I begin by confessing that I have a weakness for Taco Bell, though I don’t understand the menu. I visited one before or after foreign movies at the long-vanished Nickelodeon theater; at Prospect and Hampshire streets; and in North Cambridge, a KFC combination known to locals as “Ken-taco.”

The fun of Chuck Latovich’s thriller “The Girl in the Boston Box” goes way beyond a savvy dissection of South End real estate and dead accurate descriptions of T travel from Harvard Square to Fenway Park. The book is slick and sophisticated, with plenty of pleasantly electric shocks.

If a commission of $15,000 seemed like a good get for an artist in the age of coronavirus, the City of Cambridge is offering $650,000 for public art at the future Tobin Montessori and Vassal Lane Upper Schools complex.

Proponents of an East Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District should ask themselves why they are putting energy into a policy that preserves building facades rather than policies that preserve the fabric of our communities. 

Proponents of an East Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District should ask themselves why they are putting energy into a policy that preserves building facades rather than policies that preserve the fabric of our communities. 

Opposition to an East Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District has constructed a conspiracy theory involving self-absorbed and sinister forces. With a study period extended for one year, we have time to evaluate the costs and benefits and vet these claims.

Incorporating a historically significant home into a redevelopment plan proposed for 169 Rindge Ave. in North Cambridge could mean a home from the Ulysses S. Grant era bumping up against cubist structures from the time of Trump. The developer’s done something similar nearby.