Yay for the Boston Accent

There was a story in yesterday’s Boston Globe about people trying to essentially scour their Boston accents away.They fear people regard them as uneducated, or else they worry that the way they talk will prevent them from getting acting jobs because supposedly they sound so funny to everyone else in the country.Here's a video for you in this story by Globe reporter Billy Baker who attempts to use the accent-scouring technique he has just been telling about on his dad. You'll see what a dyed-in-the-wool South Boston accent really sounds like when you hear old Pops. (Gotta love the guy; he’s trying SO hard - right up until the end when he says "Now get the hell out of my house.")       

Locked Out, Rained on, AND I Have a Bad Accent

BOY was it hard to get up and hurry away Wednesday morning with all that post-election excitement in the air. Our babies had slept over so their two mums could watch the returns at our other girl Annie’s house where the food is always so yummy. They had asked and I’d said Sure we’d love to have them only I couldn’t really help much in the morning since I had to leave at 6 for my turtle-crawl out to the Albany Times-Union for a noon appointment. "I mean I won’t be able to make bacon or scramble any eggs or pick them up warm from their beds and kiss their little faces" I told them  But hey they were sleeping HERE, remember? they were coming back HERE after, and they did come back and I could have left at 6 like I was supposed to only, well I just HAD to make them all some bacon and scramble them all a few eggs so it was 8:30 by the time I left and I raced over that Mass Pike and screeched into the Times Union parking lot at five of twelve, shirttails flying.

And two hours after that I had to be at the big Public Radio station to record these little essays for WAMC’s wonderful morning show “The Roundtable.” Co-host Sarah LaDuke set me up and away I went, reading my copy, squeezing all the personality I could manage into the teensy holes of that mic, being so careful - not to ‘pop’ my p’s for one thing but also because I do seem to have a bit of that ol' Marky-Mark Boston accent and it’s embarrassing when you’re talking about a low-carb diet and everyone thinks you’re referring to corn cobs. and really the  whole recording for the radio thing is just this wickedly hard high-wire act for me, a do-or-die, here’s-180-seconds-kid -don't-screw-it-up kind of thing and by the way couple million people are gonna hear it. Whew!

And after all THAT I got lost on my way to the hotel and it was dark and cold when I got there finally and then my key wouldn’t work so they gave me a new key.  No dice. Another new key along with an escort by the maintenance man in case I didn’t know how to slip a plastic card into a slot but STILL no dice. A third new one and my escort and I remained locked out of my room, and this time he swore in Spanish and winged that key clear into the meadow outside my sweet suite of rooms in this nice little Residence Inn.

Finally, totally exasperated after trying yet another key he said, “Look, can you just stay inside tonight and like NOT GO ANYWHERE and I’ll replace the lock in the morning?” And I said I sure could and Management gave me a free Weight Watcher frozen dinner and a free Duraflame log for the cute little fireplace and I did JUST HAPPEN to have a fat 24-ounce Budweiser from the gas station I filled up at 30 minutes before so tell ya what: I crawled into that bed with my food and drink, watched maybe 11 minutes of post-election excitement and was  sound sleep by 8pm, safe, and full, and shut up tight in my room just like it was my baby days again and this was my nap. :-)