Books --Charles Bock's Beautiful Children isn't as delicate as it sounds. A couple reels after their child vanishes in the Las Vegas desert--only it's so, so much more than that, and it's received a flood of attention. The Globe thought Bock threw too much into his debut, but everyone seems to agree that he's ambitious. Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm, free. Speaking of free, he's letting you download the book without dropping a single dime.......

--Spectacular photos of Matt Damon in 2005, brought back in honor of Damon's selection as People's "Sexiest Man Alive." [Lolita Parker Jr., who also did the great "Escape From MBTA" pictures] --The secret to Dane Cook's success is simple. [Derspatchel] --How to make your own turducken--if you dare! [Menu Pages] --Wolf Blitzer gets savaged after the Democrats debated in Las Vegas. [Blue Mass Group] --We're bad about typos because we're slobs without a copyeditor. Surely,......

Thursday, November 8 Elaine Scarry, Jerald Walker, and Robert Atwan, The Best American Essays, 7:00 pm, Brookline Booksmith Three contributors to this year's The Best American Essays will discuss what went into the book this year--and maybe we'll hear a little about what got left out. Monday, November 12 Jennifer Ackerman, Sex, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Dream, 7:00 pm, Porter Square Books Science writer Ackerman takes a fantastic voyage through the body to see how it......

It's hard to work up a frenzy against the Cleveland Indians. They seem like a bunch of polite, plucky kids who we'd be pulling for in almost any other circumstance. Gone are the enemies of the mid-to-late-90's: villains like Roberto Alomar and Manny Ramirez. Gone are the mockable stars of that magical 1988 team: colorful characters like ex-con Rick Vaughan and voodoo worshipper Pedro Cerrano. Trot Nixon, who you may remember as one of the......

Elvis Presley died this week, 30 years ago, on August 16, 1977. Boston is making like Memphis by holding various tributes to the King. First on the list is Mayor Menino's Movie Night on the Common. Tonight, the city will show Jailhouse Rock for free. The festivities will include a costume contest, and we're dying to find out if Menino will step into a sequined jumpsuit and throw on a pompadour wig. That we would......

When you're a kid, one of the fringe benefits to playing Little League or soccer is that you often got to stop at McDonald's on the way home. Win or lose. We're not sure if Major League teams have a similar policy, but if the Red Sox team bus stopped at a Mickey's outside of Detroit, no one on the team would be allowed to supersize today, after a miserable weekend getting swept by the......

Even though the Devern Hansack experiment went horribly wrong Saturday night, the Sox had no choice but to go to the Pawtucket well again Sunday. So they brought up lefty Kason Gabbard to start Sunday's rain-delayed tilt with the Braves. And it went as well as we possibly could have hoped. Gabbard cooled off the Atlanta bats, which were still steaming from Saturday's 14-run nightcap, to the tune of five innings pitched, six hits, two......

Another sexual assault took place in early yesterday morning in Medford, prompting police to send out warnings to local residents. The victim of the second assault got lucky - the suspect grabbed her, but a car passed, and he ran off. Tufts sent out a notice saying that three attacks of that nature have happened before April 23. Here is the police's description of this individual: "The attacker is described as white, heavy set, in......

Let's just set aside the Celtics current troubles and cheer for Gerald Green, who won the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk contest with skill and some serious showmanship. Green needed to be flashy because the All-Star events were already set in the shiny, sparkly city of Las Vegas, and he lived up to the landscape. With Paul Pierce as his set-up man, Green competed against Orlando's Dwight Howard, Chicago's Tyrus Thomas, and last year's winner, Nate......

Yeah. We know the New York Islanders don't use their angry-fisherman logo anymore. But we love it, and can't help ourselves. The Bruins last night held tough with the Gorton's Gang, but the Isles racked up three quick goals in the third period and sent the B's packing 4-1. They'll play the Sabres, seemingly for the 43rd time this season, tomorrow night. The Celtics, finally able to breathe again, turn their eyes to Gerald Green......

If it weren't for our life as an -ist, we're not sure we'd ever leave our apartment. Fortunately, to fully -ist, one must seek out the new, the fresh, and the unknown. Brand new, or just new to us, that's what we're all about this week. Phillyist keeps it fresh by getting a new motto, learning to prioritize, and taking in an experimental indie rock show. Torontoist does their first post in franglais, gets ready......

Because we know everything that happens in Vegas stays in Vegas perhaps it's time to go to Vegas. The time to buy is, apparently, today. Thanks to the new public Beta version of Farecast, a - wait for it – forecast system for airfares we know that for our end of July trip to Las Vegas the fares will rise by approximately $50 if we wait to purchase the tickets. That's $50 we could......

OK, so this space is usually dedicated to musings and ramblings about teams from the hometown, but unfortunately, the Foxboro-boys bumbled and fumbled away a chance at a home-field AFC Championship game during the Denver debacle and Bostonians are forced to watch arch-nemesis Pittsburgh play the NFL's representative from the great northwest, the Seattle Seahawks in the biggest sporting event of the year, Super Bowl XL. The burning question for most this week in Boston-land......

Sure. That and a pair of testicles. Lace up your bowling shoes! Tonight Coolidge Corner Theater is having a screening of the oddball Coen Brothers' bowling hit The Big Lebowski. It's a nine dollar entrance fee, unfortunately that doesn't come with a White Russian, but there will be a pre-screening bowling match, along with Lebowski trivia and Lewbowski themed rewards for the best bowling shirt in the crowd. Expect to see some interesting folks at......