Well That Explains a Lot
This morning’s Metro newspaper had a small article about where Boston stands in various surveys. Apparently, Boston is the least religous city in the country (which surprises me considering the Catholic church’s monopolization of local politics and political figures) and it’s also the most political city in the country.
Which explains a lot.
I’ve always gotten worked up over local politics – even for issues that don’t affect me personally. It seems that people here, right or wrong, are always going off on national politicians (particularly republicans since this is Massachusetts, after all) and local politicians and policies. I alway thought that this passion of ours would be the same throughout the country. But perhaps not. I suppose it could have to do with this being where so much of the country’s history began. I mean, we were the ones to strike back in the early years (Boston Tea Party, Battle at Lexington and Concord, etc…). I guess those values never left the culture in the region.
Other areas where Boston ranked high on the list were kinkiest women (#8) and kinkiest men (#9). This also surprises me considering that are only two straight strip clubs in Boston and only one gay strip club (in Cambridge)…and nudity isn’t even allowed at either place (state law requires at least an inch of fabric to cover the ass-crack…and you’re not allowed to show your, um, unspeakables [men] or unspeakable [women]). We have no sex clubs in the state, no bath houses, no straight fetish clubs (and Boston’s Ramrod is a barely a gay fetish club), and our selection of porn/sex shops is pitiful (the chain-store, “Amazing,” is a joke). If we’re #8 and #9 under these pitiful circumstances, the rest of this country must be REALLY uptight.
On the other hand, we do seem to be making waves politically, at least. I mean, we currently have the only man-of-color as our governor (only the second in U.S. history), we have a female Attorney General and now a female president of the Senate. We’ve got gay marriage, and our governor has made the new HPV-vaccine free to all 13-18 year old girls.
Yeah, the more I think about it, the more I should celebrate living in a place like this.
And speaking of celebrations, that’s the theme of my blog today…kinda’ like American Idol! They did “British Invasion” last night. I’m going with the theme “Celebrations” today in my photo archives. Here are some celebratory photos of my past:
1988 – Junior Prom (Oh my, what a big dress you have!)
1989 – Senior Prom (Oh my, how gay was her date?).
1989 – High school graduation (Oh my, what a lovely bush you have!)
1990 – Oh my, drunk under-age college kids. Who heard of such a thing?
1993 – College graduation (Oh my, Jeff cut off the tip of his finger slicing a bagel before the ceremony and ended up in the emergency room. True story! See the bandage on his finger?)
1996 – Housewarming party (Oh my, what an assortment of plaid we offer!)
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I love that you’re juxtaposing your impressions of Boston’s kink with your high school/college photos. Is there a suggestion there that these are related??? 😉
Oh my, there were Asian chicks on the cape back in the eighties (or was she the only one in your school)? What happened to her?
Nice hair Karl!
Your info on the strip clubs may be a bit off.. I have been to places in the Worcester area where they “Take it all off.”
HMMM – I read that somewhere…maybe it’s changed? Or maybe they’re just defying state law (which I’ve heard happen).
Ellen – as for the Asian chicks. There were Asians back then. Though, Candy was a grade behind me and, the more I think about it, I can’t recall a single Asian in my graduating class. Candy and I are still friends….she even reads my blog (though, she might not anymore now that I’ve posted that photo).
Looking back at my pictures I notice that the photo my father took of the graduating class sittingin the bleachers shows not a single minority student…not one. I think I graduated from the whitest school on earth. I might post that picture tomorrow.
My freshman year in college, one of the guys in my dorm had never met an African-American until college. I found that utterly amazing. He was from northern Michigan, small town…and there just weren’t any.
The first prom dress – very Scarlett O’Hara. Second – how gay is it that you matched your cummberband/tie to her dress!! And what was up w/ all that plaid – were you all “grunge”? Yes, we do have kinkier places out in central Mass. Lots of scary biker bars also. Things are always weirder/wilder in the “country”….
Okay, what *I* want to know is the url for the paper with the kink survey. LOL.
My knowedge of strip and fetish bars is nonexistent; my teensy freak flag flies privately, thank you.
But seriously. #8? I thought we could’ve done better than that. Sheesh.