Marilora over on Letter from Eastie laments the amazed reponses she gets from people who learn she lives all the way out in East Boston:

Why is it that when I tell people that I live in East Boston, they have this impression that I live in Outer Mongolia? I always get, "Wow, how long does your commute take you?" or "How can you live so far from Boston?" Huh?

And this morning we have a letter in the Globe from Donna Sullivan of Brookfield (yes, Brookfield, not Brookline) that bemoans Bostonians who believe most of the state is in fact Western Mass:

No one who lives in Sturbridge or Holland remotely considers themselves living in Western Mass. We are only 75 miles from Boston — not even halfway across the state…
It has always been thus — most Boston writers think anything west of Framingham is west.

We're not ashamed to say that we too prefer Boston proper over the 'burbs, and Framingham? Hell, we always considered Natick western Mass.

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