Shalom Auslander Reading Thursday, October 11, 7:00 pm Brookline Booksmith Free More info From far away Shalom Auslander's memoir looks delicate and sweet, with lightly outlined white images traced on a red background. The title appears in a cursive font with looping letters. Then you look at the actual words on the cover--Foreskin's Lament. In this memoir, Auslander and his long departed foreskin have a lot to gripe about. Auslander was raised in an Orthodox......

There’s nothing subtle about the sign outside the Mayflower Poultry Company in East Cambridge: “Live Poultry, Fresh Killed,” it proclaims across the silhouette of a sunny yellow (and presumably doomed) chicken. We picked up a whole chicken at Mayflower’s butcher shop to see if a freshly killed chicken is better than our usual supermarket bird. The shop is simple and unassuming, with most of the space devoted to chicken, although they do also sell a......

It's official - Brookline will purge trans fats, which increase bad cholesterol, from all foods made within its restaurants and schools. Per the ban, restaurants must "stop using trans fats for frying by Nov. 30, 2008, and to end their use in baked goods by April 30, 2009." The ban proposal enjoyed overwhelming approval, and, since more and more food products are phasing out trans fats, these bans don't seem that ridiculous after all. "Trans......

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......

Bostonist says skip the box of Russell Stovers, the $300 10-course prix fixe, wine not included, even skip those fuzzy pink monkeys holding feather-petaled roses from the 7-11, and show your love with premium meat products! That's right! Stay in with your sweetie and cook up a big choucroute garnie, the classic Alsatian winter dish of sauerkraut and sausages. To prepare choucroute garnie does not require any real kitchen wizardry; in fact, it's quite open......

As 2006 ends and 2007 begins, the -ists look back not at the past week, but at the past year. So here it is, your Best of 2006 Spectacular. And from all of us at the -ists, happy New Year! Austinist was all about controversy as new construction to increase urban density ran rampant in 2006, as did threats to the city's image from gigantic corporations looking to set up shop in town, leading......

Yesterday was supposed to be the big day for the proposed constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. The Supreme Judicial Court had just ruled that the proposed amendment was legally kosher, the constitutional convention was slated to begin, and Senate President Travaglini had said he would make sure the amendment got a vote and wasn't postponed indefinitely by parliamentary maneuvers. (To get on the ballot, the amendment must be approved by two consecutive sittings......

This morning the house still smelled like bacon. A two-for-one deal at the supermarket made brunch abound with bacon Sunday morning. Mmmmm…bacon. The deliciously fatty pork product is the reason that we couldn’t keep up a vegetarian diet or have we ever thought of becoming kosher. Today we’re hearing reports all over the place that bacon may be healthy for the first time since the Atkins Diet fell out of favor. omega-3 fatty acids have......

E. Forbes "Inside Job" Smiley III made headlines today as he went to court to plead not-guilty on charges of map theft. The Martha’s Vineyard resident was alledgedly caught on tape at Yale’s Beinecke Library removing a map from a book after a librarian found an x-acto blade which was assumed dropped by Smiley. Boston Public Library, the Harvard Map Collection, and libraries across the world are checking their records for missing maps that Smiley......