And will Thomas the Tank Engine be at South Station next week?

The kidlet really wanted to see him and we did - and we got to marvel at the SimCity nature of the South Boston waterfront ("I can see all the blue squares," she said - think she plays enough SimCity?).

Which version does she play? If and when you advance her to Sim City 4 and get the upgrade pack you can download the Big Dig online which allows you to build underground highway tunnels under the city. As you may have guessed inaccurate placement of grids and the inability to cross paths with subways tend to lead to cost over-runs. I think the Sim City games are great for people to play because they lay out the cause and affect for certain activities that people take for granted (I have no love for Sim City 5/Socities) and actually have found in life it makes it easier for people to understand priniciples of planning and development (although Sim City has yet to incorporate a proper mixed use option into the game although many people have included downloadable options for that based off of real life developments.) Sim City 2000 even had civilian unrest built into the game play where citizens protested the razing of forests and the destruction of historical buildings but that was later dropped in 3 and 4 although 3 and 4 (along with 1) value placed historical buildings in the algorithm but not old buildings that grew on their own that you did not place.