Merrimack Valley Magazine

The challenges faced by local media organizations over the past decade are well known to many people, and despite the best efforts of the Merrimack Valley Media Group Inc. team, we have made the decision to suspend publication of Merrimack Valley Magazine and our related digital products as of Dec. 31, 2021.

In her book “The Writing Life,” author Annie Dillard observes, “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” Since I first read it years ago, this adage has always stuck in my mind, both for its simplicity and because it’s so indisputably true. As I get older, I find myself thinking about this idea more often. And as another year comes to a close, Dillard’s words seem to be on my mind much of the time.

As the temperature continues to drop in the Merrimack Valley, folks are looking for ways to stay warm. ’Tis the season for dusting off our sweaters, donning fashionable scarves, and pulling those comfy woolen mittens from the back of the closet. For our money, the best defense against the cold is mounting a strong offense in liquid form, imbibing hot cocktails that’ll warm up even the frostiest New Englander.

Uncorking the World’s Best Champagne It’s not often that my printing business crosses the line into my passion for great wine. I don’t generally print wine labels, and the best marketing material for selling good wine is inside the bottle. You can talk all you want about how wonderful a wine is, but you really don’t have a clue until you pop the cork.

The Unbreakable, Unshakeable Air Plant I keep many houseplants, but I do not always keep them well, or long. As I write this, the remains of a jade plant sit in silent rebuke beside me. The plant had flourished for months, and I had started to feel a measure of pride that I found its preferred water and light levels as new, fleshy leaves continued to sprout at semiregular intervals.

The click of the latch felt like relief as she slid the card through the reader. It gave her access if not money. Inside it was hot and humid like a laundromat, but despite the discomfort, it was better than outside. She leaned into the shadowy corner and allowed her tired body to slide to the floor. Glancing out into the brittle night, she relaxed a little. It was safer here, the only place she had access to that had any kind of a lock. Her stomach rumbled in familiar complaint.

Area Chefs Share Seasonal Favorites Traditions are big this time of year, and for many families they include getting together for big meals. Looking for a new wrinkle to those annual repasts? We convinced a few local chefs to share some seasonal and traditional favorites from their own tables. Viviana Acevedo, the owner of Panela, a Colombian restaurant in Lowell, says there is a long tradition in her native country of families getting together for communal meals during the holiday season.

…and Wednesday was Spaghetti Day South Lowell’s Moore Street still spans the half-mile between Lawrence and Gorham streets, but it feels quieter now, emptier. These days, the neighborhood, like a lot of Lowell, is undergoing a revitalization and renewal, but change comes at a cost. Moore Street’s 20th century institutions are passing into history, and are being replaced by new buildings and new stories.

Descending from fall into winter, losses seem to accumulate. You catch sight of what you think is a phoebe, tail bobbing on a fence post, and then you realize it’s just rain sluicing off the roof and repeatedly hitting a leaf, bouncing it up and down. Then you think how you can’t remember the last time you saw a phoebe, and that’s fall.

At one time, the Route 128 (now I-95) corridor was just as synonymous with the growth and development of technology as the Silicon Valley is today. The region was a major player in what was known as the “Massachusetts Miracle.” This period — occurring over the course of the 1980s — largely reversed the state’s devastating economic fortunes, sending the unemployment rate from 12 percent to 3 percent and giving the Bay State one of the largest percentage increases in personal income in the nation.