If you spend much time in Boston, you probably have one of these.  It's better than a nickel. If you live in Boston, there’s a good chance you know why the card you use to ride public transit is called a Charlie Card, but I’ll review the story anyway, because it’s a good one.  The mass transit system, referred to by the locals as the T, used to be referred to as the MTA, and the fare was 10¢, which you paid in cash before getting on the train.  In 1949, the MTA raised the fare.  It still cost 10¢ to get on the train—but it cost another 5¢ to get off.   Some felt this was needlessly confusing.  Specifically, one Walter A. O’Brien thought so, and campaigned for mayor of Boston, making the new fare system the main plank in his platform.  To back him up, the song “Charlie on the MTA” was recorded for him by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes as a campaign song.  It told the story of Charlie, a man who boarded the train at Kendall Square, but when he tried to get off

Ziryab, inventor of the guitar. Perhaps the most influential musician whom few people have heard of is Abu al-Hasan, better known as Ziryab.  Ziryab was a black slave born in Baghdad in the late 8 th century.  He was a gifted musician, and by all accounts, a sweet and charming man.  This is how he earned his nickname, which means “blackbird”.  In the Arab world of the early 9 th century, it was possible to advance out of slavery, unlike in the later slave economies of North America.  (Not that this justifies slavery; it’s just important to establish Ziryab’s roots and just how high he rose.)  It didn’t take Ziryab long to earn the attention of the caliph’s court musician, who took him under his wing and helped him develop his talents.  Soon, Ziryab surpassed even the court musician, and stunned the caliph himself.  Ziryab gave the maiden performance of a song he’d written for the caliph right there in his court, and immediately the caliph was enchanted.  The problem fo

Coffee beans most recently produced by the civet cat.  (Image courtesy of The Guardian) The most expensive coffee in the world is called Kopi Luwak, which comes from the island of Bali in Indonesia.  It retails at about $100 per pound of grounds.  It’s got a devoted following among those who swear the taste is distinct enough that the high price is worth it.  The flavor is attributed not to the trees where the Kopi Luwak is harvested, or the climate.  Credit goes to the Asian palm civet, also known as the civet cat (which is not actually a feline).  The civet cat processes coffee beans the only way a civet cat can: it eats them.  Well, they don’t eat the beans, per se, so much as they swallow them whole.  Then the beans are… excreted.  That’s as nicely as I can put it. Yes, this is civet cat poop coffee, and people actually drink it.  The fans of Kopi Luwak insist that it tastes like nothing else, and that’s probably true.  Why is it different?  The reasoning is that th