Boston
Sep. 22, 2012
Demolition of Boston’s West End
Demolition of Boston’s West End. Chambers and Barton Streets, July 19, 1959. (photo)
Tags: cities · history · The Strangler · West End
Apr. 3, 2012
This morning in the Public Garden
An early sign of spring in Boston: the pond in the Public Garden has been refilled.
Tags:
Jan. 8, 2012
Missing the West End
What makes the memory of Boston’s old West End so durable? Why do former West Enders, half a century later, still feel that they are members of it?
Tags: Boston Globe · cities · Robert Campbell · The Strangler · West End
Jan. 7, 2012
Copley Square, 1910
Copley Square from the roof of the Boston Public Library, ca. 1910 (photo)
Tags: Copley Square · history
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
Jul. 6, 2011
The lost Vermeer
Jun. 24, 2011
Southie reacts to the capture of Whitey Bulger
Southie reacts to the capture of Whitey Bulger
Tags: video · Whitey Bulger
Jun. 17, 2011
Front page
The Boston Globe reports on the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup in June 2011
Tags: Boston Globe · Bruins · hockey · newspapers
May. 10, 2011
Robert Campbell on Boston’s Human Scale
Robert Campbell on Boston’s human scale and why it inspires our love. One of my favorite descriptions of my hometown.
Tags: architecture · Boston Globe · Robert Campbell
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 · letters · 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.
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