Faceless and Tasteless: Brooklyn Restaurant Debuts (Then Deletes) Culinary Homage to Miami Zombie
The 2012 World Science Festival Gala: Our Alternate Universe Questions for LeVar Burton and Alan Alda
Stringer Heaps Praise On Bloomberg Soda Ban
Yesterday, we wrote about how the 2013 mayoral candidates slammed Mayor Bloomberg’s proposal to ban the sale of large size soda drinks at restaurants and concession stands.
We reached out to Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer, and his office told us that he was still evaluating the plan.
Today however Mr. Stringer told us that he is generally supportive of the proposal.
“I am very supportive of the mayor taking on the soda cartel,” he said. “We have to go out and win this battle.” Read More
Fun: An Interactive Map of Every NYPD Stop from 2011, By Race and Neighborhood!
If you live in New York, and you’ve picked up a newspaper, you’ve no doubt read about the New York City Police Department’s pesky problem of stop-and-frisks, the tactic used by police to…randomly stop-and-frisk whoever they feel may or may not be carrying something on them that makes them worth arresting. Does it help? Is it racial profiling? It is a total, outright, so-blatant-as-to-be-downright-impressive-in-scale violation of every fundamental civil liberty you assumed most people to have had but are now coming to realize simply don’t? Read More
The American Beverage Association Slams Soda Ban
The American Beverage Association, unsurprisingly, is less than happy with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s controversial plan to ban large sodas at restaurants. ABA, which bills itself as the “national voice for the non-alcoholic refreshment beverage industry,” published an article on their website aimed at refuting the measure, which they called “absurd,” “ridiculously unreasonable,” “unsound” and “incongruous.” Read More
Hayworth Doubles Down On ‘Acid Hurling’ Attack; Becker, Right Wing Blogs Pounce
Earlier today, Bruce Harvie, campaign manager for Nan Hayworth spoke publicly about campaign spokesman Jay Townsend’s comments on a Facebook page in which he suggested “hurling acid” at female Democratic senators.
And in his statement Mr. Harvie blamed the campaign of Richard Becker, one of a handful of Democrats vying to compete against Ms. Hayworth in November.
“This is a manufactured controversy by a campaign operation that has, for months, hurled offensive rhetoric and imagery at Nan Hayworth on various Facebook pages, including the one mentioned today. It is a matter of public record that the moderator of the page in question, while purporting to represent an objective point of view, is on the payroll of the Becker campaign. And in behalf of the Becker campaign, the moderator has tolerated extremely hostile and explicit comments against Dr. Hayworth. Only now have the media chosen to pay attention to this particular battlefield in the war against a woman who has the temerity to be a Republican Member of Congress.” Read More
Berkshire Scion Peter Buffett Bails Out of One Madison for an Extra $750,000
Apparently, a high-rise Manhattan condo didn’t really suit Peter Buffett. The youngest son of the famously frugal, resolutely Midwestern clan of the Berkshire Hathaway chief Warren Buffett has dumped his 18th-floor pad at 23 East 22nd Street for $4.25 million. The sale, which was previously reported by The New York Post, has finally hit city records.
Despite his hesitance to pass on financial advice or anything beyond a $90,000 inheritance to his children (the oracle of Omaha does not, reportedly, believe in inherited wealth), the elder Buffett obviously passed on some investing savoir faire. Read More
The Secrets of Cameo Appearances on Gossip Girl: Exposed!
There’s no telling whether or not, on Gossip Girl debut in September 2007, the show’s creators anticipated the distinct fervor over the show from adults. In turn, this obsession turned into a mobius strip perpetuated by the mechanism that is the Highbrow Cameo Appearance, whose significance would only be truly appreciated by those with the context to understand what canny remark the writers were making by bringing them in. Read More
The New York Times Magazine’s Hugo Lindgren Tells Reddit What Girls Character He Is
Hugo Lindgren, ethical feminist, entered Reddit’s Ask Me Anything forum an hour ago to appeal to Reddit readers who have been on the fence about subscribing to The New York Times Magazine.
Of course, the questions soon turn to the important topics of the day: What Girls character did Mr. Lindgren most identify with? Read More
President Obama to Celebrate Flag Day at 1 World Trade Center
Air Force One was headed to Minnesota today, where the president was unveiling a new jobs program for veterans, but en route, the press office revealed that when President Obama visits New York in two weeks, the World Trade Center will be among his stops.
During a press gaggle on the flight, deputy press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters that the visit was scheduled to coincide with Flag Day. (Not mentioned: It would also coincide with a fundraiser that night at Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick’s West Village townhouse.) Read More
Iris Apfel: A 90-Year-Old Style Icon on Wearing Jeans and Being a Somewhat Reluctant Subject of a Forthcoming Maysles Doc
At 90 years old, Iris Apfel has not gone gentle, as Dylan Thomas (nearly) put it, into that good night of pastels, luxe but innocuous suits, and orthopedically correct shoes. At Sotheby’s Wednesday night for the Kips Bay Boys & Girls Club “Best Of” design lecture series, she wore a slate grey knee-length leather coat drenched in embroidery, ombre slacks, a taupe Mongolian lambskin wrap, and a froth of turquoise necklaces at her throat. But we only saw, at least initially, those glossy black fishbowl glasses and the crimson lips that have become her signature.
Read More
Scientists Take the Stage to Tell Stories of Getting “Too Close to the Sun” at the Moth’s 1000th Performance
“Does she have a code name?” a staffer asked a man in blue, as The Observer stood backstage minutes before the beginning of “Too Close To The Sun: Stories of Flash Points,” a show from The Moth coinciding with the ongoing World Science Festival. It was the story-telling collective’s 1,000th event and likely the first one to have a team of secret service agents in the midst.
The would-be code-name-bearer in question (alas, those privileges don’t extend to this cabinet member) was EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, on hand at Cooper Union’s Great Hall as one of five storytellers who would take the stage with science-related tales. Ms. Jackson wasn’t the first D.C. insider to have taken this stage; less than a year before becoming president Abraham Lincoln famously gave his 1860 Cooper Union Address in the same spot.
Read More
