Not to be outdone by Charlize Theron, who is being honored by the A-list Hasty Pudding, Paris Hilton continued to cut a wide swath through Boston when she was at The Estate. In fact, she garnered attention by dancing on a coffee table. With Oompa-Loompas. And then she showed her boobies. We're wondering what was up with the Oompa-Loompas. Sadly, Bostonist does not have rights to the photo the Track Girls put up, but at......

SFist saw Christmas Day turn tragic after a Siberian tiger escaped from her pen at the San Francisco Zoo, killing a visitor and mauling two others. Phillyist counted down the top ten items on Philadelphia's New Year's wish list. Gothamist looked at the wooden bikes being offered for NYC's first bike share program on Governors Island. LAist received a Christmas present in the form of a drunk Santa Claus in a g-string. Bostonist launched......

Torontoist discovered their city's most ridiculous holiday lights setup, with 80,000 lights and two––two!––synchronized music routines. Naturally, they snagged a video. Chicago tragically loses one of its most recognizable neighborhood icons, the pigeon man of Lincoln Square. LAPD leaves body in car at crash scene, then tows it. Massachusetts plus mullet equals PR mayhem. Londonist sleeps in a Haunted plague pit. UC Berkeley students strip naked and race through campus, NSFW floppiness ensues. Phillyist......

--Paul F. Ware Jr., the special prosecutor looking into the Big Dig has cost the state $1 million so far. Maybe, if the AG's office actually gets around to getting some money out of Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, they can foot the bill. [Boston Globe] --More gratuitous limos and tour buses in New Hampshire! Oprah's coming to town to campaign for Obama! She'll be in Manchester, NH, on December 9. [WBZ] --The Worcester Telegram & Gazette gets......

Pope Benedict XVI may have flirted with Boston and batted his eyelashes a little, but he dumped us for New York and DC when he comes to visit the United States in April. At first, we thought maybe the alleged exploits of Father David Ajemian somehow got back to Pope Benedict XVI, and he decided he'd finally had it up to here with Boston. No amount of pleading from Cardinal Sean O'Malley was going to......

--A fire on Blue Hill Avenue in Mattapan injured 13 people, but a firefighter managed to save a baby. --Apparently the Pope ain't a Sox Fan. We dig visiting the 9/11 site, but mass at Yankee Stadium? C'mon... --At least Dustin showed the Yanks who's boss. Or if not boss, then Rookie of the Year. --One man lends a new meaning to meat salesman. --Women can't win, even in Starbucks lines. Give us a......

--Mike Mennonno writes a wonderful post about the power of the Polaroid. Photo of the Day fans, take note: "It's hard to say whether the fleshiness of polaroids is an illusion of their application or inherent in the process, but Warhol's polaroids capture that same sinuous, sensuous seediness polaroids seem made for. You don't get that with digital, with its sharp focus and white light." --Newton Streets & Sidewalks had another encounter with a turkey.......

All the local news outlets went nutty over Ben Affleck at the Boston premiere of Gone Baby Gone. They were especially tickled that Matt Damon showed up, too. Of course they both said they would sneak out so they wouldn't miss the Red Sox game. Affleck is on a real hearts-and-minds mission. On Tuesday, he went to City Hall and joined Mayor Menino to help the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) unionize hospital employees.......

Dear Trigen, We couldn't help but notice that yet another steam pipe explosion rained asbestos down up on Boston last Saturday afternoon at Merrimac and New Chardon. The steam-pipe explosion downtown and the various steam-related issues have us skittish. In fact, we've taken to playing "step on a crack, break your mama's back," only it's the high-stakes version. Now we're skipping over manholes, terrified that they will send a manhole cover flying at us and......

Last night, word broke out that firefighters Warren Payne and Paul Cahill, who perished in a blaze at the Tai Ho Restaurant, had drugs and/or alcohol in their system. This morning, many citizens are expressing outrage at the smear on their memories on the local news. Several outlets are reporting that Warren Payne had cocaine in his system, and Paul Cahill was legally intoxicated. However, the report comes from, in the Globe's words, "A......

Now that a partially dissolved piece of sodium metal has been deemed the culprit in the burning of several Charles River cleanup volunteers, the local news is playing up the MIT ritual known as the "sodium drop." MIT students like to drop stuff. Sometimes they drop pianos. In this case, at the start of each school year, students get the sodium from somewhere on campus, tote it to the Longfellow Bridge, and drop it bit......

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. After the Minneapolis bridge collapse, Bostonist did some research and found that Massachusetts bridges......

This dog knows you don't have to be a reader to enjoy the action at the local news stand. Photo taken in Harvard Square by bodhisoma. Photo from bodhisoma, commentary from BonnieB.......

The body of an MIT student who went missing washed up on Scusset Beach and was discovered on Friday. Authorities had a "difficult time identifying the body," but it was that of Daniel Barclay, who had been missing from MIT since April 8. According to the MIT Tech, an autopsy was performed, and the DA for the Cape said "there were no obvious signs of trauma on the body." The MIT Tech reported that he......

The nation is still reeling from the massacre that left, according to DCist, 33 people dead at Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg. Local news reported this morning that one of the people killed was a student from Saugus named Ross Alameddine. Many people are still puzzled about what exactly happened between the first shooting, which happened in a dormitory, and the second shooting, which happened in a classroom building. An inordinate amount of time -......

For most people, airport toilets are not a nice place to be, whether you're at Logan or somewhere else. But now it seems that airport bathrooms are the new hookup hotspot, at least according to local news outlets. The Herald is all hot and bothered. Laurel Sweet went above and beyond the call of duty with bathroom sex euphemisms such as "a last-minute souvenir of their trip to Boston" and "this sea-level variation on the......

Why must NESN be so cruel? NESN [New England Sports Network] released a memo curtailing the use of Red Sox and Bruins highlights on local TV stations. Scott's Shots surveys the broader impact of this memo: "This is, in every way, shape and form, a HUGE powerplay that the Red Sox and NESN (and the Bruins, as if anyone cares) are about to undertake in an effort to lord over their content and ultimately become......

If you watched the local news, you might have heard Neil Young's "Powderfinger" coming from Peter Gammons, Theo Epstein, and a host of local musicians for the Hot Stove, Cool Music benefit concert at the Paradise. The sight of Peter and the Hot Stove All Stars rocking the "Powderfinger" tickles Bostonist's fancy, and all media outlets, the Globe in particular, praised the overall musicianship of the event. However, VickieVictoria, who took this and other......

Now that the new management sent WLVI's longtime news team packing and launched the "7News at 10pm on CW 56," was all the turmoil that Sunbeam Television Corporation caused worth it? Absolutely not. The "7News at 10pm on CW 56," a wordy title already, should be renamed the "New Coke Newscast." The New Coke Newscast might appeal to you if you like Entertainment Tonight, seizure-inducing flashing lights, and out-of-breath newscasters. But, for those of you......

Bostonist isn't the sort to not listen to a podcast just because it is from Compu-Global-Hyper-Mega-Net or, in this case, the Boston Globe. Sure, we dig that podcasting has been a haven for vanguard content, but that doesn't mean the mainstream can't do podcasting right. This week, we take a look at the Boston Globe's Page One Podcast. The Page One Podcast is exactly what you would want and, quite frankly, exactly what you would......

Bostonist has known since college (and repeatedly confirmed at our first office job) that no Internet-researched and keyboard-typed task can be completed without a healthy dose of procrastination. There are lots of very important things to do before you start that pending assignment. You need to check your e-mail (all active accounts), Facebook, myspace, weather forecast, local news, and of course Bostonist.com. One Internet destination that has been dear to our hearts throughout our desk-bound......

Though Bostonist is but a minor deity in the pantheon of the ist-a-verse, Gothamist LLC continues to rule Mount Olympus with its ever-growing might, and like Zeus, Gothamist's children periodically spring fully formed from its head, clad in full armor. So it is with Sampaist, São Paulo, Brazil's ist, which launches officially today, but emerges into the world in the full swing of things, chock full o' posts. In Portuguese. Conscious of Boston's status as......

There are all sorts of short video clips out there on the internets. We've been scouring the interweb to find some of the most entertaining for your enjoyment. Sometimes they're relevant to local news or politics, sometimes they bring up memories of PBS pledge drives past and spin them in a whole new way, and sometimes they're not really worth watching. Today we've found the perfect start to your Friday. Dice, Blaze, and Fury......

Usually we use the Wednesday Webcast to listen to local podcasts and give our opinion on them in the form of a review and rating. This week, Bostonist thought we would take a break to mention one particular episode of a podcast that is produced on the other side of the Atlantic. The story begins with the murder of Bobby Mendes in Boston back in 1995. Isaura Mendes lost her son and Alex Mendes lost......

The holiday season taught us the ability to close our ears to inane conversation. If we had to listen to Uncle Carl tell his far too long recount of the time he was on the local news for running his car though a fence one more time…well, we can tune out the family talk. Unfortunately that translated to our daily lives and Bostonist is sure we’ve missed out on some real jems (and yes,......

For those three others of you in your cubicles this afternoon, Bostonist thought you’d like a little something to read while you mind-numbingly try to keep yourself entertained until 5p.m. Newton Couple Stabbed in Home Invasion: Once voted the safest place to live in America, Newton pops up on the local news scene with a scary story about a knife wielding neighbor who inexplicably attacks a couple in their home. Luckily, police caught him after......

Old and BustedEvery local news show in the world has its own website and these sites are traditionally horrible and blue. Why oh why are they always blue? It's not as hard to figure out why they are all horrible. A news show is a TV show first and perhaps a website fourth or fifth. They know they should be on the web but can't seem to get around to putting in the effort. Even......

Bostonist’s inner child is hoping for a snow day and some serious sledding time tomorrow. Alas, snow brings more to Boston than a white blanket and chilly fun. Yesterday the first measurable snow in the area had local news updates warning Boston of the slippery, treacherous roads out there. It seems that every year Boston drivers have to remember how to drive in the snow and ice. A rash of fender benders breaks out after......

Over here at Bostonist headquarters we’re looking to increase diversity in our staff. We know we’re overlooking some topics and for some areas we’re just not as knowledgeable as we could be. We just said goodbye to our good friend Mary T. as she moved out of the Hub and onto a potentially fabulous career. Honestly, we don’t blame her. Going to a job that pays you real money rather than what's left in our......

Mitt's aspirations to be President of the United States seem to keep surfacing in the local news. Today he has finally confirmed that he is in fact testing the waters, but we'll have to wait until the fall for a firm bid. This mcuh-quoted utterance - "If someone said, well, you know, the governor's testing the national waters, that's a fair characterization," Romney said. "But I'm planning on running for governor. Time will tell, I'll......