Denis Leary joined the Michael Savage ranks when he wrote in an upcoming book (Why We Suck) that autism can be blamed on parents. The “Autism Schmautism" chapter (which Leary identified as his favorite in the book) includes this sentiment: There is a huge boom in autism right now because inattentive mothers and competitive dads want an explanation for why their dumb-ass kids can't compete academically, so they throw money into the happy laps of......

Hey, no more long lines at the women's restroom! In fact, there's no women's restroom at all in some spots on the Emerson College campus. Emerson College has replaced the traditional Men/Women bathroom signs with a more gender-neutral picture of a man, a woman, and a person in a wheelchair. The new signs appear on 21 campus restrooms and in one of the dorms. People who identify as transgender had trouble deciding which bathroom to......

Mort Sahl will perform at Jimmy Tingle's Off Broadway Theater on Thursday night. For more information, go to Jimmy Tingle's website. All shows are at 7:30 pm. Without Mort Sahl, there would be no Daily Show or Colbert Report. James Wolcott at Vanity Fair went so far as to suggest that Sahl was more important to American comedy than Lenny Bruce. Whether or not that's true, Sahl laid the foundation for today's political satire. He......

Gail Mazur, Robert Pinsky, Lloyd Schwartz, and Rosanna Warren will be reading at the ICA on the HarborWalk at 6:30 pm tomorrow, Thursday, May 3. Free first-come, first-serve tickets will be available an hour before the reading. The ICA and UMass Boston are celebrating Emily Dickinson - the ultimate Massachusetts literary institution - tomorrow night. The ICA is installing a visual display of Dickinson's 695 (As if the Sea should part), and four poets will......

On Wednesday evening the Museum of Science hosts a moderated discussion in your first life about the second life. Assistant Professor of New Media Eric Gordon of Emerson College moderates a discussion with John Freeman, an artist in Second Life, Pathfinder Linden, community manager for Linden Lab, and Wagner James Au, an embedded journalist in Second Life. While you might not age in Second Life and flying is par for the course, three dimensions......

Deirdre Dagata is no longer the voice of mid-day pop radio in Boston. Clear Channel, the owner of Jam'n and Kiss, made the decision this month to consolidate their DJ staff. The move sounds like smart business practices; they're planning to sink the savings into internet and sales operations. Instead of giving the Boston market a more profitable local station it effectively strips the mid-day of a local personality. Replacing Deirdre is Shelley Wade whose......

Speaking in Code is coming to the Enormous Room on Sunday, June 11. Speaking in Code is a feature-length documentary film about the international electronic, dance, and music scene – and specifically the people who make the whole thing move. Local folks including Amy Grill of Emerson College and Jason Redmond, executive director of Boston's Independent Film Festival are pushing big to make the movie a success. Right now it's a grass-roots effort. For $50......

Bostonist is still recovering from that one-hour loss of sleep due to Daylight’s Savings Time yesterday, so please be kind as we slowly enter into the world of blogging this week. Here’s a round up of the top stories here in the city today…with a couple of highlights in what is turning out to be a gloomy news day. Breaking News: A crane that was working on an Emerson College building at 136 Boylston Street......

Now that the new fall season of reality TV shows has started up, Bostonist feels at home again. After a summer of Rescue Me and Laguna Beach, we are ready to go back to the network stations and their new round of awful (yet enjoyable) reality TV shows. As usual, the city of Boston has spread their seed into the homes of America with a new cast of reality characters. On Wednesday night, Martha Stewart's......

Boston has become home to some Hollywood stars for a few weeks as director Martin Scorsese's new film, "The Departed," finally began filming. This movie is a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong film, "Infernal Affairs," and will feature some big Hollywood talent. IMDB describes it in the following blurb: "The story, set in Boston, revolves around a gangster (Matt Damon) who infiltrates the police department and a cop (Leonardo DiCaprio) who infiltrates the gangs.......

The City of Boston settled with the family of Victoria Snelgrove yesterday for $5 million, avoiding what would surely have been a politically embarassing trial (to say nothing of the city's poor chances of winning). Snelgrove, you may recall, was the Emerson College student who was killed in October when she was hit in the eye by a pepper pellet fired from a special, "less lethal" gun being used by police for crowd control in......

While staggering home last week after one too many Mai Tais and delicious wasabi peas served at the bar at Peking Tom's, Bostonist walked past the brightly-lit Paramount Theater sign and wondered why it was all lit up when there was nothing actually inside of it. Located next door to the newly renovated Opera House on Washington Street, the Paramount was last open in 1976 as a porno house, before closing its doors. Since then,......