A call for mussels

In terms of the number of described species, mollusks make up the second largest phylum in biology. Local malacologist Kenin Czaja, who is headquartered in the neighborhood of Peabody Square, is making a special study of American freshwater mussels and he needs help collecting specimens.

Specifically, he is looking for 'lightly used' freshwater mussels shells. Complete pairs only. He is apparently scrutinizing the relationships between both halves of these bivalves. He is willing to pay a reasonable bounty for collected freshwater mussel shells, not live specimens, and will also pay the cost of shipping. Size doesn't matter. This scientist is examining his subject at all stages of development from infancy to old age. He does ask that shells not be broken, though whatever unavoidable, minor wear-and-tear the mussels have undergone over their lifetimes is understandable and of interest to him.

We do not publish his contact information here for fear he may be inundated with cranks, but those who are serious and who happen to come across freshwater mussels in their travels are encouraged to read the specifics of Mr. Czaja's needs by clicking here and scrolling down about a half a screen.

Many interests are pursued in Dorchester to broaden the scope of human knowledge in every field imaginable. Many hands make light work. We hope that Mr. Czaja will make some great discovery along that ever-stretching road that some people call 'Progress' and other people call 'Dot Ave.'

North-South is obsolete

Dorchester is traditionally divided into North Dorchester and South Dorchester. This may have made sense when the neighborhood added density during the years of streetcar expansion just after annexation. The more populated areas were located closer to Boston proper and the more rural and suburban parts, with the exception of the factory hamlet of Lower Mills, were farther away. Dorchester in the 21st century looks much the same if you cross it on a north-south axis.

From a demographic point-of-view, Dorchester should be split east-to-west, though the demarcations are a bit hazy. Like time zones, the boundaries between East Dorchester and West Dorchester zig zag between each other. Demographically speaking, the neighborhoods closer to Dorchester Bay are a world apart from those further inland. It is a matter of income brackets, ethnicity, and urban culture. I'm not telling any secrets when I say that most of the crime headlines in the daily papers are generated in the western half of Dorchester while most of the heart-warming, human interest stories, such as they happen to appear, are set in the eastern half of this great part of Boston.

Columbia Point, Savin Hill, Neponset Circle, Pope's Hill, and Adams Village are very different from Morton Village, Codman Square, Geneva-Bowdoin and Upham's Corner. But the two opposing poles intermix and intersect. There is a big difference between the areas surrounding Field's Corner and Ashmont Stations, and the one around Shawmut Station which sits between them like a rose between two thorns. Despite the real estate hyperbole about new developments around Peabody Square (Ashmont Station), this neighborhood isn't gentrifying. That said, Ashmont Hill contains some of the most beautiful mansions in Boston. The Kennedys hail from there originally; and Melville Avenue between Codman Sq. and Fields Corner is home to what I think is the most perfect house in all of Boston. That's saying something in a city rich with beautiful domestic architechture, the Back Bay included.

There are other examples in Dorchester of pockets of affluence amid rot just as there are examples of acres of ruins surrounded by tidy , working-class burghers minding their own business and tending their gardens. Dorchester is larger than the imagination, neither wholly black nor white but all the shades of a polyglot palette. Currents cross and mix in Dorchester. It is called the Dot for a reason, but it isn't flat. It is well-rounded but more an orb, a point where gravity coheres a collection of citizens around a common goal: making thier surroundings as livable and good as they can.

Never been to Dorchester?

Dorchester is the biggest neighborhood in Boston, both in area and population, but many Bostonians haven't been there. Those that do venture along the Red Line past Andrew Station get bitten by the Dorchester bug. Like a chigger, Dorchester gets under your skin. Like a tick, Dorchester, bloated on the nourishing blood of its citizens, spreads a contagion. It isn't Lyme Disease, it's Dot-itis.

There are a fair share of fair weather Dorchesterites. They disembark at Savin Hill in the summer months to spend an afternoon frolicking in the sun and on the sugar sand shores of Malibu Beach. October winnows out these migrations and November leaves only the dedicated. People who were born in Dorchester know its charm and transplants know it equally well. A North Ender, a Back Bayer, a Cantabrigian... they are few and far between in Peabody Square or Codman Square or Lower Mills after the first of December.

Some people live in Dorchester, and they are the luckiest of all Bostonians. Some people only come for a visit that is always too brief. The wind off Dorchester Bay in winter can seem bitter, but many people find it briskly refreshing. Dorchesterites deep in the throes of Dot-itis have a spring in their step and a glint in their eyes that prove they are among the committed. You can't keep a good neighborhood down and you can't get away from the Dot once you've been in it. It changes a person.

Better Than Good

When something is better than good, it deserves a different word. Some people say "fantastic," and that may work if you come from Fanchester. Where I live though, if something is better than good, we call it dottastic. We usually append two exclamation points for emphasis like so: Dottastic!!

The word is a fad that is catching on with all the youngsters around Dorchester. I wouldn't say the word has reached the critical mass to be all the rage, but it's making its rounds and gathering force. I was in the McDonald's at Codman Square where a young couple were enjoying a late lunch. The boy said, "My sister took me to Eggleston Square yesterday and that Filet o' Fish was good, but this one is dottastic!!" His date took a bite of hers and flashed an enthusiatic thumbs-up in agreement while still chewing.

At the Tedeschi Market on Neponset Avenue the other morning, I was picking up a Dorchester Reporter and the Herald. The cashier was all of seventeen. After I had given her my $1.25, she gave me a winning smile. "Thank you, sir. You have yourself a dottastic day!!" I assured her I would.

While waiting on the inbound platform at Shawmut Station, I watched a gaggle of pre-teen girls squeal with delight at one of their member's shoes. "Those are so dottastic!!" They kept saying it over and over. The shoes' owner was very pleased by the attention and compliments. She said she had gotten the shoes at AJ Wright.

Proof that the word is entering the mainstream, at least in this part of Boston: There is a handwritten sandwichboard on the sidewalk outside Peabody Tire. It says: "We have the BEST Tires at the Most Dottastic Prices!!"

Will the word catch on outside Boston's biggest neighborhood? It may be a tough sell. Roxtastic sounds pretty nice, too.