Published August 30, 2010

I think my head just exploded. Apparently, the Boston Herald Traveler (a precursor to today’s Herald) used to run column titled “Hub-Bub.” And in this recently uncovered archive from Feb. 23, 1971, the hubbub is about a WBUR “radio soap opera” called Harvard Square. It sounded awesome:

WBUR, BU’s enterprising radio station, broadcasts “Harvard Square” Sundays through Thursdays at 11:15 p.m.–a program that centers around (sic) Harvard Square as seen through the eyes and experience of Scott Langer, a fictitious BU sophomore.

The first such show ever produced in the Hub! This was, of course, when WBUR was student-run radio (“Boston University Radio”).

For a fascinating historical detour, check the Wikipedia page of the Boston Herald, which has changed names or owners some 10 times since 1846. The American Traveler, eventually absorbed by the Herald, once served as a bulletin for stagecoach listings beginning in 1825, according to the source cited by the Wikipedia page.

Published August 30, 2010

This is a follow-up to my breakup letter to Brookline.

____

You're not so bad, Brookline. (Night Owl City/Flickr)

Dear Brookline:

Can we still be friends? Look, I realize it wasn’t classy to break up with you via blog post. But I wouldn’t have gone to the effort if I didn’t care.

I’m two weeks older and wiser since I wrote you, and I’ve done a lot of thinking.

A lot of your people are making fun of me for moving to a neighborhood they consider equally snooty, with equally bad parking and equally ridiculous rules. Even my new demonym — Cantabrigian — is pretentious, they say. But I find life to be quite easy on the other side of the river. With a residential parking permit, parking is no problem at all.

Others called me out for complaining about you instead of being more involved — calling my representatives, attending town council meetings and the like.

But I’m in my 20s, Brookline. I don’t have family here or a mortgage or any lasting ties to where I live. I never wanted anything too serious.

And that’s where we went wrong. We met at the wrong time.

You’re a beautiful town, Brookline. You have great schools, safe neighborhoods and quiet streets after 10 p.m. And many people who own a home there probably have a driveway or a garage and don’t care about your overnight parking rules.

As you so elegantly said in your reply, I’m just too young for you. And maybe in a few years, when I’m ready to settle down, we can try again.

Yours truly,
Andrew.

Published August 30, 2010

The students are back.

Welcome to Boston, young man. (Dan Foy/Flickr)

Harvard kids (starting classes Wednesday) or MIT kids (starting next week) should check out the list of links and tips from the City of Cambridge, including bike maps, street-cleaning days, farmers markets and parking information.

Boston kids could follow the new blog for ONEIN3 Boston, which is named for the one-third of Boston’s population between age 20 and 34. The Massachusetts secretary of state has a complete guide for the new Bay Stater.

The Neave Online Publication has some grown-up advice for college freshmen on a topic that admissions officers won’t touch: sex. And for the adults, Benoit College’s annual Mindset List is out to help bridge the generation gap with the Class of 2014.

Meanwhile, some Twitterers submitted their own advice:

• Sometimes the polite thing to do is to take the empty seat on the bus. No one can sit when you block it & you’re in the way. (@RachelCraves)
• When on the #mbta, remember to take your backpacks off & put on the floor. The same goes for non-students as well! (@aliphin)
• Pls don’t walk in mass groups off campus. It causes foot traffic. (@BaDaBingLany)
• Don’t be afraid to make mistakes; Pick challenging classes over GPA Boosters; Meet people and polish social skills (@bzheng)

What is your advice for incoming students?

Published August 30, 2010

We're in the dog days of summer. (Shot in May 2010 in Boston by Peter Pelisek/Flickr)

Overheard in the waiting room at the dentist:

Summah’s ovah.

It ain’t over till a Bostonian says it’s over. How are you marking the waning days of summer?

Published August 29, 2010

A Hubbub public service announcement.

Happy dogs (emdot/Flickr)

I don’t have to tell you it’s hot. And any second grader who studies the greenhouse effect knows sunlight gets trapped in cars and heats up fast.

At Petco in Brighton today, I saw an SUV in the parking lot with two dogs locked inside. The windows were closed. It was 90 degrees outside, which means it could have been 120 degrees or hotter inside.

Animals in hot cars die.

I told the Petco manager, who said he had called Boston police to report the same issue three weeks ago — but the officers told him to “mind his own business.”

Animal cruelty is punishable with prison time and a fine. There is no specific Mass. law against locking animals in hot cars, however.

Don’t leave pets in your car on a warm day. Take them with you, or leave them safe at home.

• MSPCA: Dangers of hot cars

Published August 27, 2010

Menino with unidentified woman, chicken

I swear, there is no shortage of weird news in this town. In reverse order of weirdness:

• Boston’s first case of West Nile Virus has been reported. The victim will be OK. (Universal Hub)
• Aijalon Gomes is home from North Korea. (Globe)
• A man on a scooter died after colliding with a car near BC. Sad. (BPD)
• Mayor Menino christened the city’s free-range chicken farm. (Mayor’s Office)
• A prankster fashioned a fake shark fin out of Styrofoam and duct tape, prompting people near Somerset to call 911 and report a shark sighting. (Fall River Herald News via Bostonist)
• A Holyoke man was arrested for a kilogram of cocaine found hidden in bologna. (AP)

Hubbub prefers links to news organizations and bloggers that break stories. Let me know if someone else had a story first (or better).

Published August 27, 2010

I just talked with Jessica Shumaker at the BRA, which tracks the college community’s impact on the city.

We know the annual population boom 1) lowers Boston’s median age dramatically, 2) clogs our streets with U-Haul trucks and 3) lengthens the lines at Starbucks. But what about the economic impact?

Turns out all those young people (and their professors and institutions) make a BIG impact on the city’s economy. The BRA compiled these salient facts:

• Nearly 155,000 students in total (fall 2006)
• According to a 2004 analysis, Boston’s colleges and universities support 67,000 direct and indirect jobs in the city (81,060 in the state) and contribute $4.3 billion to the gross city product ($5.45 billion to the gross state product)
• Students and student visitors spent an estimated $1.5 billion in 2004 and $2 billion in 2009.

Tufts and Harvard have facilities in the City of Boston, which is a boon for the construction business. (Though the biggest project, the Harvard Allston expansion project, remains stalled.)

I’m sure a retail group somewhere is tracking the Back To School boom this week and next — think of all the laptops, futons and shower curtains waiting to be sold.

Published August 27, 2010

Correction appended.

Movin' on up (jimmy page's/Flickr)

If I had to guess, tomorrow will be the single biggest moving day in America. As many as 300,000 academics are moving in to Greater Boston for the first of September.

There are 34 colleges and universities in Boston, according to the city, and that doesn’t include a couple of famous ones across the river. Here’s a sampling of what folks on Twitter said about the big weekend:

@amylrabinowitz: Dreading it is an understatement.

@Neldar: Leaving the state this weekend to avoid it.

@kehutchinson: I moved on Monday, braving through a student tsunami at BU, going from E. Boston to JP. Thank god that’s over with.

@sanditaK: i’m making the move next Wednesday, using my “one moving day per career” as permitted by my employer LOL

@amandakelly4: thank goodness I moved 2 months ago, missing the end of Aug/early Sept moving mayhem.

@KatyAronoff: Doing the Somerville–>Lowell haul tomorrow. Mostly packed and already about half moved so hoping it will be over quickly!

And Suz Carter on Facebook FTW:

Any bets on how long it will take for one such truck to get stuck on storrow drive?

Are you moving in? Across town? Away? What’s your new ‘hood? Are you dreading it? Excited? Share your stories and we’ll feature them on wbur.org throughout the weekend.

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