😳 There’s blood in the water

It’s Wednesday, Boston.

🌭 Happy National Hot Dog Day! To celebrate, Dorchester’s Pantry Pizza is offering all-day BOGO deals on their weenies, and, not to be outdone, The Sil in Allston is offering their famous glizzies for $1 — or for free forever if you get a tattoo of a flying rat.

👀What’s on tap today:

• Tap-to-pay is on the way

• Bye bye … broker’s fees?

• New England’s hot dog contribution

Up first…

SHARKS

Some fishy business in Cape waters

Nothing says “Cape summer” quite like watching TikToks of great white sharks “playing” with seals at the beach. In the past decade, Cape Cod has emerged as one of the biggest great white shark hotspots in the world.

But why is this happening now … and is it still safe to swim? 

With Shark Week in the rearview and the 50th anniversary of “Jaws” on the horizon, here’s what to know:

🤩White sharks are the ocean’s A-listers. When we talk about local sharks, white sharks dominate the conversation. “They’re the shark,” according to John Chisholm, an adjunct scientist at the New England Aquarium. And that’s thanks to their cultural prominence (think: “Jaws”), their apex predator status, and some local attacks on humans. “People both “love to fear and … are fascinated with them,” Chishom said. 

🦭 But they weren’t always so popular here. According to Chisholm, there are three factors to thank for Mass.’ recent white shark boom: Seal protection, shark protection, and technology. Sharks are mostly here to hunt seals in the Cape’s shallow waters, which, due to conservation efforts in the early ’70s, are now basically a seal buffet. But white shark protections in the late ’90s and “more eyes on the water” from increased technology have also contributed to the uptick, he said.

🤔Exactly how many sharks are we talking? It’s hard to say. The boom is relatively recent, so year-over-year changes in population and habits are hard to gauge, said Megan Winton, a research scientist at the Atlantic White Shark Conservancy. The best estimate showed over 800 white sharks coming through the Cape from 2015 to 2018, but that number is likely low, she said.

🦈Like snowflakes,each white shark is unique. The species is “highly migratory,” and one shark can travel thousands of miles a year, said Winton (see: LeeBeth’s wild journey). Peak visiting season on the Cape tends to fall between late summer and early autumn when the water temperatures are just right. And while some sharks treat the Cape as a pit stop for a quick snack, others will spend months at a time here. 

🏊 You don’t need to worry (much) about getting bitten. “I'd be more concerned with the traffic,” said Greg Skomal, a marine biologist at the Division of Marine Fisheries. Seriously though, although getting bitten is unlikely, you should think of shark safety in the ocean like bear safety in a national park. Some pro tips: “Don't swim with the bait,” said Chisholm, meaning, if there are seals around, get out of the water. Likewise, swimming alone, and lots of splashing, should be avoided when possible. Here’s a full list of shark safety tips.

📲Can’t get enough? The Sharktivity app is a one-stop shop to see all of the sharks reported in Cape waters.

TOGETHER WITH THE WIC NUTRITION PROGRAM

Want a truly ‘happy meal’?

🥗🥬🥕 Skip the drive-thru in favor of an affordable, delicious, and nutritious meal — really! Levelup your diet with the Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Nutrition Program — a resource for planning healthy (yet still budget-friendly) meals that the whole family will love. Participants enjoy personalized meal guidance, free healthy foods, breastfeeding support, healthcare referrals, and more. Apply online to get started today!

B-SIDE FOODIE’S CHOICE AWARDS SPONSORED BY TOAST

There’s a difference between restaurants that serve 🍽️🍔 and serve 💅✨. Which of these aesthetic spots is the most Instagrammable? 

CITY

Quick & dirty headlines

🚇 The countdown to tap-to-pay is ON! ICYMI: Tap-to-pay is finally coming to the MBTA on August 1. But for those of you who just can’t wait to double-click, the transit agency is soft-launching the service early for some riders who fill out this questionnaire. According to T officials, the program also may lay the foundation for other changes down the road (or tracks …), like all-door boarding on buses and Green Line trolleys, or setting a limit on how much one rider could pay per day or week to ride. 

👋Could broker’s fees be on the way out? Hidden in the depths of the Senate’s version of Gov. Maura Healey’s major housing bill is a proposal that would require whoever hires a broker (in most cases, the landlord) to foot the bill for broker’s fees. And while the prospect of saving a chunk of your $8,000-plus moving costs is exciting, it might be too good to be true: The idea still has to survive through House-Senate negotiations and get Gov. Healey’s OK, and even if it did, landlords might just compensate by raising rent. Sigh.

😳 This new cost-of-living data might keep you up at night. In a surprise to no one, an analysis from Forbes Advisor revealed that the cost of living in Mass. exceeded $50,000 a year, making it the state with the second highest cost of living in the country (No. 1 went to Hawaii). And while we technically lead the nation with the highest average annual salary ($80,330), a lot of that money goes to housing expenses. See: The median selling price of a single-family Greater Boston home in June was a whopping $961,250, coming in as the third consecutive record-breaking month.

🥐 Now entering: A bakery made for Insta baddies. Lakon Patisserie is soft opening its Brighton location today with another Seaport locale on the way. A magnet for food influencers, this new location will continue to serve up a wide variety of Instagrammable pastries (see: its famous cube croissant), not to mention a drinks menu with coffee, tea, and espresso. And as someone who frequents the Brookline locale, this B-Side writer can confidently say that it’s 100% worth the hype.

MEDIA SPONSORSHIP

Fest like a local 

B-Side is a proud sponsor of NICE, a fest music and art festival, the four-day local talent extravaganza coming to Davis Square from Thursday, July 25 to Sunday, July 28. NICE, a fest is a prime opportunity to support local makers of music and art as you bop from stage to stage. Give the (super stacked) lineup a look, get excited, and grab your tickets fast! 

ONE LAST THING

New England’s hot dog contribution

We can’t celebrate National Hot Dog Day without talking about New England’s contribution to the glizzy discourse: Top-style cut buns.

According to this honestly groundbreaking piece from WBUR, cut-from-the-top style hot dog buns are a New England specialty, not simply a matter of preference. The rest of the country almost exclusively uses side-sliced buns, so much so that the top-sliced buns are referred to as “New England style”. 

The difference? Experts have a lot of bun opinions, but top-sliced buns are widely seen as being more sturdy, and better at holding toppings in than their side-cut siblings. *Flips hair in New England elitism*.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🌭 Thanks for reading! TBH,I never actually … noticed a difference. Is that bad?

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, WIC Nutrition Program, for supporting local journalism and helping families in Massachusetts maintain a healthy lifestyle. 

💸 The results are in: 30% of B-Siders feel the most strongly about raising the tipped minimum wage via the statewide ballot measure, but auditing the state legislature wasn’t far behind. One reader said: “As a former bartender and server, if you have a slow night, the low minimum wage kills you. Boston is expensive enough, pay your workers!!!”

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