Dunno what your Saturday night Grammy pre-game was like, but ours involved a tough-ass veggie-and-chicken plate, the world's longest power-point presentation, and the company of every newspaper in New England not named the Boston Globe or the Boston Herald. Believe it or not, this is what passes in the fishwrap industry as a hell of a time, and don't be fooled by our cynical description of the festivities: we wouldn't miss this shit for the world.

This week marks the 10th anniversary of the Boston Globe's Pulitzer-winning series of stories that explored the extent of the Catholic Church's complicity in a horrifying, decades-long cover-up of child rape by the clergy. The Phoenix broke that story nearly a year earlier, in a series that you can read online here

Oh, Krusty: we heart you too, big guy.

In last week's episode of The Simpsons (full episode now watchable here), Krusty gets a show on a premium-cable network. The execs tell him: "Here you don't have to worry about budgets, and the critics are in our pocket." Krusty, horrified: "Even the Boston Phoenix?" Exec #1: "If we don't we'll burn it down."

This weekend, after sleeping off the turkey, we here at the Boston Phoenix will be putting in a few extra shifts to begin the laborious process of clearing out the newsroom, which has been gathering dust, backissues, scribbled in-jokes, stuffed chipmunks, and Dukes of Hazard posters for a couple of decades.

If you're doing a double-take on the way past one of our red Boston Phoenix boxes this week, you're not alone -- Faraone amused himself for an hour this morning watching the whiplash at Forest Hills. You may have noticed that we took a different approach with this week's cover for our first (and last?) ever Rapture Issue

Before ELLEN BARRY became a world-famous Moscow correspondent for the New York Times, she spent a couple of years as a features writer for the Phoenix. Given that she just won the Pulitzer this afternoon for hard-news reporting in one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist in the world, you could say we wasted her talent.

UPDATE: In lieu of flowers, the Garboden family has asked that donations be made in Clif's name to the Dana Farber Cancer Center, specifically to the treatment of head and neck cancers.

If you knew Clif Garboden, who for many years was the managing editor the Boston Phoenix and a guiding spirit of alternative press, then you'd know he wouldn't want us making a big fuss about this.

Welcome to "Meet the Mayor," a segment in which we interview local Foursquare Mayors in their natural habitats.

Boston Phoenix
TJ Miller

Has anyone ever confused you with the other T.J. Miller?
The actor? No, but a friend of mine in New York saw T.J. Miller was performing at some comedy club.

Holy crap. For foodies who read our pages, it must look like a streak of DiMaggio-like proportions.

First came Basho: a rare four-star review from ROBERT NADEAU, the Phoenix’s long-time restaurant critic, who is known to be frugal with his praise.

The next week, shockingly, he submitted another four-star review: for Stoddard's Fine Food and Ale

For the second year in a row, a Boston Phoenix staff writer was named Journalist of the Year, and the Phoenix took home 18 awards -- including 11 first-place prizes -- at the annual New England Newspaper and Press Association (NENPA) Awards.The mammoth haul included awards for design (including overall design, photos, illustrations, and photo illustrations), writing and reporting (in arts, news, editorials, and features), and multimedia (a convergence award for best mix of print and web storytelling).