Wednesday, November 30, 2005

(madison) honestly?

I'm so happy to be back in Madison for a week. It's a wonderful place. (Nothing against Cambridge, of course.) I'm sort of surprised I haven't been back earlier.

An intriguing thing about Cambridge is that I think the way that I have developed my habits and haunts there has basically made it as Madison-like as possible. In other words, I've shrunk the Boston metropolitan area to where it is basically the walkable part of a college town. What this says about me and my ultimate geosocial preferences will be left as an exercise for the reader.

Not to say that back in Cambridge I don't enjoy taking Red Line to Green Line to various things in Boston proper, but doing so feels like an excursion to somewhere else, rather than really part of the place where I'm living.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

give it some time; boston will grow on you.

Steven A. Stehling said...

The differences between Massachusetts and Wisconsin are interesting. I had a field day making fun of the names of towns there. About half the towns have a compass direction added to their name, Northampton, Westfield, Southwick, Westborough. Some of these names have a town for each direction of the compass as well.

Then of course the state is nearly a never ending small town. If you get off the interstate and tollways and travel the state highways, you'll find each side of the highway lined with houses and shops, with few exceptions. That makes it difficult at times to know if you've left a town or stumbled upon another one.

Anonymous said...

Of course you don't go into Boston. True Cantabrigians never do. See! you're making progress despite yourself ...

But have fun in Madison.

Josh

Anonymous said...

Really? "True" Cantabrigians, then, must be an insular, sheltered bunch. Why purposely avoid the offerings of one best cities in the U.S.?

Anonymous said...

Ha!

Josh

Anonymous said...

is that the best response the pro-cantabridgian forces can muster?

ha! ha!

Anonymous said...

Do you ever find it strange that, in Madison, it seems like almost everybody is white? While I like a lot of things about Madison, that part kind of creeps me out sometimes. (This is absolutely not intended as a dig against you or Madison..it's just one of those things I distinctly remember about being there.)

Anonymous said...

The proper spelling is 'Cantabrigian'.

Anonymous said...

the color(s) of the people of madison are a lot more muddled than the color of the people in jeremy's home town.
~pj

Anonymous said...

And the proper usage of 'Cantabrigian' refers to folks in England.