Take this quiz and find out! You’ve just become a teenager in the 1980s. Answer the following questions to the best of your ability. 1.What are you going to watch on TV tonight? 2. What shows can you put your little sibling in front of to keep them occupied? 3…

When I created the “Take the T Pledge” website in 2018, I was frustrated with the poor quality of the MBTA service I depended on to get to three different part-time jobs in a timely manner. I asked local and state politicians to pledge to take the MBTA to work…

If you’ve been following the story of The Internet Archive being sued by big book publishers, you’ve probably seen stuff about how the Great Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive, is a library hero standing against the evil capitalist publishers. But, as always, the truth is more complicated. Without…

Have you seen an MBTA bus recently? At least where I live, on the JP/Roxbury line, they’re all festooned with ads urging folks to apply to charter schools. (Is that public money paying for those ads? As near as I can tell, it is!) This, of course, goes counter to…

Happy Giving Tuesday, everybody! (Or, almost Giving Tuesday, anyway). With nonprofits ramping up their fundraising (development? advancement?), I’d like to remind everyone of a few problems with this sector. Disclaimer: I started a nonprofit. (And failed to get it off the ground, about which more later). I worked at a…

The idea that building more homes will solve the housing crisis is hardening into orthodoxy. This article from the Atlantic sums up both the content and the tone of the pro-building argument: only building more homes can solve the housing crisis, and if you don’t believe this, you are stupid. …

For decades, and possibly even longer, Boston, like many cities, has been governed not for the benefit of the people who live here, but, rather, for the benefit of the people who use the city but don’t live here. This is why our police have adequate ventilation in their stations…

It’s been five years and a month since I got laid off, and I am almost completely resigned to the fact that I will never have a full-time job again. I am fifty-two years old, and I have aged out of the full-time workforce. Now, mine is far from…

I love mysteries. What’s not to love? As a nosy person, I’m a sucker for “other people’s secrets” as a plot hook. And just as horror tells a fundamental truth about human existence (terrible things can happen at any time and for no reason), so do mysteries: people sometimes do…