The heart of the city will be illuminated with seasonal cheer as Mayor Thomas M. Menino and the Boston Parks and Recreation Department host Boston’s 64th Official Holiday Tree Lighting on Thursday, December 1, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Boston Common.

Yes, thats right, Holiday tree, not Christmas tree. In a move to be more inclusive of religions other than Chrisitanity, the city has renamed its annual lit-up winter tree. But not everyone appreciates this gesture of good tidings.
Jerry Fallwell is reportedly threatening the city with a lawsuit over the etymology of the coniferous symbol. We'd like to hear what you think.

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The Wrap has undergone a magical change…into Boloco (stands for "Boston Local Company"), featuring what they have self-titled "inspired burritos." We wonder what makes them so inspired…and what caused such a big change. All we're saying, though, is that we're glad they didn't mess with the smoothies. Don't know what we'd do without our Jimmy Carter.

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File this under Boston is Edgy:
Eyewitness News reports:

Crime is on the rise in downtown Boston.
Boston police records show 292 reports of aggravated assault, 211 robberies and two killings so far this year in Police District "A" — which includes the Theater District, North End, Bay Village and Downtown Crossing. The area also reported 21 sex crimes.

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Today's our birthday. Yay.
So yesterday we went to Shag to get our hair cut and colored. It's now a dark, dark chocolate brown and kinda has a fauxhawk thing going on - like this:

Check out Shag on the news here; make sure to watch the video, it puts the place into perspective. Great cut, fun place. We'll be going back. Soon.

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By Paul Sakuma — Associated Press
WashPo reports that JetBlue will be adding a low-cost (starting at around 25$ one-way) route from Boston to DC that will run 5 times a day. They'll be using a 100-seat single-class plane that features free 36-channel satellite TV. We may take a flight just for the hell of it sometime.

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We've been looking for something like this for a while; it's a Google Map of Boston, overlayed with an MBTA T line and station map. Very useful for those of us who don't drive, and it makes it very easy to get directions to and from various stations.

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Between the recent spate of shootings and the meth lab, our beloved Beantown is begining to seem a lot more like (ugh) New York. Please say it ain't so!

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For the past few weeks, studios around Boston have been opening their doors and hosting neighborhood-wide open studios. Each weekend a different part of the city was home to the roving art show; this weekend, it's the Fenway.

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We love jeans. And as a male-designer-jean addict, we're often frustrated by the lack of guys' jeans boutiques. (Yes, we know how that sounds.) On Hanover Street in the North End, there's a new store owned by Alison Barnard, called Injeanius. We were careful not to get our hopes up high that they might cary men's jeans, but we went in to confirm today. We were right, it's an all-female shop. But we were told, much to our delight, that a complimentary store featuring all guys' jeans will be opening up accross the street. And the owner already has all the stuff. Freaking Awesome.

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Ken Oringer of Clio and Uni is opening a new Spanish place in the South End named Toro, reports the Globe. Good food, nice prices, open late. Sounds like something that Boston could definitely use.

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