The Boston Handbook

by John Powers, Peter Wallace (Illustrator)

This guide to "chowdah," "blizzids," "the Sawx," rotaries, dropped Rs, and many other parochial oddities features Boston Globe colleagues John Powers (Jawn Powiz) and Peter Wallace (Peetah Wollis) as they break down the provincial peculiarities of Boston's topography, meteorology, history, cuisine, architecture, notable personalities, rituals and taboos that make this place not "Noo Yawk." With Powers providing the "langwidge" and Wallace the "pickchiz," the handbook explains how to get scrod, who Rosie Ruiz was, where Raymond's used to be, when to celebrate Bunker Hill Day, why there's no East End, what the difference is between the Buddha and the buddha, and how to get there from here ("you cahn't"). This guidebook is indispensable—and "wikkid" funny.

Genres: Humor

118 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

Reviews

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable, amusing. I read the updated 2024 edition.

[Ingrid · Rating 3 out of 5]

Humorous little essays and cartoons; I read this book a lot as a kid, even though I didn't get all the jokes. Some of the references are now dated and will be inscrutable to younger audiences, and there are a couple of jokes that are kind of offensive, but a lot of it still lands.