I agree with Grad Girl. I live here and have lived in Massachusetts all my life. People here are very guarded. Against what, I am not sure. I actually practice NOT to have a Boston accent. My husband and I were actually having a good laugh the other day about the Boston accent. People here say shots and really mean shorts. They say con and really mean corn. The same with ca and really mean car. What is up with we Bostonians dropping the R's in everything? It sounds so tacky. Whenever we travel no one ever guesses where we come from because we do pronounce our R's. My husband's office in Boston may be closing (It's a satellite office) and he may get to telecommute. If this happens, we are out of here. We are thinking of moving to North Carolina or even Vermont. We are just so fed up with people around here. My husband has done a lot of business in NC and just loves that state. Now, leaving his elderly parents here is another thing.