Best of 2011: Boston Daily Blogger Picks


Just when you thought we’d surveyed it all, our insatiable Boston magazine editors and Boston Daily bloggers reveal more Best of Boston categories — the wild cards we secretly wished we could’ve judged.

Best Sports-Rivalry-Turned-Viral-Video-Series: New Era Ads featuring John Krasinski and Alec Baldwin
Two celebs from NBC’s Thursday night line-up famously fall on opposite sides of baseball’s best rivalry: The Office’s John Krasinski for the Red Sox and 30 Rock’s Alec Baldwin for the Yankees. So when retailer New Era decided to play it up by releasing a series of LOL black-and-white videos of the duo in an all-out battle, we couldn’t help but jump on the bandwagon. Where else can you witness Baldwin run the LIE so he can pop Krasinski in the face? Or JumboTron John exposed in some lady-like skivvies? Even though Baldwin usually prevails, we suspect Krasinski will get some big-time payback in October when the Sox come out on top. — Kaitlyn Johnston, Online Editor

Best Twitter feed from a local restaurant: @MyersandChang
Want to know what’s on the line cooks’ iPods, or which nightly specials are flying out of the kitchen? Follow Myers + Chang. The feed shares the comical (“Very pregnant customer in w hubby. Orders lots of spicy food. Mid-meal they rush out. She’s in labor folks. M+C strikes again”), and the awkward (“‘This suit cost more than your first car.’ Said to server who spilled sauce on suit.”) along with the not-so-mundane details of keeping a restaurant running (“We have color coded chopsticks to place at table to designate allergies. White=glutenfree, brown=nutfree, red=shellfish free”). Fascinating, no? — Donna Garlough, Senior Food Editor

Best Stadium Stairs You Love To Hate: Harvard Stadium
There is definitely no siren call for these stairs. It’s more like a feeling of dread, touched with just enough of the anticipatory joy and pleasure you get from having run the Harvard Stadium Stairs to get you out there anyway, risking life and limb while you force your trembling legs to heave your pretty-sure-I’m-dying body up the knee-high concrete Steps of Death one more time. And when you’re finally done? You know you’ll be back. Because damned if that isn’t the best post-workout high you’ve ever had. And let’s face it: when has sanity ever had a place in exercise anyway? — Shannon Fischer, Associate Online Editor

Best Place to Sit On Your Ass And Read a Book: The banks of the Charles River near the Weeks Footbridge on the Cambridge side (assuming the weather is halfway decent).
On a sunny summer day, you won’t find a better patch of grass to plop down on. The people watching is great, the view onto the (presumably) glistening Charles is spectacular, and you get to soak up equal parts Harvard (the bunch of kids with books clumped together on a towel) and authentic Cambridge (the group yoga class over yonder) vibes. It’s all the better on summer Sundays, when the city shuts down traffic on Memorial Drive. Jason Schwartz, Associate Editor

Best Jukebox: Highland Kitchen
Peeping the well-curated jukebox selection at this Somerville haunt feels a bit like flipping through your too-cool-for-school friend’s records (you know, the friend that was into Wanda Jackson way before that guy Jack White was). Keep an ear out for Gram Parsons, Tammy Wynette, and Booker T. and the M.G.’s — all the albums come from chef/owner Mark Romano and his bartenders. Courtney Hollands, Senior Lifestyle Editor