TimeOut

Boston GTG part 1--- The pub crawl

Last Friday I travelled down to Boston for the third New England GTG. Despite having been up all night at work I was completely energized by the thought of meeting new and established PuristS in the city.

What made this GTG even more special was the fact that two other PuristSPro moderators were in town from the west coast on vacation. I asked them to meet me early so we can "hang out".

It was NOT a sunny beautiful winter day in Beantown.

Even the gold leafed capped dome of the state house barely gleamed through the fog and midst.

This is the Old South Meeting Hall where the Boston Tea Party started. Colonists, led by the Sons of Liberty and disguised as Native Americans left Old South and walked quietly and purposefully to the waterfront where they dumped 342 chests of tea into the harbor.

Boston is also the resting place of Benjamin Franklin. Not many people know that besides the lightening rod Franklin also invented bifocal glasses, swim fins, daylight savings time, and a three wheel clock. It was a 24-hour, three-wheel clock that was much simpler than most clock designs of the time. Franklin's clock, like others from that period, only had one hand. Minute hands were not added to clocks until later. Franklin biographer Carl Van Doren describes this invention as "a curious clock, economical but not quite practical."

The great wheel which carries the driving pulley has 160 teeth, the intermediate wheel has 120 and the escape wheel, which has 40 teeth, indicated seconds on the top dial. To the great wheel is attached the single hand from which both hours and minutes can be easily read.

I met up with my honored guests at Noon. Both Art and Scott were ready for their Boston tour. Rather than hiking the Freedom Trail we decided on a good Irish pub crawl!

Our first watering stop... "The Black Rose"

Scott and Art before our first round.

I needed something healthy to offset the multiple pints we were drinking.

Our second stop was just across the street. I'm glad that I didn't have to walk that far!

A bit too early for chilled Jager but tempting.

Another round please!

A lovely blonde

What is a pub crawl with PuristS if there were no watches involved? So we hailed a police car...ooops I meant a taxi cab to take us to a nearby watch store.

It was pretty dangerous place to be with a slight buzz, good friends, and exotic watches. My favorite ones from the showcases but sadly not within my budget.