Bostonist's post about the hackers at Milton Academy stirred the passions of Milton students and others who felt that we weren't giving the students who got busted hacking (or the whole school in general) a fair shake. They were particularly upset that we claimed students were overprivileged. So, here's their unvarnished words in defense of the school: From lhalpern 10, a Milton Student: check your facts and give milton a break it is a......

8:27 p.m. - Hello and welcome to Bostonist's first live blog of the World Series! We've just returned from Blogtoberfest and we're good to go. First pitch and it's a strike! Foul, but foul is a strike. FOX, which not surprisingly is already displaying its season-long anti-Red Sox bias, is telling us that Colorado should be able to hit Schilling tonight. 8:31 p.m. - Schilling is trying to keep Colorado honest - or missing his......

That's right. Former New York City mayor and Republican presidential aspirant Rudy Giuliani has come out-- as a Red Sox fan. Giuliani said in public that he was backing the Red Sox in the World Series. Of course, he said it while he was in Boston and asking for votes, and a politician will do anything for a vote. But Mr. New York, Mayor of the Nation, 9/11 Every Other Word said he's rooting for......

The Darfur/Darfur Exhibit will be at the Institute of Contemporary Art on Friday, September 7, in the Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater. The exhibit of photographs will run from 10 am to 3 pm and is free with regular admission. Tickets to the lecture and Yo-Yo Ma performance are already sold out, but you will be able to hear it outside the ICA. Sometimes "awareness-raising" only goes so far, especially when it comes to......

Ah, the New York/Boston debate. While many point their fingers at Boston for stoking the flames on a regular basis (chants of "Yankees Suck" heard everywhere might have something to do with it), we can now point a little of the blame back to NYC. Gawker, having decided that they'd chastised Britney Spears' parenting techniques enough, shocked readers across the globe today by turning its typically New Yawk-centric eye beyond the boroughs. But, in characteristic......

Rumors are flying today about the possible death of Mr. Butch (Harold Madison, Jr.), the former "King of Kenmore Square" exiled to Allston in the mid-1990s. According to the unconfirmed stories reported on message boards today, the homeless man/local musicians/unofficial face of Boston was riding on a scooter this morning when he was involved in a collision with a car. His Wikipedia and MySpace have already been updated to announce the news. Bostonist contacted Boston......

What with Paris Hilton's release earlier this week and the upcoming celebration of American Independence (sorry, Londonist!), we've been thinking a lot about freedom. Freedom to vote, freedom to choose, and most importantly, freedom to blog. Here are a few things we're happy we've been free to blog about this week. Being the nation's capital, DCist felt especially proud to let freedom ring this week by exposing the really important issues, like how sad they......

The following message (and accompanying photo) comes from our publisher, Jake Dobkin -- Ed. Note Hey everyone-- you may have noticed that we've made a few small changes to our commenting and feedback systems: 1. Commenters now have profile pages with a bit of information about them, and links to their recent comments, along with comments other people have left in response. If the commenter is also a Bostonist author, the page will include a......

All across the Ist-A-Verse (or at least the American parts thereof), writers and editors are in the midst of enjoying their three-day weekend. But after the week we've all had, we feel like the break is not only needed, but deserved. Just look at everything we've been doing! Gothamist headed into the Memorial Day weekend with a number of tasks accomplished. They worried about Long Islanders giving New Yorkers a bad name. They tried......

If you love the dish from a certain entitled university "outside Boston," an Ivy League gossip site has brought back RagTime, a roundup of Ivy-League news. The two gentlemen behind IvyGateBlog, Chris Beam and Nick Summers, shifted to a twice-daily posting schedule, and they dropped RagTime, thinking no one really cared. Along with 56 commenters and hordes of silent Internet lurkers, Bostonist was thoroughly despondent. IvyGateBlog's interpretation of university events, such as "LaRouche followers......

Sullivan Square Station and a chunk of I-93 North closed earlier today because MBTA police had to detonate something that was indeed "suspicious." This wasn't your ordinary stray item – this thing had wires and tubes around it. The location was also a big factor according to the AP: "The package was found earlier this morning suspended above a busway that runs below an elevated section of Interstate 93 in the Charlestown section of Boston."......

The tale of Tufts history professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto getting roughed up for jaywalking in Atlanta has gone global. The BBC is doing a "those nutty Americans" story on it, headlined "What Every Brit Should Know About Jaywalking." Another interesting fact emerged in the BBC story. The Hotlanta PD "confiscated his box of peppermints." The police took his peppermints! This whole incident is sounding more and more like a lost episode of Seinfeld. Most stories......

Sunday. Usually, a quiet, contemplative day in the Blogosphere. But not here in the Ist-a-Verse. Nonono! Just look below and see all of the wild and crazy stuff our staffs are up to. In Austin, bands are beginning to confirm for SXSW and the rumor mill is up and running. Good thing, too, because we all know how much Austinites love live performances. Austin also found itself in the national spotlight, with Longhorn Legend......

Before we begin, we'd like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of James Kim. We are not, by any means, trying to discount that tragedy by juxtaposing posts about the Kims with more light-hearted posts. It's the nature of doing a compilation such as this one: we're trying to give a full slice of the goings-on in the Ist-a-Verse: the good, the bad, and the ugly. Londonist wants you to know where to......

Halloween is Tuesday, which means this weekend is really the time for all of the –ists to celebrate. And whether they’re designing super-spooky costumes or talking about the super-spooky upcoming elections, we’d say that they’re doing a fine job of it. Austinist knows that few things in life are scarier than zombies, people with way too much money, and politicians who try too hard to be funny. Slightly less scary, depending on whom you......

As we sat down to write this week's Best of the -ists post, a car blaring "21 Questions'" passed by our house. And that started us thinking about how some of the best -ist posts out there have at their hearts questions, some of which are answered, and some of which are left open. Check out the Best of the -ists from this week, and see if you agree. Londonist answers the questions "How much......

Breaking the law, breaking the law We -ist folks love us some crime, and no misdemeanor is too petty for a post on any of our sites. This week, join us for a rogues' gallery of miscreants major, minor, and alleged. Gothamist gets us started with "Law & Order", muppet style. Oh, you know what isn't a crime? Taking pictures on the MTA. So, why are cops stopping photographers? In other Gotham crime, a......

God, we're so sick of Snakes on a Plane that we want to kill anyone and everyone that makes a "something on a something" joke. But then we realized that there was no way we could ever win this fight, and, hell, if you can't beat them, we might as well join them. And with that, you have the theme of this weeks' Gothamist network post. Austinist makes it easy for us, with Candidate on......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-wielding and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes.......

SFist commeters pose for before and aftershocks when the mayor commemorates a 1906 earthquake...at 4:30 in the morning. A hot tip on the Chronicle vending machines comes in and the SFist war correspondent risks life and limb to post this dispatch from the frontlines. Houstonist announces their new Cops spinoff "World's Funniest Tazer Videos" and the possible cancellation of their pervs' "World's Grossest Bathroom Videos" and PBS trains cams on cows at, uhg, Mootube. Also,......

Long ago, when the happy promise of springtime filled the air, Bostonist told you that Somerville was making plans to be the first Boston-area municipality (and only the second in the whole Commonwealth) to implement a 311 phone line for non-emergency calls to city government. Back then, it didn't seem like much of a big deal. "Non-emergency calls to Somerville?!" you scoffed. "Forget that! It's the middle of May! I'm going to go drink beer......