Joyce Kulhawik reports from the annual Boston Society of Film Critics awards meeting (including notes on the films with which she disagreed with the other judges):

... 18 of us voted in a little room at the Boston Phoenix over coffee, donuts, and pizza. ...

In other news, there are 18 film critics in Boston.

Says so right here on the Internets, so it must be true. The Enviromental Working Group spent three years building a database of municipal water supplies, and says Providence has the second cleanest, bestest water in the country behind only Arlington, Texas. Boston (more specifically, the MWRA, which serves much of the Boston area) came in fifth out of 100 cities (so not too shabby):

EWG rated big city (population over 250,000) water utilities based on three factors: the total number of chemicals detected since 2004; the percentage of chemicals found of those tested; and the highest average level for an individual pollutant, relative to legal limits or national average amounts, including for the most common pollutants (disinfection byproducts, nitrate and arsenic).

So either Providence has grown recently or Providence Water serves more than just Providence.

Via John Ford.

Matt Conti covers the North End Christmas parade.

Santa made his annual visit to Grove and Washington streets in West Roxbury this morning, where he was serenaded by the Beethoven/Ohrenberger School chorus. Afterwards, kids enjoyed pizza, cookies and hot chocolate.