Kept safe in US, Iraqi royal statue heads home – MassArt professor helped in recovery
By Farah Stockman – Globe Staff / September 7, 2010

WASHINGTON — It took four men to lift the wooden box in the lobby of the Iraqi Embassy. They carried it gingerly to the waiting truck, then loaded it into the belly of a commercial plane. Hours after President Obama announced the end of US combat operations in Iraq last week, one of that country’s most precious artifacts — the statue of an ancient king — began its journey home to Baghdad.

In a saga that reads like the plot of an Indiana Jones movie, the 4,400-year-old statue of King Entemena was stolen from Iraq’s national museum in 2003, during widespread looting in the early days of the US invasion. It then moved through an underworld of black-market art dealers until it was recovered in a 2006 US sting operation, with help from a professor of antiquities in Boston.

Then, for four more years, it sat in a glass case at Iraq’s embassy in Washington, waiting for Baghdad to be safe enough for its return. It is expected to arrive later this week, the final chapter in a tale of the anarchy of war and the fragile promise of peace.

“Now he’s going back where he belongs,’’ said John Russell, a professor at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, who was hired by the State Department to help preserve Iraq’s ancient art. Russell verified Entemena’s authenticity for US officials.

Hey, students, here’s the lowdown on Beantown
By Tenley Woodman/Boston Herald – September 7, 2010

Attention, college students and other newcomers to the Hub – there’s more to understanding Boston than watching “The Departed” or “Good Will Hunting.”

Here, it’s tonic, not soda or pop. There are four seasons:Red Sox, Patriots, Bruins, and Celtics.

And the underground transit system isn’t the subway, it’s the T.

Visit Fenway Park: This is a must. Whether you like the Red Sox or not, Fenway is a piece of history and source of Boston pride. It’s the oldest Major League Baseball park still in use, and catching a game here is a rite of passage for locals. 4 Yawkey Way, Boston.

To take a tour, call 617-226-6666, or go to mlb.mlb.com/bos/ballpark/tour.jsp.
…snip…
Check out Avenue of the Arts: The intersection of Huntington and Massachusetts avenues starts what was once known as the Avenue of the Arts. This stretch of real estate is home to institutions such as the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Museum of Fine Arts.

HuffPost ranks BU as one of 11 strictest colleges
By Meaghan Beatley/BU Daily Free Press – Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Boston is known for having some of the most prestigious universities in the country, but according to The Huffington Post, it’s also home to one of strictest in Boston University.

BU was listed by the website as one of the 11 ‘strictest colleges’ in the United States in early July, citing its “zero tolerance policy for parties in residence halls” as the reason for its selection.

BU outlines its policies, ranging from drug and alcohol consumption to moped ownership, in the Lifebook located on the BU website.

According to the Lifebook, BU’s alcohol policy accords itself with state laws. However, “the University’s standards of personal conduct substantially exceed the minimum expectations of civil law and custom,” the website states.

Stem cell work in limbo awaiting court’s decision – Ruling on temporary stay may come today
By John A. Hawkinson/The Tech NEWS EDITOR – September 7, 2010

Many stem cell researchers have been left uncertain about their own future and the future of their field as they wait for a federal judge to decide whether to allow the NIH to fund human embryonic stem cell research, within and without of its walls.

A recent federal court injunction barred NIH labs from performing human embryonic stem cell research, and also stopped the NIH from funding grants that supported such research. The judge is currently considering an emergency stay which would temporarily allow the NIH to continue its research and to continue funding research.

The NIH has interpreted the court order to bar work with any human embryonic stem cell lines, but the plaintiffs in the case say they only meant to roll back the additional stem cell lines allowed by the Obama administration in 2009. Those plaintiffs, James L. Sherley and Theresa Deisher, said in a court filing Friday night that the Court’s ban does not apply to research approved under the Bush administration’s stem cell guidelines in 2001.

[James L. Sherley, a former MIT professor, is a plaintiff in the lawsuit against the NIH to halt federal funding of human embryonic stem cell research.]

Wedding went swimmingly
By Mark Shanahan & Meredith Goldstein – Globe Staff / September 7, 2010

North Shore-bred Olympian Jenny Thompson, who’s now an anesthesiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, got married over the weekend to Daniel Cumpelik, a co-owner of RadonSeal, his family’s business. The wedding took place at Hammond Castle in Gloucester. The couple will honeymoon in Zanzibar.
Tattoos on view
Illustrated bodies flocked to the Sheraton over the weekend for the Boston Tattoo Convention, an orgy of ink-related entertainment. Personalities of note at the festivities included Manny Ramirez, who stopped by to see the body art when his game was rained out on Friday, renowned tattoo artist Natan Alexander, and MTV personalities Evan Starkman and Kenny Santucci, who showed off their fashion line, Suck Yeah, with their partner Brett Nimphius. Hamilton’s own Emilee Fitzpatrick of “The Real World: Cancun’’ served as emcee during the weekend.

1533 – Elizabeth I is born in Greenwich, England.  More anniversaries.

Developer pitches vision for Fenway – Mixed-use project would create vital district, he says
By Bonnie Kavoussi – Globe Correspondent / August 5, 2010

A Boston developer is planning to build apartments, underground parking, and retail and office space in the Fenway — the latest in a string of proposals to revitalize the neighborhood.

Samuels & Associates filed a letter of intent yesterday with the Boston Redevelopment Authority for its plans to build two mixed-use buildings in the Fenway. The buildings would built in the space of a parking lot and former Goodyear tire shop.

A building at 132 Brookline Ave. would house 170 high-end apartments and include retail space on the first floor. A street over, on the corner of Boylston and Van Ness streets, another building would hold 150 luxury apartments, 200,000 square feet of retail space, and 225,000 square feet of office space. The company also plans to build 500 parking spaces underground.

Chief executive Steven Samuels said the project is part of his company’s master plan to redevelop the Fenway neighborhood into a shopping district similar to Newbury and Boylston streets in the Back Bay.

Samuels has already established a foothold in the Fenway. The company owns about 11 buildings there, including the Fenway Triangle Trilogy, a residential-and-retail building it opened in 2006, and 1330 Boylston’s luxury apartments and restaurants, which opened in 2008.

see also:  Developer plans two 15-story towers in Fenway

House Framer – At the MFA, they rely on Andrew Haines to complete the pictures
By Sam Allis – Globe Staff / August 5, 2010

You really have to want to see Andrew Haines to find him.

His lair is hidden deep inside the Museum of Fine Arts, and reaching it requires something of an Outward Bound experience. Follow a maze of hallways, take a huge elevator, go past a long room bristling with racks of paintings in storage. There you’ll discover him — an intense, compact man in glasses, dressed in relentless black: polo jersey, jeans, and shoes.

Haines, 48, is the MFA’s first conservator of frames. (His title is a mouthful — associate conservator, furniture and frame conservation.) MFA director Malcolm Rogers named him to the newly created post in 2002, and today, Haines is, quite simply, one of the more important people in the place.

He works with curators and helps decide which frames to repair before they hold paintings that will reach the limelight in the galleries. This may require a mix and match where he combs through the vast museum collection in storage to find a frame from another painting that fits seamlessly the one in play.

Lockhart named to conduct BBC Concert Orchestra
Joel Brown/HubArts.com – August 04, 2010

Wow. If people thought the Utah Symphony meant a lot of time in the air… The BBC reports/announces that Boston Pops Conductor Keith Lockhart has been named the seventh principal conductor of the BBC Concert Orchestra “ahead of his Proms debut this month.” Lockhart will continue to hold the baton at the Boston Pops, BBC says. Having conducted the orchestra in the past, Lockhart told BBC News he was “honoured to be embarking on a more formal relationship.” (I’m guessing he said honored, but go figure.) The orchestra’s concerts and “unrivalled role on BBC TV and Radio… provide an immense opportunity for audience connection at the most meaningful level,” Lockhart is quoted as saying.

Lockhart will appear with the BBC Concert Orchestra at an Aug. 30 concert of British and American music at “Proms,” the band’s annual summer concert series, at Royal Albert Hall. The program includes Bernstein and Gershwin but – shockingly – no John Williams. Oh, wait… “Hook: A Flight to Neverland!”

The orchestra also has a Nov. 4 Bay State date booked as part of a U.S. tour – at Mechanics Hall in Worcester.

Editorial: Grand Theft Northeastern
Posted by The Huntington News on 8/03/10

he Huntington News publishes the Crime Log in each issue, a collection of selected entries from the Northeastern University Police Department’s (NUPD) public log of reported criminal activity. Though sometimes entertaining, the column serves a serious purpose: to inform and caution students about crime trends around campus. Frequent, consistent reports of on campus theft reveal a troubling area of unmet need from Northeastern’s Public Safety Division. Should Northeastern be doing more?

All things considered, the Northeastern University Division of Public Safety has excelled in preventing violent crime and continues to do a great job of protecting students from harm and danger. Thankfully, many Crime Log entries detail only minor violations that, although concerning, are to be expected at a large, urban university. In fact, the low number of serious incidents on-campus earned recognition from Reader’s Digest, which gave Northeastern an “A” grade and ranked the university the second safest campus in the country in their 2008 College Safety Survey.

However, the Crime Log in this issue alone features 10 stories related to theft. Considering some thefts may have gone unreported, and the smaller number of students on campus for the summer, this is a high number. These crimes are happening in and around the heart of campus, the library and the student center. Even the Northeastern men’s hockey team was a victim of burglary and theft last month.

1962 – Nelson Mandela is jailed. He would not be released until 1990.  More anniversaries.

With art, students express unspeakable anxieties – Remedial courses a creative outlet for social issues
By June Q. Wu – Globe Correspondent / August 4, 2010

Ask a classroom full of summer school students to open up about violence, sex, and drugs, and they will likely revert to second grade shyness, school officials say.

But sub in a 20-something instructor for the veteran teacher, blast music from The All-American Rejects from a laptop, give the students glitter, glue, and blank postcards, and the secrets might just come out.

This summer, some Boston public school ninth-graders have been asked to write their innermost thoughts and offer them to PostSecret, a group art project that publishes anonymous secrets sent on postcards online and in print.

Of the nearly 370 ninth-graders in summer school, 125 are wrapping up a new arts-centric curriculum the city piloted this year to help students grapple with social issues through creative outlets.

For five weeks, the students have spent Fridays at the Boston Arts Academy, where recent graduates led group discussions and encouraged the ninth-graders to express themselves through such disciplines as music, theater, and martial arts.

2007 sodium drop lawsuit against TEPs is dismissed, probably settled
By Jessica Liu/TECH STAFF REPORTER – August 4, 2010

The Tau Epsilon Phi sodium drop case, a civil suit filed by two river clean-up volunteers against two MIT graduate students and a former undergraduate, has been dismissed.

The court received notice of a settlement this past May, and therefore acted to close the case after 60 days. The case was dismissed without prejudice, meaning the plaintiffs could sue again for the same cause.

In September of 2007, Thomas Soisson and Katherine Nardin, volunteers for Charles River Cleanup Boat (a non-profit organization that removes floating debris from the Charles River), suffered chemical and thermal burns after a piece of sodium they retrieved from the Charles exploded. Three paramedics sent to treat them also received chemical burns.

After it became increasingly clear that the East Campus sodium drop was not the source of the sodium, the focus of the investigation shifted to another sodium drop held by Tau Epsilon Phi, an MIT fraternity, several days before this block of sodium was found.

1892 – The parents of Lizzie Borden are found murdered in their Fall River, Massachusetts home.  More anniversaries.

On the bench – The Citgo sign in Kenmore Square will get a much needed renovation in next few weeks
By Jack Nicas – Globe Correspondent / July 22, 2010

Another Red Sox icon is headed to the disabled list.

The Citgo sign, the bright beacon above Kenmore Square, will go dark tomorrow for a 1-to-2-month hiatus while crews replace its 218,000 LED lights with brighter, more flexible, weather-resistant versions.

“It’s going to look fantastic,’’ said Martin Foley, 65, of Hingham, the electrician who has sat on a wooden swing and replaced the 45-year-old sign’s burned-out bulbs since it first appeared in the Boston sky, standing tall in the air beyond Fenway Park’s left-field, Green Monster wall.

In 2005, more than 1.7 miles of strips of LED lights replaced 5,878 glass tubes of neon, according to Citgo Petroleum Corp. The current sign uses roughly half the electricity of the original one, saving $18,000 per year in energy costs, according to the company.

But those LED lights are out of production, Foley said, and he has had to get creative to keep the 36,000-square-foot sign lit.

Pizzeria chain may face new wage case – Suit vs. Upper Crust sparks US inquiry
By Jenn Abelson – Globe Staff / July 22, 2010

The US Department of Labor is investigating new allegations of wage law violations at the Upper Crust pizzeria chain, according to several people involved in the inquiry.

The federal agency last year ordered Upper Crust LLC to pay more than $341,000 to about 121 workers for uncompensated overtime, following complaints from employees. Last week, two former Upper Crust cooks filed a lawsuit that accuses the company of taking back the federally-ordered payments by deducting the money from their weekly paychecks.

Carlos Matos, an investigator at the US Department of Labor, has already interviewed some former Upper Crust employees — including a manager and cook — along with several current workers, according to the people involved in the investigation. Matos declined to comment.

Neal B. Siskind, an attorney representing Upper Crust, which has 17 restaurants in Massachusetts, wrote in an e-mail to the Globe: “There will be no further comment on alleged pending matters until such time as my office has had an opportunity to review documentation filed by either former employees and/or the Department of Labor.’’

Remy agrees to contract extension with NESN
By Chad Finn – Globe Staff / July 22, 2010

Jerry Remy is in his 23d season as the Red Sox’ color analyst on NESN. Yesterday, the popular broadcaster and the network made it clear that both sides are looking forward to many more.

NESN announced that it has agreed to a multiyear contract extension with the 57-year-old Remy, who has returned to the booth full time this season after missing three months last year while recuperating from the effects of lung cancer surgery in November 2008.

“Let’s say I’ll be around awhile,’’ said Remy from Oakland, Calif., when asked if he could confirm the length of the deal. “There will be a time where it all comes to an end, but I don’t know when that’s going to be. It’s not any time in the near future, that’s for sure.’’

Remy said the negotiation was just the way he wanted it: succinct and drama-free.

“It took about 10 minutes to do the whole contract. We sat down at a table, had lunch, and that was it,’’ Remy said. “I couldn’t be more pleased with how it went. We actually talked about [an extension] last year, but when I got sick it sort of got put on the back burner. So really it was just a matter of time. We picked it up this year and rolled with it.’’

With the greatest of ease – Wegman’s dogs are graceful and soulful
By Cate McQuaid – Globe Correspondent / July 21, 2010

William Wegman, best known for working with his beloved Weimaraners, was photographing bulldogs for a commercial shoot in May when Panopticon Gallery’s owner Jason Landry and independent curator Jeffrey Keough stopped by his New York studio. The artist would gently toss the dogs a short distance onto a landing pad, according to an affectionate and comic essay by Keough. When the shoot was finished, Keough writes, Wegman turned to his assistant and said, “I want to throw more dogs.’’

In came Wegman’s Weimaraners Penny, Candy, and Bobbin. Penny and Candy cheerfully submitted to being thrown. Bobbin, who has a sore hip, was excluded, even though, Keough reports, he “begged to be involved.’’

Four stunning, funny images from the brand new “Untitled (Flying Dog)’’ series are included in “William Wegman: Inside/Outside,’’ a delightful exhibit Landry and Keough have organized at Panopticon. The four describe an arc as a Weimaraner, almost as fluid as a drop of mercury but with more personality, rises into the air against a warm sepia background and begins to descend.

WILLIAM WEGMAN: Inside/Outside At: Panopticon Gallery, Hotel Commonwealth, 502C Commonwealth Ave., through Sept. 7. 617-267-8929, www.panopticongallery.com

Kick start – ’68 game at Fenway helped pave way for soccer in area, Celtic-Sporting friendly
By Frank Dell’Apa – Globe Staff / July 22, 2010

On July 9, 1968, a Boston Beacons soccer game attracted 18,431 spectators to Fenway Park. Actually, Pele brought in the fans, his Santos club taking a 7-1 victory.

That might have been the first tangible indication in the modern era that big-time soccer could have an audience in the Boston area. It was the largest crowd for a soccer game in the region since the 1930s.

Other foreign professional clubs visited places such as Everett and Hudson, and Portuguese powers Benfica and Sporting performed in Foxborough in the early ’70s; crowds were substantial, but few records survive of those matches, which were not covered by the mainstream media.

But the Beacons-Santos game put soccer on the local map and was an early step in building a foundation for Boston/Foxborough being chosen as a venue for the 1994 World Cup and the establishment of Major League Soccer.

Rick Copland, for one, did not believe he would have to wait 42 years for the game to return to Fenway.

“Back in 1968 I thought they’d be coming back in 1969,’’ said Copland, a ballboy that July day. “It was a great day, it was just a lot of fun, because the players were very friendly. We ran around the field with them and had a lot of fun.’’

Copland, brought his family to last night’s Celtic-Sporting match, which drew 32,162 spectators. The teams played to a 1-1 tie, Georgios Samaras scoring on a 72d-minute penalty kick for Celtic and Helder Postiga tying the score on a header in the 81st.

Celtic won on penalty kicks, Paul McGowan sealing the victory in the sixth round of the tiebreaker.

1934 – Outside Chicago‘s Biograph Theater, “Public Enemy No. 1″ John Dillinger is mortally wounded by FBI agents.  More anniversaries.

[Image of Citgo sign from Wikimedia Commons - ed]

Affordable housing law repeal qualifies for ballot
By Christine McConville/Boston Herald – July 12, 2010

It’s official.

In November, Bay State voters will decide for themselves whether or not to toss out the state’s controversial affordable housing law, Chapter 40B.

“This reflects 10 years of hard work by many people,” said John Belskis, a leader in the repeal movement.

“Now, I’m looking to months more of hard work, to make sure we don’t get bashed in the media with the people with deep pockets,” he said.

His statewide group has been working for years to strip the developer-backed law from the state’s books.

Early works and fine figures – Showcasing a Boston Expressionist
By Cate McQuaid – Globe Correspondent / July 14, 2010

It’s an ominous scene: A city square under a lurid red sky with dark gray clouds. Stray sheets of paper fly through the air. Men in fedoras pull their hat brims down and their collars up. One man is lifted right off his feet by the weather. It’s “The Big Wind,’’ a muscular, apocalyptic painting Anne Lyman Powers made in 1961, on view in “Anne Lyman Powers: Mid-century Expressionist’’ at the Childs Gallery.

Powers, now 88 and still painting, fits squarely with a group of mid 20th-century artists known as the Boston Expressionists, including Karl Zerbe, Jack Levine, and Hyman Bloom. At a time when the art world gloried in abstraction, Boston Expressionists stuck doggedly to representation; they believed only representation could capture the plight of humanity.

This exhibit features mostly early works by Powers, who came of age during World War II with a keen social conscience, and studied with Zerbe at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts. Several paintings lean heavily into surrealistic allegory, as Powers skewers the folly of ambition and willful debauchery.

ANNE LYMAN POWERS: Mid-century Expressionist At: Childs Gallery, 169 Newbury St., through July 31. 617-266-1108, www.childsgallery.com

Looking Out: A Vision For The Future: Swimming In The Charles
By Sacha Pfeiffer/WBUR.org – July 15, 2010

BOSTON — The Boston Harbor cleanup is one of the state’s great success stories. But the harbor’s health is directly tied to the Charles River, which flows into it. In the fourth report of our summer series, “Looking Out: A New View Of Boston Harbor,” we check up on a long-standing effort to create what may seem unthinkable: a swimmable Charles.

If you’ve been desperately trying to stay cool in Boston’s broiling heat lately, imagine this: you put on your bathing suit one steaming summer day, you go to the Esplanade, you lay down a beach towel by the Charles River — and you jump in.

Could that really be possible? After all, the Charles is “that dirty water” in the famous Standells song.

“I’ve heard people say that their eyes used to sting just standing next to the Charles,” says Frans Lawaetz.

Lawaetz has gotten used to failure. A few years ago, he started an annual swim in the Charles that’s supposed to happen each summer near the Hatch Shell. But the first swim was canceled due to an algae outbreak. Last year it was called off because of too much rain, which can cause bacteria contamination. And this year — yet again — it was canceled because of rain.

Still, Lawaetz has a vision of restoring the Charles to the way it was when parts of the river in Cambridge resembled Coney Island.

1799 – The Rosetta Stone is found in the Egyptian village of Rosetta by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon‘s Egyptian Campaign.  More anniversaries.