Harvard Square During Covid: Finding Beauty in the Wreckage

A friend told me recently that during Covid, with no students and many beloved businesses closed, she finds Harvard Square so depressing that she no longer wants to go there. I have a different take.

It is true that early in the pandemic the Square was desolate.

But since the Phase I reopening last summer, I’ve gone there almost every day.

After running on the Charles River, I often head to Henrietta’s Cafe for coffee, outdoors–yes, it’s freezing– but the wonderful staffers there have pretty much gotten me through the year. (Their number is sparser now: with limited seating and very few customers, several servers have been laid off, others work just one day a week instead of their previous five, and those who returned to college in the fall have not been brought back, at all). But those who are there graciously ask me about the book I’m working on, and even laugh at (some of) my jokes.

A few weeks ago, I took a longer look –camera in hand. Yes, Dickson Brothers is closed, the “Dewey Cheatem and Howe” office of public radio duo” Click and Clack” is gone, as are tea shops, coffee shops, and stores like Staples that I’ve frequented for years.

The Red House, once my favorite restaurant, still serves great food but mostly, since even before Covid, it’s a pot shop. Book stores-turned- clothing stores have been turned into banks; the former Au Bon Pain is now the Harvard Student Center; Legal Seafoods has been shuttered and sold; the iconic Out of Town News has closed, and the newstand that once stood on the corner, opposite, is now a milk bar.

Walking around, I tried to imagine riding a bike into the Square or eating at Charlie’s Kitchen in a plastic hut.

I was pleased to see that Cardullo’s has survived, along with national chain stores like CVS, Starbucks , Peets Coffee, and the Gap…

At Citizens Bank , I was welcomed like a long lost friend. (In the summer, they cheered me on when I showed up with the pool noodle I carried for social distancing…or, perhaps, they were just overjoyed to see a customer–or any human face) .

By now, the Charles Hotel has been remodelled–It still has its fancy modern exterior, but inside, the lobby has been divided into smaller, cozier rooms with a historic, bookish feel.

The Coop is under construction; as is the block where Curious George, Deluxe Tea, Urban Outfitters and Dickson Brothers used to be.

I found myself rushing to capture as much of the present as I could before it became the past. In the near-wreckage, I came across this mural signed “by Dennis.”

Harvard Sq mural "Please Respect Art" — Harvard Sq mural “Please Respect Art”

Around another corner, while I shot photos of pictures of the old Square superimposed on what will be walls of the new , a construction foreman yelled out, “You’re not allowed to do that!” I asked, “Why not?” He said, “Just kidding,” and insisted on taking my photo, with my phone (Covid be damned!), alongside a construction truck.

Photo mural of the Square in better days

After that, I spritzed on some hand sanitizer and headed home –feeling not depressed but, rather, elated…. by the people, by the energy, and by the beauty of the changing scene: its light, its lines, its colors, its shapes. Snapping photos, I had become part of that scene, experiencing my own transformation, excited to see what the world will look like after Covid, after Trump, after this difficult winter, as we create new futures for ourselves and for one another.

–Anita Harris is an award-winning writer, photographer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.
-New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a PR and digital marketing firm, also in Cambridge, MA.

Vietnam Vet & author Dick Pirozzolo says vets are good hires

November 11, Veterans Day is set aside to honor those of us who served in the armed forces. There may be parades, flag waving, speeches, ceremonies dedicated to American military people and there’ll even be free pizza and coffee at chain restaurants.

As well as the occasional: “Thank you for your service,” from fellow Americans.

In addition to the niceties, I can’t think of a better way to honor and thank our veterans, than to make sure they come home to a job that recognizes the skills they acquired in the military. Things have changed for the better. When Vietnam veterans returned, we met resistance from potential employers who wrongly claimed military people are too regimented, unfamiliar with latest civilian technology, and can’t think for themselves. Sometimes, opposition to the war resulted in opposition to veterans.

There were also creative ways of calling vets “losers” back then. In one case, a reporter for The Boston Herald wrote that she went to the Pine Street Inn – a Boston homeless shelter — to get “the veterans’ point of view.” Never mind that John Kerry and the CEO of State Street Bank were veterans, who were hardly residing at the Pine Street Inn.

During a job interview, a potential employer discounted my entire military experience by asking: “Don’t you feel your career doesn’t really start until after the service?”

It was as though my four years in the U.S. Air Force didn’t exist. Fortunately, I learned my craft, public relations and journalism, in the Air Force through formal schooling, at the Defense Information School (DINFOS), and on-the-job training. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette recognized my capability and hired me right away. A year later the late Jack Star, a former McGraw Hill foreign correspondent, who headed up PR at Boston University, hired me for the international media relations skills I had acquired as an Air Force press officer in Saigon.

Though specific job skills are important, veterans come home with general leadership and management skills, and other qualities that are a huge benefit to civilian employers.

Leadership. Whether officer or enlisted, the military does not hold back when it comes to putting you in charge and, often in situations that are way above the job description. To be sure, I made plenty of mistakes when I was a second lieutenant, but the most valuable lessons I learned was to listen and learn from the enlisted folks who had years of experience and technical skills far superior to mine.

Military people take an oath. Most folks don’t go around thinking about the oath they took when the signed up, but it underscores commitment. In a nutshell, once a soldier signs up, he or she can’t say, “I quit” and walk out on the boss or colleagues.

Diversity and equal rights. The armed forces are not without problems when it comes to gender and race and, in most cases, commanders deal with sexual misconduct and discrimination quickly and definitively. Despite the occasional scandal, which are not to be minimized, the military has been out in front on race relations that began with the full integration of our armed forces after World War II and ongoing efforts since then that include the integration of the LGBT community into the military.

Simply put, rank matters. Race and sex do not. No one tells the female lieutenant to make coffee or the African-American captain to make photocopies!

The ability to improvise. When a four-man squad goes on patrol, there may be command and control from headquarters, but the squad leader, probably a young 20ish soldier, will make hundreds of life-and-death decisions to complete the mission and return everyone safely.

Completed staff work “Hey boss what do you want me to do now?” Putting the monkey on the boss’s back is no-no in the military as the armed forces adhere to the doctrine of completed staff work with all projects and challenges.

When a team has a job to do, the job is completed totally before presenting the results to the manager who delegated the responsibility. Of course, not every project goes according to plan and obstacles come up. In those cases, the presentation has to be sufficiently complete so that, if more information is needed, all a supervisor has to do is sign a request.

One of the hard-and-fast rules team members learn is they cannot go directly to their supervisor to get partial approval, or to lobby for their own solution to a problem independently. This cuts down on a lot of office politicking and backbiting.

Chain of command. This might be anathema to a lot of current management thinking, but the principle avoids a lot of ill will. In the military trying to curry favor with one’s boss’s boss usually ends badly.

Likewise, the military insists that when you give an order it comes from you no matter where it originated. Military folks don’t give whinny orders like: “I wouldn’t make you do this, because I’m nice, and I want you to like me, but the big boss insists soooo ….”

Empathy. The military is often a matter of life and death and people can be together 24/7 where the division between work and off-duty life does not exist. I was always in awe of leaders who could navigate the murky waters of their people’s personal and family issues, while staying focused on the mission. It’s a complex skill that is well taught in the military and applicable to civilian employment.

The Marines often teach leadership through what are called sea stories that underscore the risky decisions and dilemmas one must face in combat such as: do you risk two Marines’ lives to bring back few cases of cold Coke to improve everyone’s morale or do you not take the chance? The outcome is not nearly as important as opening debate on the leaders’ decision-making process.

Honesty. “I will not lie cheat or steal or tolerate anyone among us who does.” We’ve all heard the mantra, but what it means is that military people learn to both delegate and trust the people who work for them without reservation. If someone says, “I counted all the M-16s and there are 46 of them,” you can, without checking up, sign a document confidently endorsing the count.

Learning in public. From basic to advanced training fellow students may compete for class rank, but they pull everyone up with them. Then the whole team wins.

Can-do spirit. Military folks believe they can achieve anything. After returning from Vietnam, I served with the 253 Combat Communication Group in the Massachusetts Air National Guard. We could install all the navigation, air traffic control and communication needed for a temporary airfield, while the Navy Seabees, built the runway and erected tents for the whole lot of us. Done quickly and as a matter of routine.

And consider going the extra mile. I’m still in awe of Mike Cotton, who created the China Beach Surf Club in the midst of the Vietnam war so that airmen and soldiers could get a taste of home when they were off duty.

Dick Pirozzolo is a Vietnam veteran and coauthor, with Michael Morris of “Escape from Saigon – a Novel” (Skyhorse Publishing, New York, 2017). He is also managing director of Pirozzolo Company Public Relations and a member of the Harris Communications Group, which publishes New Cambridge Observer

Interview: MIT biotech pioneer Bob Langer on how to avoid the “valley of death”

I recently interviewed Bob Langer–MIT biotech guru extraordinaire–on behalf of the EBD Group, which holds international partnering conferences for the life sciences six times a year. Here’s the opening…and a link to the rest, on the EBD Site. The piece will also appear in xconomy shortly. Full disclosure…Bob is a personal friend, former classmate, and a member of the Harris Communications Group advisory board…so this should be considered a sponsored post.

–Anita M. Harris

When Bob Langer joined the MIT faculty in 1977 he had a rocky start. Trained as a chemical engineer and working on drug delivery systems, many of his ideas went against conventional wisdom. “I had people write the most insulting things about my knowledge of biology and medicine. Many thought my ideas were crazy. A number of professors wanted me to leave and my first nine grant proposals were turned down.”

Eventually, after numerous academic scientists and companies repeated and used his work Langer was able to get grant funding from the NIH. He also turned to companies for research funding—in return for licensing his patents—which, at that time, also went against the conventional grain.

Today, Langer is one of 13 Institute Professors (being an Institute Professor is MIT’s highest honor) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With more than 1,400 articles to his credit, he is the ninth most cited individual in history, according to Google scholar. (Sigmund Freud is first). His 1,300 patents, licensed or sublicensed to more than 350 companies in pharmaceutical, chemical, biotechnology and medical device fields, have led to more than 100 products currently in use or in clinical trials. He has received more than 220 major professional awards including the Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, Priestly Medal, National Medal of Science, National Medal of Technology and Innovation, the Charles Stark Draper Prize (considered the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for engineers), and the Lemelson-MIT prize for being “one of history’s most prolific inventors in medicine.” In June 2018, he was named a US international envoy for science by the US State Department.

Despite his success, Langer remains well aware of his early setbacks, and, as a scientific advisor to some 200 companies over the past 40 years, is highly cognizant of what can go wrong.

“You can have bad animal results, failed trials, or patent problems. I’ve seen partners pull out, companies take bad loans, and the FDA create delays. Stumbling blocks can arise anywhere along the way,” he says.

One of the most difficult problems can occur early on “when a researcher has good findings but is not far enough along for investors or companies to want to spend a lot of money.” In that situation, known as “the valley of death,” Langer says, “the question is how to get enough data so that will change.”

Anita M. Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, also in Cambridge.

BIO issues glowing report on US Bioscience Industry

I’ll be posting more soon about the 2018 Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s International Convention, where I spent the day on Monday, but thought the following press release might be of interest. Despite the glowing industry review, many sessions dealt with difficulties the industry is facing. The release follows.

–Anita M. Harris

A study released on June 5 at the BIO International Convention in Boston shows that the U.S. bioscience industry has reached $2 trillion in annual economic impact while maintaining accelerated venture capital investment and job growth numbers. Among U.S. technology sectors, the bioscience industry has held a leading position as an economic driver and job generator.

The report, Investment, Innovation and Job Creation in a Growing U.S. Bioscience Industry 2018, finds U.S. bioscience firms directly employ 1.74 million people, a figure that includes more than 273,000 high-paying jobs created since 2001. The average annual wage for a U.S. bioscience worker reached $98,961 in 2016. These earnings are more than $45,000 greater, on average, than the overall U.S. private sector wage. The report further shows that since 2014, the bioscience industry has grown by 4.4 percent with four of its five major subsectors contributing to this overall job gain.

For the first time, the biennial report includes a full assessment of the economic impact of the bioscience industry and finds its total economic impact on the U.S. economy, as measured by overall output, totaled $2 trillion in 2016. This impact is generated by the direct output of the bioscience industry combined with the indirect (supply chain) and induced (employee spending) impacts. The industry and its associated economic output support 8 million jobs throughout the entire U.S. economy through both indirect and induced effects.

“This report highlights the enormous economic impact delivered by our industry. This strong performance is due to the vital and wide-ranging collaborations between industry partners, universities, and policymakers that provides a business climate that supports the development of innovative bioscience products and high paying jobs,” said Jim Greenwood, President and CEO of the Biotechnology Innovation Organization.”

The report also takes the pulse of the broader U.S. innovation ecosystem for bioscience companies and finds it advancing with positive results. The U.S. is experiencing strong gains in bioscience venture capital funding, growth in patents, a recent ramp-up in bioscience-related university R&D expenditures and increasing research funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

“The bioscience industry is vital to the U.S. not only as an innovation engine that is improving lives, but also as a major economic driver that is consistently generating high-quality jobs and significant economic output across the nation,” said Ryan Helwig, Principal and Project Director with TEConomy Partners.

The state-by-state industry assessment is the eighth in a biennial series, developed in partnership by TEConomy and BIO, presenting data on national, state, and metropolitan area bioscience industry employment and recent trends.

Additional highlights from the industry economic analysis include:

The industry is a major economic driver and is well distributed across U.S. states and cities:
- 41 states experienced net job growth in the biosciences between 2014-2016
- 38 states and Puerto Rico have an employment specialization in at least one bioscience subsector
- 213 of 383 U.S. metropolitan areas have at least one bioscience specialization

Highlights from the analysis of the innovation ecosystem for the bioscience industry include:

Strength in recent venture capital and patenting trends:
- Venture capital investments have reached new highs. More than $66 billion in venture capital was invested in bioscience companies during the 2014 through 2017 period, including a new annual high in 2017 at $20 billion invested.
- Innovation continues to drive the biosciences, since 2014 the U.S. has increased patent totals in bioscience-related technology classes by nearly 5 percent, or 1.6 percent per year, on average. 2017 had a total of nearly 27,000 patents awarded to U.S. inventors, another new high.
Growth for academic biosciences R&D in 2016
- After several years of concerns raised about the declining and/or flat NIH research budgets and the subsequent effects on academic and other research, NIH funding is back on the rise. There have been budget increases sustained each of the last three years.
- Across America’s colleges and universities, the pace of R&D spending in bioscience-related research areas has increased. Following a 1.5 percent decline in 2015, academic R&D expenditures in the biosciences increased 5.5 percent to $42 billion in 2016.

The TEConomy/BIO report includes individual profiles for all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, and can be found on the BIO website at bio.org/jobs2018.

About BIO
BIO is the world’s largest trade association representing biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. BIO members are involved in the research and development of innovative healthcare, agricultural, industrial and environmental biotechnology products. BIO also produces the BIO International Convention, the world’s largest gathering of the biotechnology industry, along with industry-leading investor and partnering meetings held around the world. BIOtechNOW is BIO’s blog chronicling “innovations transforming our world” and the BIO Newsletter is the organization’s bi-weekly email newsletter. Subscribe to the BIO Newsletter.

About TEConomy
TEConomy Partners, LLC is a global leader in research, analysis, and strategy for innovation-based economic development. Today we’re helping nations, states, regions, universities, and industries blueprint their future and translate knowledge into prosperity. The Principals of TEConomy Partners include the authors of the prior Battelle/BIO State Bioscience Development reports, published since 2004. For more information, please visit http://www.teconomypartners.com.

Bernie and Phyl ads: will subway sex sell?

Bernie and Phyl sofas

Riding on the MBTA this past weekend, I was struck by the sexually (S&M) suggestive “personal” ads for Bernie and Phyl’s furniture stores that pretty much dominated the car I was in.

One, for “one night stand” suggested going to the bedroom; another, from “long, dark, and goodlooking–capable of satisfying ten people at one time; into candlelight dinners and a little hot wax”, turned out to be a table. Yet another read, “I’m really into the group thing….go both ways, welcome blondes, brunettes and redheads, and “if you love leather,’ you’ll love me.'” It was for sectionals.

I believe in the first amendment, get the humor and enjoy double-entrendres as much as the next person. But as a female who has used dating apps and ads, my first thought was that these give the wrong idea about people looking to meet others-suggesting it’s all about kinky sex.

As someone who has done quite a lot of furniture shopping (even joked that I was “dating” sofas, because it took me so long to find the right one), I have to wonder who these ads are aimed at: millennials with loose morals? Desperate men with weird senses of humor? I also wonder why Bernie and Phyl, whose TV ads used to show the two of them along with their grown children emphasizing that theirs is a family business, have changed their target market. (Their newer TV ads are also quite unappealing…in black and white, with unpleasant people, sexual innuendos regarding headaches in the bedroom, family arguments and faked Brahmin accents).

Of greater concern is that the subway ads could offend people who are religious, concern those travelling with children, upset those who have been sexually abused, or suggest new behaviors to individuals with psychiatric disorders.

in fact, other ads in the car encouraged riders to join a walk against sexual violence; offered help for autism spectrum disorder; or asked “Are you anxious?” (To which, I replied, “yes,” because of Bernie and Phyl’s ads).

Clearly, the ads are provocative and will get lots of attention–after all, even I am writing about them. Such attention might well bring new customers to Bernie and Phyl’s stores. And it may well be true that “sex sells.” But I’d bet that the ads will turn off their regular, more traditional, customers.

I believe that people have a right to say what they wish and to do what they want in the privacy of their own homes and that most advertisers should be free to hype their stuff in print, radio, TV and on the Internet. But I also believe there should be limits to free speech in public places: (Hate speech, sex talk and some politics should not be inflicted).

It strikes me that the Bernie and Phyl are walking a fine line with their sexually suggestive ads–in part because the subway is different from other advertising media. The signs are overhead whether you want to see them or not. Unlike ads you drive by on the highway or see in print or on TV or the internet, the subway posters remain in your face: you can’t drive past them or dismiss them by turning a page, changing a channel, or clicking to move on.

It is true that most subway riders can look away and focus on their smartphones. But at a time when mutual respect and consideration are so often sadly lacking, I would much prefer to shop in stores promoting kindness, compassion and inclusion. As a communications consultant, I believe it would make good business sense for Bernie and Phyl to choose a more uplifting advertising strategy. In fact, I AM looking for a new sofa. (And for a date!)

–Anita M. Harris
Anita Harris is a writer and communications consultant based in Cambridge, MA. She is the author of Broken Patterns: Professional Women and the Quest for a New Feminine Identity, and of Ithaca Diaries, Coming of Age in the 1960’s.

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning PR and content strategy firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge.

Vote for National Convergence Idea Challenge Winner by Thurs, 6/23/2016

MIT, Convergence Idea Challenge

For the last few months, I’ve had the opportunity to work on an amazing national report about the Convergence of technologies in the life sciences. The goal of the report–which will be launched this coming Friday at the National Academy of Sciences, in Washington, DC– is to encourage increased funding for engineers, mathematicians, physicists, chemists, and information technologists for work in health and life science fields. More on the report and Convergence later this week.

For now, I want to let you know that Nobel Prize winning scientist Phil Sharp of the MIT Koch Institute has offered a $3000 award for the best Convergence idea submitted by students across the US–and that the public is invited to help choose a second, $1000 “community” winner—-by “liking” ideas submitted via on Facebook. The goal is to challenge emerging researchers to combine the life/physical sciences, information technology, social sciences, and engineering to improve human health.The voting deadline is 6 pm on Thursday, June 23, 2016.

Here’s a list of the submissions–which come from researchers across the US. More info on each idea–and “like” options– are available at https://www.facebook.com/ConvergenceIdeas/

Hex House; a rapidly deployable, dignified home
A Multi-disciplinary Approach to Tackling Childhood Poverty
Biomarkers and Neural Circuits Underlying Resilience to Stress
Neuroprosthetics in Nerve Reanimation: Implantation of Intraneural Building
Beyond Biology Breast milk – mine of potential therapies
Getting VacSeen-ated Mobile Screening and Diagnostics
Engineering Pro-Regenerative Immunotherapies
Empowering HIV-positive Youth in Swaziland, Africa: A Novel Digital Mentorship Experience
Development of minimally invasive assessment of placenta across gestation
An Epidemiological Cellular Automata Model of Gun Violence
Transforming Clinical Data Into Field-Deployable Medical Apps
Engineering a Flexible Organic Photovoltaic Cell as an Artificial Retina to Restore Sight: A Promising Vision in Bio-nanoelectronics
Accelerating translation from bio-discovery to engineered applications by single cell niche sequencing
Using Nature’s Fundamental Choice Against it
Drinking Water Health – Intermittent Water Supply in Developing Countries
“Brain train” – optogenetic cognitive-conditioning for neuropsychiatric disorders
Sparsh- Sleeping Bag
Quantified ethology decreases time to diagnosis of infection
Interlocking culture system for resolvable three-dimensional cell arrangements
A New Treatment for Depression through Modification of Semantic Networks in the Brain Using a Computer Game

–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, a marketing and communications firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA.

Italian Life Science Innovators to present at Venture Cafe, Cambridge, Oct. 22

Our friend Christa Bleyeben of Mass Global Partners and the Italian Trade Agency cordially invite New Cambridge Observer readers and others to “Discover 13 of Italy’s most Innovative early stage life science companies developing therapeutics, devices and tools.”

Registration and Networking: 3:00 PM

Company pitches: 3:30-5:00 PM

Networking at Venture Cafe: Italian Life Science Night: 5:00-7:00 PM

Participating Italian Companies

Abiel – recombinant collagenases for use in regenerative medicine research and cell therapy
Cell Dynamics – real time visualization of cells in culture
egoHealth – wearable sterilization device ffor stethescopes
Grademi – device to diagnose specific diseases using erythrocyte sedimentation rate
GreenBone – biomemtic (resorbable) implants, initially for non-union fractures
I-Delivery – nanocarrier to deliver drugs and cosmeticals to the hair root to treat acne and hair loss
Immagina Biotechnology – high throughput tools for isolation and analysis of polyribosomes
Universita degli studi di Udine – Research university exploring technology transfer opportunities
Xenus – topically delivered therapeutic for erectile dysfunction

If you are interested in connecting with any of the companies, please contact the meeting organizer at: robertmg52@gmail.com.

Have questions about Italian Trade Agency Early Stage Life Science Showcase?

New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning pr and marketing firm based in Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA

BTW founder and SkeleTom sweat reaching kickstarter goal

Harold Simansky and Skeletom at Cambridge Innovation Center

Pleased to report that, after a stressful month, Harold Simansky’s Kickstarter campaign reached its goal of $25,000. The kickstarter will help fund BTW, a magazine devoted to beautiful, sustainable living.
Here’s a picture of Harold at the Cambridge Innovation Center—sweating it out near my favorite deskmate, SkeleTom (SkeleTom is QUIET!) With my own Kickstarter (to help fund my forthcoming book, Ithaca Diaries,) still underway, I know that you can feel like you’re turning into a skeleTom, waiting for contributions to roll in. Congrats to Harold and the BTW team.
–Anita M. Harris
New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group, an award-winning marketing and PR firm based at the Cambridge Innovation Center, in Kendall Square.