Birthday Party

A Hyde Park man was found guilty in a Boston courtroom yesterday on a charge of second-degree murder in the 2009 shooting death of an 18-year-old Dorchester teenager at her birthday party, the district attorney’s office said. A jury deliberated for four days before convicting Ruben Sanchez, 20, in Suffolk Superior Court of fatally shooting Paula Castillo as she leaned out of a second-floor window of a Hyde Park home where she and a group of friends were celebrating her birthday, according to the Suffolk district attorney’s office.

By Colin A. Young Globe Correspondent A group of partiers in Boxford was sent out to pasture Sunday when a bunch of bovines decided to drop by and have a couple of brews. "It started off with a call for loose cows in the area of Foster Street," Boxford police Lieutenant James Riter said. "On my way down Main Street, I did see evidence that cows were in the area. " That evidence, Riter said, was — well, let's just say you wouldn't want to step in it. When the bovine bunch stopped in the frontyard of a home on Main Street, Riter directed traffic around the...

The first invitation arrived the summer before our son started nursery school. We had been in town only a month, and our 3-year-old was asked to help celebrate the birthday of one of his soon-to-be classmates. We appreciated the sentiment, based on the assumption that our kids would all soon be friends, but we still declined. September no longer simply marks the start of the school calendar. It is the official beginning of the relentless kids' birthday party season. And even as the motivation for these occasions is heartwarming, the modern pace of them is exhausting.

Boston police said Monday that the men shown in a surveillance video released last week in connection with the slaying of Stephen Perez were at a birthday party at the Caprice Lounge and Underbar on Tremont Street the night before the 22-year-old US Army veteran was shot. Perez, of Revere, was killed outside a nightclub on Tremont Street in the early morning of April 28. The footage shows four men running down the ramp of the parking lot where the shooting took place. Officers ask that anyone who may have seen the unidentified men during the party call the police homicide unit at 617-343-4470.

On Wednesday, a free gala event celebrating Pembroke's 300th anniversary will be held starting at 6 p.m. in and around the First Church of Pembroke, on the town green. The party, which takes place on the actual anniversary date of Pembroke's incorporation, is part of the town's year-long tercentennial celebration. Tents will be in place all around the grounds, featuring games, crafts for children, a moon bounce, and a four- by eight-foot birthday cake featuring a map of Pembroke and the names and images of notable spots in town.

They're planning a birthday party for New Hampshire resident Florence Tolland on Tuesday. She's turning 107. Tolland lives at the Presidential Oaks retirement home in Concord. Gov. John Lynch is planning to attend her party. Last year, children presented Florence with a large drawing of a birthday cake, each of the 106 candles finger-painted by them.

Where do we even begin with what has happened to the franchise once known as the Boston Red Sox? The team on the field is an increasing farce, the manager was brought in for TV ratings, not wins, the owners have their hands in sporting cookie jars across the world, and ... wait, never mind, forget all that. There's a birthday party on Friday. It's neat and all that Fenway Park is turning 100 this week, which makes me wonder if we had this sort of ridiculous fanfare when Paul Revere's home hit the century mark, but no matter - the buildup to this affair, as many had...

By Johanna Kaiser, Town Correspondent Boston's most macabre native son may have dismissed the area's literary world and the city itself as a "Frogpondium," but fans of Edgar Allan Poe's work are continuing to celebrate the writer's ties to the city on his birthday. Poe was born in Boston 203 years ago Thursday, and on that day the Poe Foundation of Boston is hosting a free celebration at 7 p.m. at the Boston Public Library. Guests will learn about Poe's ties to Boston from foundation chairman and Boston...

[The following article contains spoilers about the first two episodes of season five of "Mad Men. " Consider yourself warned.] Don Draper and Harry Crane failed in their attempt to get the Rolling Stones to sing a jingle for Heinz beans in last Sunday's episode of "Mad Men," but with the melodic afterglow of the series' March 25 debut still lingering, the lack of Stones felt like a minor defeat. You'll recall that in the "Mad Men" premiere, Don's recent bride Megan (Jessica Pare)

It's a truth universally acknowledged -- and, for parents everywhere, verified this past weekend -- that a child in possession of sugar will turn into a hyperactive maniac. And yet, according to Aaron Carroll , a pediatrician and journalist, the whole idea that sugar makes kids hyper has no basis in fact. Writing at the excellent blog The Incidental Economist , Carroll points out an incredible fact: In twelve studies trying to link sugar to hyper-ness in kids, none have detected differences in behavior between kids who've eaten sugar and kids who haven't ....

Minnesota Vikings running back Caleb King was arrested on suspicion of third-degree assault in the beating of another man outside a birthday party, the Anoka County sheriff's office said Saturday. King, who signed with the Vikings as a rookie free agent last year but didn't play in a game, was jailed but hasn't been charged. The victim was a 22-year-old from Coon Rapids. King is accused of punching him repeatedly and throwing him headfirst to the ground. The man was hospitalized in serious condition with skull and facial fractures, as well as with cuts that required more than 50...

For one more afternoon, Yaz had the Fenway fans cheering, Pedro had them celebrating and Johnny Pesky brought tears to their eyes. Scenes from Fenway Park's first 100 years played out on the major leagues' oldest ballfield again on Friday, when the Boston Red Sox celebrated its centennial by welcoming more than 200 former players and coaches back onto its landmark lawn. In a ceremony before their game against the New York Yankees, 100 years to the day before they opened the building against that very rival, the Red Sox held a birthday party for the only ballpark in the majors...

Where do we even begin with what has happened to the franchise once known as the Boston Red Sox? The team on the field is an increasing farce, the manager was brought in for TV ratings, not wins, the owners have their hands in sporting cookie jars across the world, and ... wait, never mind, forget all that. There's a birthday party on Friday. It's neat and all that Fenway Park is turning 100 this week, which makes me wonder if we had this sort of ridiculous fanfare when Paul Revere's home hit the century mark, but no matter - the buildup...

Patriots coach Bill Belichick doesn't turn 60 until later this month, but according to Twitter, his friends threw him a surprise birthday party over the weekend. Singer-songwriter and fishing boat captain Jennifer Clarke (wife of Lenny Clarke) tweeted on Friday night, "Jon Bon Jovi and I waiting for our friend, coach Bill Belichick, to show at his surprise Bday party!" Paul Rabil, of the Boston Cannons, also tweeted that he was at the affair. Belichick's girlfriend, Style Boston's Linda Holliday, sent a message to friends on Saturday saying, "Thanks for...

[The following article contains spoilers about the first two episodes of season five of "Mad Men. " Consider yourself warned.] Don Draper and Harry Crane failed in their attempt to get the Rolling Stones to sing a jingle for Heinz beans in last Sunday's episode of "Mad Men," but with the melodic afterglow of the series' March 25 debut still lingering, the lack of Stones felt like a minor defeat. You'll recall that in the "Mad Men" premiere, Don's recent bride Megan (Jessica Pare)

On Wednesday, a free gala event celebrating Pembroke's 300th anniversary will be held starting at 6 p.m. in and around the First Church of Pembroke, on the town green. The party, which takes place on the actual anniversary date of Pembroke's incorporation, is part of the town's year-long tercentennial celebration. Tents will be in place all around the grounds, featuring games, crafts for children, a moon bounce, and a four- by eight-foot birthday cake featuring a map of Pembroke and the names and images of notable spots in town.

Boston police said Monday that the men shown in a surveillance video released last week in connection with the slaying of Stephen Perez were at a birthday party at the Caprice Lounge and Underbar on Tremont Street the night before the 22-year-old US Army veteran was shot. Perez, of Revere, was killed outside a nightclub on Tremont Street in the early morning of April 28. The footage shows four men running down the ramp of the parking lot where the shooting took place. Officers ask that anyone who may have seen the unidentified men during the party call the police homicide unit at 617-343-4470.

SPRINGFIELD -- The family of two Springfield teenagers killed in separate shootings held a party over the weekend to mark what would have been their 20th birthday, hoping that someone among the dozens of people present at one of the killings might name the shooter. Sheila A. Shepard organized Saturday night's party for the friends and family of her twin sons, Darnell and Daylan Shepard. Darnell was shot in May, at a friend's 16th birthday party in front of 100 guests. Daylan's death followed in July on a city street corner.

First birthdays are usually shared with a close circle of family and friends. But for Ava Kawai of Winchester and her parents, Kerry and Paul, a second party was held Monday at Winchester Hospital for the doctors, nurses, and staff who, one year ago, took part in the family's double miracle: saving Ava and Kerry's lives. Held high on her mother's hip, Ava arrived at the birthday party to murmurs - "Oh, she's beautiful!" - some tears, then applause from the crowd standing in a large conference room, cheerfully decorated with red Elmo and bright-yellow Big Bird napkins and party...

BURLINGTON, Wash. - Lynn D. "Buck" Compton, a veteran whose World War II exploits were depicted in the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers," has died, his family said. Mr. Compton died Saturday in Burlington, Wash., after a heart attack last month, the family told the Los Angeles Times. In January, nearly 200 guests, including actors from the miniseries, attended his 90th birthday party. "To us, he wasn't really a war hero; he was just a hero, period," his daughter Tracy said.