Harvard Square

Ben Timmins reports the trackless trolley was out between Harvard and Watertown squares because a truck managed to rip out about 150 feet of catenary wire. The T reports the wire has been repaired and the electric buses are starting to roll again.

Welcome to 1969: The FBI reports arresting ten people, including a Cambridge couple, on charges they were really Russian spies.

One of the locals went by the name Donald Howard Heathfield - which the FBI says was an alias, based on the name of an actual, but dead, Canadian. Using that name, Heathfield ran Future Map, a company that listed a trade group of US multinationals, a European semiconductor maker and a global pharmaceutical concern as customers of its process for preparing for the future. In fact, he holds a US patent for predicting the future (Ed note: Doesn't seem to have helped him much). And he claims a master's from Harvard's Kennedy School of Government (where one of his classmates was State Rep. Marty Walz, D-Back Bay).

16WadeSt spotted a pair of Ghana supporters in Harvard Square yesterday. Nathanael Hevelone photographed some happy Ghana fans at Lir on Boylston Street after yesterday's USA/Ghana match.

Top photo copyright 16Wade St. Bottom photo posted under this Creative Commons license. Both posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

JGlee tries out Sandrine's in Harvard Square, the Boston area's only Alsatian restaurant, declares it interesting, but not the place to go for solid French food:

... It's not everyday you get to try authentic Alsatian food right in the middle of New England. ...

The Crimson reports that Forrest N. Blackwelder-Baggett, formerly of the class of '11, was arrested last week on charges he tried to rob a Texas restaurant at gunpoint. The paper notes:

Blackwelder-Baggett, who viewed himself as an outsider at Harvard, "intoxicated" his freshman-year friends with his "Dionysian" persona, his belief in pursuing individual happiness and discarding traditional notions of success and ambition, and his embodiment of the "attitude toward life that was counter to the attitude of the student body," said the friend, who wished to remain anonymous.

The Globe reports an environmental group says the Fresh Pond hawks are reason enough to block a planned apartment complex in the middle of Alewife Brook Reservation. Meanwhile, at the other end of town, Harvard's resident hawk couple have a new nest of hawklings.

At least near Harvard Square, the answer is "yes!" Leslee captured a group of people jumping off the Weeks Footbridge into the Charles the other day.

Posted under this Creative Commons license and in Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Allegedly of course, and with the purpose of getting into the registrar's grading system, the Crimson reports. The article doesn't specify what he did, exactly, but sounds like he set up a phishing site to get the instructors to give up their log ins for the registrar system.

Wicked Local Cambridge reports police nabbed another hapless holdup man too cheap to hire a getaway car in the station today.

Earlier:
Attention passengers, the next bank robber is now arriving.

For the second time in less than two months, a bank robber has learned the Red Line is not the most reliable replacement for a getaway car.

MBTA Transit Police report a Harvard Square bank robbery suspect tried to make good his escape on the Red Line (they don't say in which direction). He was quickly nabbed, but the station had to be shut to allow for evidence collection.

On March 23, somebody else allegedly tried a similar escape after robbing a bank in Fields Corner.

Left Bank of the Charles posts videos from the annual Harvard Square Mayfair.

The Crimson has the latest on that e-mail by a Harvard Law Review editor.

How long before she's outed?

Via Bostonist.

Doug Holder pens a poem as he pines for a beer at the long gone Harvard Square restaurant - and for "the bits of wisdom old man Cardullo spit from his cigar-studded mouth."

Kissing marathon planned for the Square.

The kidlet and I packed up a pillow and headed over to Cambridge Common today for the annual pillow fight (on the Orange Line into town, we spied a couple heading to the anime show; we concluded they were nerdier than us because the woman had dyed her hair bright red). At the crack of 3, several hundred pillow-carrying people of all ages (although mostly college-ish) converged on the area in front of the Civil War memorial and began swinging.

All great fun. A few guys got just a bit too much into the swinging part, but they confined their exertions to like-minded dudes; no little kids were hurt in the making of this year's fight. Props to Banditos Misteriosos for being on the (pillow) case.

Hamburger vs. banana - and everybody else:

The scene:

Chicken Man shows off his fighting form:

if you'd wandered by Cambridge Common at about 3:00 this afternoon, you'd have seen a bunch of people beating the heck out of each other. And loving it.

Psst, pass it on.

In the good old days:

students, instructors, businesspeople, politicans, and the bad 'ole common folk', found they could get a good - clear - reproduction, of their documents, essays, books, legal forms, butts, flyers political propagranda, music events, menues, and un-numerous other items by visiting establishments known as "Copy Shops"

These establishments offered copies of any single 8x11 sheets for anywhere from maybe 15 to 3 cents per copy (reprotuction/print). Some vigeous comppetion lowered the rate (cost) based on volume. This was very cost effective for those trying to enlist followers of im-proptu events like earth day, student protests, and anti vietnam-war events:

this was a notable precursor of the present day social networking mass gathering phenomen.

oft overlooked and ignored are the "enablement" these services provided to the exposure of the Pentagon Papers, and the Rent Control movements.

While there is a bio by Frank, and another about the Mrs., There should be a compilation of the experiences of the followers, customers, employes, etc of this renouned establishment that for so many years anchored the heart and soul of the Square.

I rember asking Frank "who is the tall guy that walks in every morning, pours his own coffee, maybe gets a danish or other order, reads the newspapers and is never presented a check," and ? HE then dissapears as silently as he enters.

Turns out, the guy is the president of Harvard U. (tba)

are you someone who worked/or dinned here these days?

know any similar antidotes?

Alex Howell photographed the guy who yells Bible verses at the top of his lungs every Saturday night in Harvard Square while his acolytes hand out flyers.

Copyright Alex Howell. Posted in the Universal Hub pool on Flickr.

Aunt Sophies, Cronins, Hungry Charlies, Jeffs Kitchen, Joe's Place, Mug 'n Muffin, Zum Zum.

A company founded by a Harvard professor is rolling out inhalable coffee, the Crimson reports:

In celebration of the official launch, a group of 30 Le Whif employees and fans gathered yesterday in Cambridge restaurant Tory Row to sample the newly released inhalable coffee lipstick-sized tubes—each of which contains the same amount of caffeine as one shot of espresso.

William McAdoo takes us on a two-part chocolate tour of Harvard Square here and here.