The “Greatest Generation” loses two

Friday afternoon I traveled to McKenna-Ouellette Funeral Home on Hildreth Street to attend the wakes of Rudolphe “Red” Ouellette and Alfred “Nick” Favreau, two life-long residents of Lowell who were friends throughout their 88 years of life, who died within hours of each other on the same day, and who…

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In the Merrimack Valley: Regional Interests In Redistricting

These ten districts will be downsized in to nine districts as a result of the 2010 Census. (Note: Include Middlesex above with Essex.) A headline in  yesterday’s MetroWest Daily News asks: ” Is there political gamesmanship in Mass. redistricting?” Redistricting in Massachusetts – and elsewhere – is always political – it’s the nature…

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UMass Lowell Newsline, February

Read the electronic version of the UMass Lowell Newsline publication. The February isssue is here. Of special interest to the community are brief articles on findings from the Lowell Plan-UML Downtown Initiative, the acquisition of the former St. Joe’s Hospital, and year one of the Tsongas Center under UML control.

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Darwin Day

Today we celebrate Charles Darwin’s birthday. The great biologist was born 202 years ago, meaning that it has been just over 151 years since the publication of On the Origin of Species. I have written in the past about his ideas, so to avoid repeating myself I would like to…

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“Bend the Fed” by John Edward

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 There is an intriguing sub-plot to the Republican takeover of the U.S. House of Representatives. Self-proclaimed Libertarian, Representative Ron Paul of Texas,…

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Removing snow banks

When I was a kid in the 1960s, a post-snowstorm highlight was the appearance of the city of Lowell’s giant truck-mounted snow blower on our street. The above photo closely resembles the vehicle I remember: it was orange with a big box for its mechanics on the rear bed and…

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Uneeda Biscuit

Tony Sampas photographed this fading wall mural advertisement for Uneeda Biscuit on Merrimack Street. Prompted by Tony’s photos, I did some quick internet research on Uneeda, which I assumed was another Lowell-based cracker such as Bradt’s. I was wrong. According to Wikipedia, Uneeda was a late 19th Century product of…

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