Chronicling the past week via quick links and pithy commentary: Hello and good-bye, edition.

A rocky start, but a smooth launch: Michael Flaherty began the week, and his quest for the mayor’s office, with an untimely announcement, an admission, and finally the website.

So hard to say good-bye: Sal DiMasi had some cryptic comments, and then came the funny.

We’d like to thank Byron Rushing for freeing the communists: And the fornicators.

Casinos? Sucker’s bet.

Here’s the budget: This will not go over well. (more…)

Well, maybe it wasn’t so curious after all. NESN is reporting that the Red Sox and Jason Varitek have agreed to a one-year contract with a mutual option for a second year.

Guess ‘Tek wasn’t serious about sitting out the season after all.

It’s kind of sad that it took this long for both sides to come together. There was really one move to be made, and once the Sox offered arbitration that was it: Checkmate. No one was going to offer Varitek a contract–and lose a draft pick–after that. (more…)

Throughout this life there are things that are strange. There are things that can’t be explained and there are things that are curious. Take the girl at the gym this afternoon who insisted on talking to her friend on her cell phone while walking very slowly on the treadmill. Why not take a walk outside and simply eliminate the middle man? Strange.

Or, the soon-to-be 37-year-old catcher who might rather not play for no money than take $5 million from the Red Sox. You explain that.

Then there’s this. You remember this little item from last Friday?  The un-bylined anonymously sourced bombshell that Sal DiMasi was about to exit stage left? The link is dead on the Sun’s website. Curious. (more…)

It is with a somewhat heavy heart that we pass along the news that official Boston Daily crush Samantha Power has likely landed a job with Barack Obama’s administration to be a senior policy aide with the National Security Council.

But honestly, we’re thrilled for our favorite wonk, who seems to have recovered nicely from that whole Hilary Clinton is a monster flap. And speaking of Hilary, guess who will be working together closely? (more…)

City councilman and mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty’s website is now up and running. Kudos to Flaherty for keeping his first campaign promise to have the sucker up and off the ground this week. (Trust us, we know: Getting websites running ain’t as easy as it looks).

There’s a lot of good stuff on there. Issues, news stories, his ubiquitous YouTube video, as well as a link to his Facebook page (we’re waiting on a Friends request). (more…)

The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who was mad enough at his employer to quit his job sheerly on principle. Also, spite. He was right, too, but I advised him not to, what with the economy being what it is. You can’t have dignity for dinner, after all.

So, you’ll forgive me if I don’t have a lot of sympathy for Lucky, the Celtics mascot, who apparently made six figures (!) to dress up like a leprechaun, walk around on stilts, clap some oversized foam hands, and throw down dunks off trampolines.

Word is the Celtics were getting none too pleased with his propensity for skipping out on appearances, and all traces of him have already been removed from the team’s website (celtics.com/mascot is a redirect). (more…)

Deval Patrick has made great use on the campaign trail and in the corner office of bashing the cynics–aka the people who disagree with him.

To wit:

“We are awash in cynicism in the commonwealth, but the cynical are not smart; they’re just pretending to be,” Patrick said. “The truth is, we’ve got big problems, and we better start thinking big about the solutions. Ideological purity from the left or the right, in times like these, is like trying to put a Band-Aid on a broken bone.”

Well, yeah, the negativity in this town sucks. All that crap. But hey, listen, Gov. About that budget. We’re a little cynical. (more…)

Your long day of corporate drudgery is over. Get out and enjoy the city! Here are a few ideas to get you started, lovingly picked by Boston Daily.

Want to get a Tommy Point? Head to the Legends of the Parquet Dinner at Fleming’s and see Tommy Heinsohn, Jo Jo White, and Cedric Maxwell. Proceeds go to the Shamrock Foundation. (While you’re there, ask them what happened to Lucky).

Just cause the Patriots aren’t playing doesn’t mean you won’t watch the Super Bowl. We’ve got you covered better than Troy Polamalu with all the events and specials on Super Sunday.

The Bostonian Society is honoring documentary filmmaker Ken Burns with its annual Boston History Award. We still think Baseball needed more Bill Lee though.

As part of its Performing Arts Dinner Series, Rialto welcomes cabaret performer Julia Zerounian.

Well, that’s one way to get the page views up. Boston.com has a slideshow of some poor bastard taking a spill on the ice , Dunkin’ cup and all.

It’s really quite epic, and also quite cruel. And now by linking to it I am also a bad, bad person. Not that they need my help. It’s already the most emailed thing on their site.

Let’s hope our coffee friends in Canton are working on getting this guy some free java.

So many cops and robbers stories it’s a little hard to get a handle on all of them. But here’s a quick roundup.

Beats manning the phones for a pledge drive: A Reading man stands accused of embezzling a half million dollars from WGBH. He is charged with two counts of larceny over $250. That’s an odd threshold.

No cop charges in death of Celtics fan: Suffolk County D.A. Dan Conley won’t press charges against the police in the death of 22-year-old David Woodman. Although we’d like to remind everyone that the FBI planned to investigate the investigation.

$3 million bail for alleged ring poacher: Honestly we had forgotten all about the Super Bowl ring heist, but Sean Murphy has been charged with being the alleged mastermind of the caper. Here’s the weird part:

Police said they found a stolen Super Bowl ring in Murphy’s bedroom and 27 other rings in a safe deposit belonging to a woman authorities believe is his live-in girlfriend.

Twenty seven? (more…)