back bay

Daniel Jourdet, captured on an Internet video taking a swing at a T inspector at Copley station last April, pleaded guilty today to assault-and-battery and civil-rights charges, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office reports.

Jourdet, 52, was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in jail, with six months to actually serve for his attack on Tariq Muhummad. Muhummad, who served two years as an Army MP in Iraq. did not return Jourdet's blows while escorting him out of Copley on April 1 for creating a disturbance with a pal.

The victim asked Jourdet and his associate to stop their disorderly behavior or leave the station. Instead, the evidence would have shown, Jourdet poured forth a stream of invective based upon the victim's ethnicity. The evidence would have proven that Jourdet threw a punch at the victim before leaving the station. The victim was not injured, but his hat was knocked to the ground.

"During the assault and throughout this case, the inspector kept his cool,” [DA Dan] Conley said. "He's poised, perceptive, dignified, and intelligent - in short, everything this defendant is not."

The MBTA had its grand-opening ceremony today to announce the completion of the Copley Square renovation project.

There are two entrances to this Green Line station - outbound is at the corners of Boylston and Dartmouth streets while inbound is near the corner across the street, next to the Boston Public Library, Central Branch.

All token gates are open, the escalator (up) on the outbound side works, and both inbound and outbound now have elevators.

This is the mailing that has Stephen Lynch in a tizzy.

click on image for expanded view or view the PDF in Scribd

You find the most-interesting things in a barber shop.

Here are a couple photos of pages from the April 1925 issue of Real Estate News newspaper, "Dedicated to the Development and Welfare of Boston and New England and to those who Own, Occupy, Sell or Manage Real Estate".

On the cover is a story on plans to completely rehab an existing building on Newbury Street. The renovation did take place, as Bostonians know, as the property was the location of Kakas Furs fur for many years. In the left-hand corner of the page is a photo of the building as it existed circa 1925.

Inside the newspaper is a short article entitled "WHY BOXES REMAIN ON THE STREET" regarding trash receptacles in the Back Bay.