Our BWP brethren, Charlie Wrigley over at Boston is Funny posted about his upcoming acquistion and upgrades to the building in Canton that used to belong to Reebok:

If they do sell the building in Canton, I’d like to put a bid in for it. Have you seen the place? It’s sick. They have there own basketball courts a very nice softball field. It’s huge! I could definitely get comfortable in a place like that.

I’d knock the existing building down, though and build a castle. There would be a drawbridge and a moat and dragons. I would try to declare it a sovereign state to avoid those pesky real estate taxes.

We wish our aspiring emperor good luck in his endeavor.

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A little while back we read a sort of depressing column about former child advice columnist Mark Godes, better known as Bobby Simpson. We can't find the article now, but know it was a little like watching the "Where are they now" documentary of a fallen-on-hard-times child actor. He wistfully mentioned that he'd like to have another go at it, and we felt bad for him; it seems the corporate finance world wasn't as exiciting as being a superstar child journalist.

He popped back on our radar a few weeks ago with his new advice blog on boston.com. It still emanated the longing-for-yesteryear melancholy that the article did, but at least he was back on the horse. Today we see this:

We can't tease too much since our spelling is no better (as our editor would tell you).

Update: As of 3:15 it was fixed.

Editor's note:It's true. He does suck at spelling & grammar. Good thing I'm here. (Also, I found the article he was referring to here.)

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• A local blogger, Micheal Yon, is trying to force the Army to respect his authority by enlisting a Kennedy. (Herald)
• New video released of kidnapped Boston-based journo Jill Carroll showing her "weeping and veiled." (Globe)
  
• Area banks reportedly exploited low-interest 9/11 loans, recipients didn't know. (Herald)
• Dominatrix accused of negligance and dismemberment found not guilty. (Globe)
• Friends of Entwistles said they seemed "normal" during recent visit. (Herald)
• Coretta Scott King (4/27/1927 - 1/30/2006) met MLK on Mass Ave in Boston. (Globe)

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For those of you who take your fashion and nightlife advice from the Globe, this morning brings you a treat. Meredith Goldstein explores the casual and the not-so-casual bars around town:

There are more ''ultra lounges" than ever, many of which have rules prohibiting tennis shoes and baggy pants. You have to dress up nowadays, said Anthony Frugoli, 22, even for the so-called Irish pubs in Faneuil Hall.
''They won't let you into Ned Devine's wearing sneakers," Frugoli said, frowning.

Your own good sense should prevent you from going into Ned Devine's at all, regardless of footwear (or most Faneuil Hall "pubs" for that matter). But if you must, we recommend wearing as much "Boston"-emblazoned tourist gear as possible.

When in Rome…

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We've long been frustrated by the ban the great state of Massachusetts placed on buying wine online and having it shipped to our apartment from out of state. Sure there are tons of great wine shops around and we'd save on shipping if we did it the old-fashioned way, and of course we understand the nature of blue laws and puritanical libation restraints (this is Puritan City, after all). But sometimes, we can't find that elusive bottle of maple-syrupesque ice wine we bought once at some random liquor store a year ago anywhere else but on the world wide web. Believe us when we say it, we'd love nothing more than to support our local stores and avoid the weeks of waiting for our vino, but sometimes there just isn't any other way.

Along comes this proposal by Mr. Mitt Romney:

In the fall, Romney vetoed a bill prohibiting direct sales by wineries that produce more than 30,000 gallons of wine a year if they are represented by a Massachusetts wholesaler. That legislation would have benefited wholesalers at the expense of consumers, he said.
Under Romney’s new bill, any winery could ship to Massachusetts.

It goes without saying that we support anything that increases per-capita inebriation, but this makes us especially happy.
Via Steve Garfield.

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Johnny Bag O'Donuts posts:

I smell an apology coming. Isn't this the kind of thing everyone should make a stink over? Somebody? I'd do it, but nobody reads this. I can't make any kind of good stink.

We're in. Lets stink the place up.

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Reviews of Berklee's 60th anniversary concert this weekend from both the Globe and the Herald, and they're, well, good. Did you expect anything less?
The Globe:

Despite being overladen, the program never felt in danger of collapsing beneath its own considerable weight — a testament to not only the immense skills of the musicians and production technicians but to the buoyant and enthusiastic crowd that was ready and willing to feel the love. We came to celebrate the remarkable achievements of Berklee, and while the cake may have been too large for us to blow out all the candles, we hardly cared.

The Herald:

Paul Simon, Gloria Estefan, Herbie Hancock, Juan Luis Guerra, Michel Camilo, Gary Burton and emcee Bill Cosby were the marquee names that led an equally esteemed group of musicians in the 63-person orchestra and band through a superb melange of pop, salsa, merengue, jazz and classical music.

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• Chavez offers cheap oil to Massachusetts, again. (Globe)
• Logan Airport catches heat for increasing lateness. (Herald)
• More shootings in Boston, one fatal. (Globe)
• Entwistle family skips mentioning absent husband in latest statement. (Herald)
• Two Mass Senators lead effort to filibuster Alito. (Globe)

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Remember that multiple homocide in Dorchester in December? Execution style in the basement, lots of blood. The victims were members of a local rap group called Graveside, an MP3 of one of thier songs, called "Stomp", was floated for a while. Its not a bad song, especially for a local act — a little violent, but nothing worse than most mainstream rappers these days:

if a n**** talk shit
stomp on that n****,
stomp stomp on that n***
…
n*** that will wile out and make sure i decease all challengers
and imma make it real violent
cause you gotta catch these n*** attention
by leaving him in a pile of blood

Not to get all parental-advisory-warning on you, but The Berklee College of Music is making headlines with their descision to join the Take Back the Music Campaign, an Essence magazine initiative dedicated to redefining hip-hop with more positive social and political messages and less mysoginy.

Teachers acknowledge that some of the ''street grit" of hip-hop could be lost on a college campus…

We don't really know what to make of all of this, since we like hip-hop but aren't really part of the community, so we'll leave it up to you to decide. We are reminded of a quote from the movie Crash, so we'll leave you with that:

It's just black people demeaning other black people, using that word over and over. You ever hear white people callin' each other "honky" all the time? "Hey, honky, how's work?" "Not bad, cracker, we're diversifying!"

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Marilora over on Letter from Eastie laments the amazed reponses she gets from people who learn she lives all the way out in East Boston:

Why is it that when I tell people that I live in East Boston, they have this impression that I live in Outer Mongolia? I always get, "Wow, how long does your commute take you?" or "How can you live so far from Boston?" Huh?

And this morning we have a letter in the Globe from Donna Sullivan of Brookfield (yes, Brookfield, not Brookline) that bemoans Bostonians who believe most of the state is in fact Western Mass:

No one who lives in Sturbridge or Holland remotely considers themselves living in Western Mass. We are only 75 miles from Boston — not even halfway across the state…
It has always been thus — most Boston writers think anything west of Framingham is west.

We're not ashamed to say that we too prefer Boston proper over the 'burbs, and Framingham? Hell, we always considered Natick western Mass.

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