Once every eight years is not annual, but better late than never!
What makes this tricky is that I don't own a car. Well, I have half a car, which does have an E-ZPass, but that stays with that car. If you go to sign up online you'll get through to step 5 of 7 and then:
Please add at least one vehicle to your account. If you do not have a vehicle please call the customer service center to open your account. You may not request more transponders than you have vehicles on your account.
Then you call customer service, and when you follow the prompts to tell the automated system that you want to open an E-ZPass account they tell you this must be done online and don't offer any other options.
If you do get through to a person, for example by pressing 2-2-9 to tell them that you have a question about your account but have forgotten your number, they'll tell you to go online to their Document Library, fill out a PDF application, and fax it in. The only difference, as far as I can tell, is that the PDF form isn't capable of complaining when you don't enter a license plate number.
Which worked! Now I have a transponder, and when I want to rent a car I can follow their instructions to add it to my account as a short-term rental.
It turns out there's an actual answer! From 1964 to 1966, before switching to colors in 1967, the MTA (and then the MBTA) used numbers. Here's the 1966 system map:
The lines were:
(I originally noticed the claim that they used to be numbered on Wikipedia, but then when I went looking for maps I couldn't find any examples and marked it as citation needed. Then I found that the parallel claim on the Blue Line cited the (incredible!) Changes to Transit Service in the MBTA district, which has this on p8. I realized that I'd been looking at maps that were too early, and when I checked the years immediately preceding the introduction of the colors I found it. I've now updated the page with a citation to the 1966 map.)
The Saturday morning, 9:15-10:30, there will be a family dance with an open band, open to all ($3 for kids, $5-$20 for adults) even if you're not registered for the weekend. If you do come for the family dance, you're welcome to stay for the 10:45-noon contra set with Will Mentor calling to the Figments. (more)
BIDA's regular Sunday evening dance is the Sunday of Beantown Stomp, with Will Mentor calling to the Mean Lids. Unlike the dance weekend itself, this event is mask-required (which I expect is a plus for some people and a minus for others). (more)
This is a very configurable whistle-controlled synthesizer that Ugo Conti patented in 1986:
The present invention utilizes the oft-overlooked music-making capability possessed by most people, namely the ability to whistle. Although there are some whistlers who possess astounding technique, and perform publicly, the whistle is generally not a shared form of musical entertainment. The reason is simple—the whistle is too pure in tonal color and too high in pitch to be pleasant to anyone other than the whistler. The whistle tone has none of the rich characteristics displayed by conventional musical instruments or the human singing voice. The result is that most people who whistle do so in the privacy of the shower or while working outdoors.The present invention exploits the whistle's first-mentioned weakness, namely excess purity, as a virtue, in that a whistle is capable of having its fundamental frequency determined very reliably and very quickly. The invention overcomes the second weakness, namely the high pitch, by frequency division.
Work | Nucleic Acid Observatory | |
Work | Speaking | |
Band | Free Raisins | |
Band | Kingfisher | |
Code | Whistle Synth | |
Code | Apartment Price Map | |
Board | BIDA Contra | |
Board | Giving What We Can | |
Child | Lily | |
Child | Anna | |
Child | Nora |