No Pants Boston 2012 Written by James Cobalt

Thanks for another great No Pants Subway Ride! At least 270 people filled a total of 4 trains with bare legs and dead pan excuses. FOUR TRAINS. We're gonna need waaaay more volunteers next year!

Please share your experience with us! Comment below or at www.facebook.com/SOScities. We heard a number of funny reactions from many of you over drinks at Kings. Send them in! We'll include a number of them in the official recap.

Looking for photos? Check Boston.com tomorrow for pictures. Also check The Metro. There are rumors the Herald and Phoenix may have something on Monday as well.

Our professional photographer took a ton of photos and will be posting them online soon; we'll send an email to subscribers when they are up. If you took any photos, please email them to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . If your photos are too large for sending via email, consider zipping them up and sending them via a file sending service like sprend.com or rapidshare.com. Of course, you can also upload them to Flickr and send us the link.

BTW, the BostonSOS board is about to vote in new members. If you're a dedicated, hardworking individual who can commit to helping us organize off-beat and creative events, please fill out this form. Board terms are 6 and 12 months and are non-paid (but you get the glory! THE GLORY!)

Thanks everyone! See you next time!
James Cobalt

Deck the T With Laughs Written by James Cobalt

"The best thing to happen to [the MBTA] this year" is how one writer described a hilarious prank on the T this Christmas. Obviously they didn't hear about the No Pants Subway Ride, but I digress.

Those who have ridden the Boston subway system (known as "The T") are familiar with the overhanging signs and accompanying Text-To-Speech (TTS) voice overs. Normally they do nothing but announce the next train is just about to arrive (an eternity before it actually does) or some standard service announcement. Their TTS system is a lot better than what you have on your computer or smart phone- but sounding more human actually just makes it more awkward as the flaws stand out even more. The intonation and prosody are all wrong. People don't talk like that; people don't talk like robots!

The MBTA has had a rough year- both for commuters and the organization. Thankfully an employee opted to bring a bit of joy to the stark underground platforms by "hacking" the sign to "sing" a classic Christmas tune- using the awkwardness of the monotonous announcer as a catalyst for laughter and energy. Check out the video below for a good laugh.

The Return of T Charades... and more! Written by nicklebones

It's that time of year again: your favorite subsurface event... time to hop on the T and create a spectacle that leaves people scratching their heads, yet at the same time gets them to smile.

What?!  No, not the No-Pants Subway Ride... that's in January, silly.  This is T Platform Charades... the classic party game brought by us BostonSOSers to the subterranean depths of the Boston subway!  And yes, you get to keep your pants on (actually, please do...). 

If you haven't participated in T Platform Charades in the past, the premise is pretty simple: we pretend we don't know each other, and start playing a seemingly "impromptu" game of charades with a team of other BSOSers across on the other platform.  You might be surprised how many random passengers and passersby start joining in and trying to guess.  If it sounds simple, that's because it is!  But the smiles you'll help bring to your fellow Bostonians will make it worth it.

Oh, and we're not stopping there.  Join us for Charades, and if you stick around afterward, you can join in on an all-new, never-been-done-by-BostonSOS, ultra-secret, ultra-awesome event! 

The skinny:

• Sunday, October 23, 1:00 pm
• Meet on Boston Common, Soldiers and Sailors Monument (top of the hill near Frog Pond)