Harvard Square

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:

So Lady Godiva had best stay out of the Pit - unless she puts up some fliers first.

The Supreme Judicial Court ruled today a Cambridge woman can face criminal charges for dancing nude in Harvard Square even if she was trying to exercise her First Amendment rights, in this case to protest the commercialization of Christmas, because of a state law banning nudity that "shocks and alarms" people.

Ria Ora was arrested on June 25 (the anti-Christmas?), 2005 on charges of "open and gross lewdness."

A lower court had ruled the arrest unconstitutional. In its decision, the Supreme Judicial Court agreed that people do have a right to take all their clothes down, but only if their displays are not "imposed upon an unsuspecting or unwilling audience" (so strip clubs are OK).

In the court's hearing on the case, the state argued that employees of the kiosk in Harvard Square expressed "shock and alarm" when they called police to report the woman (must've been new employees; who knew there was anything shocking left for Harvard Square?). And when justices asked how Ora's anti-Christmas protest was different from Lady Godiva's political ride, the assistant attorney general arguing the case said the difference was that everybody in the town knew Lady Godiva would be taking her ride and everybody averted their eyes except for that one Peeping Tom.

Watch the oral arguments in the case (requires Windows Media Player, but worth it if only to hear the highest court in the state discussing Lady Godiva).

The Crimson reports a Science Center fire that started this afternoon knocked out the power supplies for a good chunk of Harvard's computer networks and Web sites.