🙅 End-of-summer scaries? IDK her.

It’s Tuesday, Boston.

🚚 Need a reason to smile this morning? Look no further. After their banger Storrowing PSA last year, the Mass. DCR social team has done it again, creating a new, horror movie-style iteration for this year’s move-in. Someone give this guy a raise!

👀 What’s on tap today:

• This weekend’s traffic report

• Two restaurant switcharoos

• A pickleball pickle

Up first…

CARE PACKAGE

The end-of-summer blues

It’s about time that we all take a beat. Summer is coming to an end, the school year is kicking off, and we’re heading into the throes of election season. Needless to say, we’re all going to need a little TLC. Enter: B-Side Care Packages. 

For the next few months, we’re going to drop in every so often with a list of our favorite things to read, watch, and listen to. All of these selections bring us comfort, and we hope that they’ll bring you some, too.

READ

📚 Writers & Lovers, Lily King. A great read that’ll help you romanticize Boston? Count us in. Between the gorgeous writing and the references to biking across the BU bridge, you’ll feel right at home.

💋 Dinner with Cupid, The Boston Globe. We’d never procrastinate at work … but if we did … we’d probably be binge-reading these articles. The scene: Real-life readers apply for a blind date through the Globe, go on it, then write about the experience. They’re addictive.

🪩 The Rachel Incident, Caroline O'Donoghue. If you read “Normal People” in 2018 and haven’t been the same since, this is the book for you. That’s to say, this is a story about young people finding themselves and coming-of-age in the city. And it rocks.

LISTEN

💬 Normal Gossip, Defector. This show is a treat. Host Kelsey McKinney shares listener-submitted, anonymized, gossip stories with a guest. The goss is always good, and the stories are a ball. We’d start here.

🔑 Charm, Clairo. We loved Powerpuff pop girl summer while it lasted, but every brat summer must come to an end. And as we transition into our fall playlists, Juna will be on constant repeat. 

💌 Love Letters, The Boston Globe. Love Letters is one of our fave Globe podcasts. Every season fills our feeds with stories about love: romantic relationships, heartbreak, loss, it has it all. Start with this episode.

THINGS TO DO

🏢 Something — anything — after work. We have all winter to spend our evenings cozying up on the couch with some TV. So while we have some afternoon daylight left, use it! Our suggestions: Grab nosebleed Sox tickets, see one of the city’s million outdoor movie offerings, or head to a museum night. Thank us later.

🤔 Explore a new neighborhood. If you’ve ever wished someone would just plan a fun day for you: Done! In Boston.com’s “Perfect Day” series, a true local in each of Boston’s neighborhoods takes you through their ideal day there. We’ll be trying with the JP day, ourselves. 

TOGETHER WITH THE ISABELLA STEWART GARDNER MUSEUM 

Sunbathe with a side of art 

🎨🌳 This summer’s best “very demure, very mindful” outdoor activity is free. Next time you’re in Fenway, check out the public art on the Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. For the next five weeks, the rotating outdoor gallery showcases Hakeem Adewumi: Possession of A Recalcitrant Dream, 2024. Then, starting Oct. 1, Mickalene Thomas: Sandra, She's a Beauty, 2009 will take the spotlight through Feb. 17. Stop by, snap some pics, and enjoy — no museum ticket needed (though, you might as well pop in to see John Singer Sargent’s El Jaleo while you’re there). 

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚗 This weekend’s traffic outlook is not so good. Thanks to Sept. 1 move-in and Labor Day travel, just about everyone will be hitting the road this weekend. According to AAA, the worst times to head out by car will be Thursday or Friday afternoon, or Saturday morning, with the most treacherous traffic from Boston to Hyannis on Pilgrim Highway South at 1:45 p.m on Thursday. Meanwhile, the best times to leave will be early Thursday or Friday morning, Friday evening, or Saturday afternoon. Good luck out there!

🎫 Cambridge is DOUBLING parking violation fines. Starting Sept. 1, illegally parked Cambridge residents will have to shell out $100 per ticket in hopes that it’ll curb their parking problem. In 2023, the city launched a pilot program that ended towing on street-sweeping days while hiking ticket prices from $30 to $50. What they didn’t anticipate was just how much Mass. drivers would pay to sleep in: Illegal parking has more than doubled since then, rising 93% in year one, and another 26% this year.

🦟 This summer, mosquitos aren’t just annoying. You may have heard rumblings about an outbreak of EEE — or Eastern equine encephalitis — in Mass., a rare but serious disease that can be spread through mosquitoes. The good news: Bostonians shouldn’t be on red alert. While a few areas across the state are at a high risk, as of Monday evening, the risk level in much of Greater Boston is “remote.” But even so, minimizing outdoor time from dusk to dawn and wearing full-coverage clothes are recommended by the DPH.

😋 Things are a-changing in Boston’s food scene. Next up for foodies, we have two switcharoos. First, we’ll be saying goodbye to chef Douglass Williams’ Fenway French Brasserie, D.W. French, less than a year after its opening. But on the bright side, he plans to open a new location of MIDA, his popular Italian concept, in the same space. Plus, Porter Square Books is moving to a new, bigger spot just down the street, and partnering with Page & Leaf Cafe to offer food and drink options.

QUICK QUESTION

🎫 What do you think about Cambridge’s ticket price raise?

GIVEAWAY

Together with WNDR Museum

Enter to win a pair of WNDR+ Museum tickets. To enter, just refer a friend and have them accept your invite by the end of the day on Aug. 28, 2024. If you have already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

18+. NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Limit one entry per person. See Official Rules & an additional entry option here.

ONE LAST THING

A pickleball pickle

In most cases, selling a beautiful house on the Cape doesn’t present much of an issue. But for one adorable blue home in Bourne, an unlikely challenge has stalled its sale for months: Pickleball. Let us explain. 

The home’s owners listed the house back in January, expecting it to sell within a month (as most homes in the neighborhood do). But fast-forward seven months, several price reductions, and dozens of showings later, and the home is still unsold.

Why? The owners blame the constant noise from nearby pickleball courts for the lack of movement, even going so far as hiring a lawyer to try and somehow stop the dinking, so far, to no avail.

— Written by Gia Orsino

🏓 Thanks for reading! For a two-minute walk from the beach, I’d be cool with a nightclub in the backyard, but to each their own.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, for supporting local journalism and making art accessible to all in Boston. 

🪑The results are in: 57% of polled B-Siders say their best Allston Christmas find is some sort of piece of furniture. And one reader said: “Last summer, we found a working, entire 3D printer (with filament!) outside our front door in Cambridge. Easy find!”

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