Yesterday, the police arrested a Brooklyn man who posed as a livery cab driver for two rapes in the past year, including one that occurred last Wednesday. Ryan Frison, described as 41 years old and 400 pounds, faces rape, robbery and unlawful imprisonment charges. Last week, a Long Island University student called Frison's "unlicensed" livery cab business and asked for a ride from Brooklyn to Baltimore. When he arrived with a friend, he picked her......

Attention Gawker commenters: Nick Denton needs you to pick up his dry cleaning. Though it sounds too good to be true, it seems that eager young Gawker interns are working their way up the new media ladder on the strength of their smug observations, sarcastic bon mots and impassioned diatribes on all things trivial. Will the "first!" be the first to be hired? Yesterday cewebrity heartbreaker, CollegeHumor co-founder and Gawker darling Jakob Lodwick posted an......

An executive at a subprime loan company that was financially circling the drain stated that the murder of his wife and consequent suicide was not related to money worries, but personal problems. Walter Buczynski was a 59-year-old vice president of Fieldstone Mortgage Corp., a mortgage lending company sinking into bankrupty. He'd told neighbors that he would soon be looking for a new job, but they didn't sense an irregular level of distress. Nonetheless, Buczynski broke......

Uh oh - there's definitely a little drama for five well-known performers as the Albany DA's office continues its probe into steroid trafficking. The Times Union reported yesterday that Mary J. Blige, 50 Cent, Timbaland, Wyclef Jean and Tyler Perry were "among the thousands of customers of the pharmacies" DA David Soares' office has investigated. Oh. In other words, the celebrities are just the bold-faced names, and the sources say there isn't evidence that they......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Mr. Warmth: The Don Rickles Project (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., HBO) A look at America's favorite insult comic and last surviving member of the “Rat Pack”, the octogenarian Don Rickles from director John Landis. Everyone from Chris Rock to Bob Newhart to Clint Eastwood to Sidney Poitier talk about the comic. 1968 (Sunday, 9:00 p.m., History Channel) 1968 was a turbulent and tragic year and Tom Brokaw not......

Matthew Houck is the man behind Phosphorescent -- and the Brooklyn-by-way-of-Athens, Georgia musician just put out his third release, Pride, to many eager ears and much fanfare. Playing every instrument on the atmospherock avant-pop album, he also recruited some friends to help along the way, such as the Dirty Projectors’ Dave Longstreth. On the periphery you can hear Bob Dylan, Neil Young and Will Oldham -- but the modern day folkie has a sound all......

If they want to, the Jets can trace the morphing of their season from disappointing to disastrous from their Week 4 loss in Buffalo on Sept. 30. Before that, their only defeats came against the Patriots and the Ravens. Those are nothing to be ashamed of. But now the team hasn't won since a Week 3 squeaker against the Dolphins, and, let's face it, everybody's beating Miami these days. The Jets will try it all......

The NY Times delved into an amazing story of how a painting left for the trash was actually a long-missing painting by Rufino Tamayo, the Mexican artist. Someone, make this into a movie! In 2003, Elizabeth Gibson rescued the colorful, 38 1/8"-by-51 1/4" painting at West 72nd Street and Broadway. After years of trying to trace its origins, Gibson finally caught a break when a helpful librarian at the Frick suggested she go to the......

Chad Pennington gets all the attention, but the Jets' problems run deeper than the quarterback position. Eric Mangini said as much during an unusually open news conference following the latest Jets debacle, a 38-31 loss at Cincinnati on Sunday. Pennington looked fine in the first half, throwing two touchdowns to Lavaranues Coles. In the second half, the rest of the team's wheels fell off at once. Kenny Watson tore up the Jets' rush defense. When......

Yankees 8 Baltimore 5: Nothing comes easy at the end of the year. The Yankees fell behind 2-0 before rallying for a 5-2 lead. But, Phil Hughes was shaky and had to be lifted in the sixth as the Orioles threatened. Edwar Ramirez managed to end that threat, but the Orioles rallied in the seventh and Luis Vizcaino had to come in and snuff out that rally. Kyle Farnsworth created problems in the ninth and......

Ready for a quarterback controversy? Kellen Clemens took a while to get his feet under him, but he almost led the Jets back in their 20-13 loss in Baltimore. A drop and a poor throw of his own cost Clemens down the stretch, and the Jets are 0-2. At least they didn't go weakly into the Baltimore night. If not for Justin McCareins' buttery fingers, this game would have gone to overtime. This performance won't......

Yankees 4 Red Sox 3: Boston will still win the AL East and will probably have the best record in all of baseball, but the Yankees have shown that they can beat them when it counts. After starting the season 1-5 against Boston, New York won the season series by going 9-3 in the final 12 games. Sunday’s win was a flashback to the old days. Derek Jeter had the big hit, Roger Clemens had......

Thanks to the Patriots' spying, the Jets have enjoyed a week surprisingly free of the questions that normally follow teams that start the season with convincing losses at home. According to The Times, 14 of the 25 questions fielded by Coach Eric Mangini on Wednesday dealt with the alleged filming of the Jets' defensive signals. Rest assured, Eric Mangini's not thinking about the Patriots offense but instead the Ravens defense. So is Kellen Clemens. The......

Blue Jays 2, Yankees 1: Ian Kennedy would have signed up for one hit allowed in seven innings. The hit was a run-scoring double -- on a ball that Melky Cabrera should have caught.Too bad A.J. Burnett looked just as sharp while holding the Yankees to only a Johnny Damon solo homer. Then Chris Britton allowed a a run-scoring single in the ninth, and a seven-game winning streak went up in smoke. With Phil Hughes......

There's one member of the Mets that is up for the Hall of Fame today. The Mascot Hall of Fame, that is. The round-headed ball of a mascot is trailing by about 5,500 votes in the race for popularity on the Mascot Hall of Fame website. He trails The Coyote, the mascot of the San Antonio Spurs. The Post pulls out all the stops to make sure Mr. Met is the top vote getter.......

There's an excellent Vows column in this week's NY Times Weddings & Celebrations. It's the one for Fran Boyd and Donnie Andrews, two Baltimore residents whose difficult lives were the basis for the HBO dramas The Corner and The Wire. Boyd and Andrews were featured in a page one story in the Times last week, and the Vows column explains more of how they met and how they supported each other during prison sentences,......

Mets 10 Pirates 8: What should have been a laugher became a little too close for comfort two different times Wednesday night. The Mets jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the first, thanks to doubles from David Wright and Carlos Delgado and a home run from Moises Alou, but Pittsburgh crept back into the game. The Pirates scored twice in the second and added single runs in the fourth and sixth to make it......

Mets 5 Pittsburgh 4: El Duque struck out eight, but he was also wild, walking five and allowing three runs over six innings. Moises Alou gave the Mets the lead with a two-run single in the eighth and Lastings Milledge made a great catch in the bottom of the inning to preserve the win. Billy Wagner worked a flawless ninth for his 27th save. Baltimore 12 Yankees 0: Scooter would have left this game......

All too often, we read (and write) about horrible instances of traffic fatalities when motor vehicles fail to yield to pedestrians with the right of way. There used to be a simple solution to this problem, and it was known as the Barnes Dance. Although NYC traffic commissioner Henry Barnes didn't invent the concept, it became named after him in the 1960s by a City Hall reporter named John Buchanan. The Barnes Dance involved red......

Mr. Met's hat may be cocked, but he's not cocky after being nominated for the online entity that is the Mascot Hall of Fame. Mets organization officials said the usually mute mascot remained speechless at the honor. Induction is not a sure thing. Other candidates, which will be voted for online, include the Coyote for the San Antonio Spurs, Hugo the Hornet for the New Orleans Hornets, the Oriole bird for the Baltimore Orioles,......

A look at some noteworthy television this week: Secrets of New York: New York's Firsts: Pioneering Moments (Sunday, 8:30 p.m., WNYE 25) Kelly Choi takes a look at some New York firsts. White Light/Black Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Monday, 7:30 p.m. HBO) To commemorate the 62nd anniversary of the first bombing of civilian targets with nuclear weapons at Hiroshima, HBO airs this look at the two deadly attacks through archival footage and......

Mets 5, Nationals 0 (5 innings): John Maine lasted five innings. Normally that wouldn't that be that good, but then the rains came, the game was called 90 minutes later and Maine had a complete-game one-hitter. Don't look past Maine's battery-mate, Ramon Castro, who went 2-for-2 with a home run and has looked great when he's seen the time. Would the Mets be a better team with him as the regular catcher and Paul......

Mets gain a split: El Duque led the Mets to a 3-1 victory in the first game pitching seven innings and striking out eight. In the nightcap Pedro Feliciano couldn’t keep things close and New York dropped a 6-5 decision. Baltimore 7 Yankees 5: The Orioles jumped out to a 7-1 lead thanks to shaky relief from Brian Bruney, but the Yankees made things interesting with a four-run ninth. But, the Yankees couldn’t tie things......

Yankees 8, Orioles 7: Way back on June 28th, the game between the Yankees and Orioles was suspended in the 8th inning with New York up 8-6. Last night, the two teams continued the June game with Mariano Rivera allowing one Baltimore run to make things exciting in the 9th before picking up what is officially his 10th save of the season. Orioles 4, Yankees 2: In the regularly scheduled game last night, the Yankees......

Add this to the list of instances when blocks of cheese can be considered suspicious: When they are found in your carry-on luggage by the Transportation Security Administration. NBC Nightly News found an advisory warning airport screeners to be on the lookout as terrorists may be conducting dry runs. There have been four seizures since September that have aroused suspicion. At San Diego, Milwaukee, Houston and Baltimore airports, TSA screeners have been finding more "wires,......

The clock is ticking and the new Harry Potter book will be released at 12:01am, less than twelve hours from now! The scene will surely be crazy and something that this city hasn't seen since...well, Wednesday when people lined up for a canvas grocery sack. JK Rowling bids farewell to the boy who made her billions with this final novel, and she's feeling a bit buggered about the reviews that came out before the book......

Yankees 8 Baltimore 6 (suspended in the 8th): If this has been a hockey game, I guess we would call it a tie. Since it is a baseball game, we just have to say it will be resumed later. The Yankees did everything they could to lose this game, blowing a lead in the seventh with their ace on the mound before rallying for four runs in the eighth in the middle of a......

Baltimore 3 Yankees 2: From the multiple camera shots of a glum Joe Torre shown on YES, it was obvious he was in the ballpark tonight, but was he paying attention? After all, what other conclusion can you come to when Torre let Scott Proctor load the bases with one out in the ninth and still let him pitch with the game on the line and Mariano in the bullpen? It certainly wasn’t because Rivera......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a bank robbery at 59-23 Main St. in Queens, a partial collapse of a house being renovated in Wingate, Brooklyn, and a pedestrian was struck at Clove Rd. and Victory Blvd. on Staten Island. The idiot fan arrested at a Mets game the other week plead guilty to attempting to blind Braves players with a high-powered flashlight. His sentence: 15 days in jail and a three two-year ban from......

Who could forget the bloody sock of Curt Schilling during game 6 of the 2004 American League Championship Series? Certainly not Red Sox fans and maybe not Yankee fans. To refresh - Schilling had ankle surgery after game 1 of the ALCS to stabilize a tendon in his right ankle. He returned in game 6, winning that game. Boston won the series and went on to win its first World Series in 86 years. On......