Probably only of interest, but definitely of urgent concern, to anyone who has ever attempted to drive in downtown Boston, even before the Big Dig era:

Cow path tale is pure bull: “The layout of Boston’s streets is so helter-skelter because they are founded on the lines of meandering cow paths.

Fact or fiction?

Fiction.

The cow path fable is one of Boston’s biggest and most enduring myths, according to William Fowler, director of the Massachusetts Historical Society, who urged drivers not to blame cows for our dysfunctional roadways.

The birth of Boston’s roadways was simply unorganized, he said; people built houses where they pleased, and roads emerged among them without the benefit of urban planners.” — Boston Globe