Life is a carnival on the Red Line

Whether it's because it has the largest ridership or it's just the most interesting, the Red Line continues to dominate T-related discussions on local blogs:

With the Ashmont Station on the Red Line poised for major reconstruction, including a brand-new entrance onto Peabody Square, some Dorchester residents want to rename the station Ashmont/Peabody Square.

Christopher Stanley, who has a blog about the T stop, agrees: ''New York has Times Square, Tokyo has Hachiko, London has Piccadilly Circus, Rome has the Spanish Steps, and Dorchester has Peabody Square."

The drunk guy who insisted on chatting with Alyssa Boehm as they traveled on the Red Line from Boston into Cambridge got excited as they approached Harvard because they'd get to see Gary the Garden Gnome, who he said lives in the tunnels near the station.

But Boehm reports on her Big Red Blog that she saw nothing: ''He must be hiding," she told her new companion. ''The drunk guy pondered this as he gathered his stuff to get off the train at Harvard Square. 'I don't think Gary is dangerous, but he is certainly wily.' "

Going in the opposite direction, meanwhile, Rob Noyes of Somerville concludes on his Derspatchel that his overcrowded Red Line train's frequent stops and starts can only be caused by a new driver named Billy:

''Today is also apparently iPod Appreciation Day on the T, and all riders who bring iPods on the train with them get to ride free provided they promise to play the g_ _ _ _ _ _ things as loud as possible. Both people on either side of me are listening to an iPod and they've got the volumes cranked up to 11, ostensibly to drown each other out. Antonio Vivaldi is locked in a vicious, brutal cage match with Eminem, and my head is the g_ _ _ _ _ _ cage. Billy stops the train before we get into Kendall so that everybody can rock on out to the rockin' tunes."

On T-Rage, Mike Mennonno wonders about some subtle T efforts to make people feel safer, such as the two new emergency phones -- added to the two that already exist -- in the under-expressway part of the JFK/UMass stop, and the extremes in lighting at different stations: ''Take the lighting in the Harvard Square T. It's very moody down there, very noir. Personally I think they should take some of those prison lights they installed in Jackson Square on the Orange Line and move them over to Harvard. Because, seriously, the lighting in Jackson Square Station is off the hook. The difference is, almost literally, night and day."

On Call Me Snake, Steve Nadis tries to figure out just how many scones he'd bought over the past five years at C'est Bon in Harvard Square, which, as he notes, is now c'est gone: ''Somewhere between 300 to 400, I'd estimate. That's a lot of fat, a lot of calories, and probably at least $500 spent on scones -- $500 I could have just as easily given to panhandlers, to folks selling 'Spare Change,' or to the guy collecting for Wheelchair Basketball. Instead, I elected to gorge myself on (conservatively estimated) 150 pounds of raisin or blueberry scones."

Erika-Rose McLaughlin of Roxbury reports on her One Smoot Short of a Bridge that she called the Mayor's Hotline to ask that a car parked in front of her driveway be towed.

After being transferred first to the general police number and then to 911, she relayed her request and hung up.

''Twenty minutes later, my phone rings. 'Hello, this is the Boston police. Someone there requested an ambulance?'

'' 'Umm, nope.'

'' 'Yeah, someone called from your number and said they needed an ambulance for someone who'd been assaulted and had a head injury.'

'' 'No, I called to get a car towed from this address.'

'' 'Are you sure?' "

Adam Gaffin can be reached at adamg@gaffin.com. Link to the complete items mentioned here at www.universalhub.com/0409.html.