--The State Supreme Judicial Court just overturned the conviction of a Methuen ex-police officer accused of raping a woman in 2000. The case hinged on whether or not lawyers could prove the woman was "too intoxicated to consent, not that she was merely high and drunk." However, the SJC felt that the trial judge didn't give proper instructions to the jurors. The ex-officer will get a new trial. [Boston Globe] --In a similar case,......

Is it even an argument at this point? Boston's Mayor Menino caused the Patriots' loss by planning the city's victory party a little too early and much too transparently. Last Wednesday, well before the unthinkable happened, the Herald was already proclaiming, "Tommy, you might as well have suited up for the hated Giants." While the mourning (and the blame game) continues, political life must also go on. With the Massachusetts primary being held tomorrow, the......

--Somebody left an Aqua Teen memento at Fenway. Mayor Menino is not amused. [WCVB] --Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, so it's six more weeks of winter. [AP/Boston Globe] --As the Super Bowl approaches, people in Arizona are looking for creative ways to make money, such as renting their home on Super Bowl weekend and throwing some strippers into the bargain. [Eye on Foxborough] --Speaking of the Super Bowl, we're plugging our fingers in our......

Patriots coach Bill Belichick flicks his "Sexy Beast" switch on and off like a light. One moment, he's all Mr. Serious and Scary, and, the next moment, he's on a cougar hunt. It seemed that Belichick would focus on the football during Super Bowl weekend. However, the Track Girls have spotted not one, but two, cougars joining Belichick in Arizona. Linda Holliday has been seen with Belichick in the past and may have inspired the......

Note: A few NSFW links are in this post. All of them are craigslist-related. No pictures, but words. Even though the Super Bowl is in Phoenix and all the hookers seem to be over there right now, that doesn't mean people aren't having their own naughty soirees, if Craigslist is any indication. After reading the Herald's articles about "Patriots Widows" and World Series hook-ups, Bostonist had to peruse The Craig to see if anything was......

Here's something we never thought of: the Patriots' (hopeful) victory parade would have to be on Tuesday, thus conflicting with the Massachusetts primary. The team won't be back on Monday, and most of them have to go to the Pro Bowl in Hawaii on Wednesday. So Tuesday (and not AFTER the Pro Bowl, which would just be crazy talk) it is. "We have to have a plan," saidMayor Menino. "I'm just thinking about it; I......

Music --DJ Spooky's Boston domination wraps up tonight with "Subliminal Strings," in which a string ensemble plays while being sampled live. ICA Boston, 8:00 pm, $20. --For something completely different, rising alt-country act Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles, fresh off a homecoming at the Lizard Lounge, will be playing at Dante's in Marlborough at 9:30 pm. Comedy In case you haven't noticed, it is Bostonist's modus operandi to remind the world that women are......

Randy Moss will not be going to Florida for the court hearing involving an incident in which a woman was allegedly injured at his home, prompting her to file a temporary restraining order. ESPN is reporting that Moss' attorney, Richard Sharpstein, will be there on Monday, but Moss will be in Arizona prepping for the Super Bowl. Sharpstein will ask for a delay in proceedings. Then, Sharpstein said to ESPN, that if and when a......

In a way, it doesn't feel right; the Colts should perhaps be in town today. They are(were) the defending champs, after all. They gave the Patriots the first in a long stretch of runs for their money that the Pats survived. The Dungy-Belichick and Manning-Brady rivalries are about the biggest stories in sports in this young century. But who cares, really. The Colts are on the golf course and it's San Diego who's in town......

The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film continues its annual Top 100 List tradition with a list of the one hundred funniest films of all time. All members were asked to contribute 20 ideas, which were then compiled into the final list of mostly modern American films. According to the press release: Many filmmakers from various eras appear more than once on the list, including Tim Burton, Charles Chaplin, Christopher Guest, Albert Brooks, John Waters, Buster......

If what they say is true, and Curt Schilling truly pitched his last game as a member of the Boston Red Sox last night... Let there be no mistake. The dividing line between the Sox' Era of Perpetual Failure and the current Golden Years can easily be geotagged; it's somewhere between Theo Epstein's Thanksgiving dinner in Arizona and the first time Curt posted on the SOSH message board. Somewhere in that stretch, the Red Sox......

"That's not the way we drew it up," said Colorado manager Clint Hurdle. "Obviously we have to change our game plan," added Todd Helton. "You can't make any mistakes," chimed in shellshocked starting pitcher Jeff Francis. If you're Colorado, what else can you say? The team that charged through September and most of October, and held Arizona to eight total runs in their mockery of an NLCS, looked like they hadn't played baseball in eight......

As Northeast-centric as we are, we kind of assumed that the other LDS ended the way it did because the Yankees had porous starting pitching, a weak bullpen, an aging core, and a superstar still yet to prove himself in October ("Yankees suck", in the parlance of our times). But maybe Cleveland really is that good. Their bullpen has matched or bettered our bullpen (and that's not even counting Gagne), their hitters are getting timely......

Four years ago today, Josh Beckett threw a shutout. In the LCS. Good tidings? Last time Josh faced the Indians, he gave up one run and four hits in a hard-luck 1-0 loss to Fausto Carmona. Last time Cleveland starter C.C. Sabathia pitched against the Red Sox, he gave up one run and five hits in a hard-luck 1-0 loss to Daisuke Matsuzaka. You'd have to believe both pitchers are determined not to give up......

It's hard to work up a frenzy against the Cleveland Indians. They seem like a bunch of polite, plucky kids who we'd be pulling for in almost any other circumstance. Gone are the enemies of the mid-to-late-90's: villains like Roberto Alomar and Manny Ramirez. Gone are the mockable stars of that magical 1988 team: colorful characters like ex-con Rick Vaughan and voodoo worshipper Pedro Cerrano. Trot Nixon, who you may remember as one of the......

--Word is out that some boneheaded morons knocked over a 160-year-old bust of Jesus that is displayed at the Boston Public Library. It happened on September 12 in the afternoon, and the man and woman who did it got caught on videotape. The pair didn't go after the bust of Lucifer. Apparently they were trying to make a point, but it was obscured in the sheer amount of dumbassery displayed by their behavior. It still......

A star college football player who didn't make the cut as a punter for the Patriots allegedly pitched a hissy fit royale after he didn't get picked. Instead of punching Bill Belichick or whoever it is who cut him from the team, 23-year-old Danny Baugher punched his own dad in the eye last Thursday in a Hanover parking lot. Police noted that Baugher was drunk at the time. Of course. He may have shut the......

--Saturday night is supposed to be a time of fun and relaxation, but some people just don't get it. Last night, at a party on Bowdoin Street, someone fired a gun, and two people were injured. It could have been worse. One of the bullets entered another house, almost striking two boys inside. --Speaking of Monster Parties that at least didn't leave anyone shot, the BPD ran into not one, but two, mobile parties last......

--Another winning headline from the mysterious BPD Blotter writer: "Adding Assault to Injury." Early this morning, Latanya Minors allegedly played bumper cars with another car. She struck a car, which had two occupants inside. Then she drove around the block and did it again. Minors wasn't finished - witnesses tried to "confront" her (BPD parlance), upon which she punched them and threw her keys at them. Also on the blotter: a robbery attempt at the......

The good news is, they got some hits. The bad news is, they didn't translate into nearly enough runs. Terry Francona tried drastic measures, moving the struggling (to put it charitably) J.D. Drew to the leadoff spot, possibly to cut down on his left-on-base numbers. That sure didn't work. Francona stuck with the scuffling (again, we're being kind) Julio Lugo, which means that either Alex Cora doesn't know how to play shortstop or is trapped......

Take us to DEFCON 3. The Red Sox were pasted at Fenway last night. Somehow (we can't explain it), the game seemed closer than the 12-2 final score indicated, but you can't really find a silver lining in a cloud this dark. Curt Schilling and the bullpen kept giving up big hits, and the Red Sox kept not getting big hits, which has become a troubling leitmotif all month long. Two runs a game generally......

What a depressing ending. All of the characters were in place, the tension was building, the smell of a big finish was in the air, and then...nothing. Zip. Just like that, it was all over. We kept looking for some extra time, or some trick being played on us, or something to keep us from screaming, "That's IT?!?!?!?" Coco Crisp's line drive sailed right into Chris Young's glove in center, and it was over. Of......

All right, it wasn't exactly "Our hallowed snake-skull-cracking day", but there aren't too many opportunities to play the Diamondbacks and break out all the old snake jokes. What it was, was a tough game against a young pitcher pitching way above his head, and the Red Sox were fortunate to get out of it with a 10-inning, 4-3 win. Julian Tavarez pitched well, with a couple of mistakes, including giving Arizona's Stephen Drew a chance......

Remember J.D. Drew? David Jonathan "J.D." Drew, 31 years old, plays right field, graduated from Florida State? J.D. Drew hasn't generated much favorable buzz these days. The only things we've heard about him for the past month and a half has consisted of justifiable griping from fans and predictions from Theo Epstein that The Slump is only temporary. But Drew made his presence known on Friday night during interleague play in Arizona. Continuing his widely-known......

Any gripes anyone has with Curt Schilling - his ego, his politics, his whatever - roll 'em up in a ball and store them somewhere for a while. Because the man is clutch. With the Red Sox reeling and poised to be swept out of Oakland, #38 stepped up to the mound and threw a one-hitter. As in, one Oakland hit. As in, if Alex Cora were a foot taller or had been playing a......

People are feeling jittery again. A strip mall in Ashland was evacuated earlier today – all because of a fax message to a Bank of America that included an awkward ClipArt image of a hand setting off a bomb. Turns out "the fax was sent by a marketing group for a promotion to kick off a special offer from the bank." We're not sure why marketing companies don't think before they fax. Didn't they learn......

--Sean Stevens and Peter Berdvosky can breathe a sigh of relief now that they are officially off the blotter with a slap on the wrist. The artists who were hired by the Cartoon Network and Interference, Inc., to hang the Mooninites throughout Boston will do community service. Instead of offering the public another '70s hair comedy routine, the two had more substantial things to say this time around. The Herald quoted Stevens as saying, "I......

With all that went down this week, we thought we thought we'd cheer everyone up by giving everyone a double dose of dogs. It was a rollercoaster ride of emotions this week at DCist. Like the rest of country, we were floored by the news of so many dead coming out of Virginia Tech, and with so many of the victims and their relatives from the D.C. area, we felt it important to pay......

Maybe the minds behind the new ad campaign for recruits to the Boston police force should rethink where they're posting their signs. We have further evidence for Brian McGrory's column about the Scottsdale Arizona police department trying to pluck recruits from Boston's finest at our city's urinals. Photograph taken by Jon Petitt.......

--Forget Ed Davis. The Scottsdale, Arizona, police department wants you. Brian McGrory writes in the Globe about seeing an ad for joining the police force – yes, Scottsdale, Arizona - in one of the men's toilets at Fenway Park. It probably doesn't get any more "Boston" than the men's toilet at Fenway, so why on earth would Scottsdale be advertising there? McGrory called them and found they're doing it because they've got the money. And......