Clothing Prices Hold Steady No Longer

More polyester. Thinner shirts. Smaller buttons. The fallout from the cotton crisis looks like 1970s disco with way higher prices.

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A Passageway for Prisoners, 40 Feet Below

Here is a small strip of Pearl Street in Lower Manhattan, and what lies beneath this ordinary patch of asphalt and concrete is a 40-yard boulevard dedicated to murderers, gangsters, villains, thieves, scoundrels. You can stand there all day in sunshine and shadow, never realizing that a river of wickedness runs three stories below your feet.

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For Coupon Overreachers, A Chance to Recoup

In the next two months, Laurie MacDougall needs to eat 10 pizzas, take two beading classes, get at least one picture framed, have her car washed twice, drop off $30 of dry cleaning, visit the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum with three friends, eat at Johnny’s Luncheonette in Newton and Deep Ellum in Allston, and schlep over to Burlington to buy books at the Used Book Superstore. Otherwise, $250 of discount coupons she bought from Groupon and other online daily deal sites will expire, unused.

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Cuomo, Frequent Caller, Uses the Phone as a Political Tool

The call comes with no warning, at almost any time of the day, including hours when most New Yorkers are still fumbling with a toothbrush. The unhurried, instantly recognizable voice on the other end of the line belongs to Andrew M. Cuomo. There will be long pauses. There will be many questions. Get comfortable: you may be on the phone for a while.

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Gloomy Dramas Are a Hard Draw This Film Season

Beaten down by the recession? Want a sunny respite from the dreary weather? Need two hours to get away from the holiday stress? Hollywood has the answer: movies about a crumbling marriage, a 4-year-old’s death in a car accident and a single father dying of cancer.

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Soup is Good Metaphor

Last week, my daughter wrecked the family van. The bank stamped our checking account “Overdrawn.” The neighbor sent another nasty e-mail about our dog. And my hairdresser took me seriously when I said I was kinda bored with my hair. This is why I make soup.

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Monster Gator to Leave Comfort Zone

Charlie is the stuff of legend – a huge, old, “tame” alligator with a belly like a whale and an appetite like an ogre. He’s been fed for decades with mess hall scraps, roadkill, chicken wings, submarine sandwiches and anything tossed over the retention-pond fence behind the gate at the Joint Base Charleston Weapons Station. Now, somebody has to move him.

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