You're not a Grognard, but...

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I just want to clarify, are you saying you have a heavy Boston accent, or are you saying a unique accent has been passed down in a small niche of your family that you inherited from your parents ?

Neither. I've just plain got a unique accent, unrelated to anyone else in my family, period, and have had all my life. There's no consensus among non-New Englanders as to whether there's any trace of "Boston" accent -- it's been attributed to English, Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian, Australian (this last been a complete gigglefit for my friend who grew up in Queensland), etc. (And tosses a fried clam at BedrockBrendan) Pfft. Born in Quincy, moved to the Plymouth area when I was ten. I'm Irish, after all!

Asen, for your benefit, the linguistic bands around here are unusually narrow. Though it's fading through pop culture, eastern and western Massachusetts have differing accents as well as idiom: the "Boston" accent travels up the coast through south coastal Maine, while western Massachusetts starts to fall into the New York orbit. Classic regionalisms as to what one calls "fizzy soft drinks" or "sandwiches served in long rolls" differ across those dividing lines. Also, there are settlement patterns. That "Irish after all" thing -- as a near-invariable thing, second- and third-generation Italian immigrants to Boston moved out north of the city, and second- and third-generation Irish immigrants moved out south of the city.

Let's just say that New England is a demographer's dream.
 
Neither. I've just plain got a unique accent, unrelated to anyone else in my family, period, and have had all my life. There's no consensus among non-New Englanders as to whether there's any trace of "Boston" accent -- it's been attributed to English, Scottish, Irish, Scandinavian, Australian (this last been a complete gigglefit for my friend who grew up in Queensland), etc. (And tosses a fried clam at BedrockBrendan) Pfft. Born in Quincy, moved to the Plymouth area when I was ten. I'm Irish, after all!

Asen, for your benefit, the linguistic bands around here are unusually narrow. Though it's fading through pop culture, eastern and western Massachusetts have differing accents as well as idiom: the "Boston" accent travels up the coast through south coastal Maine, while western Massachusetts starts to fall into the New York orbit. Classic regionalisms as to what one calls "fizzy soft drinks" or "sandwiches served in long rolls" differ across those dividing lines. Also, there are settlement patterns. That "Irish after all" thing -- as a near-invariable thing, second- and third-generation Italian immigrants to Boston moved out north of the city, and second- and third-generation Irish immigrants moved out south of the city.

Let's just say that New England is a demographer's dream.
Interesting. I have been told in the past I had a Concord (MA) accent... I have never had the Boston accent though my mom and younger sister definitely do. My accent tends to morph depending on where I'm living. I think I picked up some New York accent while attending RPI and I definitely picked up some level of Southern accent while living in North Carolina. As a New Englander I have also confused people with the liberal use of double negatives. I also have a mix of "a" pronunciation. I'm firmly of the belief that aunt and ant are pronounced differently (and will say "aunts are your relatives, ants are uninvited guests at your picnic."). On the other hand, I pronounce bath with the same "a" as ant not the same "a" as aunt. I'm sure some of that is growing up in Concord, while other bits are due to a mother from Melrose and a father from Fitchburg. Oh, yea, and all the food names... I drink soda and eat subs and know when to order a thick shake rather than a milk shake...
 
Asen, for your benefit, the linguistic bands around here are unusually narrow. Though it's fading through pop culture, eastern and western Massachusetts have differing accents as well as idiom: the "Boston" accent travels up the coast through south coastal Maine, while western Massachusetts starts to fall into the New York orbit. Classic regionalisms as to what one calls "fizzy soft drinks" or "sandwiches served in long rolls" differ across those dividing lines. Also, there are settlement patterns. That "Irish after all" thing -- as a near-invariable thing, second- and third-generation Italian immigrants to Boston moved out north of the city, and second- and third-generation Irish immigrants moved out south of the city.

Let's just say that New England is a demographer's dream.

Yeah, the accent map is a little odd here (and it changes slightly the further north you go). It also falls on class lines and even within families who all live in the same house some people don't have the accent.

Up on the North Shore here myself.


Interesting. I have been told in the past I had a Concord (MA) accent... I have never had the Boston accent though my mom and younger sister definitely do. My accent tends to morph depending on where I'm living. I think I picked up some New York accent while attending RPI and I definitely picked up some level of Southern accent while living in North Carolina. As a New Englander I have also confused people with the liberal use of double negatives. I also have a mix of "a" pronunciation. I'm firmly of the belief that aunt and ant are pronounced differently (and will say "aunts are your relatives, ants are uninvited guests at your picnic."). On the other hand, I pronounce bath with the same "a" as ant not the same "a" as aunt. I'm sure some of that is growing up in Concord, while other bits are due to a mother from Melrose and a father from Fitchburg. Oh, yea, and all the food names... I drink soda and eat subs and know when to order a thick shake rather than a milk shake...

I didn't know there was a Concord accent (but I haven't been there much). My dad is from Revere (oddly almost no accent). My mom is from Lynn (very heavy accent). Most of my family has it as well. I mostly lost mine in a short move out west.
 
If I am only getting one of these things, I request the fried lobster tail
I could go for some good fried clams AND good whole lobster... When I got to go to conferences in Massachusetts I at least got to get clams, and one time my dad got us lobster, unfortunately it wasn't that good. All the clams I had were awesome though. Out here in Oregon we get oysters (just too gooey for me) and razor clams (tried them once, they didn't stack up to New England clams) or clam strips (yea, right). At least we DO get good New England clam chowder if you go to the right place.
 
... I AM a grognard, but like Neon, I believe we really are in a golden age for gaming, with more options, better knowledge, better production values, more diversity, and better access to once-long-lost works than ever before.

Heck, I wrote this blog post over eight years ago now, and my mind hasn't changed a jot. The Golden Age is right now.

I agree with this 100%, especially the part about access to older material. There are so many games I enjoy now that I simply didn't have access to when I was younger (including books I spent years trying to track down in hard copy, before PDF versions existed), not to mention all of the newer ones that have been created. I may not be terribly engaged with the gaming mainstream these days (I do play 5E once or twice a month, but that's about it), but so what? There's so much other stuff out there to engage with.
 
I agree with this 100%, especially the part about access to older material. There are so many games I enjoy now that I simply didn't have access to when I was younger (including books I spent years trying to track down in hard copy, before PDF versions existed), not to mention all of the newer ones that have been created. I may not be terribly engaged with the gaming mainstream these days (I do play 5E once or twice a month, but that's about it), but so what? There's so much other stuff out there to engage with.

Quite. I had a number of requests for my Scarlet Pimpernel book over the years, not from gamers but from the romance novel fanbase, because for better or for worse it was the closest thing to a print concordance for the series that existed. And for many years, the best I could tell people was to try book search services or resale outfits like Noble Knight Games, and good freaking luck. And for a few years now, Warehouse 23's had the entire GURPS line from Day-Minus-One (Man to Man qualifying as such) in PDF.
 
I could go for some good fried clams AND good whole lobster... When I got to go to conferences in Massachusetts I at least got to get clams, and one time my dad got us lobster, unfortunately it wasn't that good. All the clams I had were awesome though. Out here in Oregon we get oysters (just too gooey for me) and razor clams (tried them once, they didn't stack up to New England clams) or clam strips (yea, right). At least we DO get good New England clam chowder if you go to the right place.

Whole lobster is always good. I like how they cook them at the Chinese restaurants around here too (I think they boil then stir fry them, but not sure). Usually the easiest thing to do is go to a local fish market or to the grocery store and buy the lobsters so you can boil them yourself.

I like fried clams or steamed clams. But my favorite is fried calamari (a lot of place around here have good fried calamari). And of coarse, roast beef sandwiches.
 
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