It's always thrilling to live in a city where things spontaneously explode for no apparent reason. In the case of Boston, however, when it happens people don't automatically assume terrorism. We have some of the world's oldest industrial infrastructure, and bits of it are forever blowing up, seizing up, falling apart, veering out of control, springing leaks or imploding.
I am relieved that on this occasion, no one appears so far to have been injured by the blasts. As usual, the official statement is delicately worded and vague, and barely masks the sense that the electric company has no earthly clue, either about why the electrical grid we pay them to maintain happens to be erupting right at the moment, or even when we might expect it to stop doing so.