It usually doesn’t snow here until winter, so a few flakes on Friday were unusual enough. Imagine my surprise when I woke this morning to find four inches of it on the ground. When it snows in the fall, all the leaves that no one has bothered to rake get frozen and then slushed into orange nastiness. But at least the snow was pretty, and appropriate for Dr. Deb’s Disaster Movie Night tonight. We watched The Day After Tomorrow.
Hello Kitty link of the day: Hello Kitty’s blog
Jade wrote a very restrained post on the general mockery of American voters (specifically of the 51% who voted for Bush) in fandom blogging circles. Since I live in Boston, I get to hear that sort of thing all the time. If people don’t know you’re Republican, they’ll say all sorts of things about the evil of the W and the poor fools far away in the Midwest who voted for him. It doesn’t surprise me (much) to see it on LiveJournal, too.
Here in Massachusetts, only 13% of voters are registered Republicans, so the casual attitude that everyone is anti-Bush has some statistical backing. No one expects my state to go red, ever. It’s socially acceptable to mock Bush and to make dire predictions about his second term that, back in Peoria, would play like the nonsensical ravings of a lunatic mind. Such is life in Boston.
But when addressing Americans in general, the basic assumption should be that 51% of us are pro-Bush (or at least 51% of those responsible enough to go out and vote). So it’s odd to see people talking like they’re in a virtual Massachusetts when really, they’re in a virtual Ohio. There’s no way to tell which sort of voter you’re talking to online without prior knowledge of their political opinions.
If it’s not one branch, it’s another. The B line was still broken at the end this morning, but as of now Bad Transit lists it as running on time. It took four days, but the sinkhole has apparently been filled. (Veronica heard that the sinkhole was caused by a water main break, but I hadn’t heard that one.) However,
There is in-and-outbound busing between Reservoir and Riverside on the D branch of the Green Line due to operational difficulties. Allow plenty of time for your ride. We apologize for the inconvenience.
According to my sources in Newton, the “operational difficulty” was two D-line trains crashing into each other in Newton Center this morning, with resulting injuries to passengers. How exactly this happened on a two-track train line is beyond me, but my sources speculate one of the trains rear-ended the other.
I bet at least one Breda train was involved.
[Update] The Metro reports that the B line problems were caused by a sewer line break.
…not that it matters. The outcome of every Massachusetts election for the next 100 years was determined back in 1963. Most of the seats on my ballot weren’t even contested. It would be much easier for all the Democrats in the city if we still used the old lever voting machines, where just one flip votes the party line. Instead, the devout had to fill in a bunch of little ovals. (I didn’t bother voting for uncontested seats.)
In subway news, the end of the B line has been shut down for two days now. At first I thought it was the usual—a Breda train derailment or fallen power lines, but those things don’t take two days to fix. It turns out that a long-neglected sinkhole near the B line suddenly expanded to the tracks yesterday. It must be deep if they’re still filling it in.
Via Boston Common: a bubbleheaded beach bunny at the LA Times thinks Bostonians are ugly.
We haven’t seen much of Boston in the World Series the last 80 years or so, so it’s shocking to see so many ugly people in one place.
The place is Fenway Park.
Some fans wore hats or scarves to cover their faces, I presume so they wouldn’t scare the children.
No, that would be because of something we call “autumn,” the season immediately preceding “winter.”
I’m the first to admit that I’m not beautiful enough to live in LA. I know because I’ve lived in Southern California and in Boston. Everyone but the Mexicans is gorgeous down there, but you can’t get a decent donut to save your life. The beautiful people don’t have to do any actual work, like, say, mowing their own lawns, growing their own food, or washing their own dishes, because they have their imported illegal underclass to do that. Nor do they need to be smart or sane or sober enough to come in out of the cold, since it never gets cold. You get the pretty faces, with about as much in the brainpan as Homo floresiensis.
If there were a Californian team that actually won anything, you wouldn’t find Bostonians writing articles about the Botoxed, wheat-grass chomping, silicon-enhanced stupidity of Californian fans. Despite the coastal location we’re normal people with a grasp of common human decency, not malicious plastic freaks who wouldn’t know a donut from a Cheerio.
I’ll take the ugly people and a Boston Creme any day of the week.
…for the inconvenience. I don’t know where the site has been for the past 24 hours. There’s a lunar eclipse going on, but I doubt that explains it.
The Red Sox are about to win the World Series for the first time since 1918. Priceless… I don’t know if I’m ready. The city has more cops than ever out on patrol, since we lost a college student over the pennant.
The Fung Wah bus has moved to South Station, along with Lucky Star. It happened back in August but I missed the news. They’re way in the back at lucky gate #13. Apparently the new digs are costing them, because the one-way price has gone up to $15. For comparison, that’s about what it costs to get home to the residential areas of Boston from South Station by taxi after the T has stopped running.
I admit, I’ve been ignoring the whole thing. Unlike the local Sox faithful, my money is on the curse. I don’t have time to waste watching the Red Sox take five extra innings every time just to stay in the playoffs, not when I know they’re going to blow it in the end like they have every year since before any of us were born.
But if you want to keep up on the long road to stunning defeat, I recommend the Red Sox Nation Advisory System from a small victory. The current alert level is Orange: High Risk of Elimination.
Dr. Deb and I finally made it to the LotR Exhibition at the Museum of Science yesterday. The tickets were free so it was well worth the money. If you’re the sort of person who likes DVD extras about how the movie was made, this exhibit is for you. If, on the other hand, you’re a book fan, you may be disappointed in how little the staff seems to know about it.
You needn’t worry for your wallet, though. The level of merchandising is shockingly low for an exhibit of this size. They were selling the books, books on tape, games, and posters of Orlando Bloom. I don’t know whether the culprit was licensing restrictions on the LotR end, or Museum of Science policy (the main gift shop is pretty bare, too); if you’ve been to the exhibition in another country maybe you can tell me.
Boston was the only stop here in the US this time around. I think they said it’s going to London after October 24th, so see it now or forever hold your peace.
Boston Common has a new RSS calendar of Boston lectures. You can also submit your own local events.
