NStar outage snarls Cambridge streets during rush hour
Lights from a police cruiser lit up Harvard Yard Thursday during a power outage blamed on an NStar line failure.

YOON S. BYUN/GLOBE STAFF

An outage plunged a large swath of the city into darkness from 4:30 p.m. to 7 p.m., including buildings at Harvard and MIT.

Mass. Democrats oppose benefit cuts in fiscal-cliff talks

The Mass. House delegation is torn: They want to avoid the shock that would result from expiration of Bush-era tax cuts, but they won’t change safety-net benefits.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino showed a card from Boston schoolchildren at a press availability today.

Menino eager to return to City Hall

In his first interview since more than a month in the hospital, Mayor Thomas M. Menino didn’t address his political future.

Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren and her dog, Otis, greeted a voter in September. Otis was diagnosed with lymphoma in the spring and died five days before the election.

Brian McGrory

Elizabeth Warren’s private agony

The senator-elect suffered the misery of ever loving a dog when Otis, her virtually inseparable companion, died five days before she made history in Massachusetts.

WBZ-TV Anchor Paula Ebben (left) and Mix 104.1 Morning Show host Karson Tager stopped by Faneuil Hall to lend Globe Santa a helping hand.

GLOBE SANTA

South Shore mother could use Santa’s help

Problems strike every member of a household that asks only if Globe Santa can provide the youngest member with a respite.

The Old South Church is auctioning a book of psalms from the 17th century. It could fetch $10 to $20 million.

Church torn over future of precious asset

Members of Old South Church will vote Sunday on a proposal to sell a 17th century book for up to $20 million to pay for church repairs and programming.

Jane Hoppe, left, and Katie Pugliares worked on a turtle at the aquarium’s Animal Care Center.

Endangered sea turtles stranding at record numbers this season

Since about mid-October, the New England Aquarium’s Animal Care Center in Quincy has received a total of 107 hypothermic sea turtles.

Christopher L. Gasper

No apologies from defiant Rajon Rondo

He’s a force of nature that can’t be controlled. That makes him a great point guard, but a questionable leader.

The scene outside of Boylston Street Station following a Green Line trolley collision.

37 hurt in Green Line trolley crash

One day before he was scheduled to receive a safety award, an operator at the controls of an outbound trolley slammed into a waiting trolley at Boylston Street Station.

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From the Archives | Photos

//c.o0bg.com/rf/image_90x90/Boston/2011-2020/2012/11/28/BostonGlobe.com/Enterprise/Images/prohibition012--90x90.jpg Prohibition in Massachusetts

The 18th Amendment repealing Prohibition was ratified on December 5, 1933. During Prohibition, police were busy raiding speakeasies and arresting bootleggers and rum-runners.

Globe exclusives

Scot Lehigh

Filibuster reform could fix a dysfunctional Senate
Detail of “Father and Child,” a 1964 lithograph by John Wilson.

art review

John Wilson: clear and present
Ric Ocasek (pictured at the House of Blues in May 2011) wrote lyrics that, like a lot of rock ’n’ roll songs written by men, are preoccupied with the opposite sex.

Book Review

‘Lyrics & Prose’ by Ric Ocasek

How to donate to Globe Santa
Dempsey, a 14-year-old blond Labrador retriever, owned by Kevan and Sheila Cunningham, rests on his special bed.

Old dogs, new ways to baby them
Kay Olsen (left), 82, and Mary Holt, 88, shopped for groceries at Johnnie’s Foodmaster in Charlestown before it closed last week.

Whole Foods accents two halves of Charlestown
The Compass Financial Stability and Savings Program has helped Meg Alcantara (left) of Lynn raise her credit score nearly 100 points and save $5,200 toward a down payment on her dream of purchasing a home of her own.

Program teaches working poor ways to save, build credit

special section

Boston’s last, great unsolved mystery
A fire destroyed the Cocoanut Grove Night Club and killed hundreds on Nov. 28, 1942.

Opinion | The Podium

Cocoanut Grove fire — a survivor’s tale
Developer Steve Wynn appeared with Mayor Carlo DeMaria Jr. in Everett on Wednesday and toured the 37-acre parcel once occupied by Monsanto Chemical Co. that Wynn is considering as a site for a casino.

Wynn considers Everett casino bid
House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo says he is not a target of the probation investigation. He counted John J. O’Brien, the indicted former probation commissioner, as a friend.

Lawmakers worry about probation case fallout
President Obama and Mitt Romney will meet for the first time sinde the election.

Romney meeting Obama at White House

Sports

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This NCAA title last spring was Jerry York’s fourth at BC, and he will soon become the Division 1 leader in wins.

BC’s Jerry York closing in on NCAA record for wins

Boston College’s hockey coach is one victory away from tying the record for most wins in NCAA Division 1.

Metro

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Former state treasurer Timothy Cahill testified Thursday at Suffolk Superior Court in Boston.l

Cahill defends lottery ad drive

Former state Treasurer Timothy P. Cahill defended himself against charges that he illegally used publicly funded lottery ads to boost his run for governor.

Columnists

Boston Capital

Suitors vying for two Massachusetts hospitals
Karl Rove controlled hundreds of millions of dollars in the election.

Joshua Green

Back in 2004, Karl Rove offered sage advice

Lawrence Harmon

Business leaders not bullish on mayoral race
Senator-elect Elizabeth Warren and her dog, Otis, greeted a voter in September. Otis was diagnosed with lymphoma in the spring and died five days before the election.

Brian McGrory

Elizabeth Warren’s private agony

Christopher L. Gasper

No apologies from defiant Rajon Rondo

Scot Lehigh

Filibuster reform could fix a dysfunctional Senate
US Army female soldiers with the 2-17 Field Artillery Regiment listened to a briefing as they prepared to leave on a mission in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2004.

juliette kayyem

Pentagon rules excluding women aren’t worth defending

Joan Vennochi

A road to peace for East Boston, Massport

edward l. glaeser

Severance pay for the unemployed
The iPod Touch and iPod Nano players are sleek, elegant reminders that a personal entertainment device doesn’t have to come with a monthly phone bill.

Tech Lab

Apple’s latest iPods offer entertaining new features

Yvonne Abraham

Stealing hope
Kevin McHale and his wife, Lynn, lost their daughter, Alexandra, to a battle with lupus.

Dan Shaughnessy

McHale dealing with saddest loss of all

Nation & World

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In May, this iceberg was off Greenland, where ice has been melting more quickly.

Ice sheets melting at poles faster than before

Fueled by global warming, polar ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are now melting three times faster than they did in the 1990s, a new scientific study says.

Politics

MEETING ON A DIFFERENT STAGE — President Obama and former GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney met in the Oval Office after having lunch on Thursday. Little was released about the meeting, their first since the election.

Former bitter foes Romney, Obama meet over lunch

President Obama and Mitt Romney met over turkey chili and Southwest grilled chicken salad and discussed America’s role in the world.

Business

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Daniel Amos’s family founded Aflac, a Georgia insurer, in the 1950s. Even in the 1990s, it was not well known.

Thanks to the duck, buyers flock to Aflac

Heard of Aflac? Credit the animated duck. In the 1990s, just one in 10 people in the US were familiar with the insurance company. That all changed in 2000 after its mascot was introduced.

Arts

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Stage Review

Mona Golabek tells her mother’s story: refugee, concert pianist, emigre.

A daughter’s tribute in ‘The Pianist of Willesden Lane’

The overall atmosphere created in this 90-minute solo show at the Paramount Center is one of quiet intimacy.

Movies

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Friday Preview | Movie Review

Brad Pitt stars in the big-screen adaptation of George V. Higgins’s “Cogan’s Trade.”

‘Killing Them Softly’ cast stands out

A bleakly comic, brutally Darwinian gangland saga that at times comes close to being this year’s “Drive.”

Magazine

The cover for the November 25 2012 issue

Cambridge’s Bluefin Labs decodes social media chatter
The cover for the November 18 2012 issue

7 holiday styles that shine
The cover for the November 11 2012 issue

Vacation options for single seniors and gays and lesbians
The cover for the November 4 2012 issue

How to be a New England vegetarian in winter

Opinion

“Will the proposed reforms render the Senate a more responsive, rational, and productive place?”

Scot Lehigh  on talk of filibuster reform

Ideas

“To its fans in the plastics industry, and there are many, the supermarket shopping bag—or ‘T-shirt bag,’ as it’s known in the business—is a triumph of cost-effective engineering.”

Leon Neyfakh 

“I want Democrats to act like Democrats.’’

US Representative James P. McGovern,  on the impending fiscal crisis