Boston
Jul. 18, 2011
The Whitey Bulger book I’d like to read
Wishing for a book that tells the real story of the Bulger brothers.
Tags: crime novels · Whitey Bulger
Oct. 11, 2010
The Friends of Eddie Coyle … Live
Playwright Bill Doncaster emailed the following press release the other day. I’ve already gushed about Eddie Coyle enough on this blog, both the novel and the film, so you will not be surprised to hear that this sounds incredibly cool to me. I’ll be at the Burren to see it. You should be, too. George [...]
Jun. 28, 2010
West End Memories (continued)
Reader “Leonard in Florida” writes with another memory triggered by reading The Strangler: My father played the numbers with a guy by the name of Brownie in the West End for years. He naturally had a formula for figuring the number. One night he came home with a paper bag with $4,000. He had hit [...]
Tags: The Strangler · West End
Jun. 16, 2010
West End Memories
A reader, Leonard in Florida, emails a memory of Boston’s old West End, which figures so prominently in The Strangler. When I was a kid in the 1940′s, my grandfather and father had an egg store at 203 Chambers Street in the West End. It was a landing spot for refugees. There were all types [...]
Tags: The Strangler · West End
May. 8, 2010
“I have lived alone in the woods”
The Boston Public Library in Copley Square, where I often go to write, is running an amazing year-long exhibition called “Cool + Collected: Treasures of the BPL” which highlights some of the rare holdings in the library’s collection. The contents of the exhibit rotate every few months, and the current crop is truly remarkable. It [...]
Tags: Boston Public Library · Henry David Thoreau · Walt Whitman
Mar. 8, 2010
Life Magazine Photos of Boston’s Strangler Days
A trove of remarkable photographs of Boston during the Strangler siege. The photos, which are eerie and beautiful, were taken by Arthur Rickerby for Life Magazine. View the whole collection here. Above: A woman wears a hatpin in her sleeve to defend herself against the Strangler, 1963.
Tags: The Strangler
Feb. 26, 2010
There is no sleeping at the Boston Public Library
It is strictly forbidden to fall asleep at the Boston Public Library. I presume this policy is intended to keep the homeless from camping out here, but the homeless know the rules because, well, they camp out here, so it is not the homeless who are primarily affected. It is everyone else. Like me. Unfortunately, [...]
Tags: Boston Public Library
Feb. 24, 2010
Photographs of the Combat Zone
In Boston, an exhibit of photographs from the Combat Zone in its heyday, 1969-1978.
Tags: bookfour · Combat Zone
Feb. 2, 2010
The Street Photography of Jules Aarons
An under-appreciated photographer of Boston street life has an exhibit at the Boston Public Library
Tags: Boston Public Library · featured posts · Jules Aarons · The Strangler
