Accent question for Bostonians

[yesno]

Re: this article--

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/03/fashion/03accent.html

I always thought the Kennedy accent wasn't "Bostonian" at all, but rather a generic old-timey WASP accent (like Mr. Howell), which is incorrectly considered a "Boston" way of speaking.  In other words, a form of the "Mid-Atlantic accent" we know from 1930s movies, and both Gore Vidal and William F. Buckley (neither of whom are from Mass.).  Is Kennedy speak really "Bostonian" in any way?  Maybe half Boston, half patrician?

[Sarah]

I'm not a Bostonian, but, to my ear, JFK definitely didn't have a straight mid-Atlantic/patrician accent.  There are definite Boston/Mass. overtones in his speech.

Have I already told here my favorite Boston accent story?  If so, I tell it again:  One night, on some street or other in Cambridge, a few friends and I passed a couple of guys having a serious discussion.  The one phrase we could pick out was "Go to Mr. [pronounced "Mistah"] Gavadabadi."  It took us several blocks to figure out that the fellow was telling his friend to take his car to Mystic Ave. Auto Body.

[yesno]

I'd love to take my wife to Boston and get her to try to understand Mistah Gavadabi types. She just couldn't make out a deep southern accent at all when we were there.  I'm listening to some tapes of important oral arguments before the Supreme Court and there's a case where Tennessee is being sued, and there's a wonderfully elaborate Tennessee accent.  DFK could learn some pointers, I don't think he would say "This coh-ut does not hay-uhv jurisDICshin ovuh the sovrin state of Ten'see" in a high-pitched nasally voice.

I just relistened to some comparisons (an interview with Gore Vidal from the mid 1960s vs. a young Ted Kennedy) and yeah, there's definitely a difference.

I guess I'm wondering if there's still an "upper class" Boston accent going (which accent does seem to have some patrician-y elements).  

I think the NY Times article is incorrect in equating the Brahmin accent with the Mr. Howell accent.

For some reason I am fascinated with the more obscure American accents.  It probably started with the Philly Boy Roy thing.

[Sarah]

When I lived in Boston, I worked for a company that attracted a lot of rich folk.  I heard some true Boston Brahmin accents there.  From a Cabot, for example.

I call people with the Gore Vidal/Buckley/Mr. Howell accent either jujubes or Sorrentos.  The first comes from a couple visiting that Boston company I worked for:  speaking to his lady friend, the man said, between clenched teeth, "Look, Jujube, they have [whatever it was]!"  The name Sorrento comes from all the hoity-toities who summer in Sorrento, Maine. 

I can't stand 'em (said in Jean Hagen fashion).

[yesno]

These people are as obscure to me as the teddy boys. They're pretty endangered now, I think.

I've always had an affection for some elements of that lifestyle, but only in the way a Victorian gentleman would have African masks and Persian rugs adorning his study. It's like the homegrown version of the PG Wodehouse-ian fantasy of the idle rich.  As for the real-life idle rich, I want to throw those motherfuckers up against the wall.