🤪🌊 The Seaport’s going off the deep end

🐀 No matter how your week is shaping up … At least you weren’t this BU student trying to shake a literal Allston rat off of her leg. Now go forth and seize the day!

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Warning to all acrophobes: Red Bull’s Cliff Diving World Series is back in Boston this weekend for its 2025 series finale, where a daredevil field of divers will twist and flip their way into the Boston Harbor.

Here’s what to know: 

🎨 The diving board is … the roof of the ICA. Yes, we said ROOF! This year’s men and women will be leaping from heights of 90 and 70 feet, respectively, which means they’ll be hitting the water at 50+ mph(!). Oh, and while they’re in the air (which is a whole three seconds), they’ll be performing all sorts of flips, twists, and other tricks. Here’s a taste.

🏅 So, no, this is NOT your high school’s diving meet. In fact, cliff diving is “completely different” than the type of competitive diving you’d see at the Olympics, said cliff diver Lisa Faulkner. In cliff diving, the dive is much higher (standard diving is ~33 feet). And, because of the extreme locations, there’s an ever-changing number of variables, from the board, to the water conditions, and weather. “You never really know what you're gonna get,” Faulkner said. Translation: When things go bad, they go BAD.

😬 These athletes have seen some pretty sketchy stuff. Just looking at the platform for Faulkner’s last Red Bull dive in Mostar, Bosnia, makes us feel queasy. She said the board was “super small” and slightly uneven, due to it being held up by a chain. And the water below? Ice cold. But she killed it anyway.

😳 And yes, they get nervous up there! In fact, assuming the divers aren’t scared is one of the biggest misconceptions about the sport, Faulkner said. “I'm nervous every single time I stand on that tower. My palms are sweating and my heart is racing.” But, ultimately, it’s not about being fearless, it’s about being able to execute your dives despite the fear. “I feel like if you stand up there and you're not nervous, you're in trouble,” she said.

🌊 Compared to some Red Bull World Series dives, Boston *should* be pretty tame. Of course, “pretty tame” still includes jumping off the roof of a museum. Just look at this WILD dive from last year! But at least in Boston, Faulkner said she expects minimal waves and slightly sturdier platforms.

👀 Ready to watch? Great news: Spectating is FREE! The first two rounds will be on Friday morning, and the second two, including the finals, will be Saturday. Any other questions? Check out the event website here.

🗳️ These local candidates are PO’ed about the primaries. With Josh Kraft out, Domingos DaRosa, the third-place finisher in Boston’s mayoral primary, wants to slide onto the ballot with Mayor Wu. But, per state law, it can only happen if DaRosa got 3,000 votes in the primary (he got 2,409). So he’s pursuing a recount to find those 591 votes. Meanwhile, Somerville’s incumbent mayor, Katjana Ballantyne, was served a rare upset in this week’s primary, getting booted off of the November ballot by Jake Wilson and Willie Burnley Jr.

💔 ICE’s Mass. crackdown is hitting local communities HARD. Officials in Everett have canceled Fiesta del Rio, an annual fest honoring Hispanic Heritage Month, as ICE pursues a massive local immigration crackdown. “It would not be right to hold a celebration at a time when members of our community may not feel safe attending,” the event’s website reads. Meanwhile in Chelsea, students and their families are leaving in fear of ICE raids. The district expects to lose a whopping 300 students (a 5% decline).

🚦 This Harvard Square street is giving … Europe. Lower Bow Street is saying farewell to cars forever and getting converted into an outdoor dining haven. Cambridge City Council approved the plan Monday after a two-year construction shutdown of the street (which runs between Dewolfe and Plympton) didn’t cause any major traffic concerns. Come spring, it’ll be home to back patios for Blue Bottle Coffee, Daedalus Restaurant, and Sea Hag Restaurant & Bar. The only TBD? How the city will physically block off the street. Sounds like a springtime problem.

😋 THIS is where you should be eating this fall. According to the Globe’s restaurant critic, anyway! Her picks include: Bubble Bath, Tiffani Faison’s luxe champagne bar atop the citizenM Hotel; Capri, the very instagrammable Italian steakhouse in the South End; Elephantine Bakery, the beloved Portsmouth cafe’s buzzy new Seaport location; Nine Winters, the innovative Korean-American bakery in Cambridge (don’t sleep on the savory lunches!), and TooHot, a fiery Sichuan spot in Harvard Square with fermented tasting menus on Thursdays. But that’s just a taste — check out the whole list here.

Tired: Dunkin’ x Ben Affleck. Wired: Dunkin’ x *Jen* Affleck. Dunkin’ debuted a second Affleck spokesperson in its latest ad: “The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives” breakout star Jen Affleck. And, TBH, it’s v cute.

Quick lore drop: Jen and her husband, Zach, were the subject of some internet trolling and clout-chasing accusations after Zach claimed that Ben Affleck was his cousin (which he says was a joke). 

So Dunkin’ capitalized on the fun and invited the “cousins” to co-star in an ad. Here’s the scene: A Dunkin’ worker calls a drink for “Affleck,” and the camera pans to Jen. “Expecting my cousin Ben? Nah,” she says. “He’s so dated. I’m younger, hotter. Can you believe Ben’s only 53?”

As for Ben, who’s pulled up to the to-go window, he’s not thrilled: “Rude,” he says. “Totally average 53.” You can watch the whole thing here.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🍩 Thanks for reading! We think we prefer Ben, but we’ll probably have to see a Super Bowl cameo to be 100% sure.

🏠 The results are in: 61% of B-Siders say they’d rather rent in Boston forever than buy a home on the South Coast. One reader said: “My body would reject the suburbs like a bad organ transplant.”

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