Paul Levy reports on the tsouris he is having thanks to a Bank of America ATM in Newton Centre that ate both his ATM card and the checks he was attempting to deposit.

He follows up with a post on his travails with a Bank of America rep who contacted him via Twitter.

Jo concludes a rant about how much the Sears credit department sucks (a whole lot) with a fun little anecdote involving a woman who couldn't be bothered with feeding a meter in Newton Cenre:

... She walked over to a meter with a broken sign that someone had obviously hand made and used a rubber band to affix the sign to the meter. She took the sign off, walked over to her meter and using the same rubber band she wrapped the sign around her meter and headed off to Starb*cks. ...

Petition to try to convince Starbucks to close the Starbucks on Centre Street in Newton Center instead of the one in the Union Street train station:

Mr. Shultz, please be advised that I will NEVER spend a dollar at the Center Street location, nor any other Starbucks for that matter. There is a Peets Coffee and Tea location in Newton Center as well, and they will be getting my daily business going forward if you proceed with this closing. ...

Via The Missus, who writes people go to Starbucks for the ambiance, not the awful coffee and stale pastry.

The MBTA says it has to shut Langley Road in Newton Centre for six months to repair a bridge over the Riverside Line - and will likely have to shut Riverside service for five weekends as part of the work (so get ready for buses, folks).

Greg Reibman is all for repairing decaying bridges, but he wonders why the T couldn't have coordinated the work with this past summer's Riverside shutdown.