Carpundit puts a token in the slot at his favorite Back Bay stop on the Green Line this morning. The turnstile doesn't work. The always surly token-booth person is busy. So he jumps the turnstile. And is promptly turned in by the token clerk as a fare jumper:

I turned and saw an angry, red-faced, thirty-something, MBTA cop striding through the gate toward me. ... The turnstile was sticking, people were jumping it, and the token clerk was calling them in as fare evaders. I learned all that from the shouting match the MBTA cop got into with a businessman who had witnessed not only my encounter, but apparently the token clerk's encounters with people as well, and was not happy about the MBTA's efficiency or customer service. So the MBTA cop should have known, or did know, that the problem was an MBTA one, not one of rampant miscreancy....

Chris, who lives in Cambridge, reports the water's back on after last night's Kendall Square pipeburst. In a note to Chris's comment, Helen adds:

There's a hole ripped at the intersection of Broadway and Main, at the service entrance to 1CC/the Marriott Hotel. Obviously this was no well planned street work; I can imagine that the dirt went flying yesterday (figuratively and literally) as workers dug to find the leak.

The pipe itself was exposed, and as the aforementioned workers were not paying attention to me, I stood right next to the hole to get a good look. All I can say is: wow! The pipe hole has to be at least two feet by eighteen inches, perhaps even larger. There was water still coming out of the pipe hole, but at a much slower clip than (I imagine) yesterday.

Chris proposes a way to end all the cone/chair battles:

[F]rom late December to mid-March, create assigned spaces. Such spaces could be adjudicated in whatever way seems appropriate - through a lottery, through a market-rate fixed cost, or tied to units and property tax payments. Those without space to park would need to find alternate arrangements. ... It may not be a perfect solution but would keep people from beating each other up over plastic cones.

Some reactions to the Globe article that suggests a Boston policeman helped his cousin get away with a murder.

Carpundit wonders if the Globe got the story wrong or if maybe the case is being handled differently because the guy is a cop:

Imagine the same facts, but take the officer out of it: Two cousins from Dorchester travel to Randolph in one car, one of them kills a man, and they both drive away. Now imagine the police can find only the non-shooting cousin. What do they do with him? They arrest him. Every time.

John, though, says the Globe was simply irresonsible in running the story:

The cop that served as the source for the last paragraph in this story, Suzanne Smalley who wrote the peice, and the Globe by publishing it, may well be putting lives in jeopardy. They all should know better.

Ghost, meanwhile, notes that the murder took place at a club frequented by Cape Verdeans:

This is one of the dozen cases of shootings and violence involving the Cape Vedean youth that has not only give us a bad name in the media but also has cause great suffering and pain to families and the CV community. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

What can we do to definitely reduce and stop violence and shootings among us ?

Martha notes that at least three local knitting and fabric stores are throwing sales on Super Bowl Sunday.

Jen is sick of local college students whining about the police or the city or liquor stores and says if they don't want trouble after the Super Bowl, they should just stop acting like assholes:

... Guess what? I was a college kid, and I wasn't an asshole, so I know it's possible. I also know lots of other people who weren't idiots or jackasses in college. ...

In a Globe report on the Traffic Tieup from Hell, Carpundit notes this snippet:

"Josh Resnek, 55, editor of the Chelsea Record, said it took him 1½ hours to drive from North Station to Mass. General, where his wife was in surgery."

To which Carpundit adds:

Josh, you can walk it in ten minutes. Park the car.

Ron ambles by the now former Loews Copley Place Cinemas:

[W]orkers were already busy taking the place apart. One of them was putting black paint over the box office windows and the theatre doors. Another was carting speakers out through a service door. I tried to wander around looking, but eventually got shooed out.

I bet that within another week, shoppers in the mall won't even see that a cinema used to be here.

Now living in Israel, Moshe reports he was leaving a cemetery ceremony in Beit Shemesh when he ran into the former rabbi of Congregation Beth Israel in Malden - there for the first-year remembrance of the death of a key congregation member. Moshe joins in the service, then notices a tombstone for Rabbi Oskar Bookspan - who was his son's introduction to synagogue life in Brookline:

... There were 2 empty seats in the front left of the synagogue. 2 empty seats next to an old man, Rabbi Oscar Bookspan. We took those seats and for the next 4 years, my son was able to enjoy the character of this sweet, kind and gentle old man. He passed away in 2000 and I remember how our son cried when hearing the news. His funeral was held in Israel and we never knew where he was buried. Never knew until today. ...

Marc is happy that the convenience store replacing the old White Hen Pantry at 2245 Mass. Ave. in Cambridge will be open 24 hours. He is not so happy that the replacement is a Bread & Butter "Konvenience" store:

Ugh. "Konvenience." Good lord.

Neal wonders:

Maybe it's going to be run by Krusty the Clown.

And LaDivina ponders:

Will they also sell Krispy Kremes?

Me neither. Fondofelves finds herself particularly irritated at Matty this morning:

Seems Matty in the Morning (who was funny when he was Charles' sidekick) can't remember who Joe Jackson is. I mean, come ON! It's not like he's some young guy who didn't live thru the '80s. ... I miss Charles.

Note: Charles has a Weblog!

Pmaiorana photographs a firefighter on a ladder at his Mass. Ave. apartment building:

... The fire truck showed up, and a fireman scaled the ladder to my balcony for no discernable reason. The was no alarm....no smoke...no fire. Just a huge guy on my balcony with an axe.

Good thing the Mittster's spreading PAC money around in other states, because he might not have a job locally in a couple of years, Jay says:

... I don't think his advisers have an inkling how poorly his shallow checklist governance style is playing on the streets here.

On Sunday, the Carol and Steve show paid a visit to the Boston Wine Expo, in a video that will leave your head spinning (but maybe that was just the camera angles at the end).

Well, probably not. Candlemaker is kind of doubtful that Chayet will actually report on the Back that Ass Up case, in which two rappers battled over who has the right to the phrase "Back That Ass Up". So you'll just have to imagine him drawwwwing the phrase out.

Amy photographs an Eat the City bunny on a map at the Forest Hills T stop and wonders what the deal is:

I've spotted this hungry bunny in a few places around Boston. I don't know what "eat the city" means, really, but it's a satisfying phrase no matter what your mood. ...

Mark goes out for a drink:

"Yeah ok so what are you really?" Her friend drew in closer to me, to hear me capitulate and confess the truth.

"Excuse me?" I laughed.

"You're way too young to be a doctor at MGH, wasn't that just a line? It's ok we like talking to you, you can tell us the truth now!" They stared at me. ...

Sandy snaps a photo of the killer icicle that broke free from her Northboro condo's roofs moments after it plummeted to the ground, smashing her barbecue grill into bits and making her glad it was too cold to be outside cooking a steak.

One of the fascinating things about "Boston English" is how, even in our fairly small corner of the world, there are enough differences that some claim they can tell what parish you live in just by how you pronounce 20 or so specific words. And then there's The Lake in Newton, where people use words that might be descended from Romany spoken by Gypsies:

... Any of you divia mushes or bree know where mandi-ki can get a history of Lake language? I was born there and was told that it came from "carny talk". That might have been an overchay because I was just a chabby then. ...