Mayor Thomas Menino probably won't be happy with today's Boston Herald. The lead story paints a picture of Menino as a master player of the blame game. The article seems to be the result of Menino's rage after the snowstorm mess. Jessica Van Sack writes that people noticed Menino didn't step up and admit that any of those problems were his fault. It's old-school "you smelt it, you dealt it" politics. The piece suggests that......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of readings around the city. Thursday, October 18 Joan Blades, 6:30 pm, Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, Ford Hall Forum Series. Blades is the cofounder of moveon.org, and she's got a lot on her mind besides "General Betray-Us," which Congress gnawed on like they had nothing better to do. She'll be talking about momsrising.org, her organization that pushes for more rights for moms and families. Saturday, October 20 Frank, Mark,......

After announcing 23 percent growth in Harvard's endowment, Mohamed El-Erian, the man largely credited for raking in all that dough and president of Harvard Management Company, has announced that he is leaving. El-Erian is going back to California and rejoining his previous employer, Pacific Investment Management Company (PIMCO). He also told the Crimson that he wants to be closer to family. After all the resignations in the Bush Administration to "spend more time with......

Roy Blount Jr. will be reading from Long Time Leaving: Dispatches From Up South at First Parish Church Meetinghouse on Wednesday, May 16, at 7:30 pm. Tickets are available at Harvard Book Store. On Saturday mornings, we need a Roy Blount Jr. fix. We're addicted. If he's not answering questions in NPR's Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me in his warm, avuncular, Southern-fried voice, we get crabby. We don't know why, but we love hearing him......

--At Stonehill College in Easton, a student found five empty shotgun-shell boxes in a parking lot. Given the rampage at Virginia Tech, people got nervous. However, Stonehill College waited four hours before telling students what to do. The school met with Easton Police before evacuating a dorm, but one student shot back, "It doesn't take four hours to consult with Easton Police." --Andrew Rosenblum, the part-time BU student who threatened an ex-girlfriend is now facing......

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has a lot to worry about. His former chief of staff testified that Gonzales played a part in firing federal prosecutors because they leaned too hard on Republicans and weren't sufficiently supportive of President George W. Bush. We thought we lived in a democracy, not a kingdom where you have to lick the boots of the emperor to keep your job. But that's another matter entirely. While all this scandal was......

Today a tremendous crowd* turned out in Boston to protest the Iraq War, to support our troops who are risking their lives, and to express their anger at the Bush administration for starting it. Many of those in attendance didn't stop with Bush, Cheney, & Co. - they also railed at the Democrat-controlled legislature, whom they feel aren't working enough to stop the war. At first, it seemed as if the rally would be......

Judging by the looks of it, the Bush Administration wishes that the nation would just forget that American soldiers are fighting and dying in Iraq. But they haven't forgotten in Boston. After several years of war, yesterday's protest on Boston Common drew what the Globe estimated to be several hundred people. The Globe also reported that the "turnout at today's event was better than expected." The war has been hitting Massachusetts directly. Keith Callahan,......

Thank goodness! Another update in Bostonist's favorite ongoing story, the neverending battle over gay marriage: The Supreme Judicial Court yesterday heard oral arguments in a challenge to a 1913 law being used by state government to deny marriage licenses to out-of-state gay couples who do not intend to move to Massachusetts. Bostonist is enjoying this subset of the gay marriage debate because it makes clear just how similar today's opposition to same-sex nuptials is to......