And Paul Revere would have been passing you on the right.

Having visited friends in Boston...I'm all BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA.

It's funny 'cause it's true.

And we haven't even mentioned the physical reality of the streets themselves, which are so convoluted that taking a side street to flee the presence of any individual psychotic driver stands better than even odds of curving around and dumping you right back in front of them.

A story I've told before: The first time I met the Somervillains, Nutty asked me to give her a lift home, so we headed out. I'd rarely driven in Boston prior to that, and she wasn't all that familiar with driving through that part of town (Cambridge), either. Anyhow, at one point we wound up going the wrong way on a three lane main drag along the Charles (Soldier's Field Rd). Fortunately, it was late, and the oncoming traffic was stopped at a light, so I was able to make a quick u-turn.

All this talk remindes me of my friend Eric whose job sometimes takes him overseas to places like India and China, looking at factory production facilities.

He told me once that the secret to crossing the streets in Hong Kong was to not make eye contact with the drivers. The theory goes is, if you do then they know you know they're coming at you and you better get out of their way. However, if you just keep eyes front and balls it across the street then they have to get out of your way.

Now that's scary.

YAY, this is all sounding so exciting!!

OK, so I am a localista, but I want to stay at the hotel Saturday night--who will be my roommate? Anyone? (Vortex, did we talk about this? I dont' even remember, my mind is going).

Much as I'm looking forward to this, it's also getting to me--I'm stage managing a huge show on May 1st, and THEN I can get excited about this...the other night, I had these bizarre dreams that the F2F and the GreatBig (May1 thing) were actually at the same time, and I was hanging out with y'all (in some weird-ass places in DC) and was about to be late to the show and it was all kinds of anxious and awful. Eek.

He told me once that the secret to crossing the streets in Hong Kong was to not make eye contact with the drivers. The theory goes is, if you do then they know you know they're coming at you and you better get out of their way. However, if you just keep eyes front and balls it across the street then they have to get out of your way.

I was told the same thing by my tour guide in Italy.

When I went to Italy, by the end of the trip we were only crossing streets in the middle, never at intersections. In the middle of the street, cars mostly only came from two directions.

He told me once that the secret to crossing the streets in Hong Kong was to not make eye contact with the drivers. The theory goes is, if you do then they know you know they're coming at you and you better get out of their way. However, if you just keep eyes front and balls it across the street then they have to get out of your way.

In Cairo I was told the opposite. The traffic is utter chaos, and has ridiculously high mortality rates; but it's not particularly malicious or selfish. If they know you're there, they'll stop for you. But you'd better make sure they're paying attention before you step off the curb.

The PTB have decided that they will close both North Station *and* I-93 for the duration of the Democratic convention this summer. It's gonna be ugly.

It looks like they'll be closing Penn Station now for the Republican convention (per the latest demands of the secret service), so it looks both parties are going to be very unpopular with the locals for their conventions.

So NOT looking forward to that. That's around the time our offices are moving (to about two blocks away from North Station).

It looks like they'll be closing Penn Station now for the Republican convention

Good to know. I guess I'll be fleeing the city via Metro North instead.