logo
7 summer stories you might have missed

7 summer stories you might have missed

Boston Globe21 hours ago
Write to us at
. To subscribe,
.
TODAY'S STARTING POINT
At the risk of bumming you out, the halfway point of summer is barreling down on us. In fact, depending on how you count, it's already come and gone.
If you ascribe to astronomical summer and live in the northern hemisphere, the midpoint between the summer solstice and the fall equinox
Advertisement
The halfway point of anything is a good moment to start taking the end seriously without panicking. But for those of you feeling the beach sand slipping through your fingers, I asked my Globe colleagues to suggest a few stories about the season that they thought deserved another look.
So here are seven stories to remind you of the summer that's been — and to inspire you to take advantage of what's left.
1. Women's sports at home…
'For many women's sports fans like myself, finding a decent bar that will put WNBA games on isn't a slam dunk — especially here in Boston,' says Katie McInerney, who edits sports stories. Globe reporter Emma Healy recently profiled a group of eight friends who plan to change that by
Advertisement
The Sports Bra Boston has no opening date yet, but the crew behind it is holding events in the area, including
2. …and abroad
The Globe Magazine recently
3. Fruits of your labors
'Reporting requires due diligence, and this Beth Teitell story
4. Look on the bright side
For homeowners and businesses, it's a bummer to have your trash bins overflowing because of a weeks-long waste collection workers' strike. But for rats, it's a bonanza, as correspondent Stella Tannenbaum
'There's nothing like the smell of hot garbage on a summer morning,' says Andy Rosen, a Globe business editor. (Yesterday, a judge denied a request from affected communities to order the company, Republic Services,
Advertisement
5. Travel with your tastebuds
If a European summer sojourn is outside your budget, 'skip the jetlag and do dinner instead,' suggests Globe food writer Devra First. In June, Devra
Devra's recommendations include the Frenchy desserts at Bernadette in Salem, Basque-style tapas at Beacon Hill's Zurito, and wagyu carpaccio and cacio e pepe at Osteria Vivo in Pembroke. The list 'offers some much-needed humor and escapism,' says Chris Morris, the Globe's food and travel editor. (And
6. Or venture a little farther
Forget the Hamptons; Rhode Island has all
7. Celebrate
'Tis the season of celebrations. July 4 was especially pyrotechnic, marking the 250th anniversary of the American Revolution. But the Boston area has also hosted
repainted yellow street lines to look like the Italian flag after the mayor ordered the colors removed,
So here's my suggestion: Celebrate something this summer, whether it's a temperate Friday afternoon or the
Advertisement
🧩
2 Down:
95°
POINTS OF INTEREST
A Cambridge home listed for $35 million includes a pool, koi pond, and sculpted grounds on one-and-a-quarter acres.
Drone Home Media
A $35 million home:
Housing is expensive for everyone in Cambridge, but
Welcome to Boston:
A national legislative conference starts here next week. Massachusetts lawmakers are asking corporations and others with interests before the Legislature
AI:
Brown University got a $20 million federal grant aimed at making artificial intelligence
Detained:
ICE arrested a Jamaican citizen who was working as a summer police officer in Maine and overstayed his visa. The police chief says
Beating the heat:
Patriots players and fans alike
Confirmed:
Senate Republicans voted to make Emil Bove a federal judge despite three whistleblowers alleging that as a Justice Department official he put Trump's agenda above legal principles. (
Trump vs. higher ed:
Harvard
Advertisement
Abortion rights:
Massachusetts and other blue states joined the legal battle over Planned Parenthood's future,
Jeffrey Epstein:
Trump said that the Mar-a-Lago employees he claims Epstein 'stole' included Virginia Giuffre, a teenager who worked in the club's spa and later accused Epstein of sexual abuse. Separately, lawyers for Epstein's imprisoned ex-girlfriend said she's willing to testify to Congress if she gets immunity from future prosecution. (
Israel-Hamas war:
The UK will recognize a Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to a cease-fire. (
BESIDE THE POINT
🦇
Head case:
How a Boston lawyer saved
💸
Too generous:
Before his mysterious death, this Massachusetts-raised New Yorker spent lavishly and donated millions to museums. Turns out he stole the money. (
🔥
Think it's hot outside?
Physicists superheated gold to 33,740 degrees Fahrenheit without melting it, overturning decades of physics. (
🍽️
Pet peeves:
Dining out can be frustrating. Here are the annoying things food writer Kara Baskin

When fishing was king:
The Cape Ann Museum's new show
❄️
Watch this:
For those who can't wait for winter,
Advertisement
😋
Crossover event:
Oreos and Reese's peanut butter cups are combining in a sugary marriage aimed at boosting sales. (
Thanks for reading Starting Point.
This newsletter was edited by
❓ Have a question for the team? Email us at
✍🏼 If someone sent you this newsletter, you can
📬 Delivered Monday through Friday.
Ian Prasad Philbrick can be reached at
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

A gallery of popular ice cream types around the world
A gallery of popular ice cream types around the world

USA Today

time3 hours ago

  • USA Today

A gallery of popular ice cream types around the world

Photo courtesy of DeSid / iStock Via Getty Images Plus From a Vermont maple creemee to a sweet sundae that masquerades as a plate of spaghetti marinara, ice cream around the world is more than your average cone. Get a taste of summer with these ice cream styles worth melting for. Advertisement Photo courtesy of KEYZ NEW Ice Cream The result of this international ice cream style looks like your typical swirly soft serve cone, but in New Zealand, the difference is in the blend. Ice cream parlors use a machine that combines premium vanilla ice cream with frozen fruit, resulting in a creamy treat locals call 'real fruit ice cream.' Traditionally, New Zealand-style ice cream starts with a vanilla base, but some shops offer chocolate ice cream, vanilla frozen yogurt, and vegan nondairy options for mixing with fruit. Photo courtesy of I-CE-NY Move over, pad thai. I-tim-pad (also called stir-fried ice cream or rolled ice cream) is a Thai street food sensation that originated in the early 2000s. This international ice cream style begins by pouring a sweet milk base onto a freezing metal plate, adding a variety of mix-ins, such as fruit, candy, and cookie crumble. The mixture is then chopped, mashed, and spread until it's frozen. Finally, the sweet concoction is rolled into tight scrolls, which are placed vertically in a cup and topped with goodies. Photo courtesy of Valente Romero Sanchez / iStock Via Getty Images Plus While traditional mochi dates back thousands of years in Japan, mochi ice cream was popularized in Los Angeles, California, in the 1980s by Frances Hashimoto and her husband, Joel Friedman. Together, they developed the novel frozen dessert, wrapping small balls of ice cream in thin mochi rice dough for a convenient handheld treat. In 1993, Hashimoto's family's company, the Mikawaya confectionery, began mass producing mochi ice cream. Advertisement Photo courtesy of spukkato / iStock Via Getty Images Plus Malaysia gets mighty hot. To cool off, locals turn to a take on shaved ice known as ais kacang. A heaping stack of shaved ice gets topped with an often colorful and sometimes bewildering assortment of ingredients: things like grass jelly, sweet corn, palm nuts, diced fruit, aloe vera, condensed milk, and a whole host of sweet flavored syrups. Photo courtesy of Coneflower Creamery Sorbet is truly an international ice cream style, with an origin story that varies, depending on the source, and touches several countries. But many cite Persia (now Iran), where it was tradition to pour grape juice over snow to create sharbat, an ancestor to sorbet. Some believe Marco Polo introduced sorbet to Europe upon returning from his global explorations. Wealthy Italians initially used sorbet as a palate cleanser between courses, but the delicious ice cream style soon gained popularity among all classes as sorbet vendors began popping up in plazas. Photo courtesy of Ekaterina Bubnova / iStock Via Getty Images Plus Predating modern ice cream by centuries, kulfi originated in the Mughal Empire in the 16th century and was a royal delicacy favored in imperial courts. Originally infused with saffron, cardamom, pistachios, or rosewater, the dessert was made by simmering sweetened milk until thick and creamy, then freezing it in metal molds. The result is a denser, creamier, more custard-like ice cream than Western varieties. Advertisement Photo courtesy of Raul C / iStock Via Getty Images Plus Chewy, stretchy, and elastic aren't words usually associated with ice cream, but they apply to dondurma. This traditionally hand-churned Turkish ice cream is made with milk, sugar, and salep powder. It's sometimes served on a plate, in a cone, or twisted on a stick like a kebab! Photo courtesy of Eis Fontanella Spaghettieis (or spaghetti ice cream) was invented in 1969 by Dario Fontanella, a son of Italian immigrants who owned an ice cream shop in Mannheim, Germany. He was inspired by a dessert called Mont Blanc, in which chestnut puree is piped through a pastry bag. Fontanella had ordered this dessert at a restaurant that used a spätzle press instead of a pastry bag, which gave the puree a noodle-like appearance. Fontanella tried the same method with ice cream, shaping the ice cream into spaghetti-like strands, and then smothering it with strawberry sauce as the "tomato sauce" and white chocolate shavings as the 'parmigiano cheese.' Today, this international ice cream style is available at almost every ice cream parlor in Germany. Photo courtesy of jackmalipan / iStock Via Getty Images Plus Gelato's earliest history can be traced loosely to ancient Greek and Roman civilizations, when sweet-tooths enjoyed icy fruit and honey mixtures. Bernardo Buontalenti, a Florentine architect and artist who lived during the Italian Renaissance in the 16th century, often is cited as the inventor of gelato, having come up with a frozen cream made with ice, salt, lemon, sugar, egg, honey, milk, and a splash of wine. Today, fans enjoy a wide range of gelato flavors, ranging from classic stracciatella to salted caramel. Advertisement Photo courtesy of dan_chippendale / iStock Via Getty Images Plus Cornwall, England, is famous for its clotted cream, made by heating full-fat cow's milk in a steam or water bath and allowing it to cool slowly until cream clots rise to the surface. This high fat cream, when made into ice cream, is about as creamy and deliciously rich as it gets. Photo courtesy of Vermont Cookie Love New England soft-serve stands popped up across the region in the 1950s and '60s, but the iconic spiral sweet treat was invented in the 1930s. (Both Tom Carvel of New York and Dairy Queen's founders from the Midwest take credit for its creation). Today, whether in twist cones, sundaes, or dipped in chocolate and other flavors, the nostalgic favorite is part of the region's sweet seasonal ritual. In Vermont, it's called a creemee, which while similar in texture to soft serve, is defined by its higher butterfat content. The name is thought to reflect the creaminess of the ice cream and the state's emphasis on high-quality local dairy. (Go hyper-local with this international ice cream style and order a maple creemee!) Photo courtesy of Andy's Frozen Custard In the early 1900s, brothers Archie and Elton Kohr came up with the frozen custard recipe, adding egg yolks to the ice cream mix, so it'd stay cold longer. They were the first to sell frozen custard commercially — on Coney Island, New York, in 1919 — where they sold more than 18,000 cones in one weekend! But it was at the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois, where frozen custard became forever intertwined with the Midwest. Milwaukee, Wisconsin, then became known as the unofficial frozen custard capital of the world. Advertisement Photo courtesy of leyaelena / iStock Via Getty Images Plus Akutaq, also known as Alaskan ice cream, was traditionally made with animal fat combined with sugar and wild berries. Today, this dessert popular in Alaska comes in many varieties, most made from whipped Crisco combined with blueberries, cranberries, salmonberries, crowberries, or cloudberries. Photo courtesy of Kula Shave Ice Inspired by Japanese kakigōri, shave ice arrived in Hawaii in the late 1800s with immigrant plantation workers who used hand-cranked tools to shave ice for a cooling treat in the tropical heat. Today, it's a beloved Hawaiian dessert elevated with flavored syrups, sweetened condensed milk, adzuki beans, and other creative add-ins. Photo courtesy of carlosrojas20 / iStock Via Getty Images Plus

Today's Quordle Hints (and Answer) for Thursday, July 31, 2025
Today's Quordle Hints (and Answer) for Thursday, July 31, 2025

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Today's Quordle Hints (and Answer) for Thursday, July 31, 2025

If you're looking for the Quordle answer for Thursday, July 31, 2025, read on—I'll share some clues, tips, and strategies, and finally the solution. Beware, there are spoilers below for July 31, Quordle #1284! Keep scrolling if you want some hints (and then the answer) to today's Quordle game. (If you play Wordle, Connections, or Strands, check out our hints for those games, too.) How to play Quordle Quordle lives on the Merriam-Webster website. A new puzzle goes live every day. If you've never played, it's a twist on The New York Times' daily Wordle game, in which you have a limited number of attempts to guess a five-letter mystery word. In Quordle, though, you're simultaneously solving four Wordle-style puzzles, and each of your guesses gets applied to the four puzzles simultaneously. Due to the increased difficulty, Quordle grants you nine guesses (12 if you play on 'Chill' mode, or eight if you play on 'Extreme'), rather than Wordle's six. To start, guess a five-letter word. The letters of the word in each of the four quadrants will turn green if they're correct, yellow if you have the right letter in the wrong place, or gray if the letter isn't in that secret word at all. Ready for the hints? Let's go! Can you give me a hint for today's Quordle? Upper left: What a well-dressed person has. Upper right: A car parker. Lower left: Deep pain. Lower right: Metal mix. Does today's Quordle have any double or repeated letters? Upper left: No. Upper right: No. Lower left: No. Lower right: Yes, a double consonant. What letters do today's Quordle words start with? Upper left: S Upper right: V Lower left: A Lower right: A What letters do today's Quordle words end with? Upper left: E Upper right: T Lower left: Y Lower right: Y What is the solution to today's Quordle? Upper left: STYLE Upper right: VALET Lower left: AGONY Lower right: ALLOY How I solved today's Quordle Let's kick things off with my starter words, SLATE and MOUND. The upper left is probably STYLE. Yes. The bottom left could be AGONY. Got it. I think the bottom right is ALLOY. On a roll. Let's try VALET for the upper right. Wow, that might be my fastest solve. The best starter words for Quordle What should you play for that first guess? We can look to Wordle for some general guidelines. The best starters tend to contain common letters, to increase the chances of getting yellow and green squares to guide your guessing. (And if you get all grays when guessing common letters, that's still excellent information to help you rule out possibilities.) There isn't a single 'best' starting word, but The New York Times's Wordle analysis bot has suggested starting with one of these: CRANE TRACE SLANT CRATE CARTE Meanwhile, an MIT analysis found that you'll eliminate the most possibilities in the first round by starting with one of these: SALET REAST TRACE CRATE SLATE Other good picks might be ARISE or ROUND. Words like ADIEU and AUDIO get more vowels in play, but you could argue that it's better to start with an emphasis on consonants, using a starter like RENTS or CLAMP. Choose your strategy, and see how it plays out. Solve the daily Crossword

Sophie Cunningham Doesn't Hesitate Naming 'Face' Of The WNBA
Sophie Cunningham Doesn't Hesitate Naming 'Face' Of The WNBA

Yahoo

time4 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Sophie Cunningham Doesn't Hesitate Naming 'Face' Of The WNBA

Sophie Cunningham Doesn't Hesitate Naming 'Face' Of The WNBA originally appeared on The Spun. Sophie Cunningham launched her own podcast Wednesday called "Show Me Something." The Indiana Fever guard wasted no time tackling controversial subjects on the show. Cunningham, 28, is co-hosting this podcast with reality TV star West Wilson. They struck a deal with Colin Cowherd's network, The Volume. Wilson believes it's the perfect time to partner up with Cunningham. After all, the WNBA's popularity is on the rise. In addition to covering all things basketball, Cunningham and Wilson will discuss the latter's appearance on Bravo's "Summer House." "We're definitely going to hit on the WNBA, a huge topic in sports right now, and then Bravo, clearly, but pop culture, food, fashion, travel, let's spread this thing wide open because we really do talk about anything," Cunningham said. During the debut episode of "Show Me Something," Cunningham shared her thoughts on the face of the WNBA. She said she gets "really pissed off" when people don't have Caitlin Clark as their answer. "There's really good, well-known people in the league. I'm not discrediting them. We have a lot of badasses in our league. But when people try to argue that she's not the face of our league, or that our league would be where we're at without her, you're dumb as [expletive]," Cunningham said. "You're literally dumb as [expletive]." Cunningham isn't the only athlete who believes Clark is the biggest star the WNBA has. The Athletic recently asked 39 players who'll be the face of the league in five years from now. Over 53% of the votes went to Clark. USC star JuJu Watkins claimed roughly 18% of the votes, while Paige Bueckers Clark is currently sidelined with a right groin strain. Whenever she returns to the court, there'll be plenty of eyes on her. Until then, the Fever will lean on her supporting cast, which includes Cunningham Doesn't Hesitate Naming 'Face' Of The WNBA first appeared on The Spun on Jul 30, 2025 This story was originally reported by The Spun on Jul 30, 2025, where it first appeared.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store