We’ve long been fans of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, enough so that we’ve got two nicknames for it – ISGM when writing and “da gadnah” when speaking. The museum has been doing a lot in recent months to re-energize their image, though they’ll never lose sight of their founder (and Red Sox fanatic) Isabella, new programs are putting a new life into ISGM. Tonight marks the first in their new series, Gardner After Hours,... [continue]

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom...... [continue]

Chicagoist is gearing up for this weekend's annual Air & Water Show along the lakefront. In what's becoming an annual tradition around there, staff member Todd McClamroch even got to fly with one of the participants. Chicagoist's decidedly opinionated readership was also appalled that one of their staffers found a popular local brewpub to be a great place to bring a kid. They also think that an unlikely activist for immigration rights should just take...... [continue]

Marathon Monday comes but once a year. It's a day of accomplishment, inspiration, and drunken disorderly behavior. There seems to be a calm in the storm no matter what category you fall into. The father and son team of Dick and Rick Hoyt continue to amaze us year after year. If we're watching on TV or Beacon Street there's something magical about that moment when they cross the finish line or enter the peripheral vision.... [continue]

So there's this tunnel in Boston, the problem is that the tunnel is crumbling. So it's time to get a plan. A transit plan that will reshape the way Boston gets from one place to the other. Let's dig a huge system of tunnels build an elevated highway alternative route for Storrow Drive that runs over the Esplanade. The Storrow Drive tunnel has some problems. It's crumbling, it's leaking (back in the 50's they didn't...... [continue]

Yesterday a couple of Massachusetts Water Resource Authority workers at Deer Island took a shower in shit. Literally. When the two workers popped off a valve to do some routine maintenance about 100 gallons of "return sludge" coated them. So it's really mostly treated sewage, but still wicked nasty. Anyone know if Aquafina is using return sludge in their process? To put it into perspective, if you're a ten minute shower kind of person you... [continue]

The archive of today's NewsroomNOW video is now available on the Web. Well, the first six minutes or so is available in the archive version (we're not sure if there's more that we're missing). The editorial meeting for the BostonNOW free daily tab has been open to the public and available on the Web since the paper's launch. They've touted it as an innovative way to connect with their readers and potential blogging contributors. This... [continue]

Watch your back MIT, the nerds across the river are gaining ground. The Rubik's "Magic" Cube achieved instant classic status when it was introduced in 1980. There's probably one, unsolved, somewhere in your house right now. There are, of course, some people who have mastered the secret patterns of twists and turns that will solve the puzzle quickly – computer scientists at Northeastern have managed to create a method to put all sides to single...... [continue]

Outside.in has been tracking local blog action for 3,500 neighborhoods in 60 cities across the country. They came out with the top ten blogging neighborhoods back in April. Newton and Watertown made that list (4 and 7, respectively.) Today Chris Reidy at the Globe posts up an item that Outside.in has named Boston the Bloggiest City in the nation. During March and April the Boston area chalked up 89 posts per 100,000 people (we're trying...... [continue]

Last week the Boston Globe reported that a discovery had been made at the MFA. They had a Vincent van Gogh painting in their possession that they never knew about. Unfortunately it wasn't just sitting around in the basement or tucked in a closet it was literally buried underneath another painting in the museum. According to the report: " Now a conservator at the Museum of Fine Arts has discovered the lost painting, but museum...... [continue]

Earlier today the home page of Channel 5's website carried a story about a Massachusetts bridge closure in prominent position. It's since been buried on the site. The story with the headline "Mass. Bridge Closed After Minn. Tragedy" evoked imagery of any of those bridges we reported on earlier, I-91 closures as it crisscrosses the Connecticut river, or some span over hills on Rt. 2, or even more local like the length that leads over...... [continue]

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,...... [continue]

Ok – it's a hard state to spell. What if I my true god was…a sandwich? Eugene Mirman, one of Bostonist's favorite comedians, and a former Cambridge resident, comes back to the Bay State and interviews schmucks homeless tourists people in hopes of getting to better know Massachusetts. Watch the video posted to Super Deluxe as Mirman taunts Harvard students, orders (based on market price) about $100 worth of food at Summer Shack, wonders who... [continue]

Come on now. It's been six months since the BPD chased down some LED signs depicting the Mooninites and still we're subject to ridicule. A tipster on the Bostonist Contribute page alerted us to the Jalopink posting that there is an eerily similar rust spot to the Aqua Teen Hunger Force character of Meatwad appearing on a 1973 Datsun 610. As the intro lyrics go: "Meatwad make the money, see. Meatwad get the honeys,... [continue]

Two years ago the shag hit the floor. This time it wasn't carpeting but rather an alarm clock with wheels that ran away from the user. Clocky was developed by MIT student Gauri Nanda. In December we heard that the prototype had moved from the Alpha to Beta version and finally into production. Clocky was in commercial production with a promise that the runaway alarm clock would make it off the nightstand of the tech-loving...... [continue]

Will the real Fake Steve Jobs please stand up? Yes, he will. And he'll do it in Boston. The New York Times outed the blogger who's been blogging as a Steve Jobs iMpersonator (can we trademark that?) for over a year. His real name Daniel Lyons a Medford resident. He's been impersonating the Apple chief and lampooning his persona on the blog fakesteve.blogspot.com. In the last year it's gotten the attention of the tech elite...... [continue]

Bus riders who get on or off at the end of a line have seen the driver reach over for a little keypad to log their time of arrival or departure on the route – where they are for the duration at each stop is beyond the MBTA measurements. The Globe reported this weekend about "bus bunching" on the #1 bus route which takes passengers from Harvard to Dudley, and anywhere in between, down Mass...... [continue]

We've developed a very quick survey to check in with our readers. We hope to use the information to improve the site, from developing our content areas to picking promotional and advertising partners. If you have a few minutes (it's very short), we'd appreciate it if you could answer. Help us out – take just a minute to fill out the survey here. Oh, yeah, that image – real funny joke, the post is about...... [continue]

Sam Adams is the flagship beer of the Boston Beer Company. On the tour of the brewery in JP, they'll tell you that there are a couple of reasons they call themselves "The Boston Beer Company" – the two most compelling – the name was available when Jim Koch started the company and they're located in Boston. A deal was announced today that will put the Boston Beer Company in a position to purchase a...... [continue]

If your residence is as close as Bostonist's is to the Pike you're in luck if you also like casino gaming. Of course, you can get to Mohegan Sun by hopping off 395 and hitting some lesser travelled byways for a short jaunt to their front door – but if the Mohegan Sun ownership has anything to do with it you'll soon be able to hit the pike and just get off at the Palmer...... [continue]