A friend will be in Boston later this week and he is curious if the city is already back to "normal" . In other words, are the streets and businesses downtown open, etc.

I was just there this week and last and things are back to normal (as in restaurants are actually seeing business now that Bostonians have come back from vacation).

I flew into BOS Friday night, left Sunday - the city is fine, and the businesses (especially service folks) were very relieved. Many of the stores were offering discounts to Boston natives as a reward for surviving the week.

Could you identify them by the belt buckles on their hats?

As a Los Angeles native who's had the misfortune to live in Boston, I can answer this one: you identify a Boston native by his determination to ignore the rest of humanity. A Boston native is unwilling to make eye contact with anyone he hasn't known for 20 years, unless that eye contact is for the purpose of silently warning others to keep their distance.

(BTW, you identify a Los Angeles native by the smile and wave of greeting to any and all.)

A hypothetical conversation between a Bostonian (e.g., this typist) and a Los Angelena (e.g., the previous typist):

You can also ask an Angelino for directions anywhere in the five counties and get a reasonably accurate response. Ask anyone in Boston for directions more than 10 feet from where you're standing and you get an "I don't know."

Good observation! Translation: Bostonian says, "I don't know" but means (add thick Boston accent for additional humor value) "What are you, the question lady?" or "If you don't know where Mass Ave is, you got no business there". Sometimes I wonder how they all develop this uniform antipathy towards others, this misanthropic suspicious glare. Is it something in the water?

I would imagine so: the BoSux are 9 or so games behind the Yanks, they've let one of their premier players get unhappy enough that they had to trade him (to the other star-crossed team), and they still have that big ditch through the middle of town. That's as normal as Boston gets, I think ...

Sounds like dogs and Los Angeles natives have a lot in common.

That's because the landmarks worth remembering are few and far between, thus making it easier to navigate.

PS No, I'm not a Boston native, but have lived there (on and off) for decades, so I've acquired the manners of the locals with a vengeance.

To answer the original question, everything is completely back to normal. Too bad-it was kind of nice with the city emptied out last week. I've never seen anything like it, not even on long weekends when everyone flees to the Cape.

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.