Lawrence Hosken: Departures: Among the Yankees

1999.04.xx-1999.05.0x, USA (East)

In the second half of April, 1999, I went to Boston by way of Berkeley, New York, and Mystic, CN. I looked at old computers and old sailing ships. I hung out with an old friend. I got caught trespassing. I answered some questions about my t-shirts. I cussed a lot. If you want the details, read on.

Contents

Part 0

At loose ends in the park... Loitering... Jobhunting... Napping... Travelling... Manhattan... Bad coffee... Bad directions... The mystery of dumpling soup... Advice for those who would see Ellis Island and/or the Statue of Liberty... What is the adjectival form of "Buck Rogers?" ... Brick buildings of Hoboken... Dry Hard... Flushing...

Part 1

Foreshadowing... Necronomiparagraph... Little restaurant recommendation... hauling line... Did I say that? ... foreshadowing... Why we killed whales (but can stop now)... Shook and oak... Literary reference: Curious George... What's the adjectival form of Mia Farrow? ... Ivoride's progeny...

Part 2

Oblique reference to the Big Dig... What part of No Vacancy didn't I understand? ... Trinity... foreshadowing... Robotuna and friends... "What are you, a spy?" ... Thomas Manshreck... cheated, mistreated... MIT... foreshadowing... Bldg 20... I am the world's wimpiest hacker... Abelson and Sussman... "Maynard"... Fireside chat...

Part 3

Lowell... Literary reference: Moby Dick... Literary reference: Make Way for Ducklings... My new favorite café in the whole wide world... B.J.... "hummus"... Ironsides... Wear Safety Shoes (Ouch!)... She really did smell like bubblegum... Bathroom surprise... The indescribable art of Arthur Ganson...

Part 4

Plymouth... Trespassing... Summary judgement of a stranger... MIT has two pipe organs... Keels aplenty... Athenaea... Sort of like Black Flag... Tea and revolutions... I have seen the Conditional Transfer Breakpoint Selector... Faience and silver... Breakdown of basic morality... Cussing and culture... You can't handle the truth...

Part 5

Mightn't Flowers Annoy? ... Accidentally cool place name... To make visual art better, replace it with words... "Then he farted and walked away." ... Java... All hail Charles Sheeler... B.J. ... Dis'in' Thoreau pretty hard... I'm not listening! I'm not listening! ... Why Monadnock's bald... Buzzed... Ike vs. Fibby...

Part 6

The Mark I... Free concert... Moshing for codgers... Notice the word "CANS" written on the bottom of the box... Making sure the trains go the right way... I got all excited about pre-transistor logic... Graph theory... Light at the end of the tunnel... Things left undone... At loose ends in the park...

Icons

This text has been augmented with icons. I'm not sure if "icons" is the right word. They're scans of candies. The candies are "Cyberspeak" candies manufactured by Necco. There's a big Necco factory across the street from MIT. I spent a lot of time at MIT during this trip. I spent a lot of time looking at the pastel-striped smokestack of the Necco factory. Anyhow, these candies seemed appropriate.

Appropriate of what, I'm no longer sure.