A BPS advisory committee is now considering a plan in which low-income students would get a better shot at elementary schools selected by their parents as a way to deal with the fact that too many Boston schools don't measure up, the Globe reports.
Sportswriter visits the Hub, feels inadequate - even as losers, our teams are better than his teams, he writes, adding:
Boston is the best because it has made rooting for a team its noblest civic duty. You get out on the highway and you suffer. You get into the stadium and you may suffer some more. But your suffering has meaning. It's an act of contrition. It's - and you don’t go too crazy on this word - a sort of worship.
Boston city officials today announced a series of steps to prepare for possible effects from Hurricane Sandy, including clearing as many catch basins as possible before Monday and ordering that all utility work and road construction be secured by 5 p.m. today.
Assuming Sandy starts to lash the area, Boston Police will add extra patrols while Boston Fire will add extra firefighters to respond to downed wires. Boston EMS will also call in extra EMTs and paramedics.
Can you spot Sandy? Photo from GOES East.
WCVB warns we could get "the strong side" of Sandy as it slams into the Delmarva Peninsula (and it would only go downhill if it hit closer to us). Worst Storm in 100 Years Seen for Northeast U.S., Bloomberg blares. Hurricane Sandy is a wolf in sheep's skin, CNN oddly declares.
Just in time for Sandy, NStar has unveiled an outage map for you to call up on the tiny flickering screen of your smartphone. MassEMA sent out its first Ping alert about the storm (the city of Boston has its own alert system).
A Google search on the phrases "Hurricane Sandy" and "perfect storm" this morning results in 82,200 hits, up tenfold from Wednesday.
Meanwhile, over at ArchBoston, people already bored with Sandy are considering what would happen if a 6.0 earthquake hit Boston.
Yes, of course Psy attended BU (and Berklee). He talks to Reddit about everything, including his favorite and least favorite things about Boston.
With Sandy churning up the Atlantic as it bears down on a coast that could face the brunt of its fury, WBZ meterorologist Todd Gutner advises:
Don't bother raking, waste of time.
Infrared view of Sandy, via NOAA.
At 6:30 p.m. yesterday, Google had 8,040 results for a search on
The Boston Public Library today announced a fine amnesty for three weeks to try to get people to return overdue books.
From Nov. 1 until Thanksgiving, you'll be able to return overdue books - and CDs and DVDs - to any BPL branch and you won't have to pay a cent in fines.
The Herald reports City Councilor Mike Ross will return $2,000 in donations from executives of the company that wants to build a $195-million luxury housing project on South Huntington Avenue.
The Herald started nosing around yesterday after organizers of a campaign against the project released details of campaign contributions from developers and their lawyers to Mayor Menino, Ross, state Rep. Jeffrey Sanchez and City Councilors Matt O'Malley, Felix Arroyo and John Connolly from people associated with either that project or another luxury-housing plan to replace the old Home for Little Wanderers on South Huntington.
Michael tweets Facebook game company Zynga laid off its entire Boston staff today - some 50 programmers. Gameranx reports mass developer layoffs in Austin, as well, with the news timed for the Apple iPad Mini keynote, presumably to reduce the coverage.
Remember when the Governor of the State He Dare Not Name went on tour two years into his term as governor of some vague state up in the Northeast and kept complaining about how awful that state was? Boston Daily rewrites a section of Romney's book.
Matt Noyes rubs his eyes in front of the monitor and says it's not too early to think about what could become Hurricane Sandy, beginning to form in the Caribbean:
[I]f everything comes together in a worst-case scenario, this would be an extremely damaging storm for much of the coastal Eastern United States, and particularly the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast corridor.
Sometime Sunday to Tuesday if it comes to it.
WKLB reports it's been named the Country Music Association's 2012 Major Market Station of the Year.
National Recording artist Brad Paisley called WKLB to personally inform the station of the honor. WKLB is one of the leading music stations in the Greater Boston market, and consistently among the top 3 rated stations.
George McGovern, the Democratic presidential nominee in 1972, has died, age 90. Of course, he had a unique tie to Massachusetts - we're the only state that voted for him then (as did the District of Columbia).
George McGovern in Post Office Square, for a rally on Oct. 3, 1972.
McGovern wins the Massachusetts primary in April, 1972.
McGovern with a Bud Light at the 2006 Mass. state convention.
Boston Police report that when he had his wallet stolen by a man and a woman around 11 p.m. on Monday outside 313 E. 8 St. in South Boston, he chased after them and confronted them. One of his muggers then displayed a knife and took his cell phone.
And you think we're a tough crowd.
One of RCN's 14 or so customers adds:
It's days like this that I'm happy that RCN offers the YES network.
And just to keep the feeling going, here's a recap of what happened on this day in 2004.
The Boston Public Library has posted a ton of photos by Leslie Jones of James Michael Curley as mayor and governor, including this one of him sitting at his fabled desk at what is now Old City Hall in 1933. City Hall panjandrums have long wondered what happened to that desk.
Other photos show him posing with people such as Honey Fitz, Johnny Kelly, FDR, Father Coughlin, Aimee Semple McPherson, General Pershing and Richard Byrd. He's captured fishing in Jamaica Pond, throwing out the first ball at both Fenway Park and Braves Field, posing as an Indian chief, holding a snowshoe, being inaugurated as governor, visiting the Brockton Fair. His car is shown after two crashes. There's a picture of his son Francis with his pet monkey (and, of course, the photo of Curley with a hat-wearing zebra).
When the mayor packed heat:
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