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I think that That Hottness put it best: “This is either a sign of the apocalypse or evidence the hadron collider is tearing apart space and time: a tow truck towing a tow truck…”

As seen on Peterborough Street in Boston.

Call me provincial, call me a relative realist, but is it so much to ask of television shows that take place in certain cities to have actually done some research into their respective cities?  It’s as if J.J. Abrams and company have never once visited Boston for his new show Fringe.

Only two episodes into the spooky paranormal show and I can look past the crazy science of the show and suspend my disbelief over things like an excellerated birth wherein a conception occurs and the baby grows to 80-years-old within four hours. Or pulling retina images off a dead girl, et cetera.

But one thing I can not over look is playing fast and loose with the physical locations.  I get that television shows are rarely, if never, filmed on location in the cities they take place in.  But, it is no unreasonable to assume the producers do some homework first.  Take for example episode number two of the Fox show Fringe. MORE »

People always seem surprised when I tell them I’m from Boston (inside 128 gives me that privilege outside 128 no can do you have to tell people you’re from Massachusetts or the town you were raised in, sorry that’s the rules), born and essentially raised in a city just outside of Boston.

Because when I open my mouth there is some weird mismash of dialects working to obscure my home city.  I’ve had people ask if I was Canadian (enough times to actually think I may be from there!?!), from the midwest, the south but rarely if I am from Boston.  So they are surprised to find I am amongst the most common-type of proud Masshole.

It’s a mystery as to how this happened - possibly picking up words from here or there while traveling since I love language and its myriad uses or perhaps it was a conscious effort since the Boston accent conveys a sense of under-educated intellect.  Before you harp on me for elitism, in college I decided that it would be best to sound as intelligent as possible going forward.  It had more to do with preventing bias than anything else.

The language and dialects in New England is a treasure, it’s like understanding a foreign language and if you speak the code it doesn’t matter for you’ll be accepted.  This past week, WBUR aka “Radio Boston” broadcast an episode exploring the various accents of the greater Boston area.  Reporter David Boeri, he of Channel 5 fame (is he still with them?) worked on the piece.

I would love to see Boeri explore the accents of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island and Connecticut.  They are all unique and to the untrained ear all sound vaguely familiar.  [via]