitol, they’re moved to tears…