-- Ready for your dog to take the leap from I Can Has Hotdog to some serious doggy modeling? This may just be Fido's big break. [b0st0n] -- Speaking of doggies, Boston has won the heart of one local blogger by banning "dog sharing" in the city. [The JQ Lounge] -- In case anyone was wondering what happened with that Flash Mob Pillowfight in Central Square last week, apparently it turned into a not......

The American Kennel Club released the most popular dog breeds, not just in the United States, but in the major American cities. Here's the list out of Boston: 1. Labrador Retriever 2. German Shepherd 3. Yorkshire Terrier 4. Golden Retriever 5. Boxer 6. Bulldog 7. Pug 8. Dachshund 9. Poodle 10. Pomeranian Boston is following a trend since the AKC notes that Labrador Retrievers have been the most popular dog in America for 17......

--A new company, FlexPetz, will let you rent a dog for a few hours so you can enjoy canine companionship without getting up in the cold to walk the critter. Wouldn't it be great if you could just rent human companionship for a few hours? Oh, wait. That's illegal. Nevermind. [Boston Globe] --Wondering why there are so many kids running around today? Seventy drivers called in sick or took a personal day today, and about......

I Am Legend raked in the money, as expected. The public loves Will Smith, they love special effects, they love cute dogs, and I Am Legend gave audiences what they wanted. Peter Keough at the Phoenix went so far as to say that the dog in I Am Legend was his "favorite animal character of the year." As a result, the movie made an obscene $76.5 million on its opening weekend. Believe it or not,......

For the past few months, Bostonist has engaged in a scientific experiment. We've been sniffing around T stops to find out which ones are the most pleasant and which ones are an offense to the olfactory nerves. Each day this week, we'll evaluate the odors you will find at various T stops. And here it is--the complete list of T stops with the most distinct odors: Aquarium: High tide, dolphin pee Airport: Pleather luggage,......

For the past few months, Bostonist has engaged in a scientific experiment. We've been sniffing around T stops to find out which ones are the most pleasant and which ones are an offense to the olfactory nerves. Each day this week, we'll evaluate the odors you will find at various T stops. Today, we'll breathe in the Green Line--slowly: BU Stops (all of them): Natty Light, vodka, wet UGGS, Acqua di Gio cologne, raging......

A fried turkey is a delicious turkey because the skin is ever-so-crispy and the flesh is meltingly moist. But Bostonist would like to issue a public-service announcement--turkey-frying is dangerous. You best know your way around propane because 'tis the season for turkey-fry fires. Be sure to take the turkey fryer outside before you start. Essentially, you will be hooking up a vat of oil to a propane tank and dipping a whole turkey into the......

"That's not the way we drew it up," said Colorado manager Clint Hurdle. "Obviously we have to change our game plan," added Todd Helton. "You can't make any mistakes," chimed in shellshocked starting pitcher Jeff Francis. If you're Colorado, what else can you say? The team that charged through September and most of October, and held Arizona to eight total runs in their mockery of an NLCS, looked like they hadn't played baseball in eight......

Gothamist learned about the craziest urban nightmare come true: A huge python found in the bathroom pipes. It was also a nightmare for some Yankees fans, as manger Joe Torre declined to come back and manage the Bronx Bombers. At least the city's attempt to give some direction to subway riders was interesting, pranksters went shirtless at the Fifth Avenue Abercrombie & Fitch and the I Heart Brooklyn Girls calendars came out. And just......

--Did carrying around a bunch of mail-order catalogs and dodging dogs all day make an East Boston postal worker snap? Noelle Lacorte, 26, of Revere, was driving her mail truck yesterday morning when she almost ran over a police officer working a detail. The police took offense, and she took off. Here's what happened next, according to the Herald: “The officer observed the operator on her cell phone with a cigarette in one hand and......

The mayor wants a former Big Dig contractor, Paul Pedini, to return two foo dogs to Chinatown. The contractor had "liberated" them to decorate his snazzy sustainable home, which was built from Big Dig recyclables. The contractor claimed it was okay for him to take the two foo dogs because they were going to be replaced by brand-new ones. There were four old foo dogs—two went to Pedini, and two went to the Kowloon Restaurant......

Talk about adding insult to injury. Not only did the Big Dig contractors bleed the state of money and do a crappy job, but one of them somehow obtained two of Chinatown's "Foo Dogs" during a renovation of Chinatown park. From the Herald: The marble foo dogs, sometimes called lions - which once stood guard under the Beach Street arch leading visitors to Chinatown - were taken by Paul Pedini, a former vice president of......

--In the middle of a card game at an old folks' home in Jamaica Plain, someone let loose pepper spray, and three residents went to the hospital. That must have been a high-stakes game of pokeno! Police questioned one 66-year-old man, Robert Kane, because he had pepper spray in the past, but he denied it. One resident referred to "troublemakers" in the home and suggested that some people in the home were beefing. Aren't they......

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.......

--Cookie Monster would be very, very sad. An employee of the Bon Appetit restaurant inside Lesley University lost his mind on Saturday morning and told his boss exactly how he felt. Jose Arevalo's boss told him to plate some cookies. He didn't feel like plating any damn cookies, so he said he "wasn't listening to her because she was a woman," shoved her, squeezed her neck, and threw her into the door of the walk-in......

The state Cultural Facilities Fund was generous this year, giving $16.7 million to various arts-related groups. The Citi Performing Arts Center was not one of them, largely because they seem to have their priorities mixed up when it comes to handling their funds. The Citi Performing Arts Center was going to get $600,000, but that amount has been, in the words of the Globe, "tabled." The Citi Performing Arts Center had tried to improve its......

Happy first weekend of September - and happy Labor Day weekend, too, for our American cities! Let's take a look at what's been happening around the Ist-a-verse. The deaths of two firefighters shook Bostonist this week. Boston's firefighters bent over backwards all week long - first, they fought flames pouring from the Boston Tea Party museum, and then a restaurant fire killed two and injured many more. Their efforts make everything else - like Tom......

Think back to the glory days of '04, when an odd phenomenon swept across Red Sox Nation. The day after we realized that our beloved boys of summer-turned-autumn were heading to the World Series, many a bleary-eyed Sox fan remarked that winning the Series would be amazing, unheard of, astounding. But there was an anti-climactic twinge to the remarks, because Shaughnessy's curse had already been broken for some of the crowd. The Sox had already......

Sometimes, we in Boston take our Sox for granted forget how good we've got it. That's why every so often, the Bostonist Sports Department likes to hit the road and investigate the conditions at other ballparks around the land. So we found ourselves in Pittsburgh this weekend, watching the woeful Pirates play the hapless Reds at the sublime PNC Park. We forget just how lucky we are, when we hear mutterings from a Pittsburgh......

--Some hot dogs are just too hot to handle, at least in Franklin. Two women, Stacey Bower and Sonjalea Katz, were selling "hottie dogs," and the town commissioner stopped it because they didn't have the right permit. The Milford Daily News has a picture of Katz and Bower. Their food van is indeed named "hottie dogs," and they are wearing tank tops, but we can't for the life of us understand what is so threatening......

A night after Sox pitcher Kason Gabbard completed a Cinderella-esque nine innings at Fenway Park, the spotlight fell on a different belle of the ball for a fairy tale turn on the mound. The story didn't play out the way we would have written it - it was Leo Nunez, not Tim Wakefield, who was able to celebrate on Tuesday night. Nunez bounced back from a Fenway disaster two years ago to lead Kansas City......

Banner week for SFist as the site's new editor introduced himself -- hooray for Brock! While the NY Times weighed in on SF's mayoral race, only SFist had the (insert tongue firmly into cheek) hard-hitting latest on candidate/activist Josh Wolf. Coverage of a protest vs. gentrification spawned a fantastic debate amongst SFist's readers. Finally, from the sublime to the ridiculous: video of a man that confused a Board of Supes meeting with "open mic......

The documentary Have You Seen Andy? will air on Cinemax tomorrow, Tuesday, June 12, at 7:00 pm. In an age of Amber Alerts, JonBenet Ramsey, and images of missing children on all the 24-hour news channels, it's difficult to imagine a disappearance that wasn't resolved. But 10-year-old Andy Puglisi, who vanished in 1976 from a Lawrence swimming pool, has never been found. One of his childhood friends, Melanie Perkins, grew up to be a......

Holy smokes! Giant fish on the MTA, Paris Hilton in jail, then out, then in again, Al Gore, goatses, blumpkins, Matt Damon, and baby art critics! It's been a busy week across the Ist-A-Verse, and here's a smattering of what's been going on. In Gothamist's neck of the woods, they found out that many things are possible: A man caught a 40+ pound fish off the Rockaways and took it home on the subway. Graffiti......

Seattlest has a talk with the photographer from last week's "Segway Mom" and then experiences some dissension in the ranks over the question of wine vs. beer. It's not West Side Story, but about as close as they'll get. They're also still waiting on some inbox relief after a spammer is arrested. As Chicagoist counts down the days to its third anniversary party, they found all-organic pizza to be underwhelming amidst the hoopla, tried......

Wasn't Cambridge supposed to be the city that welcomed everyone of all shapes and sizes? Well, the Cambridge Water Department has changed its mind when it comes to dogs. No, it isn't a pit bull ban. It's much weirder. The Globe reported this week that the Cambridge Water Department wants to keep dogs that aren't Cambridge away from the Fresh Pond Reservation. Why has Cambridge gone all country-club where dogs are concerned? The Water Department......

--In Framingham on Tuesday night, a robber used Devil Dogs as part of his strategy when stealing from the Stop & Shop. Emanuel Goffigan got into line and "began waving" a pack of Devil Dogs. Then, when the cashier opened the drawer of her cash machine, he pounced on it, got the money, and ran. We're not exactly sure where the Devil Dogs fit because he could have jumped on the drawer at any time,......

It's been said that tonight is going to feature the loudest and longest round of applause to hit Fenway in all of 2007. We disagree - we think it will happen either this weekend or in September, when Joe Torre comes to get Roger Clemens in the fourth inning - but tonight's going to be special. Tonight, the Sox welcome back Trot Nixon, stalwart of the 2004 Championship team and one of the core members......

A statewide ban on pit bulls has been bandied about, so both sides of the debate gathered at the State House to present their positions. And supporters of pit bulls outnumbered the opponents. Testimonials from experts also bolstered the pit-bull supporters' view. The director of the animal behavior clinic at Tufts said he was against the ban and that owners should take tests and that the state should go after illegal breeding operations. And why......

--In Everett, 26-year-old Stacy Russo robbed an apartment – and she took her baby along for the ride. She used her own daughter's baby carriage has a handy place to stash her ill-gotten gains. But the baby was in the carriage at the time and probably didn't appreciate having to share her space with a bunch of extra stuff. Russo then took her baby for a wild ride to a Dunkin' Donuts, where police caught......