Brookline

Retired Emerson College history professor John M. Coffee, Jr., died earlier this month, after a lifetime in the hobby of token collecting:

Justin Locke spent 18 years playing bass with the Boston Pops (as well
as playing in the Boston Opera, and Ballet orchestras). He worked
with such conductors as Arthur Fiedler, Henry Mancini, John Willams,
and Leonard Bernstein. Justin is now an author and speaker. In his
presentation (taken from his book “Real Men Don’t Rehearse”), he will
share a first hand (and generally hysterical) look at what it’s really
like to be a professional musician. Stories will include cannon
mishaps on the Esplanade, kiddie concerts gone horribly wrong, and of
course a story or two about Arthur Fielder!

Justin was recently featured as an "author@google" and in the Boston Globe, and he has also
appeared on CBS Radio, Greater Boston, and Chronicle HD. This is a
fun night you won’t want to miss. Find out more about Justin on his
website, www.justinlocke.com

Justin will immediately follow the Annual Meeting starting at 6:30PM at the main
branch library at 361 Washington St. in Hunneman Hall (2nd floor).

Brookline Booksmith announced today it's bought out the Globe Corner Bookstore - which had become an online-only venture - and is using its assets to open a "Globe Corner Travel Annex" at its Coolidge Corner store.

The move means impending travelers can now buy any of 2,000 different maps of regions around the world. globecorner.com remains a separate Web site, at least until Booksmith can integrate it into its own Web site.

Boston University Police report at least four women walking at night on the normally quiet streets of Brookline have been robbed of their iPhones since March 28:

The suspect description has been consistently a black male between 5'10" and 6' feet tall and heavy set. The suspect is specifically targeting iPhones. All four victims have been women who were walking alone while talking on their iPhones. The suspect has pushed, punched or hit the victims, and no weapon has been shown. The crimes have taken place between 8:00 PM and midnight.

The robberies have occurred on St. Paul, High and Browne streets and Longwood Avenue, police say.

Residents should be advised to limit cell phone use when walking alone, especially during the night.

Brooklinian John Carroll is aghast his town spent $1 million on multi-car parking meters that it's about to rip out because locals don't like walking to the meters to get a ticket and then walking back to their cars to put the tickets on their windows:

Seriously? This is lamer than Chester on Gunsmoke.

Ari Alexinberg did the video. Also see the last five miles of the race via Google Earth.

A Brookline software company run out of its founder's house yesterday sued the makers of World of Warcraft and Call of Duty for patent infringement. Worlds Inc. alleges the two games violates patents it's received between 2007 and last December for creating and controlling 3D avatars in online environments. It's seeking unspecified, but not doubt large, damages and lawyer's fees.

Its most recent patent, issued Dec. 20, claims the rights to:

Wellesley Police report a Watertown man was finally stopped in Brookline after a chase that started on Rte. 9 in Natick early this morning.

Police say that when a Natick officer tried to pull Ender Durgut, 39, over for alleged motor-vehicle infractions around 2:30 a.m. today on Rte. 9 eastbound, Durgut floored it. The officer chased Durgut into Wellesley, where that town's police joined the chase, pursuing him down Rte. 9 into Newton, where the chase was taken over by State Police. State and Brookline Police finally stopped him, but only after he crashed into two cruisers, police say. He was charged with a variety of motor-vehicle and criminal offenses.

Innocent, etc.

How else to explain what Brookline Selectwoman Jesse Mermell saw on the train home today?

New MBTA experience: Woman across from me changing her whole outfit on the train, including stockings. I'm torn between being appalled & impressed. I didn't have room to tweet about the full body lotion application. It was intense. No towel. Not even close. And there was extensive lotion application.

Sometime in the early 1960s, MIT professor Kevin Lynch mounted a camera on a car and compiled a time-lapse movie of the trip.

The page says 1958, but the movie shows the JFK Building and the Pru tower, which didn't go up until later.

Once again, people in Brookline and surrounding parts of Boston are reporting what sounds like repeated explosions. Shortly after 1 p.m., Mr. Jason asked:

Anyone hear random explosions in the Brookline Village/Mission Hill area?

Then, about an hour later, Hillary reported:

Still hearing it in JP - continual sets of two bangs at a time.

The answer, my friend, is shooting in the wind. Superguppy explains:

Probably skeet shooting over at The Country Club. Happens every weekend, get used to it peeps. #BlowingUpBrookline

And, sure, enough, a little Googling reveals that The Country Club features two skeet ranges (also: "A curling building with four sheets of ice").

Any other mysteries we can clear up? What, the costumed runners on Broadway in Cambridge? Molly reports that's the Boston Urban Iditarod, which, of course, takes place in Cambridge.

Wicked Local Brookline reports Kupel's faces disciplinary action after a February inspection found mouse droppings - "too many to count" - on raw dough in a refrigerator. Owner says he was shocked and fixed the problem.

read more at bluemassgroup

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that Peoples Federal Savings Bank has no grounds to immediately bar the Connecticut-based People's United Bank from opening branches in the Boston area under that name.

Michael Burstein, a Brookline library trustee, science fiction writer and ardent supporter of Pluto's role as the ninth planet in our solar system, is setting up an exploratory committee to consider becoming an obstacle to the Kennedy Inevitability in the Fourth District, Brookline Patch reports.

Meanwhile, His Inevitableness, who knocked Boston City Councilor and Newton native Mike Ross out of the race, has moved to Brookline as he contemplates his own run.

Just in time for snow, Boston has launched its Adopt-a-Hydrant program, in which you promise to shovel out a specific hydrant after a storm, like, say, the ones we're supposed to get tonight and Saturday.

Meanwhile, both Brookline and Cambridge have referral programs to match residents with snow with teens with shovels.

Flames on Beacon Street. Copyright Pamela Rosenthal. Posted with permission.

Channel 25 has video of the fire this morning at 1471 Beacon St.

Pamela Rosenthal is posting photos. She writes:

The Brookline fire is more than a burning building. In an instant, the people living there lost everything they owned.

Dan Geller posted video.

In Brookline overnight, Wicked Local Brookline reports: The kid was in the car with his mother's boyfriend.

John Carroll posts crime-scene photos.

UPDATE, 2:30 p.m.: Still popping in the Fenway.

From Brighton to Brookline to Mission Hill, people are reporting popping sounds that have been going off for several hours.

So far this morning, a charred 39 bus was towed from Huntington Avenue near Brigham Circle and buses had to be rolled out for the C line when an overhead power line came down near Cleveland Circle.

Wicked Local Brookline declares "vigilante justice" not the answer to coyotes fearful Corey Hill residents say keep them trapped in their homes.

Where's Sam when you need him?

Brookline selectmen tomorrow hear a request by residents of Corey Hill to let them do something to get rid of the coyotes they say have invaded their hillside, which crests along Summit Avenue.

The coyote presentation is scheduled for 7 p.m. at Town Hall.

Via.

The Outraged Liberal ponders the latest speculation that JOE4OIL's kid might run for Barney Frank's seat. Complete with the obligatory Michael Goldman quote.

The Globe reports Frank won't be seeking re-election next year.