EDITORS' PICKS - CITY LIFE

Best Place to Go Bare
When asked to list the reasons her’s is the best waxing and facials establishment in town, Bonnie Holland of Bonnie’s Facial’s and Waxing isn’t shy. “I’m compulsive. They say I good work. Most of them like my personality. I’m not foo-foo. I’m not Newbury street. Newbury street is overpriced.” Many of Boston’s celebrities, sports figures and their wives forgo the foo-foo for Bonnie. She refuses to wax and tell. But no matter who is lying in her chair, no matter what their state of undress, Bonnie’s technique is steady and as close to painless as can be. “I love what I do, I’d do this in an alley somewhere.” Thankfully, she doesn’t have to.

4 Hartford Street, Newton Highlands | 617.969.3773| Bonniesfacialsandwaxing.com.

Best way to snoop on fellow Bostonians
For all its small-town charm, Boston can feel like a far-flung city - what goes down in Davis Square seems so far away from what happens in Jamaica Plain; the scene in Harvard Square is far different from the atmosphere downtown. To help you stay plugged into all points of the Greater Boston universe, there's universalhub.com - a portal to Boston's blogs that's updated daily. At the site, which is maintained by Bostonian Adam Gaffin, you'll find everything from political commentary, to complaints about public transportation, to baseball fanaticism, to personal musings. Slide your mouse over a map of Boston, and find blogs written by your neighbors. Voyeurism never felt so acceptable.

www.universalhub.com.

Best park no one knows the name of
Most of Boston's better public spaces - the Common, the Garden, the Esplanade, Arnold Arboretum - get plenty of traffic. But Ramler Park, located just off Boylston Street in the Fenway, is still largely undiscovered. Ramler isn't vast - 45 yards, tops, from end to end - but it's well-designed and impeccably maintained. A fountain near the center provides soothing white noise. Deep-blue benches ring the two surrounding footpaths, and a curved white arbor, complete with neoclassical columns, crowns the northeastern edge. And, save for the sandy walkways, every inch of Ramler is blanketed with a spectacular array of dense vegetation, which dedicated volunteers tend throughout the year. Five minutes here is more restorative than a two-hour nap.

David and Dorothy Ramler Park | Peterborough Street, Boston

Best way to tap into the subconsciouses of strangers
Take a writing class. Better yet, take a writing class at Grub Street. It's Boston's independent literary hub, a great and growing organization that runs all sorts of workshops - from fiction to screenwriting, from memoir to poetry - plus readings and events all over the city. Instructors include some of Boston's finest writers, including Chris Castellani, Rusty Barnes, Jane Roper, and Jami Brandli. And best of all, a true literary community has bloomed in Boston because of it.

Grub Street | 160 Boylston Street, Boston | 617.695.0075 | www.grubstreet.org

Best spooky drive
Taken together, Mount Auburn Cemetery, Cambridge Cemetery, and Roman Catholic Cemetery on the Cambridge-Watertown line cover well over 200 acres of land, and there is one road that cuts right through them. Coolidge Avenue begins on Arsenal Road at a busy intersection near two shopping malls, but quickly becomes nothing but gravestones as far as the eye can see. There are no turns, few lights, no other roads - other than paths leading into the graveyards - and enough hills and trees to render the outside world invisible. Ultimately you emerge on to Mount Auburn Street near the major intersection with Fresh Pond Parkway, and living civilization. Bonus challenge: try walking the route at night.

Mount Auburn Cemetery | 580 Mount Auburn, Cambridge | 617.547.7105

Best place to avoid the Circle's jerks
In Cleveland Circle, the species homo jerkus has found a number of habitats in which to thrive and multiply. Perfectly civilized BC undergrads can enter Mary Ann's, for example, and emerge like rabid cheetahs and Barbie Dolls on crack. Ah, but there's refuge: the historic Chestnut Hill Reservoir. The two-mile circular walking path winds through a variety of settings: past city gardens and an impressive 19th-century water-works edifice in the architectural fashion of H.H. Richardson, through shady groves of pine and maple, alongside playing fields, a splashy public pool, and a friendly dog park. Best of all, when you emerge refreshed, it will be easier to remember that the jerkus is actually pretty rare in the ol' hood.

www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/chestnutHill.htm | www.mass.gov/dcr/parks/metroboston/chesHistory.htm

Best midday stroll
The newly connected harborwalk on the south waterfront is one of the jewels of the city, but it's still unknown enough to be relatively quiet even on the most pleasant days. From Christopher Columbus Park to the World Trade Center, you can stroll with the ocean beside you without being jostled - just the occasional passing of a lawyer in sneakers on an exercise break. Beware the large silver sculpture near Rowes Wharf designed to blind you unexpectedly with the sun's reflection, and if you're on a bicycle be prepared for a stop-and-search at the Moakley Court House. Also, hold your skirt as you cross the Northern Avenue footbridge - the wind gusts from below.

www.bostonharborwalk.com

Best club that might just want you as a member
"Of the fans, by the fans and for the fans," reads the mission statement of the BoSox Club. Founded in 1967, it's the oldest and largest - and only official - organization representing the most rabid fan base in all of sport. Their luncheons and events feature Sox players, and they're at the forefront of the team's community-service endeavors. With just 800 or so members, it's an exclusive bunch. That doesn't mean you're shut out. To apply for membership, two current members must sponsor you, then a club director must second your candidacy. Approval is by majority vote, and members pay $75 in dues. It's a daunting process, but think how much cooler it is than those chintzy Red Sox Nation citizenship cards.

www.bosoxclub.com

Best elevators
It's not that the eight cars in the Suffolk Superior Court building are so much roomier, faster, or more reliable than those in other downtown facilities. It's just that for the past six years - while the state conducted a $40 million clean-up of "sick building syndrome" - the court had been located in the John W. McCormick building in Post Office Square. That building's elevators, just two for each tower, were installed sometime in the Paleocene era, and were cramped, noisy, frequently malfunctioning, and seemingly operated by an old man turning a hand crank. Waiting for an elevator in the lobby was interminable; waiting on a high floor to go down required comfortable shoes and plenty of reading material. Clerk's-office employees could hope, if lucky, to make it to the lobby and back within their lunch hour. Now, back in the high rise at Three Pemberton Square, the elevators feel like sci-fi transporters by comparison.

Suffolk Superior Court | 3 Pemberton Square, Boston