If you spend much time in Boston, you probably have one of these.  It's better than a nickel. If you live in Boston, there’s a good chance you know why the card you use to ride public transit is called a Charlie Card, but I’ll review the story anyway, because it’s a good one.  The mass transit system, referred to by the locals as the T, used to be referred to as the MTA, and the fare was 10¢, which you paid in cash before getting on the train.  In 1949, the MTA raised the fare.  It still cost 10¢ to get on the train—but it cost another 5¢ to get off.   Some felt this was needlessly confusing.  Specifically, one Walter A. O’Brien thought so, and campaigned for mayor of Boston, making the new fare system the main plank in his platform.  To back him up, the song “Charlie on the MTA” was recorded for him by Jacqueline Steiner and Bess Lomax Hawes as a campaign song.  It told the story of Charlie, a man who boarded the train at Kend...