Paul Sweeney, a citizen (photo) journalist, will join us occasionally with some of his superb pictures. Today Paul headed out into the Atlantic to do some fishing. He brought along his camera.
I was invited to join Cap’n Bobby and 1st Mate Dominick blue-fishing off Plum Island this morning.
We left the marina on the Salisbury side of the Merrimack @ 6:15am read more »
Today is Southeast Asian Water Festival day in Lowell. This is the 14th year for the popular event. Last night, I attended the opening ceremony at Middlesex Community College, where the evening activities culminated in a candlelight ceremony and small boats floated on the canal with accompanying blessings and wishes. Master of ceremonies Sayon Soeun of the Light of Cambodian Children organization, one of the longtime festival leaders, made a special point of praising younger community leaders who have stepped up to help produce the festival this year. Among the speakers and performers last evening were Van Chum (history of the festival), Rady Mom (Cambodian flute), the Wat Buddhabhavana of Mass. Laotian Dance Troupe, Molyka (Cambodian folk tale), Alyssa Jasmine Moir (Thai dance), a Cambodian classical music group, the monks of Wat Buddhabhavana, and cultural affairs director LZ Nunn representing City Manager Bernie Lynch.
At 7 this morning, our eager-for-her-walk dog, dragged me out of the house. As we stepped onto Westview Road, a police car with lights flashing was just pulling to a stop a few houses away. An ambulance, the ladder truck from Branch Street, EMTs and more police all arrived at one-minute intervals. They all stopped in front of the home of Attorney Louis M Saab. As was reported early today, first on WCAP and then on the local newspaper’s website, Attorney Saab passed away this morning at age 81. I’m told he had dined out with friends last night and appeared in good health, just as he did last week when he appeared on behalf of clients before a city board.
Louis was a shrewd businessman and property owner. If you search the titles of a number of buildings in downtown Lowell you’ll find that he owned and sold the same buildings repeatedly. He’d buy a structure when the real estate market hit bottom, sell when prices were at the peak, and then pick up the property again after the bank foreclosed on the new or subsequent owner. During the recent real estate price boom, I was often asked how we would know when prices had reached their peak. My reply, only half in jest, was to pay attention to what Louis Saab was doing with his real estate holdings. When he started to sell, you could be sure the market was about to begin its plummet. For all his involvement in real estate and finance, however, Louis always seemed happiest in the First Session of the Lowell District Court, shuttling between the prosecutors and his clients and the bench, making time to share humorous or thought-provoking insights with the other attorneys, just thoroughly enjoying himself.
Louis Saab was a Lowell institution. He will be missed. We all extend our condolences to his family.
With just 24 days to go until the September 14 primary election, time is growing short for the candidates. The calendar presents a real challenge: prevailing wisdom is that “no one pays attention until after Labor Day”, but this year, Labor Day comes late (September 6) and once it passes, there will only be a week until the election. Add to that the back-to-school, start of kids’ activities (think Lowell Youth Soccer), end of summer vacation disruptions to everyday life and you’re likely to have not much interest in this entire election beyond those who vote every time.
After last Monday’s debate, many Doherty supporters were ecstatic, convinced their candidate had come out way ahead. The new comer (to being a candidate, at least) Doherty more than held his own, he probably exceeded expectations while the much more experienced Donoghue, by not completely overwhelming her less experienced opponent, may have fallen short of the expectations of some. I called the debate a draw and a good advertisement for future debates between these candidates.
As for lawn signs, in my neighborhood (the Highlands) the sign totals seem balanced with neither having all that many. In contrast, I drove out Lakeview Ave in Dracut one day last week and between the signs for Barry Finegold and Jack Wilson – both running in that Senate district – there were more political signs on that one road in Dracut than there are in the entire Highlands section of Lowell.
To me, the most interesting development in the First Middlesex Senate race was the arrival in my mailbox of the fourth Doherty for Senate flyer I’ve received in the past two weeks. The first was “He’s a prosecutor not a politician,” the second was the “too cheap for new shoes” piece; the third was his grandmother’s endorsement of his plan to “give seniors a break on taxes” piece; and the fourth was the “he’s made it easier for women to get restraining orders” card. What I find most interesting about this is the timing of these mailings. Why send them now, in the middle of August? Does Doherty have enough money to send even more? Presumably Donoghue will have her own barrage of mailings that will arrive sometime in the future. Will those late arriving pieces be more on the mind of voters come primary day or will they be lost in the transitional turmoil of early September?
In preparing this post, I queried a half dozen acquaintances, all Lowell voters who are uninvolved and undecided in this race. Every one of them concluded that Doherty “has the momentum” right now, that between his debate performance, his mailings, his omnipresence at public events since this race began and the online buzz his youthful supporters have generated, he has the edge. But in politics, timing is everything and it doesn’t do much good to peak three weeks before election day. Donoghue was extremely popular as a city councilor and as mayor. Just three years ago she spent nearly $1 million running for Congress. In that race, she easily won the city of Lowell, demonstrating that her success in a “vote for nine” council race was transferable to a “vote for one” race for another office (a transition that has proven difficult for so many other Lowell office holders). My guess is that the Donoghue campaign is stockpiling its resources for the sprint to the finish line and her campaign activities will ratchet up substantially in the coming days. But Doherty has run a good campaign thus far and there’s no indication that will stop now. That’s why the next 24 days will be fascinating for local political observers.
UPDATE: I was driving around Belvidere this morning and saw a substantial number of Donoghue signs. I just went through yesterday’s mail and found a fifth Chris Doherty flyer, the theme of this one is “creating green jobs.” The postal carrier should be here shortly: will I need another update?
You don’t have to say a lot more than “the B-52s played Boarding House Park last night.” They raised high the steel roof beams of the trademark pavilion set against a wall of brick and tall windows at the Boott Mills. The moon floated over downtown at about 7/8ths round and the air was cool and still. It was a standing dance party for the Lowell Summer Music Series crowd, something I haven’t seen often.
The iconic band of good-sport entertainers played all the fan favorites, plus a few new songs. The band of bass, keyboards, lead guitar, and drums superbly powered through vocal-driven numbers. Propulsive is a word to use here. Shouting is another word to use. Fred Schneider joked at one point about the group’s ballads. I didn’t hear much of that. Little Richard-type shout-singing from the 50s is more like it. And a kind of campy pop gospel holler mixed with ’80s’ techno-rock. They are from the South, after all. The sound level all night seemed slightly over the top, but maybe it’s just my older ears.
Cindy Wilson and Kate Pierson raised the roar in the park with an extended version of “Roam,” and the whole crew closed the 90-minute show with a souped-up version of “Love Shack.” They came back for a two-song encore, the cosmically goofy “Planet Claire” and cellar dance classic ”Rock Lobster.” The last words from the stage by (was it?) guitarist Keith Strickland were a big shout out to Lowell’s own “dead beat”—”Thank you Jack Kerouac, wherever you are.”
Mass Moments reminds us this morning that on this day – August 21 in 1909 – the iconic Pilgrim Monument on the highest hill in Provincetown was completed clearly declaring that the Mayflower’s first landing was in fact here at the tip of Cape Cape .
On this day - …in 1909, two young girls, using ropes and a pulley, helped haul the last stone into place to complete the Pilgrim Monument in Provincetown. The town’s Yankee residents had long been seeking funds to erect a monument to the Pilgrims, who landed on the tip of Cape Cod weeks before they ever laid eyes on Plymouth. It took until 1906 to raise enough money. The following year, President Theodore Roosevelt sailed to Provincetown in a yacht appropriately named the Mayflower to lay the cornerstone of the monument. Three years later, President William Howard Taft spoke at the dedication. 116 steps and 60 ramps lead to the top of the 252-foot tower, which is still the tallest all-granite structure in the United States.
Read the full story here at MassMoments: http://www.massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=242.
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