Bulger's capture resolves last lingering question

Every reporter has compiled a list of accomplishments and failures by mid-career.

Most have also compiled a list of the stories that bewitch or hang over them.

The news yesterday that James “Whitey” Bulger had been found and arrested after 16 years on the lam resolved the last of the three biggest that had occupied my idle thoughts for years.

I was never connected to the Bulger case like reporters such as the Globe’s Shelley Murphy and Kevin Cullen, but working in Boston, and being part of a relatively small staff in a previous incarnation at The Associated Press, the thought of whether - and when - Bulger might be captured always was in the back of my mind.

Was there any way I might break the news? How would I best catch up if I did not? Would I be caught off-guard or would I be in a position to respond authoritatively?

I got my answer when I woke up yesterday and heard the news from Joe Mathieu at WBZ-AM. I quickly wrote a blog post that offered my best contribution to a battle that had already been joined overnight by Murphy and the rest of the Globe crew.

I chose to write about the aura that James Bulger’s criminal exploits had always cast over his brother William Bulger’s political career.

Ironically, the Bulger breakthrough came less than two months after the bin Laden breakthrough, resolving another concern that had hung over my personal and professional life for nearly a decade.

Again, I was never connected to 9/11 like any of the nearly 3,000 victims or their families. But at the time of the 2001 attacks, I was living in Washington, one of the targeted cities.

I was intimately involved in the Globe’s coverage that day, even breaking the news to my then-colleague, Anthony Shadid.

He had just walked into the Globe’s Washington bureau blocks from the White House when I ran into him - literally - in the lobby.

“What’s going on?” he said.

“Two planes have crashed into the World Trade Center” I told him. “They think it’s a terrorist attack.”

Stunned into silence for a half-beat, he then offered a prescient response.

“This is the biggest story of our lives,” Shadid replied.

It has certainly proven so for him: Shadid has gone on to win two Pulitzer Prizes for his reporting about the wars that followed the attack bin Laden orchestrated.

That night, after filing my last story, I used my White House pass to negotiate three rings of National Guard troops that stood between our office and the Executive Mansion.

Answer Questions, Win Prizes, Help Orphans | the Beijinger Blog ...

Tonight (June 15) it's once again time for you to put on your thinking caps to help a worthy local charity , have a great time and possibly walk home with stupendous goodies . Turn up at the Sanlitun location of Schindler’s for what is quickly evolving into an annual tradition : the Magic Hospital Charity Quiz Night.

Teams of up to 8 are welcome to join ( reservations suggested – team slots are filling quickly as of this writing).

For more information on signing up, what you can win, and the charity you can support, check out beijing-kids .

In the cut-and-thrust world of Beijing nightlife, any bar clocking up one year in business can consider itself a success. (On that note, a happy first birthday to George's – one this Saturday!) Five years? Indicative of near-legendary status. Ten years? Virtually unprecedented. Which Beijing bars have been around for ten years or more? The Den . Frank's Place (and in name only, as long as John Harkness holds off on his threat of changing the name to Johnny Duck's – Frank's has changed location and proprietor on more than one occasion). Mix . Jazz-Ya . Charlie's in the Jianguo Hotel. The Tree (OK, another one that moved – it was once The Hidden Tree, on the old Sanlitun South Street). Hard Rock Cafe . A few of the bars on the "ladybar" Sanlitun Bar Street – and that's about it. (If you know of any more worth mentioning, drop a note at the bottom of this post.)

And then there's

Just before the world ends (if you're not reading this on Thursday afternoon, or in Beijing, this is kind of a "you had to be there" moment), a quick roundup of what's going down this weekend .

Vics is celebrating its 11th anniversary on Saturday night with a massive party. Expect huge displays of public drunkenness, with free drinks until midnight for everyone, and special prizes to be won. Entry is RMB 50, but we'll have a competition to win invitation tickets tomorrow , so look out for those.

Forum

American poultry advocate

Boys' Life

McClure's magazine

Scouting