Beware of Gifting the Teacher!
This is the time of year when kids and parents are choosing a gift for that special teacher – usually in elementary or middle school. But wait – as Bill Maher would say – New Rules! As part of that much touted ethics law passed by the state legislature – lest these gifts be…
Read More »Tex-Mas Eve 2-night at Worthen to Help MV Food Bank
Musican Dave Norton sent a reminder about a good cause event tonight. Worthen House – Lowell’s Oldest Tavern & Restaurant 141 Worthen St. Lowell, MA 01852 (978) 459-0300 – “this one is for Ed!” Thursday 12/23 8:30 to closing. The line-up is a who’s who of Lowell’s music industry. 8:45…
Read More »“Lone Ranger” announcer dies at 89
For many of us 50 and older, watching the “Lone Ranger” was one of our earliest TV memories. I don’t remember much about the program, but I do remember the opening and the theme song. Seeing the name “Fred Foy” in today’s obituaries would not have attracted my attention; but…
Read More »Gail Collins Gives Prez, Kerry, Lugar Stars for Christmas
Read NYTimes columnist Gail Collins today and feel good about our government leaders, at least some of them, working together to get some stuff done and move the sprawling nation forward a few feet just as we get set for another yearly starting line. Read her opinion here, and get…
Read More »Change of seasons: Boarding House Park
Tony Sampas catches the change of seasons, from fall to winter, at Boarding House Park in Lowell
Read More »Shattered dreams: No Dream Act for now by Marjorie Arons-Barron
The entry below is being cross posted from Marjorie Arons-Barron’s own blog. When I was eight years old, I knew my family, my neighbors and some of my elementary school classmates. I knew we lived in Boston, scarcely understood Massachusetts and had no sense of nations or nation-states. If my…
Read More »See Lowell Filmmaker Jim Higgins’s Prize Film Online
Our blogging colleague Kad Barma called attention to this item: Lowell filmmaker and photographer James “Jim” Higgins won the Grand Jury Prize in the 2010 Screaming Ant Film Festival, which is a huge deal even though some of us have not heard of this annual online festival. His film “A Fairy’s Tale”…
Read More »What’s up with Congress?
The US Congress has left me befuddled and confused this week. They’re actually accomplishing things, in sharp contrast to their record earlier in the year. Aside from Wall Street reform, it’s as if the Health Care Reform battle paralyzed our representatives. Since the election – just since Thanksgiving, more accurately…
Read More »‘Patterns of a Prayer Town’
I wrote the first draft of this poem in 1976, and worked on it on and off for a long time. I had in mind the extensive outdoor lighting displays in Dracut (the town) and Lowell, but especially as it evolved the dense array of Christmas decorations in Pawtucketville, between Mammoth Road and…
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