Bicycle Benefits program

[turil.livejournal.com]

For $5 you can get a sticker to put on your helmet (yes, it's required for this program. And yes, I know that's kind of lame) which gives you a discount and/or free stuff at several local places, including all the bike shops in Somerville, Redbones, Dave's Fresh Pasta, Kickass Cupcakes, Magpie, and a bunch of other places. You can apparently get the sticker at any of the participating businesses.

(The offer at Open Bicycles is especially curious...)

Housing for Temporary Teacher

[bobobb.livejournal.com]

My brother, a teacher at Charlestown High, is sponsoring a teacher from Egypt for a US-sponsored teacher exchange program. He has just arrived in town and we are hunting around a bit to find him a good housing situation. We are looking to set him up in a short term rental (3 months or so starting September 1st), in a furnished apartment, in a safe neighborhood with easy access to public transportation. We'd prefer to find him roommates to live with rather than having him live on his own. Craigslist sadly has turned up nothing good, so I thought I'd post here to see if anyone has anything.

The Mummified Squirrel of Elm St. in Somerville (Warning: Mummified Squirrel)

[themotionsick.livejournal.com]

This is a bit of an oddity and it's closer to Porter than Davis, but I thought you might kind of enjoy anyway. It's a new National Park in Somerville.

Bicyclists (and Pedestrians): On the Virtues of Stopping

[desireearmfeldt]

Riding my bicycle from Harvard to Davis at rush hour, I observed the following:

1) While I was stopped at a red light, three separate cyclists passed me from behind, in order to run the light. While this is both illegal and foolish, at least they had decent visibility and could presumably see (as I could) that there were not actually cars about to squish them flat.

2) I then passed a cyclist wearing earbuds but no helmet (on Mass Ave at rush hour).

3) Coming out of Porter, I nearly ran into a car pulling some sort of U-turn shennanigans because the visibility was poor and I couldn't see the car until I was almost on top of it. I stopped to wait for the car to finish its shennanigans. I heard two cyclists approaching to pass me from behind, simultaneously, one from either side. Since I was pretty sure they couldn't see the car, I put out a hand to gesture Stop. The left-hand cyclist stopped; the right-hand cyclist kept going. No actual collision, but I bet both he and the driver were pretty surprised.

4) Heading into Davis, I saw a pedestrian enter a crosswalk and stopped for him. The cyclist behind me kept going, nearly ran him over, and pulled up short at the last minute.

5) We then both tried to pass a van that was stopped at an intersection where it should have had the right of way, only to discover that in fact it was stopped to allow pedestrians to cross in a crosswalk (in this case, against the lights, right after the right-arrow turn onto College Ave) -- again, there was pulling up short but no actual squishing of pedestrians. (Minus points to me for disobeying my own rules.)

There are two morals to this story:

1) The rules of the road are there to let everyone have their turn to go without smacking into each other. Ignore them, not only at your own peril, but that of everyone around you. This goes for cars, bikes, and pedestrians too -- if you cross against the lights at College ave, you're impeding the flow of traffic from the right-arrow, and you're risking a driver/cyclist not seeing you in time to stop.

2) If someone has stopped in front of you (either your vehicle type or a different one), they have most likely stopped for a good reason. Possibly to avoid running into something that you cannot yet see because you are behind them. It is not a good idea to pass someone who has stopped for a reason, because you are likely to run into the thing they have stopped to avoid running into.

(Also, though not a moral of this story, I can't help but mention another fellow-cyclist peeve of mine: if I'm stopped at a red light, and you come up behind me to stop at the light too, you should fall into line behind me, rather than jumping the queue. This is understood for cars, mostly because it's usually not possible to do otherwise. Why do cyclists not consider it impolite to queue-jump? It seems quite rude to me.)

NPQC

[mrtalyn.livejournal.com]

Handout Graphic after this link

A community-based Muggle Quidditch Club now forming.
Practices to occur at North Point Park,
across from the Museum of Science, and Lingo's bar.
Close to the Community College orange T stop,
and Science Park/Lechmere green line T stops.

Please send all inquiries to NorthPointQC@gmail.com

Thank you!
That is all.

Looking for the perfect tiny office space

[somerville-lmt.livejournal.com]

I've been walking around Davis Square looking at buildings, but I thought I'd post here in case anyone had any leads. What I'm looking for is small enough that building managers may not even think to advertise it as a vacancy. 

I'm looking for a small space (say 10'x10' or even 8'x10') to rent.  It must be: 

- already zoned for commercial use
- handicap accessible
- reasonably quiet (i.e. not next to a machine shop)
- not creepy (creepy examples: alley access, damp and cold basements, shrieking neighbors.)

Near Davis would be nice, but I'm new to the area and open to suggestions. 

Thanks!