h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.h2g2.com/A428636

There doesn't seem to be an edited entry on Boston, so I wrote one. I think it's pretty good. I'm hoping that folks send me their ideas on how to understand Boston better, making the entry more and more useful.

I'll certainly be looking for more info.

We can probably come up with a nifty guide to dining, and get other people's help as well. Like the only good places to get Japanese food are in Porter Square in that shopping mall and in Brookline near Coolidge Corner Cinema.

I can work on a guide to getting around Chinatown and also a guide to Newbury Street and its stores. There are some real gems like Second Time Around and The Closet.

I don't know Harvard Square all that well, or some of the other squares. Except maybe Inman, which I love. Central, Kendall, Kenmore, Davis, Porter, and the Landsdowne Street and Fenway areas could prove helpful.

Warn people to avoid the orange line, to only take the blue line from the airport to goverment center and back.

All the different breweries in Boston. You buy beer in 6-packs, not cases. Good places to pick up alcohol like Marty's and Blanchard's. And there's some fabled store around that claims to carry some ridiculous number of beers that ever beer store worker always is sure they remember the name, but cannot quite recall.

It might also be helpful to talk about the sports places like Fenway and the Fleet Center. going out to foxboro.

Also, there are the different theatres which can be discussed, different aspects of the bar scene. For instance, in downtown that's where all the bankers frequent (Black Rhino, etc), BU kids go to Tus Nua's, previously known as Ri Ra's. and there's also Kell's which is this gorgeous bar near Blanchard's that has all dark oak furnishings, 20 beers on tap, but psycho bouncers. the place prides itself on not having any underagers even try to get in (they'll call you school, your parents, your senator, yadda yadda yadda).

Maybe talk about the surrounding areas of Boston. how somerville fits into cambridge, how universities are laid out, the bridges on the Charles, why you shouldn't swim in the Charles. WHy you should aovid the Fen even more. Running along the esplanade. the Hatch Shell

alright, I can't stop coming up with ideas, but I better catch some shuteye. contact me back if we should get cracking on this. a hitchhiker's guide to Boston is almost certainly in order. this is quite a project in and of itself.

Hello.

I was playing around with that h2g2 on the move and I realized that the only thing I was really looking for was some information about new things to do in Boston. Being a Bostonian, I have gone to all the museums hundreds of times, and I've realized that unless you want to sit in a swan boat all day, the only thing left to do is wander the streets and eat at restaurants.

And so I ventured out and began writing an entry on Boston. I then remembered that nobody was going to read anything I wrote if it had been written about before. And that brings me here...

I agree with most of the ideas of Essey. When mentioning fine dining you just can't leave out the sushi bars in Porter Square. Or if brunch is your thing why not talk about Henrietta's Table in the Charles Hotel. Or Fire and Ice in Harvard Sq. Or Chong Sho, the greatest Chinese restaurant located between Harvard and Porter on Mass Ave. Further, Aujord hui at the Four Seasons may seem like it is just for the rich and proper. This is true. The service maybe alright if you happen to like that, "I'm a snooty waiter and you're waisting my time with your ignorant blabber, you stupid mediocre peon!" attitude, but the food just really sucks.

When it comes to shopping, definately mention the vast array of stores on Newbury St. (I met James Taylor there), and also the Pru and Copley.

Transportationwise, you made a good point when you mentioned getting a subway pass. Just for kicks you could mention the remaining confusion with the mass pike and how they keep changing the lanes for the fastlane and how some poor schmuck from New Hampshire always ends up in the fastlane lane and realizes his error and backs up into the cars behind him...

Like Essey said, this article is going to be huge, but these are just a few of my ideas. I will be willing to help if you would like.

-Yossarian

I think the thing to do is have a opening article, and then
subsidiary articles.

It would depend on what the h2g2 folks think is the best idea.

My basic idea is to have a Boston Entry: "You have landed in Boston"

This would contain a very short factual paragraph, and then a list of subsidiary pages, like this:

Boston is the Capial City of Massachusetts in the United states of America. It's one of the USA's oldest cities. It is located at earth corrdinates 41dXXmXXs North Latitude, 70dXXmXXs West Longitude.

Things you might want to do in Boston:

Get around Boston
Get a bite to eat in Boston
Get entertained in Boston
Get an education in Boston
...


I would look for the articles to have a flow in their writing. Note the order of the list: transportation gets you to food, after you eat, you might want to be entertained, once that holds no allure, you might want education...

That's the hope.

What do you think?