When Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr. called the Massachusetts State House in Boston "the hub of the solar system," he was poking fun at the pretensions of the city's high and mighty. Leave it to Bostonians to embrace the line: now the city has upgraded itself to the "hub of the universe." One thing Boston's never been short in is a sense of its own significance in the world. It has simply had too many firsts - the first public library, the first public schools, the first subway system - to concede an inch of civic pride to bigger and bolder cities, and the recent reversal of an ancient baseball curse only adds to Boston's self-confidence. Boston may not technically be the hub of the universe, but from the Back Bay to Brookline, from Cambridge to Andover, it is the hub of a region as famous for its culture, energy and here-and-now opportunities as for its prominent place in American history.