Notes From Boston: A Slight Return
May 26, 2024 · 2 minute readIn the traditional “I’m not writing all that linking text” fashion:
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Explaining Cincinnati chili is always fun. “Well, first, there’s the spaghetti” “WAIT, WHAT?"
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Boston pretends so hard to be an European city, and yet, at almost every turn, from the Dunkin’ Donuts concession a regulated 200 metres apart to the wonderful piazza that is completely ruined at 9am by total gridlock, the cracks show through.
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Consider a transit network that has four major lines, each of which is incompatible with the other, despite three of them being on standard rail gauge. And the excuse given is that the transit system is almost 120 years old in places. stares in TfL
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(I actually quite like Boston, but come on)
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Medford is…somewhat barren.
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Imagine my shock, when asking Maps to find the closest Au Bon Pain, to be confronted by an expanding list of shops, all with the tag “Permanently Closed”. The bakery was second only to Dunkin’ in terms of being everywhere in Boston, and now there is only one in the entire state of Massachusetts.
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Hats off to BasisTech for hosting our offsite in an office building that can only be described as “An Ian Trap”. Concrete everywhere! A central, multi-level courtyard! Cantilevered bits! Much better than a boring office, that’s for sure.
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If I can walk into work in under an hour, I will, no matter how hot and humid it is outside…
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When I did finally get into Harvard Square, I visited Newbury Comics and…oh dear. While I understand that having about 75% of the floorspace dedicated to Funko Pops is probably how they keep the doors open, it’s a bit of a sad come-down from the full-on goth/world cinema delight of the late 90s and even well into the 2010s. No Manic Panic glitter that I could see…
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When did LaGuardia airport get nice??
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Downtown Crossing looks even more desperate than it did in 2015 or so when I was there last. I even remember the days when there was a HMV there…
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I walked past a women whose perfume smelled exactly like an American mall in the 90s. I can’t describe it any more than that, but it stopped me dead in my tracks on Thursday morning.
