Liberty Mutual

Or at the very least, use some of those millions the city and state are giving you to print up some fliers to alert neighbors you're about to blow up Boston Harbor. Fabulously Out There and her dogs recover from last night's unexpected artillery barrage over the harbor - set off from an Eastie pier:

... I don't like fireworks, because they are a waste of money in every which way possible, but the noise usually doesn't bother me, but this was no joke. I thought bombs were going off next to my house. Holy fucking shit. Little Dog was a shaking mess and the big one wasn’t to be found until I discovered her new panic room in the bathroom.

Next time, Liberty Mutual, do the barge in the harbor thing. Seriously. You probably don't care so much about all of the residents who live in immediate contact to the property the fireworks took off from, but a barge would have been a lot nicer.

Bonus: Liberty Mutual didn't really shoot them off to thank Boston for tax breaks, but to impress people attending a risk-management conference in Boston.

Members of branch-library friends groups have started a citywide organization to push for enough funding to keep all 26 BPL branches open.

People of Boston Branches was formally organized at a meeting last night at the Connolly library in Jamaica Plain, according to Brandon Abbs, who organized a protest read-in at the Egleston branch on Saturday.

Abbs said in the short term, the group will support an effort by city councilors Chuck Turner and Felix Arroyo to use $3.6 million from a city reserve fund to make up an anticipated deficit that Mayor Tom Menino and library officials say will force the closing of up to ten branch libraries. The group will also fight for more public hearings on the issue; Abbs said group members are concerned about all the private meetings city and state officials are holding on branches without public input. He added the group will "also organize resistance to the tax breaks being offered to Liberty Mutual Group to build new headquarters in downtown Boston."

Abbs said the group will also try to get the city and state to apply for federal stimulus funds for library use. "Over the long term, the group will begin fundraising efforts to protect and enhance branch resources as well as help the Friends organize volunteer programs to assist in the work at the libraries," he said.

Twitter feed.

John Keith pulls up the records from the state Office of Campaign and Political Finance on Liberty Mutual-related donations to Tom Menino between July 1 and Sept. 1, 2009.

It was during this period that the company was busy buying up two Back Bay parcels on which it said yesterday it will build a 25-30 story office building, for which the city will kick in $16 million in tax abatements over the next 20 years.