Ya know, we haven't had a good horrifying rat story recently. Chris Faraone to the rescue, with a look at Boston's rat rampage, from the North End to Allston/Brighton. With bonus fun fact on how male rates mate with up to 20 other rats a day.

On Monday, the Supreme Judicial Court hears arguments in a case that pits a North End developer against a resident who wrote about issues with his projects for a neighborhood newspaper.

Jen can't decide, but says the cannolis at Mike's have one advantage - if you buy so many that you can't eat them all at once:

... From personal experience, I have found that the cannolis from Mike's Pastry keep longer. The shells seem to stay relatively crunchy for at least one whole day (overnight), whereas the Modern Pastry cannolis get soggy in less than 24 hours. This could be because the Modern shells are smaller, lighter, and more delicate than the heftier, cookie-like shells from Mike's. ...

Mary Pierce posts video of gun-toting nuns at Commercial Street and Foster Street as part of, naturally, Ben Affleck's roving art installation, Guns on the streets of Boston. Actually, it looks a lot like a lot of people milling around not doing anything much besides shooting guns, then the nuns show up, then everybody goes back to milling about, firing weapons.

Oops, did I just give the plot away?

You pour them into Boston Harbor from Commercial Street in the hopes they'll establish a colony and help clean up Boston Harbor.

Massachusetts Oyster Project - which has already placed 150,000 oysters in the harbor by the mouth of the Charles.

Matt Conti runs down all the proposed developments for the Greenway - mostly all completely unfunded. One of the projects, which would replace the shelved plan to build a Boston museum atop a series of ramps, would consist of an "urban nursery," in which:

Trees would be planted in pots along rows, as if in a real nursery. After a period of time, an entire row would be "harvested" for use in other locations.

NorthEndWaterfront.com posts a photo of a toilet that's been sitting on the Freedom Trail on Hull Street near Old North Church since Tuesday, along with a note from the disgusted photographer:

... Why the stewards of the historic shrine or any of the commercial and residential abutters have not taken action to remove the plumbing fixture is a graphic commentary on what they really think about the neighborhood.

Sure, you could just stage a boring rally to call for action on climate change. Or you could hold a Boston Under Water Climate Festival, featuring such fun events as

• Building a sandbag flood barrier
• A massive group photo in front of the sandbag wall with a banner calling on world leaders to get us back to 350 and to pass a fair, ambitious and binding climate treaty this yearFlooding Station: learn about what sea level rise and higher storm surges will mean for Boston
• Fred Small sings "Three Five 0"
• Canoe relay racing!!
• Participatory Climate Theater!!
• Plus blue face-painting, bike-flag making, and much, much more!

Saturday, Oct. 24, 3-5:30 p.m. at Christopher Columbus Park.

A Newton butcher shop was fined $1,000 today for advertising kosher meat even after it stopped paying for kosher certification, the state Attorney General's office announced today.

The Gordon and Alperin Butcher Shop made a business decision in 2008 to drop its kosher certification, but the AG's office said the shop continued to post "Kosher meat" signs in Hebrew and to advertise the same on a Web site.

Gordon and Alperin has since regained its kashrut certification, Kosher Blog reports.

Today was the annual Columbus Day parade through the North End. Lots of marching bands, of course, along with a float of clowns throwing clown noses into the crowds. One lady put hers on:

One high school's uniforms were kind of unsettling: