🤑 October freebies you NEED to know

It’s Monday, Boston.

🍕 Here’s a halfway decent deal: Sal’s Pizza is offering an extra-large cheese pizza for just $10.99 every Monday this month (they’ve got tons of locations). Ordering online? Use the code PIZZA.

🥳 Also: HBD to B-Side reader Caleb Ruvich (my bf), one of the few subscribers who knows exactly what’s going to be in the newsletter, yet still reads it.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• The MBTA is ready to name names

• R.I.P. to a Red Sox hero

• Live mas in Allston

Up first …

OCTOBER FREEBIES

Trick or treat yo’self

Everyone in New England knows that October is the BEST month of the year: The leaves, the weather, the food, Halloween. We literally peak this month.

Here’s how to celebrate without spending a dime:

🎨 Honor Indigenous People’s Day at the museum. The MFA, ICA, and Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are all offering free admission on Oct. 9. Depending on which one you visit, you’ll get access to special exhibits, film screenings, and art-making classes inspired by Indigenous traditions. Just a heads up, every admission deal is slightly different:

• MFA: Tickets are available in person on a first-come, first-served basis for those with a valid Mass. zip code.

• ICA: You must order tickets ahead of time on Oct. 8.

• ISGM: You must order tickets ahead of time (max two tickets per person).

🚣🏿 Bring your crew to watch some crew. If you attended public school like me and associate the word “crew” with your pals, let me introduce you to the Head of the Charles Regatta on the weekend of Oct. 20. This the who’s who rowing event of the year, where the world’s best crew teams race along the Charles. Be sure to grab a spot between the Anderson and Weeks bridges for the best seat in the house, and hit up the pop-ups along the river for loads of free samples.

🍖 Sip and nosh the best fall food and bev. Time Out Market has partnered with several New England cideries for the free annual CiderFest on Oct. 21, giving you access to sample the best cider in the region. But if you’re more of a foodie, Boston Landing in Brighton is hosting a BBQ X Brew event on Oct. 29, where you can snack on award-winning smoked meats while listening to bluegrass music.

👻 Get into the spooky spirit. The MIT Open Space is showing Halloweentown under the stars on Oct. 20, with free popcorn to boot. Or, if you’ve seen the Halloween classics one too many times, test your knowledge at a Hocus Pocus-themed trivia night on Oct. 17 at the Sam Adams Taproom. Prefer Halloween sounds over sights? Check out Play it By Fear in the Seaport on Oct. 3, where the Beacon Street Quartet will be playing Halloweeney tunes.

🧛 Put the boogie in boogieman this Halloweekend. No covers here! Time Out Market’s circus-themed Fun House event on Oct. 28 features stilt walkers, tarot card readers, and a costume contest. For chill, brewery vibes, visit Night Shift’s Owloween Party on Oct. 20 in Everett for spooky drinks and a silent disco. And if you’re ready to untz all night long, The Phoenix Landing is hosting a deadbanger party on Oct. 29 playing all the dubstep hits.

🧠 Need costume inspo? I was a Freudian slip in college. The psych majors loved it. 

POP QUIZ!

👻 Which Boston locale is NOT allegedly haunted?

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚃 We can soon start naming names on why the GLX is slow af. Turns out the defective Green Line extension “didn’t meet construction standard,” according to a top MBTA official, giving us an answer as to why the tracks have been narrowing and causing train speeds to top out at 3 mph in some areas. Right now, the MBTA’s GM is laser-focused on removing the slow zones by mid-October, but the agency is currently pulling internal data together before they formally call anyone out.

😢 R.I.P. to a Red Sox hero. It’s a sad day in Boston sports. Legendary knuckleball pitcher Tim Wakefield, who helped the Sox to win two World Series Championships, died at 57 after recently being diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Wakefield holds the team record for innings played, but off the field, he was known for his kindness and humanitarianism. News of Wakefield’s illness broke last week after former Sox player Curt Schilling outed it on a podcast against Wakefield’s wishes.

💸 BOO! It’s time to start paying your student loans again. Here’s something spooky: The three-year pause on federal student loans ended Sunday, meaning roughly 28 million borrowers (myself included) will have to include the line item in their monthly budgets again. That said, not all borrowers’ bills will be due ASAP. Depending on your service provider, it could be at any point this month. So be sure to log in to your Federal Student Aid portal, double check your provider, then log in to your provider portal to get the official date.

🌧️ We’re batting .294 in rain-free weekends. Which isn’t half bad if you’re playing baseball. But it’s pretty miserable if you’re trying to make plans. From Memorial Day weekend through September, there were just five “precipitation-free weekends” out of 17, according to the National Weather Service in Norton. And while Mother Nature's decision to let it rip on the weekends has been a coincidence during the Boston area’s second wettest summer, it’s meant lower turnout and disruption for events like The Big E, Somerville Fluff Fest, and local farmers markets.

TOGETHER WITH LEVITATE

Giveaway alert!

Enter to win two VIP tickets to Levitate’s Flannel Jam. If you’ve already referred a friend to B-Side (and they’ve accepted), you're eligible! Full details below*

ONE LAST THING

Live mas in Allston

We've got our eyes on a new Taco Bell planned to open in Allston in 2024.

Universal Hub reported the Boston Licensing Board gave the taco chain permission to stay open until — wait for it — 3:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and 3 a.m. the rest of the week. Who said nightlife in Boston is dead?

This “upscaleish” Taco Bell located in the old Great Scott music venue will be a Cantina, meaning the chain has its sights set on obtaining a beer-and-wine license license (if it can get its hands on one).

The Allston Civic Association doesn’t seem to be thrilled with the news, with concerns that the late hours will contribute to crime and excessive drinking. But after several hearings, it looks like those complaints were ultimately overruled.

Fingers crossed we can enjoy a late-night Crunchwrap Supreme with a Pinot Grigio in the near future.

😭 Thanks for reading! But a beer-and-wine license means no Mountain Dew Baja Blast.

🍁 Only 30% of readers got Friday’s Pop Quiz question right: Which pigments are responsible for trees with red and purple leaves? The correct answer is anthocyanins.

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