Boston and unpaid Taxes

We left Boston on Thursday (21 October), having arrived on the previous Sunday morning. It was raining for a change, as we left. Not very hard, I must admit and we should not complain. It hardly seems fair on the poor farmers of America, as they need some rain once in a while, I guess.

Back to the plot. Boston, as you all well know, was a hotbed of insurrection against the British Crown. King George III, to be precise. Most of the memorials and statues from the Freedom Trail onwards, describe how the American people freed themselves from their earlier masters. They were all very nice to us, though, but I have reminded them that they owe a large amount of back taxes, with interest. We can take a vote on whether to give them an amnesty on penalties.


You have guessed by now that we walked the Freedom trail. Actually we walked parts of it twice; once on our own and then again on a guided tour, just so we could be reminded how we English started the shooting against the freedom loving people of Massachusetts.

The National Park Service does a great job at its museum in describing the Battle of Bunker Hill (1775). (Technically the English won, but only at the cost of nearly half of their forces. Very careless).

On Wednesday, we visited Salem, the town where 19 women were hanged, in 1692, accused of being witches. Although there is a serious side, concerning intolerance, prejudice and miscarriage of justice, the town of Salem has turned into a collection of cheap witch memorabilia, and ghost tours, heightened further at the this time of year, by the approaching Halloween. The town itself however, is very attractive.


In between times, we met up with Aaron Ellerbee for lunch, the son of a very good colleague of mine, Jim, from our respective Credit Suisse days. (No photos unfortunately – negligent of me). We also had a guided tour of Harvard, given by an undergraduate. This very slight student, Eddie, had a voice that could sink ships from 600 yards. Just what you need with a large partly of inattentive tourists.


Those of you following the English news will know that Liverpool Football Club have just been bought by the owner of the BOSTON Red Sox. (Hands up, those of you knew that the Red Sox are from Boston. Minus 10 points to all of you for lying, except for Richard Carver who probably really does know this). It was therefore our duty to make a due diligence visit to the ground of the Red Sox, to see whether John Henry is “fit and proper” (as we financial types say) to own such a historic English Institution. (Please. No comments or discussion about whether Liverpool is a “singular” noun or whether “historic” should be preceded by “an”. Usual rules apply here. In all cases of dispute, I am right – very simple). We were told that John Henry is in England at the moment, so he was unable to take any questions personally.


Wednesday night was the last day in a hotel for this U.S. trip. 15 points for guessing how many hotels / motels we have stayed in on this trip? Our room in this (slightly out of) Boston hotel was definitely one of the best that we have had.

p.s. Answer to question in an earlier Blog. The statue in the photo is of Arthur Haley, the writer of Roots, which I have not read (nor seen when it was televised), but which I believe describes the passage of his forefathers to the U.S. as slaves and their subsequent fight for freedom to the present time. Annapolis was one of the staging posts for slaves in the former centuries.