Tents and the T

Tents and sleeping bags

More tents and sleeping bags

Took these photos awhile ago. I’ve only ever seen these miniature displays in Target stores. I got such a kick out of them the first time I saw them. I like to think of them as matching tents and sleeping bags for your ferret should you go camping with your ferret. You could have the miniatures inside of the human-sized counterparts. Very postmodern.

I spent the July 4th weekend in Boston. I’ve been to Boston a few times now, but I still learned new things about the place, the characteristics that make each city unique. For example, sometimes two people will go through a rotating turnstile together on one subway token. I’d never seen that done anywhere else, but apparently it’s common in Boston, at least in places where security cameras have yet to be installed. I’m not even sure two people can fit into the turnstiles here in the New York City subway.

The T is phasing out its token fare system. One night, I had to buy a token from the attendant. I could see through the glass that he had lined up all the tokens on the counter to his left. On his right he’d lined up different coins so he could quickly give out change.

The T passes are known as CharlieTickets and CharlieCards, named after the Charles River. That’d be like New York City’s MTA naming its passes the Hudson or, as a friend pointed out, the East.

The announcements on the T sound a little mournful, not at all jaunty like the announcements on the Chicago El. No one can hear anything on the MTA, at least not on the older trains. (Saturday Night Live got it right with its sketch about why subway announcements are impossible to understand.)

They Have Come Back from the Dead!! Ahhhh!

Zombie March in Boston. The site also gathers links to zombie marches in other cities. But apparently the undead have yet to make an appearance in New York.

MIT Dome a Winner

Happy Pi Day to all you geeks out there!

On a roll from yesterday’s post, here is another great line from an article about a prank at MIT:
“The school … said it never gave permission for the building to become a gold medal winner.”
Check out the photos — the medal’s impressive.

Robert’s Snow for Cancer Research

If you live in Boston, you might want to attend the 2005 kickoff of Robert’s Snow. Robert’s Snow was founded by my friend Alice‘s sister, Grace, and Grace’s husband Robert, a two-time cancer survivor. Their campaign seeks to raise money for cancer research through the auctioning off of wooden snowflakes decorated by children’s book illustrators. Last year, artists such as Marc Brown (creator of Arthur), Ian Falconer (Olivia) and Chris Van Allsburg (The Polar Express) contributed snowflakes to the campaign. (Grace herself is a children’s book author and illustrator.)

For more information about the campaign, please visit http://www.robertssnow.com. The 2005 campaign kickoff will take place next Thursday, Nov. 3, from 7 to 9 p.m. at Locco Ritoro Gallery in Boston. The 200 snowflakes that will be auctioned off this year will be on display at the gallery. You can RSVP for the event on the Robert’s Snow Web site.

If you can’t attend the kickoff, you can still view this year’s snowflakes on the Robert’s Snow Web site. And, of course, you can bid on a snowflake or snowflakes. They will be auctioned off on eBay beginning Sunday, Nov. 6 (link TK on Robert’s Snow).