🌻🤩 PSA: These flowers are in BLOOM

Happy Friday, Boston!

🤫 Feeling nosy today? We spent a good chunk of our workday time delving into these texts between local news anchors currently involved in a reverse discrimination lawsuit. Let’s just say: It’s WILD.

👀 What’s on tap today:

• Boston’s war on rats gets real

• Gillette’s GOAT statue

• A fireworks fiasco

Up first…

SUMMER FRIDAYS

Sunflowers, s’mores, and shopping

Don’t jinx it, but this weekend’s weather looks … SO good. Almost as good as the lineup of things to do around the city.

Here’s what’s going on:

🇮🇹 Mangia, mangia! That means EAT, which you’ll be doing a lot of at the Madonna Della Cava North End feast. Think: Italian block party vibes packed with eats (hi, Nutella Bomboloni!), music, games, and community.

🌻 See some SPECTACULAR sunflowers. Just 20 minutes outside the city is the Mass. Horticultural Society’s glorious sunflower spectacular, where thousands of beautiful, blooming sunflowers will be available for peeping and picking. It kicks off Aug. 9. Just grab a ticket first.

🌴 Get on island time. Boston Harbor Island time, that is. Spectacle Summer Nights are BACK on Aug. 9. One $43 ticket includes roundtrip ferry travel to Spectacle Island, live music, and s’mores on the beach, plus there’s food (or beer) for purchase.

🖼️ Start decorating your new pad. We’d kick things off at Somerville’s Yart Sale (an art yard sale) Aug. 9, where lawns, front porches, and driveways across the hood transform into mini art galleries and pop-ups for you to shop. Here’s a map. Or, try Bow Market’s Everything Must Go (On) event from Aug. 8 to 10, where you can really shop a fictional estate sale.

📚 Discover your new favorite indie bookshop. Spoiler: It’s on wheels! Petrichor Bookstore, a mobile bookshop operating out of an ADORABLE little blue truck, opens Aug. 9 in West Roxbury. Stay tuned for pop-ups, workshops, and readings in parks.

🛼 Lace up your skates. There’s a roller skating jam in town, and you’re invited! Head to Cambridge on Aug. 9 for BOUNCE!, a free afternoon of music, skating, dancing, and summer vibes. Just bring your own skates.

🍿 Take your Netflix and chill plans outside. Mother Nature is blessing us with *primo* outdoor movie-viewing weather, so take your pick from “To Catch a Thief” at MIT Open Space (with free snacks!) on Aug. 8 and “The Hangover” at Aeronaut or “Finding Nemo” at The Pru Aug. 9.

💃 Unleash your inner dancing queen. A cool summer breeze … a cold one from Democracy Brewing in hand … is this the Bahamas or City Hall Plaza?! The city of Boston is bringing the tropics to YOU with this island vibes dance party on Aug. 9.

🏋️ Start your fitness era (for free!). This one is for our B-Side baddies: We’re co-hosting a FREE pilates class with Any Bodies Pilates at Faneuil Hall on Aug. 10. Just bring your own mat, water, and a can-do attitude. <3 

🕯️ Cure your Sunday scaries. Your prescription includes: This candlelight yoga class under the greenery and disco ball in Upstairs at Bow on Aug. 10. Doctor’s orders!

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🐀 Boston is gearing up for battle in the war on rats. On Wednesday, the City Council proposed a handful of rat-fighting initiatives in light of Boston’s increasing rat … issues. Think: Proposals that would bring the North End’s rat-proof trash cans to more neighborhoods; introduce same-day trash pickup; and, most excitingly, create an office of pest control (though we prefer “rat czar”) to develop specific plans for rat-heavy neighborhoods (*cough* Allston). Now, the proposals will go to hearings and committees.

🏳️‍⚧️ Gov. Maura Healey is standing up for reproductive and trans rights. On Thursday, Healey inked a measure meant to take protections for providers and patients of reproductive and trans health care “to the next level” and shielding Mass. from the growing threat of federal and legal challenges in our ~current political climate~. The measure strengthens an existing 2022 law by blocking state and local officials from helping with out-of-state investigations. Plus: It prevents disclosure of sensitive data like physician’s names, and establishes that abortions should be provided in emergency conditions. 

🐐 The GOAT is never leaving Gillette again. Because today, a statue of Tom Brady is being unveiled at the stadium in a ceremony before the Pats’ pre-season kickoff. He’ll be the first player in franchise history to get a statue (he is the GOAT, after all), preserving his “placement as a ‘Patriot for life’.” If you’re not feeling a trip to Foxborough, you can stream the ceremony on Patriots.com or the team’s social media accounts. Fingers crossed it’s not another Ronaldo situation.

QUICK QUESTION!

🗿 Place your bets: Is Tom Brady’s statue *actually* going to look like Tom Brady?

ONE LAST THING

A fireworks fiasco

Usually, surprise fireworks shows are reserved for billionaires and contestants on “The Bachelor.” But on Wednesday night at around 9:30 p.m., half the city was treated to a surprise fireworks display on Boston Harbor. 

And when we say surprise, we mean literally nobody knew what was going on, prompting a flurry of folks on social media wondering out loud what was happening … and then, complaining about the noise and length of the show. 

So, why were there fireworks on a Wednesday night? Apparently, it was one half of the grand finale of the National Conference of State Legislators, which was in Boston from Aug. 4 to 6.

The other half? A private Boyz II Men concert. Because why not?

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🎆 Thanks for reading! We feel like we’re speaking for the whole city when we say: We would’ve rather seen the concert.

💸 The results are in: 43% of B-Siders say they’re planning to ball out during tax-free weekend. One reader said: “In this economy, tax-free weekend is like Christmas.”

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