Bostonist tends not to eat at places with the word “junkyard” in their name, but when the food is as good as at Spike’s Junkyard Dogs, rules can be broken. Spike’s offers up hot dogs, chicken sandwiches, subs, salads, and wings (plus burgers at the Somerville and Boylston branches) that are quick, inventive, and delicious. The obvious order is a hot dog, but there are so many toppings to choose from. You can order......

Most taquerias in the Boston area are counter service, fast food-type places. You order your burrito and move down the line, making sure you get all the right fillings. But at Taqueria Mexico, in Lynn, Waltham, and Coolidge Corner, Brookline, a hot, cheap, delicious, and sit-down meal is only a few minutes away. The Brookline location is small, with only a handful of tables, so service is quick. Hot and fresh tortilla chips and......

--Old hotness: Late trains on the Worcester-Framingham line. New hotness: Changing the timetables so they don't look late anymore. [WBZ] --House Speaker Salvatore DiMasi has offered up a budget with a sizable tax cut for corporations that would drop the percentage from 9.5 percent to 7 percent. Let's see--the state is in a budget crunch, so he wants a tax cut? The budget also didn't include casino licenses, which sets up another Battle Royale......

Mike of The Food Monkey shares his thoughts about cooking, food history, restaurant trends, and any other Epicurean issues. He promises to discuss what tastes good, but not always what is in good taste. For more on consuming the opponents and other food news, go to the Food Monkey website. To contact Mike, go to the Food Monkey's contact page. I have been knocked out of commission because of a cold and have spending my......

--Cambridge was the scene of a violent attack on a homeless man. Early on January 29, the man was walking with his girlfriend in Central Square on Norfolk when three men attacked him, and one of them stabbed him in the back. [Cambridge Chronicle] --Although the incident happened in June, Dorchester is still reeling from an online video showing local Vietnamese American teens and young adults brutally beating a teenage boy and a teenage girl......

Sandwiches can be a rather mundane lunch choice, grabbed on the go or because there aren’t many other options. But Hot Off the Press, in Central Square and Charlestown, serves more original sandwiches which are, yes, hot and pressed, not to mention delicious and cheap. The Baja Chicken wrap, with grilled chicken, tomatoes, red onions, lettuce, and corn in a wheat wrap, was very tasty, although a little messy to eat. The addition of corn......

Hot on the heels of Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg's endorsement of Barack Obama, Senator Edward M. Kennedy has also endorsed Barack Obama for president. Voters likely saw it coming when Kennedy told ex-president and First Campaigner Bill Clinton to stifle himself and let Hillary Clinton do her own campaigning. The Globe's Political Intelligence analyzes Kennedy's decision as a big "up yours" to the Clintons: The coveted endorsement is a huge blow to New York Senator Hillary......

Human Rights International Film Festival at the MFA The Axe in the Attic: Review follows. Sunday, January 20, 2 pm Friday, January 25, 5:45 pm Saturday, January 26, 12:45 pm Thursday, January 31, 6 pm Hot House: A probing documentary that explores the emergence of a Palestinian national leadership within Israeli prisons. Screens Sunday, January 20, 2008, 10:30 am. White Light/Black Rain: A film exploring the threat of nuclear weapons today while looking at mistakes......

Wrestling The Boston League of Women Wrestlers (BLOWW) will clobber each other tonight at Church. The Allston-Brighton TAB has a great profile of BLOWW that will give you an idea of what to expect. Let's just put it this way--don't go expecting to see Stacy Keibler. (For the record, Bostonist is rooting for Green Line Greta.) Midnight, $8. Music Editors, with Louis XIV and Hot Hot Heat, will be at the Orpheum, 7:30 pm. Get......

• Londonist pondered who might be the next sponsors of the London Eye and whether or not readers would be willing to donate £1,000 each for a Londonist Eye.
• Shanghaiist was shocked to find a cameltoe in the city's only English-language paper.
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Continue Reading "Week Around the -Ists"

The Chlotrudis Society for Independent Film continues its annual Top 100 List tradition with a list of the one hundred funniest films of all time. All members were asked to contribute 20 ideas, which were then compiled into the final list of mostly modern American films. According to the press release: Many filmmakers from various eras appear more than once on the list, including Tim Burton, Charles Chaplin, Christopher Guest, Albert Brooks, John Waters, Buster......

Books Author Jami Attenberg, whom Bostonist had the pleasure of interviewing recently, is breaking out the big guns for her reading of her latest novel, The Kept Man. Kickass Cupcakes will provide food, and Ryan Walsh of Hallelujah the Hills will bring music. And it's free! Brookline Booksmith, 7:00 pm. Hot Dates SpeedDate.com is holding an online event tonight. Speed dating helped get a lot of dating crap out of the way, and it's even......

A year ago, this particular Bostonist tore into Hot Stove, Cool Music with a ferocity most often seen perhaps in rabid dogs. An event billed as top-notch synergy between Boston's sports and music circles left us wondering if we'd missed the tabletop covered with Kool-Aid in Dixie cups, because we viewed the night as a musical an uninspired, over-hyped musical event. We refuse to believe that we've mellowed in a mere year's time, but it's......

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......

Music The stove, the stove, the stove is on fire. But Bostonist will brave the heat as Theo Epstein, Peter Gammons, and friends rock for Hot Stove, Cool Music--keep an eye out for a review of the show. The Paradise, 8:00 pm, $40. Television Only one good thing came from this writers' strike--and that's the return of American Gladiators. LAist sat in on a taping and had this to say: "Original Gladiators: no water. New......

Unlike the Top 10 Most Commented stories, the top 10 favorites represented a selection of all the fun, the playful, and just plain odd that this city has to offer. You loved sex scandals at the local schools, Vendetta Gunn, and the local productions On Broadway and "BU Tonight." But we were really surprised at how much you loved … Barbie. Yeah, Barbie. 10. Arlington School System Turns Into Peyton Place 9. Boston Blotter: Penis......

For the past few months, Bostonist has engaged in a scientific experiment. We've been sniffing around T stops to find out which ones are the most pleasant and which ones are an offense to the olfactory nerves. Each day this week, we'll evaluate the odors you will find at various T stops. Today, we'll breathe in the Green Line--slowly: BU Stops (all of them): Natty Light, vodka, wet UGGS, Acqua di Gio cologne, raging......

It seems wrong, somehow, to be focusing on the Red Sox in December. But given the fact that all of the other Boston-area pro sports teams - the ones now playing and, you know, winning - found themselves with a day off, Boston sports fans were drawn to the glowing-red hot stove action unfolding within the Red Sox organization. All day on Tuesday, the word was that it was close, this business between the Sox......

There might have been a couple nosebleed seats in the balcony left at last night's very well attended Michael Showalter and Michael Ian Black's Somerville Theater show, but, for those of you who missed it, you really missed a treat. As evidenced by various available YouTube clips, Black and Showalter are extremely funny on their own, but together they brought humor to an entirely new level. The two have been comedy collaborators for 20......

Michael Ian Black With Michael Showalter Thursday, November 29, 7:30pm Somerville Theatre 55 Davis Square, Somerville (T: Davis Square) Get tickets Listen to the Interview Here: Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 20 years, then you've seen the work of comedian/writer/actor/director Michael Ian Black. Let's rattle off just a few of his accomplishments: co-creator of "The State," "Viva Variety," and "Stella." You've seen him co-star in NBC's "Ed," as well as......

In Los Angeles, LAist most definitely celebrated Thanksgiving like no other. After all, one has to keep up all the energy to keep on walking the line at the Writers Strike and fighting the unfortunate return of the wildfires in Malibu, which single handedly destroyed over fifty homes within the first 24 hours. National outlets may be covering the fires, but CNN also found it is easier to buy a gun than fruit and......

Word is out that there's a plague of rats in the city. Not that it's anything new. Rats fall in and out of vogue in Boston media all the time. Around this time last year, the Globe did a story on a rat invasion in the Back Bay. For the record, the Back Bay did not handle it well. In the latest story, David Abel at the Globe reports that rat complaints are up: "In......

WGBH Open House Sunday, October 14 9:00 am to 6:00 pm One Guest Street, Brighton More info. Bostonist had the opportunity to visit WGBH's new studio and monster digital wall recently. While the digital wall screams for attention from anyone passing by on the Pike, get a little closer, and you'll discover the architecture and all WGBH's new offerings for locals. Those offerings include theater that will show WGBH programming, and a top-notch recording studio.......

This week, the Brattle Theatre presents a series called "Cult Double Vision," a trio of double features that should satisfy the completist neural pathways in the brain of even the most OCD film buff. Today, the Brattle screens Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead, the pair of gutbusting slapstick spoofs that made a name for director Edgar Wright and actors Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. The Wednesday offering is Danny Boyle's pair of......

If you have dreams of stardom or are looking for an easy way to make a fast buck, then the makers of Bachelor No. 2, which seems to be permanently shooting in Boston, are holding an open casting call at the Comedy Connection tomorrow, Sunday, September 8, between 12 pm and 6 pm. They were looking for rabbis last week, but now they're interested in an entirely different type: Hot, beautiful young college women and......

Were we sore baseball losers, we might snicker about how Johnny Damon's version of a home run is about as wussy as his arm. We could hypothesize about what Yankee operative snuck into the Red Sox clubhouse to tamper with the Icy Hot Manny Ramirez and Bobby Kielty were using to prevent their backs from seizing up during play. We might even politely ask Cameron Diaz to quit jinxing our team and instead focus on......

Gordon College, a Christian nondenominational liberal arts college in Wenham, received a massive influx of cash - $60 million dollars. That's nothin' compared to the bills that line Harvard's pockets, but, proportionally, this gift is a blessing, so to speak, for a school with an endowment of $33 million. Dale E. and Sarah Ann Fowler made the donation, and the campus will be named in their honor. In a phone interview with the Gloucester Daily......

--Yesterday, a guy in the North End gave police a 30-inch-long baby boa constrictor inside a Crown Royal bag. We're not sure if toting a snake in a Crown Royal bag is animal cruelty or public disturbance or what. It's definitely weird and kind of cool. The unnamed man said he "found it on the street." The bag was also wet, and the Herald didn't know why. One can only guess. The optimistic answer would......

The Camp!Camp! series will run the weekend of today, August 10, through Monday, August 13. Check the Brattle Theatre for showtimes. The Brattle Theatre is holding its Camp!Camp! weekend. Bring a whistle, short-shorts, a snorkel, and a sleeping bag so you can do whatever it is kids do at camp. First off is Summercamp!, a documentary about a crew of kids attending Swift Nature Camp in Wisconsin. The filmmakers follow five boys and five girls......

Punk's Not Dead is showing at the Brattle Theatre through the weekend and on Monday. Check the theater's website for showtimes. The documentary Punk's Not Dead has so much to say and so clearly loves the music of the punk movement. Its passion for the subject matter blinds the filmmakers, though, and the movie loses focus, splitting apart into different fragments, suggesting that it would have been better as a PBS series or a shorter......