Brookline

Liz reports on a recent visit by a group of brunching bloggers to Brookline's very own recipe central.

Since moving to Boston I've watched hundreds of ATK and Cook's Country tv episodes and Cook's Illustrated Cookbook is my go-to guide in the kitchen. So you can understand how I felt like a 10 year-old waiting for the end-of-the-year awesome field trip.

Wicked Good Allston/Brighton reports an Armingon Street man used his skateboard to smash two police cruisers and a lamp on Harvard Street for no reason police could fathom, before officers finally managed to tackle him and put cuffs on him, around 4:40 a.m. on Nov. 18.

And with interest rates like these, I can see why.

Turlach MacDonagh spotted this unicorn at the Brookline Bank in Coolidge Corner this evening, either because he was part of the Brookline First Light Festival or he was just horsing around.

Copyright Turlach MacDonagh. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Bumpa stickahs

Charles McEnerney spotted this car in Coolidge Corner today.

The line at midnight in Coolidge Corner for Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3.

Via Kevin Wang.

Brookline Police report one of three men chased down Comm. Ave. by officers responding to a larceny call on Thursday decided discretion was the better part of dishonor and dashed into a CVS along the way.

Police report the guy stayed around long enough to watch his buds get pepper sprayed and injure a couple of cops, then "changed his appearance, then walked out past the commotion taking place on the street."

Based on CVS surveillance photos, the guy changed his appearance by taking off his jacket and putting a baseball hat on backwards.

Kelly posts a photo of one of the spaces.

Brookline considers requiring people who operate ice-cream trucks to supply fingerprints, Wicked Local Brookline reports.

Wicked Local Brookline reports selectmen are not convinced data from the gizmo, which lets cruising cops scan large numbers of license-plate numbers, would not be misused once transferred to a state database.

Scene at a Coolidge Corner parking lot today.

Or maybe, as Turlach MacDonagh, who took this photo, suggests, Brookline needs to provide an extra pickup after Sept. 1.

Copyright Turlack MacDonagh. Tagged as universalhub on Flickr.

The MBTA provided this photo of the Green Line between Chestnut Hill and Reservoir stations. More photos in the comments.

Nobody braving Carson Beach Sunday morning. Photo by Lauren Sommer.

Around 8:45 a.m., Jack Stack tweeted:

VERY loud pop and then all the power went out in Savin Hill Boston

North Waltham is also out.

Stephen Walsh reports a pole came down across Hammond Pond Parkway, blocking three lanes.

Bird Man of Brookline ordered to stop feeding pigeons.

Bio of the Mushroom Man.

Thanks, Dave!

Bill James, yeah, the baseball-stats Bill James, claims Albert DeSalvo wasn't the Boston Strangler and that whoever the killer was used what's now the Green Line to get to and from the murder sites - all of which he says are steps from trolley stops.

James's non-baseball book.

The Supreme Judicial Court today upheld a man's conviction for "accosting or annoying a person of the opposite sex" on Beacon Street in Brookline, ruling that he was indeed being offensive when he grabbed his pants below the waist and began simulating masturbation as a young nanny walked by pushing a stroller.

The state's highest court also dismissed Daniel Moran's argument that his conviction be overturned because the law requires proof of "acts" and he only acted out once. Justices said he was only playing with syntax in relation to a law it said legislators rewrote in 1983 partly to make it read better.

According to the ruling:

Elliot Doxer of Brookline agreed this week to plead guilty to charges he tried to funnel information about trade practices and employees at Cambridge Internet company Akamai to the Israel government, in part to help Israel, in part to make money, and in part to get information on the whereabouts of his child, taken overseas by his ex-wife.

Common Cause Massachusetts is hosting a Redistricting Olympics this summer. We will be taking citizen drawn Congressional, State House, and State Senate maps all summer, evaluating them, declaring a winner, giving out prizes and submitting the winning maps to the MA Legislative Redistricting Committee for consideration.

The purpose of the redistricting Olympics is threefold: to educate the public about the steps in the redistricting process, to initiate public participation in the political arena, and to pressure the legislature to draw the districts so that the citizens are appropriately represented.

Help show the legislature that redistricting is about our interests, not theirs. By participating in our redistricting Olympics and learning how to draw your own fair districts, you can acquire the tools you need to expose attempts by public officials to politicize the state’s new legislative maps.

For more information check out and/or email us at .

Participate in our democracy!

David Levy says farewell to Myra Kraft, who died at 68:

When I came to [Combined Jewish Philanthropies], I learned that [Kraft and her husband Robert] opened their home on the Cape for a CJP Staff Outing in the summer. And, of course, I'd run in to her in the hallways and elevators of CJP, because she was not just a donor - she was a volunteer whose presence, enthusiasm, and hard work mattered as much as her dollars.

She'll be greatly missed. Other philanthropists will surely contribute money to the causes she championed, both within and outside of the Jewish community. But no one will fill the void created by the lack of her smiling face, her ever-present pep-talks, and the love for her family that was palpable in every action she took.

May her memory be for a blessing.

Letter from CJP President Barry Shrage.

Mme. Helene Alberti was a Boston opera singer who became convinced she'd discovered the secret to human-powered flight: the "Greek law of cosmic motion." One fine day in April, 1931, she and an assistant traveled to the Anderson estate in Brookline to show the world the theory in action:

Katie Noah Gibson, who grew up going to large churches in small Southern towns, reports on attending the Brookline Church of Christ, which has maybe 40 people at Sunday services:

I'm so thankful, in the midst of this big city where I often feel anonymous, to have a place where I'm recognized, hugged, needed, seen, known. Brookline is my neighborhood, and I am deeply grateful.

Brookline Police report this guy keeps shoplifting Oil of Olay products from the CVS at 900 Commonwealth Ave.

He grabbed $1,000 worth of Oil of Olay stuff on Monday - four days after he was spotted leaving the store with even more Oil of Olay products.

If he looks familiar, give a holler to Brookline Police at 617-730-2244 ext. 2716.

Susan B. asks:

I am craving good, quality Chinese food and I have no idea where to go in Boston/Allston/Brookline. Any suggestions?

Brookline Police report a man making a deposit shortly after midnight this morning at a Beacon Street bank was severely beaten by two men who took off with his bag of money and fled. Police did not specify which bank.

In a separate incident around 4:20 a.m., three guys on Freemans Street got pissed the two escorts who showed up were not the ones they'd selected and so refused to have anything to do with them. The escorts, however, attacked the men and took their money and fled. Police called to the scene found the two women in a car with a male driver; all three were were arrested.

The T's now busing from Fenway and St. Mary's inbound on the D and C lines due to signal problems near Kenmore.

The buses were of little help to Mike, who reports spending 50 minutes studying a Green Line tunnel. As Jeff Clark sat on a stuck train, he wondered if somebody could send him some breakfast.