So we weren't the only ones who were ticked at a woman's comment about South End wait staff and how they handle children eating in their restaurant. Let's reflect on what the woman said: Well, the entire article brought The South End Is Over out of hibernation, and the blogger is pissed. As we said before, wait staff are there to serve, but asking them to clean up the Cheerios messy little critters leave behind......

You heard that right--"on our lawn" as opposed to "off our lawn." We're serious! Turns out that Boston--Boston, home of constant tension between college students and permanent residents--is one of the best 100 communities in the United States for children and young people. America's Promise Alliance spotlights the "best places for young people to live and grow up." Mayor Menino is already touting the development in a press release. Some of the city's programs that......

Enza Sambataro may not be a household name, but she inspires a passionate response from baseball fans. She's about to marry the beloved Red Sox player Kevin Youkilis. The Globe recently ran a light lifestyle piece about how Sambataro won't be the ordinary baseball wife. She dated Ben Affleck, she jokes about Yooooouk drinking too many margaritas, and she has a shoplifting record, around which the article danced delicately. Adam Reilly at the Phoenix detected......

Santa Speedo Run Saturday, December 15, 1:00 pm Lir, 903 Boylston, Boston Run goes down Boylston to Berkeley and back up Newbury Official Site For some reason, people are compelled to prove their strength by taking off their clothes in winter and running around, displaying their pasty, quivering flash to one and all. (Tufts, we're talking to you.) But the people participating in the 8th annual Santa Speedo Run are stripping down to their skivvies......

--Police have arrested a man for attacking a woman as the left the Brookline Village T stop early yesterday morning. The victim identified 23-year-old Samuel Prado as her attacker. The Herald reports that a State Police dispatcher made a connection when Prado was caught "acting aggressively" at Logan Airport. --A woman and her two children were found dead yesterday in Springfield. According to the Herald, Juan Mejia, 32, of Springfield, the dead woman's husband, was......

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory in Smell-O-Vision Brattle Theatre, 40 Brattle Street, Cambridge Thursday, December 13, 7:30 More information If you missed the outdoor screening of Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory in Smell-O-Vision at Union Square this summer, you have the opportunity to miss it again. The indoor debut of the event is sold out. Last July, a group of artists led by Megan Dickerson and funded by the Somerville Arts Council, presented......

But before they went back up, whoever writes the blotter wasn't getting a little sick of having to do so many test posts. Commenter Middleman gave us a heads up that something was brewing over at BPDNews.com. Somebody on the BPD end is getting frustrated: "TEST BY IRATE ACCOUNT MANAGER." Middleman responds, "HILARIOUSNESS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA." --Good news. The Green Line Groper has been arrested. The Herald reports that the 60-year-old suspect......

Many women get close to their hairdressers, whether they're forking over too much for a haircut or going to SuperCuts. But have you been worried that your hairdresser might hate you? Kayleen Schaefer at the New York Times did a trend piece on how the most successful hairstylists don't gossip with or barely even talk to their customers. The first hairstylist profiled was Mario Russo of Boston: “I’m not in a position to give you......

--The banner brawl continues. The Highway Department decided that the banners declaring support for the troops that hang over the roadways pose a potential road hazard. That decision poses a potential PR nightmare, and Governor Deval Patrick has put it on hold. [Boston Globe] --Corinne Stephen, 26, was sentenced to 8 to 12 years for the involuntary manslaughter of her foster child, 4-year-old Dontel Jeffers. [DA's Office, background] --A longshoreman fessed up to putting......

Billy Joel said "Only The Good Die Young," but let's just say he has no idea what he's talking about, and only the really good die at the ripe old ages of, say, 69. So goes the news for Friday, November 30th, as Evel Knievel - a legendary stuntman who's fame hasn't been succeeded by generations to follow. One can only wonder with the speed of technology and special effects if masters of amazement......

-Some Blotter days are longer than others … --After two teenagers were shot this morning as kids were going to school in Dorchester, police officers swarmed on the neighborhood in search of a suspect who they thought was hiding out in a triple decker on Hendry Street. Globe reporters said the BPD was at the triple decker for two hours before deciding it was empty and that the shooter took off. The victims' wounds are......

--The Legislature is going to consider banning spanking tomorrow. That's spanking of children, not "please, sir, may I have another" frat-spanking or whatever role-playing you do with your significant other. [WCVB] --A man's SUV became stuck on train tracks in Beverly last night just as a commuter train was heading toward him. He escaped in the nick of time. His SUV got creamed. [Photo-WCVB] --The Roman Catholic Archdiocese plans to close at least two schools......

--Twenty-five enterprising members of the BPD found a way to make over $200,000 last year. 121 police officers make more money than Commish Ed Davis. This information goes to show how much money goes into the police details, and how much it would save if the state went with Governor Deval Patrick's plan to use flagmen instead of details at construction sites. --WBZ' I-Team found that Massachusetts State Troopers caused "nearly 500 crashes in their......

--The man who fell off a roof and died at an Allston party Friday night has been identified as 21-year-old student Shawn Dow. Dow attended the Art Institute of Boston. Although a brawl erupted at the party, BPD reports indicate that Dow wasn't involved and accidentally fell off the roof. However, according to the Globe, "Some of Dow's friends and classmates who attended the party disputed the police account, saying a beating in the brawl......

Dominic Luberto's annual feat of light pollution Christmas devotion -- 500,000 bulbs and counting -- has long brought media attention to his Jamaica Plain home and won him admirers across the globe. He gets fan letters simply addressed to "Christmas Castle" and has started his own children's charity drive. But his crowning achievement may be his undoing. The Globe has more details on the City's efforts to bring down the "Crown of Christ" that Luberto......

Londonist got the big scoop of the week with what may be the first images of notorious street artist Banksy in action. They also got on a runaway train without an operator provoking a response from the transport authorities. Elsewhere, London's answer to Central Station is about to open for business, and Londonist got a sneak preview. Meanwhile, spooky goings-on beneath London Bridge, where a cache of skeletons provided an apt story for Hallowe'en.......

--A gun battle erupted in Dorchester yesterday afternoon. A teenager was wounded, and a No. 23 bus got shot up. The teen, Walter West, was celebrating his 16th birthday. His gift was that his wounds are non-life-threatening, and no one on the bus got hurt. The BPD told the Herald that the gunfire was "likely related to a feud between gangs on Morse and Lucerne streets." --The city has announced another new plan to cut......

Attempt at Largest Gathering of Halloween Witches (Reciting Poetry) With Lesley Bannatyne Saturday, October 27 Book signing at 7:00 pm McIntyre & Moore Booksellers, Davis Square, Somerville Record-breaking at 7:30 pm Davis Square, Somerville Do the past few Halloweens seem to go by, leaving nothing more than a little tummyache after eating too much candy corn? Well, Somerville author and Halloween expert Lesley Bannatyne is aims to leave a mark this Halloween by attempting to......

It might be a stretch to claim that all the children at Sunday's Boston Comic Con were present to support their parents, but there was one incontrovertible example. Two toddlers, swaddled in the costumes of Superman and the Flash, raced through the Back Bay Events Center in strollers, pushed by their parents. "I think he's going to win," said the mother, pointing at the one dressed as Superman. "He's really the fastest." The convention was......

"There's always a small cataclysm," Merry Rutrick explained. "That's what we talk about." Rutrick is a co-host of Drinking Liberally Boston, and the cataclysm last Wednesday night was the impending vote in the US House to overturn President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program funding bill. "I'm so psyched that Tsongas got elected," said co-host Ethan Tavan. "I hope she gets sworn in in time for the vote." (She did, and......

--In a shooting last night on Talbot Street, one woman died and a man is in serious condition at Brigham and Women's. According to reports, three people, including one woman, approached the victims before the shooting started. The woman, who has not yet been identified, is Boston's 56th homicide this year. --The family of the late Liquarry Jefferson, the 8-year-old shot by his own 7-year-old cousin earlier this year, is back in the spotlight. His......

After all the "enough is enough" blah-dee-blah from the city brass, people on the ground who have to deal with Boston crime every day are doing something about it. Pop Warner football coach Myron Stovell, who was shot in the leg this weekend by a teenage hothead with a gun, didn't let his injury stop him from attending a community meeting on the subject. The meeting included parents and children who were on Stovell's Boston......

Famous Puppet Death Scenes October 18 and 19, 7:30 pm October 20, 2:00 pm and 8:00 pm $25 / Student rush tickets are $10 and can be picked up 2 hours before the show More Info Bostonist hears about a lot of unusual events, but "Famous Puppet Death Scenes" from the Old Trout Puppet Workshop may win the prize for the oddest. A puppet is an inanimate object--a dead object, if you will--until someone sticks......

--Beauty and the Geek: John, the MIT student Bostonist thinks is most likely to get some, received a "booty dance" from one of the beauties and admitted, "I didn’t know where to look." Romance was also on the minds of the other local contestants. Girl geek Nicole admitted that she had a crush on one of the boy geeks. Somerville LARPer Dave said of her revelation in his confessional, "I have to admit, my curiosity......

"No, the punching happened at a Boston Pops concert," we told everyone who wished us a fistfight on Thursday. "The audience was riled up by that popular music. This is the Boston Symphony Orchestra. There's a difference." This Bostonist is a savage who can't articulate that difference, but we tricked a musically-literate friend who was under the impression that we were taking her out for her birthday—let's call her Fancy McCulture-Pants—to accompany us to the......

A Quincy resident was killed in action in Afghanistan on Thursday. Specialist Ciara Durkin was in the National Guard and part of a finance unit. She was 30. Via the Patriot-Ledger, RTE of Ireland is reporting that she was shot in the head inside Bagram Air Base. Her sister told the Globe, "She was in a secure area of the compound, which, even though the investigation is not complete, leads the family to believe it......

Current Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is ripping on former Massachusetts governor and political aspirant Mitt Romney over health care. Patrick also pointed out that Romney's "aw, shucks" demeanor doesn't properly advertise the product within the package. Patrick said of Romney, "He's a nice fellow. But a shameless candidate." That line has echoes of the Southern "bless your heart," in which a person delivers an insult and cushions it with the line "bless your heart." The......

"Authorial Intent" is Bostonist's attempt to bring you the best readings in the area, all tied up with a shiny bow. Diane Ackerman, Wednesday, September 19, 7:00 pm, Harvard Book Store. More info. In The Zookeeper's Wife, fiction writer, nonfiction writer, and poet Ackerman returns with the true story of zookeepers in Poland during World War II who hid Jews from the Nazis. The LA Times calls the novel "a shining book beyond category." Jonathan......

Senator Ted Kennedy might be writing a book about his career, and he has hired a lawyer who has worked with other big leaders (as in the Clintons) on their books. His adviser has leaked it but is being awfully tight-lipped about what the book will involve. The mere fact that the announcement emphasizes his career rather than his life suggests that it won't be the juicy tell-all that many people would like to see.......

--Yesterday afternoon, a person was shot in the chest and side in Roxbury on Langdon Street. The Globe noted that the incident was a block away from a playground. That's bad enough, but the Herald connected more dots and noted that the shooting was in front of the same house where a standoff between Cape Verdean gang members and police took place. --A homeless man died in an accident yesterday at the Pine Street Inn.......