Harvard Square

Stop, thief!But somebody who looks like him, at least in low-res surveillance photos, is.

Harvard University Police report this guy was seen entering Rm. 238 in Mallinckrodt Lab on Oxford Street, around 1:50 p.m. on Saturday and then exiting about a minute later - leaving behind a space where a laptop used to be. "Suspect is connected to numerous thefts on campus."

If he looks familiar, contact HUPD at 617-496-3223.

Actual Drudge, for comparison.

Jeff Mayersohn, owner of the iconic Harvard Square shop, sent e-mail to fans:

As Rachel noted in a recent newsletter, we just completed our best holiday season in quite some time. The volume of business happily surprised us after years of challenge. Despite this unanticipated demand, our amazing staff rose to the occasion, the publishers supplied us with the books we needed, and our customers showered us with much appreciated holiday cheer. We are very thankful as we head into 2012. ... It is clear that the rumors of the demise of independent bookstores have been greatly exaggerated. Entrepreneurs continue to enter the industry, reimagining how the printed word is distributed to passionate readers. It has been an exciting year, but we promise you that the coming year will be even more exciting.

Via Danielle Dreilinger.

Stiofan forwards this photo of the result of a car-vs.-bollard incident in Harvard Square this morning. Lots of other smashups reported across the area as we magically lose the ability to drive in snow.

The Crimson reports that with the end of a major presence by Occupy Harvard, the U is re-opening Harvard Yard to the public sometime tomorrow. But as Ron Newman notes in the comments, the hours are limited - no more romantic moon-lit late-night strolls through the Yard, plebians.

All it takes is a little extra tap on the accelerator, somebody discovered today. Jason Mihalko was on scene to record this rebuttal to the old nostrum.

Cambridge Police report two people were taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries in the accident, which is still under investigation.

Bijan Sabet recounts a discussion with his five-year-old today about the Harvard Square chocolate shop.

The Crimson recounts the sordid tale:

Liu said that when a freshman acquaintance asked him to spend time in Weld, he was reluctant, but he eventually decided to go ahead. Sometime during October, he began telling freshmen he lived there.

"You get so deep, you don’t know how to stop it," he said.

The Crimson reports that Rami's, the kosher Israeli place in Coolidge Corner, is looking to expand and has listed Harvard Square as one of its possible new locations (along with Framingham and Sharon).

According to the Crimson, there's a glatt of interest at Harvard; says some even predict prospective students might decide where to go based on the presence of kashruth in the square.

Of course, the interest has to be tempered with the fact that the last kosher joint in Harvard Square didn't last long.

The Crimson reports a bunch of students in a biochemistry class basically got sunburned eyeballs because they were in "a lazy kind of mood" and didn't bother to put on protective goggles while using UV light in some experiments on DNA:

As a result, they suffered from what Adeyemi was told may have been “thermal retinal burn from UV radiation,” a condition that includes symptoms of eye redness, pain, and blurry vision.

Clover, the non-meat food truck and Harvard Square restaurant, takes exception to being put in a Weekly Dig "Best of" listing:

What are these "best of" things anyway? They're a way for these publications to (a) advertise by piggybacking on businesses who are "awarded," and (b) a way for publishers to drive more traffic to their website/ publication. Does any of that have to do with food? Does it have to do with low prices? Does it speed up our serve times? Does it have to do with our relationships with our customers? Does it have anything to do with sourcing ingredients? No, no, no, no, no, no.

Dig Publisher Jeff Lawrence responds in his typical, understated manner:

You pompous pr*ck!

Via Boston Reddit.

The warning comes from the school's chief athletic trainer, Brant D. Berkstresser, whose name could only be improved by adding "III" or "IV" to the end of it. The company that scrapes velvet off deer antlers for re-sale to athletes denies it's stupid enough to think it could possibly convince the brain-heavy athletes of Harvard to try its wares and so does not market to them.

Sounds like some salespeople at the Verizon store in Harvard Square need some training.

Jennifer Strong, who has an office in the square, reports on the Mass. Ave. Gauntlet: Tourists, locals who don't know which side to stand on on escalators, student herds and, of course the Save the Whatevers people:

I've tried ignoring them, but sometimes this makes them more insistent. I've tried pretending to be on my phone, but sometimes they ignore this and try to get my attention. (What if I was having a Very Important Conversation?!) I've also tried to pretend that I don't speak English, which even once involved breaking into an invented language with my companion at the time, The Irreverent Psychologist. This kind of worked, but I think those petitioners knew what we were up to. Eventually, I decided to stop all this passive-aggressive business and just say "No thank you" every time they speak. And guess what? (Here comes the Important Lesson of this post.) Being direct is more effective than being passive aggressive. And I should know. I'm a psychologist.

Maryam Monalisa Gharavi tweets:

Last night a group of Harvard students (in black-tie suits, possibly drunk) tried to attack #OccupyHarvard's encampment, tearing a tent.

She turned in a longer piece on Occupy Harvard for the Los Angeles Review of Books.

Liz Pelly is tweeting an attempt to establish Occupy Harvard tonight. Tents are being pitched in the Yard.

HUPD is, predictably, not amused. Some gates are locked and IDs are being checked.

Pelly also captured some future Masters of the Universe dudebros yelling "1 percent! 1 percent!" from the window of their dorm room.

• More reports
• OccupyBU was quieter
• Report from the 1970 Harvard Square riot (photos)

Everyone can agree that the economy is rough. This holiday season, more than usual, is important to local retailers. Small businesses in Porter and Davis squares now have another hurdle to deal with starting November 5th, no red line service on the weekends. The residents probably aren't happy about it either.

According to service advisory posters in red line stations, and yesterday's article on Boston.com, the red line will terminate at Harvard until March 2012! On a side note, the MBTA's own website doesn't mention the service advisory yet.

The MBTA's brick and mortar location for their merchandise website, MBTAgifts.com, is located in Porter Square.

Recently, if you look out the windows on the Red Line between Harvard and Porter, you'll almost always find workers pressing against the wall to let a train by. In case the water-stained tunnel walls don't give it away: they're working on the corroded tracks as we speak. However, that may not be enough time to keep the tunnels in shape, and as The Globe explains:

The MBTA will close the Red Line north of Harvard Square on weekends from November through March to complete $80 million in repairs designed to keep trains from derailing, transit administrators said yesterday.

Starting Nov. 5, weekend service will stop to allow T crews to plug tunnel cracks and seal water leaks that have eroded the concrete track base and corroded power lines. Then crews will replace damaged track, supports, and electrical components.

Bob Slate has re-opened in Harvard Square. They're even on Twitter.

Cambridge, Mass. — Tickets are on sale now for George V. Higgins’ The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Stickball Productions’ world premiere stage adaptation of the quintessential Boston crime novel. The production runs Dec. 8–Jan. 15 at Oberon in Harvard Square, for tickets, visit www.thefriendsofeddiecoyle.com

It is the winter of ‘69 in Boston and Eddie Coyle is a bottom of the barrel hood attempting to stay alive and out of jail among his “friends” – cops, bartenders, radical hippies, bank robbers, hit men and informants. Weeks away from a prison sentence for trucking stolen booze, Eddie’s making a few bucks supplying the guns for a rash of brazen bank heists, while looking to tip someone in for a kind word to the judge.

George V. Higgins’ classic novel has been called the “best crime novel ever written” by Elmore Leonard, and literary scholars have compared his unforgiving and realistic depiction of Boston’s underworld with the works of Dickens, Dostoevsky, and Balzac. Through dialogue quintessentially Bostonian, and the most poignant homage to Bobby Orr and the ’69-’70 Boston Bruins in literature, The Friends of Eddie Coyle has set the bar for Boston crime stories for nearly 40 years.

More, more and more.

Greg Cook has photos. And if you live in Cambridge, this guy deserves your vote for his obvious support of the arts:

The Boston Business Journal reports the long-time Harvard Square place can be yours for the right price.

Hacked Harvard. As seen on TV (well, YouTube).

Oh, phew, the former ophthalmologist is still just the brutal thug strongman of Syria. It was just some Syrian kiddies hacking the Harvard Web site. Wait, what? Maybe Harvard could ask MIT for some computer-security tips.

Harvard Square, 1912. Larger.

Photo from the Library of Congress.

Via Tristan via Shorpy.

UPDATE: Body found, death ruled accidental.

Kolajo Paul Afolabi hasn't been seen since Wednesday morning, when he left his Providence home for a run.

The Crimson reports the guy was nabbed in Newburyport earlier this month on charges he went on an X-ray theft binge across Massachusetts and New Hampshire - including a stop in Harvard Square. He allegedly posed as an employee of a company that recycles old X-rays - in Harvard's case, images of bone fractures from a few years ago - with the intention of extracting the silver in the films.