Boston

Boston is a culturally diverse city that prides itself on being an intellectual hub. Although Harvard is the most famous and the oldest university in Boston, it is certainly not alone, as Boston has dozens of colleges and universities, both public and private. Boston has more international students than any city in the United States. At least 110 countries are represented in the students of Boston.

Boston’s educational system turns out doctors and many others in the healthcare profession. Boston is home to more than a dozen hospitals including Massachusetts General and Beth Israel Deaconess Hospitals, which are both teaching hospitals, affiliated with Harvard Medical School.

Boston has a huge white-collar work force, but no one industry seems to dominate the city. Education, Finance, Healthcare, and Technology are four of the most populous industries in and around the city.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is also a prevailing presence in Boston and proudly graduates not only technological experts, but experts in many other fields as well.

As impressive as Boston’s educational and industrial segments are, Boston is also home to a bevy of cultural experiences and entertainment attractions. Museums and the Performing Arts color Boston with a wide array of culture. Boston is home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Pops, dance troupes, theater groups, and musical venues.

Boston also has a rich history to explore in landmarks and memorials. Take a sailor-guided tour of the USS Constitution for an unforgettable experience. Shopping, seafood, and water activities will also keep tourists or natives busy when in Boston. Even the Boston public library is impressive with its online access to music, audio, and video downloads and its many collections in the brick and mortar Central Library.

Boston has a lot to offer, whether it is business or pleasure you’re seeking.

Boston, MA is the largest city in New England with a population of slightly more than half a million people. Boston has had several nicknames through the years, the most popular likely being Beantown. Boston is the capital of one of the four states that designates itself as a Commonwealth instead of a state, although there is no real or legal difference.

Boston is hot in the summer and cold in the winter, however, not nearly as hot as places like Arizona or as cold as places like Wyoming or Montana. The coldest it has ever been in Boston was -10 degrees Fahrenheit and that was a record. Being close to the ocean means humidity and Boston has its share of humid days.

Boston is home to many notable and famous people, among them, our second president, John Adams, Alexander Graham Bell, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Benjamin Franklin, John F. Kennedy, and of course, Paul Revere. Many actors and musicians hail from Boston and at least one more former president of the United States.

Boston is home to many proponents and opponents of same-sex marriage. With it being legal in Massachusetts, it is no longer a rhetorical discussion. Churches hold special meetings telling members to stand up against it, while across the street those who agree with the legal ruling protest and/or hold candlelight vigils. To be sure, Boston’s college and university classes are having heated discussions on the subject.

The governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney, joined in a recent church meeting in Boston with those who oppose same-sex marriages, believing every child deserves a mother and a father.

Boston has much to offer on the educational front. Being home to Harvard University is alone a testament to that fact; however, Boston is also home to other major educational offerings, including the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Boston University. Boston is also home to dozens of less famous colleges and universities, both public and private, in the metropolitan area.

Harvard University, one of the most famous universities in the United States, is also the country’s first university. Harvard’s faculty numbers more than 2,000, while the student body approaches 20,000, with the majority of students being graduate students. Harvard University has a medical school, a law school, and includes Harvard College, which is for undergraduates.

MIT is a prestigious institution of higher education that serves undergraduate as well as graduate students. Although it is famous for its technology programs, MIT also offers many other programs of study. In fact, in a pioneering move, MIT has put nearly all their courses, undergraduate and graduate, online for free public use. Called OpenCourseWare, users from all over the world can make use of these teaching materials, from the teachers who want to supplement their own course materials to the self-learners who want to work independently at their own pace. These courses won’t lead to a degree or credit of any kind, yet the curriculum is a veritable gold mine of information that almost anyone can benefit from. To MIT’s credit, other colleges and universities in the United States and around the world have started similar programs online.

Interestingly enough, Google is one of the major employers that recruit MIT graduates.

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center is a major healthcare presence in Boston and has been recognized by US News and World Report as one of the nation’s top hospitals. Beth Israel is also a teaching affiliate with Harvard Medical School. Massachusetts General is another prestigious hospital, not only in Boston or the state of Massachusetts, but also in the United States.

Another teaching hospital affiliated with Harvard is Brigham and Women’s Hospital, which provides healthcare in several major areas including women’s health, cardiovascular health, and cancer. The Dana-Farber/Brigham and Women’s Cancer Center cares for patients who have been diagnosed with any of twelve different kinds of cancer.

Boston Shriner’s Hospital cares for child burn victims at no charge to their parents. One of 22 of the Shriner’s Burn Institutes, this Boston healthcare facility provides an invaluable service to burn victims and their families.

Boston has a huge and diversified healthcare community. While the prestigious Boston medical schools are graduating our future doctors, they are able to train at some of the world’s best hospitals. Boston’s medical care includes specialists with regard to cancer, cardiovascular diseases, Alzheimer’s, and cosmetic surgery, to name just a few.

Boston attracts multi-talented healthcare professionals and healthcare specialists, not just from all over the United States, but from across the world. While new healthcare professionals are entering the profession, well-esteemed, brilliant doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals come to Boston and stay in Boston to be part of the overall healthcare profession here.

Boston is comprised of a wonderfully diverse economic sector, so that no one industry can claim dominion over the city, which lends strength to the entire economic system. Boston is often the choice of a company’s eastern regional headquarters. Many international companies choose Boston for their US headquarters. There are 35 consular offices in Boston, as well, which is a rich mining ground for internships as is the finance and government sector.

Boston’s educational system provides a plethora of jobs in the public and private sector. While Harvard’s faculty alone numbers 2,000, there are hundreds of support staff employed as well. The healthcare industry employs thousands of Bostonians. Biotechnology companies are also a significant presence.

Finance is also a large employer. Fidelity Investments and Bank of America bring significant revenue and employment to the city. Putnam Investments is headquartered in Boston. MIT influences computer hardware and software companies to locate in the Boston area. Iontas, an Irish computer software company, has its US headquarters in Boston. Voltaire has its headquarters in Boston, as well.

Gillette is headquartered in Boston, as is New Balance. Publishers Houghton-Mifflen and Fablevision are headquartered here. Fablevision has moved its headquarters to the Boston Children’s Museum building, joining several other child-focused educational publishers in the historic building.

Because Boston is a capital city, there are many federal agencies; therefore, government is a significant employer in the Boston area as well.

The Boston Red Sox is the major league baseball team in Boston, MA. They are likely most noted for their 86-year dry spell as champions after winning the World Series in 1918. The dry spell was blamed by some on “the curse of the bambino” referring to the selling of Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1920.

Eighty-six years after their last World Series win, the Red Sox broke their dry spell in 2004. The Red Sox are at home in Fenway Park, which was opened in 1912 and is the oldest major league ballpark in operation.

The Red Sox have retired six numbers through the years. In order for a player’s number to be retired, he must be a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, and he must have ended his career with the Red Sox after playing for the team for 10 years.

Until 1997, when Jackie Robinson’s number 42 was retired, the numbers were hung in the order in which they’d been retired, 9, 4, 1, and 8. Someone noticed that when those numbers were written as a date, (9/4/18) that the date represented the eve of the Red Sox’s 1918 World Series Win. From then on, the numbers have been hung in numerical order.

The Boston Celtics are the NBA basketball team in Boston. The Celtics have retired more numbers than any other sports franchise in the United States. They’ve also had more championships than any other NBA team. Interestingly enough, while the Red Sox were the last MLB team to draft a black player, the Celtics were the first NBA team to do so.

Boston is home to a wide array of talent including the Performing Arts, Symphonies, and other musical groups. The musical group Boston hails from Boston, as does Aerosmith. The Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Boston Pops call the city home. Widely famous is the Boston Pops annual 4th of July concert which is held in conjunction with the city’s Independence Day celebration.

The Children’s Museum has been around nearly forever. It was founded in 1913 by a group of public school science teachers and is housed in a 117-year-old building, the same building that Fablevision and other children’s media publishers and organizations are housed. Highlights of the current 47 million dollar expansion include a multi-story climbing structure named the New Balance climb and an art studio.

Many other museums in the city such as the Museum of Fine Arts attract visitors from all over the world. The John F. Kennedy Museum and Library is a fascinating walk through the Kennedy era.

Boston has a theater district and dance companies and comedy clubs. Writers and writing are as big a part of Boston as are any of the performing arts. Festivals are plentiful in the summer months, with music and film festivals taking center stage. First Night Boston is a citywide New Year’s celebration that also includes music and various performances.

Many film sets have come to Boston including The Firm, Glory, Good Will Hunting, and most recent Fever Pitch, which is about the Boston Red Sox.

Boston has a rich media presence including newspapers Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Beacon Hill Times, and the Boston Business Journal. Boston also has its share of television and radio stations.

The Boston public library has truly made it into the 21st century. Just access their website and you’ll find an online media center that includes digital audio, music, and videos that you can “check out” online. The typical lending time is 14 days, after which you will no longer be able to access the digital content from your computer, as the license will have expired. This isn’t a bad deal because it’s like your library books walking themselves back to the library. You don’t even have to remember to turn them in; they just magically disappear after the 14-day period.

The real world version is located in Copley Square, as well as 27 neighborhood branches. The Central Library is comprised of two buildings, one of which holds non-circulated and reference material, and the other houses the circulated material. The Boston public library is a veritable gold mine with rare collections, government documents, prints and photographs, audio, video, music, and children’s departments. A number of television shows were either set in Boston or had some kind of connection with the city. “Cheers” is probably the most famous television show set in the city. Starring Ted Danson, Shelly Long, and Kirstie Alley, Cheers was on for 11 seasons and won 26 Emmy Awards and is still running in syndication.

“Goodnight Beantown” was another popular show set in Boston. St. Elsewhere was a widely popular show set, as well, and Crossing Jordan and The Practice are current popular television shows set in Boston.

One can never be bored in Boston, MA. There are simply too many things to see, do, and experience. Many famous sights are less than two hours away, including Cape Cod, yet within the greater Boston area are enough things to do to keep one in the city for a very long time.

The Prudential Tower is a 52-story building. It houses a shopping mall with more than 75 shops and restaurants and an observatory deck, the Prudential Center Skywalk, where you can see all over the city.

Even those not very interested in maritime history or ships in general have been pleasantly surprised when visiting the USS Constitution and taking the sailor-guided tour. A free attraction, it has been a favorite sight to visit for people from all over the world.

Chinatown in Boston is one of the United States largest Chinese neighborhoods. Boston is open late for all the nightlife with bars/pubs that play various kinds of music including Wally’s Café, a family-owned jazz club that’s been around since 1947.

With four convention centers, something exciting is always coming to Boston, in addition to the many concerts and performances.

Five minutes from the Children’s Museum is Faneuil Hall Marketplace, a must see and do place when visiting Boston. Hosting several festivals and special events each year, it also offers a daily shopping and dining experience. Don’t be surprised at the carnival-like atmosphere; it’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace. You’ll be able to choose from more than 100 of the best shops and “carts” at the Marketplace. Stores like Ann Taylor, Crate and Barrel, and Nine West, as well as shops exclusive to the Marketplace await your arrival.

You won’t know what to eat first as you choose from 17 restaurants and pubs or an additional 40 eateries that can be found in the famous food hall at Quincy Market Colonnade. You’ll find outdoor cafes, upscale restaurants, American and Mexican fare, barbeque, seafood, and Italian choices. Enjoy your choice of dessert, snacks, or a full meal!

More than 18 million visitors annually come to Faneuil Hall Marketplace. Thirty years old, it is still one of the most famous and central areas of this incredible city. You may not be able to see absolutely everything with one visit to Boston, but Faneuil Hall Marketplace is a must see for everyone!