All the best
(Correction: Because of a reporting error, the person on the cover of Boston Magazine's ''Best of Boston" edition was incorrectly identified in the Names column in yesterday's Living/Arts section. The cover of the magazine features Gretchen Monahan, owner of Gretta Enterprises.)
Boston Magazine's annual ''Best of Boston" edition is always a top seller for the glossy, but this year's cover will turn a few heads. It features actress Bridget Moynahan, a Longmeadow native who happens to be Pats QB Tom Brady's girlfriend. As they did last year, the editors have included only the food, home, and lifestyle categories in this edition, leaving the messy politics, media, and sports for later in the year. Chef-owner Barbara Lynch's No. 9 Park again gets praised, with the editors giving Lynch a general excellence rating in the chef category and the eatery the magazine's general excellence title. No. 9's sommelier, Cat Silirie, is singled out (again). (Best up-and-coming chef is Pino Maffeo of Restaurant L at Louis Boston, and best new restaurant is Umbria.) The magazine's editors apparently cannot get enough of the Back Bay steakhouse Abe & Louie's; the restaurant takes the steak category as well as best wine list. The magazine has faced a few spats over the lists in past years (XV Beacon's snub in the hotel category and its omissions of The Federalist restaurant's wine list come to mind). However, one rift that seems to have healed is with the Park Square stalwart Davio's, which this year is named as the power lunch spot. Boston will mark the release of the edition with aprivate party tonight at Fenway Park.
Crowning glory
The new Ms. Wheelchair America is Rhode Islander Kristen Connors. The selection brings to an end months of squabbling over the pageant's qualifying process that divided the disabled community. Connors, 33, of Cranston, R.I., will spend her title year traveling to raise awareness about issues related to living with disabilities. The pageant found itself facing controversy in the spring after Ms. Wisconsin, Janeal Lee, was stripped of her title when a photograph of her standing appeared in her hometown newspaper. Connors, who uses a wheelchair because of spinal muscular atrophy, which is a form of muscular dystrophy, works for Rhode Island congressman James Langevin. ''I'm absolutely thrilled; it's beyond words," Connors told WXXA-TV.
Sock it to him
''Sox" and ''socks," get it? The folks at Hanes knew how to get the most out of the weekend series between our beloved Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox. Hall of Fame catcher Carlton Fisk, who played for both the Red Sox and the White Sox, was on hand at US Cellular Field in Chicago the other night to receive the ceremonial opening throw from tough guy Mr. T, who was sporting a pair of Hanes Double Tough Socks.
Actor Alan Ruck (''Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and TV's ''Spin City") was on hand the other day at the Hynes Convention Center to unveil a 7-foot Christmas tree adorned with $200,000 worth of diamonds, gold, and gemstones donated by the Independent Jewelers Organization to Cure Autism Now.
Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.
A 10 for effort
Daryl Hannah (above) will join Ally Sheedy and Persia White (below) for an Aug. 27 Nantucket fund-raiser to benefit Farm Sanctuary and the Humane Society of the United States. Hosted by John Archibald and James Costa, the event is timed to build support for two pieces of legislation in the Massachusetts State House. A House bill would ban the use of veal and gestation crates, and there is a measure in the Senate to prohibit force-feeding of birds for foie gras.
Cottage care
And on Friday on Nantucket, summer residents George Cloutier and Tiffany Spadafora hosted a benefit for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Nantucket's Cottage Hospital's Community and Home Health Department. The event honored Red Sox CEO Larry Lucchino, who attended with his wife, Stacey.
