Boston
The Good News About Boston's Horrible Week in Sports
If you are a die-hard Boston sports fan, chances are you're relieved this week is over. The heartbreak started on Sunday with the announcement that Doc Rivers, head coach for the Boston Celtics, was leaving for the Los Angeles Clippers. It only got...
James "Whitey" Bulger Isn't Very Popular in His Hometown
Whitey Bulger’s long-awaited trial started last week. Until his 2011 arrest, Bulger was one of America's most-wanted men (second only to Osama bin Laden after 9/11), living on the run for 16 years before authorities eventually caught up with him in...
Snitch on Snitch on Snitch - What to Expect from the Whitey Bulger Trial
This week, the racketeering and murder trial for infamous Boston mobster James "Whitey" Bulger finally began, roughly 18 years behind schedule. Bulger fled Boston based on a tip from a childhood friend that the Feds were finally coming after him. And...
A Long Way from Home
What has America done to Chechnya? While we’ll still be searching for more information about the Tsarnaev brothers and what motivated them for months—if not years—to come, their roots in Chechnya and the history of that country are a good place to...
My Cousin Joe Was a Hit Man for the Boston Mob
My cousin killed people. At least, that’s what I’m told. I never met Joseph McDonald, but word is he preferred using a handgun. He liked to get in real close so that the soon-to-be deceased could figure out what was coming. His intense, bald visage...
The Cops' Military Toys Aren't Just for Catching Terrorists
While the circumstances of the manhunt for Dzhokhar Tsarneav in Boston last week were unique, the military muscle displayed by law enforcement is hardly reserved for responding to rare acts of terrorism. Increasingly, SWAT teams in tanks are the new...
Rabbit-Soft Self-Care
So although my purpose at the moment is only to absorb and absorb and absorb the human horror that has been steadily unfolding in Boston (are y’all shivering, too?), I can offer up some mostly other, mostly unrelated Obseshes of the week for you. Just...
Outside the Bombing Suspects' Home in Boston
As the manhunt for Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev continues, a reader sent us these photos from outside the home Dzhokhar shared with his brother, who was killed early this morning by Boston police. The photographer, Samuel Quinn, lives a few blocks from the...
Bomb Threats and Bagpipes on a Day of False Reports in Boston
Rising above the murmur of a parking lot filled with media vans, reporters, and gawking passersby, a noise familiar to many Bostonians broke out—the bleating of bagpipes. A man identified as longshoreman Mike Murphy played the elegiac melody “Amazing...
Where Were You When the Bombs Went Off?
To get a sense of how the city was dealing with Monday’s terrorist attack, I walked Boston’s streets the day after the Marathon bombing and talked to people about where they were when the attack went down and whether or not they feel safe in their city...
Farewell to the 'Phoenix': Working at Boston’s Defunct Alt-Weekly
The easiest way to make something a legend is to kill it. When the 'Phoenix' shut down two weeks ago, after 48 years as an institution in the Boston political and artistic landscape, the internet surged with remembrances from the writers who had passed...
The Passing of a Magnificent Wind
In not-really-that-surprising news, this week the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration ordered Fung Wah Bus, the notorious progenitor of low-cost interstate bus services, off the road. This news hit me especially hard. Not only because I...