I’ve always liked college towns.

A recent trip to Boston brought to mind this line in a scene from the movie (often referred to as the “mockumentary”) “This is Spinal Tap,” where Tap keeps having their gigs cancelled in city after city, town after town. When they find out the Boston gig has been cancelled, too, the manager makes a lame effort at consoling the band by saying “I wouldn’t worry about it, though. It’s not a big college town.”

I stayed on the twentieth floor of a hotel near Kendall Square in Cambridge, and here is the view from my room.