Oddjob60 reports a small fire at Back Bay station stopped commuter service into South Station:

As my train pulled into Ruggles this morning at about 7:10, we were told that all trains in and out of Back Bay (rail and subway) were stopped. A few minutes later, we heard that the train would be held at Ruggles for "a while," so I joined the stream of people in search of a different way to work. ...

Ezra Ball photographs a T ad for some dating service that only caters to people who went to, go to or teach at Ivy League schools, MIT and "other excellent schools." Of course, brains aren't everything - in addition to GPAs, prospective members are strongly urged to post photos. Also:

Around Natick reports:

Large chunks of concrete came tumbling down from underneath the fifty year old Speen St bridge a couple of hours ago, causing train delays, and making the commute a bit more difficult and time consuming for those coming home from school and work. ...

Steve reports:

There was a pigeon on the train this morning; some passengers forced him out the open door into a station with their newspapers, but none of them asked if it was his stop.

For the complete dissection of the Globe's Boston-in-ten-years opus, get over to Mike Mennonno's pad right away. He discusses the Jolly Green Penis, a.k.a. the Tommy Tower, the likelihood that Boston will really have a functioning cross-town mass-transit line (that likelihood being, roughly, nil) and the possibiility of Porter Square becoming the sort of place John LeCarre would write about. And he notices a curious map of the South Boston waterfront that shows only a blank spot between the ICA and the World Trade Center:

The Rosalindale Transcript reports on a meeting at which Rozzie Square merchants complained about the lack of parking and blamed the problem on "too many people coming from outside of the area to park in Roslindale so they can take the commuter rail."

If you don't know how to stay upright on a train without falling over, put the newspaper away and grab onto a pole immediately.

Turns out that Some Assembly Required was on that Orange Line train yesterday. He reports:

Either train crews can't hear them or they just ignore them, but in any case, an Orange Line train left State Street station with a man caught in one of the doors yesterday - even as other passengers got on the intercom to try to get the driver to stop the train:

... When the train pulled into Downtown Crossing, the doors did not open again. After a T official noticed passengers banging on the car's windows, he entered the car and opened the doors manually, Weston said. ...