Here's the top Oddblotter story of the year--just in time for Christmas! You've already seen some impressive tales, but the winning Oddblotter story of the year is a real head-scratcher. 1. The Priest Who Stalked Conan O'Brien. As if Boston priests didn't already have a bad reputation (sorry, Cardinal O'Malley, but they still do), Father David Ajemian, who had worked in Stoneham, took a shine to Conan O'Brien. The pair had a lot in common,......

Earlier this week Cardinal Sean O'Malley invited Pope Benedict XVI to Boston during his planned 2008 visit to the United States. The Pope has planned a trip to visit the United Nations in New York and O'Malley suggests that a short trip up from the NYC in the pope-mobile might be in order. The Globe quotes O'Malley as saying "Given everything Boston has been through, having the Holy Father come, I think, would be a......

We never thought it would last. When Cardinal O'Malley headed off to Rome for the Mass to honor Padre Pio he started a blog. We thought that it would be one of the many blogs that was started and maintained for a short period of time until the author lost interest or got busy with other things. Apparently we were wrong. Cardinal Seán's blog has been up and running from the September inception, though only......

As promised, Bostonist attended our fair city's contribution to today's so-called "national day of action" to oppose a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives that would make illegal immigrants' presence in this country a felony, and to support legislative efforts to grant amnesty to undocumented workers. According to the Associated Press, there were between 5,000 (the police estimate) and 8,000 (the organizers' estimate) marchers. On the ground, with no crowd-counting skills and only the......

Just about a week ago, Bostonist garnered more comments than we'd ever before received on a single post when we talked about the Massachusetts Catholic archbishops' plan to stop placing children for adoption with same-sex couples, in violation of state anti-discrimination law. At first, the Church seemed confident it would get around the problem hiring a white-shoe law firm to seek an exemption, and although the Governor initially said the matter was out of his......