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Marathon explosions make Harvard Law student realize Boston is not worthy of her hate

So this woman comes up to Cambridge from Atlanta by way of New York for law school, spends much of her off time developing an active hatred for all of Boston because we're too cold and uncaring and claustrophobic and totally not fun for her - and, yeah, all while she's making absolutely no effort to explore the area beyond a roughly five-block stretch bounded by her apartment, Harvard Law and a couple of bars - and then, after she sees how we reacted in the aftermath of the explosions, realizes we're not so bad after all, but she'll still never fit in here. Would Gawker have even run this if she didn't have the magical "Harvard" attached to her name?

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Comments

Gawker has a real hard-on for all things Boston. I think Nick Denton may have had a bad time at Pride one year.

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But she just spends wayyyy too much time explaining why she hated a city she goes out of her way to avoid. And Gawker, hating Boston to begin with, doesn't help things with a giant blowout quote reading "The roads are empty and the traffic lights perform without an audience."

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We'll pray for her.

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Let's just bring back "tarring, feathering, and running 'em out of town on a rail"

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Blessing hearts and praying for people is a southern way to say fuck you I hate you.

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> Blessing hearts and praying for people is a southern way to say fuck
> you I hate you.

...but not necessarily. Depends on the tone of voice, context, facial expression -- and possibly mind reading.

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Anytime I meet someone who is not "cold and uncaring" they are always originally from out of state. The truth hurts.

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We care. We care a lot. We just don't show you that when we first meet you. It's takes a while but once we get to know you and let you in, you have a true friend.

Down South, the people say hi on the streets and gosh darnit if they don't just seem as sweet as sugar. The truth is that it's a veneer. A Southerner will talk to you as if you're you're the most delightful person who ever lived. Then that person will turn around and rip you to shreds behind your back. The friendliness? It's a facade - a shallow pool of water for Narcissus.

We, in contrast, are honest. If we don't like you, we'll tell you that to your face. We don't have time for that fakery. We have places to go and beer to drink.

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I'm giving you a shot to squeeze in one more over generalization. You can do it!

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He is spot-on. I actively dislike Midwesterners for the same reason, they pretend to be super nice when really, they are being selfish and passive aggressive.

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Growing up in the Midwest, we were always taught that you might as well be polite. As my Irish relatives used to say during the depression, "it doesn't cost a thing to smile and say good morning to folks," and that was in Chicago, not Mayberry.

This whole it-takes-time-to-get-past-our-tough-exterior business is 1) total BS, and 2) really arrogant. It's expecting people to take the time to cut through some stupid, tough-guy facade. Not every person in Boston who acts like a jackass has a heart of gold underneath--plenty are just jackasses, so why take the time when people aren't giving you anything to work with?

Why be a jerk just for the sake of it? It's a pretty small way to live.

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I have no shortage of generalizations from the South, based on my time living there. A few examples of things I experienced, written here for your amusement:

I walked into my department's grad student lounge to find my "friends" talking about whether or not I was gay because I was "so old" and not married. I was 23.

Then I became known as a woman of easy virtue because I had relations with a guy I was dating. The horror! I wasn't waiting until I got married! (Side note: I'm 45 and never married. How long was I supposed to wait?)

How about the time one of my classmates pulled me aside and said that people were talking about me because one of my best friends was a black woman? Didn't I know I wasn't supposed to that? You think Boston is racist? It's a post-racial utopia compared to some of the BS I saw down there.

I could regale you with countless religious stories. There was that time when a Southern Baptist told me that Catholicism is on par with devil worship and Pope John Paul II was the anti-Christ. (Whoops!) Then there was that time when I was asked to leave a party because I brought a bottle of wine for the hostess. Alcohol is the devil's fire water. Asked to leave as in they wouldn't even let me into the house because I had alcohol with me.

And maybe the worst of all? The Atlanta Braves had Greg Maddux, John Smoltz and Tommy Glavine on their team and couldn't even sell out Opening Day. What the hell kind of city is that?

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I don't actually tell people to their faces if I don't like them. But somehow they figure it out all the same.

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I say good riddance and have a nice plane trip back home.

Atlanta is a city that never was and never will be the sophisticated metropolis it thinks it is. Atlanta is fun? Can this woman please tell me where the fun is because I looked for two years and couldn't find it. If she were from New York (going to Columbia doesn't count) or San Fransisco, I might take her seriously but Atlanta? Is she kidding me? You think we're provincial? We're the most worldly people on earth compared to them.

I could go on but I won't. I feel too much pity for her. She's probably bitter because of her circumstances here. She never explored Boston? Well, I never explored my surroundings when I was down there. You know why? Because as a grad student, I carried a full load of classes, taught a class as a TA and wrote a thesis. Not a helluva lot of time left to explore the surroundings.

So she can take her Harvard Law degree and go be the bestest smarty pants in Atlanta. Let's be honest, it's like being the tallest person in Munchkinland.

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she came to self awareness a bit late. If she didn't hear that "you can always tell a Harvard (wo)man but you can't tell him much" the week she got here, she should have. Stereotyping every gathering by ethnic background is a good way to continue the very divisions you claim to battle. If she was trying to avoid fixating on race, I'm not sure Atlanta and Harlem were the best places to do it. She had a golden opportunity for growth at the The World's Greatest University and she appears to have pretty much punted it away. Too bad.

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Nancy, it's not just the South, or Red States that think Boston is cold and uncaring. When I visited my family in Puerto Rico they had the same comments about Bostonians.

My experience in PR was having practically a whole village outside Penuelas go out of their way to help me find my elderly cousin when I had bad driving directions. That just wouldn't happen here, and it's a pity.

There's just a warmth that exists elsewhere in this world that lack in New Englanders. When I came back to Boston, I actually viewed it as our weakness. Where you want to focus on Southern Charm, Midwestern Friendliness, or the Hispanic "Mi Casa es Su Casa" approach towards life, we are just unfriendly in comparison.

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a shit? Send this asshole packing!

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If you can grit your teeth and make it through the article, there is a positive statement believe it or not,

"Atlanta taught me how to be fun. New York taught me how to adjust. But Boston taught me how to be tough. Tough through the relentless winters, tough through the stress-laden semesters. Tough for my clients. Tough with humility, quiet, steel-faced strength. It taught me how to push through; how to savor even the smallest rewards; how to find beauty even when it is not thrust upon you."

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FWIW, I liked the article, it was honest and humorous and to me does not seem mean-spirited at all. I totally hear what she is saying, having lived in the Boston area for 95% of my last 33 years and while most people are cool, it's an acquired taste that some people don't get. I don't resent people just because they went to HLS or have trouble adjusting to this place. If anything it is amusing. Thanks for linking to it.

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Seriously, I read a few paragraphs, skimmed to the end and was like, "your story has become tiresome." What a sel-indulgent, narcisistic load of feces! I did read it all, and I understand her intent, I think, but she needs some life perspective and an editor to tell her to get to the point and consider the world does not revolve around her.

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C u next tuesday

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Once upon a time, a genius descended on a city and took roost in her new kingdom (otherwise known as an "apartment" by the pleibans). The Genius was so brilliant she just knew the local subjects would sense her wonderful self in their presence and descend with gifts and myhr. But that didn't happen. The Genius did not waste her time wondering why, for she was too busy sustaining her local 4-block economy with the gift of her presence. And as time developed, the Genius realized that the locals were mean nasty people, Trolls probably, and that their City was a mean horrid place unworthy of her graces. And so she left, but not before making sure to publish an article all about herself. Oh, and "near" her kingdom some bombs went off and killed and maimed people. Turns out, their Troll skins still bled. The end.

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she claims she hasn't been more then four blocks from harvard law, but then says:

The Marathon isn’t that far from where I live. I know because I can picture the street in my head, something I can’t say for most of the city.

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This inteligentsia just wasted 3 years of her life that she will never get back , watching the clock tick until she can get on her freedom bird, probably in the academic critical mass center of the universe. Maybe she should have stayed there back on the peach farm. And that's the thanx we get, giving them the Braves too.

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Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out,ma'am.

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'This place has respected me, but it has never catered to me.'

Well, there you have it.

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Can we simply hate the piece because it's shitty prose? You'd expect more from a Harvard law student...well, at least I do.

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Teaching students how to make a persuasive argument isn't part of the law curriculum anymore?

Then what are they spending three years (and all that money) doing, anyway?

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Here is a creation by another young lady , who probably isnt fortunate enough to get to Harvard , but is much more appreciative of what she has , and expresses it well, nice tunes as well included.

The Truck Driver

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detail...

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