§ I spent three days in Boston on a work trip.
- After I get through TSA—and hurriedly redress at one of those flimsy metal benches—I actually really like the airport. It’s like a weird sort of liminal mall where everyone shares the same special buzzy sense of purpose.
- Flighty is a good app.
- I didn’t see a single Vision Pro but everyone was wearing AirPods.
- A hour and a half long flight is maybe the perfect length. A good excuse to disconnect from the internet for a spell and focus on something else, for once.
- A turbulent touchdown really puts things in perspective. Thinking you might imminently die is a quick and efficient way to reorder priorities. This is probably why other people like extreme sports.
- How long will planes keep that little “no smoking” indicator? The plane I was on had a WiFi indicator so obviously updates have been made in the twenty-four years since smoking was banned.
- If there is anything that kills the Suite Life of Zack & Cody dream it’s that water pressure in hotel showers is always horrendous.
- Whenever I visit a city that has Apple Map’s Look Around feature I’m blown away by how good it is—dare I say it’s better than Google Street View. Maybe Cleveland will have it sometime before the heat death of the universe. Maybe.
- The MIT Museum was inspiring. It wasn’t until I was on my way out that I noticed that the MIT Press bookstore was in the same building. Of course I spend another hour checking out all that they have. Those two, together, could easily fill an entire day.
- Foolishly, it took me until my last day to venture over the bridge from Cambridge into Boston proper. Oh my god, Beacon Hill might be the archetype of the ideal American city. Dense, high tech, and historic with red brick sidewalks so uneven that you can’t help but to stay present in the moment.
- I heard no Boston accents my entire time in the city.
§ The Gentlemen came out of absolutely nowhere as a really great show. An electric British fusion of Succession and Ozark. Give it a watch.
