History UsefulNotes / Boston

That said, Boston's city center is quite walkable and perhaps best enjoyed on foot or bike; downtown is really not that large and there are many wide tree-lined sidewalks. If you can walk across [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks EPCOT Center]], you can handle the Freedom Trail, the city's most popular walking tour. Just a warning though, you will probably want to visit in summer. Real Life New England winters aren't always as [[HollywoodWinter pretty as fiction depicts]], though there are mild years as well as bad ones. They also aggravate the driving problem by causing lots of potholes. Alternatively, if you want to avoid both the snow and the muggy summer heat, late spring or autumn would be your best bet.

Another item of note is that Boston contains more colleges and universities than any other city in the world, and even more if you include Cambridge, its neighbor on the other side of the Charles River and the oldest college town in the United States, home to both Harvard University and MIT. Word to the wise: do NOT mix up Boston University and Boston College. [[BerserkButton It will not end well]].[[note]]For a start, BU is Episcopalian and BC is Catholic. The list of differences and sore points goes trundling on from there. About the only connection between BU and BC is Commonwealth Avenue.[[/note]] Also note that those colleges include the Berklee College of Music and the New England Conservatory; as a result Boston has a disproportionate number of musicians with a connection to the city across a surprising number of genres. It is also home to a wide variety of world-famous live music venues, namely the House of Blues, the Paradise, the Sinclair, and the Royale (for larger locations) and the Brighton Music Hall, the Middle East, Sammy's, and O'Brien's (for smaller locations). Musically, its calling cards include indie rock, street punk (famously shown by the Dropkick Murphys, but the Street Dogs, the Ducky Boys, and the ska-punk Mighty Mighty Bosstones definitely represent Boston), post-punk, and new wave (namely The Cars, Pixies, Mission of Burma, and Galaxie 500), hardcore (namely Slapshot, Sam Black Church, Converge, Overcast, and Vein), and a small but dedicated hip-hop scene (namely Gang Starr, Ed O.G., 7L & Esoteric, Mr. Lif, and Slaine).

* ''Film/{{Godmothered}}

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. While the original ''Series/{{Frasier}}'', a spinoff, would move its title character to UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}, [[Series/Frasier2023 the revival]] would see Frasier return to Boston.

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}''. While the original ''Series/{{Frasier}}'' would move its title character to UsefulNotes/{{Seattle}}, [[Series/Frasier2023 the revival]] would see Frasier return to Boston.

* ''Series/{{Cheers}}''

Speaking of locals, [[{{Southies}} Hollywood depictions to the contrary]], they are generally very nice people. Just remember [[ArchEnemy not to bring up]] the UsefulNotes/{{New York|City}} Yankees, the UsefulNotes/LosAngeles Lakers, the UsefulNotes/{{Montreal}} Canadiens, the UsefulNotes/{{Detroit}} Red Wings and Pistons, or UsefulNotes/LeBronJames. Otherwise, thou shalt know the true meaning of SeriousBusiness.(It's also [[BerserkButton not advisable]] to talk about paahking one's caah in Haahvahd Yaahd, let alone actually try to park there, which is a good way to get arrested or at least towed. And, whatever you do, never '''ever''' bring up [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Stuart_(murderer) Charles Stuart]]...) Boston is a devout sports city, with major and historic teams in all four major sports... sort of. [[UsefulNotes/MLBTeams The Red Sox]] were a strong team in the early 20th century (including winning the first World Series), went through an 86-year championship drought, and rose to become a dominant team in the early 21st century. [[UsefulNotes/NationalBasketballAssociation The Celtics]] are tied for the most titles in NBA history, most coming from a truly absurd ''eight-year championship streak'' in the '60s. [[UsefulNotes/NationalHockeyLeague The Bruins]] are the oldest American hockey team and are consistent contenders. Finally, [[UsefulNotes/NationalFootballLeague the Patriots]] started out in the city before moving to Foxborough, which is ''slightly'' closer to Providence than Boston, and the team represents the New England area as a whole (not that it stops Bostonites from claiming all of the team's Super Bowl wins).

Boston is infamous for [[DrivesLikeCrazy aggressive drivers]] and a multitude of twisty one-way streets that make no sense in navigating (see [[https://i.imgur.com/KSKInZ7.jpg here]]), as well as numerous low-clearance bridges that are so frequently struck by trucks that "Storrowing" (after Storrow Drive, the most notorious of them) is a well-known colloquialism to refer to the act of hitting one[[note]]It's such a pervasive issue that Waze will tell drivers who are on roads with low bridges that if they are driving a box truck, they cannot go down that road and need to find another route, while rental truck fleet employees in Greater Boston will usually tell customers who are new to the area to avoid certain roads, and variable-message signs in the city will also display messages to that effect on August 31 and September 1, which are traditionally major moving days[[/note]]. The first is less true than the second, although the difficulty of getting around does encourage aggressive driving. The irregular street patterns can be blamed in part on the fact that Boston was originally built on a multi-lobed peninsula, with land gradually reclaimed all around it: in the colonial era, the only way out by land was through what is now known as Washington Street (not to be confused with two other streets in outlying parts of Boston with the same name), and the Back Bay (one of the few neighborhoods designed around a rectangular street grid) wasn't filled in until the mid-19th century. (Charlestown and South Boston were likewise peninsulas, while East Boston was a group of islands.) "Interesting" road design notwithstanding, Boston's streets are still easier to navigate than London's. The third one usually goes hand-in-hand with "Allston Christmas", another colloquialism referring to the abundance of free furniture and appliances placed out on the curb by people who are downsizing on moving day (possibly with a complimentary bedbug and/or cockroach infestation - celebrate at your own peril).

Boston is infamous for [[DrivesLikeCrazy aggressive drivers]] and a multitude of twisty one-way streets that make no sense in navigating (see [[https://i.imgur.com/KSKInZ7.jpg here]]), as well as numerous low-clearance bridges that are so frequently struck by trucks that "Storrowing" (after Storrow Drive, the most notorious of them) is a well-known colloquialism to refer to the act of hitting one[[note]]It's such a pervasive issue that Waze will tell drivers who are on roads with low bridges that if they are driving a box truck, they cannot go down that road and need to find another route, while rental truck fleet employees in Greater Boston will usually tell customers who are new to the area to avoid certain roads, and variable-message signs in the city will also display messages to that effect on August 31 and September 1, which are traditionally major moving days[[/note]]. The first is less true than the second, although the difficulty of getting around does encourage aggressive driving. The irregular street patterns can be blamed in part on the fact that Boston was originally built on a multi-lobed peninsula, with land gradually reclaimed all around it: in the colonial era, the only way out by land was through what is now known as Washington Street (not to be confused with two other streets in outlying parts of Boston with the same name), and the Back Bay (one of the few neighborhoods designed around a rectangular street grid) wasn't filled in until the mid-19th century. (Charlestown and South Boston were likewise peninsulas, while East Boston was a group of islands.) "Interesting" road design notwithstanding, Boston's streets are still easier to navigate than London's.

* UsefulNotes/MartinLutherKingJr attended college at Boston University.

[[folder: Live Action TV]]

* Creator/LouisCK was born in Newton, a city west of Boston, but was raised in Mexico before his family moved back to his birthplace when he was seven.

* Creator/LouisCK

* NBA great Patrick Ewing settled in Cambridge when his family immigrated from Jamaica at age 11.

* President UsefulNotes/JohnFKennedy was born in Brookline, a suburb of Boston, and attended schools in Boston.

* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' takes place in a Boston (maybe, [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield the hints given are inconsistent) rechristened as "Corinth", the last remaining city in a post-apocalyptic world. However, it suffers from [[CaliforniaDoubling New Zealand Doubling]].

* ''Series/PowerRangersRPM'' takes place in a Boston rechristened as "Corinth", the last remaining city in a post-apocalyptic world. However, it suffers from [[CaliforniaDoubling New Zealand Doubling]].

[[folder:Stand-Up Comedy]]
* Parkyarkarkus (Harry Einstein), a stand-up comedian and radio star from the 1930s and 1940s.

[[folder: Theatre]]
* ''Theatre/HackPuntTool'' is a play set at MIT, written by MIT students.
[[/folder]]

Boston is infamous for [[DrivesLikeCrazy aggressive drivers]] and a multitude of twisty one-way streets that make no sense in navigating (see [[https://i.imgur.com/KSKInZ7.jpg here]].) The former is less true than the latter, although the difficulty of getting around does encourage aggressive driving. The irregular street patterns can be blamed in part on the fact that Boston was originally built on a multi-lobed peninsula, with land gradually reclaimed all around it: in the colonial era, the only way out by land was through what is now known as Washington Street (not to be confused with two other streets in outlying parts of Boston with the same name), and the Back Bay (one of the few neighborhoods designed around a rectangular street grid) wasn't filled in until the mid-19th century. (Charlestown and South Boston were likewise peninsulas, while East Boston was a group of islands.) "Interesting" road design notwithstanding, Boston's streets are still easier to navigate than London's.