Yesterday, the Herald's Howie Carr suggested that the Boston Globe had described Scott Brown's 1.1 million supporters as "thugs" and machete-wielding "goons." Now--after trying and failing to figure out the source of Carr's gripe--I have an explanation from Carr himself:

Alex Beam column referred to goons, postings on message board upped the ante to thugs, then thugs with machetes.

At the end of his latest dispatch from the political trail--which includes a surprisingly sensitive exchange with troubled state senator Anthony Galluccio--Globe columnist Alex Beam reveals that he'll be back in "g" as of next week.

Readers of this blog will know that I had harsh words for Beam's recent column on Martha Coakley's, um, hotness

Suppose you're still weighing who to vote for in next week's Democratic US Senate primary--and then you read this, courtesy of the Globe's Alex Beam:

Martha Coakley is a very good-looking woman, and by far the handsomest candidate among the four Democrats running for Ted Kennedy's seat.

Call it the babe factor.

Like the Globe's Alex Beam, I'm not entirely convinced that the new Huffington Post-Facebook partnership represents the "future of journalism." But in his run-down of former "future of journalism" nominees that failed, Beam takes his curmudgeonly shtick a bit too far.

Here's the problematic quote in question:

My initial thoughts:

--"g" actually looks good, notwithstanding some uninspired cover art. There's plenty of editorial heft inside, and the "Parting Shot" feature on the penultimate page has tons of potential. Also, let's hope the graphic accompanying Alex Beam's column is his and his alone; it's very apt.

--The revamped pics for the metro columnists? Not so hot, at least judging from Adrian Walker's.