Wasilla, Alaska, gadfly goes viral

Anne Kilkenny's e-mail criticizing Sarah Palin was supposed to help inform 40 of her friends. 

More than 13,700 e-mail responses and half a million Google hits changed all that.

Why Good Manners Can Make You Svelte

Spotted on Glamour:

Think of all the things our mom told you about manners when you were a kid: Chew with your mouth closed. Keep one hand in your lap. Yada, yada. 

Well, as it turns out, her advice may not have only taught you about etiquette, it may also have set you up for staying slim. Here's why ...

Charles Stuart Platkin, AKA the Diet Detective, posted an interesting article on his Web site today about how the benefits of good table manners can extend to your waistline. 

In short, the more polite you are, the slimmer your bod. Fascinating, eh?

Here's the scoop:

Chew with your mouth closed: "When you eat with your mouth closed you typically take smaller bites, and as result you probably will not eat as much," writes Platkin.

Have good posture at the table: It's an etiquette "do," of course, but it can also make you a more conscious and aware eater, notes Platkin.

Keep one hand in your lap: Use this age-old etiquette tip to help you slow down your eating, he explains.

Gay Families Find the Bronx Is a Place to Call Home

It is a statistic surprising even to those it describes: Same-sex couples in the Bronx are more likely to have children than those in any other New York City borough, according to a study released last month, and perhaps more than any county in the country.

Indeed, a new church geared toward gays and lesbians, In the Life Ministry, recently opened at Tremont and Westchester Avenues, and there is a growing, if small, number of gay-oriented bars and businesses.

Gary J. Gates, a demographer and a senior research fellow at the Williams Institute, said the Bronx stood out nationally as one of few places “where the percent of same-sex couples raising children is virtually the same as different-sex couples raising children.”

In the Bronx, 55 percent of married couples are raising children under 18.

Christmas gift ideas

And also for me: vegan soaps, scrubs and other body treats, with names that pay homage to the gods of punk and rock n' roll.

They're sold at Blue Cloud Gallery in Ball Square, which is right near my house!

And online at StellaMarieSoap.com.

yum! Can you say stocking stuffers?

Whoa

Everett football lost last night.

That hasn't happened since 2001, much to the dismay of every other high school in the GBL.

What's next for Everett?

Just when I'm starting a new job ...

Naturally, the T is going to slow down due to a union conflict.

The president of the Boston Carmen's Union Local 589, Steve MacDougall, said yesterday that his guild has a plan to "impact service" if the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority board fails at its October meeting to find a way to pay back wages the union won in a July arbitration decision.

MacDougall stopped short of saying workers would deliberately slow service down, which would be illegal under collective bargaining rules. 

But the effect could be the same if workers decided to take advantage of all rights they have under their contract and to follow often-overlooked regulations: by calling in sick en masse, refusing overtime shifts, obeying speed limits that require significant slowdowns in advance of subway platforms, and holding buses at every stop until all passengers are seated.

Montserrat immigrants thriving in Boston

While other Caribbean countries such as Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, and H

aiti are more widely known and have significantly larger communities in the United States, Montserrat is a relative unknown and has just a few thousand of its native sons and daughters living in Boston, sprinkled anonymously in Roxbury, Mattapan, and Dorchester.

"We're just a little island, and nobody seems to know about us," said Jean Lee, 56.

But they have found a larger, and seemingly unlikely, immigrant group with which they share a historic bond, the Irish.

A group of Irish settled on the island in the early 1600s, and Thomas Keown, spokesman for the Irish Immigration Center of Boston, said the Irish influence is strong.

"There are plenty of folks to this day with Irish last names and a bit of an Irish twang," Keown said.

Montserrat, a British overseas territory, is the only country outside of Ireland that recognizes St. Patrick's Day as a national holiday, he said.

"In Montserrat, the celebration lasts for a week," he said.

Meet the Mandarin

When the Mandarin Oriental, Boston, a $300 million luxury hotel and residential complex, opens next week, the city will see an overt expression of wealth like it's never seen before - and something that seems immune to the financial crisis bedeviling most Americans. It's not only an entirely new level of opulence in luxury housing, but also a manifestation of a profound change in the way this city expresses its wealth.

The least expensive of Mandarin Oriental's 49 condominiums runs $2 million; the priciest is $14 million. All sold when they were but a glint in the developers' eyes, to buyers who saw nothing more than floor plans. The residences are like 49 urban versions of Weston mansions that somehow fit into two 14-story towers that rise above the hotel and a retail arcade. The developers, Robin A. Brown and Stephen R. Weiner, believe that the arrival of Mandarin Oriental - a fixture in such cities as New York, Geneva, London, and Tokyo - is a sign that Boston has hit the big time.

"We're right in with the major cities of the world," Brown said during an exclusive tour of the 490-foot-long complex before he hands over the keys to the new owners.

Scooter sales skyrocket 66%

Well, I wanted one 5 years ago and everyone laughed. Who's laughing now! Maybe I'll just buy one!

With pain at the pump still real, Americans are jumping on those two-wheeled get-ups that Europeans have been riding for generations.

Would you pay $2.25 to go from Brighton to Weston?

The likelihood of a substantial toll hike on the Massachusetts Turnpike gained significant momentum today as officials discussed drastic measures needed to dig the roadway out of a deep financial hole.

One proposal floated by Turnpike Authority board members today at their monthly meeting would increase the charge for passenger cars on the eastern portion of the roadway by $1, increasing the cost at toll booths at Allston-Brighton and Weston from $1.25 to $2.25. Another alternative would raise the fare for tunnels by $5, from $3.50 to $8.50. The four-member board also seemed to agree that tolls will have to be reinstated for passenger cars on the western turnpike for Exits 1 through 6.

Stealing bleachers? That's just sad

What next,  a resurgence in rag picking?

The Globe says:

To some, they are a fine place to spend a summer afternoon, rooting for a favorite team and chatting with neighbors. To others, bleachers are large chunks of valuable metal sitting in the grass, waiting to be stolen and sold as scrap.

The recent thefts of bleachers in two Massachusetts towns suggested that the state has joined a national trend.

Spencer police arrested two men last week and said they planned to summons a third to court after aluminum bleachers were reported stolen from the fairgrounds on Sept. 12. In a separate incident, two men were arrested Aug. 26 in Abington after they allegedly stole bleachers from an elementary school and began cutting them up in one of the men's backyards.

Bleacher thefts have also been reported in places such as Buena Vista, N.J., Rockford, Mich., and Chesapeake City, Md.

hilarious

Umbrellatoday.com.

You go there. 

You punch in your zipe code.

It tells you if you need an umbrella today.

The end.

GW Alumnus turns the Bible green

With his biblically inspired message of conservation, alumnus J. Matthew Sleeth does not seem like the typical environmentalist.

But the 1984 graduate of the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and author of the introduction to the first-ever "Green Bible" encourages people to change their lifestyles and fulfill the biblical ideal of protecting the earth.

"Have you ever heard a sermon about trees?" asked Sleeth, who also wrote "Serve God, Save the Planet."

"Most haven't."

The Green Bible, released last Friday, highlights the more than 1,000 scriptural references to the environment.

Printed with soy-based inks on recycled paper, the book also includes essays from such religious figures as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Pope John Paul II and Jewish environmentalist Ellen Bernstein.

Find it here.