The following maps and accompanying commentary summarize my thinking about Election 2016. This entry is less objective than my usual entries but it has not escaped my attention that this election season has not been one characterized by tolerance and objectivity. Map 1 shows the states which putatively are already decided and states that are… (read more)
The Muddy River at Washington Street in Brookline is unimpressive. Water from Leverett Pond on the south passes through a culvert under the street and drains into a small, almost unnoticeable creek on the north side, to continue to eventually to the Charles River. And yet, merely by crossing the narrow ‘stream’ below the latest… (read more)
1. Polls and Pundits People don’t change, populations change. I know this sounds deterministic and seems to preclude the possibility of free will but, as far as voting habits are concerned, I think it is fundamentally true as I will argue in this article. It is a useful mantra I repeat to myself frequently during… (read more)
A brief analysis of the routes out of Boston to Watertown and beyond, also called the Upper Post Road. It is easy to take the relative ease of travel in the modern world for granted. I recently visited India for the first time and, in the course of traveling, I reflected how long and difficult… (read more)
“Rightly to estimate the present, we must invoke the past, of which we ourselves are the product, and its study cannot fail to teach us the importance of perpetuating those elements of true greatness in New England character bequeathed to us by our Puritan ancestry, and in which their descendants take a justifiable pride.” Francis… (read more)
Better Know A Precinct #2. Ward 14, Precinct 3. As I waited for luggage at the Terminal A baggage carousel in Logan Airport recently, I noticed a promotion on a nearby wall for Boston’s Grove Hall neighborhood. The poster advertises all the great things waiting to be discovered in the neighborhood. Visit Franklin Park Zoo!… (read more)
Better Know A Precinct #1. Ward 6, Precinct 9 Recently fishermen on a boat off the coast near Beverly found a rare blue lobster in one of their traps. According to the Lobster Institute at the University of Maine, blue lobsters turn up about once for every two million lobsters harvested. The carapace (shell) of… (read more)
“Boston State-House is the hub of the solar system. You couldn’t pry that out of a Boston man if you had the tire of all creation straightened out for a crowbar.” Oliver Wendell Holmes, The Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, 1858. This quote recorded by Holmes is the source of the famous nickname… (read more)
In my most recent post I examined the election results of the largest cities in America. I chose the 26 largest cities based on US Census Bureau data, cities which each had a population of more than 600,000. I also discussed some problems with the data set, as I also did in a post from… (read more)
Boston has a reputation as a very liberal city. I have been a student of Boston elections for over two decades and my research suggests that the city is not as liberal as its national reputation warrants. Is it possible to determine the relative “liberalness” of Boston? Part of this project is dedicated to analyzing… (read more)
