Wicked Good Fun
ANGER
THAI BOXING FOR KICKS
Dainty types who need to vent can take a whack or two at a punching bag in the Sports Club/LA’s kickboxing class, but to truly blow off steam, Thai boxing is your most reliable release. Grittier than kung fu yet more elegant than whacking someone with a 2-by-4, it’s one of the styles ultimate fighters learn. Practice sessions at the Boston Muay Thai Academy start with a vigorous warmup (stretching, jumping rope, pushups), followed by punch-and-kick techniques, shadowboxing, punching-bag work, and, eventually, sparring. Sparring with real, punchable human beings. This gym is not for the weak-kneed: Fighters range from hopeful beginners to hardened competitive pros. Some students call it addictive; we call it therapy. (The Sports Club/LA, 4 Avery St., Boston, 617-375-8200, www.thesportsclubla.com; Boston Muay Thai Academy, 527 Columbia Rd., Dorchester, 617-288-3988, www.bostonmuaythai.com)
DRIVING LIKE A NATIVE
Driving in Boston is many things—a cliché, a source of civic shame, an act of Darwinian selection. Largely, though, it’s a shortcut to red, finger-flipping anger. Most of us do our best to avoid road rage, but sometimes it can be downright therapeutic to wallow in our dark side—to cut somebody off or sneak ahead of other cars at the last second in true Masshole style. Yield at on-ramps? Stop at a red light? Use a turn signal? Screw it—there’s no fun in being a wuss.
If you want to really piss off your fellow motorists, there are a few prime spots in which to execute your classic bad-Boston-driver moves. The intersection of Arlington and Stuart streets and Columbus Avenue at the Park Plaza during morning rush hour is the perfect storm of hotel, school, and commuter traffic. Both mornings and evenings are hell at Kosciuszko Circle in South Boston, where too many people are trying to merge onto the Southeast Expressway and Morrissey Boulevard (remember, yielding at rotaries is optional). On Southampton Street off the Mass. Ave. Connector, cited by acting Transportation Commissioner Tom Tinlin as one of the worst stretches of pavement in the city, take a shortcut through the parking lot of the South Bay Center, then push your way back into the line of cars waiting to merge onto the expressway a quarter of a mile ahead. Or there’s always the pièce de résistance: double-parking during rush hour.
READING THE HERALD
Wanna get your blood boil-ing? The local tabloid’s got your fix. Mitt Romney bashing Massachusetts to cornfed conservatives in Iowa. Manny Ramirez whining again about wanting to be dealt out of town. Judges setting perverts free. Heroin addicts shooting up in parks. Then there are the unsolved murders, fourth-quarter interceptions, crooked politicians, inept cronies, leaky tunnels, bad trades, botched investigations, and sweetheart deals. Page after page . . . of . . . temple-pounding . . . anger. And we haven’t even mentioned Howie Carr. (800-882-1211, www.bostonherald.com)
