Who doesn’t like lists? Especially around the holidays when news is light and staffs are thin. With that in mind we thought we’d compile the top 10 stories from Boston magazine this year. We based the list on page views and we removed service packages from the equation.

The big day has finally arrived where we unveil the Number One most viewed story from the past year on bostonmagazine.com. But first a quick recap:

10. Ben Mezrich: Based on a True Story

9. How to Make a Senator Sweat

8. Genies are Standing By

7. The Firebrand

6. Luciano Manganella’s Final Sale

5. Ned O Nomics

4. Growing up Gloucester

3. Hooking up With the Joneses

2. On the Prowl With the Cougar Hunters

And now, Number One… (more…)

Question: When was the last time your life was affected by someone smoking a joint in public?

A. Jogging on the Charles

B. At an Allman Brothers Concert at the Bank of America Pavilion

C. All those filthy hippies on the Common

D. Never

If pressed, I’d probably go with A, but the thing about kids blazing along the Charles is that they tend to keep themselves.

The latest development in the Commonwealth’s collective freak-out over the decriminalization of marijuana is an effort to crackdown on public pot smoking because, obviously now that the degenerates can carry grass without fear they will start to smoke the evil weed EVERYWHERE!!!

Oh the humanity. (more…)

Tom Menino’s grand plan to revitalize the waterfront with a new City Hall is on hold, the Globe reports. Like auto workers and investment banks, the new City Hall is just another victim of the economic meltdown, and that’s just fine with us.

City Hall, as foreboding and shapeless as ever, is in the right place—downtown. The fact that it looks like a Soviet-era central planning building only adds to its charm. Fear us, the building says, for we are an unstoppable machine, kind of like Menino. (more…)

Once, there was an accountant, and he did pretty well for himself. He owned his own business, treated his employees well, played a lot of golf, and did good work for local charities.

Richard Vitale was just a regular guy who done good, and then…

How we go from Vitale the successful businessman to Vitale the alleged lobbyist is the missing link in this tale of woe. Was he just in it for the money? The money was good, granted, but was that it?  (more…)

Two big journalism stories from late last week. First, The Wall Street Journal reported that the New York Times Company was trying to sell its stake in the Red Sox, which makes sense.

Second, the Financial Times reported that the Times Company is trying to sell the Sox stake and the Globe for something like $200 million. (Links via Adam Reilly’s blog).

As Reilly pointed out, the Financial Times piece has all kinds of strange assertions such as a group of local business leaders who have “discussed other broader scenarios to improve the state of local media,” and a rumor about Pat Purcell, Ottoway, and the Herald.

This afternoon, the Globe got Jack Connors to deny he was interested in the paper, while Purcell denied the last part in a statement saying the FT story was, “completely unfounded and not rooted in reality.”

Huh.

Something is definitely (probably) happening, however, because the Times Company is staring down a $400 million credit line that goes poof in May. There are two scenarios in play, and each has several different offshoots. (more…)

Who doesn’t like lists? Especially around the holidays when news is light and staffs are thin. With that in mind we thought we’d compile the top 10 stories from Boston magazine this year. We based the list on page views and we removed service packages from the equation.

We continue our countdown from last week (go here for 10-8 and 7-5) with Numbers Four-through-Two. (more…)

There were only two surprises in the Globe’s piece about Tom Menino running up over a million dollars in expenses the last few years. The first is that he is still playing coy about whether he is seeking a fifth term.

The other? $552.62 at Bertucci’s? That’s a lot of Tuscan Chicken Wings.

I guess we’re supposed to be outraged that a politician spends money in these lean times, but $1.2 million out of his own campaign fund over the last three years during the free-money salad days (and I’m sure there was a lot of salad on the menu), sounds like the cost of running for office.

The bigger question is considering that Menino still has over a million bucks in the bank, a full campaign staff, and a shiny new poll, why is he still saying that he is deliberating? (more…)

The NFL loves its rules: Don’t breathe on quarterbacks, don’t tackle too hard, don’t make snow angels in the end zone. But by far the biggest rule in the NFL is don’t expect anybody to do anything for you, and the number one corollary to that rule is never rely on Brett Favre.

Favre has made a second career out of failing to show up in the biggest games over the last decade of his football life, and yesterday’s performance wouldn’t have been so unexpected if it wasn’t so bizarre. He was so wretched I almost felt bad for Eric Mangini for a second—almost. You could see it all over his face. “My career is in this guy’s hands? I am so screwed.”

If there’s any solace in the Pats failure to make the playoffs, it’s that Mangenius is about to get what’s been coming to him, but that’s small satisfaction this morning. Still, the Pats have no one to blame but themselves. (more…)

Well, kids, we’re out of here for a few days. We’ll be back on Monday for another abbreviated week. Enjoy your holidays, except you Mark Teixeira.

Damn Yankee.

We are perhaps mere moments away from Mark Teixeira’s epic as-promised before Christmas decision on a new place to hit baseballs in 2009. Maybe. We don’t really know.

It now appears that it is between the Red Sox and the Nationals. The Angels have already said they are out. The Yankees said they never were in it. And the Orioles keep hoping he’ll take the hometown discount, which doesn’t really seem likely given what’s transpired over the last week or so.

How do we really know it’s coming to a head, even when we don’t really know? Scott Boras’ favorite writer, SI’s Jon Heyman, says the Yankees are stepping up negotiations with Tex, which would presumably be the same negotiations the owner denied were taking place. (Update: Or not)
At this rate, GateHouse won’t have to worry about its lawsuit because the Internet will simply implode. Honestly, Teixeira stopped being interesting the day after Red Sox owner John Henry dropped his bombshell that the Sox were out of it, and within 12 hours or so, every baseball pundit dismissed the whole thing as white noise.

But here’s what is interesting. (more…)