Chronicling the past week via quick links and pithy commentary (better luck next time, el jefe, edition)

It’s a great week for funny mayor pictures: Hilarity ensues when the Herald gets video of Tom Menino’s joyride.

Speaking of the Herald, and videotapes. . .: The tabloid faces a firestorm of controversy over its false claim that the Patriots taped the Rams’ 2001 Super Bowl walk-through.

Mike on a bike: City Councilor Mike Ross chronicles his two-wheeled commute.

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Those of you who had the good sense to call out sick today had the treat of watching New Kids on the Block perform for the first time in 15 years live on the Today Show. Us office-bound folks are saved by People.com, which rounds up clips of the highly-anticipated performance.

We’re sad to say that we’re not sure our favorite Kids nailed it.

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It’s the weekend. You can spend it trying to will Memorial Day Weekend to come faster, or you can just simmer down and enjoy the weekend that’s here now. Here are some other suggestions for your precious two days of total freedom, prepared for you by Boston Daily.

Tonight
It’s like Iron Chef, but the secret ingredient is a randomly-selected guest, not food. Glamorous Red II pits some of Boston’s best salons against each other in a live makeover competition.

Memorial Day is next weekend, which means it’s almost time to break out your summer clothes. Pick up some new looks from your favorite designers at x-hale Boutique’s Pre-Memorial Day Sale.

It’s Excelsior’s Fifth Birthday, but we’re the ones who get to celebrate. The party features $5 cocktails and a live DJ.

A Gathering of Coens is bound to be a quirky, violent affair. The Brattle Theater kicks off its Coen Brothers film festival with No Country for Old Men. (more…)

Each Friday, Paul McMorrow will take you inside the smoke-filled rooms and darkly-lit corridors of government to bring you the hottest and juiciest political tidbits. This week: Gov. Patrick’s special photo-op; Mayor Menino’s charm; and about the budget: We’re still screwed.

Under normal circumstances, any press aides who allowed their boss to be photographed – and videoed! – participating in a humiliating stunt like the one Gov. Deval Patrick engaged in this week would have their asses handed to them. Hard.

Yeah, we get it, Google is fun and quirky and the web bubble’s champagne and caviar days are here to stay. And all of that means that MIT grads are now building Massachusetts’s high-tech economy, one ping-pong ball at a time. But this is not a photo that conveys the dignity and gravitas governors usually strive to project. The super-sized photo that ran in Wednesday’s Globe made Patrick look downright, uh, special.

And looking at the nonexistent blowback from these photos, all of that’s just fine. That fact, more than any other, shows how radically the balance of power has shifted on Beacon Hill recently. These circumstances aren’t the least bit normal – not to the formerly beleaguered governor, anyway. (more…)

Being in a long-distance relationship sucks. You stay tethered to your phone like a lovesick teenager to keep the lines of communication open. There’s no calling up your significant other and asking him to come over and make out on a whim.

And now it’s becoming prohibitively expensive for couples to travel and get that much-needed face time.

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There’s a great line in the movie version of All The President’s Men, when Ben Bradlee (as played by Jason Robards) says to Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward:

“Now hold it, hold it. We’re about to accuse Haldeman, who only happens to be the second most important man in this country, of conducting a criminal conspiracy from inside the White House. It would be nice if we were right.”

John Tomase, reviled Herald beat writer, lays out how he “got it wrong” in the paper today, but nowhere, apparently, was there a hard-bitten editor to say, “Slow down kid. Ya don’t have it yet.” (more…)

The line to get in to the Boylston Street Apple Store stretched down Fairfield Street for several blocks for last night’s grand opening. Some determined souls had spent the night in front of the three-floor Mecca of Macs, but most of the people we spoke to showed up sometime during the afternoon.

Though no one seemed to know why.

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Your condensed guide to today’s daily papers.

That answers that question: Herald reporter John Tomase does not out the sources who told him about a tape of the Rams’ 2001 Super Bowl walkthrough that never existed. [Herald]

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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.

Our idea of heaven is a long line of Justin Long lookalikes giddy with excitement only new technology can bring them. The Apple Store on Boylston Street opens to the public tonight at 6 p.m.

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If there’s a better band in America than the Black Keys, we’d like to hear them. Dan Auerbach (left) and Pat Carney have always been a self-contained unit, but for their latest record, Attack and Release, they enlisted the artist known as Danger Mouse (nee Brian Burton) to produce, and the result is a swirling psychedelic masterpiece.

The Akron boys play the Orpheum on Saturday. We talked to Dan about the album, his aversion to scenes, labels and other pretensions, and Robert Plant. (more…)