Three people were stabbed, one fatally, near Felker Street and Commonwealth Avenue around 10 a.m. yesterday, the Middlesex district attorney’s office said. Timothy Lewis, 34, of Chelmsford, died of his wounds. The other two victims were treated for injuries not believed to be life-threatening. Local and State Police are investigating. The district attorney’s office said the stabbings did not appear to be random. No arrests have been made, prosecutors said. No further information was immediately available.

If you read the piece carefully, you will find that the word “Lowell” is omitted entirely. That’s fine with me. I’ve frequently commented that regional reporting of Lowell criminal events severely undercuts our efforts to promote the city in a positive light. Too bad other media outlets won’t report the crime stories without identifying the place in which they occur. (Note: A companion story on boston.com is not shy about identifying our city – “One person dead, two others wounded in Lowell stabbing”)

On the other hand, it looks like President Obama’s re-election team will have the message, organization, and money in place by the summer convention to wage a strong campaign against whomever the GOP sends forward. The stock market and employment numbers are trending in a better direction for the President. The Clint Eastwood ad for Chrysler aired during the Super Bowl could have been a preview of the Obama for America campaign movie, othewise why all the angst in some quarters of the GOP establishment? Romney said don’t interfere with federal government support; let the carmakers fail. Bad call.

I’ll go back to what I wrote here some months ago. I don’t understand why the national Republicans didn’t start with stronger potential opponents to the President. Well, actually, I think I do understand. The “A Team” didn’t think the President could be beat, not really. Why else was there so much oxygen available for jokers like Trump and Cain? So now they have what they have, and the pundits are jabbering about drafting a new standard bearer.

Of course, Republican activists can say the Democrats were in disarray in 2008, with Hillary and Barack beating each other up through the late stages of the primary and caucus season. That was a horror show for weeks, but the Obama team steadily built its delegate count. In the public arena, the Democratic Party was working through an identity crisis. I think it turned out well, but that’s one voter speaking.

“It’s halftime in America. And our second half is about to begin.” A poet wrote that ad copy, I learned yesterday. Nice work.

Lowell Cemetery, headstone of African American Civil War sailor Walker Lewis “LANDSMAN US NAVY USS RHODE ISLAND MAY 7 1839 APR 18 1901″. Photo by Tony Sampas.

Somewhere between my awareness of our light grip on life, my empathy for the Syrian people, and my understanding of our never-ending quest for knowledge (the Great Satchmo had it just right when he said that our children would learn things that we would never know), I realized that I would never get that doctorate I wanted, never die filthy rich, and never be as smart as I wished I were. So I realized that I would have to settle.

There are a few things that I know. I know there is a God. I know that being born an American is the most important piece of luck in my life. I know that I will eventually take off of this mortal coil. So, I had to decide what was important to me. My love of Native American customs, and my love of history notwithstanding, I have determined that my wife and children are most important to me. I would like to say that that is normal, but in our society I might just be lucky in that I realize such a thing. I watch television and come to the conclusion that very few civilizations are as free and opinion-based as ours. Without those opinions, we would not be able to enjoy the freedom, which was purchased for us through the gift of military men and women. It puzzles me how we can just whittle away at those freedoms by not acknowledging the sacrifices of others.

I have two good friends who would, quite literally, give me the shirts off of their backs. We recently went fly fishing in New Hampshire and I caught my first trout. They took me into their fold, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I find that I seem to have many friends, some closer at times then others, but all close at some point in time. I also found that I totally like fly-fishing. I had breakfast this morning with a man who deserves all of the credit he can get, but never would want to be named in an article. He was once a pro-football player, and he is a big man, both on and off of the field. He cheered for the Patriots in the Super Bowl and was just as disappointed as I was when they failed to win. That would be my take on it, they failed to win, they did not lose. A few plays, and they would have won it. But those New York teams are just bad luck to New Englanders. We forget that historically we surpassed the City of New York during the Revolution and have held our own ever since. So this curse of the “Babe,” and our willingness to admit that our millions of people are not equal to their millions of people are difficult for me to understand. During the Civil War, we lost 2% of our male population, and Massachusetts really put up a fight. Massachusetts always puts up a fight. Other states do not always fight with the ferocity of the Massachusetts citizen or politician. Look at the number of persons from Massachusetts who have run for the presidency and done credibly well. I include my brother-in-law, Paul Tsongas in that number.

Mitt Romney is the one person that President Obama did not want to face, and Romney, despite his moving from Massachusetts, is the scrappy political type. Like John Kennedy, he today, at this late date, decided to discuss his religion. As you know, he is a Mormon. Kennedy saved discussion of his religion for the West Virginia primary in 1960. It is too bad that religion has to play a part in it, but it always has, and probably always will. But, as an American, if not as a Democrat, it is refreshing that Romney, despite, or perhaps in spite of the fact that he is a Mormon, is being taken seriously.

Mr. Obama has accomplished a great deal, and I am grateful for many of the difficult stands that he has taken against a reluctant Congress. Just the death of Osama bin Laden would be enough to get a Republican re-elected, but Democrats, it seems to me, are kept to a higher standard. They have to cure the world’s ills. We have watched for the past few months how hollow you can be and still be a successful Republican candidate in the straw polls of Iowa, and as a former Iowan I know there is a lot of straw out there. Mr. Obama failed in his job the day he was sworn-in, I feel. I still disagree with the war in Afghanistan, I consider myself a veteran of the war to end the Vietnam War, and no, I did not wear long hair, I just politicked for those who ran as anti-war candidates. So, I was not that interesting. Some things never change. But,thanks to a high draft number, I got the chance to have the life I have so greatly enjoyed.

That was a crazy time. Forget Woodstock, children took over the country I felt, and their impact was felt in music, education, and the movies. It was cool to be a kid, and we still believe that was so. Despite the fact that they are in their eighties, we would still pack the Garden to see the Rolling Stones. Music was a force to be reckoned with. It went from a form of artistic expression to just a force.

The 5th. Congressional District played its part. It elected a man who would run for Congress, then the Senate, and then the Presidency. A man who once marveled to me that he got to sit in on a meeting with Red Auerbach. It was the starting point for a man who would be the youngest man to serve in the U.S. Congress the year he was elected, a man named Jim Shannon. It would be the starting point for a man who has changed the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Marty Meehan. No other district in recent history has, I believe, turned out the number of winners that we have.

Therefore, I believe that we are all better for having been in the 5th. District. Sure, unemployment is up, but my mother assures me it is up in Florida, too. The economy is on the downswing, and I do not have any idea when it will be in the reverse again. But we get to live here. And that is a pleasure and a blessing. So, like Billy Joel waving Brenda and Eddie goodbye, let us wave the old 5th. goodbye and wonder what the new 3rd. will bring to us. Hopefully more of the same.

Would a 10 percent increase in the fare be justifiable? Maybe. But not the huge increase being proposed by the MBTA. Would a slight adjustment in the weekend schedule on the Lowell-Boston line be defensible? Maybe. But not the plan to wipe out weekend service.

The MBTA certainly got the public’s attention. There is passion around this issue. You could feel it in City Hall last night. The opposition was spontaneous. It was personal. It was professional. It was immediate. This is the kind of change that would hit people where they live. It would be bad for everyone who lives and works in this area, as well as for those who count on the public being able to easily visit and do business in the city and region. We need the train. We need late service. We need weekend service. And the cost should be fair and affordable.

The ads were mediocre, too. Except for the monkeys. The monkeys were funny.

Madonna was smart to go big with the drummers and choir at the half. And she’s for “world peace,” which is a good thing.

PS: I had missed the Clint ad for the carmakers of Detroit. After seeing the ad on Facebook, I give that one an A+. And I will refrain from any political commentary at this moment.

The proposed service cutback will be devastating to Lowell. Many of our residents work or go to school in Boston and not necessarily at 9 to 5 weekday jobs. While we have excellent hospitals here in Lowell, many of our residents take advantage of the best-in-the-world health care available at some Boston hospitals and while normal appointments might not be late nights and weekends, some are and there’s always the need to visit hospitalized relatives and friends. The best way to get to and from an event at Boston Garden (or whatever it’s called now) is by train and the elimination of after-10 pm trains would erase that as an option. This doesn’t even consider those from greater Boston who come to Lowell (or who we want to come to Lowell) for education and cultural activities.

In an age where more people are (or should be) returning to cities and cutting back on the use of personal vehicles, making such a drastic cut in the level of public transportation service seems incredibly short-sighted. Please consider showing up at the hearing, even if you do not wish to speak on the issue. Numbers count.

Yesterday I joined a tour of the still-under-construction Western Avenue Lofts at 150 Western Avenue in Lowell. Adjacent to the better-known Western Avenue Studios, Western Avenue Lofts is a two-story brick building bordering the Pawtucket Canal that is being transformed into 50 rental live/work spaces for artists. The building is long and narrow and so each unit gets a huge 22 feet wide by 7 feet high window that faces either north (Western Avenue side) or south (Pawtucket Canal side). Because the building’s footprint is not strictly rectangular, the size of the units vary but most are about 1500 square feet in size. To maximize the ability of occupants to customize their individual spaces, only bathrooms and kitchens are being installed in a uniform way (they are all along the wall that borders the central hallway). Other than that, the artists can subdivide (or not) their spaces, carving out bedrooms, storage areas, raised floors, whatever.

The second floor spaces are dominated by the high “sawtooth” roof that raises the interior ceilings, already a high 14 feet on the first floor, up to 22 feet in some of the second floor units, providing the opportunity to construct in-unit lofts or to leave open and as spacious as any living quarters in the city.

Unlike most rental units, these are designed and intended for the tenants to customize the appearance, particularly the paint scheme and wall treatments. The developers clearly understand and embrace the creativity of the artist-occupants. Other interesting amenities include roof-top solar panels that will provide part of the building’s electricity and a common garden stretching along the bank of the canal.

It’s my understanding that commitments already exist for more than half the fifty units of this building which is to be ready for occupancy this May. More information is available at www.westeravenuelofts.com. The video below contains pictures I took during the tour.

The Western Avenue Lofts concept is an intriguing one. Many of those on the tour were tenants-to-be who proudly showed off their as-yet skeletal units, speaking with pride and enthusiasm of their plans for their respective spaces. That many already knew each other well gave it a college dorm for grownups feel in the best sense of that image. With all the recent talk of unruly late night visitors to downtown, the relative isolation of the Western Avenue space seems like an asset. As our country’s living patterns undergo a shift away from suburbia and back towards city-living, and away from universal home ownership to more varied and flexible rental arrangements, the Western Avenue Lofts project could serve as a model for future developments in the city’s neighborhoods.

I haven’t been to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum since the grand re-opening. Unfortunately, the Saturday hours start at 11 a.m., so all I could do was snoop around the edges. The expansion is substantial. The new contemporary-styled entrance is a startling update for what I’ve always known as a kind of period piece art-house. Designed by the renowned Renzo Piano, the new structure includes a long greenhouse facing the compact Evans Way Park. Bold plants and flowers are always a major draw at the Gardner. The whole complex looks fresh. I want to see it from the inside.

The School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Wentworth Institute of Technology. Simmons College. Massachusetts College of Art and Design. These outstanding schools are shoulder-to-shoulder in the neighborhood. On the downtown side of the MFA, you see banners for Northeastern University. Bikes and bike racks abound.

At 10 a.m., I merged with a crowd that had formed at the Huntington Street entrance to the Museum of Fine Arts, which has been lifted into the orbit of destination museums around the world courtesy of the $500 million expansion that the staff and patrons accomplished smoothly and swiftly. As good as the MFA has been for all the years I’ve gone there, the new-and-improved version makes you proud to be a museum member and a resident of the state. This is not sedate excellence that you take for granted any more. The place has pop and sizzle and wow now even as you can find yourself alone in a gallery with profound objects and images. That happened to me yesterday when I wandered into a gallery in the contemporary art area that featured a sublime display of wood sculptures by Ellsworth Kelly, a 1948 graduate of the Museum School. These were rough and smooth boards and slightly curved planks presented like the crown jewels of lumber—reflections on topography and geometry.

Earlier, when I had circled the museum while waiting for the doors to open, I was thinking, This is a big stone box full of beautiful things. That’s what you find here and there in civilized places. We put certain beautiful things within walls and under a roof to protect them, so we can visit them occasionally to be inspired, to move our emotions, or to study and learn from. When the doors were unlocked, dozens of people were already lined up to go in, all kinds of people, on their own, as couples, with kids, in groups from schools or clubs, all of them wanting to see what is inside.

Dale Chihuly, “Lime Green Icicle Tower”, MFA Boston (web photo courtesy of hubreview.blogspot)