Boston Daily is a big fan of academic achievement. Whether students are building robots or, as we learn in the new issue of Boston magazine (seriously, isn’t John Krasinski reason enough to buy it at your favorite newsstand now?) developing green concrete, we support them in their efforts to create things we never thought possible.

Including the geniuses of the Lambda Phi Epsilon fraternity, who managed to inflict a stunning $25,000 in damage to the Days Inn in Allston. [Link via Bostonist.]

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Your condensed guide to today’s daily papers.

The possible title? The Audacity of Patrick: Turns out that “personal business” Gov. Deval Patrick was in New York for on the day his casino bill went down in flames was shopping an autobiography. [Globe]

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Your long day of corporate drudgery is over. Get out and enjoy the city! Here are a few ideas to get you started, lovingly picked by Boston Daily.

It’s fashion for a good cause. Kelley for Ellie raises money for the Ellie Fund, which provides support for cancer patients and their families. The event’s namesake is WCVB reporter Kelley Tuthill, who suffered from breast cancer and will be on hand tonight.

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Earlier this month, Boston Daily got to see 21, the movie based on Ben Mezrich’s bestselling book, Bringing Down the House, which opens nationally tomorrow. We evaluated the film based on how accurately it captured Boston, but didn’t give away much of the plot.

If you’ve seen any of the previews, you probably know all there is to know about 21. The New Republic’s Christopher Orr suspected as much, and wrote a review based solely on the trailer and the cast list on IMDb, and it’s pretty freaking accurate.

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In the April issue of Boston magazine (you can see John Krasinski’s adorable face on newsstands now) we cited the possibility of a real mayoral race as one of the 61 reasons we love this city. The presumptive  contenders for current Mayor Tom Menino’s job were City Councilors Michael Flaherty and John Tobin, and Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce boss Ralph Martin.

But now there are only two men left to possibly challenge Menino. Martin announced today that he’s taking a job as a managing partner with the Bingham McCutchen law firm, and will not run for mayor.

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Things have been difficult for House Speaker Sal DiMasi and Gov. Deval Patrick. Much like the loudmouth friend who can’t mind her own business, the New York Times told the world about the problems between the two men on today’s front page.

But Sal and Deval are trying to make the relationship work for the children the Commonwealth. This afternoon, Sal, Deval, and Senate President Therese Murray put on their happy faces and proposed some transportation reforms.

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Taking you around the internet for your afternoon enjoyment.

Eat it, New York! College hopefuls and their parents named Harvard as their top dream school, unseating three-time champion New York University. [WCVB]

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We don’t ask for much at Boston Daily: A couple of good controversies, a little public sniping between elected officials, and the hilarity that is the Cambridge City Council and we’re good to go. But if we were to ask the Blog Gods for anything it would be a return to public life for Mitt Romney.

Even better, Romney sharing the stage with (gulp) John McCain. Thank you, Blog Gods. (more…)

You may have heard this already, but Massachusetts is hurting for money. Now that we won’t have casinos anytime soon, the Legislature is left to scramble for ways to balance the budget because if it doesn’t, cities and towns won’t get the aid they need to keep services running.

Cities and towns will be delighted to hear that the Massachusetts State Lottery is on its way to a record-setting year, since much of their aid comes from revenues. But it may spell more trouble than relief.

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When we left last the Cambridge City Council, it was flip-flopping on a proposal to consider limiting the number of non-related persons in a single apartment. We still don’t understand why the councilors changed their yes votes once the meeting was over, but an article in the Cambridge Chronicle gives us another possibility to consider.

Maybe the councilors were too distracted by nutjobs to focus on the task at hand.

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