The Hancock

The Observation deck

made me nervous.  Looking

down at planes landing at Logan

I could deal with, but the large

ceiling-to-floor windows went

right to the edge and that

was a place I didn’t want to be.

I hung around the inner core

room that had a model of Boston

which proudly showed the land

The Hancock was built on was

once a swamp – great!  The two

guys I was with could see my

unease and stood toes to the

windows as if they were going

to take a piss.  “Hey, Greenwood,

look at this view!”

The Hancock turned out to be

a fiasco.  The five-hundred pound

mirrored windows fell out with

regularity and each one brought

seven years’ bad luck crashing

down on Claredon Street.  I. M. Pei

collected awards for architectural

excellence, but the tombstone-like

building swayed so badly it made

people sick.   

I took the elevator down without

my friends.  Elevators are counter-

balanced, and around the thirtieth

floor I felt a shudder as the opposite

car passed us racing to the top packed

with posers who would, no doubt, come

to relate their Observation deck

trip while cackling in the third person.

FG 4/19/2014

We live in an age of lies.  The Tower of Babel did not fall because people spoke different languages; it fell because people lied to each other.  Tell a lie often enough (it’s called staying on message to a politician) and it becomes so common place, no one notices it’s really a lie.