You may recall back in June I was riding over the Harvard Bridge and came across some literary graffiti:


Clearly alluding to Catcher in the Rye. And in case there were any doubts, there were five more "fuck you"s just like it spray-painted on this single ramp from the Esplanade to the bridge! At various angles so that they caught you coming or going, but all in the same hand.

Well, a couple weeks after I posted those pics, I noticed some philistine who obviously did not get the literary reference, had gone and painted over all of the "fuck"s (but only some of the "you"s) with a roller and some battleship gray paint.

This was around the same time the Pops Bridge was freshly painted, and then freshly pooped on and graffitied (by a different artist who was referencing a different work—obviously James Joyce's Ulysses) and then the egested matter removed and the graffiti painted over, too. Brutes!

Well, this afternoon on my way home you'll never guess what I saw.


Yes, the Salinger of the Boston Graffiti Scene—who knows but it could be Salinger himself, who's only 88—has returned!  Unrepentant and unbent! 

And obviously none too pleased with the edits.