Weekend Redux: What You Missed

Just because you spent all weekend preparing for your Super Bowl party doesn’t mean the world stopped moving. We round up the notable stories you missed.

Saturday
“Oh for the love of God.” That’s what we said when we opened up our copies of the Globe and the Herald on Saturday morning. Instead of taking our advice about ignoring New York, both papers have gotten in on the Giants hatred. The Globe meekly steps out with a twee “I *heart* New York” headline with the heart crossed out, while the Herald put Tom Brady’s handsome face on a milk carton.

The paper of record is shocked to find that Bostonians don’t react kindly to a guy dressed in an Eli Manning jersey and Giants hat, and the tabloid is troubled by the continued absence of the Patriots QB. In Belichick we trust. It will all be fine. Everybody just calm down.

The front page of the Globe’s City & Region is dominated by news of the elderly. A Newton woman who cared for her blind son died in a fire on Friday morning. She sounds like a cool lady—she loved to travel with her friends and stay in elderly hostels.

In other sad news, a former criminology professor was bilked out of $1.6 million by his financial adviser. Instead of investing Albert Cohen’s money, John Baldo allegedly spent it, and several other people’s money, on trips to Vegas, jewelry, and strippers. Now Cohen won’t be able to make a donation to the ACLU when he dies.

It isn’t all bad news for the elderly, however. Irene Davey, who is the oldest female veteran in Massachusetts, celebrated her 100th birthday on Friday. Her hobbies include Scrabble, making chicken soup, and flirting with men.

[S]he was leaning against the shoulder of state Senator Scott P. Brown, one of the many officials who took turns sitting next to her in the living room of the senior center.

“I can’t propose to you, because I’m married,” said Brown.

“That’s OK,” she told Brown, who is 48 years old, after a brief pause. “You’re too old for me.”

That makes us so happy, we won’t even talk about how the foreclosure crisis has affected pets.

Sunday
Voters of all colors and genders in South Carolina fell under the spell of Barack Obama, who handily beat Hillary Clinton in the last major Democratic primary before Super Tuesday.

It isn’t all love and peace in the Democratic party. The Globe details the party infighting over which local pols will endorse whom. Didn’t the Herald write this story last week?

Just as the presidential campaign has shifted from talk about illegal immigration to the troubled economy, the Globe has stopped looking for illegal immigrants on Mitt Romney’s lawn and has instead started writing unflattering stories about his time at Bain Capital.

Romney’s decision to stay on the sidelines as his firm, Bain Capital, slashed jobs at the office supply manufacturer stands in marked contrast to his recent pledges to beleaguered auto workers in Michigan and textile workers in South Carolina to “fight to save every job.”

In other bad news, Tom Brady is still limping and Boston Public Schools superintendent Carol Johnson’s previous district faces allegations of mismanagement, though it’s unclear if Johnson was involved. Her former coworkers say she tended to promote people because of their loyalty, not because they were particularly good at their jobs, so she should do well in Massachusetts.