Unfurled

Some might consider such a title an oxymoron, but today, even I was impressed by the troves of people that descended upon our quiet hamlet. The Head of the Charles brought in the usual gaggle of underclassmen and newly minted alumni eager to return to the warm underbelly of collegiate life. Life is Good held their annual pumpkin carving festival– the plan was to carve and light 30,000 pumpkins across the Boston Commons and break the world record set in 2003 by Keene, N.H. at 28,952. At last count, Boston did it– patches of 30,128 glowing jack o’lanterns decorated the Boston Commons by 8pm. While I am happy for Boston, that the prior world record (off by a relative hair) was set by a town with a population of 23,000 (compared to Boston’s 560,000), makes this newest designation seem, well… wrong.

All in all however, all this activity made for a festive day. Personally, I happen to like traffic jams (only when I’m not in them, which as a non-driver is often the case). Today was one big traffic jam in Boston. Occasionally, days like this are helpful to remind you either that you live in a city, or to remind you why you left.