--Former Boston City Councilor, Albert "Dapper" O'Neil, who probably enjoyed the best nickname bestowed up on a councilor, passed away at age 87. The Globe used many adjectives to describe him, all of which can be freely interpreted, such as "irascible" and "colorful." He opposed desegregation and, in the words of the Globe, "railed against feminists, gays, and immigrants." [Boston Globe]

--In a piece from 1997, Yvonne Abraham reflects on Dapper O'Neil's unusual appeal to voters: "The thing about O'Neil, the ornery, conservative, sexist, 26-year veteran at-large councilor, is that no matter how bad his public image gets, people still seem to love him. It's more than a Teflon effect: it's as if his constituents like him better for his rough edges." [Boston Phoenix]

--Very strange: The family that runs Alpha Omega jewelers, the Handas, have fled the country. This news came as quite a surprise to employees at the company's Cambridge headquarters. [Bostonista at Boston Magazine]

--The Silver Line service to the airport will run more frequently, every 8 minutes to be exact, to the airport tomorrow and Friday. [MBTA press office]

--Scrooge has nothing on Lawrence, which fired 40 city workers right before Christmas. [AP/Boston Globe]

--Mabel Rojas, the woman who slashed a baby's neck with an eyebrow razor, pled guilty and was sentenced to four to five years in state prison. Rojas also attempted to shift the blame for the crime onto an innocent man, Andrew Vaughn, who served 43 days. [DA's Office]

-- A person found the body of a homeless man who may have frozen to death near the Globe's offices. [Boston Globe]

--Harvard's not the only rich university out there. Brandeis received $22.5 million from the Mandel Foundation to build an "interdisciplinary humanities center." [Boston Globe]

--The Littlest Bar will return at 102 Broad Street and will be big enough to hold 80 or 90 people. [Boston Herald]

--Is the Denise the Lunch Lady saga almost over? The Survivor fourth-place finisher who said the Douglas school district demoted her to a janitor and received $50,000 from Survivor producer Mark Burnett, only for the masses to discover that she had actually been promoted, announced she'll give the money to charity. [WBZ]

Image by Viracocha76 from photos tagged "Bostonist" on Flickr.