Last night on Mad Men, Harry Crane and Don Draper headed to Queens to catch The Rolling Stones at Forest Hills Tennis Stadium in an effort to sign them up to record a jingle for Heinz Beans (move over Bean Ballet), with a "TimeHeinz Is On Your Side" pitch*. The two even explore the borough a little, with a stop at the Queens Boulevard White Castle! We won't include any real spoilers here—instead, let's look back at the stadium and the concert. When we check out some photos from 1966, the year that Don Draper & Co. are currently living in, we saw a photo of this Rolling Stones concert, which happened in real life on July 2nd, 1966. more ›

While Marty Markowitz has been lobbying for an Apple store in Brooklyn for years, that borough may be one of the last to get one. Currently Manhattan has five Apple stores (the latest in Grand Central), Staten Island has one, and it turns out Queens may be next on the list. Forest Hills, to be exact. more ›

At what point do you start teaching kids the complicated geopolitics of the Middle East and how much detail on each side do you give? That is the question brought up today by public school parent Dana Milstein, whose 10-year-old recently came home from school with what Milstein found to be an alarming, propagandist "fact sheet" on Israel. Now she's taking her concerns to the public—and she has some points. more ›

Since the recession we've heard more and more about restaurants adding automatic gratuity for parties much smaller than six but an automatic gratuity for brown people? At an Indian restaurant? That's new to us. But that is exactly what a new lawsuit is claiming the Forest Hills outpost of the chain Baluchi's does. In papers filed in Brooklyn yesterday [PDF] Abe Shah and Hemang Virani, who are of Pakistani and Indian descent respectively, claim that on May 12 they were charged an 18 percent gratuity without their permission. When they complained to a manager they were told that the restaurant routinely adds on the extra money to "Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi customers" bills because "they never tip." And then things got violent! more ›

Former Congressman Anthony Weiner has been keeping a low profile after his no-sex sex scandal—he maybe left a bad tip and buys crappy flowers—but he has one less thing to worry about: He sold the two-bedroom Forest Hills apartment he shares with his wife, State Department staffer Huma Abedin. Of course, this is the apartment where he posed for a few self-portraits so whoever buys it next will probably have to burn bushels of sage for cleansing. more ›

Just because you're a bank robber doesn't mean you can't be polite. Harold Luken, who the Post describes as a "nebbishy knucklehead in a black yarmulke," walked into a Forest Hills Bank of America on Thursday, declaring "I am gonna rob the bank! I have a gun, but I'm gonna wait on line." Just try reading that in anything but the Jackie Mason voice. more ›

This past week, Yale Law professor Amy Chua's controversial essay on Chinese child rearing in the Wall Street Journal has received a ton of attention, much of it decidedly hostile and negative. Appropriately, the Times has uncovered a public school where some of Chua's work-first, play-never philosophies are being hammered out. more ›

The mother of a 33-year-old man who was fatally beaten in a Forest Hills nightclub Friday night is pleading for witnesses to come forward. Haroon Walfall was at the subterranean Bartinis Lounge with a cousin and a friend when he got into an altercation with at least ten men, NYPD sources tell NY1. Walfall's mother Beverley Waide tells WABC, "He was talking to this girl. Apparently she had her boyfriend there. And maybe he got jealous and he attacked my son. And his friends came at him and they started beating him. They were all stomping at him. Stomping at his face with his boots." Walfall also believes the bouncers were involved in the fatal beating. more ›

A 25-year-old man was found dead this afternoon on the 2nd floor bathroom floor at the Forest Hills Barnes & Noble. The man was discovered about two hours after the store opened. Police found him unresponsive, and he was pronounced dead earlier this afternoon. A Medical Examiner is conducting an autopsy to determine the cause of death, though the Post reports no weapons at the scene or visible injuries on his body. more ›

In advance of widespread transit service cuts planned for June, NYC Transit is getting an early start by terminating G train service between Court Square and Forest Hills, effective April 19th. But the end probably won't feel so bitter for many commuters, because the G infrequently putters along that stretch of track anyway. more ›

The geriatric drama continues in Forest Hills! Seventy-three-year-old Eddie Palmieri canceled his show in Westchester last night, still traumatized by his wife being shot by a neighbor in their building earlier this week. While their 81-year-old downstairs neighbor Maria Cartagena is still being held at Rikers, a source told the Daily News that "there was some concern that [the shooter] will be out on bail, and [Palmieri is] concerned about keeping his family safe and healthy at all costs." more ›

81-year-old mega-cougar Maria Cartagena was allegedly paranoid that the women in her building were after her much younger 60-year-old husband, Rafael. According to the Post the woman "shot a hat off the head" (!) of her neighbor, Grammy award-winning Eddie Palmieri's wife, and now remains under medical and psychological observation at Rikers. more ›

81-year-old Maria Cartagena of Forest Hills tried to kill Grammy award winning Eddie Palmieri's 73-year-old wife Tuesday night in their building. Cartagena allegedly pulled a .38-caliber revolver from her fanny pack and told Iraida Palmieri, "Move over or I'm gonna kill ya!" She then fired once, grazing Palmieri's head. more ›

A mentally disturbed man with bad B.O. and a penchant for exposing himself is ruining the Forest Hills Starbucks for paying customers, but apparently nobody can do a damn thing about it. The guy has been frequenting the establishment, which is connected to the Barnes & Noble, for several weeks now, and employees insist they're not allowed to eject him, because only the managers have that authority. He became "belligerent" when confronted by a reporter last week, and has been scaring the elderly and young with his smelly Johnson. more ›

A Queens priest is under federal investigation for viewing child pornography on the Internet. Monsignor Michael Dempsey, 77, of Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Forest Hills was placed on administrative leave, barred from publicly acting as a priest, and asked to leave his on-site residence, where he has lived since 1961, according to the Post. Dempsey served as the executive director of pastoral communications from 1978 until his retired last year. This is the second time in recent years that Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church has been hit with a sex scandal; in 2003, a priest was accused of fondling an altar boy in the priest's residence in the 1980's. more ›

The DOT has been repainting many of the parking spaces on wide Queens streets so they're angled in the opposite direction of traffic, forcing drivers pull past them and back in. DOT spokesman Seth Solomonow tells the Daily News the new angles are being implemented because, "It's safer to back into an empty parking space than back out of one into oncoming traffic." But the change is apparently too disorienting for some Queens drivers, like Steve Goodman of Forest Hills, who tells 1010WINS, "They painted the lines in backwards. Why are they backwards like this? This is crazy!" And 61-year-old contractor David Graber complains, "I find it very confusing. The last time I was here, it was easy. You just pulled right in. They should've used someone less educated to make this decision." See, this mess wouldn't have happened if the State Senate was in charge of parking! Thankfully, the DOT is going to install large signs in Forest Hills instructing drivers how to back into the parking spots—in the meantime, it's chaos! more ›

A Bronx man was arrested and charged with second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing that occurred in Queens. Last week, Michael Pecora's body was found in his Forest Hills apartment. When Pecora's family called his cellphone, a cab driver answered, saying that a passenger he took to the Bronx gave it to him, because he didn't have any money to pay. Newsday reports that the cab driver's information led police to a relative of Alexys Fermaintt, 30, who resides in East Tremont but was arrested on Thursday in Holyoke, Massachusetts and brought to Queens on Friday: "Pecora's computer was found in a separate Holyoke apartment that police said appeared to be Fermaintt's primary address, according to a detective." more ›

Investigators tell the Daily News that the man found stabbed to death in his Queens apartment probably met his killer online. The News reports that Michael Pecora's sister had called his cell phone, only for a stranger to answer: "The man with Pecora's cell phone was a cab driver, who told the sister he was given the phone earlier in the week by a passenger who said he didn't have any money to pay the fare, sources said. The passenger gave the cab driver the phone and a watch as payment when he was dropped off in the Bronx." The sister contacted the police, who then questioned the cabbie. The cabbie recalled the fare was carrying a laptop—and Pecora's laptop was missing from his Forest Hills home—leading police to suspect the killer stole the computer to cover his tracks. more ›

Last night, the body of a man who had been stabbed to death was discovered in his Forest Hills apartment in what WABC 7 says was a "very, very bloody scene." Friends and co-workers of the victim, who was in 30s, were alarmed when he hadn't shown up for work for a few days. So they asked his building super to check his apartment. The super, from the fire escape, peered in the man's apartment and saw the body in the 6th floor apartment. An 85-year-old neighbor told WCBS 2, "I feel sick, I feel sick. He was such a nice young fellow. Clean. And you should have seen the apartment, how he fixed it, with everything new," and added to the Daily News, "He was like a son to me." The News reports that the building's fire escapes are being investigated for clues. more ›

Jacob Chubalashvili was arraigned yesterday on charges including second-degree manslaughter for crashing into an Acura, killing its two passengers immediately in Forest Hills on Tuesday morning. The Queens DA's office released some of the 17-year-old unlicensed driver's statements:

[On the morning of August 5] Chubalashvili said, “I just took the car, I didn’t have permission to take it. I smoked some marijuana before I took the car... I remember taking the car, it’s a Mercedes and jetting down the road and the next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital.” more ›

It turns out that the driver of a Mercedes Benz had barreled through a red light on the Grand Central Parkway yesterday when it hit the Acura, killing the Acura's two passengers. And further, the driver did not have a license and had been smoking marijuana. more ›

It's a walk-up, but the price is right. City squirrels are enjoying the goodwill of concerned citizens and the Parks Dept., who cooperated to install squirrel houses in City Hall Park. Mark Garvin had five of the boxes, which measure about a foot around, built with soft pine for several hundred dollars a piece--city real estate insanity extends to the trees! more ›

At the Ethnic Market highlights international specialty foods and ingredients you're very unlikely to find at your local Gristedes. more ›

A former math teacher at MS 190 in Forest Hills was arrested for child endangerment after allegedly sending former and present male students lewd instant messages. Bradley Dieffenbacher, 33, of Long Island, had worked at MS 190 since 2000 until his resignation on February 14, when investigators confronted him. more ›

Three and a half months after Queens orthodontist Daniel Malakov was gunned down at a Queens playground in front of his young daughter, his estranged wife was arrested for his murder. Dr. Mazoltuv Borukhova was charged with murder and conspiracy and taken to a precinct house from her Forest Hills home. Malakov's mother told the Daily News, "They're dirty...her whole family, mother, sisters, all of them are animals. They committed such a dirty act, and I ask God for them to get everything they did to me, so that it would come back to them from God." more ›

Our favorite bespectacled WNBC political reporter was beaten and robbed in the West Village last night! Naturally, WNBC has the scoop. Apparently Jay DeDapper, who had finished reporting on the Democratic debate for the 11PM newscast, stopped at a pizzeria on his way home.

After he left the restaurant, three people jumped him, hitting him on the head and kicking him, according to authorities. more ›

When the mercury broke the 60-degree mark on Tuesday, Gothamist immediately began obsessing about frozen confections. Rest assured, the irony of the situation wasn't lost on us. If anyone offered us an ice cream cone during the recent cold snap that saw temps in the teens, things might have gotten ugly. more ›

It would seem that the area around Rego Park and Forest Hills that we like to call Rego Parkistan could scarcely support another kosher kebab joint given how ubiquitous these restaurants specializing in Uzbeki cuisine have become. By our reckoning there at least seven of these spots proffering swordlike skewers laden with lamb, chicken and beef along with various Central Asian salads and meat pies. What’s more, with exception of a few that offer such... more ›

An Avis truck exploded at 64th Road and 108th Street in Queens, injuring one person and damaging windows in surrounding buildings. The box truck was parked behind some businesses and blew up around 8AM. At first, residents were concerned it might be some sort of attack, but it seems that a propane gas-barbecue inside the truck ignited, causing the explosion. And authorities say the vehicle was a catering truck. WCBS 2 has video of the... more ›