photo: Madawaska, Maine
About: I'm Jen. I live a few miles outside of Boston. I do web work for a non-profit during the day.
This web page has been in all sorts of forms since 1994 when I first wrote HTML in emacs on a Unix terminal at BU. Now I prefer BBEdit on my Mac. I'm never quite sure why I'm doing this
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January 31, 2005
Moss-grown
Governor Dummer Academy wants to change it's name. Per it's web site it was "Established in 1763 through a bequest from Massachusetts Bay Lieutenant Governor William Dummer."
So after 240 years, they're worried about having "Dummer" in their name. Seems silly to me and if I were an alum [I suppose alumnus is the correct term] I'd be upset. I just appreciate tradition and tend to be pretty stodgy about such changes. Plus it's New England, aren't we supposed to be stodgy and not change these things?
The James Russell Lowell Grammar School is the only school I've attended named for someone and I doubt they'll ever change the name. Even though Boston is barely still the place where "The Cabots speak only to Lowells, and Lowells speak only to God", his poetry will (I hope) always matter. He was the first editor of the Atlantic Monthly, as well, but I don't think anyone ever told us that in 3rd grade.