By adamg on Sun., 5/17/2015 - 11:02 am
Some frou-frou travel magazine ranks us as the fifth most unfriendly city for tourists:
Beantown denizens put off readers with their Brahmin-like brains and their skillful backtalk.
Brahmin-like brains? What does that even mean, you pusillanimous codswallopers? And we wouldn't be backtalking if the tourists weren't getting all up in our grills and stuff, amirite?
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Welcome to Boston...
By Hunter
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 11:20am
...now go home!
I own that T-Shirt...
By FlyingToaster
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 5:40pm
... which I bought from Newbury Comics in fall '87, just after I finished unpacking.
In plain English
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 11:34am
it means we're smart asses.
What it means
By perruptor
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 11:50am
It must mean that Bostonians have brains like cows. I suspect the writer has confused the two groups he's talking about.
Someone's been watching too much M*A*S*H
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 12:07pm
I've been living in Boston for years and I'm still a little disappointed that I've never met anyone who talks like Charles Emerson Winchester III.
Well...
By A. Nony. Fox
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 4:05pm
John Kerry does.
More so in the 70s
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 10:06pm
If you listen to Kerry's speeches in the Vietnam era, he definitely has a Brahmin accent: "how do you ah-sk a man to be the l-ah-st man to die for a mistake".
These days his accent is a lot less distinctive.
As are
By perruptor
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 7:24am
his supposed convictions.
no kidding
By Malcolm Tucker
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 12:37pm
Boston was founded by people who fully believed that they were better than everyone else - so much better that they embarked on a perilous transatlantic boat ride to get away from the riffraff. I like to think that spirit continues to guide us in our attitude to the rest of the masses that visit us: if you can't keep up, then get out.
Tough guy I see.
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 1:28pm
Tough guy I see.
In other words...
By JCK
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 1:48pm
...we're just being jerks.
That list is uncannily
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 1:23pm
That list is uncannily similar to the list of the 15 biggest American cities. And no way does New York beat Boston for snobbery, even though their own self image is unjustifiably gargantuan. We are world class here. Just a super lazy hat draw fluff piece to shoehorn in a few more mentions of their paid advertisers.
They lost all cred
By moxie
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 1:39pm
At the first word when they referred to us as "Beantown".
"Beantown"
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 1:47pm
When the ridiculous Sarah Palin gave a speech (for God knows what reason) on Boston Common a few years ago, the first words out of her mouth were "hello Beantown!". I suppose she thought this would make her appear "folksy" or "of the people". If she, or her staff, had done any research at all they would have known that no Bostonian ever refers to the city as "Beantown". Ever. If she didn't already have zero credibility, she would have lost it all right then and there.
what I love-loooved about that
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 5:48pm
was that her cray-cray anti-gobmn't fans were super jazzed to cram themselves into our oldest-in-the-country public transit system afterwards.
Really
By BlackKat
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 1:52pm
My first reaction on some hearing some tourist to use the word "Beantown" is to punch them in the nuts. They don't say stupid things they get the niceness.
But you don't
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 9:50pm
But you don't because that would be assault and battery. Right?
You must not be from around
By Dot net
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 12:32am
You must not be from around here, sarcasm is one of the smartest forms of comedy.
Oh, and to be true to the article, please GTFO of town. lol
Punch them in the nuts?!
By whyaduck
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 10:39am
Way harsh.
sass-mouth for the win!
By can't remember
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 1:45pm
I have to say, reading that gives me an odd surge of hometown pride.
Huh.
By ladycommentariat
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 1:50pm
Before I moved here, I found Bostonians nothing but helpful and friendly when I'd visited prior. Granted, there are jerks no matter where you go and maybe these folks just didn't get lucky?
Depends
By Kaz
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 2:36pm
You probably didn't play the part of a tourist.
If you ask someone for help finding a place or getting around town and you just ask, then you get the good side. If you act like the rest of us are cast members in your own private Colonial Disneyland or expect someone to put up a sign leading you back to the Freedom Trail and now you're pissed you have to ask someone for directions or you drive around staring out your windows at the MIT dome while you crawl at 15 mph across the Mass Ave Bridge (and call it the Harvard Bridge even though that's its proper name), you're gonna get the bad side.
Also, don't go to Southie and ask someone to "talk like Matt and Ben". That gets you the bad side too.
Back when I worked in one of
By be
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 4:30pm
Back when I worked in one of the music stores where Piano Alley used to be, we'd get tourists coming in all the time asking where Cheers was.
One of my coworkers (a Cabot, no less), would direct them to go inbound at Boylston Street, transfer to the Blue Line at Gov't Ctr, and take it to "Airport." Exit at Airport, then take the convenient shuttle to whatever domestic terminal, and buy a ticket to Los Angeles. From there, they were on their own.
Brilliant
By E
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 12:17pm
Absolutely brilliant response from that co-worker of yours. :)
Technically, he or she was correct. Cheers was filmed in Los Angeles.
A huge
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 4:37pm
number of people forget to bring their brains, common sense, and manners on vacation, no matter what city you go to.
Be respectful that your "resort" is a place where other people are trying to go to work, run errands, and generally live, and your vacation will be infinitely better.
Probably because many tourist destinations ARE disneylands
By lbb
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 9:30am
Boston, or really any city, is a different kind of tourist experience for many people. Unlike a resort, when you visit a city you're among people who are just living their daily lives. Visitors are here to relax and see the sights; locals have to get to work, NOW. If a tourist stops someone in Boston and says, "Can you tell me, um...I'm looking for, uh, what was it Ashley? We're looking for a restaurant, ummmm..." they may find that they're talking to someone's back as it recedes in the distance. But I can't count the number of times I've seen commuters on the T help confused visitors get where they're going, without waiting to be asked.
Boston is not a Mall, either
By The Pettiest Officer
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 9:50am
Tourists will spread out all the way across the sidewalks like they are in a mall. They don't know how to walk on a city sidewalk. They get confused because they don't have any skills for navigating an old city on foot. It isn't Vegas or EPCOT.
Boston isn't staffed with helpful employees to point the direction to this or that experience.
We're just not fake
By JimGaffigan
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 2:05pm
Like some in the south.
They sing your praises then gossip behind your back.
"Bless their Hearts"
Mass Pike graffiti
By E
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 3:48pm
There is a building off the Mass Pike Eastbound just over the line in Brighton that has a lot of graffiti on it. "HAVE A BAD DAY" is painted atop the rest of the graffiti.
Nice entrance to the city, eh?
That's a great example. It
By anon
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 10:03pm
That's a great example. It sounds mean-spirited if you take it at face value but they're just turning the hackneyed phrase Have A Nice Day on it's head for ironic humor.
When I moved across the state to Boston in the early 80s, I thought people on the street and around town were disengaged from each other. I still do but I also appreciate the wry humor offered in passing. It's an acquired taste well worth acquiring.
a better headline
By Scumquistador
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 4:06pm
"Locals upset at 5th place finish, riot like they just won a world series"
See Also
By FenRes
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 6:04pm
Today's Globe editorial about the city's tohrism services needing an "Olympic upgrade", since we are apparently losing ground in world classiness after all. For some reason the editorial focuses on lack of services for visitors from Asian countries, and includes a few good points, like the need for adequate restroom facilities along the Freedom Trail.
Tourists say the darndest things
By Ari O
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 7:01pm
9 am Sunday outside of Back Bay:
Tourist: Do you know where Winston Flowers is?
Me: Uh …
Tourist: They said between Dartmouth and Clarendon.
Me: There's a lot between Dartmouth and Clarendon. Do you know which cross street?
Tourist: No.
Me: Well, it's probably Newbury but maybe Boylston. Are they open?
Tourist: They guy in the shop at Back Bay said they were open.
Me: Do you have a phone?
Tourist: No.
Me: Do you want me to look it up for you? It's on Newbury, but it's closed until 11. It's Sunday morning; I doubt there's any florist open, but you can try.
Then someone at Alewife asking me if I know where the bus to New York is. Do I exude a) a sense of direction and b) a willingness to help confused tourists? I guess so.
I hope you didn't send him to South Station
By Ron Newman
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 10:03pm
because the "Go Bus" to NYC leaves right from the Alewife busway. Last time I looked, its berth was well-marked.
a). There actually IS a bus
By tofu
Sun, 05/17/2015 - 10:09pm
a). There actually IS a bus that goes to NYC from Alewife. I was surprised when someone asked me about it.
b). I told the guy I didn't know where it was and that I was surprised to hear there is one. I guess I didn't act in a Masshole fashion.
c). What is wrong with someone asking you a question or directions? Is that something you can't handle?
Cosmic Concierge
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 10:13am
Do you get asked for directions in cities where you are a tourist? If so, you must be an unwitting Cosmic Concierge. Embrace it.
I enjoy helping folks find their way around Boston
By whyaduck
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 10:41am
I just wish that some would not use those touristy maps that are not to scale and are missing half of the street names. It makes giving directions tough.
People often ask me for
By Charlie
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 2:59pm
People often ask me for directions too. I guess I look approachable. I usually know where to point them, but it can be challenging, particularly in an area where I'm walking but they're driving. The answer is something like:
"Well it's right over there but because of the one-ways you'll need to go left and then right and then right and then left and then make a U-turn." Followed by "uhhh ok thanks....."
What do you mean "we"?
By anon
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 5:14am
The assholes who intimidate tourists didn't live here before they graduated from college.
Speak for yourself!
By Dot net
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 8:42am
Speak for yourself!
"Intimidation" starts with....
By Michael Kerpan
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 9:44am
... lousy signage -- and (unlike many tourist destination cities) Boston doesnt seem to do very well at handing out free tourist information, transit maps etc.
One of the least welcoming cities for tourists (on an official level) I've ever seen.
Really?
By lbb
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 10:09am
There's a tourist information center right on the Common that's chock full of the stuff. There's another visitor center run by the National Park Service near the Old South Church. Every hotel in the city no doubt has an ample stock of free tourist information, as does every conference venue. Every T station has maps. Outside of these organizations, who do you think should be "handing out free tourist information"?
Have you ever tried getting a transit map?
By Michael Kerpan
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 11:17am
Like the ones that are readily available in NYC? Even for residents this can be quite a task. There is plenty of advertisement-esque free literature, but if there is anything more comprehensive, I have yet to see it. I didn't say "no information" -- just that the overall quality is fairly substandard for a place so dependent on tourism.
If I want a transit map...
By lbb
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 11:35am
...I look at the wall, or I go online.
How do you think a paper transit map would be helpful? The scale will make it useless for the average visitor who is only visiting a small area of the city. It wouldn't even be legible.
Good for you
By Michael Kerpan
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 11:39am
Perhaps not everyone operates the way you do, however. We found the bus and subway maps in NYC extremely useful.
Many years ago the MBTA had
By Patricia
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 12:29pm
Many years ago the MBTA had laminated map cards. They were so handy to have and I always kept one in my wallet.
I wish they still had them as its sometimes qucker than fumbling with a phone.
NYC is not Boston
By lbb
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 1:25pm
Two different cities, with different transit systems and different geographies. Can you accept the possibility that it might be easier to create a workable transit map for one and not the other?
Have you ever been to either?
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 1:46pm
It sounds like you haven't if you think Boston is vastly more complicated.
How's the public transit system in Heath doing these days?
Oh c'mon!
By SwirlyGrrl
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 12:56pm
I tend to collect transit maps from cities that I have visited and put them on my corkboard at work.
Boston has nothing on Barcelona or Paris for transit complexity, but I have maps from those systems and I can read them. They worked just fine in practice, too.
Have you ever...
By lbb
Mon, 05/18/2015 - 1:26pm
...looked at a Boston bus map? Like, of the entire system?
Waiting for "...yes! I have! (on google just now kinda)" in 3...2...
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