William Landay's novel, The Strangler, is out. From the publisher's description:

Boston, 1963. A city on edge. On street corners, newsboys hawk the shocking headline: KENNEDY IS DEAD. In the city’s underworld, a mob war rages. But what terrifies Bostonians most is the mysterious killer who has already claimed a dozen victims, a murderer whose name is indelibly linked to their city: the Boston Strangler. This is the electrifying backdrop of William Landay’s magnificent new novel, a story of one Irish-American family, a city under siege, and the long shadow cast by the most infamous killer of his day . . .

For the three Daley brothers, sons of a Boston cop, crime is the family business. They are simply on different sides of it. Joe is the eldest, a tough-talking cop whose gambling habits—fast women, slow horses—drag him down into the city’s gangland. Michael is the middle son; a Harvard-educated lawyer working for an ambitious attorney general, he finds himself assigned to the embattled Strangler task force. And Ricky, the devil-may-care youngest son, floats above the fray as an expert burglar—until the Strangler strikes too close to home.

It's a pretty good story with a Shakespearean theme, local color and a nice twist at the end. But I don't know how anyone would get the idea that cops in Boston would be named Daley.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:07 AM | Permalink

Joe Peters writes an op-ed about computer crime, arguing that we ought to take more responsibility for our own identity security. Worth reading.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:26 AM | Permalink

A Middleborough guy, not a scientist but a regular working guy, has taken on a quest to save the world's eel population.

...He said that the eel gets a bad rap, with more attention and care focused on warmer, fuzzier creatures.

I guess everyone has their own sense of what's important. But you've got to wonder if this guy ever reads the papers.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:20 AM | Permalink

An Army Corps of Engineers study found that 146 levees around the country pose an unacceptable risk to citizens. A USA Today editorial takes issue with the fact that they won't tell us which ones, or where they are

Posted by jjdaley at 5:48 AM | Permalink

When I was younger I was a very good driver (shades of Rainman) but as I've gotten older my driving skills, particularly my vision, has declined. This is normal and it's what I thought of when I read about the extension of the retirement age limit for pilots.

But flying an airliner these days is less like driving than it is like managing. Training and experience play a more important role than coordination and reaction time. So let them fly until they're eighty.

Posted by jjdaley at 5:33 AM | Permalink

Defending potential Beacon Hill compromises, Deval Patrick says, "Listen, I'm here to get things done."

Coincidentally, many members of the legislature say the same thing, but they tend to leave off the last word.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:22 AM | Permalink

This dog park proposed for the South End sounds way better than any people parks I've been in. Of course, as a dog lover, I'm all for it.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:58 AM | Permalink

Did you get your midnight copy of Vista? No, didn't think so.

But it doesn't matter, it will still make money.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:52 AM | Permalink

Shilling wants to change the world --after one more season pitching. That's certainly a more ambitious and longer-term plan than most professional athletes have. ...And dangerous: you're only as good as your last season.

One reason people shy away from public office is having to deal with the press. But for Shilling if he decides to run for office, after dealing with sports writers, the political media will seem like a walk in the park.

Peter Canellos writes, this morning, about how a candidate's original occupation (mostly focusing on Romney as a venture capitalist) can define their tenure in office.

Ronald Reagan, the former movie actor, became the Great Communicator. Herbert Hoover , former engineer, organized one of the most complicated relief missions in history, saving millions from starvation after World War I. Woodrow Wilson, former college president, brought academic idealism to foreign policy with his Fourteen Points.

If Shilling ever makes it to the White House (stranger things have happened) I wonder how his administration would be described. I suppose it will depend on how many curve-balls he throws during the election.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:51 AM | Permalink

Carpundit writes about an incident in Lawrence, where a crime victim was charged for shooting his assailant. I tend to agree with him about the appropriateness of going after the victim, although I understand the legal rationale.

I recall reading about a case, some time ago, where a police officer, on the ground after being shot, managed to shoot the shooter in the back as he was walking away. I believe the bad guy sued the cop (whom he had shot first!) because, as in the local case, the assault was past and the threat was over.

Again, technically right, but the decision to go after the good guy just doesn't pass the smell test.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:29 AM | Permalink

New Hampshire is considered by many libertarians to be the place to be, with its low taxes and small government. So why aren't they all flocking north?

Maybe it has to do with the cold, all the broken down cars on people's lawns, or the fact that you're likely to end up talking to trees in the middle of nowhere.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Alex Beam acknowledges that the show 24 is unfair to Arab Americans. But he also worries about how the middle-manager demographic likes being portrayed by Steve Carell in The Office. Life -- and TV -- is unfair.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Otter fans have their own blog.

Posted by jjdaley at 5:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This post on yesterday's Shaughnessy column is even better than butterscotch pudding!

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I may have linked to these flight visualization movies before, but there's a new, larger format, set-to-music clip available, so I'll do it again.

Posted by jjdaley at 9:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

What's the worst sound in the world? Science needs you to help find the answer.

Posted by jjdaley at 8:40 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Jane Fonda is headlining the anti-war protest today in Washington. I'm not sure that will help to bring people in. How about getting Peter, Paul and Mary, you know, for the young crowd?

Posted by jjdaley at 8:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ellen Goodman wonders why a middle aged man is considered too young to be president. I see her point. When 46 is the new 36 and 10 is the new 20, it's easy to think that age is becoming irrelevant.

Except, of course, that it's not.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:21 AM | Permalink

Think your ride in on the Red Line this morning was populated by some interesting looking characters? Here's a collection of portraits from the Moscow subway. (Translated)

Posted by jjdaley at 6:45 AM | Permalink

Thomas Hawk writes about an experience with photo theft on the web. The least they could have done was ask.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:38 AM | Permalink

Phil Johnston has been a good chairman for the Democratic Party but a change makes sense now that a new wave has invigorated the party.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:22 AM | Permalink

At first blush, the idea of eating sushi at a Fenway Park is a little off-putting, even if you happen to like sushi. It has more to do with tradition than anything else (although I would be very careful buying any kind of raw food from the Sausage Guy.)

But if the Japanese can manage to eat hot dogs in their parks, I suppose we can find room in our baseball tradition for sushi.

Especially if Matsuzaka does well.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:09 AM | Permalink

I didn't want to pick a fight with these guys, but listening, yesterday, to the first five minutes of Mike Barnicle's radio show, changed my mind. I've sampled the show for a while but held back from making gratuitous criticism. Now it's on.

Barnicle brought up "the blogging thing," and as they chuckled and guffawed away, Dan Shaughnessy chimed in that "all bloggers" are losers and frustrated journalists. And apparently, we're destroying the political system.

To borrow from their friend Imus, Can these guys be more over?

Each day Hank Morse (who?), Mike Barnicle and Dan Shaughnessy produce the most inane, unintelligible hour in the history of Boston radio. It's the closest thing to listening in to a conversation at last call in Foleys, but on the radio, sober, at ten in the morning.

Anyway, you should listen to the show. It's so bad, it's good.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:47 AM | Permalink

I hereby pledge that I will not write anything that rhymes in connection with the news that City Councillor John Tobin wants to designate a poet laureate for Boston. I urge you to take the pledge with me.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:11 AM | Permalink

With Romney heading out the door, a gazebo and a merry-go-round got the axe but the boat ramp and the walking trail made the cut. Some suspect politics at play. Shocking.

Meanwhile, Mitt is now working with Benjamin Netanyahu to persuade the state to divest money from the Massachusetts pension fund from companies doing business with Iran. I suppose he could have moved on that while he was in office but apparently he was busy with, well, gazebos and such.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:05 AM | Permalink

Jessical Masse, the interfaith coordinator of the Islamic Society of Boston, writes an op-ed from the Society's perspective that is worth reading.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:02 AM | Permalink

Sure, Diane Wilkerson has some problems. But the unfortunate use of this photo to illustrate the Globe story suggests problems that the story doesn't detail. I can't imagine that there weren't other images available.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:52 AM | Permalink

MySpace is going after Scott Richter, the "Spam King," a move that Om Malik sees as somewhat hypocritical.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:07 AM | Permalink

Snow. Not much, but it's something. Now we can start looking forward to spring.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:00 AM | Permalink

There's plenty of real news out there, like deaths in Baghdad; missiles shooting down satellites; historic lows in presidential poll ratings, etc.

But the big news, at least for BBC readers, is the duck.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:56 AM | Permalink

In New York, officials are proposing using biometric scanning to track city employees' time. Instead of punching a clock, they would scan their fingerprint.

It's a slightly controversial proposal. At a hearing, none of the invited city officials even showed up.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:18 AM | Permalink

Some Zune features apparently work only some of the time.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:09 AM | Permalink

One reason to watch the state of the union address is the see-saw dance of Dick Cheney and Nancy Pelosi. Here's the deal.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:07 AM | Permalink

Tracing seized guns is another LA innovation that's old news around here.

Posted by jjdaley at 5:37 AM | Permalink

Ouch is right. I can't help thinking that Dan Shaughnessy's front page, 'in your face' piece yesterday was a jinx.

Posted by jjdaley at 11:45 PM | Permalink

Walter Mossberg, writing in the Wall Street Journal, calls Vista, "largely unexciting." Bob Cringley looks at Google's plans to build data centers in the Carolinas and sees a plot to take over the internet and Thomas Fitzgerald hears echos of the introduction of the iPod in the industry's reaction to the iPhone.

Posted by jjdaley at 8:26 AM | Permalink

Battle lines are being drawn between Back Bay historic conservationists and city officials over new solar powered trash compactors.

The question is, how do you take a high-tech solar-powered device and disguise it to be, as the manufacturer describes it, "something Ben Franklin would want to throw his trash into"? (Old pamphlets and broken kites, I'm guessing.)

If they can't be made to fit in, off they'll go to Hyde Park; Jamaica Plain; and South Boston and the Back Bay will just have to dispose of its trash the old fashioned way.

Trash receptacles are also in the news in New York, where they're being used to thwart terrorism.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:14 AM | Permalink

I distinctly remember hearing a forecast of snow overnight. But nothing on the ground at first light.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:04 AM | Permalink

Nancy Pelosi named Ed Markey to a head a new committee on climate change. The only trouble is that Michigan's John Dingle thinks his own House Committee on Energy and Commerce should take the lead on global warming issues. His response is classic:

"We should probably name it the Committee on World Travel and Junkets," Dingell said. "We're just empowering a bunch of enthusiastic amateurs to go around and make speeches and make commitments that will be very difficult to honor..."

Ouch. Those are dangerous words to be throwing around in the Congress.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:00 AM | Permalink

State lottery revenues are dropping, especially instant games which were down $46 million dollars. Could it be that people are wising-up to the scratch ticket scam?

Posted by jjdaley at 6:44 AM | Permalink

$18 million in parking fines? I'd ask for a hearing.

Meanwhile in LA, the little guy can't catch a break.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:24 AM | Permalink

Martha Coakley on the Big Dig probe that she inherited from Tom Reilly:

“The (investigations) have been well-coordinated and laid-out. We know what the game plan is,” Coakley said. “We will do our best to get this resolved and determine how much is owed by whom and if there should be criminal charges.”

Note the "if" on criminal charges.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:20 AM | Permalink

The Onion is expanding, not only into Boston, but also to Washington, where it will partner with the Washington Post.

Hilarity ensues.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:19 AM | Permalink

Joan Vennochi doesn't buy Obama as JFK. Instead, she makes a comparison to... George Bush?!?

Then again, Obama's life experience is much broader than Bush's. He was a community organizer, taught constitutional law, lived for a time in Indonesia, and has traveled to the Middle East, Africa, and Iraq. When it comes to Iraq, he was a vocal opponent in the Illinois Legislature when the vote to authorize war was taken in Washington.

Good swerve. I think she was just trying to get our attention.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:15 AM | Permalink

Here's a little news from our good friends in Venezuela.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:14 AM | Permalink

This is just another anecdote to illustrate the odd weather: There's been as much snow in parts of Los Angeles this winter as there has been in Boston.

Posted by jjdaley at 5:41 AM | Permalink

Casey Ross writes about Treasurer Tim Cahill's take on why we're facing a billion dollar deficit despite 4 percent state revenue growth.

Posted by jjdaley at 5:12 AM | Permalink

Northeastern is moving in from the north and now developers are marching west into what used to be Lower Roxbury but now seems to have been re-branded as the West South End. Next stop: D-Square. Media Farm has the scoop.

The last effort at re-branding the area didn't quite work out.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I managed to get out of town to a warmer climate for the long weekend. It wasn't easy coming back to 25 degrees. Here's a shot of my weekend friend from the dock.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Obama has set up an exploratory committee, opening the door for a presidential run. It will be interesting to see how Hillary, Edwards and the Democratic Party leadership react. Gelzinis, meanwhile, is making JFK comparisons. I see the point. Both are/were telegenic, articulate, lacking in experience...

My prediction of a Hillary v. Romney general election still holds, although the Obama factor has the potential to change the landscape significantly. Stay tuned.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:43 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

It's cold out, but not as cold as it could be. Get outside and enjoy it. A little fresh air can work wonders.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:15 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Graham Allison on why the surge probably won't change the basic equation in Iraq or lessen our dependance on the Iraqi army and police.

No American military commander imagines that US forces can win the battle of Baghdad by themselves. Without the Iraqi army units required to accompany American troops in clearing neighborhoods, and holding those neighborhoods after Americans have moved on, the results of the third phase of this battle will be more of the same. Three months or six months on, President Bush will find himself in another crisis where failure of Iraqis to do their part in rescuing themselves will leave Americans even deeper in the hole he finds us today.

Depending on the Iraqi police and army to solve the long-term sectarian violence problem seems slightly misguided since, in large part, the Iraqi army and police are the problem.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There's an interesting article in the Monitor about the complexities of racial identity in "officially colorblind" France.

Posted by jjdaley at 10:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Yesterday, Steve Bailey wrote about Sovereign Bank as a potential Citizen's. First thing, they'll have to fix their broken customer service culture.

Citizen has a well deserved reputation for great service. Sovereign, in my experience anyway, has been appallingly bad.

Posted by jjdaley at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

There wasn't much room left in Cambridge so, for Harvard, there was nowhere to go but south. The area north of Western Ave and south of the river was ripe for development.

It's an ambitious plan and it seems in some ways that Cambridge/Harvard is annexing a portion of Boston. Barry's Corner, an Allston neighborhood that's no stranger to urban renewal projects, will get yet another makeover (before - after.)

Time will tell whether the benefits outweigh the costs.

Posted by jjdaley at 4:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I've wrote about it before so I won't get into it again but, in short, I think Patrick's decision to undo the immigration enforcement decision is a very good thing.

Posted by jjdaley at 4:07 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Talk concerning an action against Iran could be dismissed as posturing but, taken with other recent counter-intuitive initiatives, it tends to make me concerned.

Of course Iran is working against us in Iraq. Simply by being there we're a target opportunity. And by botching Iraqi reconstruction we've handed Iran a huge political opportunity that they're quite naturally exploiting. A strike against them would provide yet another opportunity, a political justification for overt aggression. Is that what we want?

We've got a limited number of bad options here, the best of which, I think, is to get out.

Posted by jjdaley at 4:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Ron Pegoraro makes a good point about the HDTV market. The hardware has come down in price and up in quality over the last few years while high definition programming has stagnated. And there's nothing worse than watching low quality content on a high quality box.

The failure of the industry to provide content is even more striking when you consider that the easiest way to get high-def programming is to get a consumer high-def camcorder and make it yourself.

Posted by jjdaley at 3:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

How did a story about bloggers covering court cases evolve into a story about bloggers as defendants in court cases and then to one about bloggers as an evil force threatening journalism, complete with a graphic representing a lack of standards? Talk about a Rorschach.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:49 AM | Permalink

It's an interesting idea, a search engine for the baby boomers.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:42 AM | Permalink

Who needs a DJ -- when you have the cash you can have the real thing...

[C]heck out the lineup of stars that David H. Brooks, a defense contractor in Long Island, N.Y., hired for his daughter Elizabeth's bat mitzvah at New York's Rainbow Room in 2005: 50 Cent, Aerosmith, Don Henley, Tom Petty, Stevie Nicks and Ciara. And during the pre-show cocktails, Kenny G provided some burnished background music. Again, the bill hit a reported $10 million.

It must be nice to be rich. I assume the Kenny G part was for irony.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:40 AM | Permalink

The good news is that 2006 wasn't the warmest year ever. The bad is that it was the warmest in 112 years.

Some folks are organizing for a set of rallies on April 14th.

Posted by jjdaley at 6:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

On the state of the city, the Globe says...

Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced last night that he plans to hire 50 more police officers, launch an early education program for the city's poorest children, and invest several million dollars in neighborhood projects this year.

The Herald, on the other hand, heard something completely different...

Menino called public safety a “top priority,” promising 190 new cops on Hub streets in the coming fiscal year. Menino has ordered members of the Boston police command staff to spend weekly shifts at district stations, a move that he said will give cops a direct link to the department’s top brass.

50, 190? It's not just a matter of interpretation, someone is just plain wrong.

(Didn't we have this same problem last year? (links broken))

Posted by jjdaley at 6:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

The LAPD is shifting its gang enforcement approach. Not to blow our own horn, but Boston has been doing most of these things for some time now.

Posted by jjdaley at 5:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Today is a big day in the world of Apple-watchers when Steve Jobs gives one of his famous MacWorld keynote addresses on new products and new directions. Speculation is running high for something big like an Apple TV or cell phone or a Tivo like video appliance. Or it could just be a new color iPod.

We'll know more this afternoon.

UPDATE: Phone, TV

Posted by jjdaley at 7:14 AM | Permalink

There are still some places in the world where you can avoid garish ads and billboards, although in this one you may have to put up with a bit of gang graffiti.

Posted by jjdaley at 7:11 AM | Permalink

I know there's a general rivalry between Boston and New York but I didn't think Washington had a problem with the Big Apple until I read this leading paragraph from a WaPost story on the gas smell...

Rife