So, New England then

[Femme Folle]

You mean our current approach where the people who have all the money get to do whatever they want while the rest of us work our asses off and never really get ahead? Like a hamster on a wheel.

[Flynnie]

Prosperity ain't gone near my cousins in Rutland County, I will say that much.

[ursus arctos]

Yeah, it is rather spotty, and hasn’t reached large sections of the state, thus my limiting my original observation to particular towns.

[Flynnie]

There are still bars like that around, but maybe not so much in southie. Probably further into the suburbs or places like Worcester or Lawrence. And they won’t be 100% Irish or even white.

The thing I really hated about BU was how the university is complicit in the destruction and mehification (meh, mehness, mehification) of the area around it. What’s worse is that so many of the undergraduates supported it. They were actively rooting for Kenmore Square to get a Gap and a Starbucks. BU has a lot to offer and could be a lot more than just the place for rich kids who can’t get into Harvard, but it doesn’t seem to want to be that.

If you want something at least closer to the Southie of 30-40 years ago, Quincy is definitely your place. Though Mul's Diner in Southie is still dope af.

I realized I know nothing about BU other than my mom went there for a bit. Oh, and MLK went to the School of Divinity. It's obviously a decent school but doesn't seem to excel in anything, its sports teams are irrelevant other than the men's hockey team. The soccer team plays in a part of old Braves Field. Its most famous alumnus besides MLK is probably Howard Stern.

[ursus arctos]

Flynnie's yer man here, but I would say that the latter is now more common locally.

[Hot Pepsi]

If you want something at least closer to the Southie of 30-40 years ago, Quincy is definitely your place. Though Mul's Diner in Southie is still dope af.

I realized I know nothing about BU other than my mom went there for a bit. Oh, and MLK went to the School of Divinity. It's obviously a decent school but doesn't seem to excel in anything, its sports teams are irrelevant other than the men's hockey team. The soccer team plays in a part of old Braves Field. Its most famous alumnus besides MLK is probably Howard Stern.

Nickerson Field has been fixed up a few times. In the post-Silber era, they've invested a lot more in sports. Adding men's lacrosse, for example, and finally getting a hockey rink worthy of their program. The women's hockey team is very good too. I was there when they cut football and it didn't seem to upset too many people. Northeastern did it a few years later. College football just isn't a thing in New England. It's not clear if it's even worth it for BC. They've had some really good teams and players, which has certainly helped made BC better known and that has probably been good for their applicant pool, but I don't see how it could be profitable for them. The ACC doesn't have a great TV deal and their stadium is relatively small. Trying to play big-time football has been a big money-loser/boondoggle for UMass and UConn, but FCS/D-1AA football is never going to break-even either. Vermont figured that out a while ago. I wonder if Maine and UNH will also give up on it eventually. Hockey is the way forward.

Other than MLK and some hockey players, most of BU's famous graduates are all performers (though, that's probably true of all schools given that most of the people in our culture who are famous are performers or athletes). The Theater School and film program are pretty good. Jason Alexander went there for three-and-a-half years but didn't graduate because he started getting work on Broadway. Other famous BU grads include Julianne Moore. Marc Maron. The lead actress on Bones. Michael Chiklis. Geena Davis. Faye Dunaway. The guy who played Starsky on Starsky & Hutch. And some others.

I know all this because I still get Bostonia, the alumni magazine, which is actually really good. They also send it to all WBUR supporters. I never ever ever gave them a dime in donations or updated my address with their alumni association. I have moved at least a dozen times since I finished my MA there in 1997. The magazine still comes to my house along with various solicitations from the College of Arts & Sciences (which, technically, I didn't attend. I was in the Graduate School). It's wizardry. They may be trying to call me too. I'm not sure. I don't answer unknown calls from 617 because its usually a PR person who wants me to write about their client.

It's actually better than its own students think it is, and the departments I studied in had some "superstars" (in the field, I mean, not in reality) but there really wasn't any particular point in me being there other than my own edification and the chance to live in a big city for the first time. I'm glad I did it - because most of my courses were in the Divinity School, it wasn't too expensive - but it wasn't ever going to lead to any kind of academic career. But that's more the nature of academia, as well as my own deficiencies, than BU. I met people who went to Chicago and Harvard in philosophy/religion and most of them ended up in the same situation and even more depressed about it. I knew going in that it was probably a dumb idea, but didn't know what else to do with my life. So it was a really beneficial mistake, I guess. I actually would have learned more if I could have just spent a fifth year at W&M, but that would have been more expensive and, I suppose, my resume looks slightly more impressive because I have an MA. Meh. It's all a racket, man. A racket.

I once took a piss next to Elie Weisel when he taught there.

[ursus arctos]

It could have been worse.

You could have decided to go to law school. It happens quite often to Divinity graduates who decide not to go into the ministry or academics.

Then again, I have at least two partners who went to Divinity School after they retired, which makes rather more sense to me.

[MsD]

You mean our current approach where the people who have all the money get to do whatever they want while the rest of us work our asses off and never really get ahead? Like a hamster on a wheel.

That's pinkie commie talk, gal. I like it.

[Hot Pepsi]

It could have been worse.

You could have decided to go to law school. It happens quite often to Divinity graduates who decide not to go into the ministry or academics.

Then again, I have at least two partners who went to Divinity School after they retired, which makes rather more sense to me.

Yeah, I came reasonably close to making that classic blunder. Most - though certainly not all - of the law-school grads I've known from before they went appear to have chosen it primarily because it just seemed like the only thing people with their socio-economic background and education had to do. They weren't cut out for medicine or engineering or finance, but anything short of a "respected" white-collar profession and a mid six-figure salary would be considered a failure in their mind and/or their parents' mind.

It seemed like the options for law school grads were, mostly, to be at an established firm or the government - which just wasn't my vibe at all, to say the least - or to be at a non-profit or small scrappy outfit, in which case a huge part of the job would be just trying to cover the rent and keep the lights on. That was the scene at the immigration firm I worked for and it occurred to me that if I had an aptitude for sales - which I don't - that I could probably make as much or more money doing something else and not have to incur the debt and headache of law school. I am increasingly anxious and sometimes depressed about how I appear to have accidentally - but perhaps irreversibly - steered my career into a cul-de-sac, and that naturally leads to pointless regret about past decisions. But I don't regret not going to law school.

I'm both amazed and maybe a bit frightened by those people who get one high-stress advanced degree and go down that road for a while and then do ANOTHER high-stress advanced degree. Like a guy I knew ias a kid got a PhD in econ from Columbia and then a JD from Georgetown and then went back into doing econ for the government. A number of the consultants and top government people I talk to were several years into a career in medicine at highly-respected teaching hospitals before deciding to get a law degree at a prestigious law school. There are a few - very few - jobs were that dual experience is really helpful, but holy shit that sounds like hell. After my MA, I never want to take an exam or sit in a lecture ever again. The thought gives me a little bit of PTSD. I just can't imagine doing that mid-career and with a family and all that.

I have thought about divinity school, though. When I was in college, my advisor thought I could potentially get into a really good one if I wanted. Maybe 23 years of further experience and knowledge would make me an even better candidate. Or maybe my advanced age would make it harder. I'm not sure. I might do it if I had nothing to lose - retired, financially well - but right now I don't know how I'd pay for it and I don't know if I'd really want the jobs that would come from it. There are a lot of divinity grads out there working multiple jobs to pay the rent, many of them have to move a lot, a lot of them burn out Rev. Lovejoy-style, it would be very hard for me to find a church interested in my idiosyncratic theology.

None of that really has to do with Boston, though I think about all of it all the time whenever I happen to visit Boston because I have so many memories of anxiety tied to the place - both from my BU time and my Marblehead time. As a result, I don't really particularly want to visit it any more.

[Hot Pepsi]

You mean our current approach where the people who have all the money get to do whatever they want while the rest of us work our asses off and never really get ahead? Like a hamster on a wheel.

Yeah. That one.

[linus]

The middle class has been gutted across N. America and W. Europe since the 1970s.

EIM, in case you happen to be in CT on a weekend and want to sample some great local seafood:

http://abbottslobster.com/hours

We went with a friend of mine touring seafood shacks up and down the NE coast and this one came up on top.


I think there was another so Boston then thread.

[EIM]

It's good here.

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

did you get to see all the exciting trees and their various colours? The thing that struck me about the drive from New York up to boston was the sheer number of trees everywhere.

[ad hoc]

It is gorgeous at this time of the year. Mind you Transylvania is also fucking gorgeous at the moment

[EIM]

My trip. A brief review

CALGARY - Ultra clean, small cowboy city. Not as knowing as Vancouver, but then not as good either. Ace zoo full of apex predators - grizzly, tigers, wolves, lions. Seeing lions in the snow was as incongruous as fuck. One sprayed the window right in front of me. Thought Canadians were all meant to be dead welcoming. Calgary passed the EIM patented liveability test, scoring seven point five maple leafs out of ten.

BANFF - Holy shit, nature is good. Breathtaking views, and awesome mountains. The insignificance of man is rammed home by the sheer scale of the surrounding area. The colour of the water in the lakes, almost Caribbean blue, was incredible. Driving around and seeing little rivers, waterfalls and that was magical. Would go again. Had my first Soup and a Sandwich experience in a converted heritage railway station near Lake Louise. French onion soup and a chicken and bacon sandwich. Outstanding. Would recommend to fans of soup, sandwiches, and trains.

JASPER - A drive up the icefields parkway, past glaciers, more lakes, more mountains and shit. Small town with excellent bakery options. Went to the Bear's Paw bakery and had soup and a sandwich part 2. Roast beef, cheese and jalapeno sandwich with a Thai chicken soup. Saw some Moose doing their thing on Medicine Lake, which isn't actually a lake (it's a slow-draining section of the Maligne River that backs up when water levels are high, then drains away to an underground stream when water levels die down). Moose are ace. You wouldn't fuck with a moose, would you? Majestic ugly beasts. The area around the Athabasca River became one of my favourite. Quiet, wild, full of elk and other wildlife. Just beautiful. Got proper pissed off at the dickheads who dropped a golf course in the middle of it all. Fuck your golf for one fucking minute, will you?

SEATTLE - Like a perfectly pitched half-way house between San Francisco and Vancouver. Cool bars, nice lifestyle, good restaurants, loads of people trying to distance themselves as far away from Trump as visibly as possible. Another good zoo. Went to a glass sculpture gallery near that space needle. Who knew you could do such fancy stuff with glass, eh? Another EIM certified liveable city. Had a cajun spicy beef sandwich served with a French Onion Soup broth in a restaurant near the hotel. VG. Would eat again.

TWIN PEAKS - Well, technically North Bend and Snoqualmie. Had cherry pie to die for in Twede's Cafe (the Double R) and lunch in the Great Northern. Really weird seeing the Diner still as it was used for the third series the other year. Had a chat to a man outside the Twin Peaks Police Department, which is actually a rally driving school now. He was talking abou the local wildlife and listed it as "Cougars, coyotes, bears, mice, rats, weasels... you know weasels? We have weasels." which made me laugh for the rest of the holiday. Did not have soup and a sandwich.

BOSTON - Fell instantly in love with Boston. Beacon Hill is right at the top of places I would like to live when I'm a multi millionaire. Did the Black History trail as I'm woke as fuck, and the Freedom Trail as I am Free as fuck. Saw my beloved Red Sox in the Playoffs. Had soup and a sandwich in the library cafe, a wonderful building and wonderful space. Chicken and veg chunky soup, I forget the sandwich, but probably roast beef again. I really like roast beef. Had a chinese meal in a restaurant in Harvard at about 2am. Lots of drunk students in the place chatting about girls, relationships, socialising etc. Just highlighted that it doesn't matter how intelligent 19 and 20 year olds are, they're all fucking stupid.

SALEM - On the one hand Salem teaches you that there were no witches, merely women persecuted by men for living outside what their society deemed as "acceptable" behaviour, which led to a mass panic by deeply religious and very scared people. On the other hand Salem teaches you that witches are really cool, and would you like to buy this pointy hat and broomstick? Went to New England Soup Factory for soup and a sandwich. Chilli beef soup with an Italian style deli sandwich. Discovered those oyster crackers which are not oyster flavoured.

PORTLAND, MAINE - Excellent shop called Portland Dry Goods selling outdoorsman clothes to both outdoorsmen and suckers like me. I purchased an Armor Lux breton sweatshirt and it is beautiful. The cuffs really cling to the wrists. Portland has a large immigrant community, having previously homed refugees. Had excellent Eritrean/Ethiopian snap for dinner. A beautiful harbour area, with old warehouses turned into shops and bars. Lots of weathered looking men in smart coats doing stuff with ropes. Full marks on the EIM liveability scale. Absolute Instagram gold. No soup and a sandwich, though I have no doubt it would have been excellent had I ordered it.

PART TWO TO COME, featuring Bar Harbor, Jackson VT, Manchester VT, and NYC. And probably somewhere else I forgot.

[ursus arctos]

There are two historic Chinese restaurants on Mass Ave in Cambridge.

One (Yenching) was one of the first “modern” Chinese restaurants (i.e., one that didn’t serve Chow Mein and Chop Suey) in the Boston area.

The other one has a brothel on the third floor.

[EIM]

Wonder if you can guess which one I found.

[Benjm]

The weird mini-you thing was in a brothel? That's disturbing.

[Hot Pepsi]

That’s the best explanation of Salem I’ve read.

New England has a specific kind of roast beef sandwich, a bit like the Chicago one but different.

The most famous is probably Kelly’s Roast Beef, with locations - Revere, Saugus, Danvers, and Medford. It’s referenced in Good Will Hunting. “Morgan, we're not going' to Kelly's just cuz' you like the takeout girl. It's 15 minutes out of our way.”

[Gangster Octopus]

My trip. A brief review

CALGARY - Ultra clean, small cowboy city. Not as knowing as Vancouver, but then not as good either. Ace zoo full of apex predators - grizzly, tigers, wolves, lions. Seeing lions in the snow was as incongruous as fuck. One sprayed the window right in front of me. Thought Canadians were all meant to be dead welcoming. Calgary passed the EIM patented liveability test, scoring seven point five maple leafs out of ten.

Did you not bump into a badass on his way to Toronto?