massmarrier's blog

After not taking Commuter Rail for several weeks, I got a surprise as I had to pass through a gauntlet at South Station on the way to Fairmount early this afternoon. Some Campbell's-kids looking junior T employees confronted every aspiring passenger at the entry to Track 9. They demanded tickets for that specific train. I carped as I had to unburden myself of my Haymarket goodies and coffee to dig into my shirt pocket. The kid blocking me tried to be solemn in saying, "It's in the tariff!" Read more.

Sigh, as I feared when family members returned from early voting in Boston, all those ballots will be treated as absentee ones come Tuesday. That is, they will arrive in masses of envelopes inside larger envelopes for the wardens and clerks to process.

Our training for the recent primary included a promise that Elections would be able to process voters from the 255 precincts via smart computer tech. That would have meant fewer ballots for each precinct to handle. But no... Read more.

Local lad at Shaw's on Hyde Park Avenue has fun with fish heads.

Overheard in West Roxbury Y men's locker room among two retirement-age guys:

• 1: You still going to Egypt?
• 2: Yeah, sure.
• 1: I wouldn't go, even if it was free.
• 2: You're afraid of Egypt but you go to Dorchester?

An ex-Stop & Shop barely remains on Truman Parkway. Last week, it looked like they'd fill the lot behind the Jersey barriers with construction equipment and never get to tearing down the not-so-supermarket, liquor store, bank and pharmacy.