Axios Boston

October 25, 2024
We all made it to Friday.
Today's weather: 🌞 Sunny and near 60.
🎂 Happy birthday to Axios Boston member James Christy!
Today's newsletter is 870 words — a 3.3 minute read.
1 big thing: 👻 Halloween tips and tricks
Boston is packed with Halloween celebrations this unseasonably warm spooky season. Here are our picks for the best scares, thrills and family fun around the Hub between now and Oct. 30.
🍬 Trick-or-treating among Beacon Hill's old money mansions is a rite of passage for many Boston candy-hoarders.
- The tonier streets like Mt. Vernon and Pickney are closed to traffic starting in the late afternoon on Halloween and residents along Acord Street might have some extra special treats.
🎞️ Nothing says Halloween more than a scary movie night and Boston's cinemas have plenty to offer.
- The Coolidge Corner Theater is celebrating William Castle, "the master of macabre movie gimmicks," with a showcase of films the movie marketing genius had a hand in, like "Rosemary's Baby," and "The Tingler."
- Over at Harvard Square's Brattle Theater, you'll get a chance to see "The Bride of Frankenstein" Friday 10/25, "Evil Dead II" Monday 10/28, "Practical Magic" Tuesday 10/29 and the 1922 "Nosferatu" Wednesday 10/30.
- Go to Fenway Park to see the new "Beetlejuice Beetlejuice" projected on the center field video board Saturday 10/26 at 6:30pm. Tickets are $10.
🐕🦺 Boston's hosting not one but three different pet parades to show off the real stars of the holiday season: pet parents with disposable income and costume budgets.
- It's the 20th annual Jamaica Plain Canine Costume Parade at 1pm Saturday 10/26 from the First Baptist Church down Centre Street to the Loring Greenough House where there will be a red carpet for the dogs to strut down.
- Downtown's annual Doggone Halloween kicks off Saturday 10/26 at noon from Summer Street Plaza. Vendors will be on hand and good girls and good boys will compete for scariest, cutest and best human-dog duo costumes.
- Kids and Paws for a Cause is Sunday 10/27 at 1pm at Farm Pond Park in Framingham. It'll have a costume parade for kids and pets.
👺 And of course there are parties galore to help you get your spook on.
- Hit the dance floor at the Substation in Roslindale Friday and Saturday night for "A Haunted Circus" with DJ TROY and Rilla Force. There will be aerialists, stilt walkers, acrobats, and other performers from the Commonwealth Circus Center on hand to thrill.
- The scariest music genre of all — earnestly performed ska — scares the checkered pants off The Rockwell Halloween night at "Skalloween."
- Time Out Market in the Fenway hosts "Bewitched Bash" where you can pick a side — good witch or bad witch — and enjoy cocktails, a tarot card reader, costume contest and appearances by resident drag queen Big Atlas.
2. 👻 Trick-or-treat hotspots

Nantucket has an especially high concentration of potential Halloween trick-or-treaters, per an Axios analysis of census data.
The big picture: Five-to-14-year-olds — prime trick-or-treating age — make up about 12.5% of the U.S. population.
- That number is 8.7% in Suffolk County, 11% in Middlesex and 11.6% in Norfolk.
- The Cape has the least kids at only 8.2%. But on Nantucket, it's 12.4%.

Zoom in: Kids 5-14 make up the greatest shares of the state population in Utah (16.2%), Texas (14.4%) and Georgia (13.3%).
- At 10.9% statewide, Massachusetts has the lowest share of kids in the country, with Florida (11%) and Pennsylvania (11.6%) not far behind.
Caveat: Plenty of kids younger than 5 and older than 14 go trick-or-treating, but this is the least imperfect way to slice the census data for our purposes.
3. 🔙 BTMU: Pelosi on the hill
Former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi had dinner with former U.S. Rep. Barney Frank at Scampo on Beacon Hill Wednesday night, chef and owner Lydia Shire told Axios.
- She had the duck, he had the bolognese, and they split a lobster pizza.
- Pelosi, who has a new book out, was in town for an event with Gov. Maura Healey that was interrupted by pro-Palestine protesters.
The State House budget chief and speaker-in-waiting wants the Greater Boston business community to stop whining about the "millionaire's" surtax and realize that Massachusetts' business climate is pretty enviable. (CWB)
- "The attitude in this town stinks," Rep. Aaron Michlewitz told the Chamber of Commerce, paraphrasing former Celtics coach Rick Pitino.
Toy giant Hasbro will lay off dozens of workers amid a 15% revenue slump, but the CEO says the company is still considering a move from Rhode Island to Boston. (Globe)
4. 🛤️ Tracking the T
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Things are looking up at the MBTA, at least for now.
- Repairs to the subway lines have eliminated almost all of the speed restriction zones, so the trains are running faster than they have in years.
Grade: B. Only because part of the Orange Line is still shut down.
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Alerts: The Orange Line is out of service between Oak Grove and Ruggles this weekend.
- Starting Monday, stops between Oak Grove and North Station will be shuttle-bus-only through Nov. 1
5. ⁉️ News Quiz
Ready to test your knowledge of the week's news?
- Click here to take our quiz and tell us how you did!
- Send a screenshot of your perfect score to [email protected] for a chance to win some sweet swag!
Deehan doesn't encounter coins very often these days and is constantly amazed at the wild choices happening on the backs of new quarters.
Steph is in Missouri for a few days.
This newsletter was edited by Jeff Weiner.
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