🥳💜 We have a birthday present for you!

🍦 Everyone’s gonna be screaming this weekend. ‘Cause on Oct. 26, you can get 20% off ice cream from 2 to 8 p.m. at Uncommon Ice Cream in the South End. Pro tip: Get the sampler tray, and try SIX of these iconic fall flavors for just $12. 

👀 What’s on tap today:

Up first…

Alexa, play 50 Cent’s “In Da Club.” ‘CAUSE IT’S OUR MF BIRTHDAY!

That’s right, your favorite Boston newsletter turns THREE years old today! And boy, what a year it’s been. Let’s recap:

🤯 We now have over *55,000* readers! ~56,700, to be exact. There are more newsletter subscribers than the population of Salem. So … you’re saying we should start a city?

🏆 We took home two HUGE awards. We won first place in the “Outstanding Newsletter” category at the New England Newspaper & Press Association awards AND first place in “Best Initiative to Bolster Next Generation Readership” at the International News Media Association awards (yes, we beat out Germany and Norway). Not to toot our own horn, but TOOT TOOT!

🥲 And while *technically* not a win … Our social videos got nominated for a New England Emmy Award, which absolutely = a W in our hearts.

🥳 We threw the BEST. DAY. EVER. No really, our first-ever Best Day Ever festival back in August was a smashing success (see for yourself!). Over 700 of you came to Artists for Humanity for a day of unlimited bites from Boston’s hottest restaurants, live local music, and vintage shopping from our friends at Select Markets. Let’s run it back next year, ya?!.

🚀 We launched our B-Side Membership program. Over 600 (!) of you are getting access to dozens of perks and deals around Boston, first dibs (and discounts) to our events, and our special Saturday emails that are LOADED with more goodies, free ticket drops, and paywall-free Globe links. 

🎁 So to celebrate the big 3, have a special gift … for YOU. As a “thank you” for supporting our mission and local journalism over the last three years, we’re offering a $35 annual membership birthday deal (normally $70) TODAY ONLY. You’ll get access to all the treats we mentioned above, PLUS a New York Times Cooking subscription, $7 off pizza at Area Four, a free membership at The Comedy Studio and so much more!

👀 And not to be sneaky, BUT … We’re cooking up even more exciting discounts and freebies for members for the end of the year — so get in while the gettin’ is going!

💜 Long story short: We love you all SO MUCH and can’t do this without you. <3

❄️ 🏂 We know the snow hasn’t fallen yet, but it’s already time to gear up for the season. From Nov. 14–16, Snowbound Expo is returning to Boston Seaport at Menino Convention & Exhibition Center. Get ready to drop in with 250+ gear brand vendors, live demos, and a star-studded lineup of speakers — Zeb Powell, Amie Engerbretson, MVP Jay Rawe, and many more. Tickets are just $10 for three days or $5 for a single day with code BSIDE. Grab your pass now.

📚 BookTok baddies, THIS is your Super Bowl. Boston Book Festival is coming to the BPL’s Central Branch and Copley Square on Oct. 25. Here’s the deal: All day long, you can hit the library for panels, talks, stories, and more from literary giants like Celeste Ng (author of “Little Fires Everywhere”), internet celebs like “Etymology Nerd” Adam Aleksic, and (if you drop $39) THE Shonda Rhimes on topics from slow-burn romance to how to land a book deal. And outside? You’ll find a street fair full of local bookstores, music, and food. Here’s the full schedule. 

💸 We might be adding “health insurance rate hikes” to our 2026 bingo card. With Affordable Care Act open enrollment days away, many Mass. residents just found out they could be looking at paying hundreds of dollars more in health insurance premiums next year. ICYMI: These hikes, which will occur if certain federal subsidies are allowed to expire at the end of the year, are the main bargaining chip in our current government shutdown. We’ve long known that no subsides = higher rates, but advocates hope these specific details will finally move the Congressional needle. Here’s an explainer.

🤖 Cambridge is walking back its robot traffic enforcement system. Just months after installing a fleet of 16 license plate reader cameras, Cambridge City Council unanimously voted to shut them off over concerns of privacy and data sharing. Apparently, advocacy groups like the ACLU (not to mention, other cities) have MAJOR beef with Flock Safety, the company behind the system, since it shares license plate data in a national database law enforcement can use in potentially problematic ways (think: immigration, abortion, gender-affirming care). Now, these systems’ future in Cambridge is TBD. 

🎓 Student diversity at Harvard is taking a hit. The numbers are in: Black students make up 8.9% of Harvard’s incoming freshman class compared to 10.4% last fall; 8.5% are Latino compared to 11.8%; and 15% are international students, down from 18% (though, we can’t say we’re surprised). It’s a familiar shift other elite colleges are seeing since affirmative action ended. In slightly less grim enrollment news: Thanks to its newly-expanded free tuition program for families making under $200,000/year, 45% of the class will be attending the school entirely tuition-free.

🐶 Put some “howl” in your Halloween. What’s better than one dog Halloween costume parade? TWO of them! Take your pick between the Doggone Halloween Parade in DTX or JP’s Canine Costume Parade on Oct. 25.

🔍 Hunt for a MASSIVE vintage freebie. FOUND’s mega fall vintage market on Oct. 25 will include a scavenger hunt for “prize cards,” which you can redeem for vintage freebies … including a $500 gift card to the market(!).

👻 Dress to distress at a Halloween Ball. There are still a few tickets left to the ICA’s Black + White Ball on Oct. 25, but probably not for long! Put on your black and white Halloween best, dance the night away, and munch on free refreshments.

🖼️ Spend a (free!) day at the MFA. Courtesy of UNIQLO, the museum will be free for the day on Oct. 25, including a drop-in print-making sesh in the courtyard. No tickets required! 

🎥 Clock in for a Halloween horror marathon. No joke: Starting at 11:30 p.m. Oct. 25, the Coolidge’s annual Halloween horror marathon will play 12 non-stop hours of spine-tingling movies. Up first: “Creature from the Black Lagoon.”

🥣 Chow down on some chowdah. No bite is more Boston than clam chowder, and you can sample the city’s best for FREE (and vote for your fav) at DTX’s Chowderfest on Oct. 25. 

👗 Shop your neighbors’ closets … for free! Let’s be real: Finding actually cute plus-sized clothes can be tough. But not at Bigger Bodies Boston’s plus sized clothing swap on Oct. 25 in Malden Center.  

🚶‍♀️ Take a walk, but make it ~hot~. The folks behind the OG Hot Girl Walk trend are coming to Boston to host a chill, 3-mile walk Oct. 26 on Castle Island filled with fun giveaways. Registration is free!

There aren’t many celebrity lobsters in the world. But now, we can add Jackie to the list. She’s a calico lobster that’s been making a splash at Northeastern’s Marine Science Center thanks to her stunning (not to mention, seasonally appropriate) orange-and-back coloring. Just look at her!

But Jackie (which is short for Jack O’Lantern, BTW) isn’t just a pretty face — she’s also extremely rare. The odds of catching a lobster like her are around 1 in 30 million. So when Gloucester lobsterman Mike Tufts caught her, he knew she’d need some special treatment.

He donated her to the Marine Science Center, where Jackie joined Neptune, an equally stunning one-in-two-million blue lobster slash local celeb (Neptune currently travels to local elementary schools, where he’s become very popular). 

The only downside? Because lobsters are so territorial, the two will never meet. Now that’s a missed connection.

— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario

🦞Thanks for reading! At the risk of sounding like your well-intentioned but slightly inappropriate aunt, those two would have beautiful babies.

💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, Snowbound Expo, for supporting local journalism and already getting us hyped for winter 2025. 

🔮 The results are in: 34% of B-Siders say they haven’t used “mystical services” like astrology, tarot, or witches before. One reader said: “I check two things every morning: the B-Side newsletter and my Costar horoscope.” Period!

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