The swan boats have returned to the Public Garden’s Lagoon, but where are their real life namesakes?

Last year’s presence was cancelled because of the pandemic. This year there seems to be attitude issues.

The original Romeo and Juliet (a misnomer given that both are female) started summering in the Lagoon in 2008. Romeo passed away in 2018 and Juliet went into retirement that same year.

Their successors, also a same sex couple with the same names, have become too aggressive to be in public this year and are being confined at their Franklin Park Zoo winter residence. Like many of us after Covid confinement, social skills have to be relearned.