--Mayor Menino hops on a bike in honor of Bike Week. [Boston Globe] --Local residents with family in China react to the news of the recent earthquake. [Boston Herald] --House Speaker Sal Di Masi is mad as hell at the suggestion that his ethics are a little shady, and he's not taking it anymore. [Boston Globe] --Two recipients of kidneys from a homeless man infected with LMCV, a rodent virus, have died. [Boston Globe] --Parts......

Second only to the awards themselves, fashion is one of the main reasons why so many of us watch the Oscars. So along with everyone else out there with a blog and a voice, we’ve decided to give you our opinion on fashion last night. We’ll save you from our opinions on the winners and why Amy Ryan was robbed and stick to what we know. Fashion. Amy Adams was probably one of the best......

Photo credit: sniderscion Torontoist spent its week uncovering who was behind mysterious ads for a drug called "Obay" that popped up across the country (Scientology? Frank Shepard Fairey?), first tracing them to an advocacy group called Colleges Ontario and then confirming their suspicions a few days later.Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show – it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovers that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates......

What has gotten into the shampoo of two of Massachusetts' best-known figures? One man cut all his hair off, and another is sporting a mullet that would impress even Denise of Survivor: China fame. First, Deval Patrick is sporting an especially close shave. His hair has never been long, at least as long as the state of Massachusetts has known him, but he's exposing some scalp these days. We're not the only ones who wondered......

Governor Deval Patrick testified this morning at the State House about his plan to create an Executive Office of Education. This would consolidate authority and responsibility for the commonwealth's education system from pre-kindergarten to higher education to one cabinet-level position in the State House. Patrick referenced his recent trip to China, saying that Massachusetts is known throughout the world for its educational institutions. Education is "our calling card." In addition, as home to America's......

"Half the guys in our league couldn't shoot 15-for-21 if they were in a gym by themselves," said Doc Rivers. The man would know, having coached Kedrick Brown, Gerald Green, and Brian Scalabrine over the years. But 15-for-21 were the numbers Toronto rained down on the C's from 3-point-land, dropping the C's to their first division loss of the season. It was perhaps the Celtics' poorest defensive game of the year; the Raptors shot 58%......

Photograph of the Trump Soho by Riccardo Sinti Gothamist went to the scene of the Trump Soho construction collapse, which left one construction worker dead and others injured (an indirect culprit - Manhattan's hot real estate market, causing rushed construction jobs).Shanghaiist is confused by media reports as to whether Playboy will be available in China during the year of the Olympics.LAist got fugged in an interview with the Go Fug Yourself girls.Torontoist set hearts......

Human Rights International Film Festival at the MFA The Axe in the Attic: Review follows. Sunday, January 20, 2 pm Friday, January 25, 5:45 pm Saturday, January 26, 12:45 pm Thursday, January 31, 6 pm Hot House: A probing documentary that explores the emergence of a Palestinian national leadership within Israeli prisons. Screens Sunday, January 20, 2008, 10:30 am. White Light/Black Rain: A film exploring the threat of nuclear weapons today while looking at mistakes......

LAist listed a top ten list of sorts: things they hope not to see in Los Angeles in 2008. (one example, pictured above). Shanghaiist was surprised to learn that "godless," "atheist," and "commie" China is soon going to be the world's largest supplier of Bibles! Torontoist picked some of their favorite photos of 2007. Londonist was relieved to hear the fire at the Royal Marsden hospital didn't harm any of the patients even though......

Update: WBZ has pictures of an SUV crashing into the bus. Another car plowed into the back of the car that hit the bus. The people involved were lucky--only three people on the bus and four in the SUV were hit. --A car hit an MBTA bus this afternoon while the bus was on American Legion Highway and Mount Hope Road. Three people on the bus went to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. [Boston......

Is Denise Martin, fourth-place finisher in Survivor: China, a lunch lady? Is she a janitor? Is she a pawn of the "reality show" system? Or does the Massachusetts resident just have ladyballs as bold as her mullet? Denise Martin admitted that she had been promoted before leaving for China on CBS' Early Show in an extremely awkward interview. Apparently, a lot of people are visiting the site looking for more information on Denise the Lunch......

Last night, Denise Martin, who worked as a lunch lady in Douglas, said the school district she worked for didn't let her return to work as a lunch lady and that she had to work as a janitor and she was not happy at all. She received $50,000 from Mark Burnett as a result. (Having another castmate make a demeaning comment about "welfare" and saying Denise "sucks at life" probably also prodded Burnett to......

Survivor: China wrapped up tonight with a bang, including perhaps the meanest comment ever uttered on reality television and a rough welcome home for local competitor Denise Martin. Every challenge counts at this stage, and all four Survivors need to try as hard as they can. Last Thursday, we became nervous about Denise because she wouldn't finish the chicken fetus in the Immunity Challenge, and it looked like she was losing energy. As for Courtney......

Survivor: China: In the next-to-last episode of Survivor: China, Denise has been struggling with a question--who does she think she can win against if she were in Survivor's final two? Denise had a tough choice after she won the immunity challenge, which involved players giving each other arrows. When the challenge started, Denise wound up with the next-to-least number of arrows and admitted that she was low on the totem pole of her alliance. To......

Now that David, the Somerville LARPer, took the grand prize in Beauty and the Geek, we are focusing our attentions on Denise, the martial-arts aficionado with the heroic hair. Denise has hung on throughout several rough rounds of Survivor:China. This week, Denise caught a break since the reward challenge involved the presence of family members. The producers saved Denise's husband for last--for good reason. He is a big, burly dude who looks like he would......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of local readings. All events are free unless otherwise noted. Wednesday, November 28 Helen Vendler, Our Secret Discipline: Yeats and the Lyric Form, Sacker Museum (via Harvard Book Store), 6:00 pm. More info. Vendler, the closest reader of all close readers, so says the New York Times, shines her spotlight on William Butler Yeats. Thursday, November 29 David Hosp, Innocence, 7:30 pm, Charlestown Branch Library Hosp will be reading from......

Beauty and the Geek: Somerville LARPer Dave surprised everyone this week by revealing his inner dancer on the show's trip to Mexico. Fueled by a lump of salt and some booze from a botched tequila shot, he did a round-off back handspring. His partner, Jasmine, was so impressed that she gave him a kiss. The look on Dave's face was priceless. Getting that kind of attention from a woman, no matter how platonic, made it......

Survivor: China: This week marked the all-important tribal merger, not to mention heaps of shenanigans involving the Immunity Idol. Yet Denise, our beloved Denise, barely spoke. What is with all this drama drama drama and no Denise? Is this a subtle hint that she may have won the whole thing? Since no one is letting Denise talk, we decided to check out her bio over at the official Survivor: China site. She's a badass. She......

Beauty and the Geek: Our locals held on for another week. Tufts girl geek Nicole learned why bunk beds suck. She sleeps on the bottom bunk while her beauty male partner, Sam, enjoys the top bunk. Sam took another beauty, Rebecca, into his bed and started getting it on. An outraged Nicole began to cry, not because she harbored any attraction to Sam, but because it is rude and an invasion of private space......

--Beauty and the Geek: The challenges this week are for the geeks to compose and perform a rap song and for the beauties to debate current-events issues. Dave from Somerville is not happy because his partner, Jasmine, is slow on the uptake - and, in a burst of antisocial behavior, he tells her so! But he sucks it up and works on his rap song. One look at him (image left), and you can guess......

Jason Bailey may have been chasing the car that eventually crashed into a tree on Blue Hill Avenue and Callender Street yesterday morning. That crash killed a passenger, 18-year-old Porsche Hubbard, and injured the female driver, a 10-year-old girl, and a baby. The DA's office announced that 28-year-old Bailey, of Mattapan, was arrested and charged for the crime yesterday, and he is being held on $100,000 bail. That announcement says that Bailey was allegedly vicious......

Watch out when you're shopping for toothpaste, folks! The state Department of Public Health said today that potentially tainted toothpaste, like that included in a FDA warning last month, has started to pop up in many a Massachusetts town or city. Among the municipalities specifically mentioned: Amherst, Arlington, Boston, Dedham, Lawrence, Lowell, Marlden, Somerville, Strubridge, Wellesley, and West Springfield. What's the issue? Toothpast from China and counterfeit Colgate toothpaste might have in it diethylene gycol......

The nailbiting, the pacing, the swearing, the chainsmoking - they all end tonight. Except maybe at Tommy Heinsohn's house. Tonight, we find out the next step in the Celtics' drive back to relevance. Will Danny Ainge swing one of the deals we've heard about? Will we be welcoming Kevin Garnett (no way), Shawn Marion (probably not), Dikembe Mutombo (possible) or Bill Telfair? Or will Danny stand pat and actually use his #5 pick to draft......

Boston just got its own food scare thanks to tabloid TV show Inside Edition. They brought their "Rat Patrol" into several restaurants, including the Quincy Market McCormick & Schmick's, Ruth's Chris, China Pearl, and other establishments. After having to sit through some crap about Anna Nicole's momma, we discovered that Inside Edition really does have a dedicated "Rat Patrol" of five people standing around and looking tough while they sniff out rats under the cover......

There's two ways to handle a loss. Even if that loss is an utterly flat performance against an utterly forgettable K.C. team that made Gil Meche look like Christy Mathewson and Mark Grudzielanek look like Rogers Hornsby. The first way to approach it is, hey, it's only one game. Even the best teams in history lose more than fifty times a season. And Pedro lost Opening Day in 2004, and we know how that turned......

--A little while back, an angry dad entered the fray when his kid got in a fight with a 10-year-old after a hockey match. Not only is that embarrassing for the guy's own son, but it's really embarrassing when a 46-year-old man sees fit to wail on a little kid. Now the Hopedale dad has been charged for his actions. Let this be a lesson to any potential parents out there: When your kid gets......

So, the Celtics have been drooling over Kevin Durant, but, if they play badly enough, they might have another juicy prospect option - Glen "Big Baby" Davis of LSU is foregoing his senior year to join the pros. "Big Baby" is big indeed and sends visions of Shaq dancing in coaches heads. Danny Ainge may have put himself under house arrest to make sure he doesn't get too close to Davis' mother. Danny Ainge also......

With the sun out, the temperatures high, one can only think of one thing-- what's going on in the World of the -ist's? Bostonist dug deep to uncover Barack Obama's unpaid parking tickets, their Governor's latest ethical lapse, and a plagarizing sports writer. Chicagoist had everything in twos: two views on having the Olympics, losing two members of their Super Bowl team, and two music festivals. DCist put their noses in legal books as......

Texas is thawing, the Northeast is freezing, and a sort of natural order seems almost restored to the Ist-A-Verse. Almost. Londonist HQ—that is to say, the city of London—was battered by heavy winds, making it a bad time to be a twelve-meter (nearly forty-foot) tall snowman. Still, not everyone decided to keep warmly covered. Meanwhile, back indoors, the Big Brother racism is now causing all kinds of headaches for international diplomats, and Londonist got into......

Soon, our Eastern friends will find themselves as addicted to donuts and coffee as we are if Dunkin' Donuts has its way. Yesterday, Dunkin' Donuts put out a press release to declare the company has opened a store in Taipei, Taiwan. Besides the obvious donuts, the Taipei menu includes "sweet potato, green apple and pineapple doughnuts, and mochi rings." The Wall Street Journal reported that Dunkin' Donuts won't shock the Taiwanese customers with coffee just......