What we learn on vacation

Also: Your love letters to Boston [Donate ❤️]( [View in Browser](  February 18, 2024 Dear Cog reader, About a decade ago, I created a new travel tradition with my husband. We call it the “goodbye beer.” When it’s time to end a long weekend getaway or our annual August vacation, we have one last beer before climbing into our Uber or heading for our gate to board the plane. It began as an excuse to squeeze a little more juice out of the vacation orange, but eventually became a contemplative exercise — a kind of retrospective of our trip. As we slowly sip our last local IPA, we ask ourselves, “What did we do on this trip that we want to replicate at home?” More often than not, these lessons involve food and drink. Start eating a bigger lunch and a smaller dinner (Germany), learn how to prepare ramen from scratch (Japan), keep butter in a butter bell on the table instead of the fridge so it’s easier to spread (South Africa). These aren’t profound ideas, but they are small changes that make life more pleasant. And every once in a while, our goodbye beer brings us a bigger revelation. We’ve come home from a vacation and bought bikes so we’ll ride more and drive less (thank you, Copenhagen). Inspired by a trip to Barcelona, we introduced an afternoon siesta. And I’m still trying to figure out how to open the windows of our historic home, which have been painted shut, so we can practice [the Austrian habit of lüften]( (getting the bedroom as cold as possible) before bedtime.  That’s my favorite thing about travel: the different ways of doing things to which it exposes us, sparking curiosity and conversation. “Maybe there’s a better way?” we begin to think. Miles Howard, a regular Cog contributor, wrote about this phenomenon for us this week. Inspired by visits his family made to Montreal when he was a teenager, Miles started traveling north for inspiration during the winter again a few years ago. [In his piece]( he contrasts Montreal's affordable outdoor festivals that offer ice skating, dining and live music with the more Spartan winter experience of Boston, where, he writes, we tend to hibernate for three months. We talk a lot about innovation in this city, he reminds us. “And yet, for all the local advances we’ve made in medicine and technology, we still haven’t been able to figure out how to make our winters more engaging and enlivening.” His description of Montreal’s winter festivals will have you checking last-minute fares for this week’s school holiday. Still, there’s plenty to love about Boston. And this week, [Cog contributors and readers shared their favorite memories of the city](. You won’t want to miss those beautiful moments either. Cheers, Kate Neale Cooper Editor, Cognoscenti [Follow]( Support the news  Must Reads [Montreal knows how to winter. Boston could learn]( Bostonians talk about innovation a lot. And yet, writes Miles Howard, for all the local advances we’ve made in medicine and technology, we still haven’t been able to figure out how to make our winters more engaging and enlivening. Montreal has the answers. [Read more.]( [Montreal knows how to winter. Boston could learn]( Bostonians talk about innovation a lot. And yet, writes Miles Howard, for all the local advances we’ve made in medicine and technology, we still haven’t been able to figure out how to make our winters more engaging and enlivening. Montreal has the answers. [Read more.]( [One-way streets, the T and hip-hop on the radio. Your letters to Boston]( What are the snapshot moments that make Boston home? Is it navigating a maze of one-way streets from memory? Walking through Forest Hills Cemetery with a giant iced Dunkin’? Memories of your Boston neighborhood? We asked, you answered. These are your letters to Boston. [Read more.]( [One-way streets, the T and hip-hop on the radio. Your letters to Boston]( What are the snapshot moments that make Boston home? Is it navigating a maze of one-way streets from memory? Walking through Forest Hills Cemetery with a giant iced Dunkin’? Memories of your Boston neighborhood? We asked, you answered. These are your letters to Boston. [Read more.]( [Higher ed got it wrong — the SAT still matters]( A recently released Dartmouth report calls for reinstating standardized test scores as an admissions criterion. Knee-jerk critics of the SAT and ACT may not read it, writes Rich Barlow. They should. [Read more.]( [Higher ed got it wrong — the SAT still matters]( A recently released Dartmouth report calls for reinstating standardized test scores as an admissions criterion. Knee-jerk critics of the SAT and ACT may not read it, writes Rich Barlow. They should. [Read more.]( [Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is no Jack — or Bobby — Kennedy]( Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is exploiting his family’s political legacy in his delusional bid for the White House, writes Eileen McNamara. The Super Bowl ad is only the most recent attempt to conflate his candidacy with the legacy of his father and his uncle. [Read more.]( [Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is no Jack — or Bobby — Kennedy]( Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is exploiting his family’s political legacy in his delusional bid for the White House, writes Eileen McNamara. The Super Bowl ad is only the most recent attempt to conflate his candidacy with the legacy of his father and his uncle. [Read more.]( [First I fell in love with romance novels. Then I wrote one]( Love stories fill a void, writes Lindsay Hameroff. They make us laugh. They make us swoon. They give us that much-needed rush of optimism and remind us that, even in the darkest of times, it’s still possible that everything will work out in the end. [Read more.]( [First I fell in love with romance novels. Then I wrote one]( Love stories fill a void, writes Lindsay Hameroff. They make us laugh. They make us swoon. They give us that much-needed rush of optimism and remind us that, even in the darkest of times, it’s still possible that everything will work out in the end. [Read more.]( What We're Reading "Face-to-face rituals and customs are pulling on our time less, and face-to-screen technologies are pulling on our attention more. The inevitable result is a hang-out depression." "[Why Americans Suddenly Stopped Hanging Out]( The Atlantic. "[A]ttributing Trump’s rise and enduring appeal simply to disinformation is clearly ineffective — because it is imprecise and bolsters Trump’s own claims about 'fake news,' and also because it implies that Trump’s supporters are rubes who fail to perceive their own interests." "[Avoiding the Disinformation Trap]( The New Yorker. "If marriage is a means of keeping and preserving wealth, it’s at least in part because often one partner performs the functions of cook, house cleaner, chauffeur, shopper, all without compensation." "[In My Marriage Money Was a Trap. After My Divorce It Was My Freedom]( Time. "When you’re driving in Boston, nobody gives away their next move." — Kat Rutkin, "[One-way streets, the T and hip-hop on the radio. Your letters to Boston]( ICYMI [How E. Jean Carroll and an $83 million verdict finally got Trump to go quiet]( E. Jean Carroll, one of more than two dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual assault, succeeded in holding the former president accountable for both abuse and defamation, writes Leigh Gilmore. [Read more.]( [How E. Jean Carroll and an $83 million verdict finally got Trump to go quiet]( E. Jean Carroll, one of more than two dozen women who have accused Trump of sexual assault, succeeded in holding the former president accountable for both abuse and defamation, writes Leigh Gilmore. [Read more.]( If you’d like to write for Cognoscenti, send your submission, pasted into your email and not as an attachment, to opinion@wbur.org. Please tell us in one line what the piece is about, and please tell us in one line who you are. 😎 Forward to a friend. They can sign up [here](. 🔎 Explore [WBUR's Field Guide]( stories, events and more. 📣 Give us your feedback: newsletters@wbur.org 📧 Get more WBUR stories sent to your inbox. [Check out all of our newsletter offerings.]( Support the news     Want to change how you receive these emails? Stop getting this newsletter by [updating your preferences.](  I don't want to hear from WBUR anymore. Unsubscribe from all WBUR editorial newsletters [here.](  Interested in learning more about corporate sponsorship? 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