Scandal!

Shopgirlove loves a controversy.  Boston delivers pretty consistently: busing, corruption, disappearing gangsters, gigantic public works projects, the Catholic Church, and the always entertaining university presidents, not to mention the equally entertaining students.  But nothing is quite as much fun as local art and architecture! Brandeis announced it was going to sell off the remarkable collection of the Rose Art Museum and fired the Director. That didn't go over very well... MIT bought an international, edgy, landmark that promptly fell apart. Contemporary art got a new home that turned its back on the patrons. (Also falling apart. Check out the electrical tape on the back railings.) Ah, and then there's Renzo Piano.  Povero Piano! The FAA had a little  problem with his vision competing with the vision of those silly airplane pilots and the people of Cambridge had the gall to suggest that Harvard should maybe limit the grand  experimental gestures to non-residential sites.  The crimson tide rolled back and settled for a rehab, sorry "transformation," of its existing space. But the Piano plan that got even Shopgirlove deeply perturbed? Tear down the carriage house at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. STOP THE MADNESS!

However, there is a new jewel on the local scene: massport unveiled a memorial to the 9/11 victims on American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175. Thank you to Moskow Linn Architects for an example of modern design that honors purpose and beauty.

Nero fiddled, Larry naps.

As though the fright over the Conficker virus and swine flu wasn't enough, several of Shopgirlove's friends were laid off yesterday from a rather large and important vendor on the West Coast. Not that New England has a great deal to crow about. But, what to make of this poor man in Belgrade who actually removed the pinky from his left hand with a hacksaw to keep his union deputy from cutting off her own: "I could not allow her to do that." Talk about taking one for the team! The saddest news is the link between unemployment and suicide. Add to this the likely spread of civil unrest, and the picture gets grim indeed! 

Not to fret, my lovelies! Uncle Larry  is on the case! In the meantime, there's always gin!