Roundup of July-August 2024 Posts

The Weather and Other Things

Just a few points before I list links to the July-August 2024 posts.

  • Indian Summer, Joseph Morris Henderson, July-August 2024September 2021

    “Indian Summer” by Joseph Morris Henderson

    We have achieved meteorological autumn and are moving right along to astronomical autumn. Here in New England, this season means we change clothes a lot. It’s cold in the morning, warm-to-hot in the afternoon and cold again at night. But, hey, that’s what we call Indian summah.

  • School has started its 2025-2025 year, which means we can once again hold our breaths in anticipation of more school shootings. With less than a week of September under our belts, we have already had one school shooting with four fatalities. More children and teachers will be injured and killed as the year moves along, thanks to America’s senseless gun laws and the politicians who make it ever easier to carry a weapon.
  • Because this is an election year, we also get treated to oodles of campaign advertisements. Fortunately, Massachusetts gets fewer than many other states because we typically vote Blue. Democrats take us for granted and Republicans ignore us. I can’t imagine what folks in the “battleground states” have to put up with. Karl Rove did the math in today’s Wall Street Journal and the numbers were eye-opening.

Tour Guide Season

Tour guide season for the cruise ships is well underway and I’m spending a lot of time in Boston. Not to mention the commute in and out. Yesterday, the RCL Joy came in later than planned. The ship had to follow guidelines that made them go slowly so as not to strike a humpback whale.

That meant we got to do our tours at rush hour. Oh, joy. Boston has installed a lot of bike lanes, which sometimes shrinks traffic from two lanes down to one. That’s good for cyclists, but not so great for the flow of cars. Still, my tour guests got a great view of the Boston skyline at sunset as we came back across the Longfellow Bridge.

Boston skyline, Prudential Center, July-August 2024

The Back Bay skyline from Cambridge

Roundup of July – August 2024 Posts

September and October are busy, busy, busy in my world, so I offer the roundup of blog posts from July-August 2024 without further ado. I hope you can find the time to check them out and read any you missed when they were published.

Boston and History

Business and Technology

Food and Cooking

Lifestyle and Culture

Enjoying Indian Summah

Pumpkins are decorative, delicious and good for you. They are high in fiber, contain very little saturated fat, cholesterol, and salt and come with vitamin E, thiamine, niacin, vitamin B6, folic acid, magnesium and phosphorus. So what can we do with them?From here on in, the days get shorter, darker and colder. I plan to enjoy our Indian summer for as long as possible. While there are holidays to look forward to, I like being outside and this is the best time of year to revel in golden sunlight, bright blue skies, and breezes that are still warm, if cool around the edges.

Notice that I did not mention pumpkin spice. ‘nuf said.

 

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About Aline Kaplan

Aline Kaplan is a published author, a blogger, and a tour guide in Boston. She formerly had a career as a high-tech marketing and communications director. Aline writes and edits The Next Phase Blog, a social commentary blog that appears multiple times a week at aknextphase.com. She has published over 1,000 posts on a variety of subjects, from Boston history to science fiction movies, astronomical events to art museums. Under the name Aline Boucher Kaplan, she has had two science fiction novels (Khyren and World Spirits) published by Baen Books. Her short stories have appeared in anthologies published in the United States, Ireland, and Australia. She is a graduate of Northeastern University in Boston and lives in Hudson, MA.

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