2009_11_xx1108.jpg
Photograph by Pete of Brooklyn

  • From the Gothamist Newsmap: An overturn at 37th St & 3rd Ave in Manhattan, a barricaded EDP on Tillary St in Brooklyn and a shooting on College Ave in the Bronx.
  • Louisiana is in a state of emergency because Hurricane Ida is on the way. The hurricane killed 91 in El Salvador.
  • NJ Governor Jon Corzine is dealing with his election loss in St. Bart's.
  • Hideki Matsui's translator also got a key to the city after the Yankees ticker tape parade on Friday.
  • While The Christmas Carol was number one at the weekend box office with $31 million, the critically acclaimed Precious, about the harrowing life of a Harlem teen, made a record-breaking $100,000 per screen in limited release.
  • After three men were robbed in Central Park early this morning, the police have made one arrest. Two other suspects are still at large.
  • Broadway babies: The NY Times profiles the youngsters in Broadway's Finian's Rainbow; when one was five years old, she asked her mom, "When are you going to get that lady who gets me a job?" (as in an agent).
  • And while Hollywood stars are relieved that a group of teen burglars has been apprehended, maybe they should think about locking their doors and windows in the first place.
Online Commenters Beware: "Sock-Puppeting" Could Get You Arrested

Posting online comments under multiple aliases is apparently against the law, at least in the case of Raphael Haim Golb, 49, who is suspected of using 50 different e-mail addresses and monikers — some of the names belonging to academic rivals — to bolster his arguments about the origins of the Dead Sea Scrolls. To back up his belief that the relics were actually produced in Jerusalem libraries, Golb allegedly used multiple online "sock puppets," or fake identities, to make it seem like he had supporters.

Missing Greenpoint Cat Sparks Serial Catnapping Fears

2009_11_lucascat.jpg Miss Heather reports that Russian Blue kitten Lucas is missing from Greenpoint pet food & supplies store Pets on the Run—and what's more troubling is that it's the second missing cat from that area in recent days. A cat went missing from a nearby bodega—and it turned out that a woman in the neighborhood had taken the cat (and, according to another business owner, apparently has a history of taking cats). Luckily, after some neighborly intervention, the bodega cat was returned to his home and his relieved owners—we hope Lucas can have a similar happy ending.

       

He materializes upstage wearing dark skirts, some sort of plastic tube stuffed in his mouth, his hair tied in a spiky pony-tail, a plastic duck in a birdcage hugged to his chest. The classic Chordettes oldie Mr. Sandman is playing, and in a flash we're once again transported to Foremanland, a singular dimension of feverish theatrical provocation, devoid of conventional narrative but rich with humor and deliciously inspired tableaux.

Actor And Director Could Be Evicted By The Blue Man Group

East Village actor and director Sturgis Warner isn't just facing eviction from his apartment of more than 30 years — in a theatrical twist that adds insult to injury, he might get kicked out of his home by the producers of the Blue Man Group. In 2001, the moneymen behind the indigo-hued performance troupe purchased the building that houses their theater on Lafayette Street's Colonnade Row, where the 59-year-old thespian has lived in a fifth floor walk-up since 1978. Since then, the producers have been buying out tenants to convert the residences into their own apartments, a move that housing laws allow.

NY Post Finds One Man Who Sides With Fort Hood Shooter

You've got to hand it to the Post for being the first local paper to do its due diligence and cover both sides of last week's Fort Hood massacre. In the kind of story that simultaneously riles up its readers and shows a fundamental misunderstanding of some journalistic basics — akin to quoting the Grinch for fairness in an article about Christmas tree sales — the tabloid today gives ink to a lone Queens man who thinks that Major Nidal Hasan did the right thing when he opened fire inside the Texas base last week, killing 13 and wounding 38. "An officer and a gentleman was injured while partaking in a pre-emptive attack," Yousef al-Khattab wrote on his website, "Revolution Muslim." "Rest assured the slain terrorists at Ft. Hood are in the eternal hellfire."

What's This: Taxi Drivers (Mostly) Like Credit Card Payments!

Aha! After a rocky start with accepting credit card payments (the striking... the threatening... the chasing... the punching), taxi drivers had conceded last year that plastic payments were helping them out. Now, two years after the program was launched, the NY Times further confirms that the credit (and debit) card payment system is mostly a success.

Nets Player Stricken By Swine Flu

2009_11_cdr.jpg Chris Douglas-Roberts, the second year Nets guard, has swine flu, the team confirmed yesterday. Coach Lawrence Frank spoke to Douglas-Roberts, "e doesn't sound very good...All the measures are taken, now it's a matter of when he feels better." Players are being given Tamiflu as a precaution—forward Bobby Simmons said, "I went to the grocery store this morning, and a lot of people were coughing in there, too. It’s something in the air that’s going on right now. It just shows that it’s very serious, and we can’t take it for granted."

Racy Calvin Klein Ad Infuriates Prudes, Again

Just months after Calvin Klein pulled down a risqué billboard amidst complaints from neighbors and a Christian advocacy group, the jeans and skivvies manufacturer has installed a new ad on the same wall that has once again sparked controversy among the prudes in SoHo, according to the Daily News. Filling a space that recently depicted a denim-clad threesome (or foursome depending on your perspective), the new ad shows a sweaty Eva Mendez in lingerie tugging at a male model's briefs.

Times Reporter Takes Scientology Test, Encouraged To Join

Well, NY Times reporter Ariel Kaminer was encouraged to join until someone at the Church of Scientology Googled her name and realized that she was a reporter for the NY Times. But she still got enough material for a piece titled, "In Scientology’s Door, but Not Much Farther." Kaminer went to the group's Times Square building and took the "personality test with 200 sometimes puzzling questions":

Elsewhere In The ist-a-verse

This week's links from over -ist sites: In LA, a man was found guilty on several charges after deliberately slamming his brakes to block a cyclist behind him; in DC, a local gay couple got engaged during the council's hearing on whether to legal same-sex marriage in the capital; in Toronto, the big city paper announced to outsource 100 union editing jobs; and more.

NJ, VA Republican Wins Encourage Lazio's Gov Run

2009_11_lazio.jpg Rick Lazio, former L.I. Congressman and the guy who ran for a Senate seat against Hillary Clinon, feels good about his 2010 chances, after GOP gubernatorial victories in NJ and Virginia. He told WCBS 2, "Tuesday was, to me, very much a validation of my message. Government has become unresponsive, unaccountable and the people have lost faith." Marist pollster Lee Miringoff said, "Clearly, economic discontent is running extensively throughout the electorate as are the winds of change. If your first name is 'governor' right now, it makes it hard," adding, "People don't know who [Lazio] is, so there is not great name recognition there. So this is all potential." But if Governor Paterson's last ditch efforts don't work, Lazio may have to face...Andrew Cuomo.

UES Eateries Accused Of Racism For Not Delivering To Harlem

Two Upper East Side restaurants refuse to deliver uptown to East Harlem, but they willingly schlep longer distances downtown to service a more affluent and more white neighborhood. An investigation by the Post reveals that both Chinese Mirch on Second Avenue between 94th and 95th streets and One Fish Two Fish on Madison Avenue and 97th Street declined to deliver to addresses located 15 blocks to the north, but readily fulfilled orders 20 blocks to the south — a delivery discrepancy that "smacks of racism," according to state Sen. Bill Perkins (D-Harlem). "The difference between north and south is black and white," he said.

Early Addition

Today's mid-day links: President Obama will attend a service for victims of the Fort Hood massacre on Tuesday, the state is saving money by cutting down on personal printers, alternate side of the street parking returns to some neighborhoods, and more.

Video: Weekend Update Takes On Goldman Sachs' Swine Flu Vaccines

After news that Goldman Sachs (and Citigroup) received 200 swine flu vaccines out of 5,400 requested, which is the same amount as Memorial Sloan-Kettering received for its 27,000+ request for its workers, Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update decided to tap into the populist outrage.

UPDATE: Investigators Suspect Animal Torture In L.I. Pet Cemetery

petcemetery.jpg A Long Island woman is suspected of torturing and killing as many as 20 cats and dogs — some of them belonging to her neighbors — before burying them behind her home. Animal control investigators unearthed the "gruesome pet cemetery" on Saturday behind 43-year-old Sharon McDonough's Suffolk County house after discovering five malnourished dogs kept in cramped cages inside the residence. According to WPIX, "McDonough frequently involved her children in the animal killings by asking them to hold pets down as she tortured them." Neighbors whose pets have gone missing showed up at McDonough's home hoping to identify their animals. "A couple of people have lost pets," neighbor Angelo Zotto, 70, told the Daily News. "They were up here today with pictures of their pets showing them to the SPCA, wondering if theirs had been found in the backyard."

911 Typo Misdirects Firefighters In Deadly Queens Blaze

Firefighters responding to a deadly Woodside fire that killed three and injured four in an illegal basement apartment yesterday could have arrived sooner — had they not been routed to the wrong address first. A 911 operator mistakenly entered a two instead of a five and sent Engine Company 292 and Rescue Company 4 on a "wild goose chase" to 62nd Street instead of 65th Street, a delay that cost firefighters about 2 minutes and 30 seconds, according to the fire union.

       

With a military flyover and cannons firing, the U.S. Navy's newest assault ship, the U.S.S. New York, was commissioned yesterday. Secretary of the Navy Ray Mabus referred to the fact that 7.5 tons of steel from the former World Trade Center was used to build the chip, "No matter how many times you attack us, we always come back. America always comes back. That's what this ship represents."

7 Train Extension Dooms NYC's Biggest Drop-In Homeless Shelter

To make room for the planned extension of the 7 train, the Port Authority will evict the city's largest homeless drop-in center at the end of March, according to the Daily News. The Open Door shelter — which every day provides meals and showers to some 200 homeless men and women — would have closed sooner, but the city was able to convince the transit agency to delay a part of the line extension project to keep shelter visitors off the streets during the winter. Though the Open Door shelter doesn't have beds, an average of 94 people slept there per night in September. One of the regulars, 63-year-old Lee Parker, told the tabloid he has slept in a chair at the shelter each night for the past two months. "It's better than sleeping out on the street," he said. "It's safe and warm."

Man Kills Girlfriend, Then Himself In Queens

2009_11_qnsms.jpg Yesterday afternoon, NY1 reports, "Authorities received a 911 call about a stabbing and found the bodies of Paul Johnson, 47, and Regina Alston, 46," in a Jamaica, Queens home. "Alston had multiple stab wounds, while sources say Johnson hung himself and had cuts on his body." The Daily News says the couple's teen daughters were present at the time and one jumped out of a second story window to escape. The landlord said they were good tenants but recently Johnson moved out after a fight.

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