The Boston Traveler

I’ve wanted to post the recipe for Boston Cream Pie for quite a while now, ever since I wrote about the historic hotel Omni Parker House.
That’s where the world-famous dessert was reportedly created in the mid-19th century by French chef M. Sanzian. The dessert has become such an essential component of the state’s identity it was designated the official Massachusetts State Dessert in 1996.
For the uninitiated, Boston Cream Pie is not a pie at all, but rather a cake, complete with a thick vanilla custard filling and a chocolate glaze on top typically described as a ganache made with …read more

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Take note if, like me, you enjoy spending the Fourth of July on the Longfellow Bridge that connects East Cambridge and Beacon Hill, watching the fireworks over the Charles along with hundreds of other spectators.
Urgent safety considerations forced state officials to take action this week when a Thursday inspection revealed a steel beam supporting one sidewalk requires immediate work. That discovery is in addition to previously known problems with deteriorated railroad ties, which urged MBTA officials to have Red Line subway conductors slow down substantially as they ride over the bridge on their normal route until replacements are completed.
As …read more

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So far, so very, very good.
Just weeks after an unexpected seizure led to the diagnosis of a malignant brain tumor, Senator Ted Kennedy underwent dangerous brain surgery at Duke University this morning. The operation was conducted by noted specialist and researcher Dr. Allan Friedman, who remarked after the three-hour procedure, “I am pleased to report that Senator Kennedy’s surgery was successful and accomplished our goals.”
The next steps for the revered 76-year-old Democrat include remaining at Duke for a week and then returning to Massachusetts General Hospital for radiation and chemotherapy treatments. At this stage, the subsequent outlook seems …read more

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A wonderful thing happened in Boston on Thursday, particularly for those individuals who work as skycaps at Logan International Airport.
At the urging of US District Judge William G. Young, American Airlines agreed to discontinue charging a $2-per-bag fee in effect all over the United States. The fee was previously required whenever passengers requested curbside check-in service.
In addition, skycaps who work at Boston’s Logan International Airport will likely benefit from the airline’s simultaneous agreement to stop instructing passengers not to tip such workers. Logan skycaps claimed that ever since the baggage fee and a no-tipping policy were implemented in …read more

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How’s this for inspiring? The Boston Herald reports that two teenage Dorchester residents, sisters born in Nigeria, will become permanent parts of Boston history on Tuesday. Why? Because they’re pretty darn smart. So smart, in fact, they will each serve as the valedictorian of their respective high school classes at graduation ceremonies held tomorrow. Thus, the record is for achieving that goal in the same year, something never managed before by siblings in Boston.
The Nwoaha sisters, 18-year-old Chioma and 16-year-old Faith, moved to the United States from West Africa’s Nigeria less than three years ago. …read more

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The latest interesting discussion I’ve encountered on the Web takes place at Blue Mass Group, and I stumbled across it via Universal Hub.
Writer Wayne wondered why brown eggs are more expensive than white eggs in Massachusetts when the brown variety available in supermarkets is supposed to be local. He points out that since gas costs so much these days, you’d think local brown eggs would be less expensive than non-local white eggs because they don’t have to be shipped here from out of state. You’d also be thinking wrong, as area residents know well — brown eggs are …read more

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First there was the gas main line rupture downtown less than a week ago, and now Harvard Square in Cambridge has suffered exploding manholes.
At about 2:30am, (un)lucky residents and passersby had the opportunity to witness fire literally shooting out of a Harvard Square manhole and ten feet into the air at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue and Dunster Street. A series of four or more explosions were the result of fire beneath the ground, and fortunately, no one was hurt.
The fire eventually extinguished itself around 8:30am, about five hours after the Cambridge Fire Department responded to the emergency. …read more

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One of the first things I look for when I travel to a new place is a newsstand or sidewalk newspaper boxes in order to get a clearer picture of what’s going on locally. There’s nothing more useful in that regard than the newspapers and other publications created by and for the people who live in the relevant area.
Effective immediately, as of today, Boston residents and visitors will have one less such publication at their disposal in the Hub. And, sadly, it didn’t cost a cent, despite being available what seemed like everywhere, around the clock — or …read more

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And More Major League Baseball Home Opener Highlights
Red Sox Nation was a great place to be on Tuesday, April 8, as the 2007 World Series Champions celebrated past, present, and future excellence at Fenway Park with this year’s Home Opener, the 108th in team history. The Sox won the game against the Detroit Tigers, of course, managing a commanding final score of 5–0.
One of the day’s biggest stories, however, was reserved for a member of the team 22 years ago. On October 25, 1986, the Boston Red Sox led the New York Mets three games to two when …read more

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Forty years ago yesterday, on April 4, 1968, civil rights leader Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The very next night, “Soul Brother Number One” and “Godfather of Soul” James Brown (1933–2006) was scheduled to perform a concert at the Boston Garden in Massachusetts.
Yet, after word of the reverend’s murder spread, riots quickly erupted in more than 100 cities across the United States. As a result, Boston’s newly elected mayor at that critical time, Kevin White, was left with the difficult task of preventing widespread disorder in the city.
His original …read more

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