Seeing Boston With Bostonians

For more information about Susan Calder's books or to purchase, visit her Books We Love Author Page.

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"We'll meet at The Taj, walk through The Common and have dinner at Ward 8," my nephew Ryan said.

It was almost like he was speaking another language.

In May, my husband Will and I visited Boston, Massachusetts, to attend Ryan's university graduation ceremonies. Since Will and I had only seen the city briefly around thirty years ago, we added five extra days to take in the sights.

First up on many Boston tourist agendas is the Freedom Trail, a walk past Boston locations related to the American Revolution (1775-1783). With our trail map in hand, we rambled through the Granary Burying Ground, final resting place of Boston notables like Paul Revere, Benjamin Franklin's parents and possibly Mother Goose.

Granary Burying Ground

The map then guided us to the site of the Boston Massacre, where five men were killed in a clash between Colonists and British Troops. After Faneuil Hall, a meeting place and market since 1742, we reached Paul Revere's house and the Old North Church. We gazed up at the church steeple in which the sexton famously hung two lanterns to signal the beginning of Revere's ride that ignited the Revolution.

Old North Church, Boston's oldest church building

Day Two took us to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, built on the waterfront because JFK, an avid sailor, loved the ocean.

JFK's sailboat outside of the museum

Images, memorabilia and replicas of the White House took us through Kennedy's life and presidency, which loomed large in my cultural awareness during my youth.

Image of young Jack on a rooftop suggests his adventurous nature

The Kennedy family: Can you name them all?

JFK's inauguration speech. The red words are ones he changed while delivering the speech. 

A few days later, we would visit the house in suburban Brookline where the future president was born and lived until the family grew beyond four children. After her son died, Rose Kennedy purchased the house and had it decorated the way it was when the family lived there.

JFK's relatively modest birth home in Brookline, MA

The small table in the Kennedy's dining room was used by Jack and his older brother Joe. 

A few steps from the JFK Presidential Library is the Edward Moore Kennedy Senate Museum. In the exact replica senate room, we debated a current senate bill: The Dairy Pride Act, which would forbid the use of the word 'milk' on labels for products not produced from hoofed animals. If this actual bill passes, good-bye soy milk.

Senator Calder in the EMK Museum

Landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted resided not far from the Kennedy's house in Brookline. Olmsted, who designed Central Park in New York City, Golden Gate Park in San Francisco and numerous other public and private gardens, built a home/office that is now a National Historic Site open to public tours.

Me with my sister and brother at the Olmsted home/office - Yes it sometimes rains in Boston

     

Another Bostonian who showed us an aspect of her city was Isabella Stewart Gardner, art collector, philanthropist and larger than life character from the early 20th century. A visit to the art museum she founded to house her collection made my bucket list after I read the novel The Art Forger by B.S. Shapiro, a suspenseful tale about the 1990 theft of 13 works from the museum, including paintings by Rembrandt and Degas. It remains the largest unsolved art heist in history and the Gardner museum is currently offering a reward of $10 million for information leading to the works' return. Will and I were awed as much by the museum design of an Italian palazzo as we were by the art.

Gardner Museum Courtyard

Isabella had so much clout in her day that when she moved from her home in Boston's prestigious Back Bay to live on the top floor of the museum, she convinced the city to change her old address from 152 to 150 Beacon St. so no future owners would have her number.

Works by artist John Singer Sargent feature prominently in Isabella's collection. Boston has claimed Sargent as its own even though he spent most of his life in Europe. Sargent's murals are a highlight of the magnificent Boston Public Library.

Sargent murals in Boston Public Library

Boston also claims numerous authors, including one of my childhood favourites Louisa May Alcott. Before the American Civil War, the Alcott family lived in a house in Beacon Hill, near the apartment Will and I rented for our stay.

Louisa May Alcott home

Another book from my childhood, Make Way for Ducklings, written and Illustrated by Robert McCloskey, led to a fun and interactive statue in Boston Public Garden. The book about a pair of mallards who decide to raise their family in this city park is the official children's book of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Who knew states had official books? What a great idea.

Make way for these ducklings

Boston Public Garden merges into Boston Common, the city's central park and, of course, The Common in my nephew's meeting instructions. The Taj turned out to be a historic luxury hotel facing the Public Garden. Ward 8 is a restaurant in the North End, former neighbourhood of Paul Revere and now inhabited by numerous Italian restaurants. We sampled some delicious local specialties - cannoli pastries and the favourite pizza of honorary Bostonians Rob Lowe and Leonardo diCaprio.

Will, Leonardo and Rob at Regina Pizzeria

Cannoli

 Will and I loved Boston and are grateful to all of the Bostonians, past and present, who shared glimpses of their city. And we can't forget our favourite Boston resident, my nephew Ryan Calder. Congratulations Graduate.  

    

Who Doesn't Love a Misplaced Modifier? by Karla Stover

bwlauthors.blogspot.com karla stover  


Trust me; I am not a writer snob. One of my critique groups, once, broke up  when I referred to a bunch of trees as a corpse rather than copse. And since I make mistakes, I give myself permission to enjoy an internal tee hee at those of others. In the May 27, 2017, a staffer for The News Tribune, our local newspaper wrote the  following:


Ferries cost $13 for car and passenger, $7 for bike and rider. Free for kids. They run on the hour.

     I, for one, prefer an hour with no running kids.

     In Mary Poppins, Mr. Dawes Sr. director of London's main financial center says:

"I know a man with a wooden leg called Smith."

     Did the non-wooden leg not rate a name?
 
     "A misplaced modifier is a word, phrase, or clause that is improperly separated from the word it modified or describes."

     Here's one I found in a book discussing English schools:

"Bedford School was another [public school]; endowed by the Harper Trust, which kept its fees
low . . ."

Further reading explained it was the school, not the trust which kept the fees low."

When Go Set a Watchman, the original To Kill a Mockingbird came out, it seemed to fade fast. However, the edited version remains a classic. An article on www.telegraph.co.uk says Tay HoHoff, an editor at the firm, J.B. Lippincott, would not have published the book in its original version. In fact, it was HoHoff who advised Lee to scrap the original version of Scout visiting her father as an adult and instead tell the story from a child's point of view. The rewrite process took three years. It also says, "The differences between the two books call into question how much of To Kill A Mockingbird was written by Lee, and how much was shaped by Hohoff."

Which brings us back to the point I'm trying to make: Publishers no longer have the time or wherewithal to spend three years molding a book. It is up to we the writers.  The website, www.writingcommons.org suggests authors  do the following:

1.  place the modifier as close as possible to which is being modified.
2.  place adjectives in front of the noun, adverbs in front or directly behind or at the beginning or end of the sentence.
3. words such as almost, even, just, nearly, only, or simply go in front of the word (or words) being modified.
4.  do not put the modifier between the word, "to" and the verb. It creates a split infinitive. "To quickly move" should be "To move quickly."

The same article suggest circling the modifier and drawing an arrow to the word it modifies and read the sentence aloud.


     Of course, we could imitate Ernest Hemingway's style, i.e. use plain grammar and "easily accessible language" in "short, rhythmic sentences that avoid reflection, skip the adjectives, and concentrate on the action. and avoid adjectives where ever possible, but where's the fun in that?

     These faux pas are everywhere, from Groucho Marx--One morning shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I'll never know,"  to street signs, "Caution Pedestrians Slippery When wet."

     It's best to soldier on, I think, and if we misplace a modifier, well, it will be someone else's tee hee.

Do you see them?

There has been a lot of media coverage lately about bees. How they are on the decline. If you like to eat anything the least bit healthy, you need bees. The collect the nectar and pollen from flowers. This is used to feed their colony. As they collect they pollinate. The nectar eventually turns into honey. 

I live in rural Ontario. Our property is bursting with flowers and trees. Enough trees, we rarely use our air conditioner. Even on the hottest days, we sleep with our windows open at night, allowing a beautiful breeze into our bedroom. 

Spring is beautiful around here. The trees and perennials are coming to life after the winter. We have a cherry tree on the property that the birds love. We were outside in mid May, doing some yard work. My husband was working a short distance from me, close to that tree. 

"Heather. Come here. Listen."

As I walked toward him, I heard the buzz. A small orchestra could have been suspended in the air. I looked up at the white blossom filled cherry tree. Honeybees surrounded every branch of the vibrant tree, buzzing around those blossoms. What a gorgeous sight, and sound. 

I just smiled.

The joys of living in rural Ontario. I buy my honey and honey products from a local bee keeper. I support our local famers and buy pure Canadian maple syrup from a 'Sugar Shake.' We can watch them tap the trees.

An interesting little fact. Bees don't sleep. They have a short life span, around thirty days. They work the entire time. Keep the bees alive and healthy. We need them. 

If you're able, buy wild flower seeds and plant them. The honeybees will thank you.