WHY DO IT? A hiker’s confession By Jerry Bisantz OK, so this is the newest in my “try to figure out why Jerry does stupid stuff all the time” writings. And this one will be about my passion for climbing. I must blame my buddy Steve for this one.  I…

FRENCH CANADIANS – GOOD AMERICANS – (PIP #44) By Raoul H. Beaudreau      L’Etoile published in French from 1886 to 1957 with English popping up occasionally, in advertisements for example. The following reader’s letter appeared in English and was later reprinted all over New England. Here is the original, with…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons Barron’s own blog. The Forever War: America’s Unending Conflict with Itself by senior BBC correspondent Nick Bryant is a frigid splash of icy water on the notion of American exceptionalism. It may help us to understand Donald Trump’s enduring, if frightening appeal…

Tuesday’s Lowell City Council meeting was largely uneventful, which is often the case these days. “Uneventful” is not necessarily a bad thing for a city council meeting to be. Functioning properly, the city council is supposed to develop a strategic vision for the city, communicate that vision to the city…

Did Poe Transform History? By David Daniel Among the themes that recur in the work of Edgar Allan Poe —madness, the death of a beautiful woman, the doppelgänger, the idea of the perverse—one of most insistent is revenge. Noodling on the Internet recently, thinking ahead to the upcoming Poe in…

Billie Holiday in Lowell By Leo Racicot I never “got” Billie Holiday’s voice; it sounded to me like nails on a chalkboard or a cat in heat. Whenever friends ooh-ed and ah-ed over her, I’d close my ears. After seeing Lady Sings the Blues, my friend, Joe couldn’t stop singing…

The Pride and Fall in Lowell A Homeboy Essay by Ed DeJesus My wife and I have traveled to dozens of states, countries, and tropical islands for business and holidays. When people hear us speak, they ask us where we are from. In the Caribbean, Europe, or Sydney, Australia, where…

Kerouac Connections – Meet Cousin Hervé – (PIP #43) By Louise Peloquin      “Leo with Louis at L’Etoile, 3rd peek into the past, posted on October 5, 2023, presented Jack’s father. See the link. This October, let’s meet Jack’s 1st cousin Hervé – another French-speaking Franco-American from Lowell, an adventurer,…

The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. Donald Trump may claim he’s immune to prosecution for multiple crimes to overturn the 2020 election results, but you can read the Government’s just-released response to federal District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan showing why he acted as a private citizen…

Ballots for those who will vote by mail are beginning to arrive at the homes of Lowell residents this week. Besides all the elected offices, there are also five referendum questions on this ballot. They haven’t received a lot of attention so I’ll start with a quick synopsis of each:…