Alison Lobron
After the flood
take one flooded city. Add thousands of devastated inhabitants, a bungled federal response, and an absence of civic leadership. It doesn’t sound like a recipe for success, yet nearly four years after Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans seems to be doing one thing that remains a perennial challenge in Massachusetts: getting young adults to feel a […]
Labor lessons
INTRO TEXT Warren Wilson students carry outtheir chores earlier this spring. snow on warren Wilson College’s campus is an unusual sight — not only because western North Carolina rarely gets more than a dusting, but because students are the ones driving the plows. Students also prepare the cafeteria food, staff the administrative offices, clean the […]
On the set
you may not know Lynda Obst’s face or name, but if you pay taxes in Massachusetts you are an investor in the producer’s latest movie, with the working title This Side of the Truth. Obst decided to film the comedy starring Jennifer Garner and Ricky Gervais in Lowell last spring largely because of a 2007 […]
IBM offers transition to teaching careers
When Elizabeth Cowles of Bedford graduated from college in 1987, she had two job offers: one to work for IBM and one to teach high school physics. She chose IBM because the pay was better, but always imagined she’d switch to teaching at some point — until life got in the way. “When you end […]
Ending the one-party state
As a pistol-packing, SUV-driving conservative in liberal St. Paul, Minnesota, David Carlson knew he was fighting an uphill battle. Still, on the day before the 2008 election, the 27-year-old candidate for the state House of Representatives drove through his district of tidy, split-level homes for a final campaign push. He checked the placement of his […]
Safety blanket
“I would love to do what you’re doing,” a 20-something friend said. “But I need benefits.” She went on to tell me about her dream of starting an interior design company, a dream she’s put on hold until — well, until someday. I heard comments like hers often in the year I spent as a […]
Divided loyalties
“So, what do you do?” My friend visiting from San Francisco stifled a laugh when she heard this familiar line at a cocktail party. She has a theory that Bostonians can’t use any other question to start a conversation with a stranger — and, furthermore, that until we’ve established what a person does (meaning gainful […]
Redefining a ‘better’ life
“it’s crazy that none of us can afford to live in the town where we were kids,” said a high school classmate at a recent mini-reunion. We’d grown up in Concord and Carlisle in the ’80s and ’90s (when, we all agreed, “normal” people could still buy homes there), and many of our parents had […]