Boston, MA
‘Tis the season to shop, sip, eat & play in Boston & beyond

Eat, drink, and be merry, that’s the go-to holiday motto. But we’re going to amend that. This year, how about: Eat, drink, shop, take classes, buy gifts, brunch with girlfriends, nosh with family, and yes — be very, very merry.
The next few holiday weeks are filled with fabulous events spilling over with all that fun stuff.
It starts as early as tomorrow, with a road trip for a smashing intimate in-person cocktail soirée and book signing with Jenna Bush Hager and Barbara Bush, to celebrate their children’s book, “Love Comes First.” (https://aubergeresorts.com/whitebarninn/experiences/prelude-cocktails). From 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. the celeb sisters will be hosting and toasting with cocktails and light bites in the elegance-meets-rustic dining room of The White Barn Inn ((The Bush Family compound is located just down the road apiece in Kennebunkport, ME). For a $55 ticket you can meet them, get the opportunity to buy copies of their book for your favorite youngsters, and luxuriate in the stunning setting of the Inn—which is of course now decked out for the holiday. Not a bad idea to book a night to stay (aubergeresorts.com/whitebarninn) while you’re there, either, considering that Kennebunkport is currently celebrating Christmas Prelude, a weeks-long festival that’s one of the country’s most fun and boisterous holiday festivals.
And then this Saturday, Boston Public Market (https://bostonpublicmarket.org/happenings) is cramming its halls with tastings and classes as well as shopping events —swing in at noon for Jennifer Lee’s Vegan/Allergen-free Gingerbread Making Class. Or grab the kiddos and go next Saturday, Dec. 16 at 11 a.m. for Seven Hill Pasta Co.’s Kid’s Ornament Making Session. They’re all free, followed by holiday movies — and are an easy way to get holiday shopping done while picking up a new skill or two.
The Revere Hotel (reverehotel.com) is ramping things up and getting very merry indeed with their Festive Fridays throughout December. Think holiday cocktails, a live DJ from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., and fun activities — I’m especially looking forward to their Dec. 8 holiday shop: “Top it Off Holiday Pop-Up” — a melange of great gloves, ponchos, cute socks, and adorable hats (the shop is a winner of Oprah’s Favorite Things).
The Revere is also hosting a Bad Moms Brunch “Holiday Edition” on Dec. 10 and 17 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Rebel’s Guild (https://www.sevenrooms.com/reservations/rebelsguild). They’ll be screening the movie with plenty of cocktails and brunch bites.
Pretty much anytime in December, grabbing a cocktail in the Liberty Hotel (libertyhotel.com) lobby is always one of my favorite things to do before heading out for the evening, since the property has once again put up their dizzying and gorgeous upside-down Christmas trees across their soaring ceiling. The seven inverted Christmas trees, decorated by Boston florist and event designer Cityscapes, are suspended from the hotel lobby’s stunning 90-foot rotunda. Each nine-foot tall tree is decorated with lights, ornaments, and a touch of acrylic paint for extra shine. Paired with a potent peppermint martini, it’s a surreal and sensational new tradition.
All this shopping is making everyone hungry, no? Well, arm yourself with a fork and knife and get over to Waypoint in Cambridge (waypointharvard.com) for the epic and annual Feast of the Seven Fishes that Chef Michael Scelfo rolls out — he’s increased it to two nights this year due to popularity. It’s on Dec. 22 and 23, rings in at $77 per person, and includes dishes like fishermen’s stew (tomato-braised salt cod, mussels, calamari, and fried chickpea croquettes); pan-seared halibut (with potato crema, greens, chopped lobster, and crab gravy); and oysters with champagne and quince.
The Miracle Pop-Up at the bar at Kimpton Marlowe Hotel (hotelmarlowe.com) in Cambridge is the O.G. of cheeky local hotels doing holiday revelry. The winter wonderland is festooned with twinkling lights, and bartenders donning their favorite ugly Christmas sweaters while shaking up delish specialty cocktails under the watchful eye of a six-foot Santa. Drop in any night but Monday from now until Christmas.


Boston, MA
Insider: Boston Bruins have interviewed ‘about 15 guys’ for coaching vacancy

It sounds like Don Sweeney and Cam Neely are doing their diligence as they search for the next coach of the Bruins.
On SportsNet’s “32 Thoughts” podcast, NHL insider Elliotte Friedman said the buzz around the league is that just about everybody has been on Boston’s radar.
“I’ve heard they’ve interviewed about 15 guys,” Friedman said. “I asked someone, ‘Who do you think Boston has interviewed?’ The response was, ‘Who haven’t they interviewed?’”
Friedman then shared the names of some of the candidates.
“(Marco) Strum,” Friedman said. “I assume (Jay) Leach. I think (Jeff) Halpern and (Jeff) Blashill. I think they’re also in on Mitch Love. Joe Sacco. But I think there’s more and more.”
Interim coach Sacco and Bruins assistant Leach are obvious interview candidates, while some of the other names are interesting, too.
Sturm, Boston’s hero in the 2010 Winter Classic, has been a Kings assistant since 2018. Halpern has won a pair of Stanley Cups as a Lightning assistant, while Blashill spent seven seasons coaching the Red Wings (2015-22) before his dismissal. Love is a Capitals assistant who is also rumored to be on Pittsburgh’s radar.
When Sweeney spoke after the NHL Draft lottery earlier this month, he was pleased with the feedback he’d been getting from candidates.
“This is an exciting opportunity for coaches to be interviewing for this position, and that’s the indication that they would be very excited about maybe being the head coach of the Boston Bruins,” Sweeney said. “That’s the first and foremost thing that’s come across, happy to be part of the selection of being interviewed, and more fortunate they are.
“I think they’re starting to gather information on the roster and the players that we have in place. And, first question people ask in terms of how healthy we’re going to be and the return to that full health so that players, that they expect impact (from) will be back to do what they do. But the overriding excitement as we are to turn a page and come to the decision that we’ve got the right guy in place.”
Boston, MA
Receiver of troubled Boston nursing home defends hire of disgraced ex-senator Dianne Wilkerson

A court-appointed receiver of a financially-strapped Boston nursing home defended his hire of disgraced ex-senator Dianne Wilkerson, after “allegations of nepotism and self-dealing” were lodged against her in Superior Court last month.
In a post-hearing order, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Christopher Belezos, who is overseeing hearings regarding the receivership of Roxbury’s Edgar P. Benjamin Healthcare Center, raised “significant concerns” about the considerable pay Wilkerson testified that she was making at a facility on the brink of bankruptcy.
“On April 16, the court heard testimony from several witnesses regarding allegations of nepotism and self-dealing by a member of the receivership’s team,” Belezos wrote in the April 22 order. “The subject of such allegations, Ms. Wilkerson offered, under pains of penalties of perjury, testimony that she is an employee of the EPBHC, receiving full benefits, being paid at a rate of $82 per hour, working an average of 90 hours per week.
“If such testimony is accurate, it raises significant concerns as to the rate of remuneration being paid to Ms. Wilkerson by an institution in receivership with a projected 2025 loss in the area of $4.4 million,” the judge added.
Wilkerson, an ex-state senator whose political career ended after she was busted by the feds for taking a bribe, is executive assistant to Joseph Feaster, the court-appointed receiver of the troubled nursing home.
She was present for a hearing held Thursday in Superior Court, but didn’t take part in the day’s proceedings, and deferred comment to Feaster.
Speaking with reporters after a roughly half-hour hearing, Feaster defended his decision to hire Wilkerson and her compensation, in the wake of last month’s mismanagement allegations. He described Wilkerson as “talented” and said she was thoroughly vetted before being added to the facility’s receivership team.
“Donald Trump has a past, and he’s president of the United States,” Feaster said when asked about Wilkerson’s checkered past. “She served her time. She doesn’t have a CORI. She has nothing which would preclude her from working, and so that has to be the determinant.
“So that was looked at, because I certainly am not going to have any situation which would be problematic for the organization or for me,” he said. “She’s employable and she’s talented.”
Wilkerson resigned from the state Senate in 2008 and spent more than two years in jail after agreeing to plead guilty to charges tied to a federal corruption bust. She was infamously shown stuffing $1,000 in cash bribes into her bra in a photo that was released by the feds.
Feaster said Wilkerson didn’t perjure herself on the stand last month, when she testified about her compensation. He said there was a “misinterpretation” about his assistant’s testimony, when she said she works 90 hours a week, when in fact, she gets paid on a bi-weekly basis for a total of 80 hours.
“I think that she was saying I work more hours than what I get paid for, and what we wanted to confirm is that … she only gets paid for bi-weekly, 80 hours,” Feaster said.
Wilkerson told the Herald last month that it’s true that she makes $82 an hour and works 90 hours a week, but “no one asked me a third question.”
“How many hours do I actually get paid for? And the answer to that question is 40. That’s all,” she said at the time.
Feaster also said he saw Wilkerson’s hourly rate as reasonable, given that he makes $450 an hour as the facility’s receiver.
Benjamin Healthcare, which has roughly 80 patients, was placed into receivership last April to avoid the facility’s closure and allow it to begin a financial turnaround. Wilkerson was hired as Feaster’s executive assistant upon his appointment as receiver at that time.
This week’s hearing centered around the facility’s finances, whether receivership should be continued and what the court-appointed team’s contingency plan was if a buyer doesn’t materialize from the bid process.
In a May 14 court filing from Feaster, the “receiver informed the court” at the April 16 hearing “that the most viable path forward for the facility to continue operating would be through soliciting proposals for third party owner/operator.”
Belezos, the judge, pressed for a breakdown of the facility’s financial information from the receivership team, and set a deadline for May 29.
A lawyer for Attorney General Andrea Campbell’s office, which represents state agencies like the Department of Health, said the state wants to keep the Roxbury facility open, rather than move forward with a closure and transfer of patients.
To try to recover funds, Feaster is pursuing a civil lawsuit that has been filed against the facility’s former administrator, Tony Francis, who ran the Benjamin before he was appointed as receiver, Commonwealth Beacon reported.
The lawsuit alleges that Francis “siphoned” more than $3 million in funds from the facility, per a prior court filing from Feaster.
The matter returns to court on June 28.
Boston, MA
Defiant Knicks fans brush off Game 5 blowout, blast ‘cocky’ Celtics supporters in Boston: ‘Worst city in America’

Knicks fans brushed off their team’s blowout loss to the Boston Celtics in Game 5 — and still talked trash to their rival’s fanbase outside TD Garden Wednesday night.
“F–k Boston,” said Brooklyn resident Rick Haddad, 18, outside the Beantown venue. “It’s the worst city in America. Worst people, worst culture, worst sports team.”
His buddy Edward Dweck then took a shot at the Celtics’ home arena.
“This is a fake garden. This is a p—y-ass garden,” the 18-year-old Brooklynite yapped. “I’ve never heard of TD Garden, only Madison [Square] Garden and the Botanical [Garden].”
The Brooklyn pals were among scores of fans who were still defiant after New York lost 127-102, which will stretch the series to at least six games.
The Knickerbockers are still up 3-2.
“You ain’t been paying attention,” Kevin Shah huffed.
“You don’t see patterns. Game f–king 6 at home. It’s gotta be.”
“The formula is you go all do your thing and you get cocky, and we punch you in the mouth without knowing it,” said Shah, a Bronxville native who now lives in Ohio.
“The whole time it’s been the formula, dog,” he continued to rant. “Every time they got full of themselves, they got met with a reality check, bitch.”
Even Mayor Eric Adams got involved with a two-word response to the disappointing loss.
“BUCK FOSTON,” Hizzoner tweeted.
Another fan outside TD Garden, David G., shouted “Knicks in six” for several minutes as fans left the venue.
“It’s OK. We are good, buddy,” he said. “Knicks in six. We are good.”
“I’m getting a lot of f–k yous, but I don’t care,” he added as a pair of Boston fans told him to pipe down.
“We just kicked your ass! Jesus. Shut the f–k up!” an angry Celtics fan shouted at him while another screamed, “You smell like s–t.”
A group of girls decked out in Knicks jerseys also felt the wrath of some insufferable Boston fans who shouted, “Keep walking! Go home! Go back to New York!”
Back in the Empire State outside MSG, fans were clamoring for another shot at the Celtics.
“Jaylen Brown thinks he’s all hot s–t. He f–king sucks, bro,” Nia Newkirk, 25, said of the Boston guard.
“He is not the best driver in the NBA. He’s not the best driver on his team, bro. You needed [Boston forward] Jayson Tatum. Y’all got f–king lucky tonight. Knicks in six.”
The series heads back to the Big Apple for Game 6 Friday night, where the Knicks will have another shot to close out the Celtics and advance to the Eastern Conference Finals.
“I don’t care about Boston. Boston’s a bitch,” said Bronx resident Damion Jones, 30. “They, they always be a bitch … Oh, man, f–k Boston. We lost because of us. Yes, we lost because of us.”
Hoboken resident Liam Walker, who rooted for the Knicks inside the watch party inside the world’s most famous arena, predicted beldam if New York took Game 5 or wins Friday.
“I mean, there’s like way more people here [inside the Garden on Friday], they’ll be like hundreds of people outside, like it would be people going like crazy,” he said.
“It would just be like a riot in the streets. It would be awesome.”
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