Menu
Boston.com has a lead story by Globe business reporter Rob Gavin about the need for workers in Massachusetts with mid-level skills for jobs in pharmaceuticals, health care, insurance, and more areas. Based on a new employment study, the article makes a strong case for more emphasis on community college programs to…
Read More »Bob Dylan said you don’t need a weatherman to tell which way the wind’s blowing. Bob Forrant says we shouldn’t wait for the economists to tell us which way the economy went, but should seed the clouds ourselves to make some money rain. Read his latest take on the regional economy in…
Read More »Picking up on Tony’s post about Hemingway, I want to add a Kerouac thread to the discussion. Hemingway’s stories influenced Kerouac’s early work. In early 1942, 19-year-old Jack Kerouac was writing sports articles for the Lowell Sun and at the same time conceiving what he pictured as a trilogy of…
Read More »In today’s NYTimes, David Brooks weighs the relative merits of informing ourselves and improving our minds through new and traditional means (web v. book). He offers recent study results and wise pronouncements from thoughtful sources. I’m sure he knows we aren’t in an either-or world. It’s an “and-plus” world for those…
Read More »This bird or a close cousin and others like it contribute to the morning music in and around the South Common. With its many trees and bushes, the Common is an aviary of sorts, especially at this time of year. I don’t know the bird types well enough to list…
Read More »Walking the dog on the South Common around suppertime for the past few days has been like traversing a stretch of desert. The cut grass on the south slope above the playing field crunches underfoot because it’s so brittle. Someone once described the hillsides in California as being the color of mountain lion…
Read More »Ringo Starr, born Richard Starkey in Liverpool, England, turned 70 years old today. Interviewed by the New York Times for today’s paper, he said he had one request for those who want to wish him well on this day. He started this little ritual two years ago on his birthday.…
Read More »Prof. Bob Forrant forwarded the following quote about Jack Kerouac’s influence on the emerging political activist Tom Hayden in 1960. He’s reading a book by James Miller about the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) and ther rise of the New Left to prepare for a history course he is…
Read More »All this writing and opinion-giving about our economic problems and what’s needed to get the nation out of the financial ditch sent me back to the writings of young Jack Kerouac in the collection I edited, “Atop an Underwood.” In 1941, when he was 19 years old, Kerouac wrote a…
Read More »I couldn’t resist the urge – this photo of Rachel Maddow – fellow resident of Massachusetts – not “in mufti” needs to be seen as “captioned.” Maddow with her crew and NBC correspondent Richard Engel is currently in Afghanistan where she will spend the next couple of days reporting in and from the field. The…
Read More »