• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • HOME
  • NEWS+OPINIONS
    • NEWS TO US
    • COLUMNS
      • APPARENT HORIZON
      • DEAR READER
      • Close
    • LONGFORM FEATURES
    • OPINIONS
    • EDITORIAL
    • Close
  • ARTS+ENTERTAINMENT
    • FILM
    • MUSIC
    • COMEDY
    • PERFORMING ARTS
    • VISUAL ARTS
    • Close
  • DINING+DRINKING
    • EATS
    • SIPS
    • Close
  • LIFESTYLE
    • CANNABIS
      • TALKING JOINTS MEMO
      • Close
    • WELLNESS
    • GTFO
    • Close
  • STUFF TO DO
  • TICKETS
  • ABOUT US
    • 5 DOUBLE-U’S
    • MASTHEAD
    • DISTRIBUTION
    • ADVERTISE
    • SUBMISSIONS
    • PRIVACY POLICY
    • Close
  • BECOME A MEMBER

Dig Bos

The Dig - Boston's Only Newspaper

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

A FINAL TOM MENINO ROUNDUP FOR GOOD MEASURE

Written by DIG STAFF Posted November 7, 2014 Filed Under: COLUMNS, Media Farm, NEWS+OPINIONS

Image by Scott Murry
Image by Scott Murry

 By the time you read this, people who respected Mayor Tom Menino will hopefully have worked through purely rosy remembrances and begun to recall more, shall we say, hilarious moments. It’s hardly time to swing the hammer; harsh criticisms will inevitably bleed out as the current team at City Hall thaws more frozen leftovers. That said, we thought we’d take the opportunity to lovingly acknowledge some of Menino’s rifts with alternative media you haven’t heard much about in the past week.

 

DIG DAYS

We’ll start with ourselves, as the Dig punched way out of our weight class on several occasions to engage Hizzoner. As babies in 2001, we declared that “Mayor Menino [was] wiping his soft, pimply white ass with the Constitution. Again.” Our beef: the removal of street boxes from the Back Bay, which spurred us into a losing court case alongside the Boston Phoenix, the Improper Bostonian, the Boston Herald, and the Boston Globe. Together, we won a temporary restraining order against the removal, though in the end Menino prevailed in some particular locations.

 

We could go on forever about our squabbles, but one particular rift from 2008 speaks volumes. In response to a Dig cover by Syracuse artist Phil McAndrew featuring abstract cartoon characters in the quasi-buff, local CBS affiliate WBZ-TV found three people who were outraged by the “weird,” “crazy,” and “sick” imagery. Make that four if you include Menino, who told the station, “It’s totally irresponsible … It’s not what we should be showing our young people.” The mayor also said he was looking to get Dig boxes removed from “nearby city buildings.” What else is new?

 

FASHION POLICE

Everybody knows Menino liked nice threads. He also took time to micromanage the wardrobes of others, and in 2006 attempted to ban “Stop Snitching” shirts from shelves citywide. He wound up making peace with the local designer behind the slogan, although he returned five years later with demands that Niketown yank T-shirts “emblazoned with pill bottles” from its Newbury Street storefront. The mayor reacted after he and his wife stumbled upon the lascivious threads, thus earning him a spot in the Boston Phoenix Muzzle Awards Hall of Shame. Media critic Dan Kennedy and First Amendment expert Harvey Silverglate bestowed the honor in light of previous muzzles for (unsuccessfully) attempting to prevent the MassCann Freedom Rally, and “for refusing to repeal the city’s archaic regulations making life miserable for street musicians.”

 

WAG OF THE FINGER

The year was 2007. A reported 40 LED signs shaped like Mooninites promoting the Cartoon Network’s Aqua Teen Hunger Force movie were hung around Boston. No one was particularly scared, but the cops and city irrationally freaked anyway, their fears elevating into an all-out bomb scare. Even after it was revealed that local artist Peter “Zebbler” Berdovsky was involved, Menino called the act an “irresponsible,” “nitwit technique.” Not his finest moment.

 

Always looking out for his city, for better or worse, last year the mayor penned a public letter to Jann Wenner expressing disappointment over the August 3, 2013, cover of Rolling Stone, which Menino argued “rewards a terrorist [Dzhokhar Tsarnaev] with celebrity treatment.” The letter wasn’t too harsh, noting, “There may be valuable journalism behind your sensational treatment.” Nevertheless, it demonstrated the mayor’s occasional inability to look beyond the headlines. You’d think a guy whose whole career proved that you shouldn’t judge books by their covers would have seen things differently.

[Media Farm is wrestled weekly by DigBoston News+Features Editor Chris Faraone]


FURTHER READING

WITH NEW BOOK, FORMER MAYOR FINALLY GETS TO WRITE THE HEADLINES

PICS AND MOMENTS: BOSTON MAYOR TOM MENINO’S FUNERAL PROCESSION

FROM CITY HALL TO HYDE PARK: A WAKE TO REMEMBER AND A FINAL RIDE FOR MENINO

MY TIME WITH TOM: REFLECTIONS ON 14 YEARS COVERING MAYOR TOM MENINO


 

DIG STAFF

Dig Staff means this article was a collaborative effort. Teamwork, as we like to call it.

More from author
  • DIG STAFF
    https://digboston.com/author/dig-staff/
    DIG THIS: OUR FAVORITE EVENTS AROUND GREATER BOSTON (1.28-2.11)
  • DIG STAFF
    https://digboston.com/author/dig-staff/
    VIDEO: MEET DOT-BASED ARTIST LUDGY JEAN-BAPTISTE OF COMIXSCAPE
  • DIG STAFF
    https://digboston.com/author/dig-staff/
    VIDEO: JACK'S ABBY X BOSTON CELTICS PRIDE AND PARQUET HOPPY LAGER UNBOXING & TASTING
  • DIG STAFF
    https://digboston.com/author/dig-staff/
    WALSH TO WASH; JANEY TO BECOME 1ST BLACK BOSTON MAYOR & 1ST WOMAN TO LEAD CITY

Filed Under: COLUMNS, Media Farm, NEWS+OPINIONS Tagged With: Alternative Media, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Boston, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Funeral, Muzzle Awards, Niketown, Stop Snitchin', Tom Menino, Tsarnaev, zebbler

WHAT’S NEW

DEAR GLOBE READERS LAUNCHES AS PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGN

DEAR GLOBE READERS LAUNCHES AS PUBLIC INFORMATION CAMPAIGN

SOULDIER STORY: JOEL MASSICOT ON MIXING MARTIAL ARTS, DANCE, AND MILITARY INFLUENCES

SOULDIER STORY: JOEL MASSICOT ON MIXING MARTIAL ARTS, DANCE, AND MILITARY INFLUENCES

THE END OF THE WORLD IN AN AIRBNB

THE END OF THE WORLD IN AN AIRBNB

MEETING THREATS WITH HOPE AND COURAGE

MEETING THREATS WITH HOPE AND COURAGE

TITANIC SHIFTS: DEMS SWAP DECK CHAIRS AMIDST GOP-PROVOKED TSUNAMI

TITANIC SHIFTS: DEMS SWAP DECK CHAIRS AMIDST GOP-PROVOKED TSUNAMI

NEARLY A YEAR INTO PANDEMIC, MASS CATS ARE STILL SHORT ON FOOD

NEARLY A YEAR INTO PANDEMIC, MASS CATS ARE STILL SHORT ON FOOD

Primary Sidebar

HEMPIRE FREEDOM PACK 25% OFF

FEATURED EVENT

Most Popular

  • APPOINTED SOMERVILLE OFFICIAL SPURS OUTRAGE WITH TWEETS FROM DC MOB SCENE by MARC LEVY
  • Aerial View Parkman Bandstand at Boston Common. CC BY-SA 4.0 2017 by AbhiSuryawanshi. NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM by MATTHEW ANDREWS
  • VIDEO: COP WHO BRAGGED THAT HE HIT PROTESTERS SHOWS HOW BAD APPLES THRIVE IN BOSTON by CHRIS FARAONE
  • PRISON HORRORS BY THE NUMBERS by SARAH BETANCOURT
  • IT’S HARDER THAN EVER TO FIND A BATHROOM IN BOSTON. WHAT’S THE CITY DOING ABOUT IT? by ZACK HUFFMAN

READ CURRENT MEMBER EDITION

DIG Member 1.9 – 11/26/20

READ CURRENT STREET ISSUE

DIG Year End 2020

Footer

digbos

“We were all caught pretty off guard when the pa “We were all caught pretty off guard when the pandemic hit, but I think that using the resources that we have available to us we have been able to meet the demand at every step.” https://digboston.com/handling-the-herd-how-boston-built-its-massive-covid-testing-apparatus/ #politics #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
Republican Gov. Charlie Baker started the new year Republican Gov. Charlie Baker started the new year by vetoing a sweeping #climate change bill. https://digboston.com/titanic-shifts-dems-swap-deck-chairs-amidst-gop-provoked-tsunami/ #politics #news #Democrats #GOP #Boston #Massachusetts #USA #veto
“Trump was voted out. However, this is not a man “Trump was voted out. However, this is not a mandate for #Biden and #Harris.” https://digboston.com/photos-recap-no-honeymoon-for-biden-rally-in-boston/ #photo #rally #march #left #protest #inauguration #Boston #Massachusetts
OPINION: IS DISSENT ANTI-NATIONALISM OR PATRIOTISM OPINION: IS DISSENT ANTI-NATIONALISM OR PATRIOTISM? #Boston #protest for Indian farmers, Saturday 1/23/21, 12-1 pm at the #Massachusetts State House https://digboston.com/opinion-is-dissent-anti-nationalism-or-patriotism/ #India #politics #food #farmer #protest #justice #solidarity @monica_gill1
HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO A HOW ONE MASS TOWN TOOK EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES TO APPEASE A CONTROVERSIAL COP https://digboston.com/no-justice-how-officials-in-one-mass-town-took-extraordinary-measures-to-appease-a-controversial-cop/ #ArlingtonMA #police #reform #cop #racism #controversy #BlackLivesMatter #Massachusetts
Ghost kitchens simply don’t have a need for host Ghost kitchens simply don’t have a need for hosts, servers, bartenders, bussers … What happens to those #jobs if virtual kitchens continue to flourish? https://digboston.com/ghost-story-virtual-kitchens-appear-to-be-the-next-big-thing-but-at-what-cost/ #restaurant #labor #work #Boston #Massachusetts #coronavirus #COVID19
“I don’t think we’re going to wake up on Jan “I don’t think we’re going to wake up on Jan. 7 in the same country we went to bed in on the 6th.” https://digboston.com/former-mass-gubernatorial-candidate-predicted-violence-before-assault-on-capitol/ #politics #Massachusetts #national #Capitol #WashingtonDC #MAGA
RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL http RADICAL AND RELEVANT: THE LIFE OF HARRY BRILL https://digboston.com/radical-and-relevant-the-life-of-harry-brill/ #obituary #organizer #radical #sociologist #democracy #politics @UMassBoston @BklynCollege411 @UCBerkeley #Boston #Massachusetts #NewYorkCity #Berkeley #California
NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 #PROTEST ON BOSTON CO NO HONEYMOON FOR BIDEN: 1/20 #PROTEST ON BOSTON COMMON, 4 PM https://digboston.com/no-honeymoon-for-biden-1-20-protest-on-boston-common-4-pm/ #opinion #progressive #left #action #inauguration #Boston #Massachusetts
Light and sweet and hoppy, we’re loving this lat Light and sweet and hoppy, we’re loving this latest incarnation of a #beer that’s been in the making for months. https://digboston.com/video-jacks-abby-x-boston-celtics-pride-and-parquet-hoppy-lager-unboxing-tasting/ #fun #video #review #Boston #Massachusetts
Load More... Follow on Instagram
Social Buttons

DigBoston facebook DigBoston Twitter DigBoston Instagram

Masthead

About

Submissions

Advertise

Privacy Policy

Customer Service

Distribution

About Us

DigBoston is a one-stop nexus for everything worth doing or knowing in the Boston area. It's an alt-weekly, it's a website, it's an e-mail blast, it's a twitter account, it's that cool party that you were at last night ... hey, you're reading it, so it's gotta be good. For advertising inquiries: [email protected] To reach Editorial: [email protected] For internship opportunities: [email protected]