😱 Boston’s portal to hell

It’s Thursday, Boston.

👻 It’s also Halloween! To kick things off, here’s a Halloween-themed treat that we made just for a you. We brainstormed a few costume ideas. Spoiler: Bill Belichick and Jordon Hudson and pommel horse guy made the cut.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Karen Read’s cover story

• A BIG flight sale

• Last-last-minute costumes

Up first…

HALLOWEEN

IRL local ghost stories

A city with as much history as Boston is basically a dormant haunted house. If you don’t believe us, look no further than the Globe’s list of 10 unsolved, creepy, or just weird Boston archeological discoveries. 

Since it’s the spookiest day of the year, we picked a few of the creepiest ones to share with you:

🚇 The abandoned train tunnel under City Hall Plaza. If you’ve ever walked around City Hall Plaza, chances are at one point, you were standing on top of a potentially haunted, long abandoned tunnel. The tunnel is not publicly accessible (the only way to get in is through an “unassuming, unmarked” door in an underground parking garage). But if you were lucky(?) enough to get a peek, you’d find a 15-foot high and 200- to 300-foot long dark cavern, with plenty of cobwebs, rust, and even a staircase to nowhere. It’s kind of giving this Lana Del Rey album. 

🕳️ Dorchester’s “portal to hell.” Or, as others might call it, a very large sinkhole. Back in 2020, a dog walker in the neighborhood noticed a giant, undeniably creepy, hole in Ronan Park had seemingly appeared overnight. Even creepier: When officials tried to stick a tape measure into it, they couldn’t reach the bottom. Turns out, it was just an old-timey well that had been covered up for years. The new hole was quickly covered and almost immediately became Bostonian lore. But let’s be honest, calling it a “portal to hell” is a lot more fun. 

🚽 A toilet full of broken dolls at an old school for girls. You don’t need to be an archeologist to know that finding hundreds of smashed, porcelain dolls in the bottom of an outhouse at a school meant to “prevent evil” in abandoned young girls is … not normal. But that’s what happened when city excavators found at the Dorchester Industrial School for Girls. There’s little evidence as to why that might’ve happened. The Globe’s Heather Hopp-Bruce suspects it “represented a ritual of sorts, a physical representation of how the girls felt being cast away by … a society that didn’t value them as anything more than handmaids.”

👻 Want more ghost stories? This blog post from the Mass. Historical Society and this one from the Boston Harbor Islands have more creepy local stories (see: the legend of the Lady in Red).

QUICK QUESTION

😱 What’s scarier?

TOGETHER WITH THE MBTA COMMUTER RAIL 

Save the planet and your wallet 

🌎💸 Why choose between style and sustainability when you can have both? Join us as we hop on the commuter rail’s Needham line for a fall thrifting adventure, exploring local stores packed with treasures. No traffic stress, no buyer’s remorse — just a sustainable shopping trip that supports local businesses and reduces your carbon footprint. And with the $10 Weekend Pass, getting there is as easy as scoring a vintage steal. Plan your next eco-friendly shopping spree today.

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🗞️ Karen Read is telling her story on page one. Of Vanity Fair, that is. The mag recently published a marathon two-part feature story based on a three-day, tell-all interview with Read. Whether you’re glued to this story or just catching up, think of VF’s account as the ultimate SparkNotes of the case, featuring all its twists and turns (and controversies). Plus, it uncovers a few juicy personal tidbits from Read (like what’s in her “go bag” and how much those pricey L.A. lawyers cost). We were hooked. You can check it out here.

🎓 A(nother) local college is offering free tuition. UMass schools are the latest local colleges to roll out a free-tuition plan for low-income in-state students whose families make less than $75,000 a year. And it’s not just good news for students. Whether intentional or not, UMass might be taking a page from Mass. community colleges’ book to get a leg up on declining enrollment trends. As freshmen enrollment is down 5% nationwide, the newly free-for-all local community colleges have seen a 14% increase. The plan should impact about 3,000 students.

✈️ We have a Cinderella-like flight deal for you. i.e., you have to book it before midnight tonight, or it goes away. We’re talking about JetBlue’s winter sale, which is offering one-way flights all across the country and beyond starting at $49 (think: $49 to West Palm Beach, $99 to Puerto Rico, $99 to Bermuda). The deal is good for flights between Nov. 12 and Feb. 12, just pay attention to the blackout dates. But like we said, act quickly, because after midnight, it’s gonzo. Peruse the deals here.

❤️‍🩹 Tom Brady is down bad crying on IG. ICYMI: His ex Gisele Bündchen announced she’s having a baby with her Jiu Jitsu trainer-turned-BF. And Brady made his feelings … apparent. As the news broke, he took to Instagram to post a sunset pic with three red heart emojis to the backtrack of the Chicks’ cover of “Landslide.” More specifically, the lyrics: “Oh mirror in the sky, what is love / Can the child inside my heart rise above / Can I sail through the changing ocean tides?” Enough said.

ONE LAST THING

Last-last-minute costumes

As you’re chronically online and locally informed friends … We simply refuse to let you go out in a boring Halloween costume this year.

And luckily for you, we’ve been all over Boston Halloween TikTok, where some pretty creative folks (including us, shameless plug!) have been cooking up hilarious locally inspired costumes. Some of our faves include: The Big Dig (a construction worker outfit with some “dirt” smudges), the Atlantic Ocean (some nautical rope and a plastic bag as necklaces, lol), and the Great Molasses Flood (all brown with a newspaper clipping and a jar of molasses). 

And per usual, if all else fails, you can’t go wrong dressing up as the T (or … a shuttle bus).

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

💄 Thanks for reading! Or, hear me out, couples costume: Gov. Chris Sununu and the guy he saved from choking at the lobster roll eating competition. IYKYK. 

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, MBTA Commuter Rail, for supporting local journalism and making transportation in and around Boston more accessible. 

🧓 The results are in: 68% of B-Siders say that they “absolutely” think there should be age limits on political offices, with another 23% saying it depends on the limit. One reader said: “Retirement age is a great time to retire. 😅”

💃 Keep up with us @BostonBSide on IG, TikTok, and Twitter. Send comments and suggestions to [email protected] or [email protected].