Daily Feed: Theo Epstein Pens His Farewell

Theo Epstein Pens His Farewell to Red Sox Nation. “The reason I am leaving has nothing to do with power, pressure, money, or relationships. It has nothing to do with September, either.” After a decade with his hometown team, Epstein says that it’s just time to move on. [Globe]

Mitt Romney’s Problem-Solving Machine. On the groundwork for Romneycare: “When Romney was elected governor of Massachusetts in 2002, one of the members of his transition team was Tom Stemberg, the founder of Staples. The two men were talking one day, and Romney asked Stemberg if he had any ideas for how he ought to govern. Stemberg, thinking off the top of his head, had two ideas. ‘One was to blow up Logan airport and start over.’ That didn’t make it far. The other one did: Stemberg served then (as now) on the president’s council of Massachusetts General Hospital, and he remembered a conversation he’d had with a doctor named Peter Slavin, who has been the chief executive of that hospital system for most of the last decade. ‘[Slavin] mentioned this huge problem,’ Stemberg told me, ‘which is all these uninsured people clog the ER.'” By now, you know the rest. [NY Magazine]

Michael Dukakis Guarantees More Deaths if Happy Hour Reinstated. Better yet: The Herald clarifies exactly what Happy Hour is in the first sentence of this story because, you know, it’s been gone for 30 years and some may really, truly need the clarification. [Herald]

The Marital Call to Arms and the Pressure to Get Gay Married. One CNN producer shares her story on whether to get married — or not. [CNN]

Jill Stein Launches Green Party Presidential Bid. She’s not uncontested: Kent Mesplay, a Green Party leader in California, also announced his candidacy. [WBUR]