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Those of us who grew up watching The Rat Patrol harbor a latent interest in desert warfare of World War Two. While The Rat Patrol was entertaining TV, it also took some historical liberties. The series was loosely based on the British Army’s Long Range Desert Group, an elite unit…
Read More »The “Week in Review” section of this Sunday’s New York Times reported that only “only 12% of a representative sample of the nation’s high school seniors demonstrated proficiency in the subject last year” according to recent National Assessment of Educational Progress test results. While it’s critically important that we improve…
Read More »It’s Sustainability Week in Lowell, and although we don’t live on the coast in Lowell our state is a coastal state—and everything is connected even if you live in Kansas. There’s a new report from international scientists sounding the alarm about threats to ocean life and possible severe consequences if conditions…
Read More »This year ten schools from across the Commonwealth have been rated a spot in Newsweek’s top 500 best high schools: Boston Latin (63), Hopkinton (95); Belmont (110); Mystic Valley Regional Charter, Malden (116); Westwood (134); Manchester/Essex Regional (138); Longmeadow (241); Sturgis Charter, Hyannis (301); Tahanto Regional, Boylston (449); Sandwich (484)…
Read More »In his most recent column for the Washington Post, E. J. Dionne posits that the wide-spread state laws ostensibly enacted to combat voter fraud are really an attack on the right to vote. Claiming that study after study found no major voter fraud problems, Dionne sees that : “Their greatest…
Read More »The Acre in the foreground. Smokestacks and the Eliot Church steeple in the background. —by Tony Sampas
Read More »In advance of the upcoming release of “The Fighter” on DVD in the United Kingdom, two English tabloids sent reporters to Lowell about a month ago to write about the city that was central to the film’s story and production. Deb Belanger of the Greater Merrimack Valley Convention and Visitor’s…
Read More »Poet and environmental activist Gary Snyder returned to his alma mater Reed College for the school’s centennial. He was profiled recently by Jeff Baker of The Oregonian newspaper for oregonlive.com. Snyder was one of my poet-heroes when I started out on the writing trail. He’s 81 years old and still traveling…
Read More »“On the Road” goes to an iTunes app. If you are into Kerouac, check this out. See a video of the new app.
Read More »Thanks to Amy Black on Facebook for this historic image that I hope she doesn’t mind us sharing here—this is inside the Patrick J. Mogan Cultural Center, which has a front lawn in the form of Boarding House Park where Amy and Chris performed masterfully last night to open the 2011 Lowell…
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