It’s beginning to look a lot like …

The first glimpse of Christmas in Allston came out a few days ago. Two-foot-wide, shimmering white snowflakes of modish design appeared in the window of Punjab Palace, an Indian restaurant.

The place opened a year ago this week. As if totally unaware of Thanksgiving and the associated emptying of this college neighborhood, baffled waiters in their white-starched best stood at attention amid empty polished tables set with new glistening glassware.

But the students came back hungry for anything but leftovers, and gradually the tables began to fill. Now enjoying steady business, management has seized the holiday season.

The only other Allston storefront with decorations so far is a high-fashion Brazilian clothing store. Tinsel garland snakes through its window display of sexy summer dresses, perfect for Christmas in the Southern Hemisphere.

Linda

Afro pick

A young black man on the 66 bus in Allston wore a modest Afro. Though it could not compare the bushy wonders of the 1960s, he had more hair than the average hip man today. A Black Power Afro pick with a handle ending in a raised fist ornamented the back of his ’fro.

Forty years ago his uncles, maybe even his grandfather, nestled picks like that into magnificent globes of hair to remind the world that black is beautiful and they weren’t taking any crap from anybody, no matter how much the honkies ridiculed or even denounced their symbols.

In 2007, the Afro pick bore no revolutionary connotation. The man on the 66 bus sporting the black plastic pick and fiddling with his iPod looked positively retro, even quaint. And he looked like he knew his heritage.


Read about Afro picks at http://www.metalafropicks.com/history_of_afro_pick.htm