Architecture, cooking, spam

For a town often associated with shopping centers and generic chain eateries, the blogosphere in Framingham has an interesting emphasis on architecture and history.

One of the best sites is the Planning Livable Communities blog (pedestrianfriendly.com), which, while based in Framingham, is more about architecture, planning, development, and open space issue s writ large. A recent post, for example, had an interesting take on the new Institute of Contemporary Art building on the South Boston waterfront, which has been the subject of effusive praise bordering on hype since it opened late last year.

"Right now the major drawback to the new ICA is its surroundings," the blogger wrote. "There's no urban streetscape or feel at all, and no urge at all to go by foot anywhere but back to your car. A few blocks in the area are starting to shape up with a neighborhood feel; but right now, there are too many warehouses and parking lots at the sidewalk to expect that, say, conventioneers are going to feel like they're in the heart of a city as opposed to a warehouse district on its outskirts."

Glancing backward

The Framingham Views blog (framingham.wordpress.com), meanwhile, is all about looking backward. Written by a blogger of few words, it is still remarkable for its ability to evoke memories and emotions with images culled from library collections, old business directories, and other sources.

Some of the latest views are of the Howard Johnson's that was once located on Route 9. One of the pictures is from an old business directory, and the ad boasts of the restaurant's 28 flavors of ice cream and those famous fried clams.

Oh, those Howard Johnson's fried clams. I must have been 8 years old the last time I had them, at a time in my life when I would rather have eaten a bug on a bet than any kind of seafood. I can still taste them, crunchy and salty and better than the fries they came with. Memory is an amazing thing.

For lazy chefs

One of the best new blogs around is the Newton-based Lazy Chefs (thelazychefs.com). Piloted by Kristine Munroe (better known as blogger Krissy in Boston) and friends Liz Christman and Beverly Ingram, it serves up mostly easy and sometimes intriguingly offbeat recipes for busy folk.

It doesn't get much more offbeat, in fact, than Liz's recipe for the aptly named "Interesting Chicken."

Directions on the blog are as follows:

"Get your crockpot out and toss one or two chicken breasts in it.

"Add a cup of catsup.

"Throw in a can of Diet Coke. Don't scrimp here -- no off-brands, no Diet Pepsi. Only Diet Coke tastes right.

"Turn the cooker on to low and leave it for about six hours. You will have some of the most tender, delicious tasting chicken. I usually serve it over rice or pasta to make a more complete meal."

I don't have a crockpot myself, so I'm dying for someone else to try this and e-mail me the result.

Blogjacking, Part II

In my final column of last year, I wrote about the disturbing trend of blogs being hijacked by spammers and spyware scum and about how the Food Market Index blog out of Framingham and the See Todd Run blogs appeared to have been victimized and their URLs stolen.

Now it appears that there is another victim, The Diana Chronicles blog out of Wellesley. The scam has an interesting twist, too. Instead of Diana's home page, what appears instead looks like one of those verification screens with the distorted letters that bloggers use to keep spam bots from posting on their sites. The URL above, though, is for some bogus-sounding loan site and is a dead giveaway that only spyware and worse lurk beyond.

Cyberscenes is a biweekly look at local bloggers. Ralph Ranalli is a staff writer and web producer for Globe West. E-mail him at rranalli@globe.com.