Veggiest is passionate about a meat-free diet, and will happily discuss the innumerable benefits of adopting a veg lifestyle with anyone who asks. When it comes to speaking of slaughterhouses and the meat-producing industry in the U.S. however, Veggiest almost always keeps mum. Why? Well, to be frank, we don't want to piss anyone off. We understand there are many happy carnivores out there who want nothing less that to hear the reality of how......

South End residents who are bracing for the opening of the BU Biolab, where scary germs like ebola will be studied, have a reprieve. The "National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories" was supposed to open in the fall, but the National Institutes of Health has declared that its review won't be finished until "on or before" April 2009, the Globe reports. A panel had criticized the NIH in the past, saying its reviews of the Biolab......

The Herald's front page gives a starring role to Mayor Menino's opposition to new state regulations allowing for in-store medical clinics at CVS locations (a change Bostonist outlined yesterday.) The Herald piece quotes a letter from Menino opining, "Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong." Right or wrong, CVS has been making money off of sick people for as long as it's been functioning as a pharmacy. But despite the state......

After Brookline banned trans fats, it was only a matter of time before the city of Boston followed suit. The Boston Public Health Commission has approved the ban. The Globe reports that the vote was unanimous. The Globe reporters tried to find some restaurant owners freaking out about the ban, but they were met with a "collective shrug." If you don't want your donuts and your French fries to change, you'll get your say at......

There are lot of things to dislike about the waiting room at your doctor's office—germy fellow patients, antiquated reading material, a complete lack of shampoo and energy drinks for sale. CVS will be able to rectify at least the last issue after regulations approved yesterday by the state's Public Health Council will allow the corporation to place small medical centers within its stores. The regulations will also open the door to companies like Wal-Mart who......

It's baaaaaack. Norovirus has brought "gastrointestinal misery" to Brigham and Women's, Mass General, and Children's Hospital Boston daycare, according to the Globe. People aren't washing their hands as much as they should be, and norovirus loves dirty hands. Last year at this time, 3,700 people went to local emergency rooms thanks to norovirus. Since we're experiencing déjà vu, we'll go all out and repeat the tips we read from the CDC on fighting norovirus: --Frequently......

One Boston hotel broke out the big guns and bought a bedbug-sniffing dog, the Globe reported on Thursday. The Jurys Boston Hotel frightens the bedbugs with a bark and a bite. Ditto the Omni Parker House. Whenever the dog barks, the hotel goes scorched-earth on the bedbugs' collective ass, fumigates, and burns the mattresses. The Boston Public Health Commission has some suggestions if you're prole like most of us and can't afford a bedbug-sniffing dog:......

--The Office of Health and Human Services has allowed the Judge Rotenberg Educational Center to use skin-shock treatments for another year, even after the incident in which a prank caller caused staff members to shock two of the center's residents. [WBZ] --Yankee Swap turns Yankee Scrooge when two ex-friends fight over a lotto ticket. [Boston Herald] --The Paradise might be sold to the same guy who owns Lir and Live Nation. [Boston Globe] --Speaking......

Many fans and striking writers turned out for the Writers Guild Rally at the First Parish Church meeting house at Harvard Square at noon today. As his mom Wendy looked on, Max Schapiro, of Needham, toted a sign that said, "My Mom let me skip school to support the WGA!" Other people sported orange-and-yellow wool caps made popular on Joss Whedon's brief television series "Firefly." After the fans and several striking writers filled the pews,......

Harvard President Drew Faust has quickly distinguished herself from other Harvard presidents with some recent bold moves. First, she announced that Harvard would improve its financial aid offers, and now she is announcing that she will review the university's expansion to Allston, which had been perceived as a done deal during the reign of past president Larry Summers. From the Globe: "A $1 billion science complex, which will house a stem cell institute, will stay......

--The Blotter usually focuses on how people get to jail, but not what happens to people when they get there. The Globe has launched a series about an outbreak of prison suicides, and the authors conclude that the suicides may be the result of "careless errors and dangerous decisions by correction officials and staff at UMass Correctional Health." Why is it important to think about what happens to criminals' mental health in prison? Because most......

Evolution is on trial again. A former postdoctoral fellow at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has sued the Cape Cod research center, claiming his 2004 dismissal resulted from his religious beliefs. Nathaniel Abraham was dismissed from Mark Hahn's research lab after refusing to work on the "evolutionary aspects" of his assigned project, according to the Globe. Hahn is a senior research scientist known for studying the effects of toxins on aquatic animals, using a hybrid......

The mayor has opened his virtual food court so you can find out if your favorite Boston eatery is a squeaky-clean bastion of hygiene or a rat-infested hellhole. We wondered what happened to the swanky spots that Northeastern journalism students found to be filthy back in September, so we looked them up: Figs (As in Todd English's Figs) - Failed on Aug. 2, for many reasons, including "Management has not properly trained staff to use......

--Don't eat the yellow pills: "Mixing cough syrup, Vicodin or Lipitor with cat litter is the new advice on getting rid of unused medications. Preferably used cat litter." [WCVB] --Another BPD (pardon us, ex-BPD) officer has pled guilty to protecting shipments of cocaine. Unfortunately for him, the people shipping the cocaine were undercover FBI. [Boston Globe] --A boiler explosion in Salem sends three people to the hospital. [WCVB] --A huge sinkhole in the middle of......

In honor of the mother of all football matchups, which will take place when the New England Patriots play the Indianapolis Colts this Sunday afternoon, Bostonist is going to compare the coaches and the quarterbacks. First up is a comparison of Pats coach Bill Belichick, known on Bostonist as the "Sexy Beast," and Colts coach Tony Dungy. When you consider the coaching talents of Bill Belichick and Tony Dungy, Belichick appears to win hands down,......

All of us here at Bostonist have started to worry (perhaps a bit belatedly) about our skimpy Halloween costumes. How will our derrieres look in that tight spandex? A wee bit saggy, we fear. Fortunately, the good girls of Diet.com have come to the rescue with a Halloween workout video inspired by Tom Brady. Put on your #12 jersey and start toning that tush for tonight! We're not sure why this is designated specifically as......

After definitively telling Bostonist that a scabies outbreak happened at Harvard's Pennypacker Hall, the school's University Health Service (UHS) sent out an e-mail saying might not have been scabies after all. Maybe. The memo from UHS sent Wednesday afternoon states that the results are inconclusive and that the ants in the Pennypacker pants resulted from "unknown" causes. Ivy Gate Blog has a copy of the memo, which says, "As is frequently the case with rashes,......

This post has been reprinted courtesy ofBrock Keeling at SFist. Yes, this is Bostonist, but, if you want to send help to Southern California, this is a place to start. As of now, six people have died and more than 500,000 people are in "mass migration" over the mind-numbingly destructive wildfires happening all throughout Southern California. It is, for lack of a better word, heartbreaking. All of it. (Map of San Diego fires) But......

"There's always a small cataclysm," Merry Rutrick explained. "That's what we talk about." Rutrick is a co-host of Drinking Liberally Boston, and the cataclysm last Wednesday night was the impending vote in the US House to overturn President Bush's veto of the State Children's Health Insurance Program funding bill. "I'm so psyched that Tsongas got elected," said co-host Ethan Tavan. "I hope she gets sworn in in time for the vote." (She did, and......

Residents of Harvard's Pennypacker Hall had to apply insecticide cream, and their personal items were fumigated when three residents of the dorm were diagnosed with scabies last weekend. According to Lena Chen and IvyGate, word had been going around that Harvard's University Health Services had misdiagnosed the students and that they just got attacked by some especially bloodthirsty mosquitoes. If so, then the whole insecticide cream-fumigation hurrah was all for nothing. Bostonist tried to track......

Authorial Intent is Bostonist's wrap-up of readings around the city. Thursday, October 18 Joan Blades, 6:30 pm, Rabb Auditorium, Boston Public Library, Ford Hall Forum Series. Blades is the cofounder of moveon.org, and she's got a lot on her mind besides "General Betray-Us," which Congress gnawed on like they had nothing better to do. She'll be talking about momsrising.org, her organization that pushes for more rights for moms and families. Saturday, October 20 Frank, Mark,......

Massachusetts State Representatives Charles Murphy, of Burlington, and Patrick Natale, of Woburn, who are running against each other for a Senate seat, got all snippy with each other in the House chamber last Thursday. Murphy and Natale generally acted like two brothers who do the "Ma! He's touching me!" routine in the backseat of a car on a long road trip. Murphy told the Globe, "Natale employed a four-letter word or two and poked his......

As if there weren't enough icky skin problems that can be spread via the questionable hygiene practices of college students! Ivy Gate tipped us off that some Harvard students are suffering from an attack of scabies. A university memo states, "Today, three students from Pennypacker were diagnosed with scabies after presenting to University Health Services with an itchy rash." Once UHS determined that the "itchy rash" wasn't caused by the usual suspects, they went into......

The seemingly invincible Ted Kennedy has left Mass General after his surgery to repair a partially blocked artery in his neck. His recovery sounded a lot like what Cindy of the Brady Bunch went through after she had her tonsils taken out: "By Friday afternoon, doctors said Senator Kennedy was sitting up, eating ice cream and drinking ginger ale. He planned to watch the Red Sox game Friday night." Even though they won Friday night,......

You know that somewhere in your freezer lurks a pot pie covered in frost. Well, now you've got a reason to clean out the freezer because five people in Massachusetts suffered from salmonella that's been linked to Banquet Pot Pies. Do not eat any Banquet Pot Pies with the code or plant number 5009 or P9. WBZ quotes ConAgra, maker of the pies, as saying "the pies are safe if they're cooked properly." But do......

Massachusetts Senator Ted Kennedy underwent surgery this morning for a partially blocked artery in his neck. Here's the details: "As part of a routine evaluation of Senator Kennedy's back and spine, MRI studies picked up an unrelated, asymptomatic blockage in the senator's left carotid artery," said a statement from Kennedy's Washington office. "This morning, Senator Kennedy underwent preventive surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital to remove the blockage." Doctors were checking on his back because he......

A Bentley student has died of bacterial meningitis. 18-year-old Erin Ortiz was hospitalized while visiting family in New Hampton, New York, and she died yesterday. The Herald spoke to Bentley's VP of student affairs, Kathleen Yorkis: She went out to dinner with her family Saturday night and went to bed early, Yorkis said. Sometime after midnight, she woke up her sister and said her “head felt so painful.” “We lost our daughter in 36 hours,”......

Current Massachusetts governor Deval Patrick is ripping on former Massachusetts governor and political aspirant Mitt Romney over health care. Patrick also pointed out that Romney's "aw, shucks" demeanor doesn't properly advertise the product within the package. Patrick said of Romney, "He's a nice fellow. But a shameless candidate." That line has echoes of the Southern "bless your heart," in which a person delivers an insult and cushions it with the line "bless your heart." The......

Not only is Harvard rich, but its students know a) how to use condoms and b) how to find the campus student health center. Last Friday, the Crimson shared the news that, according to a study by Trojan condoms, Harvard students were models of sexual health. Author Christian Flow captures the excitement with the headline "Trojan Surprise: Harvard Rises Up in Sex Survey." Then Flow writes that Harvard used to be "frustrated" since it wasn't......

--The Cambridge City Council has decided to name intersections after Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. The Track Girls write that the council plans "to dedicate the intersections of Pearl and Cottage streets to Affleck and the corner of Pearl and Auburn streets to Damon." Once this is accomplished, wait for the college students to start defacing Affleck's corner and shouting, "And that's what I think of Gigli!" And then wait for someone to launch a......