S-T
Triple Eagle
Somebody who went to B.C. High School, B.C. and B.C. Law School. In some circles, more prestigious than a Hahvihd degree - William Bulger is a Triple Eagle.
Professor Albert Hanwell completed his Triple Eagle, then went back to teach at BC.
Three decka
Originating in Worcester, this quickly became a staple of Boston residential architecture: a narrow, three-story house, in which each floor is a separate apartment. Sometimes also called "triple decker."
In Dorchester, they'll tell you that "triple decker" is a Yuppie affectation; but in Winthrop, that's what everybody calls them.
Mark Levy and Kirsten Alexander
Townie
Often, a resident of Charlestown. But townies also live in Reveah and Whiskey Point ("da Point") in Brookline, so it's also a state of mind, or perhaps hair. You can often tell a townie by the way he or she adds the phrase "'n shit" to the end of many sentences, as in "Oh my gawd, like yestihday, right, he was totally down Nahant polishing his TA (Trans Am) 'n shit."
Towers, The
1. A section of Needham along Rte. 128 that consists mainly of TV towers.
2. A B.U. dormitory on Bay State Road (not to be confused with Warren Towers - those three dorms sitting atop a parking garage on Comm-Av).
Jeff Kline and Marie Lamb
Town
Boston, at least on the South Shore. "Someone from Quincy would say, 'I'm goin' to town' instead of 'I'm goin' to Boston.' " reports Margaret Touhey. But Erin M. says: "I've lived in Braintree my whole life, and we always said 'We're going in town.' Nice gramma, huh?"
Tonic
A carbonated beverage, you know, like Coke or Moxie. Oldtimers remember before the supamahket chains went all national and had "tonic" and "diet tonic" signs above their aisles.
T, the
The Boston subway and bus system. Represents the triumph of fuzzy logic, or something, because it does not actually stand for any single word. Cambridge Seven Associates thought it up in the early 1960s when the state hired them to design graphics for the then new MBTA. Their goal was to come up with something as recognizable as a cross that also evoked the idea of transit, transportation, tunnel, etc.
There are four lines: Red (because it used to end at Harvard, whose color is crimson); Blue (it runs along the ocean); Green (it goes to the leafy suburbs of Brookline and Newton) and Orange (because it used to run above what was once known as Orange Street).
The T claims the Silver Line is a fifth subway line - and shows it as such on its system maps. It is, however, a bus.
You'll sometimes hear references to the Purple Line (collectively all the commuter lines).
Talk to
What Bostonians do with an issue:
"Jim, do you know about the new finance project?"
"No, I'll defer and let Bob talk to that one."
Jonathan E. Dyer
