In his appearance last week on Radio Boston, Dan Grabauskas didn't discuss the issue of violence on the T. No one else asked him about it, either. But he has a lot to do now that a 15-year-old named Tiara Amarante documented the perils of riding the 23 bus. People riding the 23 are living in fear of thugs who pack heat, fight and intimidate riders on a daily basis. Amarante is a freshman at......

America's Next Top Model: Quite a week for our locals! Alas, Massachusetts contestants seem to be following a trend. Like Mila from the last season, Kimberly, a bank teller from Worcester left in the first show. However, she volunteered to get out of the house. Some shocking information about Kimberly was revealed at the last possible minute--she thinks its silly for people to carry around a $700 handbag! And she kept talking about it. And......

On top of the loss of his chosen presidential candidate, Barack Obama, in the Massachusetts primaries (debate on the "Kennedy Lift" here), Senator Ted Kennedy now has to deal with more rumors about the Kennedy Clan. The Kennedy Clan has always been a magnet for rumors, some sordid, some not, some true, some not. In this case, whether or not it is true, the latest rumor will have a high-profile mouthpiece in the form of......

The cold weather is no excuse for you not to get out! Human Dogsledding No kidding. The 8th annual National Human Dog Sled Competition will start today in Lowell. You can learn more about other Lowell Winterfest events, which sound like fun. However, for Bostonist, it is all about the human dogsledding--and teams usually wear costumes. Challenger rounds will be tonight at 6:45 and 10:00 pm, and championship rounds will be tomorrow at 3:30 and......

Valentine’s Day is coming up next week and women everywhere are shopping like crazy to find the perfect outfit for that special date. So what about all of those single girls who have a whole lot of nothing planned for that evening? Many of them will do the generic, sit home in sweats, eat ice cream out of the container, and curse their friends who are part of a couple. Bostonist would like to recommend......

--Last night, a woman suffering from multiple sclerosis was unable to get out of her home and died in a fire in Wellesley. Wellesley's fire chief said a space heater was the cause. [WCVB] --A fire broke out on the third floor of the Boston Marriott Cambridge last night. No one was hurt, but those who were evacuated were probably freezing. [Boston Globe] --A reporter checks in on the father of Alex Jimenez, the......

If you stop in to When Pigs Fly Sourdough Bakery’s new shop outside of Davis Square, be sure your stomach is empty—the friendly loaf slingers behind the counter have samples of every bread right out on the counter, and it’s hard to say no. Bostonist enjoyed all of the bread we sampled, but we really loved the banana pecan, maple, and brown sugar bread, especially smeared with a little bit of their own pumpkin......

There's lots of ways to look at it. After 32 good games, we were due for a stinker. Every NBA team is competent and capable of winning any game (well, the Knicks, but you know what we mean). We had serious letdown potential after the Detroit high. Ray Allen and Big Baby were in street clothes. If any of the above consoles you, it shouldn't. The Celtics looked just God-awful last night, and suffered their......

Regardless of how you think he would have fared in 2006, one must admit that Bronson Arroyo was screwed over by the Red Sox organization. He plunks down money on a new house in Boston. He agrees to a hometown discount, $11.2 million contract (over three years) with the Sox, which was pretty much the one thing his agent didn't want him to do. And then the guy is promptly traded off to Cincy for......

--First Night pictures are up! What you see above from Flickr user post406 is only a taste of the pictures you can find that are tagged "Bostonist" on Flickr. Thanks for adding your photos! --The L Street Brownies take a dip in the harbor. A really cool dip. [Boston Globe] --The state's minimum wage goes up to 8 bucks an hour today. [Boston Globe] --As the minimum wage went up, so went the tolls.......

Ahhh … BPD News is back. However, somebody hit "Publish" a few times, and the "Daily Incidents for Wednesday, December 12" appears several times. No matter, welcome back! And how could we resist a headline like "Do You Want to Tell the Police This?" A man marched into Roxbury B-2 on Wednesday night to tell police that he took a ride in an illegal cab. While in the cab, he and a friend decided to......

The Transportation Department and Mayor Tom Menino want you to know that, if you get a parking ticket, you can pay for your ticket if you donate a toy "of equal or greater value than the fine on the ticket." As Amy Derjue at Boston Daily points out, "some lame toy from Family Dollar" will not do. If you have a parking ticket that you've been putting off paying, the offer doesn't apply to you.......

Young Turks Two Art Exhibit Nave Gallery 155 Powder House Blvd, Somerville Through November 4 Hours: Friday 5:00-8:00 p.m., Saturday & Sunday 1:00-5:00 p.m. (Also featuring Alasdair Roberts, Charalambides, and Heather Leigh Murray Friday from 8:00-10:00 p.m.) Look in your wallet. How many credit cards do you have in there? How many pieces of plastic that identify you, confirm your existence, enable your participation in our corporate economy? How many of these actually reveal......

--An 18-year-old screamed racist comments at BPD officers working Tuesday's Red Sox Rally. And then he tried to get out of it by saying he was a cousin of a State Representative. The BPD wasn't impressed. According to Michele McPhee, Peter Kouroujian was busted for drinking underage when he took out his anger on police: As police tried to remove Kouroujian, he allegedly screeched, “Hey, you (expletive). Why don’t you do some real police......

The Globe headline read "Fans Erupt in Joy After Sox Comeback." The subhead read, "Police Arrest 12 After Victory." The Herald said that the arrest number was actually 26, and they came away from the scene with a few stories of aggressive police and skittish horses. It would appear that fans and police were able to coexist somewhat, although Bostonist has no idea why the BPD wouldn't let them take a few harmless pictures of......

--Neighbors for Neighbors is concerned about what T Radio is going to do to the buskers who perform every day at various stops and provides a list of who to contact if you want to do something about it. --At Blue Mass Group, the president of NECN displays an obvious fear of bloggers. Yeah, we're really scary. --Susie thinks that her "obsession with all things pumpkin" will get out of control this fall. --Fabulously Out......

Bhob Rainey Official Site MySpace Greg Kelley Official Site MySpace Bryan Day (Shelf Life, Platform) MySpace Howard Stelzer Official Site The first band features a mummified man with beaded hair and an earnest young aspiring (noise) rock star with a too-perfect goatee. They both hold, of all things, guitars, though the use of these guitars is unexpected. The old man sits and wails into a microphone, telling stories as incomprehensible as your war hero grandpa’s,......

Bostonist Pick: Ballermore Has Arrived .::. Shake 'Em Down @ Milky Way (Thurs) Bostonist has some good news for you: this is going to be an easy weekend on the liver. The bad news is that your two days of drinking, dancing and staying up into the wee New England-established hours begins tonight. There are two main events invading our city on the 4th, and first up is Shake 'Em Down, a dance party......

--Walter Tyler, 27, disappeared on Monday while riding a ferry between New Bedford and Martha's Vineyard. Tyler is a Navy vet, and his family says that a) he's a good swimmer and b) he didn't seem like the type to jump off the ferry. --In Plymouth, a man and a woman were taken to hospitals last night after the Jeep Grand Cherokee they were in drove off a boat ramp and into Plymouth Harbor. They......

John Kerry just can't catch a break. First there was that whole losing the presidency to G.W. thing, then the lack of education lands you in Iraq comment, and now this. A local Florida news station is reporting that a University of Florida student was tasered after asking John Kerry possibly controversial questions that included whether Kerry was in the "Skull and Crossbones" society with George W. Bush. That's the short story. Upon reviewing the......

Good Afternoon all you beautiful Boston photogs! The Flickr Bostonist pool has been a bit light as of late so I wanted to challenge you all to get out there and get creative! I'm presenting a theme for this month --> MACRO. Think outside the box on this one, I'd rather not receive 50 macro flower shots. Instead, show us a unique view of Boston. Perhaps you could show an often photographed Boston landmark,......

The forecast is calling for a beautiful weekend. Hopefully this bright shot from Paul Keleher will inspire you to get out and enjoy the sunshine. Reminder, keep those Photo-shopped images of Boston coming, we're looking to start posting some of the best ones next week......

Watertown has been the site of an intense debate over whether or not to halt its participation in the "No Place for Hate" program. The Anti-Defamation League is a sponsor of the program, which helps communities fight hate crimes. The "No Place for Hate" program sounds like a good thing – who doesn't want to stop hate crimes? Unfortunately, to many Watertown residents, the Anti-Defamation League is indeed a place for hate. Many Armenian Americans......

Army sergeant Joan Duran, 24, of Roxbury, died in Iraq. A report on Fox 25 said that Duran was on his second tour of duty and was scheduled to get out in two months. He attended Boston Latin and joined the Army right after graduation. He was based out of Fort Bragg. Fox 25 interviewed his fiancee, Andrea Silva, who said he had plans to be a math teacher once he left the Army. The......

Let's give a hand to the Boston Red Sox: they're on the cutting edge. During a late (to us, anyway) Friday night game in Seattle, the team continued to show fans the new dance craze that's poised to sweep the (Red Sox) Nation: the Third Base Shuffle. It's easier than the Frug, more athletic than the Lean Back and only slightly more annoying to witness than the Macarena. All you have to do is wind......

--The shootings of five people, including a 9-year-old girl, that took place in two different places in Mattapan on Saturday night may be related. Commish Ed Davis, who has been especially busy lately, referenced possible gang activity. The 9-year-old got shot in the back. In sheer coincidence, one of the shootings interrupted yet another birthday party. We're not sure why birthday parties have gotten so dangerous, but some gun-toting, allegedly birthday-hating thug(s) popped off and......

All of Fung Wah's accidents were kind of cute, in a twisted sort of way. Fung Wah is the cheap transportation of choice for all the cool kids wanting to get out of town. But Fung Wah's latest scrape with the law isn't cute at all. Fung Wah must pay a blind couple $50,000 because the company wouldn't let the couple take its seeing-eye dog on the bus. Fung Wah must also cough up a......

We know the Rocket is scared of pitching against the Sox. He did something to his groin, or claimed he did, to get out of coming up to the majors to play earlier this year. And the imagined scene in 2057 he's already had his groin removed. And for some reason Steinbrenner resembles Krang. Yeah, Rocket Rodger is getting old. Roger Clemens 2057......

There's an old saying in baseball...well, there are a lot, like "Take two and hit to right", or "Don't bunt to break up a no-hitter", but there's an old theory that when you get lots of men on base, it's in your best interest to drive them in. A little crazy, to be sure, but it's a piece of wisdom that the Red Sox have been ignoring for some time. Not last night. The Sox......

All right, it wasn't exactly "Our hallowed snake-skull-cracking day", but there aren't too many opportunities to play the Diamondbacks and break out all the old snake jokes. What it was, was a tough game against a young pitcher pitching way above his head, and the Red Sox were fortunate to get out of it with a 10-inning, 4-3 win. Julian Tavarez pitched well, with a couple of mistakes, including giving Arizona's Stephen Drew a chance......