This Is Not An Act: The HUB

The HUB is a rundown of the stories people in Boston are talking about. Patch publishes the HUB every weekday.

Good morning, Boston! Today is Monday, April 26. Sorry for missing out Friday — I'm feeling a lot better after getting my second Pfizer shot.

Today, we're talking about putting the snail in snail mail, a $40,000 bottle of whiskey and humble pickle beginnings paying off big time.

But first...

No surprise you didn't see Acting Mayor Kim Janey at the Oscars last night. She ain't acting — or so her people say.

CommonWealth's Colman Heran raised the seemingly fair question of whether Janey is violating the City Charter by dropping the "acting" when referring to herself — presumably as a way to add even more weight to her incumbency ahead of the mayoral election.

Janey's City Hall spokesman gave a pretty salty answer, accusing Heran of asking a political question and asking whether the charter even applies since it says "he" when talking about acting mayor, and Janey is a she.

Silliness abounds.

For what it's worth, I pulled the part of the charter at the center of ActingGate:

"The person upon whom such duties shall devolve shall be called 'acting mayor' and he shall possess the powers of mayor ..."

Check it out

For people who still actually use the mail, this was a bummer. Some GBH staffers ran an experiment to see how timely the U.S. Postal Service is, sending nearly 100 first class letters from across the metro area to different states. Just a bit more than half the letters found their destination within the 1-3 business day standard of the USPS. Paul Singer has more about the mail test.

Don't use this one for cooking. Boston-based Skinner Auctioneers expects to get between $20,000 to $40,000 for the "oldest currently known whiskey bottle," a handle of Old Ingledew Whiskey that could be 250 years old. Make sure to check out Mike Pomranz at Food & Wine for the interesting history.

One more food-ish item I missed at the end of last week: Grillo's Pickles has been sold to the California-based company that makes King's Hawaiian rolls, according to Don Seiffert at the Boston Business Journal. Beginnings don't get more humble than Grillo's, which started selling pickles in Boston Common for a dollar more than a decade ago. Way to make us proud, pickle man.

What I'm reading today: I'm just about to the point in my life where I can't stay up for the Academy Awards anymore, so I'm reading about how it all played out at The New York Times.

Weather

The National Weather Service says: During the day — Sunny, with a high near 58. Northwest wind 16 to 18 mph, with gusts as high as 32 mph. At night — Mostly clear, with a low around 39. West wind 8 to 13 mph.

Have a swell Monday.

You can email me at mike.carraggi@patch.com and follow me @PatchCarraggi.