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Sarah Sassoon

By Sarah Sassoon 7/11/12 4:00pm

Sugar High

An illustration of Two, 7-Eleven Slurpee

7-Eleven Celebrates With FREE Slurpees: ‘A Slap In the Face to Bloomberg’

Drink up, New York. It’s 7-Eleven’s 85th birthday and people have poured into stores all around the city to show their appreciation (or to escape this summer’s perpetual heat wave).

Today, the chain cleverly holds true to its name as it offers free 7.11 oz Slurpees—its signature drink that celebrates its own 45th birthday this year as well—from the hours of 11 am to 7 pm at select locations. The store plans to give out 7 million cups of the sugary slush, according to its website.

As a guy in front of us lapsed into a coughing fit the moment he slurped his drink, his friend joked: “Must be a strong one, man.” All customers seemed in high spirits—who doesn’t love free stuff? Read More

By Sarah Sassoon 6/28/12 2:00pm

Sesame Street

Elmo. (Jason O. Watson/Getty Images)

Elmo in Grouchland: The Return of Malevolent Muppet

It may be a “Sunny day (where) everything’s A-Ok” on Sesame Street but New York City apparently draws a slightly tougher crowd.

On Sunday afternoon, police officials escorted childhood icon Elmo (or, rather, an Elmo impersonator) out of Central Park on a stretcher headed for psychological evaluation at Metropolitan Hospital Center, the Times reported. Although we would normally expect a chorus of sobs from the children witnessing such a site, this Elmo had ruffled enough feathers with his anti-semetic and xenophobic jabs that bystanders were more than willing to say ‘good riddance!’

On Tuesday afternoon, according to The Times, the man in the suit, who calls himself Adam Sandler (perhaps alluding to his self-acclaimed ‘comedic’ talents), returned to his post in the park after being released from psychological evaluation earlier that morning.

“I’m sort of sneaking back in,” he told The Times. Read More

By Sarah Sassoon 6/22/12 4:40pm

Full Stop

Sector E in Brownsville had more stop and frisks than any other corner of the city.

Bad News Brownsville: Life in the Most Stop-and-Frisked Blocks in New York

East New York, Brooklyn: amidst the slightly disintegrating buildings and graffiti-filled walls sits NY’s 75th precinct—the precinct that is credited with the most stop-and-frisks of 2011.

While some inhabitants of the area stress the common concerns that police are exercising racial discrimination and brutality in their stop-and-frisk operations, there seems to be more to the story. To often, officers have no real connection to the communities they cover, The Brooklyn Bureau reports. They seem not to care, and the 7-5 is a perfect illustration of that. Read More