Matchbox from the Mandalay Restaurant, Boston. Undated.
I haven't posted for almost two weeks, which is an eternity in the blogging world. Someday soon I will tell you the sad, sorry, automotive saga which has taken up so much of time recently, but I want to get right back into useless information about Boston. Did you know that Seneca, the Roman playwright, once said "It is better of course, to know useless things than to know nothing at all."? It's true, and I like to think that my blog helps confirm Seneca's observation whenever I post.
Boston Magazine was kind enough to send me an email a couple of weeks ago telling me about their October issue. What, you think this blog is immune from gratuitous shilling? At least I'm not getting paid to post this and you should see some of the press releases emailed to me by p.r. people that I don't write about.
The theme of the October issue is about how smart Bostonians are. Once I got over the hurt of not being listed anywhere in the issue or even asked to write something for it, I started reading. I was particularly taken with Lynda Morgenroth's list of "firsts" accomplished by Bostonians. Now, in general, I'm not impressed by lists of firsts. But Boston apparently had the first house of prostitution (in the colonies? the world?) which is something to brag about. I also realized why The Simpsons' C. Montgomery Burns answers the phone "A hoy hoy". That's the way Alexander Graham Bell answered the telephone, which he invented here in Boston. Even so, Chilicothe, Missouri had the first sliced bread and they're not going on about being the smartest city on the planet--they're not even the smartest city in their tri-county area. Ever hear anyone say, "That's the greatest thing since the house of prostitution?" But I digress.
My own list of firsts would include Dorchester holding the first town meeting in American history in 1633 as well as creating the first public school paid for by taxes in 1639. I'm feeling generous so I'll let Boston bask in the reflected glory of those accomplishments. Boston area ministers were also responsible for creating the first book published in the American colonies, the Bay Psalm Book, published in 1640. Finally, I came across the matchbox above, announcing that the Mandalay restaurant, which used to be located on Huntington Avenue, is "The First Burmese Restaurant in U.S.A." Now we're talking!
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