Boston

Yes, I'm travelling today, but that doesn't mean I can't harangue you (and, yes, I sent in my absentee ballot). If you're a member of the Coalition of the Sane, tomorrow's election, at the national level, is unappealing. The Congressional Democrats' unofficial motto of "Vote for us because we won't be as dreadful as the Republicans" is hardly inspiring. I'm definitely sympathetic towards those who don't want to vote for the Democrat--all I would ask is that you consider how worse your local Republican alternative is before you abstain or write in a third party. But it really is disgusting…
The Boston Public Library has a really cool exhibit about postcards related to Boston. Here's one I thought was funny from 1908 (based on the postage, I think it's 1908): I want my own unidirigible! Too bad Boston doesn't really look like this.... If you can't get to the library, the postcards are online here.
Despite The Boston Phoenix's running articles that occasionally contain the word fuck, as well as having an 'adult section' complete with ads for 'massage' (why one has to wear a bikini to give a massage escapes me; also, prostitution isn't exactly feminist), their politics are about as alternative or radical as a wet noodle. This is best shown by their unrelenting and irrational assault on teachers, although the continual brushback by their readers seems to have had a slight effect. Well, now the Phoenix editors have decided how to fix the Boston schools--even as these same schools have…
One of the subtle, but important things that influences national discussions of education is that the Washington D.C. public schools are dreadful. Not only do students do worse than would be predicted based on the poverty rate, but, according to the NAEP, the schools also do a worse job of educating poor students. Due to this repeated 'discovery', opinion makers, pundits, and politicians are bombarded with bad news about education and how our educational system is failing (in a fair number of states, our educational system surpasses that of every OECD country, so this really isn't a '…
As the slow-motion destruction of our nation's infrastructure continues due to deficits über alles hysteria, we find this very depressing article from Camden, NJ about the proposed eradication of its public library system: Camden is preparing to permanently shut its library system by the end of the year, potentially leaving residents of the impoverished city among the few in the United States unable to borrow a library book free. At an emotional but sparsely attended meeting of the library board Thursday, its president, Martin McKernan, said the city's three libraries cannot stay open past…
Last week, I described how the pair of swans living on Boston's Public Garden's Lagoon* have a predilection for attacking ducklings. Last night, the swans were at it again. But last night, this took a very sinister turn: I think Juliet got a duckling. I could have counted wrong, but I think the Lagoon now has n - 1 ducklings. No idea if this was Juliet I or Juliet II (LESBIAN SWANZ!! AAAIIEEE!!). Oh, the... avianity?!? *Why the pond is called a lagoon when it is not a lagoon has always puzzled me.
Remember last year, when Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. was arrested by the Cambridge Police (charges were dropped). We all sat around, had a beer, and discussed race. Well, there's been a review of the Cambridge police's arrest behavior from 2004 to 2009. At the time, I thought it had nothing to do with race, but challenging police authority, and an atypical response based on Gates' class: But I actually don't think this is about race, but a challenge to police authority. Basically, once Gates' challenged the officer's authority--and mind you, he had already shown the officer…
I need some help from 'swanologists.' So do Boston's ducklings. In the middle of Boston's Public Garden, there is a large pond (although for some reason it's called a lagoon, even though it's not a lagoon). Every year, two swans, Romeo and Juliet, are brought to the Lagoon and released to build a nest (it turns out that both swans are female. LESBIAN SWANS!! AAAIEEE!!!). Last weekend, I happened to be in the Public Garden all three days (long weekend), and every day I saw a swan (no idea if it was Romeo, Juliet, or both) that was chasing after ducklings. By chasing, I mean that it would…
(Click to embiggen) Don't worry, I'm not describing Boston Mayor Menino's latest harebrained scheme. Esplanade Magazine, which is some great architecture/real estate porn (and it's free!), describes an effort in 1907, during the heyday of the City Beautiful Movement, to build an island in the Charles River. It didn't happen due to opposition from Beacon Hill residents (naturally...) who opposed what would have been called St. Botolph's* island. But imagine if the island had been built (from Esplanade Magazine): It's May, almost time for Commencement, and you are sunning yourself at the BU…
On this Patriot's Day, we must never forget that the Heroic Struggle Against Our Demonic Turkey Overlords has not abated. Now they are assaulting the basic workings of our government: click to embiggen (from here) Preventing the Boston Transportation Department from the appointed rounds! (and Intelligent Designer knows, we need the revenue). Have they no decency?
Maybe I should have worn this hat? I was going to write a magnus opus about the Tea Bugger rally on the Boston Common on Wednesday. But, as we used to say in more civilized times, meh. Basically, there was an hour of some really schlocky pseudo-patriotic music, wherein every third word was freedom (FREEE-DOM! Gives the whole notion of freedom a bad name). Then between 'songs', we would be regaled with stories of heroic sacrifices by soldiers, followed by other sentences that were heavy with "freedom" and "amen." Because opposing taxes on the wealthiest is just like storming the beaches…
It's supposed to be rainy, so why not attend? Carl Zimmer will be there. MAS does really cool outreachy things like teacher training so they're worth supporting, even if you can't attend. Anyway, this found its way into my email machine: Join the Massachusetts Academy of Sciences as we spend a day at the Museum of Science, Boston celebrating science and our efforts to improve the state of STEM education in Massachusetts! We've got a packed day planned for our members and registrants, and we'd love nothing more than to spend the day with new and not-so-new friends! Interested? You may…
Every so often, Boston proposes raising the voluntary contributions it asks non-profit organizations to pay in lieu of property taxes (and other taxes), or instituting a consistent fee (right now, these contributions are negotiated with each institution). From The Boston Globe: After 14 months, a mayoral task force has nearly completed its work examining the city's uneven system of individual agreements with such institutions, under which they voluntarily pay cash and provide services in lieu of property taxes. Some pay millions; others pay significantly less. The city is pushing…
One of the things Newbury Street has lacked is a used book store. Now it has one: Raven Used Books. This could be really bad as it's about four minutes away. Unlike most Boston area used book stores, Raven Used Books' business model isn't to sell really expensive rare books and then stock the rest of the shelves with crap. They actually have lots of books you want to read at very low prices, along with books that you either can't order online or would be really expensive to do so (it seems they focus on buying leftovers from college and independent bookstores, not buying by the pound…
I realize that the Boston Public Library is facing budget cuts, but in the last couple of months, even very basic services have been off. Three times I've returned books days ahead of their due dates, only to be nailed for fines; this isn't an issue of returning something the evening it's due--I literally mean days. I don't know if this a computer glitch or a lack of staff to register books as returned (even if they're not reshelved). Fellow Bostonians, is this just a run of bad luck, or is anyone else experiencing this? I like the Boston Public Library. I like it much better when I don'…
And Evacuation Day, which truly is a silly holiday, is a wonderful way to allow everybody to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day without violating all that church and state stuff. One unique Massachusetts tradition is that, on this day, some tightwad state representative rails against how much Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day cost the state. Yes, Evacuation Day isn't a particularly momentous occasion in terms of U.S. history, but the Battle of Bunker Hill is kinda important--we should remember it. If the colonists had lost the battle, our history would be very different. Besides, nobody's…
By way of Elana Schor, we read that the MBTA's Silver Line extension proposal, which would be a "one mile tunnel connection between the existing Silver Line/Washington Street Service (Phase I) and the existing Silver Line/Waterfront Service (Phase II)", is in trouble. According to the Department of Transportation (pdf), the MBTA's proposal isn't measuring up in the following areas: local financial commitment rating, capital plan rating, and the operating plan rating (these are all funding issues). The extension would be a good thing, and integrate underserved parts of the city (particularly…
Apparently, if the high-profile, exhaustively peer-reviewed journal Men's Health [/snark] is to be believed, Boston is the least boozy city in the country (italics mine): Fresno, Calif., tops Men's Health magazine's list of America's "drunkest" cities while Boston, home to the "Cheers" bar where everyone knows your name, was deemed the "least drunk," besting even Salt Lake City. The magazine, which will publish the list of 100 major cities in i's March edition, drew upon such data as death rates from alcoholic liver disease, booze-fueled car crashes, frequency of binge-drinking in the past…
There's an ongoing exhibit of photographer Jules Aarons' work at the Boston Public Library, "Man in the Street: Boston Photographs by Jules Aarons" that is worth seeing. From the BPL blurb: In 1997, the Boston Public Library began collecting the work of Boston photographer Jules Aarons (1921-2008),and the library now holds the largest public collection of the photographer's work in the world. When Jules Aarons began photographing seriously in 1947, he chose the streets and neighborhoods of Boston as his subject. He was drawn to the way people in the neighborhoods lived their public lives and…
And you thought fixing the renminbi was bad. By way of Glyn Moody, we find that The Guardian has a very disturbing report about antibiotic resistance in China (italics mine): Chinese doctors routinely hand out multiple doses of antibiotics for simple maladies like the sore throats and the country's farmers excessive dependence on the drugs has tainted the food chain. Studies in China show a "frightening" increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria such as staphylococcus aureus bacteria, also know as MRSA . There are warnings that new strains of antibiotic-resistant bugs will spread quickly…