Dorchester

Hasn't the poor guy suffered enough indignities in his life in Franklin Park? The Globe reports the gorilla was unable to pick between the Patriots and Giants so the zoo had to swap in some substitute gorilla for the dumb stunt.

Boston Police report arresting a Greenwood Street resident who'd allegedly finally snapped at all the parents who stop in front of his driveway to pick up kids at the school across the street.

The Awl interviews Kerry Burke, who covers the "murder and mayhem" beat for the New York Daily News - and who grew up in a Dorchester housing project, which he brings up to explain why he feels his work is important:

If these stories aren't told, then these people don't count and these places don't exist. They don't. I'm from the old neighborhood, as it were, of Dorchester in the Boston area, and I know a little bit about being outside of society. Frankly, the awful things that happened in our neighborhood were the things that really impacted our lives. ... I remember growing up and occasionally some horrific shit would go down in my neighborhood. And it would be ignored by the media. It told us we didn't count. It made plain that we were outside society. These stories count, just like the people who live in these neighborhoods.

Ed. note: The amount of Graham's bounced license check was $2,219, not $134. The amount has been updated in the post; apologies for anybody misled by the incorrect figure.

Christopher Graham says he found himself in pretty dire straits the weekend of Jan. 7. The day before, a police detective had seized the food-serving license of his Lorenez Island Kuisine because the check he used to pay for its renewal had bounced. And as the detective, Robert Mulvey warned him, without the license, he had to shut immediately.

With no money to pay for the license, Graham told the Boston Licensing Board today, he panicked and held an illegal after-hours party that began early on Jan. 8 and ended when police, responding to the latest noise complaint about the 657 Washington St. restaurant, arrived around 2:55 a.m. and shut him down.

Graham raised enough money to pay for his license - more than $2,000 - but the move may well backfire on him: The licensing board votes Thursday whether to strip him of his license altogether or suspend it for a period of time. This is at least the second time Graham has bounced a check to the board.