Gravel Influencer: Massachusetts! (With love for VT, ME, and RI of course)

At the risk of posting something stupefyingly obvious: If you're among those canceling a New York Times or Washington Post subscription, I guarantee you have a great nonprofit media outlet or local paper in your area that could use some revenue. And that coverage is absolutely vital right now.

Your local NPR station is always a great place to start. Your day, your drive, your thirst for news, your jazz fix, take your pick: www.npr.org/stations/

Support Public Radio: Donate To Your NPR Stationwww.npr.org

Nah

I obviously strongly disagree. For most people outside a big city, an NPR or PBS station is their closest and most available nonprofit news source. Nice quoteskeet, BTW. (Nobody tell him about WBUR)

You need better things to do with your time

I stand by everything I’ve said. For people who don’t hate the news, their local NPR station is better than most other things they’d get on radio.

The guy is being a dick for no reason. It's kind of funny as my entire account is basically media criticism (former journalist).

“Best state in New England”…if you say Connecticut, I’m rescinding that richly deserved follow I just gave you. Haha. 😑

Massachusetts! (With love for VT, ME, and RI of course)

Damn. Since I opened this New England portal, let me just say that I look forward to visiting Kowloon again (before they renovate, a threat that keeps being made and has yet to come to pass) and to see the cars at Larz Anderson again. But not in the winter. NOT in the winter.

As someone who grew up going to Kowloon I never want it to change!

One of my other favorite people in the world is from New Hampshire. And while I see what you did there, I have to shout out the Granite State, because holy shit, this is amazing. And it turns out the kid's next move is to enter the U.S. Navy. Which, HOOYAH.

Teen safely stops runaway boat speeding in circles on New Hampshire's largest lakeapnews.com A teenager is being called a hero for safely stopping an empty runaway boat speeding in circles on New Hampshire's largest lake.

I think it's odd that New Hampshire, famously anti-socialist bastion of libertarianism, has fantastic roads, while driving in my town of Newton Mass is like riding off road in the Nevada Desert, but bumpier.

AH HA HAAA you’re a keepah! Even if I love NPR despite its massive problems.

Yeah, it's such a large organization that sometimes you need to separate their dogshit political coverage from other things. And also because there is so much member station content that is valuable.

The only news org that was covering the protests and removal at Columbia this spring up close was the local, student-run station. Those kids risked life and limb to provide that news to the public, and they are heroes to me. May they all get lucrative jobs—after COLUMBIA, they’ll need them.

Be real with me, how are those winters? And how is the Mexican food? Doing research in case I need to become governor of Western Mass one day.

Lots of rain and 40 degrees lately. Mexican food...not so good! But Western Mass has some great beer, and hiking, and museums, and music, and I could go on. To be fair, I'm a Boston-area guy so am not a WMass expert haha.

I've heard the whole state is pretty good for education and social services too. I'll be sure to polish up my Mexican food game if we ever decide to move up that way so I can just make it at the house. I was pleasantly surprised by how affordable much of Western Mass was.

Yeah, Western Mass is less populated, fewer jobs, etc. The Eastern parts of the state are really expensive.

I went to college in Western MA and it's been a long time but I still kind of keep my eye on that part of the state because I loved it so much. It's a complicated place: UMass and the many small private colleges draw a lot of affluent, educated people to some communities.

Others communities have high poverty levels that have been high for a long time - when manufacturing basically disappeared from that part of the state, what had been working-class communities never rebounded.

I'm a Los Angeles transplant. I never owned a winter coat until I moved here two and a half years ago. The winters are not that bad in Boston, though Western Mass is colder and snowier. Forget any chance of finding good Mexican food in the state. Abandon hope ye who enter here and ye shall be happy.

I can only imagine how tough the food transition was for you.

It shouldn't be this way! There are lots of hungry immigrants here! East Boston is the least bad. But most Mexican places have adopted the Chipotle assembly line style of pre-cooked/warmed up food in canisters. Nothing made to order.

Yeah, you gotta go to East Boston or even Lynn. I have found good birria tacos in Middleton of all places! And Beverly has a solid taco spot. But it's slim pickings.

I'd love to find a place that makes their birria with goat. I'd drive to Middleton for that!

We were promised a taco truck on every corner. We can still work together to realize that dream of mobile tacos for all Americans.

I never understand this. There are Mexicans all over this country and yet there are Mexican food deserts. Is it a ingredient resource thing? Is there just not demand for good food in these white people states?

I'm reminded of when the Senate said that Arkansas cheese dip was better than Texas queso bc ours was spicy. I wouldn't think it's ingredients nowadays. The spices and flours should be fairly shippable.

Hit up Pericos next time they’re nearby, you’ll be very happy. www.instagram.com/pericos_taqu...

Looks intriguing. Haven't seen vampiros around here yet.

🤣