Cantabrigia

ART gets new artistic director

Posted on May 16, 2008 by David Harris
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The American Repertory Theatre named Diane Paulus its new director. She’s the theater’s first director who also happens to be a woman. Paulus replaces Robert Woodruff.

Paulus, 41, is an award-winning New York based artist known for her ambitious fusions of theater with musical genres including jazz, rock, and R&B, as well as for her international work on the opera stage. Starting this fall, she will become the first woman artistic director of the ART, following founding director Robert Brustein (1980-2002) and Robert Woodruff (2002-2007). Gideon Lester is currently the ART’s acting artistic director.

Prom time?

Posted on May 16, 2008 by David Harris
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We’re doing a story about the prom and we’re looking for someone going to the CRLS prom (we’re focusing on the costs associated with prom). Please e-mail David Harris at cambridge@cnc.com with your contact info.

Tales from the emergency room with a Chronicle reporter

Posted on May 16, 2008 by David Harris
Filed Under City life, Cops/crime | Leave a Comment

If you’re trying to get in touch with Erin Smith today, she’s nursing a crushed wrist she sustained during a softball match last night. Here’s a dispatch from her the morning after her night at Cambridge Hospital:

I ended up in the Cambridge Hospital ER for six hours last night, but most of the time was spent waiting. If you spend that much time in the ER, you’re bound to see something weird or strange. At the four-hour mark, I did when three thug wannabes walked into the room. One of the guys, a twenty-something who appeared to be an Eminem clone and called his friends “homeboy,” wasn’t wearing shoes. He waddled over to the registration desk in his black socks and immediately started causing a scene.

He ripped off his shirt and showed the triage nurse a giant, gaping stab wound on his back over his left shoulder blade. When the nurse asked if it was a stab wound, he said he didn’t know. Once he was seated in the waiting area, he kept taking off his shirt and proudly showing anyone with eyes how he got stabbed “for my papers.” His loud profanities annoyed one mother with an asthmatic little boy so much that she took her son to the Mt. Auburn Hospital emergency room instead. An older female patient scolded him and moved away from where he was sitting. But it did little to deter him. Finally, after he had ripped off his shirt to show off his stab wound for probably the fifth time, a mother waiting to be seen with her teen daughter leaned toward me and said, “This is ridiculous. They think it’s a joke. They have no respect for life.”

I couldn’t help but agree with her.

This CNN guy wants a free Harvard education

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Erin Smith
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Glenn Beck, a CNN host and conservative radio talk show host, wrote this piece, arguing that Harvard should provide their education for free.

Harvard University, which has the largest endowment in the country, has a total of $34.6 billion. To put into perspective just how much money that is, consider that the largest charitable foundation in the world, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has a total endowment of $37.3 billion.

Best sushi in Cambridge?

Posted on May 15, 2008 by David Harris
Filed Under Business, Hungry | 2 Comments

What’s your favorite sushi spot in Cambridge? Tell us below.

Oil in the Charles

Posted on May 15, 2008 by Matt Dunning
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Investigators have determined that a passing vessel unknowingly dumped a few gallons of gasoline into the Charles River, according to Channel 5.

The slick, which stretched for about 300 yards, was spotted between the Longfellow Bridge and the Charles River Dam late Thursday morning.

Crews originally thought a barge on the Cambridge-side of the river leaked some kind of chemical — possibly fuel or hydraulic fluid.

UPDATE: It dissipated.

One more thing on Google…

Posted on May 15, 2008 by David Harris
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After visiting Google’s new Cambridge office, I’m still struck at how un-office-y the Google office is. I’d heard about what a cool working environment it is (and how employees really don’t have to leave work for any reason), but a smoothie bar? Yeah, they’ve got it.

And marker board walls (you can even write on the kitchen cabinets in the company’s kitchenette)!

Spring is in the grass

Posted on May 14, 2008 by David Harris
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It must mean it’s spring, according to Hamilton Street resident Joe McCabe, who’s been shaping his grass into Celtic shapes for the past few years.

Thanks to Cathie Zusy and Sam Kendall for sending this to us! If you’ve got neighborhood photos, send them to cambridge@cnc.com. They just might wind up on this blog or in the paper.

This week’s Chronicle

Posted on May 14, 2008 by David Harris
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This lady loves gerbils!!!

Posted on May 13, 2008 by jewalker
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In this week’s Cambridge Chronicle, we’ll have a story on Tracy Kukkonen who loves her pet gerbils. She enjoys them so much she even helps to organize the American Gerbil Society’s annual gerbil show and competition which this year will be held on May 17th in Nashua, N.H.

Check out this video to meet Tracy and her beloved pets:

Google showcases new Cambridge office

Posted on May 13, 2008 by David Harris
Filed Under Business, City life | Leave a Comment

I’m here at Google’s Cambridge office at 5 Cambridge Center as I type this. Today, the company’s unveiling its office with a bunch of execs, Gov. Deval Patrick and other officials. The new office, which replaced the old one at the Cambridge Innovation Center, has over 175 employees and about 65,000 square feet on three floors

A couple products that Cambridge Google employees are working on include the new Friend Connect, Android, YouTube and Google Book Search.