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 | Boston Local Customs | Tips 1 - 10 of 121 |  |
 | |  |  | Holidays and Festivals: summer in the North End | Tip Rating:   |  |  | |  |
The North End, Boston's "Little Italy", is home to many shops, restaurants, and bakeries, and best of all, old-world-style butcher shops, fish markets, and cheese shops. During most weekends in the summer there is a festival to a saint, the biggest and best is the Festival of St. Anthony, which will be August 27-29 in 2004. The streets are blocked off, and vendors, performers, and people fill every inch. There is always a parade, sometimes with one of the saints carried around, as people hang out their windows and throw money down. It is a wonderful and fun experience! I was fortunate to live in the North End for a couple of years, and my landlords ran a sausage stand out front of the building. With our windows open, the smoke and the smell blew through for days. When we went up to the roof, we had to duck under their homemade sausages, hanging across the doorway! Website: http://www.stanthonysfeast.com
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| | | | Speaking Bostonian: Bostonian Speak: | Tip Rating: | | | | |
Bostonian speak.... Bet we know some things you don't know. Like, what's a three decka? A packie? How about a rotary? Ever banged a U-ey? Worn dungarees or ordered a frappe? We'd have a pissah time tryin' to stump ya, then make fun of ya behind ya back . . . but that's wicked mean. Instead, here's a little primer to take with you on the T, or while you're on the Common or in the Gahden: > American Chop Suey ~ This delightful dish doesn't resemble anything American or Chinese. It's macaroni with meat and tomato sauce. > Bangin' a U-ey ~ This is what you do while driving after you miss a turn and you have to turn around. > Book it ~ To high tail it someplace, as in, "I better book it to the packie before it closes." > Bubblah~ Spelled bubbler, it's a water fountain. > Down Cellar ~ The basement. Derived from upstairs. > Dungarees ~ Jeans. Hardly heard anymore, unless you're at some sort of senior citizens event. > Frappe ~ What the rest of the nation calls a milkshake. But in Boston, a milkshake is just flavored milk; no ice cream allowed. > Fried and Bizarre ~ Weird. "That dude is wicked fried." "Yah, he's totally bizaah." > Hermits ~ Cookies. A hermit is a molasses and raisin bar. > Jimmies ~ Sprinkles you put on ice cream. > Packie ~ Liquor Store. > Pissah ~ Good. > Rotary ~ traffic circle. And in Massachusetts, those in the rotary have the right of way. > Scrod ~ a generic name for white fish. We think it's cod, but no one's sure. Usually breaded and laden with butter (or buttah, as we say). > Three Decker ~ Pronounced three decka, it's a three story house in which each story is a separate apartment. > Tonic ~ Soda. > Wicked ~ Extremely. "Nomaaah's a wicked good baseball playa." > Other tips: Don't say COPEly Square, it's COPley. Worcester isn't WOOster, it's Wisstah. And Faneuil Hall rhymes with "annual ball". Say Commonwealth Avenue, Massachusetts Avenue or Dorchester Avenue and you'll get pinched. It's Comm. Ave, Mass. Ave and Dot. Ave. Leave a Comment
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| | | | You know you're in Boston when... | Tip Rating: | | | | |
...from one of those "You know you're from _______ when:"... I listed the ones I found to be really helpful and true... ________________________________________________________ -There are two State Houses, two City Halls, two courthouses and two Hancock buildings (one old, one new). -Route 128 is also I-95. It is also I-93. -The underground train is not the subway. It's the T and it doesn't run all night -Back Bay streets are in alphabetical odda. Arlington, Berkeley, Clarendon, Dartmouth. So are South Boston streets: A, B, C, D. -If the streets are named after trees you're on Beacon Hill. -Avenues are properly referred by their nicknames: Comm Ave, Mass Ave., Dot Ave. -Dot is Dorchester, Rozzie Roslindale, JP is Jamaica Plain. -Don't call it Beantown. -Don't sleep in the Common. -Don't wear orange in Southie on St. Patrick's Day. The geographical center of Boston is in Roxbury. Due north of the center is the South End, not to be confused with South Boston, which lies directly east from the South End. North of the South End is East Boston and southwest of East Boston is the North End. Backbay was filled in years ago. When we say _____, we mean: -Bizah - odd -Flahwiz - roses, etc. -Hahwahya? - how are you? -Khakis - what we staht the cah with -Pissah - superb -Retahded - silly -Wikkid - extremely -Yiz - you, plural -Popcahn - popular snack Leave a Comment
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Pedestrians in Boston usually feel it is their god-given right to walk straight into traffic, and fully expect cars to stop. Even I started doing it after being here for a few years, but then I got hit by a car, so I stopped. In all seriousness, if you are an out-of-towner driving in Boston, be very aware of your surroundings. The only time I see people really waiting for the walk sign is when they have a map in their hand. Leave a Comment
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| | | | Eating & Drinking in Boston: Irish pubs | Tip Rating:  | | | | |
Boston and the Irish: one can get sick of the connection, you know? Walking the streets of the city, one is likely to see more tri-colors and Irish pubs than in Dublin. And it will seem like every one of those pubs is legally committed to have at least one Irish barman, one "Irish Writers" poster, and one U2 CD on the premises at all times. Thankfully, though, in Boston there are definitely two types of Irish pubs. There are the ones with neon shamrock Budweiser signs in the front window showing Monday Night Football on the big screen TV to a bunch of college guys with Fightin' Irish tattoos on their calves. They have Guinness on tap and they draw big crowds, but they have as much to with an Irish pub as they do with a Japanese garden. And then there are the places where after your first or second pint of Guinness, you'll swear you are across the ocean taking a break from an afternoon rain. Most are dark, smoky, and filled with Irish patrons discussing distinctly un-American topics like the all-Ireland hurling final, the SDLP, or the smell of burning turf. Leave a Comment
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