Burlington

Madhouse at Burlington flu-shot clinic

adamg — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 17:06:00 +0000

Brian Christiansen reports 3,800 people showed up to try to get one of 2,000 flu shots (500 for H1N1, 1,500 for regular flu):

... Took my 14 month old son to the clinic held at Burlington, MA’s high school today. I got there a half hour before it opened, after sitting in a half hour of traffic on Rt 3A to get there. Police blocked the driveway, sending people to park at Simmons Park, about a half mile up the street.

I parked there and took my son in his stroller back through the pouring rain. When I got about half way up the school driveway, the woman whom I parked next to was coming back towards me with her infant. She said there wasn’t enough vaccine of either seasonal or H1N1 for the number of people in line. She said 3800 people were already there, pushing and shoving. ...

Building 19: Good stuff not so cheap?

adamg — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 22:05:07 +0000

Notice anything a little odd about their price for 3x5 rugs?

Shane Curcuru snapped this shot at the Burlington store.

Posted under this Creative Commons license.

Crash on 128 in Burlington leaves one dead

adamg — Fri, 22 May 2009 12:04:53 +0000

Channel 5 has the details on a two-car crash around 7 a.m. Channel 4 tweets a 10-mile backup at 8:26 a.m.

Fire at the Burlington Mall

adamg — Sun, 17 May 2009 00:43:37 +0000

Serious enough to require firefighters to cut open the roof.

Photo by Dangut.

Leggo his Legos

adamg — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 21:58:28 +0000

Kirk informs us that he went to last night's meeting of the New England Lego Users Group at the Burlington Mall Legos store:

... Maybe 'cause I'm going through a bit of a "Dark Age" (what they call a period of time a lot of Lego fans go through where they don't do much Lego) I was a bit more stoked about building then and there than most of the regulars. ...

Ed. rectangular note with pegs on the top: Kellogg's now sells Lego-shaped Eggos (or are they Eggo-shaped Legos?).

I guess Highway to the Mall and Gateway to New Hampshire are out

adamg — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 17:06:34 +0000

Seems the towns along Rte. 3 north of 128 are trying to come up with a branding campaign to make their towns more attractive to business - something along the lines of "Rte. 128," only they can't actually name the road because they wouldn't want people to think they have anything to do with those trashy towns along Rte. 3 on the South Shore and all:

... Most people involved in the branding process believe traditional advertising will play a small role in spreading the campaign's message. Instead the campaign may use professional channels ranging from traditional trade shows to online videos and blogs. ...

Ed. snark note: Like I should talk. I used to sit near the reporter who came up with "MetroWest" as a replacement for "Greater Framingham."

Turning a real mall into a fake mall

adamg — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 13:21:29 +0000

Phillip McCarthy photographs the real faux Burlington Mall (or is that the faux real Burlington Mall)?

What happened to the food court at the Burlington Mall?

adamg — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:20:24 +0000

DJDiva reports from what sounds like the aftermath of a food war:

... Where did all the 'restaurants' go? The whole thing is boarded up shops. It looks like a mall 4 days before it closes forever over there. My hope is that they are trying to clean it up, put in some healthy options (bring back fresh city!) and make it look better for the launch of the new Nordstrom wing. ...

With bonus rantage about the Macy's and other stores there (but with kind words for the Mac stores and Legal Seafood).

Imagine if the Dedham Mall were blown to smithereens

adamg — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 14:11:14 +0000

Think anybody would mourn? No, didn't think so. On myDedham, Brian discusses what looks to be an interesting book by an MIT professor who imagines wiping the slate clean at the Dedham Mall, the Burlington Mall and Revere Beach and "transforming" them into modern-day downtowns with not just shopping but housing. Hmm, maybe the Natick Mall was onto something, after all? Right. Let's not get too carried away now.

Weird: Boston owns 200 acres of parkland in Burlington and Woburn

adamg — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 02:08:42 +0000

Back in 1930, somebody gave Boston 200 acres of land in the two suburbs on the condition the city maintain it forever as "a public pleasure ground."

Only now Boston seems to want to sell off the land either as a subdivision or a golf course, according to Friends of the Cummings Park, which notes the city took $141,000 out of the park trust fund last year to pay a subdivision surveyor and $13,000 for legal fees this year - while spending absolutely nothing to maintain the land as a park.

Patrick O'Reilly: Mayor Menino, Please don't sell our park!

Chocolate notes

adamg — Tue, 15 Aug 2006 00:12:45 +0000

Alison Rose says speed right over to the Lindt Chocolate Store at Burlington Square on Middlesex Turnpike (NOT the one in the mall), which is having a clearance:

It's a chocolate sale, people--what more do I have to say?

Lynne says Clear Flour Bread in Brookline has chocolate croissants that are almost as good as the ones she remembers from Aix-en-Provence:

... One step inside and you'll be smitten. There are breads of every size and shape (braided, baguettes, country loaves, etc.) as well as tarts, cookies, sticky buns and other guilty pleasures. It is the closest thing that I have seen to the types of bakeries you see in France on practically every corner (those people know how to live). ...

No geniuses at the Apple Store

adamg — Sat, 31 Dec 2005 02:50:27 +0000

Rob brings his laptop over to the Apple Store in the Burlington Mall when the hard drive dies, but discovers he can't get any help from the Apple "geniuses" because they're all busy helping middle-aged women with iPod problems:

... If you take two synapses and rub them together, you get a spark. But grown women with a gallon of synapses packed unto a cranium seemingly can't generate smoke. How hard is it to figure out how to use an iPod? How difficult is it for them to find a teenager to show them? WHY IN THE WORLD WAS I LEFT WAITING FOR SOMEONE TO TALK TO WHILE A TECHNICAL SUPPORT "GENIUS" PUT AN IPOD SKIN ON AN IPOD FOR A CUSTOMER???? ...

Customer service as oxymoron

adamg — Wed, 21 Dec 2005 01:35:28 +0000

Don't expect Alison to pick up anything for you at a certain Burlington Mall store that begins with a W and ends with "onoma" and has a hyphen in the middle:

... [I]nstead of just letting me say "Thanks for looking--I appreciate that you checked in the back," (which I did) she had to earnestly buttonhole me with, "Now, I just want to make sure that you understand that I provided you with good customer service. When I found out we didn't have what you want, I told you that you can get it at Chestnut Hill. But it's your choice not to go there. So just to be clear: I provided you with choices and good customer service, but you're not going to follow up. Okay? Great! Thanks for coming in!"

Epilogue: Alison found what she was looking for - at a lower price - at Crate & Barrel.

Real Apple fans wait in line

adamg — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 21:37:53 +0000

At 9 this morning, Rebecca and Peter checked in from the Burlington Mall, where they were waiting for the opening of the new Apple store:

According to a preliminary count we are 34th and 35th in line. All of the usual suspects are hereâ€¦The young guys next to us who are watching the Simpsons on their iBook, the twenty-somethings with their earbuds plugged in, the dads and moms with their excited kids ... AND the elderly mall walkers who, on each go round, question us as to why we're in line. ...

Ed. note: I am typing this at 4:40 p.m. without further word from the intrepid duo. I can only hope they were not crushed by the swarming mob when the doors opened but are simply at home enjoying their new Apple iWhatevers (since they have already ruled out trying to get in line for the opening of the IKEA in Stoughton).

Up in her cups

adamg — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 14:19:56 +0000

Alison reports:

I love driving south on Rt. 3A (Cambridge St.) in Burlington, if only for one reason: On the edge of a playing field near Burlington High, you can almost always see a message on the chain link fence.

A message in styrofoam cups.

Each cup, one per link, forms part of a letter, and the letters always spell out something positive ...