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Take a walk outside tonight to see the first of two full moons in August. The second Full Moon of the month will occur on August 31 and is known as a Blue Moon. Of course a Blue Moon is not really blue, rather it is the second of two…
Read More »Frequent contributor Jim Peters sent along the following: My dog is teaching me how to die. Not in the immediate future, of course, but when it naturally happens. She has been an incredibly great dog, named Frances Cabot Lowell (not Francis, like the father of modern Lowell, she is after…
Read More »John Edward, a resident of Chelmsford who earned his master’s degree at UMass Lowell and who teaches economics at Bentley University and UMass Lowell, contributes the following column: In this column, I will explain how the Commonwealth of Massachusetts can: 1. Reduce property taxes, 2. Increase funding for local educational…
Read More »Thanks to Shawn Ashe for introducing me to a new plug-in for this blog that allows smart phone users to view our content more easily. While you could always pull up this site on your smart phone, it was not formatted for a small screen and required quite a bit…
Read More »There’s a new blog in town – Room 50 which has “alive, unique and inspiring tales from the Office of the Mayor, Lowell, Massachusetts.” The inaugural post, written by first-day-on-the-job mayoral aide, Jennifer Myers, tells the tale of Dr. Moses Greeley Parker, not for his accomplishments in the field of…
Read More »About a month ago I opened the Sunday Boston Globe and saw an ad for an event that would feature Globe political reporter Glen Johnson (who used to work at the Lowell Sun) interviewing outgoing Congressman Barney Frank. While attending would require traveling to Morrissey Boulevard and the Globe’s headquarters,…
Read More »Palmer Street Fire Station during the Lowell Folk Festival July 29, 20012 The Palmer Street Fire Station was also known as the Central Fire Station and was designed by Merrill and Cutler and erected in 1889 by the Lowell firm of Ladd and Conant. Photo and text by Tony Sampas.
Read More »Recruiting posters, 1940s. On this day – July 30, 1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a bill creating a women’s auxiliary agency in the US Navy known as Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service – WAVES. Mildred McAfee, President of Wellesley College in Massachusetts, was sworn in as…
Read More »President Lyndon Johnson signing the Medicare amendment. Former President Harry S. Truman and his wife Bess are on the far right. Truman recieved the first Medicare card. On this day July 30, 1965 President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Medicare bill into law. Congress created Medicare under Title XVIII of…
Read More »We were lucky about the weather, given the unsettled skies all weekend. Twenty-six years later, the event feels more like a street festival than a music and dance festival, which is fine. The audience is determining what the experience will be. Food from around the world, sidewalk entertainers, storefront buzz,…
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