I’ve been in Boston for 2 days now, and surprisingly, have heard that obnoxious Boston accent only once. Part of this, I imagine, is due to my current locale; my sister lives in a trendy, somewhat upscale (and apparently gay) section of Boston. Part of this, I further imagine, is because of the places I’ve traveled — the freedom trail, a bar called “The Foggy Goggle”, various and sundry upscale eateries — aren’t the sort of places you’d hear that sort of thing.

But, as I mentioned, I haven’t completely escaped that heinous speech pattern. Whilst checking my bag at the lovely Long Beach — as in, sunny southern California — International (!!!) Airport, the [decidedly African-American] man helping me said, “Oh, you’re going to Boston? Are you going to pahk the cah at Hahvahd Yahd?”

Now, I’m not sure what the appropriate response is to this. Obviously, I’m not going to be parking anything, much less over at Harvard. I don’t even know if I’ll make it up to Cambridge. Besides, what would I park? I don’t have an account with ZipCar, and my sister is having some trouble with the draconian automotive title rules employed by the great state of Massachusetts. And even if they had the title, could I really park their obnoxious not-quite-a-car, not-quite-an-SUV? To hear everyone tell it, there is no place to park in Boston. I guess perhaps this “Harvard Yard” is different, but I imagine not.

Now, the astute reader might notice that perhaps this what phrased as a sort of rhetorical question. To this I cannot speculate. But in the interest of full disclore, I must say that my answer to this lovely query, rhetorical or not, was, “Um, yeah”.

I hope it’s not a federal offense to lie to airport personnel.