I’d expected dancing in the streets in the People’s Republic but perhaps because of deep snow and freezing cold, instead found a friendly breakfast gathering at Upstairs on the Square (photos and video to follow, if people send them to me).
Watched Obama’s eloquent speech with Harvard students at Quincy House–most listened with rapt attention, even standing for the national anthem, hands over hearts.
I was most impressed with Obama’s suggestion to those who blame the West for the state of their own nations that populations care about what governments can build, not what they can destroy–and distressed when, after the address, viewed enthusiastically by millions, the stock market took a 300 point drop.
In the evening, went back to Upstairs for drinks with Mark Hoffman, of Burlington, and Marc Kessler, of Cambridge, whose photo (above) I took with a larger-than-life cardboard Obama cutout.
We were sorry to miss free skating and hot chocolate at the Charles Hotel, readings of various inaugural addresses at the American Repertory’s Arrow Street Theater, the Harvard Bookstore’s “winedown,” and numerous house parties but, unlike the Obamas, who attended ten inaugural balls, we couldn’t be everywhere!
The New Cambridge Observer is a publication of the Harris Communications Group of Cambridge, MA.
Leave a Reply