'Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life' by Natalie Dykstra Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 318 pp., $26 When Clover Adams killed herself, she seemed like a woman who had everything — wealth, connections, a brilliant husband and emerging artistic promise. No less a literary light than Henry James dubbed her a "Voltaire in petticoats," an apt label for a woman with a fine mind and the hospitality to attract America's best and the brightest to her parlor in the nation's capital after the Civil War. So what possessed a privileged woman in her prime to commit suicide? And, more to the Continue reading >>>

The ‘Last Bostonian Skating’ charity event is set to begin tomorrow, with a day of free ice skating, as well as entertainment and cuisine from Iceland. The Icelandair sponsored ice skating event is to offer the local community a day of fun and unity, whilst raising money and awareness for two important causes – the Icelandair Special Children Travel Fund, and The Children’s Hospital Boston. Icelandair will be offering free ice skating and skate rentals during the event in order to raise money. To help aid with contributions, gifts from Icelandair, The Blue Lagoon and Iceland’s Continue reading >>>

Barbara Lynch opened three of her nine restaurants in the Seaport area, including Menton, above. Like many locals, restaurateur Barbara Lynch remembers the South Boston Waterfront as a collection of old industrial buildings and not much else. But she, like others, saw its potential even back then. “I always loved the area,” Continue reading >>>

Eden Called the paradise on clouds, the old Matsuo mine in Iwate Hachimantai was once home to 10,000 people. Japanese film-maker Shinya Isobe, a graduate of Tokyo Zokei University Graduate School, tries to express what it was like to be in that place. 15 minutes, 16mmImperceptihole Chicago native Lori Felker and Bostonian Robert Todd exchanged rolls of highcontrast black and white film over the course of the year. The film eventually developed into a science-non-fiction fairy tale that shows how reality lies between seasons, states, planes and worlds. 14 minutes, 16mmContingency In this film, $100 Continue reading >>>

Mark, a former Chicagoan, now Bostonian, posted this photo of a flyer he received in his “motor vehicle excise tax” bill (think of it like the annual city sticker, but much more costly). It describes and displays the new kinds of pavement markings that are showing up around Boston. It says, “New pavement markings for cyclists are cropping up around the city. Here’s what they mean for drivers.”The two-sided flyer uses graphics from the NACTO Urban Bikeway Design Guide to show bike lanes, shared lanes, bike boxes, and cycle tracks. The opposite side thanks Bostonians for making Boston America’s Continue reading >>>

BOSTON, Feb 29, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Boston prepares to host its 3rd annual Icelandic invasion with A Taste of Iceland, returning bigger and better than ever! The festival offers Bostonians a chance to discover the wonders of Icelandic culture and lifestyle through events in Boston and Cambridge from March 1-4, 2012, including: -- Icelandic Menu at Eastern Standard Kitchen Continue reading >>>

The second annual children’s charity ice skating event, ‘Last Bostonian Skating’, is to be held this Saturday, March 3rd, 2012, at the Kendall Square Community Ice Skating Rink in Boston, Massachusetts. The charity event is proudly hosted by Iceland’s leading airline Icelandair. The goal of the annual event is to bring the local community together in a fun and interactive environment, while raising money and awareness for two great causes – the Icelandair Special Children Travel Fund, and The Children’s Hospital Boston. Icelandair will be sponsoring a day of free ice Continue reading >>>

Arts • Posted by OttawaStart on February 28, 2012 <!--Summary: --> Carmina Burana – one of the best-known musical works of the twentieth century -- explores the human condition with dark humour, irreverence, and lust for life. From tender love to explicit eroticism, from the beauty of nature to human mortality and the power of fate, Carmina Burana combines music and song in an event of exuberant and uninhibited theatrical power. Carmina Burana: Secular Songs for soloist and chorus with Accompanying Instruments and Magic Tableux (Songs from Benediktbeuern) Continue reading >>>

Icelandair to hold second annual children’s charity ice skating event in Boston Posted on28 February 2012. Tags: Children’s Charity, Children’s Charity Event, Children’s Hospital Boston, Ice Skating Event, Ice Skating in Boston, Iceland Airline, Icelandair, Special Children Travel Fund, The Last Bostonian Skating Icelandair will be holding the second annual ‘Last Bostonian Skating’ children’s charity ice skating event in Boston, Massachusetts, taking place at Kendall Square Community Ice Skating Rink on 3rd March Continue reading >>>

The Connah Store in Boston's North End. (Flickr/JMaz Photo) It’s widely believed that Boston Brahmin deliberately kept up their British accents as a way of displaying their elite English pedigrees. That may be true, but research by University of Michigan scholar Richard Bailey suggests it was Bostonians who first started dropping the letter ‘R’ from words when they spoke, and only then did the practice actually spread back to England. That’s just one of the revelations in Bailey’s new book “Speaking American: A History of English in the United States.” Sadly, Continue reading >>>