Blinq

Archive: April, 2010

Philly Over Boston

POSTED: Friday, April 30, 2010, 1:28 PM

The beauty of the Internet is that it presents a whole new world of places that will let you work for free. With the Flyers-Bruins series coming up, Dave Beard at Boston.com wanted to know if I could cook up eight things a Bostonian needs to know about Philadelphia.

(I grew up there, and while my Rally hockey skates bear Bobby Orr’s signature, I’ve been a Flyers fan since the time I saw Ron Hextall protect his crease with a broadsword. (What can I say?)

1. Philly’s where Bostonians go to achieve greatness. See: Ben Frankin, polymath, and Bernie Parent, goaltender.

Daniel Rubin @ 1:28 PM Permalink | 9 comments

Places That Are Gone

POSTED: Thursday, April 22, 2010, 8:06 AM

There must be other places where the past is present, right?

Boston, Virginia. They venerate their ancestors, worship what's been. What I loved about this tip was that 500 or 600 Italian Americans were going to be gathering in the Northeast on Saturday to bring back the days when they lived next door to each other in the Little Italy that grew up around 6th and Pike

I did not know there was a Little Italy around 6th and Pike. But a tour with two Joes and a some useful maps of what was where helps bring back the days of the Egg Lady and 10-cent matinees, alley way crap games and guys with names like Ba Ba and Baccala. They settled around the turn of the century. The pulled up stakes by the '70s. But if you look, much evidence remains.

Daniel Rubin @ 8:06 AM Permalink | 2 comments

Hit and Run Nation

POSTED: Monday, April 19, 2010, 7:35 AM

The more I think about it, the less I understand the expert who told me all of us are capable of hitting and running.

Dr. Leon James, psychologist who specializes on the behavior of motorists, told me that it isn't a question of morality. It's a question of conditioning. What we need to do is visualize getting into an accident and think about what we'd do - stopping the car, making sure you did no damage, facing the music if you did.

And that if we don't do such training, for as long as two weeks, we're as apt to hit and run as the next bozo.

Daniel Rubin @ 7:35 AM Permalink | Post a comment