I love Google.

I have been using the Google "News Alerts" feature in order to help find juicy tidbits about East Boston. It's an awesome feature. You give Google a phrase and then it will email you any time it finds a news article posted on the internet with that phrase in it. That was how I found out that at some point in his life John Sayles lived in East Boston and worked as a meat packer--at least according to this story about him by Linton Weeks of the Washington Post. (The link is to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reprint of the article. The original was printed in the Post on September 12th, but you need to create an account to read the articles on the Post web site, so the Star-Telegram is easier.)

By the way, since we are discussing John Sayles, I highly recommend his 1987 movie Men With Guns. It's kind of like a fable ala The Wizard of Oz that takes place in an unnamed Central American country very similar to Guatemala. It sounds ridiculous when I say that, but trust me, it's a good flick. See it, even if only for Mandy Patinkin as the ultra-annoying Gringo (American) tourist looking for "Aztec ruins." (FYI--the Aztecs never lived in Guatemala.)