A Proper Bostonian takes her camera for a trip west:

... The Land of Dead Musical Instruments had returned to Quaker Acres. There were heaps of broken guitars, dead drums, warped woodwinds. It was like someone had raided the band room at the High School of the Performing Arts for Hopelessly Bad and Destructive Musicians ...

The scene on Saturday at the Walgreens on Centre Street, West Roxbury, where they couldn't keep up with the demand for shaped rubber bands.

As fads go, this is probably the most harmless ever: Rubber bands molded in various shapes and colors (multi-colored eye-glass frames, anyone?) are all the rage among the pre-teen set. The kidlet reports one girl in her class has like $30 worth of the shaped rubber around her wrist. Although the whimsical rubber bands have been around for a couple years now, they only blossomed into a full-fledged craze, at least in Roslindale and West Roxbury, about three months ago.

The Boston Fire Department reports a faulty dishwasher on the sixth floor of 453 Washington St. (above Tello') sparked a fire around 8:50 a.m. today. No injuries, the department reports.

Penny Cherubino catches up with Speed at his eponymous hot-dog stand.