Chronicling the past week via quick links and pithy commentary: We feel like a scold, edition.

We love her cause she’s funny: Meet Jenny Slate.

Gestapo? The Berkeley Beacon might want to consider doing some research

While we’re playing Miss Manners: The Herald might have wanted to re-think that front-page treatment

Harvard’s Allston COO is making bank: Over a half-million dollars worth.

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Over the years the Patriots have established an enviable track record of cutting the cord with their veterans before their expiration dates. Ty Law, Lawyer Milloy, Willie McGinest, et al were all shown the door rather unceremoniously.

All of them were seen as key players, both on the field and in the locker room, but the news that the Pats traded Mike Vrabel to the Chiefs might trump them all. Or as one BoMagger put it, “Wow, BB is one heartless (bastard).” (more…)

It’s an all Questions For day here at Boston Daily HQ. Mainly because it’s too nice outside to think about anything but prostitutes having sex with court officers in Chelsea.

But anyway, super Boston Daily intern Dan Roche caught up with Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys over email for a conversation about the upcoming St. Patrick’s Day bash, the old punk scene in Boston, and how life has changed since The Departed. (more…)

Jenny Slate is a comedian, actress, talking head, Milton Academy grad, and all-around hilarious young woman. You may have seen her pontificate on pop culture on VH-1, CNN Headline News and Showbiz Tonight. Or maybe you caught her act with her comedy life-partner Gabe Leidman in a show called Big Terrific.

Recently, Jenny and Gabe put together a spoof of the Jim Beam ad, The Girl Friend as part of an online contest the company is running. We talked to Jenny about Milton, what’s funny, and a certain singer-songwriter who stole her website. (more…)

The other day in my Boston University sports journalism class the question came up about athletes and covering their off the field stuff. (My students are so earnest.)

The general answer every sports journo will give is that as long as it doesn’t affect anything on the field, and as long as they don’t get arrested or put someone in danger then leave it be. That’s generally a good rule of thumb for newspaper beat writers who have enough to worry about without getting into people’s private lives.

Unless the player has so crossed over into the world of celebrity that he or she’s athletic accomplishments are dwarfed by their off the field star power. For a while a good chunk of New England has been far more worried about Tom Brady’s love life than his balky knee or his quarterbacking skills. (Look he’s being spoon-fed by his supermodel girlfriend on a beach!)

I’m beginning to think we shouldn’t worry so much about Brady because truth be told, he’s kind of boring. (more…)

Let’s get the disclaimers out of the way up front. City Council President Mike Ross has blogged for us in the past. He also employs Amy Derjue, who was a staff writer for Boston magazine and Boston Daily.

Ross has pitched legislation that would compel colleges and universities to assist in enforcing the ban on apartment buildings renting out their units to more than four undergraduates. As one might expect, the reaction from the universities has been mixed, and the reaction from the undergrads has been outrage.

That’s fine.

But a sharply-worded editorial in the Berkeley Beacon, Emerson’s independent student-run newspaper, crossed a line. (more…)

The court system has been in full swing the past couple days, providing some good material for our newest game, “Who’s Going to Jail Now?” In this game we provide the crime, the judge’s sentence, and then the sentence if Boston Daily ran the Commonwealth’s courts (a frightening thought, to be sure).

• First up we have kitty-slayer Luis Alvarez of New Bedford. Alvarez hurled his wife’s kitten, Tigi, down a flight of stairs last October. The cat didn’t make it. Alvarez claims that he acted out because his wife treated the kitten better than him. The judge charged him with one count of animal cruelty and sentenced him to 90 days in jail, two years’ probation, anger management counseling, and he must pay $252 in restitution to the Coalition for Animals.

Our sentence: We’re thinking he’s more likely a dog guy, so we’d let him play with Michael Vick’s dogs—unmuzzled.

• Next up we have 59-year-old Allen Locke of Ashfield. Locke is in trouble for throwing a few parties at his house. The aforesaid parties were attended by teenagers, whom Locke provided with alcohol, marijuana, and porn. Oh, and Locke’s a convicted sex offender. He’s denied the allegations and is awaiting trial. Locke’s attorney notes that his client is a Vietnam veteran. We’re not sure how that excuses his behavior but it gives us an idea for punishment.

Our sentence: Send him to jail for five years. While there he can teach Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried” to other sex-crime convicts who happened to serve in Vietnam. (more…)

After a little old-fashioned calling out, Boston School Superintendent Carol Johnson backpedaled on the boundaries of her new five zone school proposal last night, according to today’s Globe. The new districting—from three zones to five—would leave many students, namely minority and poorer students, isolated in areas with predominantly failing schools. The Globe reported yesterday that nearly 60 percent of the schools in the two zones encompassing Roxbury and Dorchester are in need of “major overhauls” based on test scores and federal standards.

The new proposal would also create one district that’s short 616 seats for middle school students and another district that boasts 500 excess middle school seats.

The Globe story reports:

“It’s clear our current rezoning doesn’t provide equal access,” Johnson told the School Committee last night, just before her staff presented a statistical analysis of the proposed changes. “This is a work in progress. . . . Nothing is set in stone. This may change appreciatively.” (more…)

Steve Rohas of Greek Isles.

We believe in fighting for our rights… especially our right to eat. And when a four-alarm fire tore through a Fenway restaurant complex in early January, a little piece of our heart (and stomach) went with it. What will we do without tostadas and horchatas from El Pelon?

On Monday night, we marched down to Church for a post-fire update with city officials and restaurant and building owners to find out the recovery plans. In its glory days, the block was a slice of heaven for students, neighborhood regulars, and post-Sox grub-seekers, and the, “restaurants were like their living rooms,” Fenway Community Development Corp. board member, Steve Wolf says. (more…)

Ah, the beach at Southwest Cove, Vermont—sparkling waters, bright red kayaks, sublime cliffs, nude 60-something men in their birthday suits—what’s not to love? According to some locals, the men (and some women) belong on the what’s-not-to-love-list. Next week the 319 residents of Westmore, VT, the town that claims the “clothing optional” beach, will be asked to put their money where their mouth is. Ahem.

Last July, the Board of Selectman decided against approving an anti-nudity ordinance for Southwest Cove beach at Lake Willoughby. According to AP reports, they didn’t believe they had the means or the funds to enforce the nudity ban. So now the Board of Selectman is asking Westmore’s residents whether they are willing to pony up 25 grand to cover the cost of enacting the ordinance.

The nudists have laid claim to the beach for the last 25 years or so, though not to the exclusion of the brave soul. Last summer David Timson of St. Johnsbury headed up the Friends of Southwest Cove—the creepily titled advocacy group for the nudists and, er, friends of the nudists, according to the Huffington Post. (more…)