1. Boston Public school buses.
Boston Public Schools students are eligible for transportation if they live more than:
- 1 mile from their elementary school;
- 1½ miles from their middle school (includes grades 6–8 attending K–8 schools);
- 2 miles from their high school.
http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/200
Then why is Kenny riding the public transit bus to school? What does this tell us? They lived close to Kenny's school and Kenny is just too lazy to walk to school?
But...
Parents may request a bus stop near their child’s before- or after-school program or day care location, with certain restrictions:
1. The requested stop must be on one of the school’s regular bus routes; and
2. There must be a seat available on the bus.
Parents should be aware that the BPS does not guarantee that the request for an alternative stop will be granted. We process alternative stop requests in the order they are received. Please note that requests received in late August and September may take several weeks to process. The earlier you submit your request, the better your chance for approval.
http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/200
Kenny is possibly not on the route because of his advanced age.
2. Public transit buses in Boston
Boston is an urban area with an extensive public transit system. There are over 500 routes. There is too much for a quote. The routes, prices, and any other information on the MBTA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority) on this website.
This is another piece of the puzzle that helps us able to place the setting of Fuddy Meers
3. Boston Public School System
Boston public schools OK with 17 (nearly) year old 8th grader?
Truth is that most people would see this as a possible learning disability. Boston's public school website has this to say.
If you believe that your child is having difficulty making progress in a regular classroom due to a disability, you have the right to an evaluation of your child to find out if he or she has a disability and is eligible for special education services. Ask the principal/headmaster or Evaluation Team Facilitator (ETF) for this evaluation.
http://www.bostonpublicschools.org/node/226
Being held behind for extra help is within reason.
4. Massachusetts DOC (Department of Corrections)
Massachusetts has a few very strict rules within their prison system.(which one doesn't?) But they also have a very broad variety of rehabilitation approaches within their DOC. They seem very concerned with reform instead of institutionalization.
DOC Mission Statement
The Massachusetts Department of Correction's mission is to promote public safety by incarcerating offenders while providing opportunities for participation in effective programming designed to reduce recidivism.
This could explain why Limping man has had his change of heart
5. Piermont fair
In researching the reference to the Piermont fair I discovered that there was no fair in particular that was being referred to (not like the Texas State Fair or anything). I did however discover that there was a traveling fair that went through NH that had been around long enough to have been the fair that Claire and Kenny both went to as a child.
Today, over 50 years later, Fiesta Shows continues as the exclusive carnival partner at the nation's oldest fair - entertaining over 500,000 patrons annually.
This also helped me set the country setting of Gertie's house.
http://www.fiestashows.com/history/history.asp
6. Massachusetts State Police
The Troop's primary responsibility is to ensure that the primary and secondary roadways of the 70 municipalities located within the Troop's boundaries are adequately patrolled and responded to for service.
The MA State Police have jurisdiction on the interstate highways like the one that is on the route to Piermont New Hampshire that would most likely be taken Richard and Kenny. On top of that I found out that the Uniforms of the State Police and that of the Honor Guard of the MA DOC (like the one that Heidi might have been able to get from the laundry truck in the prison) are strikingly similar to each other. This makes it easy to confuse the two thus helping this little scheme work.
7. Boston vs Piermont population
At first Richard decides to look through the streets of the city to try and find Claire. How many straws are there in the haystack of Boston MA in 2000? 589,141
Piermont NH? 709
Much smaller haystack to find Claire in...
8. Domestic Violence Locally
| Region | Women | Children |
| Boston | 234 | 221 |
| Metro | 117 | 171 |
| Northeast | 297 | 275 |
| Central | 80 | 79 |
| Southeast | 271 | 259 |
| West | 109 | 158 |
http://janedoe.org/know/stats_dv_m.htm
Of course these are not all of them. Some cases go unfiled/ reported. Claire is not alone.
Neither is Kenny...
According to the Registry of Civil Restraining Orders, at least 43,000 Massachusetts children a year are exposed to reported acts of abuse and violence between family members (Adams, 1995).
http://janedoe.org/know/stats_dv_m.htm
Without the violence in these two's past...there would be no storyline.
9. Violent crimes in Massachusetts
Richard has committed a violent crime(among others) in his past. Millet is accuse of this crime.
Just how likely was it for them to meet?
In the year 2000 Massachusetts had an estimated population of 6,349,097 which ranked the state as having the 13th in population. For that year the State of Massachusetts had a total Crime Index of 3,026.1 reported incidents per 100,000 people. This ranked the state as having the 42nd highest total Crime Index. For Violent Crime Massachusetts had a reported incident rate of 476.1 per 100,000 people. This ranked the state as having the 21st highest occurrence for Violent Crime among the states.
http://www.disastercenter.com/crime/macrime.htm
Massachusetts runs low on overall crime and just above middle of violent crimes. For them to run into eachother years later never having know eachother before seems quite unlikely. This makes for a bigger strange coinsidence.
10. Arson Locally
Limping man (Phil) is imprisoned for arson. How often does this happen?
In all of the research that I did on crime in Boston and Massachusetts, not many cases of arson came up. There either wasn't any or no cases where 'known to law enforcement' or it never happened.
Check out this graph showing a zero for that year in Boston.
http://www.cityrating.com/citycrime.asp?city=Boston&state=MA
Chances are Phil burning the house down would have made the news.
No comments:
Post a Comment