Weekend Redux: What You Missed

Just because you spent all weekend floating down the Expressway due to torrential rain doesn’t mean the world stopped moving. We round up the notable stories you missed.

Saturday
Seriously, Manny? After days of bitching about how much you wanted to leave Boston, you had Scott Boras call Theo up and ask if you could stay? Thanks for the memories. Enjoy L.A.

This might be the best sentence in all journalism history.

Fourteen women went to the free class Wednesday night – organized by City Councilor Sal LaMattina and taught by his brother Robert “Tokyo Joe” LaMattina, a karate grand master.

Tokyo Joe LaMattina. It’s self-defense fusion!

Despite the Legislature’s partial bailout, the Turnpike Authority is still screwed.

Giving retired state workers a pension boost of $120 per year seems pretty pointless. That buys two tanks of gas for them, but will cost the state as much as $3.5 billion.

Much like women using the word bitch and homosexuals using gay, a group of liberals is reclaiming the term moonbat. They even made t-shirts!

Sunday
Turns out Clark Rockefeller is a real person. The alleged kidnapper and his daughter were found in a Baltimore apartment on Saturday evening. Now let’s see how long it takes the authorities to find his true identity.

HIV is far more widespread than originally thought.

Kevin Cullen’s A-1 story about the death of 14-year-old Rakan Hassan is heartbreakingly well-done.

Cardinal Sean O’Malley has been the archbishop of the Boston Archdiocese for five years. That’s a long time to be in a job you didn’t really want.

[W]hen Pope John Paul II asked him to move to Boston, O’Malley unsuccessfully sent a plea to the pope to reconsider.

“I dropped the phone . . . it was quite a shock,” O’Malley said in an interview Tuesday. “I did ask him to reconsider, and it came back immediately with, no, this is what he wants you to do.”

Side note: It must suck to have your boss be able to say he knows it’s God’s will when you complain about a daunting task he assigns you.

Some Somerville residents are removing their chain-link fences and find that the metaphoric fences between neighbors are falling as a result. That’s sweet. Until someone’s kid wanders into a neighbor’s yard and hurts himself and the lawsuits begin.

Maybe someone should tell Mayor Tom Menino about the joy of taking down fences. Dan Kennedy has a picture of the steel fence city officials installed to keep street performers from breaking the Mayor’s concentration. It partially blocks access to the Freedom Trail. Brilliant move, sir.