“Boston
”Rich with historical facts
Where the city is a maze
And the snow get stacked.

”Yeah, we got hit
And we felt the impact
But we respond first
And yes, we bounce back.’’

— From the 2013 song “Boston Strong,” by Mr. Lif (born 1977), written in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombing, which happened on April 15, 2013.

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“The Boston people were willing to learn, but only if one recognized how much they knew already.”

— Van Wyck Brooks (1886-1963), American literary critic, historian and biographer