Results tagged “bostonglobe”

Bostonist is so glad the New York Times and Co. didn't nuke the Boston Globe back in the spring, because then we would never have had the sublime pleasure of reading the interviews with 2009's "25 Most Stylish Bostonians" (so named because, we presume, the "25 Most Stylish Bostonians Who Have More Money and/or Cooler Jobs Than You" was too long). We were especially taken with João Ribas, whose outstandingly obnoxious quotes like, "I have an abhorrence of both consumer culture and infantilism, which is why I don’t own a pair of jeans" make him sound like a character out of a Decemberists song.

The Boston Globe profiled one of its potential new owners, California-based buyout firm Platinum Equity and its CEO and founder Tom Gores. There is something familiar about the photo of Gores in the Globe piece. Universal Hub notes that Dan Kennedy compared him to Tony Manero. Bostonist thinks he has a blatant Wayne Newton vibe. He might just be trying to sell us a used car. You decide.

The Boston Globe has Bostonist confused this morning. We know what you're thinking. Anyway, today's edition brings word that Bay State tax revenues are plummeting in September and are expected to end the month $100-200 million short of projections. “September is always the month where you get your most revenue. So if we’re down significantly in September, that doesn’t probably bode well for the rest of the fiscal year, ’’ Senate President Therese Murray said Monday. A revenue gap might mean more budget cuts. It was just Sunday that the Globe told us Massachusetts was already experiencing "signs" of a recovery. Job losses were slowing, the housing market was responding, and temporary employment ranks were growing, the Globe told readers.

It wasn't enough for Emerson College to be labeled as unsafe due to crime on the Common. Now Emersonians are being blamed for all the ruckus in the North End, too. In a Globe article on the North End's partying epidemic, a BPD captain confirms that "students, mostly from Suffolk and Emerson College, cause most of the problems reported, not patrons at bars." Setting aside the issue of how students afford the North End (oh, excuse us—they're Emerson students. Now it all makes sense), it seems odd that students don't make up a significant portion of the bar patrons in question. Nevertheless, we do like Bricco owner Frank De Pasquale's advice: "If residents wanted silent nights... they should have moved to Dover or Marblehead."

The Globe Death Watch had centered largely on negotiations between the paper and the Boston Newspaper Guild union of reporters, but now the Phoenix reports that the Guild is turning on its own. The Guild Executive Board has suspended Guild President Dan Totten's check signing authority and taken away his credit card based on suspicion of mishandling funds. More at the Herald and Globe.

The Globe reports on the work of MIT students Carter Jernigan and Behram Mistree, who invented online Gaydar. It's actually old news—the students won an award in 2008 because of their project—but who knows how deadlines work in the world of dead tree journalism? In short, the project invented an algorithm that can tell whether or not you're gay based on your Facebook profile—without even counting how many of your friends are topless men.

It's been Sam Yoon's chorus for some time, and now the Globe is joining in to ask whether Boston Mayor Thomas Menino may have too much power. In a detailed article today, the paper proclaims that "Menino has assembled the most extensive political operation in modern Boston history over his 16 years in office, rivaling that of legendary mayor James Michael Curley." According to the Globe, Menino's machine is based on the Office of Neighborhood Services, which in theory uses local liaisons to respond to neighborhood concerns but in practice may be planting the mayor's agenda locally. From Menino moles at challenger rallies to Facebook messages harassing folks who join opponents' groups, there are a variety of questionable activities that the Globe uncovers. Gems include statements “We have the permit... Put me on your fundraiser list,’’ from folks who've received favors that were clearly more than capable of winning them over to the Menino camp.

The Globe calls its new front page a "cleaner, leaner homepage that makes it easier to find the stories, sections, and topics you care about most." A "Hot Topics" bar (which just makes us think of goth clothes) and "Best of Boston.com" sections are designed to help you find what everyone else is reading as well as what you want to read. See a sampling and answer our poll after the jump.

Bostonist is keeping track of the Hub's sports celebrities. While various contract issues contributed to Richard Seymour's stunning trade, contract intrigue keeps Phil Kessel in limbo and in the sportsworld's version the Track. Kessel is unsigned and in rehab mode. We assume he's rehabbing because the Globe's Kessel contract/trade reporting included no reference to how #81 is progressing after his offseason surgeries despite two separate stories saying essentially the same thing. Toronto, according to Kevin Paul Dupont, is lusting after Kessel and possibly preparing to make a contract offer. Bruins GM Peter Chiarelli has a bit of leverage and could sign him and deal him to Nashville or the New York Rangers, Dupont says.

The Globe reports that the MBTA is developing real time bus tracking software that will allow internet users to see where every bus in the T's system is actually located at any given time. The program is modeled on Chicago's CTABustracker, which has been around since 2006. The T hopes to unveil its pilot program soon, featuring a few routes, which will presumably lead to a more comprehensive program. But the question remains: Will the maps have a fine enough pixel resolution so that you can distinguish between the three 39 buses clustered at the same Huntington Avenue intersection? [Globe]

Harvard Law professor and torture enthusiast Alan Dershowitz ran nearly 700 words in today's Globe about the injustice of the beanball. Using the most recent beaning of ball magnet Kevin Youkilis as a case study, Dershowitz points out the obvious: a team that beans a great hitter—and enrages him to the point where he draws a five game suspension—actually benefits from the infraction. In the case of the Youkilis beaning, Youk sat out for five games, during which the Sox went 1-4, and the offending Tigers' pitcher, Rick Porcello, merely had his next scheduled start pushed back a game.

Bostonist reader Matthew Fleischer discovered what was either the funniest joke in today's Boston Globe or the Freudianist of slips. On the crossword page. Fleischer writes: "And so it was with great joy today that I stumbled across the work of Leonard Gravis in the Boston Globe['s crossword page]. It only took one clue for Mr. Gravis to reel me in. 'The ___ mightier than the sword.'" Can you fill in the blank? Yes, the answer to clue 69 across was "penis." [True Slant]

People proceed through life at a fast pace. We communicate in 140-letter blurbs and don't believe people once waited an entire day for new news delivered on a platform other than the Internets. The Globe, for an instant, got this concept and took a minimalist approach to reporting an important story. Their MetroDesk blog reported on the Deval Patrick—James A. Aloisi Jr.—Daniel A. Grabauskas death struggle over possible MBTA fare hikes by posting two quotes that could pass for any text message from a 12-year-old. The quotes link to actual news stories, which is so 2004. Even Bostonist used more words than the MetroDesk did. Is this how Rick Porcello feels?

According to the Boston Herald, the Globe's 135 Morrissey Boulevard location is contaminated with diesel fuel and lead from a 1988 spill. The Herald cites "documents filed at the Suffolk County Registry of Deeds" as the source for this news, and says state Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Joe Ferson confirmed the spill. Ferson added that a change in what the Morrissey Boulevard site is used for could require unspecified cleanup costs. The Herald breathlessly informs us that the contamination could lower the property value, which implies the sale price could go down. The Globe's owner, the New York Times, is reportedly selling the paper and has generated local interest. Please read the comments at the Herald's website for every obvious joke about this story.

• Will people pay to read the Boston Globe on the Internet? We may find out. [Boston Herald]

• James Aloisi, the Mass. Transportation Secretary, suggested the MBTA may no longer need a general manager at all after Daniel A. Grabauskas "resigned" on Thursday. [Boston Globe]

Has the world gone mad? Our entertainment world has lost its collective mind and has been shaken to its very core. Paula Abdul has left American Idol. The Globe and WEEI appear to have a rapproachment. And, George W. Bush finally thought of a mistake he made. Okay, made that one up. The other two look solid, though.

When Bostonist read last week that Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and Boston business guy Jack Connors were leading a group to purchase the Boston Globe and involve a "nonprofit foundation" to run the paper, we asked the following question: "So, the Globe gets sold and still doesn't make money?" In the Herald today, Mike Barnicle Jayson Blair Howie Carr began his column with the following statement: "Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought The Boston Globe already was a nonprofit newspaper."

Two local groups have submitted preliminary bids to buy the Boston Globe, the newspaper reported Friday. Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and former ad man and Boston go-to guy Jack Connors lead one group, while Stephen Taylor, a former Globe executive and member of the family that used to own the Globe. heads the second group. The Pagliuca/Connors group takes a "civic approach" to ownership that includes involving a "nonprofit foundation to help fund and run the Globe." So, the Globe gets sold and still doesn't make money? Anyway, Mort Zuckerman, Chairman of Boston Properties Inc. and owner of the New York Daily News and U.S. News & World Report, is also rumored to be interested in buying the Globe.

Bostonist's inbox has been flooded by press releases from Sam Yoon's campaign office describing Yoon's "GreenPrint" for Boston. It's a series of proposals to add incentives for homeowners, business owners, and drivers to reduce their carbon footprint—by renovating existing buildings and using alternative transportation—that Yoon hopes will become central to his campaign. To kick things off, he proposed legislation in City Council today to add a tax incentive for businesses who are willing to build "green" roofs—roofs with soil and living flora that reduce winter heating requirements and storm runoff and clean the air to boot. It's a big proposal, destined for the front page of the Globe, right?

Though this happened years ago (by Internet Time, aka last Wednesday), Bostonist would be remiss if we didn't mention yet another example of the Boston Globe quickly diminishing standards. Not content to merely wilt and die, the Globe continues its mission to commit suicide in the grandest way possible: by publishing ridiculous tripe that no one with a lump of grey matter between their ears would believe. Case in point: this op-ed by a creationist, claiming that Thomas Jefferson would be a creationist and so it must be true, or something or other.

The Boston Newspaper Guild approved $10 million in concessions tonight, marking a possible temporary end to the dragged-out negotiations with Boston Globe owner New York Times Company. Around 80% of Guild members showed up to vote on their fate, with a final score of 366 yay and 179 nay. Maybe this shows that journalism does have a future: just $10 million less of one. According to the Herald, the money-saving deductions include a "5.9 percent pay cut, eight unpaid days off, a pension freeze and the elimination of the 401(k) contributions as well as the lifetime job guarantees held by nearly 200 union members." Dan Kennedy has an email from Boston Globe editor Marty Baron to his workers thanking them for keeping up their "commitment to deliver journalism of the highest caliber" throughout the negotiations. Despite the deal, the Globe is still up for sale for the moment.

Martha's Vineyard is always a desireable vacation spot for everyone, even Presidents. That's why the news that president Barack Obama and family will be on vacation on the Vineyard during the last week in August was met without much surprise.

Scott Kirsner has had a new book, Fans, Friends & Followers: Building An Audience And A Creative Career In The Digital Age, and it's a great read. Kirsner is a kind of Michael Musto of the regional technology scene: he knows all the companies and their principals, he knows about new products and partnerships, he knows the venture capitalists and their areas of investment, and his observations of these phenomena and his commentary are published in his "Innovation Economy" column at the Boston Globe. The column, and his InnoEco blog are must-reads for any entrepreneur or anyone working in tech in New England.

Great piece by Noah Bierman in today's Globe about the Davis Square Tiles Project, which tracks down the kids who made the tile art on the walls of the Davis Square T station back in 1983. Turns out, they have conflicted feelings about the way the neighborhood has changed from a working class redoubt to a den of hipsters. (A few of the grown-up artists, including a guy who lives in Brooklyn, have gentrified neighborhoods of their own.) The Globe bothered to include a link, for once, and it looks like the traffic has crashed the project's site. Still, good piece. [Globe]

The Phoenix's Adam Reilly relayed the news last night that Boston's Afro-centric weekly has suspended publication. The obvious cause—declining ad revenues—was not the only motivation that publisher Melvin Miller cited when confirming the closure:

• Massachusetts has the second-lowest obesity rate in the nation at 21.2%, which still seems too high. [WCVB]

• Boston firefighters are defying Boston Fire Department orders to volunteer to staff three stations. [Boston Herald]

• Governor Deval Patrick gave a tax credit to movie stars. [Boston Herald]

• The sales tax holiday will probably be taken away. [Boston Herald]

• Governor Deval Patrick may have signed a bill to eliminate the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority but the Pike might cost us even more. [Boston Herald]

Last week, Allston residents were greeted with an unexpected sign right in the middle of the Harvard and Brighton intersection. White banners with the words "Allston Cafe" in boldface covered the "Herrell's Cafe" sign that signified the Massachusetts bred ice cream chain's place in Allston Village. Though the perplexing signs were new, nothing inside the cafe had changed. As the Globe's S.I. Rosenbaum explained in an article published on Tuesday, the name change signified some greater wheelings and dealings in the corporate world, or a decline to be involved in said world.

• Dr. Jerri Nielsen FitzGerald, the woman who treated herself for breast cancer while working in the South Pole for the National Science Foundation, died at her home in Southwick on Tuesday. [WCVB]

• A 7-year old boy from Weymouth saved his mother's life with the Heimlich maneuver. [WCVB]