Magazine Street Ped Bridge Looking Good

Steve and Steve, of S&R Corporation based in Lowell, MA,  take a moment to pose in front of the new Magazine Street pedestrian footbridge in Cambridge which they've been building.  They're "waiting on parts",  they said, to finish the construction which should be completed in "a few weeks".

Lots to Do in Dudley Today

Quick! Out of bed and by 9 a.m. down to the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School at 6 Shirley Street to plant 16 trees with BNAN, Lawyers Accountable To The Earth (LATTE), Grow Boston Greener (GBG), and the Dudley Street Neighborhood Charter School. Bring a hat, water, gloves, sturdy shoes and dress appropriately.  BNAN will supply the tools and the training. While in that neck of the woods, maybe take a quick stroll through the grounds of the Shirley-Eustis House and help polish it up a bit.

Then, quick! Off Highland Park to spruce it up as part of Boston Shines.

Ok, now time to celebrate Our Dudley Day at Hibernian Hall between 11 and 4, featuring a Scavenger Hunt, Memory Day (those old timey pictures should be fun), Self-Guided Walking Tour, and refreshment all sponsored by Discover Roxbury, Dudley Square Main Streets,  Historic Boston, Inc., Madison Park Development Corp., Nuestra Communidad, City of Boston Landmarks Commission, City of Boston Property and Construction Management Department, and Healey Library Archives at UMass Boston.

(One of) The Most Important Thing(s) Taught at Harvard. Absolutely Free.

This guy mentions it (brilliantly), as does this guy. This woman has been heard to intimate it in her classes. And so has this profe. And this prof, too. This woman's entire syllabus is predicated on it. It may simply be part of the Harvard undergrad philosophy but it's available to anyone, anywhere who wants to do the reading and thinking and writing and discussing and self-critical evaluation necessary to acquire it. One of the most significant things being taught at Harvard that you can learn for absolutely free is the importance of informed, thoughtful, engaged, civic participation.

And now they've made some library data available to the masses, the task, though not less onerous for your average Iseut, may be better supplied.

Shine it Up, Dudley!

This Saturday, take broom in hand (the city will provide it, and bags and t-shirts and gloves but let them know you're coming) and shine up Dudley.  Pictures below are of the people who came to clean and green the square in 2011.

beautifyin' Dudley Square

Breanna Jackson, 14; Madisen W. E. Wood, 12; Ryen Wood, 13; Amanda Carville, 23; Amber Nasiatka, 19; Adam Becotte, 14 of the United Parish Church Youth Group of Winchendon, MA

Joyce Stanley, Roxbury resident and Director of Dudley Square Main Streets; Randy Garry, owner of Tropical Foods

Emmanuel College in Roxbury?

According to a neighborhood activist, Emmanuel College is the latest prospective buyer for St. Margaret's Convent in Highland Park. Emmanuel would retain the property's use as a retreat center. Up to 40 students would occupy the property, alcohol use and private vehicles would be prohibited at the site and a shuttle service would connect it to the Emmanuel campus. The site would also become a regular stop on the Emmanuel PD patrols.

Dear Doctor

Dear Doctor-In-Training and Doctor,

I've no doubt you're wicked smaht.  You obviously have been able to memorize all those body parts in A and P and those chemical equations in organic and inorganic really well and now have become a doctor or a fetus doctor (not a doctor for fetuses but an embryonic doctor, a doctor-in-development), a fellow.  However, when it comes to human interaction, which some cultures and a growing body of research suggest can have a significant impact on health,  a nose pickin', ass scratchin', lungi hockin' troglodyte scores higher marks. (I've never had to spell 'lungi' before so I don't know if that's right).

Check this out:  when you are in a consulting room with me, I should have your full and undivided attention.  That means no Pavlovian response to the phone in your pocket, no quick text check to chuckle over some lame quip by another fetus doctor/trog, no tappety-tap response while I'm listing my symptoms. You look like a total shithead as you wipe the my-friends-and I-are-so-clever smile off your face and turn your attention back to me all Suzie Serious and Connie Concern. Flip the switch!  I'm a doctor! Flip the switch!  I can play with my friends on social networks while I'm with a patient! Flip the switch! I think I can multi-task!  Flip that switch all you want, fetus doctor, you come off as an insult to all the good doctors out there. And a douchebag.

Similarly, Ms Attending Physician with the great shoes:  I understand you have to call radiology to get my test results while I sit here half naked.  No problem. But you really do not have to listen for 10 minutes (I had nothing to do so I watched the clock and am not exaggerating) while the person on the other end regales you with tales of her Caribbean cruise or spawn's first steps or vaginal discharge or whatever she's on about.  It's pretty obvious from where I'm sitting, half naked and a foot away from you, that she's not talking about work. And don't look at me, roll your eyes and shrug.  Seriously?! You're a muckety-muck at a prestigious hospital in Boston and you can't deal with a simple case of phone logorrhea?  Here's how it's done:  you interrupt the person on the other end of the line with, "hey, sorry, but I'm with a patient right now. Let's talk later."  See how easy that was?

I've had some human and humane interactions with some amazing doctors.  I've been seeing my gynecologist  for 20 years and she knows me inside and out.  (Yup, I wrote that). Oops, never mind. She's a nurse practitioner. Ok. I love my dentist.  Love him. My dentist. That's how good he is.  My dermatologist is a charming old Boston blue blood, nice person and great doctor.

The sad irony in the above bad interactions which were painfully, humiliatingly, stunningly real is that both practitioners are women.  Just goes to show that even nurturing "instincts" (if they exist at all) can be educated right out of people by our "best" medical schools. Or maybe some people just don't have what it takes to be a decent doctor.

With all the respect you deserve,
your patient

p.s. If you're looking for me, I put my clothes on and ran away (far, far away) while you were on the phone/FB.

Single Size Me: CSA's and the Single Person

Community Supported Agriculture is a great idea. What's not to love?  You're supporting local farmers, getting food that tastes like food and not plastic, and you're cutting down on your carbon footprint.  But for busy single people - students and retirees, for example,  CSA's don't always make sense.  First of all when the spring, summer, and fall harvests come in, the farmers' markets are in operation.  Belong to a CSA and you might get a box full of bok choy or zucchini and then have to figure out what you'll do with it all.  Go to a farmer's market and you can choose what you'd like to buy and you're more likely to eat it instead of add it to the compost bin.  A bigger reason is that when preparing food for one, even the half shares are too big, so again, the compost bin wins.  You could split a share, as many people do, but do you really want to share that box of strawberries and how exactly do you split a head of romaine or cauliflower?

  
One solution can be found at Heavens Harvest Farm of New Braintree, Mass because they sell single shares for the single eater with pick-up sites throughout Boston and Cambridge. How cute!  An apple, a couple of leaves of kale, a few potatoes:  what could be sweeter than a single share?  And though that particular size surmise is close, even the single share is substantial. Depending on the week, you receive mushrooms, potatoes, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, squash and pea shoots among other veggies and fruit.

Stick strictly to only locally grown produce in the winter in New England and you'll be eating more cabbage and carrots than you thought possible but the foodshed partnership means Heavens Harvest Farms will also supply some grapefruit and oranges and cherry tomatoes and strawberries from partner farms on the Eastern seaboard during those months when the pickins are slim in New England.

According to the website of Enterprise Farm, one of Heavens Harvest's partners,

"Our winter foodshed extends from the local to the north and south, sourcing fruits and veggies from organic East Coast growers. We include as much local produce as we can, including storage crops, onions, roots, and greenhouse-grown vegetables.

In addition, we partner with growers from Prince Edward Island to Homestead, Florida.   North Carolina keeps it interesting with sweet potatoes and cooking greens, Georgia brings us an early crop of strawberries (sometimes peaches!), and from our friends in Florida we enjoy tree-ripened citrus, lettuce, tomatoes, eggplant, green beans, and more.

The East Coast farmshare supports regional farmers and supplies us with variety, vitamins, and good health all through the winter months!"

My single winter share (winter? what winter?) CSA was wonderful. And it turns out that it's even more interesting and fun to get a random box of vegetables and have to be creative with what you'll do with what you get.  Instead of shopping and preparing the same ol' things, it was a pleasure to try new recipes, which the folks at Heavens Harvest Farm provide weekly on their website.