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1. Yes 2. No If you pick it
1. Yes 2. No
If you pick it up, you should throw it out. You can't assume that someone will pick up the paper you've left behind for them to read. It could end up on the floor of the T as a coffee-mud-gatorade-whateverelse-stained piece of trash.
Share the love!
Could not disagree more. Unless you're planning on keeping it, it's your duty to leave your periodical on the T. You've got to pass it on for the next guy. Really, the T is already like a stall in a men's bathroom in so many ways, shouldn't this one be another?
Filth
Leaving behind used papers on the T is littering. Picking up litter, reading it, and then leaving it behind is worse than littering, as litter should be thrown away, not read and then re-littered.
Leaving "periodicals" in the men's room is litter. Touching used "periodicals" in the men's room is filthy and disgusting. I thought this practice had been sufficiently mocked in popular culture to have eliminated it but sadly there seem to be some slow learners.
Stay out of our men's room, then
The stalls all have these little bins marked "Newspapers." Sometimes people even leave behind printouts of Web stories about the Patriots (OK, that's got to be just one guy, but still).
Disgusting? Well, only if you're not washing your hands right after you're done. Now that is disgusting.
The Horror!
The Horror! Run screaming!
1. Yes 2. Yes If it was already there.
If you brought the paper onto the train, then it is littering. If you glance at a paper someone already left, it isn't. That was already litter. Basically, the way I see it, you weren't holding a paper. You were holding litter. You aren't adding to a problem except perhaps in giving someone an incentive to litter if they see you doing it.
Strictly speaking, the T has a de facto encouragement of this when they make service announcements. They do a few hand-outs, but mostly seem to rely on people getting the information from foot-print covered piece of paper carpeting the floors of their trains.
Agreed
This post is quite a coincidence for me. This morning there was a day-old Metro on the train seat next to me, and I picked it up and read a bit of it. I decided that since I'd picked it up, it was now my responsibility to throw it out. (Otherwise I'd have left it where it was, along with the plastic bag on the floor.) I hadn't thought much about the issue previously.
I once had a very helpful T
I once had a very helpful T driver on the redline who (in addition to telling us the day of the week, how many days till Friday, etc) spelled out the rules on this -- basically if it's a free paper, it's litter to leave it behind. If you paid for it, it's a courtesy to leave it behind. So, don't leave the metro but do leave Globe or Herald (or WSJ, etc). As far as throwing away the metro you found on the train -- I say see it as a free opportunity to boost your karma by tossing it in the recycler when you go. Nobody expects you to pick up somebody else's trash, but more power to you if you do.
Of course this all just opens another question -- is it ok to take a paid-for newspaper or magazine left behind by someone else on the train...
I fully agree, anyone can
I fully agree, anyone can grab a Metro or Improper Bostonian so its not being charitable to your fellow riders to leave it behind. If Im stuck on the T late at night and its a long ride I feel a sense of karma and good luck when I look across the aisle and see a Sports Illustrated or Boston Globe. By all means leave behind the good stuff, it will be put to good use at some point.
better red line PA monologue
Several years ago, there used to be a red line door-button-jockey who had a great speech as we hit Park St, and I always seemed to end up on his train:
"Now approaching Park Street. Change here for the green line, doors open on both sides. Please take any personal belongings, newspapers, children, trash, pets OR packages with you. If you SAT next to it, TOUCHED it, LOOKED at it, IT looked at YOU...take it, IT'S YOURS!"
The inflection and emphasis in the whole monologue was really something else :-) The orange line is so disappointing- the most we ever get is a "don't park your stupid ass in the door and hold up the whole damn train" cuss-out once in a while from gangbangers who are sit in the doorway, holding it while the rest of their "posse" drifts through the fare gates. Half the time, the guy doing it flips out his Sidekick and checks it while he holds open the door. A Modern Hoodlum's gotta multitask, you dig?
free heralds near south station
what about those?
Free to you, but not always free
A lot of times when a free issue of the Herald or Globe is given out, its been sponsored by an advertiser who puts a wrap around it. The wrap is easily discarded, but the paper can remain. While it may have been free to the person it was given to, the paper still was paid for. I'd suggest you're just the second link in the free passing chain so the rule applies as if you paid for the paper.
proper paper etiquette notwithstanding...
Newspapahs, especially free newspapahs, count secondary or "pass-along" readers as part of their circulation. They use these (sometimes grossly inflated) circulation numbers to squeeze money out of advertisers. A disgustingly small percentage of the resulting revenue eventually makes its way into the hands of "content providers," a.k.a., stupid people like me who write for money, an embarrassingly outdated line of business in an age when Information Wants To Be Free.
So, the filthy wretch on the Orange Line who used your abandoned Metro as a snotrag before donating it to a passing kindergartener is doing a good deed for journalist-kind. Keep flinging papers everywhere, Boston!
altitude
If it was still fresh on the seat and you picked it up and then put it down again on an empty seat, or if you brought it on and then put it down on the seat, that's passing it along. Once it hits the floor, it's litter. That goes double once it's stepped on or ripped.
Meanwhile, as the signs say, our tax dollars pay to clean those trains. It's not like our taxes are going down if we start chipping in.
Who wants to read on the
Who wants to read on the public sh*tter? I mean, I just want to get in, get it over with, wash my hands, and get out. I don't understand the male proclivity to prolong pooping.