Who among us hasn't doodled during boring meetings?

David explains:

Way to go, Someday Cafe. Your genius new year’s resolution was to install a widescreen plasma television?? That plays nothing but advertisements?? I can’t think of a worse way to kill a good coffee shop atmosphere. Yours is an establishment that should stand for the exact opposite of stuff like that. ...

Say what you will about Star Market. At least they know what the Internets are for. Seems the Mt. Auburn Star was prepared for Paul and his TV-screen flashmobbers yesterday: Not only were three cops waiting for them, but the store made sure all the registers were manned to keep his band of merry pranksters from gumming up the works - because they'd heard all about it via a copy of the e-mail Paul'd sent out:

... They put on extra cashiers to deal with a possible agitprop Armageddon! That's money out of their pocket, folks! We also helped shoppers by shortening their lines - in effect, we gave them customer service they never could have dreamed of on a Saturday.

At the checkout, with my greeting card rattling around in my otherwise empty hand basket, I stared at the checkout TV. A woman with a full cart came up in back of me. "G'head," I told her.

"But, you've only got one item," she reminded me.

"S'ok." I pointed to the TV. "This is really good." Reluctantly, she moved ahead of me. ...

Earlier:
Flashmob at the Star Market!

Patriots Insider: The Patriots' destiny was to set more postseason records while the Jaguars destiny was yet another disappointing postseason loss to a cold weather team.

Bob: Was that play by Watson not a thing of beauty?

Emma: I saw flashes of the Champion Patriots last night. Welcome back, guys, Time to go to work.

The Chief wonders what the hell Dan Shaughnessy is doing writing about the Pats:

... The Globe is assigning a columnist to write about a sport of which he knows nothing and doesn't follow (except during the playoffs). As such, he turns in these pedestrian accounts that do nothing to shake the insight tree. Unless, of course, you think such analysis as "Once again, Belichick knew what he was doing" and "You can be sure folks in Denver and Indianapolis noticed" passes for wisdom. Is that really what the Globe pays him for? ...

Janet, for one, is thrilled that Charles Laquidara is coming back to Boston radio, if only for an hour each morning:

... Man, the nights my friends and I spent partying, or just staying up talking and talking, figuring out all the secrets to the universe, right thru to sunrise and then Charles would come on and play some weird stuff and we'd...um...well, we'd listen, yeah, that's what we'd do, curled up around Andrea's pool, or some guy's front yard, or on the beach, or just riding around in the car. I started listening to him in 1972...and somehow, I just thought he'd be there forever.

Bill recommends six inns up in maple-syrup-land.

By going public and shifting the blame onto the Northborough police chief for whatever it is that's going on in the investigation of the death of those two Southborough teen-agers, Worcester County DA John Conte has just given Tom Reilly a hand up from the floor - where he'd fallen in trying to explain why the attorney general of the Commonwealth got involved in a local matter to begin with, FrankSkeffington writes:

Thanks to John Conte, Tom Reilly is no longer on the death watch and with luck...or more facts...may actually become a victim and even attract sympathy. ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson (what is it with these poli-pseuds?) agrees:

... If Reilly does survive this it's going to be in spite of himself and because of Conte. This should not have been a big enough deal to warrant four days of serious coverage, including some national coverage. Reilly needs to rethink his approach to confronting these things (perhaps by adopting Conte's methods) or he's not going to have to worry about this coming back to bite him because something worse is bound to come down the pipe. ...

An inaugural ball for incoming city councilors got opened to the public five hours beforehand after people started complaining about tax money being used for a private party. Scandal or miscommunication? And outgoing councilors weren't invited? An outsider struggles to figure it out, especially an outsider across the river, where inaugural-ball politics are so much simpler - just get campaign contributors to pony up.

Derek takes a nice nighttime shot of the Moakley Bridge, but wonders what the bright blue light is for.

Hello, Rangoon! Former "Big Mattress" host Charles Laquidara reports he'll be doing a one-hour morning show on WBOS starting sometime this month:

It's going to be called Backtracks or Trackback or something, and I'll be featuring my nine favorite cuts from the best albums of a certain year every Monday through Friday at 9 AM on 92.9. I thought they should call it Nine at Nine, but I was over-ruled. No matter; it should be a cool show.

Via Boston Radio Watch.

Megan describes sitting in front of a bunch of beer-spilling thugs at last night's Bruins game:

... The first thing I heard was "hey, after we get kicked out let's go to [the name of some bar I can't recall]..." followed by streams of curse words and more yells. We put up with this through the first period and then they left, only to come back as the second period was beginning, all double-fisted with beer.

The obnoxiousness continued to no response from us until Boston got the first goal and the crowd went wild - as did the group behind us. So wild, in fact, that one of the guys behind us spilled beer on me. Of course i was miffed and turned around and gave the guy a piece of my mind. He was a jerk of course, and offered to wipe it off for me. ...

Alison provides the proof - although Krissy might need more convincing. Ditto for Beth, who describes getting rear-ended by a woman who lost control of her car when she sneezed AND the kid who got out of his car on Beacon Street to yell obscenities at her:

... On the one hand I can't blame him for being frustrated and shaken up--I definitely never saw him at all. On the other hand, I can blame him for trying to pass me on the left in the leftmost lane while I was attempting to make a left-hand turn into a parking spot, complete with signal.

David discusses a project in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in which transit buses become part of a wireless mesh - that lets riders get on the 'Net at T-1 speeds and which aims to make the buses more secure (drivers have panic buttons and cameras that, once the button is pressed, can be controlled remotely by police):

... I find it incredible that while Boston, known for good reason as the Hub of the Universe (and points beyond), is still yammering about whether to create a muni mesh network, the good folks of Cedar Rapids are already demonstrating every day that this kind of system pays both security AND economic benefits (in part, it was undertaken as part of an urban revitalization scheme, and to give transit riders a few perks -- that would sure get me out of my car!). Let's get with the program, Boston. ...

The more cynical among you no doubt would suggest the T would be far more interested in using CharlieTickets to track users than providing a new, useful service (is my mind going, or did the T once promise to bring cell service to underground stations?). But the T might also take another lesson from Cedar Rapids, specifically, its passenger hygiene policy:

Personal hygiene must be maintained in a manner that does not result in offensive odors that are unavoidable and objectionable to other passengers.

On the one hand, it says something good about Tom Reilly that he's willing to help a friend in a time of need (let's stop calling the guy "a campaign contributor" - he gave $300, which these days gets you a form letter from the campaign).

On the other hand, Reilly is attorney general for all six million residents of the Commonwealth. Everybody who thinks they could get such personal attention from their attorney general, please raise your hand. Didn't think so.

Plus: We're talking about Worcester County District Attorney John Conte here. From his time as Middlesex County District Attorney, surely Reilly must know that there are few public officials in the entire country with more disdain for the press than Conte. Even if Reilly hadn't called him, the odds that Conte would do anything to let the press get ahold of the autopsy results approximate those of pigs flying (back in my cub reporter days at a paper that covered part of Worcester County, we'd have trouble getting Conte to tell us whether it was cloudy out; this was, it must be said, in sharp contrast to Reilly's office, which was always helpful and recognized the public had a Right to Know).

The result? Articles saying police think one of the girls in question was drunk and a gubernatorial candidate on the defensive from attacks by people with far less regard for privacy rights. Not well done, Mr. Reilly.

Jay also discusses:

... No one is looking good in this. Romney looks too eager to score political points. Worcester District Attorney John Conte looks like he abided by Reilly's wishes. Even the Murphy girls' grieving father, while understandably protective of his daughters' innocence and image, will probably come under some fire for not using the case as an opportunity to warn other parents about the danger of teen drinking and driving. ... The only person who might come out unscathed is Northborough Police Chief Mark Leahy ...

Townies - the movie:

LIVE BY THE GUN AND DIE BY THE GUN

But at least it's locally produced and shot.

Afternoon 96.9 drivetime political shock jock, Jay Severin, went mysteriously missing from the airwaves last fall. He resurfaced this morning on Imus with a quippy explaination for his absence. Before going off on an analysis of the whole Abramoff deal, he said that, like farmers on farm subsidies, he was paid to NOT do his job once his national syndication deal came through. Apparently, 96.9 wasn't sure that they would be Jay's local affiliate, and wanted to stop promoting him.

Well, according to Jay on Imus, he'll soon be back on 96.9 with his nationally syndicated show. Go figure.

On a side note, my web research on severin kept taking me, disturbingly, to this.

A search on 96.9's website still brings up 'DJ not found'.

Boylston at Dartmouth Street.

Earlier:
And to think that I saw it on Boylston Street (has a photo of the same ped in NSFW mode last year).

Sandouri notes the importance of clergy in stemming inner-city violence in the early 1990s and wonders if their more recent fight against gay marriage is responsible for some of the recent increase in violence:

... When one hears Wall's stinging critique of his fellow pastors for dropping the ball and growing complacent to the battle waging in Dorchester, Roxbury, and Mattapan, it's hard to avoid the conclusion that at least part of the problem was that Boston's black clergy moved on to another battle: the same-sex marriage debate. In the grassroots campaign to mobilize their parishioners against marriage equality for same-sex couples, how much time and resources were wasted by The Black Ministerial Alliance and the Boston Ten Point Coalition, the very same organizations that played such a crucial role in the success of the Boston Miracle, all while a brutal war continued to wage in some of Boston's poorest neighborhoods? ...

Colleen files a report from Wednesday's session, called by U.S. Rep. Ed Markey, on the administration's wiretapping policies.

Hard to believe, I know, but I actually have a day job - where I work with people who do things like hold speed trials involving keyboards with blank keys (after which, the combatants retire to the newsroom tiki lounge).