Archive for 2006

Not even a $100 million can buy you love, but it can buy you attention and I for one welcome Boston’s newly purchased Japanese Red Sox fans. Sure, they’ll drive the price of scalped tickets even closer to the moon, or perhaps the sun, but they’ll also spend money on hotels and restaurants like there’s [...]

The two-hour broadcast on Belgian television that informed viewers that Belgium had been partitioned and the royal family had fled to Congo (of all places) was sadly but a hoax, perpetrated for unclear reasons. That’s too bad. Belgium is a country that would benefit greatly, I have no doubt, from being split in two.

The most alarming news in a report from MassInc on the labor force in Massachusetts is buried in a footnote: There has been a large increase in the number of disabled people over the last six years. The increase is primarily among prime-age working people, who are disproportionately men, and an overwhelming number of them [...]

The New York Post reports that toy prices “appear to be falling at the slowest pace in three years.” [T]he $22 billion toy industry … appears to be benefiting from an array of new products that go beyond simply the one or two hot toys that tend to dominate the holiday season. It probably doesn’t [...]

The US edition of British laddie mag FHM is throwing in the towel “following a disastrous downturn in advertising revenue and a shift in consumer behaviour towards spending leisure time surfing the internet,” according to British newspaper The Independent. I think it was FHM that graced my P.O. box with a year-long free subscription, but [...]

A decade ago I co-hosted a group of Japanese college students who toured Scandinavia and Holland to study elder care solutions. The students were almost exactly the way you’d expect Japanese kids: Intelligent, eager to learn, and polite. While somewhat reserved they were far from humorless and I think we all had a good time, [...]

Boston.com: “Pinochet deis.” Via alert emailer.

The Miami Dolphins buried the New England Patriots in Joe Robbie Stadium with their 21-0 victory, and they probably also buried the entire New England Super Bowl era as well. It was a blowout that followed the script of so many blowouts we’ve seen with the Patriots on the winning side: A close score for [...]

It somewhat annoys me when college students can’t tell the difference between a rate and a sum, as in this paragraph from the student-run The Daily Free Press: While 2005 saw record crime rates in Boston — with reaching a 10-year high at 73 homicides — 2006 is poised to end an even bloodier year, [...]

Imagine you sit on a timely, scandalous, and exclusive story that would be very warmly received in many quarters and possibly noticed worldwide – and not be able to run it for reasons of honor and integrity? I guess I shall just make it this site’s editorial policy not to run timely, scandalous, and exclusive [...]