And while we're at it, let's drive a stake through "MetroWest"

The daleyblog took a shot at the article in this morning's Globe about the huge number of millionaires lurking in and around Boston:

What the Globe considers the "Boston Area," Beacon Hill, Chestnut Hill, Dover, Wellesley Hills, Weston, Lincoln, Lexington, Carlisle and Sherborn, doesn't exactly jibe with my grouping, which would also include the working class towns of Quincy, Dedham, Braintree, Weymouth, Medford, Saugus, etc. Not to mention the city neighborhoods outside the Back Bay and Beacon Hill.

I second Daley's motion, and further propose that the term "MetroWest" be expunged from journalistic circles, especially those related to the Boston Herald and other CNC titles like -- the MetroWest Daily News! The Daily News Tribune loves it, too, as in this recent example: "MetroWest saying goodbye to Filene’s, too."

This irritating term first raised its pathetic head sometime in the 1990s, and is constantly used in these publications as an artificial grouping for the cities and towns that happen to be in a kinda westerly direction, between Boston and I-495. I never hear any real person saying this term in real life. Why should they? "Western suburbs" or "towns west of Boston" or "Framingham" or "Waltham" works just fine.

I suspect that some advertising or marketing exec -- no doubt some transplant from outside the Northeast -- dreamed up this term as a better way to sell ads or other services to national corporations with no familiarity with the area, or understanding about how different all of these places really are. Then CNC (or whoever owns it now, the Herald Media Group?) dictated that reporters and editors have to use it as well, and no one protested.

Well, I'm protesting now. Not that it will do any good, but it's been bugging me for a long time now ...