On this day June 5, 1968, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) was assassinated in Los Angeles after claiming victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary. Shortly after midnight – after winning the California primary election for the Democratic nomination for President of the United States, Kennedy was shot as he walked…
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In her opionion column in today’s NYTimes, Maureen Dowd writes about the child-abuser priests in Ireland and a hero among the clergy, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, which reminded me of a dramatic moment in Jack Neary’s play “The Porch.” I hope many of our readers were able to see the Actors Inc.…
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BBC.com reports that a new study in the United Kingdom has assigned a monetary value to “nature” in the nation. The figure is in the billions. Some would say the value is “priceless” when you are talking about clean air and clean water, for example. The “Flowering City” plan released…
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Some months ago in a comment on this blog, Prof. Bob Forrant of UMass Lowell used the term “capital strike” in suggesting that big businesses appear to be sitting on record profits when they could be stimulating the economy, creating jobs, and moving the nation ahead. Here is a passage from opinion column…
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An essay by Steve O’Connor . . . My grandfather once told me, in definitive tones, that Thomas Moore was the greatest poet in the English language, and as a boy his word was good enough for me. Papa, as we called my grandfather, was a great lover of poetry.…
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Michael Casey is the author of several books of poetry, including “Obscenities,” “Millrat,” and “Million Dollar Hole.” In 1972, he won the prestigious Yale Younger Poets Award for his book “Obscenities,” now considered a classic volume of both Vietnam War literature and war poetry of all time. His poems have appeared in the New York…
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The outstanding performers of Actors Inc. last night raised the figurative curtain on Jack Neary’s funny and moving play “The Porch” at the UMass Lowell Inn & Conference Center. Set in a place like Lowell’s Sacred Heart neighborhood in 2004, the play gives voice to the people whom we shop…
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For details on Ernest Lawrence Thayer’s life, see the Wikipedia entry.
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A close-up of the now-under-renovation Cardinal O’Connell Parkway by Tony Sampas.
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On this day June 3, 1888 – the famous baseball poem – “Casey at the Bat: A Ballad of the Republic Sung in the Year 1888” was first published in The San Francisco Examiner. The poem immortalized “Mighty Casey” and “Mudville” and the game itself in the minds and hearts…
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