--Someone found violent messages in women's bathrooms, along with the date of February 28 (tomorrow), at Bridgewater State. Given recent violent incidents on college campuses nationwide, the school boosted security. Police are offering a $500 reward to find out who did it. [Boston Globe, Boston Herald] --Meanwhile, someone left a note in a bathroom at Framingham State this afternoon, leading to an evacuation. [WBZ] --57 Boston bars have been given more time to install......

The mayors of Boston and New York City, Mayors Menino and Bloomberg, are engaging in the standard "friendly wager" based on the outcome of the Super Bowl. If you compare the two lists, it's pretty clear which city has the better food options, and we're not talking about the Big Apple here: --100 cups of New England Clam Chowder from Legal Sea Foods; --42 pounds of coffee from Dunkin’ Donuts in honor of Super......

Now that absinthe is legally available for sale in the US, the green fairy has landed on cocktail menus in Boston. Bostonist went to a couple local bars recently to try out the storied liquor of artists and poets. First, we tried out a more-or-less classic absinthe preparation at Kingston Station. It’s an interactive cocktail, and very pretty—you pour a bottle of spring water over a sugar cube sitting on top of a slotted......

--Where have all the gay bars gone? Robert David Sullivan writes that we should be concerned about their disappearance: "In the Boston area, many of Harvard Square's bookstores, Kenmore Square's student eateries, and myriad other places that guaranteed a diverse urban experience have closed their doors, replaced by a far more uniform lineup of bank branches, chain stores, and upscale restaurants." A must-read. [Boston Globe] --If you haven't noticed with the cold temperatures and long......

-- The Mashpee Wampanoag celebrated federal recognition yesterday. "We are not celebrating Thanksgiving," said Shawn Hendricks, president of the tribal council. "It's not one of the better holidays for us. Columbus Day, that's not our top holiday, either." -- The sprinkler law is full of holes. Only 22 Boston bars have installed sprinkler systems. The rest remain as flammable as before. -- Pot advocates gathered 105,000 signatures, enough to get a decriminalization initiative on......

The Thomas Crown Affair and The Friends of Eddie Coyle Brattle Theatre, Harvard Square, Cambridge Wednesday-Thursday Showtimes and tickets Millionaire Beacon Hill residents have a lot of time on their hands. Who can blame them if they use it plotting bank heists? Norman Jewison's The Thomas Crown Affair (1968), which screens tonight and tomorrow at the Brattle, doesn't point any fingers. It's a schizophrenic movie with a paper thin plot and a clumsy script. Thomas......

MC Slim JB at Boston Magazine just did a piece about the wave of gentrification in the South End. People with obscenely expensive tastes are either moving in or visiting too much, and the prices are going up. Not only do the new residents like to throw money around, but they also look tacky doing it. One woman quoted in the piece proclaims, "The only cool people [at the Beehive] are the bartenders—half the......

The Mayor's Office announced that Mayor Menino and Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper have set up a bet. Depending on who wins the World Series, the losing mayor will ship foods native to that area to a local charity. The press release's language is precise: "When Boston wins the World Series" and "If the unthinkable should occur." The mayor is leaving nothing to chance when it comes to winning the Red Sox World Series, and we......

We did our best to spread the word on Sunday that Boston Police would be cracking down on debauchery outside Fenway Park during Game 7 of the ALCS, but let's face it: we're naturally curious. We wanted to see with our own eyes what the scene was like down by the ballpark, given the likelihood of stories running wild about who was going to take it too far: the crowd or the police. Police had......

--Since Red Sox fans have a reason to party this year, Mayor Thomas Menino is already stepping in to settle them down. He met with bar and restaurant owners to discuss when to cut off the sloppy drunks. He also said he doesn't want any live cameras in bars. No live cameras? What would a nationally televised game be without a cutaway to the fans who couldn't afford tickets but who still want to celebrate?......

Celebrate the origins of the Native American genocide by going to see some European art! Bostonist couldn't miss that irony. But the truth is, if you've got this rainy Columbus Day off anyway, you could do worse than to check out the Fenway Cultural District's "Opening Our Doors." All the museums in the area are free today, from the MFA to the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. (The reaction of one Bostonian: "The Gardner's free?! That......

The Boston Globe assembled yet another online photo album that is custom-made for workers to peruse during lunch break. Only this time around, the Globe tackled a touchy subject - "What makes a true Bostonian?" As opposed to what? A false one? And how long do you have to live here to get your credentials? Not to pick on the Globe, but any kind of list such as this is going to have its problems,......

The next Four Stories reading will be on October 1, 2007. Kris Frieswick, Jake Halpern, Michael Lowenthal, and Hank Phillippi Ryan will be participating. The evening's topic is "Love and Money: Tales of Making It, Having It, and Losing It," and the readings will take place at The Enormous Room. For more details, visit the Four Stories site. To prepare, check out Bostonist's interview with Jake Halpern. Many of us spend our days in front......

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,......

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......

--After a lengthy undercover operation called "Operation Roadkill," the feds took down 15 alleged members of the Outlaws, a biker gang based in Taunton. In the raid, they picked up large quantities of drugs and, as Boston NOW gleefully noted, a stripper pole. We're not sure how the feds took the stripper pole from the house without leaving significant damage behind, but, by golly, the feds were going to take that stripper pole as evidence!......

While SFist cringed at the fatal dose of crime littering the Bay Area, it found solace in Hillary Clinton's San Francisco campaign headquarters opening, which featured loads of exposed mammary glands. In other news, SF Taxi Commission ruled that Satan's cab must keep its (in)famous medallion number, 666; and in an un-fashion-forward frenzy, San Francisco Fashion Week (chortle) bars bloggers from covering and getting smashed at their shows and parties, respectively. Also, they found a......

As we've often said of police commish Ed Davis, he's willing to try anything. His latest attempt at crime-stopping is to start "Text a Tip," a text-messaging tip service that is designed to keep anyone with tips anonymous and safe. The BPD released an announcement that Boston will be the first city to use text messaging for anonymous tips because the phone-based hotline - well, it sure doesn't put "hot" in the hotline. So now......

On Thursday, Bostonist joined a bunch of tired people in a red line car, and a guy hopped on and started shouting. We rolled our eyes at each other and looked uncomfortable because we figured he was either there to make trouble or sell candy bars for a dubious charity. But he had a surprise. He whipped a boom box out of a voluminous green backpack and pressed play. The sounds of Stevie Wonder's "Part-Time......

Just a few days after the parade and we can't seem to leave Southie. Neither can our adopted YouTube Grandmother. She left South Boston in 1939. Now, 68 years later she's back. "Sally where ya been all these years?" There's something so loveable about a 91 year old woman hitting the bars in Southie. Check her out, complete with Sox hat, in her "backyard" video.......

The friendly powers-that-be are setting the boundaries for this year's St. Patricks' Day festival. Whether or not these priorities are enforced remains to be seen, but you may as well know about them lest you become acquainted with someone who isn't quite feeling the luck of the Irish. The BPD released a statement on what you might be able to expect from law enforcement while you're celebrating: Throughout the weekend and on Parade Day, the......

As you probably guessed from Bostonist's comment thread, there are many fans of the late Boston singer Brad Delp, who died last Friday. Non-Boston papers are offering their evaluation of Delp's contribution to music. The LA Weekly offered a perfect analysis of Delp's skills, which somehow managed to be distinct and anonymous at the same time: Most of us wouldn’t recognize Delp from a photo, yet his vocal frequencies have been burned into the American......

There's something about these little bars. They've got a lot of fight in them and they just won't give in. The Littlest Bar kept on keeping on for months after the initially announced closing date. Tir na nÓg is following suit. First it was February, now it's March. Another month's reprive has been granted and the nÓg will serve up many more pints. There will be another St. Patrick's day to celebrate before the nÓg......

We must have blinked and missed the two months of voting that went into selecting the 2007 AOL cityguide Best Of list winners. Starting in mid-November and wrapping up in mid-January, voting took place on line on the set of contenders who had been nominated by AOL cityguide for their best of rating – opportunity for there to have been a little pandering to sponsors, but we'll never know. The categories seem endless: 24 categories......

Yesterday a myspace bulletin was at the top of the ticker when we logged in: 123 Party! Arrested!!! Hey Fans and Party Favors-- 123 Party! was arrested on Friday, January 5th, 2007 for dancing on Boylston Street. The Boston Cops provided no sympathy and severely doubted the dance. Turbo, Sonic, and Fury (The new Boston trio) were thrown in cells without any 80's synthpop dance tracks. It was totally bogus. We need you!! To write......

Last night was the last call at The Rack. The Hard Rock Café is moving from their Back Bay location where they've been neatly tucked away from most of the foot traffic only blocks away to The Rack's location near Faneuil Hall. What Bostonist will miss most about The Rack isn't the overpriced drinks or pool tables – it's the column inch upon column inch of content they've provided for The Inside Track over the......

Bars, clubs, and restaurants will be taking on a premium for celebrating the coming of the New Year with them. There is, however, a free ride available to get you home. The MBTA has announced that again this year the T will be free for riders from 8 pm to 2 am on New Years Eve and into the early morning of New Year's Day. We could go on for hours about how we miss......

A couple of bars in the Faneuil Hall area tout their age and history as part of the Boston's cultural landscape. The Boston Beer Company has created a whole brand identity using Sam Adams as an iconic brewer and patriot. Yet, it's still difficult or just downright expensive to get a liquor license in the city. The bill was passed yesterday by state lawmakers that will allow 55 new permits to be issued within the......

There must be calm before the storm this week. We can only imagine that our favorite local folks are saving up their energy so they can rock it big into the new year. There are certainly a few great shows on this week's agenda, don't get us wrong. But since we have a minute to take a moment to look at Gridskipper's post they tacked to the bathroom wall last week: "The Mighty Mighty......

The days are definitely shorter. Daylight escapes us all while toiling away at work. We leave under the blanket of dusk to head home. Less daylight hours almost always seem to have a negative effect on the motivation to go out on the town. Luckily the powers of the internets make it easier to figure out the closest dimly lit place to go grab a brew in your neighborhood. Last year the beermapping project......