A few years ago the New Yorker did a profile of Dame Helen, and one detail I remember is that she and her husband, the director Taylor Hackford, regularly ride the train in California to go to Santa Anita, or one of the other CA racetracks. So she is no stranger to public transportation. I think Emily Rooney is by no means the only Back Bay resident who is (or in her case was) a stranger to the T.

Probably Del Mar

By HenryAlan on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 5:27pm.

It's accessible by Amtrack and commuter rail. I don't believe Santa Anita is so easy to reach by any current rail routes.

nothing like Mirren

By Jeepers on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 5:39pm.

Helen Mirren isn't a homophobe or a boob.

I had an intern...

By dpalomares on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 2:18pm.

who had never done house work before, during our down time - I asked the intern to go get the vacuume and work on the carpet, she did this bear hug thing with the vacuume, once I showed her the "proper technique" she said

"This is almost like fun or something."

Funny how everyday things to most people are foreign to others.

I used to pretend that too.

By JimGaffigan on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 2:21pm.

Sorry, don't know how to vacuum.

Sorry, can't figure out the washing machine.

Sorry, don't know how to cook.

I was single for a long time.

WGBH

By BostonDog on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 2:25pm.

Did your intern also host a flagship show on WGBH called "Greater Housekeeping" for 20 years before trying the vacuum?

I don't know what I am most embarassed about..

By whyaduck on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 2:35pm.

the intern not knowing how to use a vacuum or you asking your intern to vacuum.

To give context...

By dpalomares on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 2:56pm.

I work for a public access station, our interns learn how to use the video equipment and we work on live programming, when there is downtime we would clean up the studio including our rugs we use for our sets.(not the entire building).

I've had a handful of people not know how to vacuum, but learned how to do it once they left, and before people get on me about using interns as slaves, I started as an intern at the same place and worked my way up, my vacuuming skills are top notch

I can top that

By anon on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 3:29pm.

My former employer used to get kids from various summer jobs programs. I had to teach many of them how to sweep.

Until I taught them, they'd wave the broom back and forth a few times over the area and say "All done!"

I'd come back and find dirt, and then I'd have to teach them how to do repeated passes in a pattern until they got all the dirt, and then move the dirt into the dustpan, and finally, to go in all the cracks, crevices, and behind storage bins, benches, etc. Which was important because we swept as a precursor to hosing; if they missed stuff, it would make the mess worse.

I didn't mind teaching them, but of course, my employer hired them to make our jobs "easier!" and of course, it quickly devolved into Sweeping Lessons and You Said You Were Taking a Bathroom Break But We Don't Sell Coffee Coolatas in the Men's Room...

Well, they didn't specify

By anonalex on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 8:57pm.

Well, they didn't specify which bathroom. Maybe they just preferred the bathroom down the street, and hey, while they're there...

She never even saw a

By kvn on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 3:47pm.

She never even saw a vacuuming commercial on tv? You can find anything about anything on the internet.

I just randomly thought this up , and voila ! Tig Welding Cast Iron ( I would braze it myself , who knew , )

HAHA

By anon on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 2:19pm.

Tell her to jump on the orange line, mid-week at Forest Hills around 2pm. She'd have a heart attack..

Actually, that's a great idea

By SwirlyGrrl on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 5:54pm.

Better yet, try to even get on a train downtown at rush hour. Then she might progress to the next level of urban understanding and learn to use a bike to avoid that fun.

Or at least learn why people use bikes to avoid that fun.

Bike?

By anon on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 8:35pm.

It like 20 out, I'll take the T.

Oh, me too

By SwirlyGrrl on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 9:02pm.

But Rooney has said some pretty vacuous and hostile things about cyclists in the past. Easier to understand her vacant blather if she doesn't even take the T.

orange line isn't even that bad

By anon on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 9:39pm.

try riding the bus out of central square lynn. guy gets on - clearly high on something - starts screaming "kill whitey! kill whitey" - unzips and proceeds to urinate all over the back of the bus.

Also - this does not even compare to what I've seen on chicago public transportation.

PBS in touch with the masses.

By dodo on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 3:58pm.

PBS in touch with the masses.....from a safe distance!

Wow

By Anonyy on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 4:59pm.

She sucks even more than I previously thought.

At least it was the D-line

By HenryAlan on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 5:30pm.

As one of her colleagues points out, it's apparently the premier service. How horrifying for her to be stuck on one of the other colors, or the forsaken B-line.

Who knew

By Kathode on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 9:44pm.

that the D-line is the premier subway line? That ride out to Newton, as nice as Newton is, is mighty long. And Emily, you should be ashamed of yourself. I can't believe you said, "The T doesn't run to WGBH." How many people in your building take the T to work?

Two MA governors preferred using the T

By SwirlyGrrl on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 5:59pm.

At least in recent memory, Weld and Dukakis were regulars, even after becoming governor.

What's up with this dimwit? How can you possibly live in the Boston area for this long as an adult and NOT take the T? There are times when it is just massively convenient, social class be damned (which was why Weld didn't want to give it up).

Give her a break

By BostonDog on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 7:46pm.

She lives in the Back Bay. I think everyone would agree that's a part of the city completely inaccessible by the T.

Besides, she only was the news director for WCVB for what, 15 years? And Greater Boston has only been on the air since the mid 1990s. Given the T's low ridership it's unlikely that in these 30 years of broadcasting to Boston that she even saw more then a handful of stories about the T. Except for us nerds on UHub I don't think anyone even knows what that obscure minor MA agency is.

So I for one would forgive her for never riding the T. But I'm glad that now that she no longer has a busy schedule of reporting about issues around Boston she finally has had the chance to see those strange four letters are all about.

Are you kidding me?

By bagonza joe on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 12:20am.

" I think everyone would agree that's a part of the city completely inaccessible by the T "
----------------

Arlington, Copley and Hynes Convention center - Back Bay is covered. Yes, maybe a short walk in a few directions but that neighborhood is covered.

I lived on Gloucester Street for 15 years and used the green line day in and day out.

whoosh

By aldos on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 7:24am.

whoosh

Raise your eyes, Joe

By perruptor on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 8:19am.

Too much focus on bagonzas can blind you to what's happening around you.

WCVB looks like a hard place to reach by MBTA

By Ron Newman on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 8:26am.

Google Maps is telling me that you *can* do it, but you've got at least a 15-minute walk at the end from either the Needham commuter train or the #59 bus.

Now if she worked for WHDH-7 there'd be no excuse.

smh

By anon on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 6:19pm.

Jesus H. Christ. I'm at a loss for words.

Talk about an Ivory Tower

By Boston_Bloke on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 6:58pm.

I love Emily Rooney but she is the epitome of a limousine liberal.

Liberal?

By SwirlyGrrl on Sun, 02/01/2015 - 7:29pm.

Uh, no.

Chosen MBTA police chief bows out

By Markk02474 on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 10:12am.

Arlington's police chief was chosen to head the MBTA police. He turned down the job for unspecified personal reasons.

Perhaps he didn't want to take the commuter rail to and from work every day.

http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2015/02/02/arlington-police-chief-withd...

Out-of-touch elitist, yes

By Whurlz on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 10:58am.

But we've seen that from plenty of others, many times. What shocks me is the complete lack of the media savvy (or self-preservation instinct) needed to THINK before speaking. Did she really describe everybody on the T as "deranged-looking?" Why, I think she did. How stupid do you have to be to say something like that to a large audience?

In case you were not familiar with this twit

By Ubermonkey on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 2:43pm.

Wikipedia: Emily Rooney

I had not heard of her. Turns out she is, in fact, an adult. Go figure!

I cannot understand how WGBH

By anon on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 2:57pm.

I cannot understand how WGBH justifies keeping her on. Does she have a bullet proof contract or something ? Sometimes I wonder if her goal in broadcasting was to honor her father by trying always to make him seem brilliant by comparison, which he now does.

She recently retired

By Markk02474 on Mon, 02/02/2015 - 3:04pm.

WGBH had some sort of sendoff for her.

Slow clap time: Emily Rooney rides the T for the first time in her life

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