Tag: scary

#BlackLivesMatter & #NoBoston2024 – The intersection of money, race & power

Anyone who isn’t a moneyed plutocrat in the very tiny ruling elite here in Boston – Marty Walsh, John Fish, Charlie Baker, and Shirley Leung, I’m looking at you – likely understands that yesterday’s announcement that Boston “won” the USOC nomination for the 2024 olympics is a Very Bad Thing.  The Boston 2024 group has existed for about a year and, chaired by Fish, has been trying to essentially shame the populace into believing that if we do not do this thing, invite the world to come here for a 3 week-long party 9 years from now, we’re provincial losers and that Boston isn’t fit for the world stage.

To put it bluntly, the people at Boston2024 are liars.

Continue reading “#BlackLivesMatter & #NoBoston2024 – The intersection of money, race & power”

Winter is here

Last night the temperature dropped well into the teens, and it hardly felt any warmer this morning when I got up and went to work.  So it’s safe to say that winter is no longer just coming, it’s here, and we got our new hot water heater just in time.  Hot water is essential for winter survival – just ask the Starks of Winterfell.

Every winter is a new adventure here in Cambridge.  Not for us, really, because we have seen New England winters, but for so many of the students around here that hail from sunnier climes.  Many of them tend to not know what to make of serious winter weather, especially when they are driving.

Continue reading “Winter is here”

2 Husbands, 3 Children in 2 Countries and no Reality TV Show, Yet

What gives?  Oh, right, internet security and common sense do.

This is where you ask, what on earth is she talking about?  I’ll tell you.

Continue reading “2 Husbands, 3 Children in 2 Countries and no Reality TV Show, Yet”

So… Scotland… I hear you might be single soon…

Wow.  Just, wow.

I am amazed, truly amazed, that this movement for Scotland to gain independence may actually succeed after all.  The referendum is set to take place this Thursday.

And it is an extremely complicated issue, one that I would imagine the overwhelming majority of Americans (including myself) understand very little, outside of having seen the superb (but historically inaccurate) movie Braveheart.

Continue reading “So… Scotland… I hear you might be single soon…”

Today’s Craigslist Horror

Regular readers will know that I use the Free section on Craigslist to amuse myself.  As today is a sort of vacation day for me, I popped over there just now to see if there was anything funny worth tweeting.  I found something absolutely totally and completely NOT worth tweeting.  It was so awful, especially in light of all of the horrible racist atrocities happening in Ferguson, MO and elsewhere right now, that it merited its own blog post.

What could possibly be that bad you might ask?  I’ll show you.  Be prepared.

Continue reading “Today’s Craigslist Horror”

When suburban uniformity and reality collide

It is difficult to overstate the importance of water for life. It’s one of the reasons why so many human cities and human civilizations sprung up in places next to rivers or lakes where fresh water was plentiful. And in many places the bringing in of fresh water is one of the first public utilities to appear. Even here in Boston, a public water system was available by the end of the 18th century.
So how is it that in the 21st century, we have so many places, not just in the developing world but right here in the United States, that are struggling just to provide potable water for their population?
Continue reading “When suburban uniformity and reality collide”

Greater Boston area people – we need your help!

When you think of creepy, spooky, or cool and mysterious, what do you think of?  Is it the Ether Dome at MGH?  One of the chapels in Mount Auburn Cemetery?  Or something else entirely?

Here’s why we’re asking.

One of the music groups I work with is planning a very cool and very creepy Halloween concert.  Several concerts, actually.  And we’re looking for the creepiest, spookiest, and coolest places in the greater Boston area for these concerts.

I know it’s July and way to hot to be thinking about falling leaves, a chill in the air, and ghosts and goblins, but we’re planning ahead.  If you have any ideas about a place that would be cool for a concert of music about things like severed heads and possessed vegetables, please leave a note in the comments.  Thanks!

~Kelly

I am a Second Class Citizen – This is what I am going to do about it

Today the Supreme Court decided to enshrine in law the idea that 1) if you are a rich, business owning, angry, ostensibly christian white man you are sexist special and 2) if you are a woman you’re not a real person.  God forbid you be a person of color, non-Christian, and female, war has just been declared on you.

Coupled with the unanimous decision from last week that killed the 35-foot buffer zones around women’s clinics that provide abortion, among other services, I’m ashamed to be an American right now.  Free speech, my ass.

Continue reading “I am a Second Class Citizen – This is what I am going to do about it”

A couple of clarifications

1) Yes, the bomb squad has had a busy day today in Boston.  Yes, they did just blow up two things in controlled detonations (as in, within the last two minutes) at the Marathon Finish Line.  Geoff and I are both fine and were nowhere near any of the controlled detonations today.  Yes, there were more than just those two detonations, no, we were never in any danger.

2) To all the crazies/”patriots”/martyrs/whatever who think that today is a day for demonstrations of their ideologies by throwing backpacks full of stuff into random places: Go back under whatever rock you came from.  We don’t want you, you will get caught and possibly killed, and your “message” just gets lost in the kerfuffle.  Stop already, enough.  April 15th is for paying taxes.

3) To the people heading up the security theater that now invades so much of our lives: I want my rights back.  Catching the guy who tossed those backpacks into the middle of a heavily guarded street was no biggie.  Stopping the guy who shot up KS yesterday?  Not a whole lot of warning on that one despite his obvious history of hatred.  Oh, and that was terrorism too, in case you missed the memo.  Just because a white guy did it doesn’t mean it isn’t terrorism.

And finally, to leave the serious topics for a minute:

4) Geoffrey and Joffrey aren’t the same person, thank all the Gods.  If you’re looking for information about the character on Game of Thrones who died, his name is Joffrey and that post is here.  Geoffrey is my husband and he is a) not a psychopathic murdering boy king and b) very much alive.

~Kelly

ETA by Geoff:  And c) I am very much loyal to the Starks and hate the Lannisters very very much.  I am a true man of the North.  Nyah.

Boston Strong all over again

Yesterday there was another tragedy in our fair city.  A fire broke out in the Back Bay, one of the more tightly packed areas of the city, both architecturally and in terms of traffic.  It quickly went to 9 alarms, sent 18 people to the hospital, destroyed the 4 story building where it started, and killed 2 firefighters.

9 city blocks were closed through this morning as 40+ mph winds whipped the fire into a frenzy.  Backdraft type conditions made the fire merciless and the brave men and women kept fighting even when they knew that one of their comrades lay dead at the bottom of the building.  Even when the fire leapt through the roof and reached for the sky, when floors collapsed and sprayed the surrounding houses with showers of embers, and when the smoke was so thick we could see it from Cambridge, they fought on for hours.

Continue reading “Boston Strong all over again”