1. Slogans are strange things. Powerful, strange things. They do a good job of summing up the joie de vivre of a moment, or a cultural attitude, or in the case of a local tragedy, a mood. We’re all still reeling from the events of just one month ago, and “Boston Strong” still gets thrown around a lot, so that makes sense. But there’s a difference between responsiveness to a community’s needs, and straight-up exploitation, and “Boston Strong” now leans really closely toward the latter. Look, I get that people wanna help out and be supportive, I really get it. It’s just somewhat difficult to not become cynical about the motivation for so much Boston Strong swag. And while I’m sure the official Boston Strong Sam Adams beer is delicious and the official Boston Strong Yankee Candle’s cinnamon/spice/tea aroma is delightful and it’s great that some portion of the money you spend on those products will end up with a charity eventually, it’s all just a bit, uh, intense. Especially when some companies try to trademark the phrase “Boston Strong” regardless if they have charitable intentions or not. Besides, while The One Fund (which actually is a charity that actually raises money for bombing victims and their families) is successful at fundraising, apparently other charitable organizations are feeling the pinch. I’m not sure what it suggests, but The One Fund doesn’t use the phrase “Boston Strong” on its website, for what it’s worth. Also: Didn’t know about it until after the comic was done — there’s a Boston Strong Coffee, too. Hmm. EDIT: The Brookline TAB.

    Slogans are strange things. Powerful, strange things.

    They do a good job of summing up the joie de vivre of a moment, or a cultural attitude, or in the case of a local tragedy, a mood.

    We’re all still reeling from the events of just one month ago, and “Boston Strong” still gets thrown around a lot, so that makes sense.

    But there’s a difference between responsiveness to a community’s needs, and straight-up exploitation, and “Boston Strong” now leans really closely toward the latter.

    Look, I get that people wanna help out and be supportive, I really get it. It’s just somewhat difficult to not become cynical about the motivation for so much Boston Strong swag.

    And while I’m sure the official Boston Strong Sam Adams beer is delicious and the official Boston Strong Yankee Candle’s cinnamon/spice/tea aroma is delightful and it’s great that some portion of the money you spend on those products will end up with a charity eventually, it’s all just a bit, uh, intense. Especially when some companies try to trademark the phrase “Boston Strong” regardless if they have charitable intentions or not.

    Besides, while The One Fund (which actually is a charity that actually raises money for bombing victims and their families) is successful at fundraising, apparently other charitable organizations are feeling the pinch.

    I’m not sure what it suggests, but The One Fund doesn’t use the phrase “Boston Strong” on its website, for what it’s worth.

    Also: Didn’t know about it until after the comic was done — there’s a Boston Strong Coffee, too.

    Hmm.

    EDIT: The Brookline TAB.

  2. The Brookline TAB is running Wicked Local’s Right of Way series, all about the current relationship between car drivers and bicyclists in greater Boston, including efforts to make Brookline more bike-friendly. It’s totally worth a look, regardless if you pedal to work or not. As an aside, I pretty much use my car to get around, and rarely bike. But I side with bicyclists on safety issues. I kind of assume there are bad bicyclists who are stupid and take chances, just like there are drivers who do the same thing.  But let’s face it: drivers have two tons of steel around them in case they screw up; bicyclists have those cannonball helmets and, uh, spandex. So it’s not exactly a fair comparison, even when a cyclist seemingly can outrun your car while you’re taping him/her with a dash cam. (FYI: s/he can’t, chill, but if it bothers you, drive on a highway, etc.). Making roads safer for bicyclists is good for everybody: bicyclists can get to work and back without getting hurt or worse, while drivers can devote even less time paying attention to everything around them.   

    The Brookline TAB is running Wicked Local’s Right of Way series, all about the current relationship between car drivers and bicyclists in greater Boston, including efforts to make Brookline more bike-friendly. It’s totally worth a look, regardless if you pedal to work or not.

    As an aside, I pretty much use my car to get around, and rarely bike. But I side with bicyclists on safety issues.

    I kind of assume there are bad bicyclists who are stupid and take chances, just like there are drivers who do the same thing. 

    But let’s face it: drivers have two tons of steel around them in case they screw up; bicyclists have those cannonball helmets and, uh, spandex.

    So it’s not exactly a fair comparison, even when a cyclist seemingly can outrun your car while you’re taping him/her with a dash cam. (FYI: s/he can’t, chill, but if it bothers you, drive on a highway, etc.).

    Making roads safer for bicyclists is good for everybody: bicyclists can get to work and back without getting hurt or worse, while drivers can devote even less time paying attention to everything around them. 

     

  3. For this week’s Brookline TAB, a look back at the Maelstrom of Epic Political Awesome that was Tuesday’s primaries for the Senate special election. In case you weren’t one of the roughly five voters who cast a ballot earlier this week, the general election is set for June 25.

    For this week’s Brookline TAB, a look back at the Maelstrom of Epic Political Awesome that was Tuesday’s primaries for the Senate special election.

    In case you weren’t one of the roughly five voters who cast a ballot earlier this week, the general election is set for June 25.

  4. Last Friday, bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found bloodied and hidden under a boat’s tarp in a backyard in Watertown. Word is we’re safe from this particular nightmare, and some celebrated in the streets following his arrest: Now it’s a week after the bombing of the Boston Marathon that left four people dead and hundreds more wounded. Those directly affected by the blasts could face the prospect of a tough journey to rebuild their lives; meanwhile, hugely successful efforts to help people have already started mixing with consumerism:   In case you were wondering, it smells of cinnamon, ‘baking spices’ and freshly poured tea.   But after the attention has faded, and the raw emotions cool, how long a shadow of the 2013 Boston Marathon will be cast on our lives going forward?    Do we hunker down, carry emergency bottled water and matches, and freak every time we spot a guy with a Jansport on his back or tackle whomever we think looks like a terrorist?    The alternative looks like recording everything anybody ever does in public forever.  At least then, when bad stuff happens, it’s caught on video.    But that doesn’t sound awesome, either. If our choices are picking either creeping paranoia, or a kind of cyber-villagers-with-torches-and-pitchforks justice, well, that’s not much of a winner. The New York Post was criticized for running a front page photo of two innocent people with the headline “BAG MEN”.  And no, these guys had nothing to do with the attack. In a statement, Post editor Col Allan said they were relying on information from law enforcement when it used that image (via Politico):   “We stand by our story,” he said in a statement sent out early Thursday afternoon. “The image was emailed to law enforcement agencies yesterday afternoon seeking information about these men, as our story reported. We did not identify them as suspects.”   On Twitter, Post owner Rupert Murdoch wrote the images were “withdrawn”, whatever the hell that means: TIL that his newspaper has the power to “withdraw” images after copies are printed and sold to readers.   Meanwhile, over at Reddit, the site’s managers addressed the site’s role in the marathon bombing coverage in a soul-searching blog post earlier this week.   Some users posted photos taken at the marathon that day, and attempted a bit of DIY sleuthing to track the movements and behaviors of some members of the crowd.    But it backfired, and badly, when suspicion wrongly fell on a college student who had gone missing last month. (Sadly, investigators say that student is actually the body recently found in Providence Harbor. Reddit said it and members of its community apologized to the student’s family.)   Reddit noted: “We hoped that the crowdsourced search for new information would not spark exactly this type of witch hunt. We were wrong. The search for the bombers bore less resemblance to the types of vindictive internet witch hunts our no-personal-information rule was originally written for, but the outcome was no different.”   The blowback from all the fear, blame and paranoia reportedly led FBI investigators to ultimately release images of the men they claimed committed the April 15 bombing.   Those images led to identifying two brothers and the arrest of one and the death of the other — ending a long, bloody week for Greater Boston.    But if a bad guy gets caught, does that mean the witch hunt — and all the speculation and suspicion — is worth it?   If that’s so, I don’t feel like celebrating.

    Last Friday, bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was found bloodied and hidden under a boat’s tarp in a backyard in Watertown. Word is we’re safe from this particular nightmare, and some celebrated in the streets following his arrest:

    Now it’s a week after the bombing of the Boston Marathon that left four people dead and hundreds more wounded.
    Those directly affected by the blasts could face the prospect of a tough journey to rebuild their lives; meanwhile, hugely successful efforts to help people have already started mixing with consumerism:
    In case you were wondering, it smells of cinnamon, 'baking spices' and freshly poured tea. 
    In case you were wondering, it smells of cinnamon, ‘baking spices’ and freshly poured tea.
     
    But after the attention has faded, and the raw emotions cool, how long a shadow of the 2013 Boston Marathon will be cast on our lives going forward? 
     
    Do we hunker down, carry emergency bottled water and matches, and freak every time we spot a guy with a Jansport on his back or tackle whomever we think looks like a terrorist? 
     
    The alternative looks like recording everything anybody ever does in public forever.  At least then, when bad stuff happens, it’s caught on video. 
     
    But that doesn’t sound awesome, either. If our choices are picking either creeping paranoia, or a kind of cyber-villagers-with-torches-and-pitchforks justice, well, that’s not much of a winner.

    The New York Post was criticized for running a front page photo of two innocent people with the headline “BAG MEN”.  And no, these guys had nothing to do with the attack.

    In a statement, Post editor Col Allan said they were relying on information from law enforcement when it used that image (via Politico):
     
    “We stand by our story,” he said in a statement sent out early Thursday afternoon. “The image was emailed to law enforcement agencies yesterday afternoon seeking information about these men, as our story reported. We did not identify them as suspects.”
     
    On Twitter, Post owner Rupert Murdoch wrote the images were “withdrawn”, whatever the hell that means:
    TIL that his newspaper has the power to “withdraw” images after copies are printed and sold to readers.
     
    Meanwhile, over at Reddit, the site’s managers addressed the site’s role in the marathon bombing coverage in a soul-searching blog post earlier this week.
     
    Some users posted photos taken at the marathon that day, and attempted a bit of DIY sleuthing to track the movements and behaviors of some members of the crowd. 
     
    But it backfired, and badly, when suspicion wrongly fell on a college student who had gone missing last month. (Sadly, investigators say that student is actually the body recently found in Providence Harbor. Reddit said it and members of its community apologized to the student’s family.)
     
    Reddit noted:
    “We hoped that the crowdsourced search for new information would not spark exactly this type of witch hunt. We were wrong. The search for the bombers bore less resemblance to the types of vindictive internet witch hunts our no-personal-information rule was originally written for, but the outcome was no different.”
     
    The blowback from all the fear, blame and paranoia reportedly led FBI investigators to ultimately release images of the men they claimed committed the April 15 bombing.
     
    Those images led to identifying two brothers and the arrest of one and the death of the other — ending a long, bloody week for Greater Boston. 
     
    But if a bad guy gets caught, does that mean the witch hunt — and all the speculation and suspicion — is worth it?
     
    If that’s so, I don’t feel like celebrating.

  5. I think everyone’s said everything worth saying at this point. Be well. (Via Brookline TAB) Meanwhile, the TAB runs the Boston Marathon story it originally planned to publish.

    I think everyone’s said everything worth saying at this point. Be well. (Via Brookline TAB)

    Meanwhile, the TAB runs the Boston Marathon story it originally planned to publish.

  6. Dear Brookline TAB: What can I say? I had such hopes for this one. It was gonna be so amazing, and highlight the absurdities of our government in action, using the state’s Open Checkbook website, which allows anyone to know just how much the Department of Conservation and Recreation paid to have Burt the Puppet Raccoon show up one day. But in a larger sense, this would remind readers that we all have an equal right to know more about how our leaders spend money and why. I was so full of shit. I don’t know what happened. Maybe it was when I drew the state’s governor trying to peer pressure the state treasurer over bottled water, or when a puppet raccoon and a pony with a hat were looking on and debated stealing a jar of quarters from the state treasurers desk. Anyway, I forgot what the hell I was doing.                                                       Exactly. So if this one makes even less sense than usual, it’s totally not your problem. Mea culpa, pals. Mea culpa. -John

    Dear Brookline TAB:

    What can I say? I had such hopes for this one. It was gonna be so amazing, and highlight the absurdities of our government in action, using the state’s Open Checkbook website, which allows anyone to know just how much the Department of Conservation and Recreation paid to have Burt the Puppet Raccoon show up one day.

    But in a larger sense, this would remind readers that we all have an equal right to know more about how our leaders spend money and why.

    I was so full of shit. I don’t know what happened.

    Maybe it was when I drew the state’s governor trying to peer pressure the state treasurer over bottled water, or when a puppet raccoon and a pony with a hat were looking on and debated stealing a jar of quarters from the state treasurers desk. Anyway, I forgot what the hell I was doing.

                                                          Exactly.

    So if this one makes even less sense than usual, it’s totally not your problem.

    Mea culpa, pals. Mea culpa.

    -John

  7. Brookline’s oddly undramatic elections have a lot of competition for boards overseeing the town’s library, but not so much the town’s executive panel, the very New England Brahmin-yet-sexist sounding Board of Selectmen. The board essentially handles stuff you probably don’t care about, like approval of payments for bills, and stuff that your social life probably could not live without, like the approval of liquor licenses. Ever have a drink at a restaurant or a bar in Brookline? That’s the long magic arm of the Brookine Board of Selectmen reaching out to give your evening the A-OK. So yeah: this board helps ensure your date reacts to you like this, rather than this. On this level, Brookline selectmen should get an award. But selectmen just don’t attract many candidates — or at least, the number of candidates you’d think volunteer in a town of nearly 60,000.  You’ll have to look back until 2008 to see a seriously contested election, and that race wasn’t exactly a typical campaign for office. Since then, slots for the town’s board of selectmen have been essentially up for grabs to anyone who remember to fill out the paperwork**, including this year’s upcoming election. (**I’ll pause here to point out there was one challenger — and the only one — who ran for office in 2006, 2010 and 2011. In his best race — 2010 — he collected 562 votes, and was beaten by his opponent by more than a factor of four. That’s not *quite* a contested race for public office.) Is that particularly healthy? This is not a critique of current board members, but anyone in any job will begin to lose interest after enough time goes by. And facing the prospect of a contested election and the prospect of having to campaign for any public office — selectman or otherwise — is probably a good way of deciding whether you *really* want the job or not. In the 2012 town election in Brookline, there were more blanks (2,077) than votes cast for either incumbent  running for re-election: Selectwoman Betsy DeWitt, who collected 1,955 votes, and Selectman Ken Goldstein, who got 1,775. This year, one guy — Neil Wishinsky — is up for the job, and since he filed the paperwork, he’ll get it; assuming he doesn’t have a change of heart between now and the election. He recently told the TAB: “I’ve got the experience, the know-how and how to approach it,” he said. “I think I’ve demonstrated over the years in Advisory, especially,…that I’m a good collaborator.” He sounds interested, and based on his resume, will do the job well. But it’s a shame that barring media interviews, that will probably be the last you’ll hear from him until the election is over.

    Brookline’s oddly undramatic elections have a lot of competition for boards overseeing the town’s library, but not so much the town’s executive panel, the very New England Brahmin-yet-sexist sounding Board of Selectmen.

    The board essentially handles stuff you probably don’t care about, like approval of payments for bills, and stuff that your social life probably could not live without, like the approval of liquor licenses. Ever have a drink at a restaurant or a bar in Brookline? That’s the long magic arm of the Brookine Board of Selectmen reaching out to give your evening the A-OK.

    So yeah: this board helps ensure your date reacts to you like this, rather than this. On this level, Brookline selectmen should get an award.

    But selectmen just don’t attract many candidates — or at least, the number of candidates you’d think volunteer in a town of nearly 60,000. 

    You’ll have to look back until 2008 to see a seriously contested election, and that race wasn’t exactly a typical campaign for office.

    Since then, slots for the town’s board of selectmen have been essentially up for grabs to anyone who remember to fill out the paperwork**, including this year’s upcoming election.

    (**I’ll pause here to point out there was one challenger — and the only one — who ran for office in 2006, 2010 and 2011. In his best race — 2010 — he collected 562 votes, and was beaten by his opponent by more than a factor of four. That’s not *quite* a contested race for public office.)

    Is that particularly healthy? This is not a critique of current board members, but anyone in any job will begin to lose interest after enough time goes by.

    And facing the prospect of a contested election and the prospect of having to campaign for any public office — selectman or otherwise — is probably a good way of deciding whether you *really* want the job or not.

    In the 2012 town election in Brookline, there were more blanks (2,077) than votes cast for either incumbent  running for re-election: Selectwoman Betsy DeWitt, who collected 1,955 votes, and Selectman Ken Goldstein, who got 1,775.

    This year, one guy — Neil Wishinsky — is up for the job, and since he filed the paperwork, he’ll get it; assuming he doesn’t have a change of heart between now and the election. He recently told the TAB:

    “I’ve got the experience, the know-how and how to approach it,” he said. “I think I’ve demonstrated over the years in Advisory, especially,…that I’m a good collaborator.”

    He sounds interested, and based on his resume, will do the job well. But it’s a shame that barring media interviews, that will probably be the last you’ll hear from him until the election is over.

  8. Living in Massachusetts isn’t cheap, mostly because most everyone wants to live in the eastern end of the state, making it a mad scramble for apartments and houses around here. The National Low Income Housing Coalition recently released a 50-state report on how much workers need to earn to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Here in Massachusetts, where the minimum wage is $8, the folks at the NLIHC figured it would take one person working 120 hours a week to afford a two bed home (earning about $50,000 annually). But over at the Brookline TAB, a writer opined that most people living in Mass. earning the minimum wage are teenagers, and not adults trying to raise a family. Fair enough. So what do people earn? Over at the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, we can get a general breakdown of median incomes based on education level. The folks at the Minnesota Officer of Higher Education pulled that data into a handy graph: …from that, we can try to roughly guesstimate the hourly incomes for workers at those education levels, and figure out how long it would take to earn $50,000, based on those hourly rates. So. Short version: median incomes say you won’t work 120 hours a week. You’ll “just” have to work no more than about 90, although the dream of a 40-hour workweek seems reserved for those with crippling student loans. Of course there’s a bright side to all this. As the editor of the Brookline TAB ably put it, “If you work 90 hours a week though, you don’t need to buy a bed. So that’s good.”

    Living in Massachusetts isn’t cheap, mostly because most everyone wants to live in the eastern end of the state, making it a mad scramble for apartments and houses around here.

    The National Low Income Housing Coalition recently released a 50-state report on how much workers need to earn to be able to afford a two-bedroom apartment. Here in Massachusetts, where the minimum wage is $8, the folks at the NLIHC figured it would take one person working 120 hours a week to afford a two bed home (earning about $50,000 annually).

    But over at the Brookline TAB, a writer opined that most people living in Mass. earning the minimum wage are teenagers, and not adults trying to raise a family. Fair enough.

    So what do people earn? Over at the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics, we can get a general breakdown of median incomes based on education level. The folks at the Minnesota Officer of Higher Education pulled that data into a handy graph:

    …from that, we can try to roughly guesstimate the hourly incomes for workers at those education levels, and figure out how long it would take to earn $50,000, based on those hourly rates.

    So. Short version: median incomes say you won’t work 120 hours a week. You’ll “just” have to work no more than about 90, although the dream of a 40-hour workweek seems reserved for those with crippling student loans.

    Of course there’s a bright side to all this. As the editor of the Brookline TAB ably put it, “If you work 90 hours a week though, you don’t need to buy a bed. So that’s good.”

  9. Via the Brookline TAB, the town will consider raising the fine for using “coarse language” and otherwise being a jerk in town. [COMIC] The current law, basically invented to clamp down on college parties, includes a $50 fine for anyone who disturbs the peace, although they lump in everything from being loud to threatening people with violence and the prohibition of dropping banana peels on the sidewalk under the same bylaw. (Download the PDF, then go to page 222.) The proposal would increase that fine to $100 and include a provision that makes it an offense to ruin someone’s peace and quiet. The rule already has a wonderfully vague provision to block any action with “no legitimate purpose” but doesn’t explain what is supposed to be legitimate or not. Which totally makes sense totally. I’m assuming the law is really aimed at anyone without the money/wherewithal to hire a civil rights attorney who could presumably overturn the thing by just staring at it hard. Anyway, in the meantime, free speech remains available only to those who can pay the fine for it, I guess. I’m depressed.

    Via the Brookline TAB, the town will consider raising the fine for using “coarse language” and otherwise being a jerk in town. [COMIC]

    The current law, basically invented to clamp down on college parties, includes a $50 fine for anyone who disturbs the peace, although they lump in everything from being loud to threatening people with violence and the prohibition of dropping banana peels on the sidewalk under the same bylaw. (Download the PDF, then go to page 222.)

    The proposal would increase that fine to $100 and include a provision that makes it an offense to ruin someone’s peace and quiet. The rule already has a wonderfully vague provision to block any action with “no legitimate purpose” but doesn’t explain what is supposed to be legitimate or not. Which totally makes sense totally.

    I’m assuming the law is really aimed at anyone without the money/wherewithal to hire a civil rights attorney who could presumably overturn the thing by just staring at it hard.

    Anyway, in the meantime, free speech remains available only to those who can pay the fine for it, I guess. I’m depressed.

  10. Been busy on something I hope to share with you soon. In the meantime, from the Brookline TAB…

    (Top) Something something CHUCK NORRIS something whatever

    (Bottom) All sorts of hot John Boehner action!