Who's next at Boston?

Loosely Speaking by Nancy Gaines

The smart money -- and insider hopes -- are behind Boston magazine's Dan Scully to succeed Tim Montgomery, who resigned as publisher last week after less than a year on the job. Scully, who's currently managing director, has been at the magazine for 14 years, rising through the circulation ranks. "Dan's certainly the consensus choice if you ask the staff," says a magazine source. Group publisher David Lipson, who'll be overseeing Boston on occasional visits from his perch running sister publication Philadelphia, agreed that Scully had more than earned his stripes as the stabilizing force at the magazine after Alan Klein, Montgomery's predecessor, was fired last year. But no decision's been made, says Lipson. Scully echoes that: he's "flattered" by the speculation, but considers it "premature."

Broiled Mackerel It may have sounded like an aristocratic catfight when Christopher Lydon, host of WBUR's nationally syndicated talk show The Connection, lit into governor-turned-novelist Bill Weld in an interview last week, but in fact it was more of a bloodletting. Although Weld finally got a chance to plug his book, Mackerel by Moonlight, it was only after a piercing first segment that left him rattled and testy. Weld opened the conversation with a reference to the Boston FBI's pursuit of mob figures -- not a brilliant gambit, given the recent revelations of how the FBI protected mobsters Whitey Bulger et al. under Weld's nose when he served as US Attorney. Weld said he hadn't been aware of the nefarious relationship, prompting Lydon to parry, "So everybody knew about it except the head of federal law enforcement here?" Weld swerved; Lydon pressed. "Did your friend William Bulger know?" he asked, referring to the then-state senate president, Whitey's brother. "Did you ask him?" No, said Weld, with the heat rising from his red head palpable over the airwaves. Before Weld could say "fish story," Lydon segued into the subject of the highly decorated state trooper who, according to a Globe article days earlier, had committed suicide because he believed his career had been derailed and eventually ruined after he apprehended Whitey Bulger at Logan Airport in 1987. "This happened on your watch," charged Lydon. "And you hadn't heard of it?" Four seconds of silence. "You ran as tough on crime," Lydon pushed, "and you didn't know about this? That this man's life was ruined?" Six seconds. "As CEO of the state troopers, you ought to have looked into it. Someone ought to be upset about this." Silence. "Where's the outrage?" Dead silence.

The spot marks X

Paul Revere . . . John Hancock . . . Malcolm X. Not exactly "Martin, Bobby, and John" -- but yes, look for the slain Black Muslim leader to join the ranks of Boston's historical notables when the city designates as a landmark the house where Malcolm X very briefly lived. The modest structure on Dale Street, in Roxbury, is still owned by relatives of Malcolm (née Little), who cut quite a swath through town during his wayward youth in the 1940s. The staff of the city's landmarks commission has been pushing hard for the designation, which is expected to be approved this week.

Remembering the little people

BankBoston exec Ira Jackson may be "ubiquitous" enough these days to rate a gushing profile in the Globe this week, but Jackson "the image-maker," as "Names & Faces" dubbed the former city and state official, is now immortalized in a way we bet he'd rather forget. In Harold Evans's new coffee-table tome, The American Century, Jackson appears in a photo alongside a bedeviled-looking Michael Dukakis at the Democratic National Convention that nominated the former governor for president in 1988. The caption makes no mention of Jackson. Small wonder; when the photo originally appeared in the New York Times, he was identified as a maintenance man helping to adjust Dukakis's microphone. At the time, the "credit" for the Times' ID was given, perhaps unwarrantedly, to George Regan, Jackson's pal from the Kevin White administration, who didn't play a big role in the Dukakis presidential bid, while Jackson did. At any rate, Regan -- a good pal of Jackson -- still delights in pointing out the slight.

Native intelligence

Jim Flynn is back in town, after a decade's hiatus, as managing director of the Boston Harbor Hotel, reprising the role he held when the hotel opened 11 years ago. Flynn succeeds François Nivaud, who announced a month ago he was leaving, sparking speculation he'd develop his own hotel. . . . Well-wishes go to Suffolk University president David Sargent, recovering from a fall in his office that fractured both his arms. . . . Open only six months, Brasserie Jo in the Colonnade Hotel is rapidly garnering a reputation as a power-lunch spot -- not unlike its popular counterpart in Chicago, the original namesake of famed chef/owner Jean Joho. Its success may be due in part to the comeback here of French cuisine, manifest also in the popularity of Truc and Aquitaine in the South End. Maybe the trend will inspire insipid Dubarry on Newbury Street.