Bitching about Boston

"Sometimes the Boston weather report shifts from hour to hour. Our coastal location can create unpredictable weather patterns
and cause rapid changes in temperature and other conditions. If you're planning Boston travel, you'll want to pack with this in mind!"

The lowest recorded temperature for Boston was -30°F in 1946. The highest recorded temperature for Boston was 104°F in 1911.

Mount Washington is up the road a piece. -46F (February 1943) 8 (June 1945)
Record high for Mount Washington is 72F ( June 2003)

"State Senator Wolf and candidate Warren say they will fight to return America to the civility and sense
of the intervening years, and the crowd of "99 per-centers" welcoming them today seemed to believe it."

"Even the Boston Globe has described Elizabeth Warren as "the plainspoken voice of people getting
crushed by so many predatory lenders and under regulated banks", and TIME magazine has called her
a "New Sheriff of Wall Street" and has twice included her among America's 100 most influential people."

Nice to know, that Wall Street has not bought off everyone in public office.

November 21, 2011

The 45-foot-tall white spruce has arrived. It's official. The season has started.

Sincere thanks to Ken and Donna Spinney of Central Argyle, Nova Scotia.

“Skating under the Stars”

Tree Lighting Pre-Show at Frog Pond Skating Rink – Thursday, December 1, 5:00pm
Hop over to Frog Pond at 5:00pm and enjoy a festive skating spectacular with pairs
and dance couples, synchronized skating teams, and fun holiday performances from
our talented Skating Academy students and local and national champion figure skaters.

The City of Boston’s 70th Annual Official Tree Lighting comes to Boston Common on Thursday, December 1, from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The show will close with a pyrotechnic display by Pyrospectaculars, Inc.

Who will be there to entertain the crowd?
http://www.cityofboston.gov/news/default.aspx?id=5381

WCVB TV’s Anthony Everett and JC Monahan will host Channel 5’s live broadcast of the event beginning at 7 p.m.

This year also marks the first year that 52,000 LED lights will be installed during the holiday season on Boston Common.
Four thousand of those lights will be placed on the Nova Scotia Christmas tree by Sullivan & McLaughlin Companies, Inc.,
with 48,000 additional LED lights decorating 60 trees visible to the public traveling on Beacon, Park, Tremont,
and Charles Streets. This year’s lighting scheme includes four-color LED lights on three structures on Boston Common:
the Visitor Information Center; Parkman Bandstand; and a Parks Department building in the area known as Deer Park.
Soft white-colored LED lights will be used on trees at several entrances to the site.

Big sister, New York
The Original Wizard of Oz Ruby Slippers on Display at Plaza Athenee - December 5, 2011

This private viewing of the original screen used Ruby Slippers worn by Judy Garland in the 1939 film
"The Wizard of Oz" will be a onetime special event at the Hotel Plaza Athenee before they go to auction
on December 16th in California presented by Profiles in History.

All attendees of this special event will have a unique opportunity to have an up close and personal
look at the iconic pair of shoes.

Full afternoon tea served. The slippers are appraised in excess of $3 million.

http://finance.boston.com/boston/news/read?GUID=20023345

Wed, Nov 23, 2011

BOSTON - Wednesday, November 23, 2011 – Governor Deval Patrick today signed H.3810,
“An Act Relative To Gender Identity," historic legislation to legally protect transgender
individuals from discrimination in housing, education, employment and credit. The new law,
signed at the State House today, also provides additional civil rights and protections from
hate crimes.

http://www.mass.gov/governor/pressoffice/pressreleases/2011/111123-transgender-bill.html

The bill won final approval in the House on a 93-to-60 vote, while the Senate passed the
measure on a voice vote. Governor Deval Patrick has said he will sign the bill into law,
making Massachusetts the 16th state to pass transgender civil rights.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...rights-bill/HHTo3YyPAoKfCmJdt5xFDL/story.html

November 22, 2011

Gov. Deval Patrick signed a bill Tuesday legalizing casinos in Massachusetts, capping
a five-year quest that he said will create thousands of jobs and generate hundreds
of millions in revenues by dramatically expanding gambling in the state.

http://articles.boston.com/2011-11-...ts-parlor-casino-proposal-gambling-commission

On Nov. 20 transgender activists and their allies will gather in Allston (MA) to remember Rita Hester,
a woman whose murder shook the local trans community to its core and
transformed the way people across the country respond to anti-transgender violence.

Hester, a popular, outgoing transwoman with ties to Boston’s transgender and rock-n-roll communities,
was brutally stabbed at least 20 times in the chest in her apartment by an unknown assailant;
police found her body Nov. 28, 1998

"....activists in San Francisco created the Day of Remembrance event in 1999 in Hester’s memory."

Each November 20, the worldwide transgender community turns its attention to its family, friends and loved ones lost to violence and prejudice.

http://x4b.xanga.com/060e264553037279802685/m222897898.jpg

70F temps all last week. 70F this week, so far. - Is this the week that Winter will re-start?

gotsnowgotslush said:

70F temps all last week. 70F this week, so far. - Is this the week that Winter will re-start?

Click to expand...

Can I ask you something? Why in the hell do you keep bumping this lame thread? Sooner or later you will figure out nobody gives a fuck.

City, Occupy Boston lawyers file dueling legal briefs

November 30, 2011

Today, Mayor Menino used his fat folds to keep his squint to obscure his eyes completely. He gave a news blurt
about needing a legal way to have control of Dewey square where the Occupy Boston protesters are camping out.
Just like big sister New York, Mass is using sanitary concerns and public safety to invent a legal way to remove them.


"The Menino administration has filed paperwork in its legal fight with the Occupy Boston protesters
aimed at freeing the city from judicial oversight if the administration decides to move against the
Dewey Square encampment. Menino spokeswoman Dot Joyce said the city on Tuesday filed 200 pages
worth of reports from police and inspectional services detailing the arrests and public health concerns
related to the tent city in downtown Boston. The papers were filed in Suffolk Superior Court where
protesters obtained a preliminary injunction earlier this month."

http://topics.boston.com/occupy-boston/?p1=Well_HotTopics_links

The U.N. envoy for freedom of expression is asking the U.S. government why federal officials are not protecting the rights of Occupiers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/02/occupy-wall-street-un-envoy_n_1125860.html?ref=tw


Occupy Boston / Boston Globe / Metro section

Mark Arsenault

December 04, 2011

Would sending the police to pull up the tent stakes on Occupy Boston be unconstitutional under the First Amendment?
That is the question in the hands of the court and the case being made by protesters who say that eviction would deny
them the most fundamental of American rights. But despite the invocation of the sacred right of free speech, several
constitutional scholars say the City of Boston holds a strong position in the dispute over the future of the Occupy protest
in Dewey Square, so long as city officials can show that they’re not targeting the demonstrators because of their
political message.

The city argues it has the right to enforce fire codes, building codes, sanitary codes.

What will happen on December 15, 2011?

“There’s no doubt they’re exercising their freedom of expression,’’ Boston College law professor Mary-Rose Papandrea
said of the Occupy encampment. “And very deeply ingrained in the Supreme Court’s First Amendment jurisprudence
is the commitment to parks, streets, and sidewalks as quintessential public forums –
the places people should go and express themselves on whatever issue moves them.’’

“Any blanket closing of the park [to political protests] would be deeply problematic,’’ she said.

But the Supreme Court has also recognized that the government can have legitimate reasons for restricting public spaces
and has upheld so-called “time, place, and manner’’ restrictions on speech, as long as the restrictions do not target the
speaker’s message, said Kent Greenfield, also a Boston College Law School professor.

Harvard Law professor Laurence Tribe-

Regardless of the outcome, Tribe said the protesters are raising an important free-speech point by trying to immunize themselves
against a police raid: Police around the country have been accused of rough treatment when breaking up Occupy protest.
Some protesters in California, for example, were hit with pepper spray. The prospect of being manhandled or gassed
by the police “is a serious threat that just may make a lot of people too scared to be part of the movement,’’ which,
said Tribe, could chill free speech.

below freezing, at last.

Look for December 20, 2011

http://www.gocomics.com/stonesoup

Second chance to see the tree lighting on the Boston Common.

7:00 Tonight

"Joey McIntyre of New Kids on the Block fame sings “O Holy Night”; Cape Cod’s own Siobhan Magnus takes on
“I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus”; and the world-famous Radio City Rockettes kick it on stage. And, to top it
all off, Mayor Thomas M. Menino joins Santa Claus to lead the Boston Common crowd in a sing-a-long of holiday
favorites, followed by fireworks and the official lighting of the Christmas tree donated by the citizens of
Nova Scotia, Canada.

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/chronicle/29998401/detail.html

On Christmas day, I watched snow flakes of varying sizes, drift slowly through the air. The air was cold, so the flakes were tiny.
That usually is an alert that it will snow for a long time. The exception proves the rule? It stopped after those few flakes fell.

The most gentle the MIT prank, of all time?

The lyrics to “Deck the Halls,” dancing across the digital message board at Park Street Station, to the delight
of Red Line riders on Christmas night.

An MBTA dispatcher working the holiday shift injected a bit of unauthorized whimsy into the normally
staid LED signs at Park Street. He programmed them to scroll the lyrics to the carol four times in five minutes
Sunday night, before, mirage-like, they resumed their ordinary display of date, time, and the T logo.

The screen size, limited character display, and lack of capital letters gave the lyrics of the cheery classic the look of modern poetry.

“deck the halls with

boughs of holly. fa la,” the screens glowed, before showing another two lines.

“la la la la la la la.

tis the season to be,” the next read.

Jolly. fa la la la la la la la la

(article title-)
MBTA worker faces possible discipline for displaying ‘Deck the Halls’
on subway station sign
Metro section
Metro Desk
12/26/201
Boston Globe

Twitter video clip-
(local Boston TV news spot had audio- very Stephen Hawking- type voice sang it! If you count monotone as singing....)

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrod...r-hot-water/YVxBd9RTslE1l7SbunOdnO/index.html

Kwanzaa!

http://www.shape.org/newImages/KwanzaaSetting.png

Kwanzaa offers people a way back to the true spirit of giving, she said.

“This is about coming together and sharing what you do have,’’ Haynes-Cardwell said. “

It means celebrating life, health, and good spirits.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/20...celebration/UjZtt619Xkv3JJL2qdohjK/story.html

Liveliness, warmth and happy hearts....

Winter is here, at last. Wind chill! Gjetost cheese! And hot cocoa!

December 29, 2011

Last winter’s snowfall ( for Boston ) was about double the average and most if it fell in 5 weeks!

December 2011, has been almost snowless with only a trace in Boston, which ties with the years
of 1899, 1927, 1953, 1957 and 1973.

There was not even a flake of snow in Boston in 1999.

(I was there. There was'nt.)

Least amount of snow for December, on record?

I was watching when we almost had some snow.

It is a mystery, why it began, and why it failed to continue.

12 tiny flakes? This is not good.

http://boston.cbslocal.com/2011/12/29/snow-drought-continues/

Black ice for two mornings in a row. Coupled with fog, black ice makes a bad combination.

Oct 30, 2011

BOSTON (CBS) – Several cities and towns have moved Halloween trick-or-treating from Monday until later this week because of the weekend snowstorm.

Unprecedented snowfall hits New England late October 2011

The snow shattered records in New England this past weekend, in what will likely be known as the Halloween Snowstorm of 2011.

Snow totals ranged from three to six inches up to nearly 30-plus inches within a 24-hour period. The snow affected millions of people, and left over three million people without power.

The storm is the same system that was responsible for the snow across the state of Colorado and parts of northern Texas as it pushed east.

Jan 10, 2012

This morning, the landscape looked as if someone had sifted a thin layer of powdered sugar over it.

Now, at least, I know which season this is. Thank you thor, for granting me a micro share of what you got!

The winter of 1967- The snow was piled up, so high. Walls of it.
Not because of my height. Not like the winter of 1959.
I was tiny. Anything would have seemed tall.

Patriots will endure below freezing temps, this weekend. Brrrr Snow?

Everyone is forgetting how to drive on snow?

9 cars involved in crash near Quincy on I-93

I-95 This morning

Spin outs- sliding all over the road.

Yeesh! This is New England, people!

http://www.boston.com/news/local/ma...9_cars_involved_in_crash_near_quincy_on_i_93/

A 65-year-old Framingham woman was killed in a two-car crash in Gardner last night, State Police said.

http://www.boston.com/Boston/metrod...-the-region/JrsSwXT35rK6y6yfFQnGqL/index.html

Today- Rain and snow likely this morning...then rain this afternoon. Patchy fog. Not as cool with highs in the lower 40s. Southwest winds 10 to 15 mph. Gusts up to 25 mph this morning. Chance of precipitation 90 percent

34F This morning (according to Logan?) pfftt That means perfect black ice conditions in some places.

Slush!

'Red Tails' Trailer HD

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gD87-fV3otI

1944. To help win the war, the Pentagon brass has no choice but to consider the untested African-American pilots of the experimental Tuskegee training program. Just as the young Tuskegee men are about to be shut down and shipped back home, they are given the ultimate chance to show their courage. These intrepid young airmen take to the skies to fight
for their country - and the fate of the free world. --

http://www.redtails2012.com/

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum

Busy week at the Gardner!

Gardner After Hours

It’s back! Gather in the evening at the Gardner and soak up the atmosphere of the historic courtyard garden, explore the new light-filled spaces designed by architect Renzo Piano in the new wing. Free music and a cash wine bar around the courtyard each night, plus artist and spotlight talks in the galleries. Join in clever gallery games, sketching, and a chance to get a little messy in our new art studio too. Each night is a bit different from the next and sure to spark conversation and delight. Jazz at the Gardner is also part of Gardner After Hours.

http://www.gardnermuseum.org/home/

Nothing much makes the red color of Cardinal (bird) stand out and look prettier,
than fresh snow.

Grateful for the inch that fell.