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Well, the ad's not wrong

Billboard reading This Is Boston and it's in Boston

Shamus Moynihan was on Brighton Avenue today and spotted this sign over Banh Mi K (where Spike's used to be) and couldn't figure out the point of having some vaguely disaffected dude telling people they're in Boston.

Somebody on Boston Reddit instantly recognized the guy as Georainbolt, the pseudonym of a guy who's just aces at Geoguessr, an online game where you get shown images from Google Street View and then have to identify where they are. He's so good, he has his own Wikipedia page.

If he were looking down from that billboard, this is roughly what he'd see. Major props to him if he could immediately think "Boston."

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Comments

He looks like he hasn't slept in days.

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It's GeoRainbolt from TikTok - incredible geoguessing

https://www.tiktok.com/@georainbolt/video/7200869657601920302?lang=en

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That's Georainbolt, he's really good at Geoguessr, a game where you find locations on Google Maps. I don't get why someone would pay to put a meme up.

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Thanks for clarifying. I never heard of the game you describe. My first thought was that this weird looking guy somehow represented an opiate addict. I'm not kidding.

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...

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It's a fun game, but I agree, if I were this guy I would not be pleased if this was the photo of me that was put up in public.

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since that guy put up that photo of himself on that billboard.

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I don't get why someone would pay to put a meme up.

It's a PSA: Get outside and get some son, kids. Don't end up like this guy.

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I love Geoguesser!

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that isn't a Bank on the right

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Thanks.

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does a first-rate banh mi, currently my number two non-Dorchester purveyor after the great Pho Viet's, which recently moved down the block from its original Allston location in the food court at the Hong Kong Supermarket and has an equally-worthy second outlet in Newton Centre.

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A friend was living in Quincy and asked a Vietnamese co-worker which of the Vietnamese places there were the best to go to and she just shook her head and said, "No, you must go to Dorchester" in response. It became a bit of a running joke for whenever we wanted Vietnamese food.

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I've lived here 15 years this summer, and have never had a reason to visit Dorchester...until now.

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There are hundreds of reasons to visit Dorchester, and a lot of them involve food.

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Pho Viet's, which recently moved down the block from its original Allston location in the food court at the Hong Kong Supermarket

Meaning it's got its own location down the street? Because yay if so.

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on Comm Ave at Babcock Street not far from Packard's Corner, a couple of doors down from T. Anthony's Pizzeria.

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I'd probably get fresh rolls and banh mi mor often than T. Anthony's pizza now.

Back then, it was too easy to just call in an order and schlep a pizza box back for all.

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Perfect example of why the designation of "world class" is still out of reach.

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The Boston subreddit, where almost no one actually lives in Boston but everyone sucks.

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Now those were some fine dogs - especially the Freakin' Hot Hot Dog.

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<@:~
not so nice.

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This is Allston.

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somebody upthread said it looked like a billboard to call attention to the crisis.

with the 2 recent storys about laced fentynol overdoses, i thought the same.

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The Globe talked to him:

Reached by phone on Thursday, he told the Globe that he paid for the billboard himself — just for laughs, and to give his fellow gamers a helping hand.

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He also originally planned to include a QR code that linked to his TikTok account, where he has more than 2 million followers. But he was told doing so would be against local billboard regulations, so he swapped it out for the smiley face emoji, which is his logo.

What are the regulations that prohibit a QR code?

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Not that those ever seem to be enforced, but I can imagine there being a regulation against QR codes since it might entice drivers to snap a picture.

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https://www.bostonglobe.com/2023/02/23/metro/this-is-boston-nice-why-tre...

Shamus Moynihan, who spotted the billboard on Wednesday and tweeted about it, was clearly confused by the ad, which didn’t appear to promote any specific goods or services.

“Uhhh. OK?” he wrote, adding a picture of the perplexing signage and tagging the website UniversalHub for some answers.

I imagine this may have happened before, but it's the first time that I've noticed the Globe referencing and linking to UniversalHub as a news source. It makes me happy. You're doing fine work as always, Adam!

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I've seen references to Uhub in their stories.

Too bad Adam isn't in Maine or he could have scooped them on that "Walmart Parking Lot Sign" story they've been covering. That's way more interesting to than state politics or local Boston news. /s

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I already saw comments like this in the Globe article about the Walmart. Now you're here, in a totally unrelated article, just... complaining about the Walmart story?

People get mad at the Globe for weird reasons...

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I'm a Globe subscriber so there is some money on this.

Instead of taking itself seriously as the New England "Paper of Record" they often print mindless, social media buzz stories on the top of their front page. Their headlines are written as if they are talking to talking to a child.

The Globe can be better than that. If they want to have a "lighter news" section, that's fine, but it need not be headline front and center of the homepage. What's worse is that real news gets ignored or only stays on the front page for a few hours before being replaced by something trivial.

Why mention that here? Well obviously the Globe's editors read Uhub so this is one way of their readers telling their editors to stop being a supermarket tabloid.

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