A local man has sued the makers of a zinc-based cold remedy and the warehouse chain where he bought a package, charging the stuff took away all of his sense of smell and part of his sense of taste.

In a lawsuit filed in US District Court, Russell Surette says he bought a package of Zicam Cold Remedy Gel at an Everett Costco in September, 2008 and then used it in April, 2009:

Upon using Zicam Cold Remedy Gel, Surette felt an immediate burning sensation in his nose, and by the next morning, Surette realized he no longer had a sense of smell.

In June, 2009, the FDA ordered Zicam LLC to stop selling the nostrum because it had received more than 130 complaints from other people who'd lost their sense of smell:

A significant and growing body of evidence substantiates that the Zicam Cold Remedy intranasal products may pose a serious risk to consumers who use them

Also, the company was marketing the stuff as a cold remedy without any proof it actually worked, the FDA said.

Surette, who is seeking to turn his suit into a class action on behalf of other affected consumers, says that in addition to his inability to enjoy simple things such as the smell of food or the outdoors, the loss of this sense puts him at a higher risk of injury because he can no longer smell things such as natural gas or smoke.

His suit also names Costco.

Complete complaint.

Two teens who were shot at Kelly Field in Hyde Park last night are expected to recover, as State Police and the Boston Police gang unit look for their shooter, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

One Hyde Park teen, 17, was shot in the right leg; a Mattapan teen, also 17, was shot in the back and buttocks, the DA's office says. Last night, police were looking for another teen, who drove away in a beige car. Police shut the pool at the recreation complex as they looked for the shooter following the incident shortly after 6 p.m. yesterday.

State Police are involved because the shooting Kelly Field is owned and run by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Anybody with information can contact the Suffolk County State Police Detective Unit at 617-727-8817 or the anonymous Boston Police CrimeStoppers tip line by calling 1-800-494-TIPS or texting the word TIP to CRIME (27463).

A 1775 map of Boston Harbor. The note for 16 (between Noddle's Island and Hog Island on the right) reads: "The Schooner burnt at Nodles Island by Genl Putman." No mention of Chelsea Creek. From the Norman Leventhal Map Center at the Boston Public Library.

Everybody knows the Battle of Bunker Hill really took place on Breed's Hill. On EastBoston.com, Michael Laurano argues the feds are about to perpetuate a similar misnaming for the first naval battle in the War of Independence.

The National Park Service recently announced a grant for a history project on the "Battle of Chelsea Creek." But Laurano says that's unfair to Noddle's Island, because it took place around the island - now the core of East Boston and Logan Airport, rather than in what was then such an insignificant creek its name didn't even make local maps at the time:

To misplace by misnaming an important American Revolutionary War historical event simply to feed local vanities constitutes historical revisionism and is plainly wrong. A tail does not wag a dog nor does a minor creek, one of several in its proximity or on its perimeter, including Mill creek (Slade's-Revere), Crooked Lane or creek (once navigable at high tide, now Boardman Street, Orient Heights), Belle Isle Creek (Revere & Winthrop), define an island.

Noddle's Island was not in 1775 merely an island in Chelsea Creek. East Boston never was that and is not that now. In deference to tradition and the full truth of the matter this early chapter in the American epic struggle for freedom should be known as "The Battle of Noddle's Island and Chelsea Creek" or perhaps better yet "The Battle of Noddle's Island, Winnisimmet and Rumney Marsh" which in fact it was and not "The Battle of Chelsea Creek" which alone it most definitely was not.

Paul Levy reports, with video.