South Boston

Around 10:15 p.m., Dave Ahern reported:

Just saw an intense shooting star western sky from Dorchester.

Over in South Boston, Broadway Joe also saw the meteor:

Over the South Boston Waterfront until it disintegrated over near Dorchester!

A pedestrian who suffered no visible injuries when "brushed" by a car whose driver was making a turn made a series of phone calls to get money out of him, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Instead of money, however, Deborah Yi, 24, got a trip to a State Police barracks, after she was arrested on an extortion charge after allegedly accepting an envelope full of cash from the driver - who had immediately reported the calls to police, the DA's office says.

According to prosecutors, the driver, a lawyer:

The Boston Business Journal reports on plans for a 22-story building that would house 414 apartments, from studios to three-bedroom units, including nine "micro units" that would go for $1,700 a month. Also notable: Only 132 parking spaces are planned for the project, near a Silver Line stop.

Fort Point Theatre Channel presents The Land, a new play written by Jessica Litwak, with Amir al-Azraki. Directed by Marc S. Miller, production design by Anne Loyer. Workshop performances: May 16-18, Thurs.-Fri. at 8 pm; Sat. 7 & 9 pm. Tickets: free, donations welcome. Held at 10 Channel Center Street, Fort Point, Boston, MA 02210. For general information, http://www.fortpointtc.org, 617.750.8900.

The Land is a new play by Jessica Litwak, a U.S. playwright, with Amir al-Azraki, an Iraqi playwright. The first script collaboratively developed by U.S. and Iraqi theater artists, The Land is being workshopped as part of the development of the work toward future full productions. The play is based on an idea by Litwak and al-Azraki.

The wheels on the bridge go round and round - well, they used to, anyway.

Read about the "retractile draw" design that makes the bridge unique.

Library of Congress photos.

H/t Doug Shugarts.

A somewhat stationary yet still roving UHub photographer noticed T workers dealing with a couple of Red Line cars that slipped off the rails in the Cabot yard around lunchtime:

All these T workers have just been standing around for the past 90 minutes while one guy saws away on something between the 2 cars. Do they think they're going to pick it up?

A T spokesman said the workers know what they're doing and figured out how to get the cars back on the tracks. He added that because the two cars were in the yard, they were not carrying any passengers and did not delay any service.

Alison Rush spotted this plump possum on the steps of her apartment building this evening.

The Dorchester Reporter posts the tallies for the 1st Suffolk race, along with a report on the close election.

AP called the 1st Suffolk race for Collins early on, but as of 10:08 p.m., city results showed Dorcena Forry leading by a slim margin - and the Dorcena Forry camp was declaring victory. The Collins camp, however, was conceding nothing.

The Dorchester Reporter has more.

David Bernstein reports on a snafu in the 1st Suffolk race involving some precincts in South Boston (wards 6 and 7( getting ballots without the state-senate candidates listed on them. City elections officials say they fixed the problem before 7:30 a.m.

The Dorchester Reporter reports the governor is slamming a pro-Collins ad featuring a photo of him and Nick Collins in the Bay State Banner, because he hasn't taken sides in the race between Collins, Linda Dorcena Forry and Maureen Dahill.

This isn't the first time Patrick has had to deny endorsing somebody, although at least this time his signature wasn't forged on the alleged endorsement.

Meanwhile, WBUR provides an overview of the race to represent the Southie/Dot district.

It's hard to imagine how many miles of train tracks used to exist within Boston city limits (let alone how few will be left once Harvard gets around to ripping out the Allston yard). Here we see the train yard in front of Commonwealth Pier in South Boston, sometime shortly after World War I. Today, the pier is better known as the World Trade Center and the tracks have mostly been replaced by highway ramps, parking lots and surface roads. Nearby is Fan Pier, named for the way the train tracks there fanned out toward the water.

The Back Bay used to have its own large train yard - since replaced by the Prudential Center and the Massachusetts Turnpike:

Police officers patrolling South Boston tonight were urged to be on the lookout for a white trolley party bus, careening through the streets of the neighborhood, its passengers throwing eggs at pedestrians and yelling at them.

Around 9 p.m., Matthew Gaskill reported spotting the eggmobile on East Broadway, heading toward the city.

UPDATE, 10:52 p.m.: Amanda Hitt reports seeing a white trolley bus with "what looked like an egg yolk stain on the side" parked on Canal Street.

Brian Clarke reports somebody today is finally removing the remains of that sailboat that has been sitting there since Hurricane Sandy.

UPDATE: The building was evacuated and everybody pushed back after somebody called in a bomb threat. All clear sounded around 4:15 p.m.

The scene at the courthouse around 2:20 p.m. as word spread a suspect had been identified and might (or might not) be under arrest. Photo by Joselin Mane.

The view from the ground. Photo by Jed Hresko.

Both the Museum of Fine Arts and the Institute of Contemporary Art are opening their doors at no charge today. The MFA says:

We hope the Museum will be a place of respite for our community.

The ICA says:

We hope the museum will offer a place of community & reflection.

Erika Myllmaki videoed an open door on a Red Line train pulling into Andrew today.

Via Scott Rides the T.

Pax East is not your typical convention-center kind of exhibition.

Pax East is in town this weekend, bringing a deluge of gamer geeks to town. And yes, there's already been one Mario and Luigi sighting.

The Dorchester Reporter reports Suzanne Lee will run again this year against District 2 City Councilor Bill Linehan of South Boston.

Lee, a Chinatown resident, beat Linehan in the preliminaries two years ago, but lost to him in the election that really counted - but just by 87 votes.

Enoch Pratt noticed this sign outside a South Boston church on Sunday.

Is stuck somewhere near Andrew, full of increasingly cranky people who don't like being stuck underground, squashed together.

Around 3 p.m. on Friday, somebody waiting for a train at Broadway noticed a woman "performing a sexual act" on a man. Rather than yelling at them to get a room, the shocked rider notified Transit Police, who arrived in time to consummate an arrest of the both of them for lewd, wanton and lascivious conduct, the T reports.

An impatient citizen couldn't even wait for the end of the St. Patrick's Day parade to complain about horse droppings. The city has, however, marked the complaint "resolved."