Essays

City Life

This Bike Lanes Story Isn’t Really About Bike Lanes

For decades on Brighton’s Western Avenue, neighbors and others in the know have flocked to Big Daddy’s Pizza & Sub Shop for massive slices of […]

City Life

Confessions of a Former No-Earbuds-at-the-Gym Guy

I’ve been going to the gym for decades. I have to because, and I don’t say this much since it sounds like bragging, I have […]

Wellness

Help! I’m Perimenopausal and My Instagram Feed Won’t Stop Selling Me Solutions

At 44, I wet my pants for the first time since toddlerhood. I was sitting on my couch when a whoosh of fluid seeped into […]

City Life

A Grilled Cheese Mystery: My Search for a Simple Sandwich

I can’t deny that I’ve got major skills, all of which have zero marketability. I can identify a Springsteen song two seconds in. I can […]

City Life

The Fractured, Surprising, and Sobering Truth About Kids and Smartphones

It was a miracle: My seventh grader was at the Burlington Mall with friends. I double-parked in front of Nordstrom for pickup, eagerly awaiting tales […]

Restaurants

No Reservations: The Trouble with Boston Dining Right Now

Not so long ago, my friends and I found ourselves walking through the streets of Cambridge on what felt like a mundane, spur-of-the-moment mission: to […]

City Life

How Yuppies Shaped Modern-Day Boston

One day a few months ago, I happened to be in the South End when I started noticing, in a way that I never have […]

Arts & Entertainment

Why I’m Ready to Break Up With Summer

I’m happy it’s about to be summer. Peaches are in season, and I can constantly wear shorts—a big win all around because, to be frank, […]

City Life

Why Harvard University Is Failing at Everything

It was an early moment of truth in the fledgling Harvard presidency of Claudine Gay. Called to testify in front of Congress about rising incidences […]