Tour Guide Yogi's cheatsheet on Bostonian Twitter

Cool Boston Organizations and News

@BostonInnovation geek stuff, a must

@Bostonmagazine Boston magazine, a must if you are visiting or live there

@Boston_crime crime reports as they happen, no where not to go

@cambridgechron the oldest continuously published newspaper in the USA. They are a constant source of local news.

@Boston_CP Boston City and Press, more Boston news

@Bostonnewsnow even more news

@Bostonupdate news, it isn't all local lots of national and international as well

@Massnonprofit this is the twitter feed for Boston nonprofit news

@MITEReview MIT E Review, thought leadership in business

@talentculture the scoop on social events especially green and innovation

@northendpads if you are looking for a place to stay in Boston

Boston Sports

@redsoxbuzztap up to date news on the Boston Red Sox

@peteabe baseball writer for Boston Globe

@citysports news about sports especially about running, many stores in Boston area

@4SportBoston more sports

Boston Business Worth Following

@Hollandmark Advertising and brand management

Get a Boston Job

@jobboston if you like Boston so much you want to stay there you need a job

@tj_bos_ma_comm another jobs site for Boston

Boston Thought Leaders

@Ryan_Mcbride is the correspondent for Xconomy, innovative business

@ScottKirsner is another innovative business writer, these guys are starting to get me interested in another startup

@alparker is a source of high quality Boston posts and links

@SarahCortes is well connected in Boston and Information Security

Chef Yogi's Guide to food in Boston

We have already mentioned that Chinatown is a block away, and Shabu Zen for one is not to be missed. For lighter fare, try the snack menu at Jacob Wirth and the Jaegerschnitzel really hits the spot. Another insider tip is Dim Sum at Chow Chau City, I think it slightly tops China Pearl. My Thai serves vegan Thai choices. And almost every eatery in Chinatown has a lunch special. I will update this shortly with more great places to eat that are easy to walk to, but here are some thoughts from Mike Poor from Inguardians and the Chief Gastronomical Officer of SANS.edu about places to eat. Note, some of these may involve a cab ride. Or consider the bus, Boston has one of the most advanced transportation systems going, you can even check the status of their buses on Twitter here is bus 111, the MBTA, manages the "T", their subway system. The T stop is about 100' from the Hyatt Boston, the conference hotel. A ride is only $2.00 each direction, a daily pass is $9.00 and a seven day pass is $15.00 and you can purchase your ticket about a block from the hotel.

• Tapas at Dali Restaurant (http://www.dalirestaurant.com/). Great atmosphere, always relatively full so recommended to get a reservation. Huge delicious jugs of sangria and a wide array of tapas, from squid ink croquettes and rabbit to garlic shrimp and angry potatoes. It is rumored you can find your life's true love there.
• For a truly Bostonian experience, I highly recommend the Union Oyster House (www.unionoysterhouse.com). It's Americas oldest restaurant, and pretty darn cool. If they can't get New England seafood right, no one can. I'm a big fan of their mussels or sharing the Hot Oyster House Sampler appetizer. Follow with a lobster pot :-) Citysearch voted Union Oyster House best clam chowder in the city, watch out if you have any really big clams though, they recently brought up over 100 hand grenades with the clams. Imaging being on a small boat with 100 grenades! 
• A place I've been to a number of times is: http://www.fire-ice.com/ This is a Mongolian style grill that just has a happening atmosphere and good fresh ingredients. It's inexpensive, and is usually full, trendy, and upbeat. Good casual inexpensive night out.
• An unusual favorite for me... a dessert restaurant called Finale http://www.finaledesserts.com/ Pretty much every amazing dessert in the world in one place. Sure, that's probably a stretch, but just look at their website pictures and menus: http://www.finaledesserts.com/menus-viewmenus.php
• I know I didn't include any of the infamous Back Bay restaurants, a bunch of them are chains, Mortons, Ruth's Chris, Smith & Wollensky. David Fitzgerald recommends Capitol Grille 359 Newbury Street as the best for the buck in the area.

Mike is right, there are tons of Italian restaurants and not just Back Bay and they are my thing and they are Tim Mugherini's as well. Tim recommends, Italian anywhere in the North End http://northendboston.com/eat and while you're there check out the Improv Asylum http://www.improvasylum.com/. Tim says the best Sushi and Korean Barbeque is at The Apollo a few blocks from the conference location in Chinatown. He also recommends the Stanza for Scotch and Cigars and if you are looking fora great bar to hang at, The Rattlesnake, http://www.rattlesnakebar.com/. If you do not want to walk that far, the closest great Italian place to the Hyatt is Via Matta, a Piedmont inspired restaurant just on the other end of Boston Common. SANS 2011 will be in August, perfect evening walking weather for Boston and it is worth considering a ten minute walk to the North End. There are a ton of great choices. You cannot go wrong on Hanover and Salem street. La Dolce Vita, Antico Forno for casual dining and pizza, get some of your classmates and do family style at Giacomo's Restaurant, spend a bit more and go upscale at Terramia and I could go on fifteen more minutes. Most of these restaurants are small. Some are literally Mom & Pop places. He'll cook, and she'll oversee the dining room. Little to no advertising, word of mouth only. A cheap alternative to Finale, for those near the North End is Mike's Pastry near the Paul Revere House.

Fannuiel Hall is within walking distance and that area of Boston is wall to wall restaurants.

If you walk across Boston Common you will find Figs, which is a fun Pizza Place. I am always finding a new favorite pizza place, but this has to be in the top ten. Close by is The Paramount, I guess you would call that American Cuisine, reasonably priced, good food, generous portions and that will make you appreciate the walk back across the Common.There is also Silvertone Bar and Grill for a pub experience downtown.

Andrew Williams suggests the South End which is walking distance from the Hyatt and filled with great bars and restaurants. A few favorites: 

• The Beehive. Great nightlife/bar, live music and good modestly priced food.
• Anchovies. Fun/lively bar scene and great Italian food. One of those dark kind of small places that is a little loud and lots of fun.
• Delux Cafe. You'll either love it or hate it. Small bar/restaurant with Velvet Elvis on the wall, cartoon network on the TV, and Christmas lights behind the bar year round. Great cheap food. The menu is small and a bit eclectic. So might not be a fit for large parties trying to satisfy a variety of tastes. Bring cash. No CCs accepted.
• Not in the South End, but my favorite restaurant in Boston is Todd English's Olives. I know this has become a bit of a franchise, but this one is the original. Great combination of a high end food, cool atmosphere, and fun bar. You can wear jeans or a suit and fit right in. They don't serve this anymore, but back in the day they used to serve 20 oz Rolling Rock bottles on ice. Never saw this before and haven't since. Don't get scared off by the Address of "Charlestown". Charlestown is a neighborhood of Boston, and a great destination as well (short cab ride from Hyatt). Lots of other bars and restaurants in this hood. Also the perfect place for anyone interested in seeing/walking some of the history of Boston. Paul Revere's house, Bunker Hill, USS Constitution are all in Charlestown.
• You and I know Legal Sea Foods is a chain, but they don't know that in Boston, great Clam Chowder, almost as good as a Seattle chowder, easy walk from hotel.
• Jim Murphy Laurie Zirkle, and Dennis Kirby suggest: No Name Restaurant – Seafood restaurant which is the oldest restaurant in Boston (according to them!) and very casual and inexpensive in the South Boston waterfront area and it is a cab ride from the conference hotel. I have never been there, but it is on the list for the next time I am in Boston, it got more recommendations from my friends than any other eatery. 

Tour Guide Yogi's scoop on prehistoric Boston

The Shawmut Peninsula was originally connected to the mainland to its south by a narrow isthmus, Boston Neck, and surrounded by Boston Harbor and the Back Bay, an estuary of the Charles River. The name was originally Mashauwomuk, but the settlers could not pronounce that and besides, the people of Boston were developing their unique version of English and wouldn't have left it that way for anything. 

The original site of Boston before the land grab was less than 800 acres. Then the peninsula with its distinctive scoop bays was shaped by glacial erosion and deposits left by retreating glaciers at the end of the last ice age, the previous inconvenient truth. Several prehistoric Native American archaeological sites, including the Boylston Street Fishweir (wooden fishing cages) made up of 65,535 wooden stakes, lead scientists to believe pre-Massachuset-Algonquin Indians used base 16 math. They also placed longer sharpened stakes around their villages that could be used as either spears or as a very large counting sticks. Each stake had a bow drilled pattern between 0, (no pattern), and 15, which in Mashauwomuk was called Eff, (not to be confused with 3839), and usually shortened to just F.

Eff or F counting stick pattern

Ancient village located where Shabu-Zen is today

Several other fishweirs excavated during construction of buildings indicate the ancients had mastered harvesting fish over 7,500 years before present. According to Wikipedia, "Research on climate change and evidence from study of fish weirs and sediments under the Back Bay indicate the ocean level in the Boston area has risen more than ten feet in the last 6,000 years." Other scientists vigorously dispute this, claiming it is simply the result of tidal surge a la the Bay of Fundy. 

The organizers of SANS Boston 2016, August 1 - 6, invite you to join them and the 2nd person to register will be the recipient of an applewood counting stick, radiocarbon rated to be at least 0x1E61 Mashauwomuk standard weeks old.

Mashauwomuk applewood counting stick

Ancient Bone Counting Sticks

Tour Guide Yogi's insider scoop on the Boston Tea Party

It all began with a complicated tax increase by the British Parliament called the Tea Act in 1773. Even though the US Congress prides themselves on inscrutable legislation, it is an imported skill.

Tempers flaired, sales of Tea dropped. All of the colonies except Massachusetts, sent the tea back to England. Next the Dutch began to smuggle tea into the colonies starting a long history of counterfeit tea.  

Paul Revere famously observed that the tea consignees, the people that accepted the tea and managed the tariff were sons of the Governor and coined the phrase nepotism. The tea party, referring to the act of dressing like Mohawk Indians, (the Mohawk nation later sued for image infringement), boarding the ships, and throwing the tea in the harbor, was followed by free drinks at the Bell in Hand Tavern hosted by the Sons of Liberty. 

Three ships were in Boston Harbor, the Dartmouth, Eleanor and the Eager Beaver, while a fourth, the William, sunk on the sail across the Atlantic. In all, it is believed 90,000 pounds of tea were destroyed; however, Thomas Crafts and George Hewes were both observed to have bulging pockets as they left the Dartmouth, which was the only ship to carry merchandise from Republic of Tea. The Boston Tea Party set off a chain of events in the bay state to include the burning of The Peggy Stewart, another tea vessel, the American Revolution, a switch from tea to coffee that remains a trend to this day, the creation of the United1k status, the salt protest, the Boston Tea Party Swing Dance competition, and the McDonald's Lobster Roll. It established the concept of no taxation without representation which remained intact until January 20, 2001 when then 43rd president perfected the art of printing money and increasing the deficit. 

The Tea Party movement continues to this day. They are currently trying to decide whether to support Donald Trump. However, he doesn't drink either coffee or tea which divides the party, (some are concerned he might not really be American). At SANS Boston 2016 we will be serving tea from the original Boston Tea Party courtesy of the Thomas Crafts estate.

Tour Guide Yogi's Guide to the Culinary History of Boston

One of the great reasons to visit Boston for SANS Boston 2016, August 1 - 6 is the food. This list should help get you salivating.

A Brief Culinary History of Boston

You are probably aware of the nickname "Beantown", because from the earliest days Boston has been awash in molasses to convert to rum are a result of the triangular trade route between the West Indies, Boston,and West Africa in the days of slavery and even after.

They cooked the beans in molasses, Boston Baked Beans. Molasses, Rum and the by products of both are in other famous dishes as well such as Gingerbread and Indian Pudding. This important staple was sold by the bite, (the number of beans in the dish when served family style). Picky eaters chose the Kilobite, the Megabite was most common and if you were really hungry nothing but a Gigabite would do. That is really my limit, but descendants of the Shakers can consume a Petabite at the Boston Bean Eating Contest.

Beans are OK, but food started to get serious in Boston at the (Omni)Parker House Hotel, America's longest running luxury hotel, (150 years running and the carpets are still not worn out). It was founded by Harvey D. Parker in 1855, and many famous people ate and entertained their mistresses there, (ask for the Ashley Madison suite), including Jesse James ( yes, both the outlaw and the dude that cheated on Sandra Bullock ), but the big moment for Boston was when Parker recruited Top Chef Master finalist Sanzian for ten times the going rate. Sanzian’s versatile menu, quick fire, and innovative vending machine cuisine such as Boston Schrod, a fish dish generally finished with a Ritz cracker crumb topping packed the house. He also developed the Parker House Roll and Boston Cream Pie, both of which you should try when you visit Boston.

I personally feel Sanzian’s finest hour was a cut of beef that includes the tenderloin and strip loin, the Parker House, but some moron misspelled it and now less educated steak house afficianados call it the Porterhouse.

It is pricey, but you should consider visiting Parker's Restaurant at the Omni Parker House Hotel and enjoy classic New England favorites. Guess who worked in the Parker kitchen, Emeril Lagasse, (Emeril is famous for deviating from Sanzian's "trinity" as he only used three spices in his entrees: ground black pepper, parsley and sage). Ho Chi Minh served as a baker in the bake shop from 1911 to 1913, and Malcolm Little, better known as black activist, Malcolm X, was a busboy in 1942. Today, the leading chef is Jody Adams at Rialto, best known for her signature dishes such as Pettini, (saffron-steamed clams and mussels, tomatoes, AKA Manhattan clam chowder), and Concord grape gelato, AKA grape jelly).

A couple more Boston dishes that are not to miss, Maine Potato Candy, and clam chowder, (Boston's chowder is second only to Seattle's). The place to have chowder is the Olde Union Oyster House, the nation's longest running restaurant, (served by President Obama on Air Force 1). Chowder started simply enough, milk based fish soups were big in England and France in the 1800s.  A tavern named Try Pots substituted clams for fish, (New Englanders love their clams). If you ever want to start a fight among Bostonians remark, "Do you think it would be OK to put a couple spoonfuls of tomato sauce in Clam Chowder to give it a bit of a blush color"? If you think Democrats and Republicans are divisive, try tomato and chowder. In 1939 in Maine they attempted to ban tomato in chowder, but the measure did not pass.

Thrillist Boston Food guides

12 Best places for Breakfast in Boston. This list is skewed to someone with a sweet tooth.
Best bacon dishes in Boston. The clam and bacon pizza at Area Four is surprisingly well done.
8 Best Korean restaurants in Boston. Want to get past Kimchi and Bulgogi?  Try the Soulongtang, (Korean oxtail soup), at Seoul Soulongtang.
10 Best Italian restaurants not in the North End. Mike Poor was the first person to point out to me that the North End was getting a bit cliche. This link gives you some some alternatives.

Al Lago - Sumner

I thought it might be fun to go out tonight. So we put the puppy in his crate and headed to Al Lago. Kathy is not big on meat, but once a year she devours a steak and she likes their Filet Mignon better than any other, (She has tried Ruth Chris, Shula's, Morton's and Dan Marino's where you can pair your steak with Boone's Farm wine in plastic cups .. did someone say they are closed). I had the Halibut. We decided to share a bottle of Tamarack Firehouse Walla Walla blend, (and what a blend that is).

Our primary server was Tom and he said that Yogi would be welcome on the outside patio, so if we have a good opportunity at lunch we will do it before outdoor patio season closes. The feeling in my bones is an early wet season, we didn't get a lot of Zechariah 10:1 action in the spring, so it would be great now.

Dive, dive, Fresh Start Hyperbaric

This was my first experience in a hyperbaric chamber. In all I did about a dozen "dives". I did some research and Fresh Start looked like the easiest drive from my house. I did call Pure02 in Buckley a couple times and left a recording, but never heard back. Everyone at Fresh Start was careful and kind, the facilities were nice and clean. Martina will work with you. I certainly recommend it. Now the $60,000.00 question is does hyperbaric work? I surely am not qualified to answer that. I had a wound that would not heal and wanted to give the antibiotics every chance to work. Well the wound healed so that is probably a mark in the plus column for the therapy.