Photo of tourist at Boston Common: Marline is smiling, because she's just had a coffee from Dunkin Donuts, a commodity that she can't get in Seminole, Okla.

She was very pleased to be within walking distance of more than a dozen of them.

Aaron Donovan took this photo on the Common early this evening:

Apparently the Boston Police shot a guy who was "wielding a replica pistol" on the common right outside of my office. There were tons of cops all over the area, here you can see the witnesses that police held for questioning.

The Globe reports police shot the man in the arm when he refused to drop the replica semi-automatic handgun. He was taken to Boston Medical Center and is expected to live.

Probably just my imagination, but this chihuahua didn't seem exactly thrilled to be dressed up as a duck at the annual "Make Way for Ducklings" parade through Beacon Hill today. This kid more than made up for the pooch's demeanor, though:

Silent Rave on Boston Common - Friday, May 16, 7:19 to 11:19 p.m.

A Silent Rave, or Mobile Club, or Silent Disco, is a simple concept. Hundreds, hopefully thousands, of people from any background of life turn up in a public place at a pre-arranged time, turn on their Walkmans, CD players, and iPods and dance freely to whatever music they choose to listen to!

Via Litter Ladder.

Kevin "Pork Chop" Bridgeman, 40, was sentenced to 3-5 years in prison this week after pleading guilty in Suffolk Superior Court to selling crack to an undercover police officer in the Public Garden last summer, the Suffolk County District Attorney's office says.

Prosecutors say that on the evening of July 26, an undercover Boston officer trying to root out dealers asked a couple of guys on the Common where he could buy some crack. They told him to wait for Pork Chop because "he had the good stuff." Bridgeman, a Cambridge resident, arrived and made possibly the wurst decision of his life - he decided to believe the guy was kosher after he produced a tube used to smoke crack. But first, prosecutors say, Bridgeman had to change locations:

Bridgeman insisted that they move from the Common because it was "too hot."

"I'm not doing anything in here," Bridgeman said. "I'm not getting locked up. We'll do this in the Public Garden."

Once across Charles Street, the undercover officer presented Bridgeman with $40 in marked bills, for which Bridgeman gave him two rocks of crack cocaine from a plastic bag. The undercover left the scene and uniformed officers moved in.

Upon taking him into custody, the officers recovered the $40 in marked bills, an additional $122, and 10 individually packaged rocks of crack cocaine in a rubber glove Bridgeman kept in his underwear.

Chris was among those walking in yesterday's Walk for Hunger:

... Today was a rough walk, it rained for the entire time but I did manage to complete the 20 mile walk in 4 hours and 50 minutes despite the far less than optimal conditions. ...

Anna: I did finish it, but my toes felt like they were going to literally explode.

With spring in bloom, MenuPages Boston offers some tips on eating en plein air. But do "fresh from the pot" corned beef sandwiches go better with crack or heroin?

The Watergirl finds an interesting metal plate embedded in the Common that makes you go: "What?"

Ashley reports seeing a guy taking a pig for a walk through Boston Common this afternoon:

... This might not have fazed me if I had been in Cambridge, but I am more used to seeing horses or stockbrokers on this side of the Charles. ...