Lenona, in relation to your comments on Tiger Woods yesterday: Read up on Todd Marinovich. I think you'll find it interesting.

Enjoy Boston. I was there several years ago in the fall for about a week. Lovely place.

Interesting, thanks.

Btw, there's at least one picture book these days about parents who yell at their kids' games and act like idiots - and the coaches who are tired of it.

Yet another reason why people who are on the fence about having children might well go over to the CF side. Who wants to be the only parent who thinks that academics are ten times more important than sports - and that parents should only attend their kids' games a couple of times a year at the most, to help kids realize that?

Aw, bummer, I'll be there in a month, I would have loved to buy you coffee or dinner.

I'm not hitting on you. That came out creepy. I... don't know if I can salvage this post.

Thanks -- I never see much of a city, though, when I'm there for a conference, because I'm so all up in the conference.

And Nicole, you're lovely and generous. Didn't come off creepy! Thank you!

PS Exhausted, dropping off my computer and off to the BBQ.

I grew up in suburban Boston, went to school across the Charles River from it, and lived in the city itself for a couple of years. I wouldn't call it lovely, but it's nice enough as long as you don't have to drive and aren't stranded in the Combat Zone.

Now a question. For evo psych to be valid, personality traits and behavioral tendencies must be heritable (influenced by genes) to a significant degree. I believe it's well established that this is indeed the case. My question: how do genes do this? What physical/physiological processes are involved?

I doubt we know any definite answers, but perhaps someone is doing research on this, and maybe someone at the conference knows something about what direction it's taking.

"My question: how do genes do this? What physical/physiological processes are involved?"

Geez, I hope you know how long that answer will be!

I wouldn't call it lovely, but it's nice enough as long as you don't have to drive and aren't stranded in the Combat Zone. ~ Rex Little at May 31, 2019 8:00 PM

Rex, I was a visitor in my sojourn there and a late-night walking tour of the Combat Zone was not on my agenda. The parts I saw were quite nice. It was a Fall visit, so the weather was wonderful. The boats on the Charles were resplendent. And Beacon Hill was the epitome of New England urbanity. This trip was in the '90s, so things my have changed a bit since then.

Here's to dear old Boston,
The home of the bean and the cod,
Where Lowells speak only to Cabots,
And Cabots speak only to God.

Every city has its seamy side. I worked in San Francisco for years and it's also a lovely city, if you stay away from the Tenderloin - or at least it was a lovely city, until the homeless people took over and turned almost every neighborhood into a garbage dump.

I have an old Navy buddy who was once a projectionist in a, er, "theater" in the Combat Zone, back in the '70s. He was put in the Navy by a judge concerned with his ancillary role as a driver one time.
He tells of a savage arrangement between BPD and two kinds of Mob, to maintain the status quo. If you paid protection money, you were well and truly protected - get robbed and the robber would meet some determined and extralegal "justice", often upon departing your premises. This was much less romantic than Robert B. Parker portrays in his "Spenser" series...
There was once an old man charged with collecting protection money. He was robbed and beat up by some opportunist from out-of-town who didn't know the old man was watched carefully.
Next week, the old man was seen making the rounds again, accompanied by a seriously upset man who was missing the bones in both arms from elbow to wrist.

Supposedly the CZ has been cleaned up since then, but given the permissiveness of "blue" areas, I'm sure thugs are the dominant culture.

This was much less romantic than Robert B. Parker portrays in his "Spenser" series... ~ Radwaste at June 1, 2019 7:54 AM

Well, Parker did venture into the seedy side of that life in a few of his novels. I think the one with April Kyle was pretty blunt about prostitution.

In his "Trace" series, Warren Murphy used to mock Parker's Spenser: his taste in beer, his deviations into philosophy, etc.

The Combat Zone is not what it was. So many posh apartments have been built on its border, and Suffolk and Emerson expanded in, and the Opera house. I think Pine Street Inn is still there, but for the most part it's been gentrified... I take that back. Artistocrified. Have walked there at night.

Hmm, Rex. Looks like our life followed a similar trajectory. I grew up in Suburban Boston, and did my Master's across the river. Wouldn't it be funny if we know each other?

We probably don't, Nicole. From your posts I get the impression that you're a good bit younger than I am (pushing 70), and I haven't lived in MA since 1976.

My last foray into Roxbury (is that still the official name for that part of town?) was before I moved, so I was unaware of the aristocrifation. Where did the slums move to?