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Friday, September 2, 2011

Fort Point Channel Vicinity, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

I was feeling a little sluggish today so I thought I'd go to downtown Boston to the Federal Reserve Bank and see if I could pick up some of those "Stimulants" I've been hearing about in the news that the President was giving out.  They informed me that it was "Stimulus" not "Stimulants"  and, NO, I can't have any of those either. They didn't seem to have much of a sense of humor about it.  Oh well, I'm downtown now, I might as well wander........ 

First stop was South Station.  With echoes of yesteryear, this transportation hub serves as a terminus for intercity rail, bus, and subway and has a feel of the excitement of transportation of generations long gone -  without the mind and body-numbing overbearing security mentality we face in today's airports. If you could just take down the tacky advertising banners........

Next stop was Fort Point Channel. In front of the Children's Museum on the Harborwalk stands what might, with tongue firmly in cheek, be called Boston's Stonehenge - not sure what it means - maybe it's a tribute to British cuisine.  Yeah I know, the British don't really have cuisine.


Along this same Harborwalk you can find extremely long  benches (or wide depending on your perspective) designed, no doubt, to accommodate the ever spreading derrieres of overfed and under-exercised Americans who need to sit for a few minutes while they and their kids eat ice cream.

The view back towards downtown Boston across the Fort Point Channel.

Just north of the bridge is the Barking Crab restaurant, a renowned waterfront eatery with branches in Boston and Newport.  I don't quite know what a barking crab is but......a barking spider is a species of tarantula from Australia.  It is also a slang term referring to audible flatulence. But I guess they must know that.

While I was standing there gazing at the skyline, I decided to activate the secret mode on my fancy point and shoot camera.  I learned of this mode from a friend in the secret intelligence service - the mode is called circular ocular generalization with lateral offset polarization (abbreviated as COGLOP).  It generates a momentary shift in physical reality.  It is much like an earthquake but occurs so quickly  that often it is not noticed by regular mortals without special sensory talents.

It was getting darker and odd things always happen after a COGLOP.

With very little light left in the evening sky, I knew I needed to be alert to extra-normal phenomena as a result of the COGLOP.

And then I saw it - the first sign along the waterfront - a riderless bicycle moving stealthily along the harborfront without any visible means of pilotage.

And then - the next sign - truly amazing - who should appear but those Plymouth Digital Photographers (PDP) out and about again!  I can't seem to go anywhere without running into them.  They seem to be anywhere, anytime, any day, any weather.  I think they might need to be reported to the authorities for exceeding the authorized fun limit.

One of the nice things about living in Boston is our rich history of rebellion going back to the founding of our nation. It's an attitude that the rules don't apply to us - clearly these pedestrians are not impressed with rules. Of course the sign is facing the wrong direction........

So as my night was drawing to a close, I headed to the South Street Diner, an open-24-hours-a-day icon from the chrome diner era and who should I find there? - why it's those darn pesky Plymouth Digital Photographers again!  They're everywhere.  Here, in true paparazzi fashion, they had staked out the Diner. They wouldn't divulge who they saw but maybe it was a famous favorite Boston alumnus like Matt Damon or Ben Affleck out for a late snack.  At least a dozen passersby stopped to ask what was happening but the PDP folks would reveal nothing.  Even two police cruisers drove by and said not a word about the tripods in the street.  Those PDP folks wield some awesome power with law enforcement.  Can you guess who it is from looking at the back of his head?

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