I work at MIT and have to deal with this on the regular. Enforcement is handled differently depending on the department. I work closely with two departments, and one doesn't care, and the other will ask me to contact the restaurant and get the tax refunded if the bill wasn't tax-exempted in the first place. Talk about a pain!

Yes, there's a cafeteria in the Koch building that's back up and running. I think all of the campus dining facilities are run by Sodexho or similar - "mediocre on quality and price point" would be their slogan if we required corporations to be honest about such things.

OK, put it this way - just because you're okay with being an asshole, that doesn't mean everyone is. It was probably general irritation on their part.

Class solidarity? You just admitted that you asked to be let on free a couple of times because you were "forgetful" about getting a Charlie card. I consider myself working class, and it's never occurred to me that I can expect other working class people to do me a solid just on that basis.

I have lived in different cities and traveled a bit. What you do when you're "not from there" is you do a little research on where you're going to suss out things like public transit, local etiquette, whether street drinking is allowed, etc. It's about being respectful.

I mean, you're trying to justify not paying your fare because you can't be arsed to get a Charlie card (or have your girlfriend get one for you). I don't really see how the bus drivers are in the wrong here. Their job is to collect fares and stop at the stops so the passengers can get on and off. You put them in a difficult position by asking them if they'll let you get away with not paying the fare. They have a route to drive, and they don't want to waste time arguing, but they're supposed to be collecting fares from all of the passengers.

Anyway, you giving them the namaste gesture and asking to ride for free just makes you look like an entitled asshole.

Well, Royal is old-school Italian style, and Lyndell's is old-school Jewish style, but yeah. Both longtime favorites of mine.

In my humble opinion, Flour is overrated, but to each his own.

A couple of days ago my husband and I were getting all nostalgic for the Ground Round (and to a lesser extent, Friendlys). There are a bunch of Friendlys in eastern MA, but they're all way out in the 'burbs.

As for Ground Round, RIP. We're old enough to remember when they had mocktails for kids, and in addition to the baskets of popcorn they'd given you baskets of peanuts, and it was okay to throw the shells on the floor.

It's not really the pre-COVID open policy, though. The Main Group and Kendall Square buildings are open during the day on weekdays, and everything that was closed before is still closed on weekends. After they proposed keeping the campus closed, there was a lot of backlash, so then sent a survey to the community asking, basically, "Do you want an open campus, or do you want a safe campus?" And still about two-thirds of respondents wanted an open campus. I guess the new schedule was the administration's idea of a compromise.

Zone valves. More than once. Our system is a year or two older than yours, a Baxi. The plumber who recommended it and installed it didn't offer a maintenance plan and then vanished once he was done and paid, leaving a system that had been installed incorrectly and we had to get other plumbers in to correct his work. Then we had to hunt down a plumber who would work on Baxi units specifically, because that brand isn't in wide use in the U.S. So we got off to a bad start, and our issues aren't all down to the hard water, but as first-time owners in Cambridge, it presented an extra learning curve.

I've had the same question for a while. The hard water wreaks havoc on our tankless furnace/hot water system, and we often end up having to pay for replacement parts when the plumber comes to do the annual service before heating season.

It can be hit-or-miss sometimes, but my husband and I like to browse for holiday decorations at the Cambridge Antique Market (on the Monsignor O'Brien Highway, close to Lechmere). It's nice if you're into vintage.

It probably depends a lot where you are. I made my appointment last weekend, assuming that I could easily get my booster this week, but available appointments started in early November. I couldn't find an appointment at a CVS near me at all. It seems to be about the same situation as when the first round of vaccines came out - appointments were harder to come by in the city, and much easier in the suburbs.

Seconding this. I've been going to Christine for my hair needs for years, and while she's not taking new clients, her stylists are all really good, and there's strong mentoring for junior stylists. Their coloring work is impressive.