Wicked Local Cambridge reports Cardullo's has removed the large-screen TV in its storefront. Seems the owners got tired of people sitting in front of the store watching Sox games instead of looking at window displays promoting the consumption of cheesey comestibles.
"A slap in the face," one disgruntled member of the chair club harrumphed.
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Comments
Store was usually closed when Sox games were on
By Ron Newman
Tue, 08/31/2010 - 6:16pm
I'm not understanding the problem here, as the TV was generally on during hours when the store was closed (and thus the chair club was not interfering with people going in and out of the store).
Sometimes the TV was on for other sports events, such as Patriots games or Celtics playoffs.
I'll miss stopping here for a half hour on my way to or from some Harvard Square errand or event. It was a unique Cambridge experience.
Not entirely
By anon
Tue, 08/31/2010 - 8:20pm
The store is open until 9:00 most nights so for two hours it definitely impacts people's ability to get in the store. I know I have had to ask people to move so that I could get in the store.
That said, I thought it was a cool tradition and am sad to see it go. It felt like the old Harvard Square ...
CHAIR GROUP
By meshell
Tue, 08/31/2010 - 9:06pm
Bums on the sidewalk was all they were. Drug addicts and Drunks getting some free entertainment-little did they know-they were the entertainment.
Not bums
By Ron Newman
Tue, 08/31/2010 - 11:47pm
Seemed like a good Cambridge cross-section the times I stopped there -- some students, some yuppies, some old-time townies.
Meshell,
By anon
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 8:55am
The worst you can rationally call the chair group is moochers. Got it?
Get back on your meds. The doctor never said you could stop taking them.
So mental illness
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 10:01am
is the new retarded?
Yep
By anon
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 11:07am
And self-righteousness is the new mental illness. Congratulations, you've won!
Okay
By SwirlyGrrl
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 1:29pm
And ignorant bigotry is ... the new Republican Platform for America!
What office you running for?
7 years doesn't make a landmark
By anon
Tue, 08/31/2010 - 9:50pm
in Harvard Square. Cardullo's has been there for sixty. They're an anchor. I was shopping there in 1973. I can't imagine why they put the TV in the window to begin with. I can certainly understand why they're removing it now.
7 years is pretty notable
By pierce
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 1:15am
in an area where most people turnover in 4. That TV has been around longer than most of the businesses around it
Landmark and historic
By roadman
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 12:20pm
are two of the most overused and mis-applied words in the English language.
And to argue that a TV placed in the window of a private store for seven years somehow falls under either category does a real disservice to legitimate preservation efforts.
who called it historic? And
By pierce
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 1:44pm
who called it historic? And "landmark" doesn't necessarily mean of any great significance. "Landmark legislation" is, yes, but an "area landmark" merely implies that it is somehow noticeable and distinguishable from context. Landmarks often take on a historical significance, but lets not get our preservationist panties in a bunch just yet, no one is trying to put this thing on the national register or add it to the freedom trail, theyre just bummed about one of Harvard Square's [few remaining] quirks disappearing
"Slap in the face"? "Can't stop crying"? Seriously?
By anon
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 6:07am
I can only imagine how empty and trivial these people's lives are that they take a private business's decision to change a window display so strongly and so personally.
Sheesh! If you want a sense of community, don't rely on a business to give it to you. They are only interested in profit. Make it yourself.
The "can't stop crying" bit
By anon
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 7:47am
The "can't stop crying" bit sounds like someone with unusual emotional response.
And Therein Lies the Problem...
By Jon Birch
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 9:52am
>They are only interested in profit.
And there you have, in a nutshell, the complete problem and failing of Capitalism. Complete shortsightedness.
I moved here two years ago. I remember going through the Square and encountering this. It was unique in my experience. I remembered the store. I talked about the experience with other people. They remembered the store.
I also remember a good cross-section of people watching the game - not drunks and bums (One cop, actually, if I remember correctly!)
The business had a distinct feature that made people remember them. Now, in usual capitalistic shortsightedness, they've turned this off. They will not fade into all the other faceless businesses of this type in the square. Unless they reverse this decision, I give them about 5 more years to live.
Sad. What businesses need to learn is that if they are only interested in profit, they shouldn't exist. While they shouldn't be relied on to create community, I'd tend to agree, it is incumbent upon them to HELP create it. This business was doing that. Now it has ceased. And that is a problem both for the community and the business.
I wouldn't say they care only
By anon
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 10:17am
I wouldn't say they care only about money.
They wanted to put up a TV, so they did. They they decided they didn't want the TV, so they took it down.
Wait, Seriously?
By anon
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 10:37am
Cardullo's has been in the Square for longer than the two years you've been here. It's been around for almost as long as TV has been in existence. It's survived riots, gentrification, endless construction, and the wholesale elimination of locally-owned bookstores and restaurants. If and when it goes, it won't be for lack of a television facing the street.
Nicely put.
By anon
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 1:26pm
Nicely put.
Dude, it's a TV.
By Sarcastic Sam
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 1:16pm
You might be overthinking this just a teeny bit. It's a damn TV, that's all. It became a nuisance, so they removed it. It's not a grasshopper atop a centuries-old building. It's not a neon sign paying homage to a Venezuelan dictator. It's a television for Pete's sake.
I hope the store survives; it's a unique place, TV or no TV.
Woohoo!
By eeka
Tue, 09/07/2010 - 7:56am
It's not a neon sign paying homage to a Venezuelan dictator.
You win the internet.
Yes Comrade Jon Birch! Those
By Boris
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 4:48pm
Yes Comrade Jon Birch! Those Capatilist Pigs will regret the day they decided to take away the People's TV!
Yes, Libtard, they should pay
By anon
Tue, 09/07/2010 - 4:49am
Yes, Libtard, they should pay thousands in rent and utilities so that you can sit on your ass and watch the game on the sidewalk.
And if not, they're greedy pigs.
Without commenting on this
By mfinnigan
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 9:57am
Without commenting on this specific action : Businesses are part of the community too, particularly when they do something like this.
Giving back.
By Rachel
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 10:42am
Maybe the "Chair Club" could start going to one of the many restaurants and bars in the area to watch the game. They would still be meeting and still watching the game, only now they would be giving back to the local businesses and maybe help them stay around longer.
Amen!
By anon
Wed, 09/01/2010 - 12:18pm
Somehow, I think the "slap in the face" guy is just going to join the Tea Party instead.
I have no problem with
By anon
Thu, 09/02/2010 - 12:58am
I have no problem with Cardullo's handling a TV any way they want. I will just note that I, and a large group of others, watched the Red Sox win the World Series in 2004 on a (the?) TV in that window while Cardullo's served free hot dogs and other snacks in a spirit of communal goodwill. Cardullo's itself has made quite a big deal out of that TV. But if the communal goodwill is no longer there, it may well make sense for it to go.