annoying people
Megan Johnson, who admits to stealing toilet papers from public loos in her current unemployment, still tried to help out the panhandler who asked her for change at Boylston and Charles today. She gave him what she had, which was a bunch of pennies - which he then threw at her. But the Boloco people who saw the whole thing gave her a free smoothie - and she reports her regular panhandler, at Beacon and Charles, volunteered to go find the first guy and beat him up after she told him what had happened. Complete with a photo of the lout, should you wish to avoid him.
That Kind of Girl reports on an experiment in which she offers tissues to T riders who clearly need them. She's disgusted with the results - and so will you be, so don't click that link while eating.
Because, as Rob Bellinger explains, one of its drivers appears to be the spawn of Satan.
Tape reports somebody on his street took his two trash barrels to mark a parking space.
$200 for one ticket! Posted at 11:36 a.m. A real generous soul who scooped up four tickets is offering his for just $100 apiece and provides this photo to prove he really has them in hand:
He adds:
This is a sold out event. I was trying to get tickets for January 10th, however I was told that they only had a random batch of tickets and the only available tickets at the time were for January 3rd, 2010. I didn't want to walk away empty handed (I waited for 3 hours in the arctic tundra), so I have 4 tickets that my family and I can not go to.
I think our work here is done. That Hottness reviews the Midwesterner's bunched panties.
Paul Levy reports on a near miss. Complete with helpful diagram.
The Herald reports cheapskates from leafy suburbs like Milton are avoiding their towns' garbage-pickup fees by tossing their tony trash in Dumpsters and vacant lots in Boston. The Herald writes that City Councilor Rob Consalvo wants the city to install motion detectors in key trouble spots - such as behind the strip mall on American Legion Highway in Roslindale - that would emit stern beeps at people attempting to drop off trash after hours and take their photos.
John Carroll was less than impressed by Tina Brown's talk last night at the MFA:
Well the Missus and I trundled down to the Museum of Fine Arts Wednesday evening to catch its Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Celebrity Lecture featuring Daily Beast diva Tina Brown.
Of course it should've been called the Ruth and Carl J. Shapiro Celebrity Commercial because Brown was there mostly to deliver a pitch for her new website, which she subsequently did in a straightforward and shameless fashion. ...
SuperMark reports that when his cab driver told him after an $18 ride that his cab's credit-card reader was broken, he told the guy he only had $8 on him and that he was breaking the law by driving around with a busted reader. Miraculously, the cab driver managed to get the reader to work.
Just because I can't think of one doesn't mean there isn't one. So why would a Boston Transportation Department worker block a Brighton Center bus stop and force a guy with a cane into the street to board a 57 bus?
Oh, of course there's a good reason! As the person who took the photo explains:
The BTD truck driver was parking to buy scratch tickets and ignored the man with the cane that was waiting for the bus. He threw the ticket out the window into the back of his truck afterwards.
Here's his license plate, should anybody at BTD wish to inquire:
Somehow I missed this account of what happened when some kid stole Ben Franklin's hat in Downtown Crossing last week:
... Ben Franklin catches up and starts whacking the thief with his cane, so the cop starts yelling, "Easy with the cane! Easy with the cane!" ...
I bet it's the Faneuil Hall Ben Franklin who gets mad if you take his picture without paying him.
Via Bostonist.
It's a faceoff! CT3 bus driver vs. SUV driver at W. Concord Street and Harrison Avenue in the South End.
Jason Laramie, who took the photo around 9:47 this morning, reports the two have been facing off like that for 10 minutes, blocking traffic (including him) all the way back to Mass. Ave.
John Ford reports on an apparent scam in Cambridge: A single guy rented half of a two-family house, then re-rented it - at a higher rate - to, natch, college students, and is now teaching others how to do this via that wretched den of scum and villiany known as Craigslist:
... Perhaps worst of all, the landlord wanted a single or couple living in her unit upstairs and now "I have drinkers, smokers and partyers who dance until two o'clock in the morning, keeping me up at night." ...
Mitch Blum tweets:
bummy kid shaking down commuters for cash on the [Newburyport/Rockport] train at N. Station...he scored $11.
Katie W. suggests a douche tax, for example, on "the guy doing pull ups and bragging about his appeal to the ladies on the Green Line." Yes, pull ups on the trolley - on the bar above the space designed for wheelchairs.
The Hack reports that foreign riders are the worst but that everybody seems to be tipping less these days:
... I recently had one guy who had a $6.25 fare, handed me a $100 bill and then got ticked off that I didn't have the coin on hand so he could leave me a fifty-cent tip. Instead, I got bupkus.
Rick reports on one of those neighbor-vs-neighbor disputes that spilled into a zoning hearing in his North Shore city when one of the neighbors sought permission to expand her house:
... When the floor came open to the public, there were throngs of support until the abutter - some portly bitter woman, got up and lambasted the petitioner because the development would impede her water view and breeze. But instead of sticking to facts she started spouting how the lady was a spinster, had no need for additional space. She didn't have a boyfriend, there's never been children there in 20 years. There was no need for her to expand. ...
The zoning board disagreed.
Angry Mike is a fixture of Powder House Square in Somerville who screams at passersby. Ronhaha108 reports, however, that flashing a peace symbol at him calms him right down:
... I saw Angry Mike walking up the sidewalk yelling at people and looking around. I caught his attention and flashed him the peace sign, he did a double take and smiled at me and put his hand over his heart. ...
Alicia Priselac photographs a woman who managed to take up pretty much the entire width of Federal Street this afternoon with an umbrella that would make you think she stole it off somebody's back porch except that it was black.
Wicked Local Roslindale reports a Rockland Street man admitted to police he called his black neighbor "the N word" because "he looked at me funny:"
Officers told the suspect that he has the right to free speech, but that the court system may frown on the use of racial epithets.
Ed. suggestion to Wicked Local editors: In a police report for what might actually be Boston's most Irish neighborhood, you might not want to call those windowless police vans "paddy wagons."
Steve Garfield reports he was standing in front of Roche Bros. in West Roxbury - talking to Kevin McCrea of all people - when one of the 115-year-old guys who work there plowed into him at ramming speed with a line of shopping carts:
... "Hey!" I yelled. "Watch where you are going."
"You're in the way." he replied. ...
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