Businesses get ready for first Celtics home game
Companies that depend on the popularity of the Celtics are gearing up for the team’s first home game tonight after a 149-day lockout kept the parquet empty.
Pistons at Celtics, 7:30 p.m.
Winless Celtics have big problems
Gerald Herbert/AP
No longer can the Celtics rely on reputation or past accomplishments. They have to reprove themselves, and the question remains whether their aging bodies are capable.
Austin Rivers, son of Doc, thriving at Duke
Rivers, whose devotion to basketball knows no boundaries, is the leading scorer for seventh-ranked Duke as a freshman this season.
John Tlumacki/Globe Staff
Thousands mourn fallen firefighter in Peabody
Firefighter James M. Rice today was eulogized by his father, who said that he and his family have a “giant hole in their hearts.”
Mass. confirms first human case of rabies in 75 years
A Barnstable County man is hospitalized in critical condition after contracting rabies, likely after being exposed to a bat in his home, officials said.
State GOP chair donated to Democrats
The $500 for Governor Deval Patrick’s reelection campaign last year wasn’t the first contribution to Democrats by Massachusetts Republican Party’s new chairman.
“Part of my happiness about how it’s going in the first week is we hoped it would go this well and that’s one of the reasons we’re back playing this soon.”
Wyc Grousbeck, Celtics owner
Inside The Boston Globe
Columnists
Metro
Vt. celebrates repair of storm-ravaged road
Just in time for the new year, and four months after Hurricane Irene hit, Route 107 between Bethel and Stockbridge has reopened.
Business
LL Bean boot gets a kick from retro trend
The familiar duck boot with leather uppers and rubber soles has become something of a fashion statement due to its newfound popularity on college campuses.
Politics
Santorum enjoying late boost in Iowa
Rick Santorum’s sudden surge in the CNN poll has fueled Iowa religious conservatives to ask Michele Bachmann to drop out so the religious right-wing vote will be more unified.
Nation & World
Muslims to skip Bloomberg breakfast
Religious leaders upset at police efforts to spy on Muslims plan to skip Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s annual year-end interfaith breakfast, saying Bloomberg shouldn’t be defending the tactics.
Sports
Patriots have no peers in YAC
The Patriots lead the NFL in yards after catch with 2,483. With one game remaining, that is the highest YAC total for a season since the statistic was first tracked in 1992.
Movies
NEW YEAR’S EVE: MOVIES
New Year’s Eve picks: film
If high-decibel parties, chilly strolls, or waiting around for the midnight hour to strike are not your idea of a memorable New Year’s Eve, there’s always the movies.
Arts
G cover
A guide to New Year's Eve in Boston
Our critics give their picks for what to do leading up to midnight.
Opinion
“The voters I spoke with weren’t in search of a tough-talking conservative who would wage a no-holds-barred battle with the Democratic incumbent.”
Scot Lehigh
Ideas
The practice of sending commercially printed cards soon became wildly popular. It reached the United States in 1875…By 1958, the average US family mailed 100 Christmas cards.
Mark Feeney on the history of Christmas cards