Dropkick Murphys put fans on ice
By Edward Mason/Boston Herald – December 20, 2009

The Hub’s Dropkick Murphys gave some of their biggest fans the star treatment yesterday, inviting them to skate the Fenway ice ahead of the NHL hockey stars.

Some 200 got a mid-afternoon skate at the ballpark as part of a fund-raiser the Celtic-punk band held for the Claddagh Fund, the Dropkick Murphys’ chosen charity.

Frontman Ken Casey, a Bruins [team stats] fan, told the Herald it was a thrill to skate on the ice Bruins legends raced across just a day earlier.

Sox fans brave chill to skate in the park
By Edward Mason/Boston Herald – December 20, 2009

Thousands of Hub hockey fanatics and Fenway faithful braved a winter chill and long odds yesterday to score tickets to a once-in-a-lifetime thrill – a chance to skate for free at Fenway Park [map].

The city made 3,000 tickets available to Boston residents to skate on the Fenway ice after the Old Ballyard was converted into a hockey rink for a Jan. 1 NHL game.

With tickets in short supply for the two public skates – set for Jan. 3 and Jan. 10 – the opportunity set off a mad scramble to secure the precious ducats.

“It’s a great opportunity, once-in-a-lifetime,” said Jill Thomas, 28, of the North End, first in line at the Chinatown Community Center.

Thomas, who arrived at 8 a.m., four hours before the doors opened, wouldn’t let the bitter cold keep her away. “It’s skating, and Fenway, and the Green Monster,” she said. “It’s great.”

“It was well worth the wait,” said Amy Kosciukiewicz, 28, of the Back Bay, another whose faith was rewarded at the Chinatown center.

From bags to riches – Knockoffs cheap, but mind trick can cost you, MIT researcher warns
By Carley Thornell/Boston Herald – December 20, 2009

Think you’re saving money by buying a designer knockoff? Think again.

According to MIT researcher Renee Richardson Gosline, purchasing an imitation luxury good creates a sense of status so addictive that the buyer eventually ends up splurging on the real thing. In other words, knockoffs are a shopaholic’s gateway drug.

Take the ubiquitous Louis Vuitton handbag. According to Gosline, 46 percent of those who buy an imitation (as low as $40) buy the real thing (about $650) within two years.

“In a bizarre way, people are still able to form an attachment to a brand despite the fact that they never actually owned it,” said Gosline, an assistant professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. “It’s not extinguishing people’s desires to own the real thing.”

Counterfeit goods generally are estimated at about 6 percent of global sales and often are regarded as a threat to luxury sales, which were down last month by 7.3 percent over last year, according to MasterCard Advisors SpendingPulse.

But fakes actually may boost authentic sales, according to Gosline’s findings in a new paper titled “Rethinking Brand Contamination.”