Mike Ball reports on the event sponsored by the Blue Hills Brewery.

... Most surprising was the indifference of the brewery crew to the customers. I sidled up to the brewmaster and a minion at the ticket table for a chat. My brewer friends love to talk beer and the professionals are mindful that customers pay their salaries and keep their companies in business. These guys didn’t seem to care. They seemed to make no effort to mingle either, venturing down only for a keg hunt, wherein mostly lads scoured the nearby field for a sequestered quarter keg that would earn them five gallons of their choice. ...

Pahkcah02 explains why she's considering voting for Jeremy Comeau for Canton selectman in the April 7 town elections:

... His website decries the lack of parking in front of the local packie (an issue near and dear to my heart!) as well as the dangers of turning in and out of the 7-11 convenience store. Since I don't have kids, I consider any politician who comprehends that the balance between safety and grabbing a party size bag of Doritos is absolutely as crucial to Canton as the quality of public education, to be an honest and genuine person. ...

Wade Roush walks around, photographs the ghost cloverleaf of Canton, built for the Highway that Never Was - the Southwest Expressway meant to gouge through Boston and Cambridge (along the route of today's Orange Line, basically).

Do a Google search on MBTA and look at the fun Canton-related ad that pops up on the right.

Via Rick Burnes, who took a screenshot for posterity.

Tried to avert crash when he saw runaway box car heading his way.

As I read through the accounts and talk with co-commuters, I am struck by what seems to be a stark contrast in the efficiency and effectiveness of the responses to the accident in Canton yesterday. From all accounts, local first responders recognized the scale of the accident and the high number of casualties, and responded accordingly with triage and, eventually, treatment and transportation to the hospital for those who needed it.

Triage at the scene. By Cliff Francoeur, who has more photos and a report from the scene. Matt Pillsbury also posted photos.

Andrew was on the train that got hit by a box car in Canton. He reports:

... We came to a dead stop (again, not surprising), and I waited to get going, knowing we weren't too far out of Canton Junction. What happened next was certainly the most surprising and startling moment of my life, as there was no advanced warning of any kind - suddenly I found, in one swift yet disjointed motion, my head thrown against the glass pane of the door, and my entire body lurching in the opposite direction - and not just away, backwards, but down.

The lights were out, my hat was thrown clear, and my IPod wasn't playing; in fact, my headphones weren't in at all. ...

Sitting on the 5:40 at South Station, they just announced that there was a collision at Canton Junction between a commuter rail train and a freight train. They're holding us at South Station until further notice.

Train 917 hit when a CSX boxcar rolled off sidetrack onto main line.

BNSFGP38 posts from the scene:

Harry knows first-hand why traffic was bollixed up on 128 in Canton this morning: There was this pothole that had been there for a week, but the state didn't do anything about it until it expanded to axle-destroying size last night and MassHighway had to get a state trooper to block a lane to keep people from getting swallowed up by the hole that it hadn't bothered to fix when it was more manageable in size.

Andrew discusses the parking lot at Canton Junction, which always gets more interesting in the winter since the T's plowing service naturally erects giant snow mountains atop parking spaces, making it even harder to find a space in the morning, leading to things like him pulling into the last half-a-space and getting a smile from another guy marveling at how he did that:

... Yep, its a sad, sad brotherhood, the poor souls that park at Canton Junction station. For just one moment, I wasn't hated. Envied, maybe, but not hated. At least, not until I probably half shoved him out of the way so I could get off the train first.