Blogger Chuck Tanowitz issues a call to action: He's calling on folks to do a little man-in-the-street interviewing to see how Newton residents really feel about the progress at Newton North High School, following City Hall's tut-tutting over Tab and blog coverage of the work.

The Boston Foodie actually puts it a bit more bluntly: Chowhound sucks:

Call it a rant but the entire dinner conversation tonight revolved around how plebe the site is and the way it is dominated by blowhards, people who get weird jollies stuffing anything but their cranium, dollar store shoppers who "review" the latest beef jerky and, well, basically drunks. ...

Chuck Tanowitz talks to the Newton mayor's flack (yes, of course, the mayor of Newton has a PR person - you can't imagine the crush of press calls the mayor of the Garden City gets) about the flap over letting the local weekly take pictures of the under-construction Newton North High School:

... Solomon said that he would only change his stance when he felt public sentiment shift. While the writers on various blogs have been rather outspoken on the topic, Solomon laughed on the idea that these opinions mounted to much. "I read blog traffic, and I take it for what it is," he said. "I'm not certain advocating to alter public policy based on some blog traffic makes sense." ...

The Lit Drop, written by Dorchester Reporter and State House News Service reporters Gintautas Dumcius and Mike Deehan, will provide daily coverage of this year's mayoral and city-council elections.

Full disclosure: I do some work for the Dorchester Reporter and, in fact, set the blog up - and you might even see my name on some posts there.

Whoever's behind this site really, really, really hates Tom Menino. Still, it's interesting looking at a site calling for "an open and honest dialogue" on the issues facing Boston when its operators go out of their way to hide their identities:

Administrative Contact:
Private, Registration
Domains by Proxy, Inc.
DomainsByProxy.com
15111 N. Hayden Rd., Ste 160, PMB 353
Scottsdale, Arizona 85260
United States.

Via Jimbo.

Blue Mass. Group is going for it.

We hear from a reliable source that a couple of gossip gals at a certain scrappy tabloid got caught passing off a two-year-old photo of the Celtics dancers as their own when it was really taken by a local blogger - who was never asked if that was OK. File under: Tsk.

The Boston Blogs Network is a collaborative effort of a group of Boston-area blogs to promote each other and make a bit of money. If you're local and you write about life in the area, chances are you qualify for membership.

Read some more about us and, if you're interested, drop me a line (if you've already done so, and never heard back from me, please write again - I wasn't ignoring you, I was being stupid and not backing up e-mail to prepare for the computer disaster I usually manage to cause every so often).

Blue Mass. Group will interview Boston mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty on Tuesday, June 2, at 10:30 a.m. You can suggest questions at the link.

Crazy Massachusetts Pensions is a new blog devoted to, well, you can probably guess.