Don't believe anything you've read over the weekend about Massachusetts transit officials suing MIT and three of its students to keep the latter from "revealing" already-well-known vulnerabilities in the Boston agency's CharlieTicket magnetic stripe and CharlieCard smartcards.
This story is much bigger than yet another squabble over responsible disclosure.
This is about Charlie ... and how, after 60 years, his fate has come to be no longer "unlearn'd."
Written in 1948 and immortalized by the Kingston Trio in 1959 (video above), the chorus to "Charlie on the MTA" is among the most famous in all of folk music -- especially if you believe Boston is the hub of universe:
Did he ever return,
No he never returned
And his fate is still unlearn'd
He may ride forever
'neath the streets of Boston
He's the man who never returned.
The song may be as important to Boston's sense of self -- not to mention cultural history and modern-day tourism -- as The Tea Party, Paul Revere's Ride, Fenway Park, or dare I say it, Cheers. (As a Northeastern University student in the '70s, I half-expected to find myself seated next to Charlie every time I got on the Green Line.) So you can imagine the consternation at MBTA headquarters in Boston last week when a band of MIT mischief-makers threatened to blow the lid right off the legend of Charlie.
Oh, sure, their diversionary assault was problematic enough for the clueless bureaucrats: The students did manage to gather details of the cheesiness of CharlieTicket and CharlieCard -- named for you know who -- and they were hell-bent on distributing that information at the recently concluded Defcon security conference.
But here's the real reason the MBTA sought and was granted that court injunction: Seems those MIT hackers had unearthed incontrovertible evidence that Charlie did get off of that train -- and right quick, mind you. What has followed has been a massive cover-up stretching six decades.
For the uninitiated, the song suggests that Charlie -- "on that tragic and fateful day" -- boarded the train at Kendall Square with only "ten cents in his pocket," all of which was deposited into the collection bin. He had every intention of disembarking in Jamaica Plain were it not for the fact that he lacked the additional five cents for an "exit fare." The exit fare and attendant controversy were as real as The Depression; in fact, they were what prompted the songwriters to pen "Charlie on the MTA" for a political candidate.
So, could Charlie -- or any rider -- have really come up a nickel short and been stopped from getting off a train? Sure. However, historians have long had doubts about Charlie being stuck on that train indefinitely -- "he may ride forever 'neath the streets of Boston" --- in no small measure because of the song lyrics themselves; in particular, this passage (which can be heard a 1:17 of the video above):
Charlie's wife goes down
To the Scollay Square station
Every day at quarter past two
And through the open window
She hands Charlie a sandwich
As the train comes rumblin' through.
You see the problem, right?
So, too, did those MIT students while they were rummaging around in MBTA electronic storage vaults looking for more security dirt. Quite by chance, they stumbled upon a treasure trove of historical documents detailing the real-life Charlie episode ... and government cover-up. Among the documents -- unencrypted, by the way -- was this note from The Man's wife that was apparently tucked in between his sandwich, pickle and a napkin:
"Here be a couple nickels fer ya, Charlie, now git yer lardass off this silly train and home for supper lest you be sleepin' on the sofa."
So Charlie, being no fool, was home by five, according to the document, as opposed to being "the man who never returned." The missus even had pot roast and a mug of suds waiting on him. (It's worth noting that The Kinston Trio apparently knew nothing of the deception.)
Not so much of a "tragic" tale once you know the truth, now is it.
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Idiocy in Boston
Cute Charlie is always brought forth when things frequently go wrong at our Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. We grin, chuckle, and think how cute it all is. Some of us - the locals - know that Charlie is a front man for a corrupt, incompetently run mess that has enormous debt and can't even meet their own budget, let alone get a train from point A to point B. The "smart" card debacle ("smart" not having much of a home at the T) is another instance of the same old crapola we're used to.
Remember Boston's little episode with those LED advertising symbols? Some not-so-bright artists were hired to place them on structures such as public buildings, bridge supports, and MBTA stations. The same signs were erected in other cities without a notice. We're different here in Boston. A Code Red response was generated when someone finally noticed, two weeks into it.
The Charlie card mess will generate same. Injunctions, lawsuits, harassment by the T's own police force. All paid for by the taxpayers, the T has plenty of power in their back pocket. They will get their way.
The hackability of the MBTA's "smart" card is not news. Neither is the T's inability to manage the system when it actually works.
Since the poor selection of technology was made by our blundering "Authority", security experts have been sounding all manner of warnings. Presenting some findings at a security conference won't tell experts more than they already know. Rather, it will serve to rightfully humiliate the inflated egos and T seat-warmers who, as a matter of job description, maintain a sense of self importance lest the alleged legitimacy of the "Authority" be shaken. Any threat to reputation, particularly when the bondholders get to read about yet another blundering mess, most certainly deserves a Code Red. Never mind the big investors who the T (and therefore the state and taxpayers) are out billions for. What if the public finally got the drift: that their critical piece of transportation infrastructure is headed by idiots, political hacks, and the very unemployable elsewhere? Why, they might revolt and clean out the joint! Maybe the "Authority" would be no more. Can't have that. The T has always been a sweet deal for nephews of State Senators and friends of others in high places. Horrors!
Imagine the trouble for those former T hacks who would have to fend for themselves in what we call the "dreaded private sector"? They'd lose all those perks such as "Authority"-provided SUV's (for employees of a public transit system - one that runs trains and buses).
So it's cover-up time. Cover up the secret that everyone else who's in the know already knows.
Look to the Boston media to lead the way in assisting to that end.
geez
you'd think by now the city would get used to having MIT in Cambridge.