Strangers Among Us: The Protagonist of Nell Freudenberger's Novel Is New to America
The Battle of Billyburg: Fresh-Faced Lincoln Restler Challenges The ‘Corrupt’ Political Machine
The Evil Eye! Israel Boycott Comes to Roosevelt Island As BDS Movement Targets Tech Campus
Fifty Shades of Grey: Coming to a Bodega Near You!
David Einhorn Waves Magic Wand Over Martin Marietta and Stock Falls; Herbalife Surges (UPDATE)
Art World Hang Out White Slab Palace Gives Way to New England Raw Bar
Charlie Rangel Wishes That Obama Would Hug And Kiss Him
A Very Blue View From An Empty Penthouse
Blogger James Franco Takes Issue with The New York Observer, Defends Interest in Ghost Hunting, Graduation Speeches
The Evil Eye! Israel Boycott Comes to Roosevelt Island As BDS Movement Targets Tech Campus
After they came after our hummus, it was only a time before they came for our mobile app engineers.
Anti-Israeli groups set on depriving New York of two of its most important commodities have moved on from the dowdy old Park Slope Food Co-op to the shiny new Roosevelt Island tech campus. What do both have in common? A commitment to the environment and Israeli imports. Curbed has spotted a new group, New Yorkers Against Cornell-Technion, dead set on stopping the new tech campus, Mayor Bloomberg’s biggest achievement since the smoking ban, because of the affiliations of Cornell’s lesser-known (on these shores) partner.
According to the New Yorkers Against Cornell-Technion’s website, Technion is complicit in every nefarious Israeli deed from the settlements to circumcision. Read More
Fifty Shades of Grey: Coming to a Bodega Near You!
The New York City corner bodegas that dot every other corner of our fair metropolis are, as it stands, de facto sex shops. There, among the groceries, one can find beer (for courage), a wide selection of three-pack condoms (for birth control and protection from sexually transmitted diseases), sexual lubricants (for sexual lubrication), all stripes of “supplements” promising to enhance one’s sexual prowess (which suspiciously have yet to be banned by Chuck Schumer), cigarettes (post-coital smoking),feral cats (to scare unwanted sleepovers away), pornographic magazines (for people who…don’t have the internet?), and water (for hydration!).
Now, in keeping with the times, they are apparently adding one more item to the cornucopia of sexually-enabling wares they already offer:
Fifty Shades of Grey. Read More
David Einhorn Waves Magic Wand Over Martin Marietta and Stock Falls; Herbalife Surges (UPDATE)
David Einhorn, everyone’s favorite short seller (well, not everyone), said he was shorting Martin Marietta Materials at the Ira Sohn Conference today, and the producer of construction materials promptly dropped 8.3 percent. Over at the other end of the Nasdaq, Herbalife surged, presumably on news that Mr. Einhorn had not presented an argument Read More
Art World Hang Out White Slab Palace Gives Way to New England Raw Bar
The wonderfully grimy Lower East Side bar White Slab Palace, a kind of art world hub and site of the short-lived exhibition space The Slab, will be replaced this weekend by a new restaurant called the Gray Lady, Bowery Boogie reports. Read More
Charlie Rangel Wishes That Obama Would Hug And Kiss Him
Charlie Rangel appeared on CNN for an interview with Kyra Phillips this morning and he was asked about President Obama’s apparent lack of support for his re-election bid.
Recall that in 2010, the president described Mr. Rangel, then mired in a fundraising and illegal apartment scandal, as someone who “ served his constituents very well” but also as someone ”who’s at the end of his career. Eighty years old. I’m sure that he wants to end his career with dignity. And my hope is that it happens. “ Read More
A Very Blue View From An Empty Penthouse
Imagine you had $14,000 a month to rent the penthouse of the Bernard Tschumi-designed Blue Building. Now imagine you had long, thoughtful days empty of distractions like work or child care, days when you could sit and think deep thoughts as you stared out at the city far below through enormous, slanted, blue-tinted windows.
Well, that’s how The Observer felt when we watched the weirdly-captivating time-lapse video by Curbed videographer David Sherwin. Read More
Blogger James Franco Takes Issue with The New York Observer, Defends Interest in Ghost Hunting, Graduation Speeches
Two days ago, The New York Observer noticed that Renaissance man James Franco had quietly begun blogging for the Huffington Post, adding to his already extensive resume of writer/poet/Ivy League student/film teacher/director/musician/actor/producer/artist. Tackling the issues of New Orleans, haunted houses, and that time he hung out with Nick Cage in a haunted house in New Orleans, we posted the item of interest because, like it or not, James Franco is a Very Famous Person. (Also because we miss his Twitter feed so much.)
But Mr. Franco was not happy with our assessment of his Frank Bruni-esque musings, and called out The New York Observer in his latest HuffPost column for writing about his new gig instead of “covering pressing world issues.” Read More
Get On Your Feet: The Essential Steve Ballmer Videos
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently topped a Forbes list naming the CEOs who should have already been fired, calling him “the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today.” Ouch.
We leave ranking his leadership abilities up to the glossies, but what we do consider ourselves experts in is his hype man skills. In fact, we dare say that Mr. Ballmer is the Best Hype Man of All Time. YouTube is an unending well of Ballmer gold. And as Deadspin editor Erik Malinowski put it, “He really is a national treasure.”
So without further ado, we present to you the five best Steve Ballmer videos of all time. Read More
Ed Koch: Gay Marriage Isn’t A Winning Issue for Obama
At a press conference with congressional candidate Rory Lancman earlier today, we asked former Mayor Ed Koch about the timing of President Barack Obama’s announcement that he supports gay marriage, and whether he felt it was cynical at all. Mr. Koch is a prominent support of gay marriage, but he argued Mr. Obama’s decision was actually made in spite of the electoral politics rather than because of them.
“I don’t have any doubt that the statement by Vice President [Biden] on the subject matter precipitated his doing that,” Mr. Koch explained, noting he didn’t quite agree with the word “cynical” to describe it. “But I believe it’s totally representive of his thoughts.” Read More
Greece Woes Likely Making Matters Worse for JPMorgan’s Dimon, Grandson of Greek Immigrant
The European Central Bank stopped monetary operations with some Greek banks today, Reuters reports, the latest bit of bad news for Greece and just about everyone else. Savers have been withdrawing funds from Greek banks at a rate of more than $800 million a day, as the failure by Greek political parties to Read More
