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The following account of an 1833 Yankee v Irish riot in Lowell was recently forwarded to me by one of Lowell’s foremost historians. Because it includes details of Hugh Cummiskey being shot by the rioters and because this is Irish cultural week, I’ve reproduced the story below: Riotous. On Friday…
Read More »Erica Noonan writes from the Globe MetroDesk of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s initiative with five women’s liberal arts colleges – Barnard, Bryn Mawr and the Massachusetts colleges – Mt. Holyoke, Smith and Wellesley – now known as “The Sisters.” The focus of this partnership is “to increase the participation of…
Read More »MassMoments reminds us today that on this day – March 14, 1794 – Massachusetts native Eli Whitney applied for a patent on one of his many inventions – the cotton gin (engine). This machine was simple but it made separating the seeds from the field-grown cotton less time consuming and thus…
Read More »The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Today’s college students are reading less and partying more. So says New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, based on a new book entitled “Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses.” Authors Richard Arum of New York University and…
Read More »Tony Sampas caught the sun setting over the Tyngsborough bridge last Friday evening.
Read More »Paul Sweeney sent along some photos of St Patrick’s historian Dave McKean (above and below) leading his annual tour of the Acre this past Saturday as part of the city’s Irish Cultural Week activities. Besides Paul’s photos, Corey Sciuto wrote a blog post about St Patrick’s Church that included some…
Read More »When I moved in during the Fall of 1995, the heating system of my new house consisted of individually controlled, electric baseboard heaters. I thought about switching to a more conventional heating system but decided to wait until Spring. That February, my electric bill was more than $700, and that…
Read More »Tom Wolfe titled one of his books “A Man in Full,” and the word “full” came to me when I tried to think of a word to describe the story that Andre Dubus III tells us in his fiercely honest new memoir “Townie.” He grew up between two worlds, the…
Read More »Jack Kerouac was born on March 12, 1922; jazz man Charlie Parker died one March 12th. From the Barnes and Noble people, here is a literary comment on author Jack Kerouac and jazz man Charlie Parker. Thanks to Alan Crane on Facebook for the link. For the schedule of Kerouac…
Read More »On this day – March 12, 1933 – just a week after his inauguration, President Franklin D. Roosevelt gave his first national radio address or “fireside chat” broadcast directly from the White House thus launching a series talks with nation. FDR relied on simple language and folksy anecdotes or analogies to explain the often…
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