Faegirl reports the power was out in her part of East Boston between 5 and 7:30 p.m. tonight, "from Bennington St/145 up past our house towards Wood Island."

Copyright 2009 Faegirl. Posted with a universalhub tag on Flickr.

The Massachusetts Appeals Court today upheld the conviction of a woman who argued she could not be charged with larceny for not paying utility bills because utility service is not "property" that can be stolen.

But what about National Grid?

Fabulously Out There chronicles NStar's successful effort to make one East Boston street far uglier by replacing a single utility pole with two utility poles bolted together.

She bets they'd never do that in Brookline or Cambridge. The program is, however, working just fine in Roslindale as utilities continue to file endless reams of paperwork on how slowly they are replacing their backlogs of such double poles.

AnnaB signed up for NStar's green-energy program, but now she wishes the company would stop wasting so much paper and resources congratulating her on her choice:

... This weekend I got a flag and letter thanking me for going green. Gee, I wonder how many thank you for going green mailings they sent out? Think about it ...

Marcy attempts to get an actual human on the line at Nstar when her power goes out but is instead confronted by a lady robot who asks her to explain her issue and when Marcy replies "customer service representative," asks:

Are you sure? Our representatives might be busy.

Brad Kayal lives on Sutherland Road in Brighton, which, you may recall, is where several thousand gallons of mineral oil leaked out of an Nstar electrical conduit this past Thursday and wound up in the Muddy River on the other side of Brookline.

Kayal took the photos here to show what the street has been like since that incident. He writes:

Have you ever thought to yourself, "I wonder what it's like to live in a strip mine?"

If so, I welcome anyone to swap apartments with me because since that pipe/conduit/whatever broke and leaked all that oil over a week ago Sutherland Rd. in Brighton has become one impressive construction operation. They've dug 15' holes up and down the block, erected wood shacks (that they're pumping nitrogen into), rented themselves some tents, got some cranes, dumpsters, port-a-johns, and they have been working non-stop , around the clock, since last Thursday.

Blackout.

NStar worker injured, but expected to survive the flash fire under Freeport Street.

Flaming manhole this morning.

The Crimson reports on flaming manholes early this morning:

A fire started underground on the corner of Mass Ave and Dunster Street was visible through several manholes in the Square this morning. Harvard's Holyoke Center, Cambridge Savings Bank, Au Bon Pain, and other nearby institutions were evacuated, and automobile access to the Square had been severely restricted by the Cambridge Fire Department. ...

NeutralSurface took photos, including the one on the right.

Channel 5 reports. NECN has video on "the underground mechanical failure" as well (great fire-AND-ice NECN screen capture).

Sushiesque was on the scene later in the morning taking photos of the aftermath:

Mishka gets the day off.

Michael: On second thought, maybe I'll go to Yale.

Crispyfoods captures Old Flameful outside the Pit: