More new idiots in my old city

Well the Boston Glob published an uninteresting article today. Based on the blog post of a cartographer who moved to Cambridge some time in 2008 picked his five least favorite traffic patterns in the Greater Boston area and posted how hard it is to two completely random points in each square.

Can't get there from here - unless you walk

First off, this is what I posted on the Glob web site.

Well I'm not a cartographer, I'm a safety engineer. And as someone who has traveled all those routes I can tell you that traffic patterns are not there to make getting from point A to point B super fast and easy. They are there to reduce accidents, ease congestion, give pedestrians a safer area to walk through.

Think of the Kenmore Square example. Could anyone imagine what the area would look like if people were allowed to turn left. The road is on a slight hill, the turn is completely blind, and a very tight angle.

Besides, what idiot does not know to go around Landmark center and cross the bridge?

Yes I knew most of these places on first look. (Okay Somerville caught me) But then, I'm from here. On the rare occasion I have traveled to areas that were built with cars in mind are unpleasant to say the least.

Has the author of this article/blog even been in these places? Who would drive from point A to point B in his examples. And if your going through the area, that is not the way a GPS would send you. Maybe some of those real cheap ones might. The same ones that send U-Haul vans down Storrow Drive every Labor Day weekend.

And gosh darn it. The water ways were that way when we found it. They were not "placed" there just to be inconvenient. They were there FIRST.


*********

I will be back in a little bit with part two, showing each of the five areas he picked on, and the real ways someone would go if they were foolish enough to want to make the trip from point A to point B.

Blog rally to help save the Boston Globe

From the blog Running a hospital by Paul Levy - Blog Rally to save the Globe. Or at least make our voices heard. Um read.

We have all read recently about the threat of possible closure faced by the Boston Globe. A number of Boston-based bloggers who care about the continued existence of the Globe have banded together in conducting a blog rally. We are simultaneously posting this paragraph to solicit your ideas of steps the Globe could take to improve its financial picture:

We view the Globe as an important community resource, and we think that lots of people in the region agree and might have creative ideas that might help in this situation. So, here's your chance. Please don't write with nasty comments and sarcasm: Use this forum for thoughtful and interesting steps you would recommend to the management that would improve readership, enhance the Globe's community presence, and make money. Who knows, someone here might come up with an idea that will work, or at least help. Thank you.

(P.S. If you have a blog, please feel free to reprint this item and post it. Likewise, if you have a Twitter or Facebook account, please add this url as an update or to your status bar to help us reach more people.)

Loosing the Boston Globe - not good

Boston Globe in the news

Boston Globe talking about it self


Surprised no one is talking about this. But then, I guess it's possible I'm one of the few people with an on line presence who reads the Boston Globe.

So question:

How many of the people in this community read any newspaper?

How many people read the Boston Globe the paper version, not the on line one?

How many people read the on line version of the Boston Globe?

How many people don't read news at all?

If I was stronger and healthy, or at least able to get off the couch, I would try to start a protest. Maybe we can get John Henry to purchase the Globe?

I stopped getting the daily paper because the delivery system was horrid. The people delivering my paper could not go a full 7 days with out my having to call the Globe and get a new paper. I finally stopped home delivery because it was not worth the hassle.

So I switched to getting the paper on Thursday and Sunday. Same person, more problems. I could not be the only person this delivery person was screwing with. How hard could it be to put the paper in the hook by the mailbox. Well since the person was in a car, and just slowed down to toss it toward my home. It ended up in puddles, or in the neighbors yard as often as my own.

I think the change from personalized delivery, where the paper boy/girl family was a local family that you could talk to. Now delivery is done by a guy in a fast moving car who has such a large delivery area that service has been replaced by speed.

In the Globe again, for a much better reason

I forgot to post the link to the last tales from the city I was in.
tales from the city

More gifts from strangers hoping to help out with my prescriptions. I could use them, spoke to my doctor's office today, as of this morning they had not processed the paper work needed by my insurance company to get my medications covered.

Ouch. Legs are killing me.

Oh my gods and goddesses I'm offended. And laughing my ass off.

I just got a phone call from a total stranger. One who was calling after I became the subject of an article in the local paper. I was talking about people who were selling off beloved personal collections due to excessive medical bills. besides the point

Now I have been getting phone calls about this for the last week or so. Some from people asking how they can help, others from people asking if I have dolls they can purchase. I have sold some, they helped me get food, and pay some bills. A recent fund raiser and paypal fund drive has allowed me to pay more. Which is besides the point.

This call was a first, the person started by asking me about my upcoming hospitalization, so she had been reading my blog. She suddenly switched gears, and told me that people who collect things usually have an empty space in themselves that needs filling. Warning sirens should have gone off in my head but they did not. I'm to nice. I let her know that I had no empty spaces, I just loved my collections, my wonderful library and massive doll collection.

She asked me if I had been able to pay my cable bill, and then asked if I had ever watched the 700 club? Um no, I'm not a fundamental christian, I can haz self awareness. Because, and here is the kicker, god had told her to call me, and ask me for money for her to send to the 700 club. She would send the money, and then, the people at the 700 club would pray for me and cure my cancer!

Wow, does the medical establishment know about this?? Or maybe the bunko squad?

When I told her I was a practicing pagan she flipped out. Did I she asked, dance with satan?

'No, I don't believe in satan, he is a christian concept, not a pagan one.'

'So did I dance unclothed outside with other witches?'

'What is it with you and nakedness, first off I have two left feet, and secondly it's to cold out right now.'

So she started telling me that when she was younger she had meet a satanist and went of on a tangent about living in San Francisco in the 60's.

I just told her that I had other things to do, and blessed be for thinking of me. I don't know who hung up first, and I so don't care.

Anybody want the phone number to call and offer to pray for her??

• Mood:offended

Me my Barbies and the Boston Globe

Wow, being the center of attention for ninety minutes is hard. Just trying to hold a smile, or move my hand one way or the other. I started counting the number of times the camera clicked while I was trying to hold still. I hope he sends me some of those pictures. He had me take all the play dolls and lay them out in front of me and sit in the middle of the Barbie village. I had placed one of the Barbies in a VW Bug and had her driving. We he put the car, then the dolls then me. I can't wait to see the picture. Heck I can't wait to see all of the pictures.

I took a lot of pictures myself over the last few days, including today when I moved a lot of the dolls around. Just uploaded a group of twenty to my face book page.

Darn I am so tired I just zoned out while typing. I have to rest. The guy from the Globe was here for ninety minutes, and I did not expect just posing for pictures would tire me out so much. As we got to the end of his visit I did start to twitch, because I had not taken my 2pm medications and it was already after 3. I had a lot of fun, and I hope he sends me all of the pictures. It was funny, he had a digital camera, but it made the clicking sound every time he took a picture.

After the guy from the Globe left I took the two dogs for a walk around the block. They had been excited and following us around during the shoot. I had to shove both of them in their crates for a bit. I did not think the walk around the block would be enough, but both of them are zonked out. Works for me, I think I'll join them.

Four for four with the Boston Globe

Sent the Boston Globe the anecdote about what happened at CVS. I got the following email at 2pm.

Hello,

We received your "Tales from the City" submission and are considering publishing it in an upcoming issue of the Boston Globe Magazine.

That means I have sent in four anecdotes for "Tales from the City" and all four have been accepted.

Sadly, I only have one of those linked to on my blog. The one from the Boston Red Sox.
Red Sox

I got one in about Kelly's Roast Beef back in May 2007

When I was a child nothing meant summer to me more than Revere Beach, and lunch at Kelly's. I am now one of the lucky ones. I own a home on Revere Beach, just a few short steps from Kelly's.

After the moving men left, I rushed away from my boxes to be emptied and ran, not walked to Kelly's for a long awaited sandwich. Not that it is not possible to have a Kelly's Roast Beef sandwich anywhere. They just taste better with the ocean in the background, and seagulls fighting over the last frenchfry.

As I walked away from the stand, I turned and asked the young man behind the counter what the stands hours were.

"All of them,' he groaned ' all of them!"