Avoid niceties

Three deckers in Boston’s Jamaica Plain neighborhood

“I hate the grass and mosquitos—
in the Midwest, it’s never polite
to tell the truth, but I’m back East
now, where niceties waste everyone’s
time….’’

— From “Housesitting, Boston,’’ by Ting Triglio, about, among other things, seeing a deer amidst three-deckers a couple of blocks from the subway.