Category Archives: Boston

MBTA 2, Passengers 0

Mr. Houghton, Being a glutton for punishment, and having no better option, my daughter and I set out this morning once again to take the T from Brighton Center to Walnut Street in Newton, changing buses in Newton Corner. We were stationed at 400 Centre Street by 8:17, waiting for a 554 bus scheduled to… Read More: MBTA 2, Passengers 0 »

Last week, Comcast exceeded expectations; this week, not so much

I just sent this: Mr. [name elided], Thank you for your email and voicemail message. I’m sorry to say that it appears the issue with my account is not yet resolved. Early Saturday morning, Comcast sent out a service announcement with the subject “The new Comcast.net is now live”. Like all the previous service announcements,… Read More: Last week, Comcast exceeded expectations; this week, not so much »

The MBTA fails, yet again, to provide a minimal level of acceptable service

To: CabotSuperintendent@mbta.com Cc: <Steven.Baddour@state.ma.us>, <Rep.JosephWagner@hou.state.ma.us>, <Steven.Tolman@state.ma.us>, <Rep.KevinHonan@hou.state.ma.us>, <mayor@cityofboston.gov>, <Mark.Ciommo@cityofboston.gov>, <Michael.F.Flaherty@cityofboston.gov>, <Stephen.Murphy@cityofboston.gov>, <John.R.Connolly@cityofboston.gov>, <sam.yoon@cityofboston.gov>, “‘Governor Patrick’s Office (imailagent)’” <gov.webmail@state.ma.us>, “‘Halbert, David’” <David.Halbert@cityofboston.gov> John Houghton Superintendent, Cabot Bus Garage MBTA Dear Mr. Houghton, They say that the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.  If so, then I must… Read More: The MBTA fails, yet again, to provide a minimal level… »

The Obamas’ date in NYC: letter to the editor the Herald didn’t print

I sent this letter to the Boston Herald on June 8.  Unfortunately, they declined to print it.  Although I wasn’t reading the entire paper every single day around that time, I don’t recall the Herald printing a single letter, column or article defending the Obamas against the attacks on them for their “date night” in… Read More: The Obamas’ date in NYC: letter to the editor the… »

Today’s letter to Continental

I just sent this letter to my contact at Continental: Ms. [named elided], Continental’s response to the incident that happened to my daughter, and to another little girl a day before my daughter, and to who knows how many other children who didn’t make the news, is inadequate. “Reinforcing procedures” does not fix anything.  “Reinforcing… Read More: Today’s letter to Continental »

Continental won’t fix the problem; will the government step in?

I just sent this letter to my contact on Sen. John Kerry’s staff: Subject: Progress on regulation related to airlines’ handling of unaccompanied minors Ms. [elided], I’m writing to check in with you on the status of Senator Kerry’s efforts to prevent what happened to my daughter on June 14 — being put on the… Read More: Continental won’t fix the problem; will the government step in? »

Root Cause Analysis of my daughter’s “trip” to Newark

Aaron Cross of ThinkReliability, a Houston, TX company that specializes in incident investigation and root cause analysis (RCA) and trains individuals and organizations to use the “Cause Mapping” RCA technique, has prepared a case study of what happened to my daughter last week which illustrates how Continental should approach determining what went wrong and how… Read More: Root Cause Analysis of my daughter’s “trip” to Newark »

Houston Chronicle (Shannon Buggs) keeps the pressure on Continental

The Houston Chronicle published an article by Shannon Buggs in their business section on Sunday about what happened last week, or more generally about the shortcomings in the airlines’ handling of unaccompanied minors. There isn’t really much if any new information in the article, but clearly Shannon will being sincere when she told me that… Read More: Houston Chronicle (Shannon Buggs) keeps the pressure on Continental »