One of the drunk kids who used to drink in the woods behind my place, yes. Funny how they were all Old Meffuh types, certain that their future would be secure because Medford Forever!, despite their lazy drunken habits. I recognize her. She's all nice and mouthy while securely hiding behind her friends, sure.
I have to say, however, that I never had a Tufts student pass out in front of my house, or have their parent get in my face about how I called an ambulance rather than "mind my own business".
She's a parody of herself, seriously. The ole "I was born here" entitlement whine, defined. I don't suppose her paycheck from her Davis Square job has anything to do with students, or to do with the fact that her parent's house equity will bail her out of her extensive credit card debt in mid life.
Oh, no! She's the genuine article! Want to bet what else she complains about when she's not smoking and filming herself driving? And it ain't entitled white kids. Of course her whining about her lot in life has nothing to do with the fact that she's an obvious idiot.
Yep. Always the fault of others, never drinking her way through high school and avoiding professional training after.
She reminds me of a Somerville dipshit back in the 80s and her loud and rude "anti-Barnie" rant on a bus. A woman who finished her invective that amounted to "they ruined my life by buying property in MY neighborhood", only for her friend to ask "how's yer mah doin in Flariduh?"
As if buying and selling weren't somehow related.
Classic failure to connect actions and choices with consequences, buffered with a whalloping dollop of entitlement.
None of us are getting any younger and it would near kill me if you had a stroke over some foolish shit like this.
It's like swatting a fly with a shovel. Proportional response is the key. In this case, 'ignore' probably works. It is kind of funny that you had to fish her out of your shrubbery and get EMTs over. It was the right thing to do though, as toxic alcohol poisoning is a serious hazard kids don't readily understand when trying to be heroic about booze bingeing.
But it's probably is a foolish request. I can see how the people here who rose up from searing poverty to make themselves magnificent are really riled, while the more diffident regulars who may not know that experience are just taking swings due to their usual conceits.
Adam was just looking for some good click bait on a slow day and the scheme seems to have worked.
Absent your recognition of her as a real person I honestly would have thought this was a joke, or some young actress attempting a viral audition for the next south boston gangster movie. What a bitter bitter person.
EVERY place for the most part has people like her. And why do you find it necessary to ridicule and mock a Boston accent? It's inferior to your accent? It signifies the speaker is 'low class'?
And I can assure you there are PLENTY of college kids and kids from 'nice' backgrounds who like to get shitfaced drunk and use an assortment of narcotics.
"EVERY place for the most part has people like her. And why do you find it necessary to ridicule and mock a Boston accent? It's inferior to your accent? It signifies the speaker is 'low class'?"
Answer his questions.
Also, she wasn't referring to her own area code, but rather, the most well known Boston area zip-code. Keep trying.
If this rant was about Tufts students, many of their dorms are on the south side of campus, which is the Somerville side. I doubt many incoming students bother to get landline service these days, but if they do, their area code would be 617.
anyone with a non-rhotic accent is 'low class'? All people who speak with a Boston,New York City accent are 'low class'? People who speak with a London accent are 'low class'? People who speak with a Australian accent are 'low class'? But people who sound like they are from Greenwich, Connecticut sound proper and educated? OK, good to know.
People with a high class Boston or New York or London or Australian accent sound high class. People with a low-class Boston or New York or London or Australian accent sound low class.
There's no crime or dishonor in not having had a lot of educational and travel advantages, but any attempt to claim that this woman sounds well educated, well traveled, or well read is insane.
Interestingly, pretty much across the English-speaking world, non-rhotic accents are generally associated with lower levels of education and lower socioeconomic status. Maybe because once people get richer they want to 'talk fancy' to fit in better with their neighbors? Maybe for any of a number of other reasons?
She brought back fond (j/k) memories of growing up in the area. When I moved back to Boston a few years ago, I was actually shocked by how few of these townie people with that sort of blown out smokers voice I encountered.
The more the economy gets better around here (like since the early 80s or thereabouts -- talking relative to the rest of the East Coast) the more "outsiders" come into the area, assume middle class to well-off situations and the more Boston accents get associated with working class and poor. And the more it gets associated with "no class," ignorant and/or racist -- plainly-speaking, "white trash."
Watching old news clips from the 50-70s you see perfectly well-educated people dropping their r's and sounding very townie - but you'd never call them white trash. It feels like this is a lot rarer today, as the whole country is rushing headlong to some generic, lowest-common denominator culture (including accents) that makes for easier marketing. With some exceptions here and there. Like EPA Director, Dorchester's own, Gina McCarthy:
As far as this fuckin clam-bag goes, who gives a rat's ass what she thinks, except the douche-bag low-lifes that follow her on FaceBook. I'm sure someday you'll be stuck in a line of traffic on 93 because she rear-ended someone while videoing herself flapping her yap about some horseshit.
The sophomorism of transplants foisting their imaginary Boston accents is grating but they probably mean well.
I can remember when it was more of a linguistic heirloom with many subtle variations. I bet if you found old clips of Frank Sargent or Endicott Peabody, you'd find a bit of it and it wouldn't be affect.
Accent has always been very closely associated with class and status. Sure, everyone in Boston sounded like they were from Boston, but there was always a big difference between the patrician Boston accent and the working-class Boston accent.
By Charlieandjacksonbrown on Thu, 09/11/2014 - 7:50am.
Please enlighten us all as to how this person has intentionally injured you personally, to such a degree that you would judge her so, and publicly say such mean, nasty things about someone that you clearly do not even know. Is this the way you have raised your children to act? Just as her rant says a lot about her, yours says volumes about you.
What this woman has done, is to say, to a bunch of people she's never met, "I don't like you," because they aren't from here. That's nasty, tribal bullshit, and the sooner the world is rid of it, the better off we'll all be.
That's nasty, tribal bullshit, and the sooner the world is rid of it, the better off we'll all be.
This. When the camera's off, I'm sure she complains to her friends about all the Hispanics who've moved into Medford, only without using the word "Hispanic".
By Charlieandjacksonbrown on Thu, 09/11/2014 - 2:22pm.
Yes, I know, a page right out if swirly's book. The only difference is, the woman put her name and her face to the things she said, not cowardly hide behind the relative anonymity of a childish pseudonym and spew mean-spirited lies and b.s.
Human beings are innately tribal. Part of that tribalism can revolve around accent. When they hear someone who sounds like them, they innately feel a bond they wouldn't feel off the bat for another. Gumans bond over all kinds of things, accents are certainly one of them.
In addition to being innately tribal, we are, arguably, innately thieves, adulterers, cheats, rapists, and murderers. Civilization allows us to surpass some of these innate qualities and be better than we would otherwise be.
Although I agree with the uselessness of most college students, there's nothing wrong with recycling (actually, being against it in 2014 makes you kind of a mouth-breather) or having a kid when you're 50. Some of us have lives to live before we give them up to babies.
Having a kid at 50 is not really a good idea. The risk of birth defects increases the older the parents, specifically the father. Not to mention, do you really want to die before your kid reaches 30? "Some of us have lives to live before we give them up to babies" is the exact kind of college age selfishness this (admittedly unappealing) woman is ranting about.
Well, forty-nine. It was the best thing I ever did. Increased risk of birth defects? Sure, but the risk is still pretty low. A a lot lower than the risk of being a passenger in a car.
And a fifty year old has a pretty good chance of seeing eighty. So I will probably be here for my son's thirtieth birthday.
My dad was thirty when I was born and didn't live to see seventy so it's pretty hard to plan these things.
My advice is to do what is right for you and don't worry about what other people are doing.
There were probably plenty of entitled land-owning Yankees who said similar things about her grandparents immigrating to the US and settling in Medford ... and RUINING EVERYTHING!
That's muddying the waters. There's an obvious different between the problems partying college kids create in neighborhoods they don't plan on staying in, and the struggles of impoverished immigrants from over 100 years go. Also, most people around here didn't "settle" in Medford, but moved there after successive generations gained upward mobility.
A distinction can be made between people who grew up in Boston suburbs and went to college in Boston, and on the other hand, those had no roots to New England prior to attending college here.
People who grew up in the Boston area (or NY for that matter) are more familiar with the the culture, sports teams, city, and are generally able to assimilate and fairly well. Many of them likely had family members with Boston accents going back a generation or to, even if they don't have one themselves.
On the other hand, people who moved here for college, stayed, and have no prior connection to New England are a completely different situation. They indeed have far less in common culturally than the typical person from the northeast USA. They just don't have the same roots.
As someone who grew up in the boston area I much prefer the company of those people that came from away. The fact that it brings people from all over the world is the best thing about boston. If it was just townies this place would be hell.
On the other hand, while it's true many new people have added to New England, many of us hope that the region will maintain some of its distinctive charm and culture. And yes, some of that requires long time residents of the area to stay here.
You might be happier in other parts of the country.
Isn't there a substantial gap between "people who grew up in Boston suburbs" and "those had no roots to New England"? The world's just not that simplistic.
Those who ridicule this person come across like the most self conscious transplants. You came here, not the other way around.
There are probably plenty of "townies" in whatever area you left, in order to make a better life for yourself in Massachusetts. Factor in that Massachusetts ranks highest in a number of measures including the performance of its public schools, and the quality of our environment, and economy. Most people born here don't have much reason to leave. You came here late, try to fit in.
Yes, this person was very emphatic in her speech, but that does not take away from the problems that transient college kids can create.
I'm just tired of people who complain about college kids and people who move in to the area when their problems are caused by their own failure to take advantage of their opportunities when they were still available.
My kids have gone through the same school system she has, BTW, and my husband used to teach in it. She could have made other choices than the ones that led her to serve students in Davis Square for a living.
I think SwirlyGirl is commenting on the fact that she's complaining about students while the only job she's qualified for is one that depends on the student population as clients.
May I inject another angle into this discussion? If she were a 'person of color' would you dare make the sarcastic comments you've made? Would you mock her accent? I don't think you would. I think you reserve your scorn exclusively (at least publicly) for white 'townies'. I've noticed this is very common among many people who refer to themselves as progressive, which I believe you do. It's a class thing,doctor, and also a perhaps tribal thing, a rural vs suburban vs urban thing.
I've been in many large cities in North America and Europe. A 'gruff' way of speaking is not unusual among native inhabitants who speak with the local accent. In England, accents are a big issue. People with urban accents are usually mocked as sounding too 'low class'. Our English friends might be amused to know accent snobbery is also alive and well in America.
this video is garnered so much vitriol from certain folks (this post has 100 comments as I type!) I know one may not like what she said in the video, but to mock her accent? Really, this does not sound progressive to me.
Is it a "dems", "dose" thing versus a foo foo clenched mouth Boston Brahmin drawl? I mean, if this lady had what one considers a upper class accent, would the response be different?
You're not getting it. Swirly isn't suddenly betraying some inherent class bias against waitresses (or whatever this woman does)--she's just saying that hey, if you hate being around college students so much, don't build your life in such a way that they're your daily bread and butter. Get it?
actually, yes, I grew up in what I call a series of east coast equivalent "rural and exurban trailer parks". Without going in for a futile tit for tat exercise with you, and not wanting to go into all the details of my private life with you all. I will just say this.
For a good portion of my childhood as well as my teen life, I grew up in, at times, tough circumstances (i.e. poverty level living) with a parent who suffered a life long chronic (i.e. and more times that not, a debilitating) illness, Throw in some domestic violence for good measure and a general lack of any adult mentoring/support network, you pretty much have a good portion my younger life's story.
So you came from a humble and/or challenging beginning (may I assume?), perhaps like myself (?) and achieved success. Kudos to you that you "made it out". However, that old bootstrap myth still resounds, in your words Swirl. I just thought you would understand that whether one achieves what we, as a society define as a success, is not as simple as just making the "right choices" and/or just finding those proverbial bootstraps.
Yeah suffering contests are a handful when there is better lore to share and aims to work toward
It's never useful to make assumptions about the lives behind pixels in comment sections. I try to make it easier by providing an eyeglaze inducing avalanche of detail. But I don't have some employer nosiness hazard that rightfully weighs on many.
Absent that, privacy is overrated and the worst thing that'll happen is you'll discover no one gave a shit in the first place. I decided to just be actual me soon after I figured out a free dial up and only had one notable problem that was solved with a few IP location exercises and some dances with various officials.
Look. I'm as glad as anyone that I don't live in the parts of Brighton or Somerville or Boston that are dominated by students. They can be a total pain in the arse. But come on. Boston minus the colleges would be a much poorer city--financially and culturally. Thanks be to God that we didn't have...oh I don't know--ship building or shoe manufacturing or insurance as our major economic driver, otherwise we'd be in big trouble.
And come on--the only people I've ever known personally who wore popped-collar pink Polo shirts were from South Boston. Went well with the Barracuda jackets and the shell-toe Adidas and sweats bi chego...
then moved to the Bunker Hill projects when I was sixteen and stayed there until I was twenty four. I spent much time around those who speak like this moron and she is one of those girls who the used the word "liberal" as if it was the N word.
"Fuckin' liberals up on da hill. House mouses that deserve to have the windows on dose fuckin BMW's smashed! Gotta Blaupunkt outta the deal too! How many bags a dust can I get for it? Fuckin' no good liberals".
The point is that there are people of all means and education levels that vote liberal and conservative in this state. Try not to pigeonhole people into one voting block.
In the northeast (and rust belt) there is no necessary correlation between liberals and democrats. Plenty of long-standing conservative irish catholic dems in this state, who, if the Mass GOP had any competency, would learn to pick off and bring to their side.
Exactly. Who else do you think elected good ol boys like Steve Lynch, Tom Finneran, and Ray Flynn? I'm a Democrat but I'd rather have a competent Republican around than any of those hacks.
The GOP shills have to somehow fool enough disgruntled fence sitters to go along with their simple minded free market corporate nostrums while tossing bleeding chum to the rabid and paranoid base.
The two positions are incompatible. And their politicians generally follow the Mittins script here, talking out of both sides of their mouth.
The Democrats have the easier task of getting their assortment of bickering doofuses to give their utopian ideals a rest while working on nut and bolt constituent service in a recognizable and useful way involving complex coalitions.
My main crackpot theory for explaining the current situation has to do with the qualities of Gen x, now aging and in the national driver seat.
Essentially, much of national political animosity amounts to the two halves of the Gen X overmind in perpetual argument with itself. It is a manic depressive drama queen generation given to extreme statements for effect.
The conservative side is mainly driven by angry white guys brandishing their masculinity with Social Darwinist rhetoric flights from strange filthy weasels like Paul Ryan and Rand Paul.
The liberal side has an angry woman element, (probably from trying to get along with the men), that cares about correctness and reflexively scolds when in doubt.
Both of these sides repeatedly express contempt and impatience with the mushy middle as it is dull and lacks drama.
While they may deserve each other, do the rest of us, (the enfeebled dingbat boomers like me and the capable and earnest millennials who don't give a shit about manic depressive Gen X problems), really deserve their bad signal to noise ratios?.
I figure we just have to put up with these shitheads for another few years and then the kids will start figuring out ways to fix the messes all the older clods make from my generation and 'X" are leaving them.
1) This damn state is one of the most 'progressive' in the country. It has a reputation for greater tolerance for people like LGBT, as a result many people who feel 'oppressed' where they come from or grew up, move here. How is this possible with all the RACIST 'townies' (who make up a very significant portion of the population, and are well known for actually voting,unlike many college transients and others)? Answer: It's not.
2) Some people scornfully spit out as 'Irish Catholic' as an epithet; the 'Irish' in Boston, and Massachusetts, are overwhelmingly AMERICAN, and a significant portion are non-religious, at best nominal Catholic.
3) MANY Catholics, including ckergy, are well known for championing 'progressive' causes.
Here is my take:
I come from a mixed white ethnic background (part Irish descent), and raised Catholic. I grew up what's described as working class in big cities (Boston and New York City). I graduated college and work in a 'professional' field. I've always lived in big cities (not just NY and Boston) and have travelled extensively. From an early age I became exposed to various political ideologies and fairly 'radical' people who espouse them. My experience with many people who self describe themselves has liberal, progressive, leftwing is they (in America at least) hate the following:
* White males, especially if they aren't 'ethnic' looking.
* They hate working class and poor whites (but not working class and poor Hispanics, blacks, Asians)
* In this area (Boston, MA, New England) they look down on people who speak with a Boston accent, a non-rhotic accent. It signifies to them 'low class', a dreaded 'townie' or local. They think the 'townies' are all too gruff, unrefined, RACIST and HOMOPHOBIC, etc.
To disagree with a "progressive" means you're a hater, racist, homophobe.......
I've noticed that as well. Actually progressives tend to be the least tolerant, imho
..as "don't care about very much." It is very sophomoric. A more enlightened outlook would turn on constructive engagement.
I feel very lucky that life has thrown me in with people of all persuasions and walks of life that I more or less have to get along with and often come to like.
The sophomoric progressives lack this engagement value. And given they are often also careerists, they don't always have much occasion to hang with people outside their bubble. It would be like doing lunch with the water cooler delivery person or something.
You can take em out of the burbs but can you take the burbs out of them?
One hopeful pathway to engagement I see is shared volunteer projects. A bunch of people just cleaned crap out of the lower Neponset as part of a watershed stewardship drive and they really do appear to be from all walks of life.
When we convene like that to work on some living green thing for free it seems to support cohesion.
In a funny way it's almost the opposite of the Iwo Jima flag raising. Instead of hoisting a banner in time of maximum war, they're pulling crap from a river in time of peace.
I pay particular attention to them because I agree with an idea set forth by John Wesley Powell in the 19th century that Watershed basins are natural boundary systems and make more sense than the ones drawn up arbitrarily.
It's also more or less what traditional Red Earth people observe.
There really is a lot of magic happening here besides Townie/yuppie squabbles and restaurant agonistes.
And thanks, as ever. You have an impressive ability to move to reasonable middle ground in these recurring quarrels. It is like a kind of gryostabilization of wobbling threads.
Those shades are priceless! I had a pair like that in 1982 or so. And her mention of the "pink popped collar". When was the last decade that was a fashion statement? Hilarious.
Seriously. I can't remember all of the nuances now but in 1981 the popped collar was an art form in certain communities. I know it was supposed to be a preppy thing but I remember it as some kind of neighborhood fashion distinction--all of the cool kids had reams of Polos and Lacoste shirts (or Le Tigre for the slightly downmarket) but only the Southie kids popped the collars. Anyone who went to school here can confirm or deny--my memory may be shaky.
Barracuda jackets, often blue instead of boring beige, worn inside out so the plaid lining was exposed along with a popped "gator" collar were de riguer in townie hoods in the 80s. I used to wear mine with ebe sweats and a pair of Spot-builts. Add a spikey hair-do cut over the ears and long in the back (okay, a mullet) and I was good to go as soon as I tossed on my Members Only in dark plum. Of course, a diamond stud was absolutely required and would only come out when you entered BC High or Don Bosco because, for the love of god, the priests thought it made us look queer. Projecting much, Father John???
You left out those pants that had a thin stripe running down the seam on the outside of the pant leg. I think I had a pair of navy blue with a silver stripe. Because, y'know, there's a dress code in Catholic schools, so you couldn't wear your acid-washed jeans to High School. V-neck sweater with a turtle-neck shirt with your gold chain on the outside of the shirt brought a touch of class.
Oh, and fuck BC High! Go M.C.!! Lancer Pride! (..erm...in retrospect, unfortunate mascot...)
As someone who's lived in this area my entire life, yes there has always been jokes about Medford and especially Somerville. My FIL grew up in Somerville and he would've been the first to pick on Somerville.
But things have surely changed. Places we would never think of wanting to move to, are now the most desirable places.
Friends and I still talk about how much Somerville has changed for the better, and if we had only thought to buy in the 70's and 80's.
..if you are not a conceited dipshit who needs to derive status from a location.
The song "Over the River and Through the Woods" was written there. Michael Bloomberg is from there. The great jazz drummer Tony Williams is from Swirly's neighborhood.
she's going after college kids not you (unless you're one of those people who stayed which I don't think you are). plus, I know her and she's from Southie so the only way she was drinking behind your house is if she was dating a Medford punk. she works at Jackie's Packie on route 34 and you should chill or there could be recurfussions. http://youtu.be/dc3MmThj_PU
You sound like one of those schoolyard kids with their whispering campaigns ... or their silly parents who never mentally progressed beyond high school.
Had a lot of fun with the last one - a male friend would meet at school drop off and I would go for coffee at "my place" (coffee shop A) or "his place" (coffee shop B) and then track the vicious rumor mill about our having an affair. Our spouses were in on the joke, of course, watching the fun with us.
There's this one old geezer on the Red Line, who tended to ride on Sunday afternoons. Start any conversation with him, and he immediately steers the conversation towards college kids stealing local resources and the absolute uselessness of a college education.
A fondness for old school bar bands that actually use instruments,
Way too many selfies while in a motor vehicle.
Some maternal stirrings.
Anxieties and aspirations churn in some feedback loop.
Not much to work with if the aim is serving up some new humiliation. Those of you who find this summary useful to spare themselves the time waste of gawking at another wreck are welcome.
About 4pm Labor Day on my street, I had deep sympathy pains for this condition. And at that point in the proceedings, given a choice of Swirly or this woman heading the welcoming committee, I would have gone with Ms. Aviator Glasses in a heartbeat.
After 3 days of someone parking a U-Haul with a car trailer on my street leading up to September 1st, I think I would have agreed with you. But, now that my rational self has returned, I'm back on team college student.
A lot worse has been said about our transient student population by a lot worse people. This isn't a new thing. Heck, I hated college kids when I was in high school, tolerated them when I got to BU, then went back to hating them when I graduated.
Town v gown is pretty darned old. Now, I hope she waits until April for her tourists' video. Yes, I know that October is the best time to visit Boston, but the numbers are tailing off by then.
There probably are better ways to get some activity going than this and you are very vulnerable to a plug pulling and a dead link.
That'll learn ya.
It was great to use as a launch pad to extol Medford and I'm heading right off as soon as my stubby little legs can carry me to make a Viva Medford Album to add to my others celebrating Lynn and Lawrence as an antidote to this low location snobbery.
What a witch hunt! Next week is someone going to troll facebook posts from Lynn to select one lucky resident to bash? How about some of you put YOUR names and faces to the nasty comments you've made on this site over the years, judgmental cowards.
I don't trash people as a hobby. I don't care where you were born or whether or not you've lived there your whole life. I don't care if you finished high school or you graduated with a PhD from BU. I don't care what your profession is, if you do or do not drive a car and similarly do or do not ride a bike. Sorry, kiddo!
It is pretty funny though. Now with limping Boston Magazine doing a controversy slurp, it only assures that everyone is stuck in the web 2.0 fly trap of indirectly boosting something you don't like by calling attention to it.
Further concentric waves of touts and swells will cluck away until she's up there with Miley Cyrus having one hell of a last laugh.
And it is all handy for me as a I gain an understanding of how people flounder with this powerful medium.
Make that "some" townies, Sobo. There are plenty here in MA that enjoy interacting with students, and, the positive cultural impact living in a region with so many great universities offers.
I didn't attend college at all, other than taking courses for employment enhancement, and I can't say I've ever not loved living in Boston. She's a piece of work, the type you can find in any city or town that has a large population of students, tourists or visitors.
"I personally know the Woman who made these comments. She isn't someone afraid to speak her mind and she certainly isn't lacking intellectually.
Her stance on Students over taking the area around this time of year is a harsh truth that many don't want to simply admit to. Though, not every student is careless and ignorant. There are some who were brought up with manners. Unfortunately not enough of them to offset to cluster !&#$ that comes to town each September.
Knowing Kim fairly well, I can say for a fact her humor in this isn't being realized by the majority of those have been offended by it. But then again most of those that feel associated to the things she mentioned are prone to be EMO anyways, so if the shoe fits... ;-p"
When you live an intensely local life, there is a local institutional memory of the kinds of things that you have been up to for years - and many of those things may be painfully similar to the behaviors that you decry later in others.
Or, maybe, she's actually self aware and just being an ironic hipster?
Made worse by the ability to toss the whole story all the way over to Thailand or something where they would be as puzzled as we'd be trying to make sense of the Shinawatra factions.
In the way, the world is becoming a goldfish bowl. I'm currently discovering the differing outlooks about Russia between Southern and Northern Slavic language group people.
My southern friends feel some fealty to Putin and don't want to rock the boat while the northerners in Poland cordially despise him. No sense of the Mitteleuropa crew is evident as if they hope it will all blow over.
Comments
Ahh....yes!
I can haz ignorance? And here we all thought Swirly was the voice of Medford.
I remember her
One of the drunk kids who used to drink in the woods behind my place, yes. Funny how they were all Old Meffuh types, certain that their future would be secure because Medford Forever!, despite their lazy drunken habits. I recognize her. She's all nice and mouthy while securely hiding behind her friends, sure.
I have to say, however, that I never had a Tufts student pass out in front of my house, or have their parent get in my face about how I called an ambulance rather than "mind my own business".
She's a parody of herself, seriously. The ole "I was born here" entitlement whine, defined. I don't suppose her paycheck from her Davis Square job has anything to do with students, or to do with the fact that her parent's house equity will bail her out of her extensive credit card debt in mid life.
Parody?
Oh, no! She's the genuine article! Want to bet what else she complains about when she's not smoking and filming herself driving? And it ain't entitled white kids. Of course her whining about her lot in life has nothing to do with the fact that she's an obvious idiot.
Someone else to blame
Yep. Always the fault of others, never drinking her way through high school and avoiding professional training after.
She reminds me of a Somerville dipshit back in the 80s and her loud and rude "anti-Barnie" rant on a bus. A woman who finished her invective that amounted to "they ruined my life by buying property in MY neighborhood", only for her friend to ask "how's yer mah doin in Flariduh?"
As if buying and selling weren't somehow related.
Classic failure to connect actions and choices with consequences, buffered with a whalloping dollop of entitlement.
Don't let this mess with your blood pressure.
None of us are getting any younger and it would near kill me if you had a stroke over some foolish shit like this.
It's like swatting a fly with a shovel. Proportional response is the key. In this case, 'ignore' probably works. It is kind of funny that you had to fish her out of your shrubbery and get EMTs over. It was the right thing to do though, as toxic alcohol poisoning is a serious hazard kids don't readily understand when trying to be heroic about booze bingeing.
But it's probably is a foolish request. I can see how the people here who rose up from searing poverty to make themselves magnificent are really riled, while the more diffident regulars who may not know that experience are just taking swings due to their usual conceits.
Adam was just looking for some good click bait on a slow day and the scheme seems to have worked.
I feel bad
I feel bad for townies...
having to go through life with such an inferiority complex. it must really stink.
my thoughts and prayers for them.
- The Original SoBo Yuppie.
Question
Where are you from? Is there anyplace you'd consider a 'hometown' aside from,say,Boston? Just curious.
Just wow
Absent your recognition of her as a real person I honestly would have thought this was a joke, or some young actress attempting a viral audition for the next south boston gangster movie. What a bitter bitter person.
She's real on Facebook:
She's real on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=10204660737461328
Doctor
EVERY place for the most part has people like her. And why do you find it necessary to ridicule and mock a Boston accent? It's inferior to your accent? It signifies the speaker is 'low class'?
And I can assure you there are PLENTY of college kids and kids from 'nice' backgrounds who like to get shitfaced drunk and use an assortment of narcotics.
Really?
You don't say?
But, hey, they don't happen to be in her company and on my street when they do so.
Oh, and most people know their own arear code.
"EVERY place for the most
"EVERY place for the most part has people like her. And why do you find it necessary to ridicule and mock a Boston accent? It's inferior to your accent? It signifies the speaker is 'low class'?"
Answer his questions.
Also, she wasn't referring to her own area code, but rather, the most well known Boston area zip-code. Keep trying.
617
The first three digits of an Illinois zip code.
Keep trying, anon.
She said area code, not zip
She said area code, not zip code. 617 is correct, if she was referring to Boston, and she most likely was.
617
If this rant was about Tufts students, many of their dorms are on the south side of campus, which is the Somerville side. I doubt many incoming students bother to get landline service these days, but if they do, their area code would be 617.
More likely 857 or whatever
More likely 857 or whatever the new one is that I always think is some 800 number robospam calling.
Yes, exactly
That's pretty much exactly what her accent signifies, isn't it?
So, let me get this straight
anyone with a non-rhotic accent is 'low class'? All people who speak with a Boston,New York City accent are 'low class'? People who speak with a London accent are 'low class'? People who speak with a Australian accent are 'low class'? But people who sound like they are from Greenwich, Connecticut sound proper and educated? OK, good to know.
Accent's fine
Her accent's fine (said the native), it's her words that are "low class."
This
Plenty of really decent, well-educated, and reasonable folks around who happen to speak with an accent like that.
She ain't one of them.
Yes
Yes.
freakin tourists
freakin tourists
Not at all.
People with a high class Boston or New York or London or Australian accent sound high class. People with a low-class Boston or New York or London or Australian accent sound low class.
There's no crime or dishonor in not having had a lot of educational and travel advantages, but any attempt to claim that this woman sounds well educated, well traveled, or well read is insane.
Interestingly, pretty much across the English-speaking world, non-rhotic accents are generally associated with lower levels of education and lower socioeconomic status. Maybe because once people get richer they want to 'talk fancy' to fit in better with their neighbors? Maybe for any of a number of other reasons?
Nonsense
Even 'upper class' accents in England are non-rhotic. In fact, non-rhotic accents are generally associated with rural areas, farmers, etc.
She brought back fond (j/k)
She brought back fond (j/k) memories of growing up in the area. When I moved back to Boston a few years ago, I was actually shocked by how few of these townie people with that sort of blown out smokers voice I encountered.
Boston accents
The more the economy gets better around here (like since the early 80s or thereabouts -- talking relative to the rest of the East Coast) the more "outsiders" come into the area, assume middle class to well-off situations and the more Boston accents get associated with working class and poor. And the more it gets associated with "no class," ignorant and/or racist -- plainly-speaking, "white trash."
Watching old news clips from the 50-70s you see perfectly well-educated people dropping their r's and sounding very townie - but you'd never call them white trash. It feels like this is a lot rarer today, as the whole country is rushing headlong to some generic, lowest-common denominator culture (including accents) that makes for easier marketing. With some exceptions here and there. Like EPA Director, Dorchester's own, Gina McCarthy:
As far as this fuckin clam-bag goes, who gives a rat's ass what she thinks, except the douche-bag low-lifes that follow her on FaceBook. I'm sure someday you'll be stuck in a line of traffic on 93 because she rear-ended someone while videoing herself flapping her yap about some horseshit.
Thread Winner!!!
Best laugh in a while.
The sophomorism of transplants foisting their imaginary Boston accents is grating but they probably mean well.
I can remember when it was more of a linguistic heirloom with many subtle variations. I bet if you found old clips of Frank Sargent or Endicott Peabody, you'd find a bit of it and it wouldn't be affect.
Not really.
Accent has always been very closely associated with class and status. Sure, everyone in Boston sounded like they were from Boston, but there was always a big difference between the patrician Boston accent and the working-class Boston accent.
Swirly
Please enlighten us all as to how this person has intentionally injured you personally, to such a degree that you would judge her so, and publicly say such mean, nasty things about someone that you clearly do not even know. Is this the way you have raised your children to act? Just as her rant says a lot about her, yours says volumes about you.
I'm not swirly, but...
What this woman has done, is to say, to a bunch of people she's never met, "I don't like you," because they aren't from here. That's nasty, tribal bullshit, and the sooner the world is rid of it, the better off we'll all be.
That's nasty, tribal bullshit
This. When the camera's off, I'm sure she complains to her friends about all the Hispanics who've moved into Medford, only without using the word "Hispanic".
You know this how?
Project much?
I'm psychic.
I'm psychic.
Yes, I know
Yes, I know, a page right out if swirly's book. The only difference is, the woman put her name and her face to the things she said, not cowardly hide behind the relative anonymity of a childish pseudonym and spew mean-spirited lies and b.s.
Newsflash
Human beings are innately tribal. Part of that tribalism can revolve around accent. When they hear someone who sounds like them, they innately feel a bond they wouldn't feel off the bat for another. Gumans bond over all kinds of things, accents are certainly one of them.
There is nothing sweeter than
There is nothing sweeter than the sound of a brogue.....
We're innately a lot of things
In addition to being innately tribal, we are, arguably, innately thieves, adulterers, cheats, rapists, and murderers. Civilization allows us to surpass some of these innate qualities and be better than we would otherwise be.
I'm in love.
..That is all.
She seems nice.
She seems nice.
Adorable!
Although I agree with the
Although I agree with the uselessness of most college students, there's nothing wrong with recycling (actually, being against it in 2014 makes you kind of a mouth-breather) or having a kid when you're 50. Some of us have lives to live before we give them up to babies.
Having a kid at 50
Having a kid at 50 is not really a good idea. The risk of birth defects increases the older the parents, specifically the father. Not to mention, do you really want to die before your kid reaches 30? "Some of us have lives to live before we give them up to babies" is the exact kind of college age selfishness this (admittedly unappealing) woman is ranting about.
I had a child at fifty.
Well, forty-nine. It was the best thing I ever did. Increased risk of birth defects? Sure, but the risk is still pretty low. A a lot lower than the risk of being a passenger in a car.
And a fifty year old has a pretty good chance of seeing eighty. So I will probably be here for my son's thirtieth birthday.
My dad was thirty when I was born and didn't live to see seventy so it's pretty hard to plan these things.
My advice is to do what is right for you and don't worry about what other people are doing.
You know she just jinxed
You know she just jinxed herself and she's going to get knocked up at 50.
class warfare FTW
class warfare FTW
Funny, isn't it?
There were probably plenty of entitled land-owning Yankees who said similar things about her grandparents immigrating to the US and settling in Medford ... and RUINING EVERYTHING!
yea and now she's complaining
yea and now she's complaining about their great great grandkids
That's muddying the waters.
That's muddying the waters. There's an obvious different between the problems partying college kids create in neighborhoods they don't plan on staying in, and the struggles of impoverished immigrants from over 100 years go. Also, most people around here didn't "settle" in Medford, but moved there after successive generations gained upward mobility.
Shocking
People wouldn't want to stay in a neighborhood where people treat them like she does.
Meffa Speaks!
Can Jackie's Packie, at the other end of the Red Line, be far behind?
Never once heard it
Never once heard it pronounced "Meffa". It's Medfid, to locals.
Welcome to Massachusetts.
Never once heard it
But everyone else calls it "Meffa". Every. Single. Time they meet a local.
Everyone Else also says
Everyone Else also says "Beantown", and no one who actually lives in Boston does (unless it's a sign they're putting on a tourist-oriented business).
And everyone knows...
..."Beantown" was already turned into "Greentown" by a certain slurring may-yuh.
Me(d)fid
I agree its not Meffa and never was. More like Medfid with a very soft first D, and a more pronounced second D.
Yep.
I think of it as Me(d)ffid.
Ugh,
What a hipster.
A distinction can be made
A distinction can be made between people who grew up in Boston suburbs and went to college in Boston, and on the other hand, those had no roots to New England prior to attending college here.
People who grew up in the Boston area (or NY for that matter) are more familiar with the the culture, sports teams, city, and are generally able to assimilate and fairly well. Many of them likely had family members with Boston accents going back a generation or to, even if they don't have one themselves.
On the other hand, people who moved here for college, stayed, and have no prior connection to New England are a completely different situation. They indeed have far less in common culturally than the typical person from the northeast USA. They just don't have the same roots.
As someone who grew up in the
As someone who grew up in the boston area I much prefer the company of those people that came from away. The fact that it brings people from all over the world is the best thing about boston. If it was just townies this place would be hell.
your grandfather
On the other hand, while it's true many new people have added to New England, many of us hope that the region will maintain some of its distinctive charm and culture. And yes, some of that requires long time residents of the area to stay here.
You might be happier in other parts of the country.
Aren't you forgetting something?
Isn't there a substantial gap between "people who grew up in Boston suburbs" and "those had no roots to New England"? The world's just not that simplistic.
Those who ridicule this
Those who ridicule this person come across like the most self conscious transplants. You came here, not the other way around.
There are probably plenty of "townies" in whatever area you left, in order to make a better life for yourself in Massachusetts. Factor in that Massachusetts ranks highest in a number of measures including the performance of its public schools, and the quality of our environment, and economy. Most people born here don't have much reason to leave. You came here late, try to fit in.
Yes, this person was very emphatic in her speech, but that does not take away from the problems that transient college kids can create.
Naw
I'm just tired of people who complain about college kids and people who move in to the area when their problems are caused by their own failure to take advantage of their opportunities when they were still available.
My kids have gone through the same school system she has, BTW, and my husband used to teach in it. She could have made other choices than the ones that led her to serve students in Davis Square for a living.
Question
Is there something wrong with "...serve students in Davis Square for a living?" Or is that something below your station?
I think SwirlyGirl is
I think SwirlyGirl is commenting on the fact that she's complaining about students while the only job she's qualified for is one that depends on the student population as clients.
..."she" NOT being SwirlyGirl
..."she" NOT being SwirlyGirl. Kinda the point.
Your finally coming around
Your finally coming around swirly. Did you see the light?
Doctor
May I inject another angle into this discussion? If she were a 'person of color' would you dare make the sarcastic comments you've made? Would you mock her accent? I don't think you would. I think you reserve your scorn exclusively (at least publicly) for white 'townies'. I've noticed this is very common among many people who refer to themselves as progressive, which I believe you do. It's a class thing,doctor, and also a perhaps tribal thing, a rural vs suburban vs urban thing.
I've been in many large cities in North America and Europe. A 'gruff' way of speaking is not unusual among native inhabitants who speak with the local accent. In England, accents are a big issue. People with urban accents are usually mocked as sounding too 'low class'. Our English friends might be amused to know accent snobbery is also alive and well in America.
I am very interested as to why
this video is garnered so much vitriol from certain folks (this post has 100 comments as I type!) I know one may not like what she said in the video, but to mock her accent? Really, this does not sound progressive to me.
Is it a "dems", "dose" thing versus a foo foo clenched mouth Boston Brahmin drawl? I mean, if this lady had what one considers a upper class accent, would the response be different?
Something to ponder.
What a nasty thing to say
"She could have made other choices than the ones that led her to serve students in Davis Square for a living."
What is wrong with being a server? What do you know about her choices and opportunities?
Absolutely nothing is wrong
Absolutely nothing is wrong with being a server. Some arrogant and snotty people have their noses up in the air.
Some arrogant and snotty
Yes, that's why we're making fun of her.
Oy.
You're not getting it. Swirly isn't suddenly betraying some inherent class bias against waitresses (or whatever this woman does)--she's just saying that hey, if you hate being around college students so much, don't build your life in such a way that they're your daily bread and butter. Get it?
Exactly, Sally
It would be very hard for someone whose first job was picking berries, beans, and hazelnuts to look down on a server, anyway (and, yes, I tip well).
But IF your job that makes it possible for you to stay in your hometown is dependent on the presence of a University ...
Ah, the choices we all make
If it was only that easy, SGrrl.
So, whyaduck
You grew up in a series of rural and exurban trailer parks, too?
So, Swirly..
actually, yes, I grew up in what I call a series of east coast equivalent "rural and exurban trailer parks". Without going in for a futile tit for tat exercise with you, and not wanting to go into all the details of my private life with you all. I will just say this.
For a good portion of my childhood as well as my teen life, I grew up in, at times, tough circumstances (i.e. poverty level living) with a parent who suffered a life long chronic (i.e. and more times that not, a debilitating) illness, Throw in some domestic violence for good measure and a general lack of any adult mentoring/support network, you pretty much have a good portion my younger life's story.
So you came from a humble and/or challenging beginning (may I assume?), perhaps like myself (?) and achieved success. Kudos to you that you "made it out". However, that old bootstrap myth still resounds, in your words Swirl. I just thought you would understand that whether one achieves what we, as a society define as a success, is not as simple as just making the "right choices" and/or just finding those proverbial bootstraps.
Gracious, graceful and wise
.. all in one riposte.
Yeah suffering contests are a handful when there is better lore to share and aims to work toward
It's never useful to make assumptions about the lives behind pixels in comment sections. I try to make it easier by providing an eyeglaze inducing avalanche of detail. But I don't have some employer nosiness hazard that rightfully weighs on many.
Absent that, privacy is overrated and the worst thing that'll happen is you'll discover no one gave a shit in the first place. I decided to just be actual me soon after I figured out a free dial up and only had one notable problem that was solved with a few IP location exercises and some dances with various officials.
Oh the problems!!
Look. I'm as glad as anyone that I don't live in the parts of Brighton or Somerville or Boston that are dominated by students. They can be a total pain in the arse. But come on. Boston minus the colleges would be a much poorer city--financially and culturally. Thanks be to God that we didn't have...oh I don't know--ship building or shoe manufacturing or insurance as our major economic driver, otherwise we'd be in big trouble.
And come on--the only people I've ever known personally who wore popped-collar pink Polo shirts were from South Boston. Went well with the Barracuda jackets and the shell-toe Adidas and sweats bi chego...
Walk through the B school sometime
it's popped-collar heaven!
Well, I grew up in Reveah
then moved to the Bunker Hill projects when I was sixteen and stayed there until I was twenty four. I spent much time around those who speak like this moron and she is one of those girls who the used the word "liberal" as if it was the N word.
"Fuckin' liberals up on da hill. House mouses that deserve to have the windows on dose fuckin BMW's smashed! Gotta Blaupunkt outta the deal too! How many bags a dust can I get for it? Fuckin' no good liberals".
You get the idea. Or maybe some of you don't.
There's plenty of locals who
There's plenty of locals who vote Democrat in this state.
And your point?
????
Something something Faux
Something something Faux-cahontas something Martha Deval.
The point is that there are
The point is that there are people of all means and education levels that vote liberal and conservative in this state. Try not to pigeonhole people into one voting block.
Liberal =/ Democrat
In the northeast (and rust belt) there is no necessary correlation between liberals and democrats. Plenty of long-standing conservative irish catholic dems in this state, who, if the Mass GOP had any competency, would learn to pick off and bring to their side.
Exactly. Who else do you
Exactly. Who else do you think elected good ol boys like Steve Lynch, Tom Finneran, and Ray Flynn? I'm a Democrat but I'd rather have a competent Republican around than any of those hacks.
Competent Northeastern Republicans
Once a flourishing sub-species, now largely extinct. Baker certainly doesn't count as one (even if he is not personally a Tea Pary adherent).
The tightrope walk is too ridiculous.
The GOP shills have to somehow fool enough disgruntled fence sitters to go along with their simple minded free market corporate nostrums while tossing bleeding chum to the rabid and paranoid base.
The two positions are incompatible. And their politicians generally follow the Mittins script here, talking out of both sides of their mouth.
The Democrats have the easier task of getting their assortment of bickering doofuses to give their utopian ideals a rest while working on nut and bolt constituent service in a recognizable and useful way involving complex coalitions.
My main crackpot theory for explaining the current situation has to do with the qualities of Gen x, now aging and in the national driver seat.
Essentially, much of national political animosity amounts to the two halves of the Gen X overmind in perpetual argument with itself. It is a manic depressive drama queen generation given to extreme statements for effect.
The conservative side is mainly driven by angry white guys brandishing their masculinity with Social Darwinist rhetoric flights from strange filthy weasels like Paul Ryan and Rand Paul.
The liberal side has an angry woman element, (probably from trying to get along with the men), that cares about correctness and reflexively scolds when in doubt.
Both of these sides repeatedly express contempt and impatience with the mushy middle as it is dull and lacks drama.
While they may deserve each other, do the rest of us, (the enfeebled dingbat boomers like me and the capable and earnest millennials who don't give a shit about manic depressive Gen X problems), really deserve their bad signal to noise ratios?.
I figure we just have to put up with these shitheads for another few years and then the kids will start figuring out ways to fix the messes all the older clods make from my generation and 'X" are leaving them.
And you get to vote your vote
And you get to vote your vote , just like everyone else. Steve Lynch does a lot of things for people that you will never read about, he is a good man.
Oh yes
those nasty, horrible, RACIST 'Irish' Catholics:
1) This damn state is one of the most 'progressive' in the country. It has a reputation for greater tolerance for people like LGBT, as a result many people who feel 'oppressed' where they come from or grew up, move here. How is this possible with all the RACIST 'townies' (who make up a very significant portion of the population, and are well known for actually voting,unlike many college transients and others)? Answer: It's not.
2) Some people scornfully spit out as 'Irish Catholic' as an epithet; the 'Irish' in Boston, and Massachusetts, are overwhelmingly AMERICAN, and a significant portion are non-religious, at best nominal Catholic.
3) MANY Catholics, including ckergy, are well known for championing 'progressive' causes.
Here is my take:
I come from a mixed white ethnic background (part Irish descent), and raised Catholic. I grew up what's described as working class in big cities (Boston and New York City). I graduated college and work in a 'professional' field. I've always lived in big cities (not just NY and Boston) and have travelled extensively. From an early age I became exposed to various political ideologies and fairly 'radical' people who espouse them. My experience with many people who self describe themselves has liberal, progressive, leftwing is they (in America at least) hate the following:
* White males, especially if they aren't 'ethnic' looking.
* They hate working class and poor whites (but not working class and poor Hispanics, blacks, Asians)
* In this area (Boston, MA, New England) they look down on people who speak with a Boston accent, a non-rhotic accent. It signifies to them 'low class', a dreaded 'townie' or local. They think the 'townies' are all too gruff, unrefined, RACIST and HOMOPHOBIC, etc.
To disagree with a
To disagree with a "progressive" means you're a hater, racist, homophobe.......
I've noticed that as well. Actually progressives tend to be the least tolerant, imho
It's 2014, their new
It's 2014, their new catchphrase is "DIE CIS SCUM!"
Not so much 'hate'
..as "don't care about very much." It is very sophomoric. A more enlightened outlook would turn on constructive engagement.
I feel very lucky that life has thrown me in with people of all persuasions and walks of life that I more or less have to get along with and often come to like.
The sophomoric progressives lack this engagement value. And given they are often also careerists, they don't always have much occasion to hang with people outside their bubble. It would be like doing lunch with the water cooler delivery person or something.
You can take em out of the burbs but can you take the burbs out of them?
One hopeful pathway to engagement I see is shared volunteer projects. A bunch of people just cleaned crap out of the lower Neponset as part of a watershed stewardship drive and they really do appear to be from all walks of life.
When we convene like that to work on some living green thing for free it seems to support cohesion.
Here's the America I like to hang with https://flic.kr/p/oRhoS8
In a funny way it's almost the opposite of the Iwo Jima flag raising. Instead of hoisting a banner in time of maximum war, they're pulling crap from a river in time of peace.
You're a good egg, Chris.
And that picture is f'ing awesome.
Watershed Associations
..are doing some of the best work here.
I pay particular attention to them because I agree with an idea set forth by John Wesley Powell in the 19th century that Watershed basins are natural boundary systems and make more sense than the ones drawn up arbitrarily.
It's also more or less what traditional Red Earth people observe.
There really is a lot of magic happening here besides Townie/yuppie squabbles and restaurant agonistes.
And thanks, as ever. You have an impressive ability to move to reasonable middle ground in these recurring quarrels. It is like a kind of gryostabilization of wobbling threads.
Nailed it anon!
Nailed it anon!
Maybe it was her screen test for Ted 2? (HIGHLY NSFW)
What year is this?
Those shades are priceless! I had a pair like that in 1982 or so. And her mention of the "pink popped collar". When was the last decade that was a fashion statement? Hilarious.
Popped collars have been a
Popped collars have been a common thing of ridicule for about the last decade or more.
There's also plenty of big shades on college campuses in Boston, or the nicer streets in New York.
A decade? Try three or four.
Seriously. I can't remember all of the nuances now but in 1981 the popped collar was an art form in certain communities. I know it was supposed to be a preppy thing but I remember it as some kind of neighborhood fashion distinction--all of the cool kids had reams of Polos and Lacoste shirts (or Le Tigre for the slightly downmarket) but only the Southie kids popped the collars. Anyone who went to school here can confirm or deny--my memory may be shaky.
Confirmed!
Barracuda jackets, often blue instead of boring beige, worn inside out so the plaid lining was exposed along with a popped "gator" collar were de riguer in townie hoods in the 80s. I used to wear mine with ebe sweats and a pair of Spot-builts. Add a spikey hair-do cut over the ears and long in the back (okay, a mullet) and I was good to go as soon as I tossed on my Members Only in dark plum. Of course, a diamond stud was absolutely required and would only come out when you entered BC High or Don Bosco because, for the love of god, the priests thought it made us look queer. Projecting much, Father John???
Aiiiigggghhhhhh!
You're giving me flashbacks...
80's stylie
You left out those pants that had a thin stripe running down the seam on the outside of the pant leg. I think I had a pair of navy blue with a silver stripe. Because, y'know, there's a dress code in Catholic schools, so you couldn't wear your acid-washed jeans to High School. V-neck sweater with a turtle-neck shirt with your gold chain on the outside of the shirt brought a touch of class.
Oh, and fuck BC High! Go M.C.!! Lancer Pride! (..erm...in retrospect, unfortunate mascot...)
Yep
Now I can't remember the difference between sweats bi ebe and sweats bi chego--same thing??
Don't forget the
adhesive green shamrock that goes on the collar of the Barracuda jacket.
Past decade
Popped collars were cool again in the past 10 years. If your drive down Adams St. In Dorchester, you can still catch some Irish kids sporting them.
http://youtu.be/2klTw123_jw
What a modest portrait of
What a modest portrait of elegance and grace she is. And since when is Medford "awesome"?
Pardon? Never lived in
Pardon? Never lived in Medford, but there's some very nice and down to earth neighborhoods there.
Aren't you that transplant who pop's in to every one of these topics? Time to settle in, or leave if you don't like it.
As someone who's lived in
As someone who's lived in this area my entire life, yes there has always been jokes about Medford and especially Somerville. My FIL grew up in Somerville and he would've been the first to pick on Somerville.
But things have surely changed. Places we would never think of wanting to move to, are now the most desirable places.
Friends and I still talk about how much Somerville has changed for the better, and if we had only thought to buy in the 70's and 80's.
It actually is
..if you are not a conceited dipshit who needs to derive status from a location.
The song "Over the River and Through the Woods" was written there. Michael Bloomberg is from there. The great jazz drummer Tony Williams is from Swirly's neighborhood.
http://youtu.be/QcKgpPvzi18
He went to work with Miles Davis before he was old enough to drink.
There really are better forms of status. Being magnanimous is one.
Being kindly is another.
Caring about something grander than yourself is yet another.
And best of all is when people say, "you know, he/she really made a difference in my life" when your ashes are being scattered.
And don't forget the Theroux clan
Paul et al.
Yes. He lived in Swirlies neighborhood too.
I think he was right near this little riverside park.
http://youtu.be/hjiRk5uvVy8
famous songs from Medford
also, "Jingle Bells".
I like Medford, as it has a number of things Somerville lacks -- the Mystic Lakes, the Fells, Bestsellers Cafe.
It was a hit factory
..before such things were dreamed of. And with a kind of new urban restoration underway, it's rising in value.
chill SwirlyGrrl
she's going after college kids not you (unless you're one of those people who stayed which I don't think you are). plus, I know her and she's from Southie so the only way she was drinking behind your house is if she was dating a Medford punk. she works at Jackie's Packie on route 34 and you should chill or there could be recurfussions.
http://youtu.be/dc3MmThj_PU
Wow, just wow.
That's a threat. A
[edit: crap, I meant to say, "firect ducking threat" -- and I can't even get my funny-wannabe typo right.]
I recurfussioned your mom
I recurfussioned your mom last night
What grade are you in, again?
You sound like one of those schoolyard kids with their whispering campaigns ... or their silly parents who never mentally progressed beyond high school.
Had a lot of fun with the last one - a male friend would meet at school drop off and I would go for coffee at "my place" (coffee shop A) or "his place" (coffee shop B) and then track the vicious rumor mill about our having an affair. Our spouses were in on the joke, of course, watching the fun with us.
Sounds like someone actually
Sounds like someone actually never even finished high school
Anyone remember the guy on the red line?
There's this one old geezer on the Red Line, who tended to ride on Sunday afternoons. Start any conversation with him, and he immediately steers the conversation towards college kids stealing local resources and the absolute uselessness of a college education.
Here you all go
http://www.vineos.co/u/924319493075906560
have at it, now.
What can be learned
..from rummaging around this?
The main additions to discourse seem to be:
A fondness for old school bar bands that actually use instruments,
Way too many selfies while in a motor vehicle.
Some maternal stirrings.
Anxieties and aspirations churn in some feedback loop.
Not much to work with if the aim is serving up some new humiliation. Those of you who find this summary useful to spare themselves the time waste of gawking at another wreck are welcome.
U-Haul Derangement Syndrome
About 4pm Labor Day on my street, I had deep sympathy pains for this condition. And at that point in the proceedings, given a choice of Swirly or this woman heading the welcoming committee, I would have gone with Ms. Aviator Glasses in a heartbeat.
Me too
After 3 days of someone parking a U-Haul with a car trailer on my street leading up to September 1st, I think I would have agreed with you. But, now that my rational self has returned, I'm back on team college student.
How is this even a thing
A lot worse has been said about our transient student population by a lot worse people. This isn't a new thing. Heck, I hated college kids when I was in high school, tolerated them when I got to BU, then went back to hating them when I graduated.
Town v gown is pretty darned old. Now, I hope she waits until April for her tourists' video. Yes, I know that October is the best time to visit Boston, but the numbers are tailing off by then.
I's gone!
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Looks like she got the last laugh.
There probably are better ways to get some activity going than this and you are very vulnerable to a plug pulling and a dead link.
That'll learn ya.
It was great to use as a launch pad to extol Medford and I'm heading right off as soon as my stubby little legs can carry me to make a Viva Medford Album to add to my others celebrating Lynn and Lawrence as an antidote to this low location snobbery.
Medford
It seems like there are some really good restaurants there (with foods from all sorts of different countries).
what?
what?
not impressed by the smug superiority of many here
What a witch hunt! Next week is someone going to troll facebook posts from Lynn to select one lucky resident to bash? How about some of you put YOUR names and faces to the nasty comments you've made on this site over the years, judgmental cowards.
anon wrote:
anon wrote:
You first.
I don't trash people as a
I don't trash people as a hobby. I don't care where you were born or whether or not you've lived there your whole life. I don't care if you finished high school or you graduated with a PhD from BU. I don't care what your profession is, if you do or do not drive a car and similarly do or do not ride a bike. Sorry, kiddo!
Umm... What?
Nobody sought her out; it was her choice to publish nasty, hostile commentary.
Oh, I'm sorry, I hadn't
Oh, I'm sorry, I hadn't realized she posted to UniversalHub. My bad!
Yeah, she slipped Adam the Murphy
and scooted leaving an empty frame.
It is pretty funny though. Now with limping Boston Magazine doing a controversy slurp, it only assures that everyone is stuck in the web 2.0 fly trap of indirectly boosting something you don't like by calling attention to it.
Further concentric waves of touts and swells will cluck away until she's up there with Miley Cyrus having one hell of a last laugh.
And it is all handy for me as a I gain an understanding of how people flounder with this powerful medium.
What?
Are you saying she didn't publish those comments? That they were somehow leaked?
she posted it to her facebook
she posted it to her facebook tho...
Townies?
Make that "some" townies, Sobo. There are plenty here in MA that enjoy interacting with students, and, the positive cultural impact living in a region with so many great universities offers.
I didn't attend college at all, other than taking courses for employment enhancement, and I can't say I've ever not loved living in Boston. She's a piece of work, the type you can find in any city or town that has a large population of students, tourists or visitors.
You want to see a guy that
You want to see a guy that can rant, check out Joe Ligotti , the Guy from Boston !
http://www.joetgfb.com/
Google his videos , but not for the tender hearted....
In case you can't get enough
In case you can't get enough of Kim Costa's never ending surplus of positive energy, here's Kim's YouTube
Worth a look for the article's comments,
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2014/09/10/kim-costa-medford-res...
From one such post:
"I personally know the Woman who made these comments. She isn't someone afraid to speak her mind and she certainly isn't lacking intellectually.
Her stance on Students over taking the area around this time of year is a harsh truth that many don't want to simply admit to. Though, not every student is careless and ignorant. There are some who were brought up with manners. Unfortunately not enough of them to offset to cluster !&#$ that comes to town each September.
Knowing Kim fairly well, I can say for a fact her humor in this isn't being realized by the majority of those have been offended by it. But then again most of those that feel associated to the things she mentioned are prone to be EMO anyways, so if the shoe fits... ;-p"
These folks seem to forget
When you live an intensely local life, there is a local institutional memory of the kinds of things that you have been up to for years - and many of those things may be painfully similar to the behaviors that you decry later in others.
Or, maybe, she's actually self aware and just being an ironic hipster?
It's a goldfish bowl.
Made worse by the ability to toss the whole story all the way over to Thailand or something where they would be as puzzled as we'd be trying to make sense of the Shinawatra factions.
In the way, the world is becoming a goldfish bowl. I'm currently discovering the differing outlooks about Russia between Southern and Northern Slavic language group people.
My southern friends feel some fealty to Putin and don't want to rock the boat while the northerners in Poland cordially despise him. No sense of the Mitteleuropa crew is evident as if they hope it will all blow over.