Today is President's Day, the federal holiday celebrating the birthdays of George Washington (born February 22, 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809). The NY Times, which refers to the day as Washington's Day, notes the closings today—government offices, post offices (but the main branch on Eighth Avenue is open), schools, no sanitation pickup, financial markets—plus the fact that NYC subways and buses are on a Saturday schedule (the LIRR is on a holiday/weekend schedule while Metro-North is on a Saturday schedule). Yes, some people heading to work today got the rude awakening that the F was running along the A line between West 4th Street and Jay Street/MetroTech. more ›

The 18-year-old political science major was hauled off in cuffs in front of his team members and charged yesterday with taking 21-23 letters, hawking some of them off across borders. The stolen set includes correspondences sent to Methodist leaders by Abe Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelet and Madame Chiang Kai-Shek, reports the Star Ledger. more ›

Abraham Lincoln is so totally "in" these days, so some teenagers attending Abraham Lincoln High School teamed up with the with New York Historical Society to pay homage to the 16th President inside of Barneys Madison Avenue windows. A full set of the display can be seen here, where it's noted the kid's "original portraits may be purchased for $100 each," and are going fast (though none of them seem to include the famous stovepipe hat!). more ›

The New York Historical Society has brought a couple of paintings out to the streets. The mini installation of sorts is comprised of their portraits (replicas, of course) of Abraham Lincoln and Peter Cooper; both are currently on display at the Astor Place Triangle. more ›

Today is a federal holiday honoring the birthday of first president George Washington. Washington was actually born on February 22, but in 1971, the holiday was "shifted to the third Monday in February, by the Uniform Monday Act" (per Wikipedia). Given that Abraham Lincoln's birthday is February 12, some state governments call the holiday "President's Day." And then the marketers got involved, making this day for sales as well and many presidents in one fell swoop. more ›

We hope all of you, whether you have stayed in the city or have traveled to spend the holiday with loved ones, have a happy and safe Thanksgiving. While, for many people, Thanksgiving is about the bounty of food, football games, or the start of the holiday shopping season, it's also a good opportunity to appreciate your life. The History Channel has an extensive website about the history of Thanksgiving (with video). Scholastic's school-children-targeted... more ›

Mayor Bloomberg is back from London, just in time to deliver an address at Cooper Union while the world's media is milling about NYC for the U.N.'s General Assembly. Bloomberg will be appearing as part of a panel near Astor Place to discuss national policy matters. According to The New York Sun, an online site is attracting a growing number of supporters to draft Mayor Bloomberg as a third party candidate in the 2008 Presidential election. Bloomberg resigned from the Republican Party in June, ending a five-year affiliation that allowed him to win consecutive elections for mayoral office without slogging through a Democratic primary race. more ›

City schoolkids are woeful underperformers when it comes to taking a statewide history exam. Just over a quarter proved capable of passing an 8th grade exam that covered the U.S. Constitution, major wars the U.S. has fought in, and native cultures. The passing average for the rest of the state was 55%, which is hardly impressive, but twice as good as city kids' scores. We sympathize with the 2006 test takers, because we tried to take the test and quickly became incredibly bored around the time we reached question #7, which reduced an interesting subject to a stultifying two-tone diagram. more ›

The police are still trying to understand what happened during yesterday's morning stabbing of a 16-year-old student. Mark Tyrell, who attends Chelsea Career and Technical high, was stabbed repeatedly on East 14th Street after emerging from the Union Square subway station. Police believe the incident started on the subway platform when Tyrell ran into some people. When Tyrell was chased out, he was attacked outside a pizzeria, where an employee told the NY Times, "One of them grabbed a screwdriver or a nail or something and started hitting him." more ›

Today, many businesses are closed in honor of President's Day. Wall Street is closed, as are banks, government offices and schools. There's no regular garbage pickup, but the Department of Sanitation will be picking up garbage that has been stranded due to last week's storm. more ›

VINYL SALE: If you're looking for some rare vinyl, you might want to check out this monthly event: Shakey's Record Fair. A meatpacking district locale seems...a little off, but as FreeNYC points out, if you're "looking for that super rare old school funktified 7"...Shakey's Record Fair is probably the only place you'll find it." more ›

Apparently some kids chalked the cube at Astor Place yesterday and got arrested. Here's the account from Gothamist Contribute: more ›

Chris Genoa, author, Foop! more ›

Sylka and John, Flag Makers more ›

When Tom Brokaw reported that White House officials said that many of the images from President Bush's speech last night, aboard the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln, would appear in re-election commercials, it became clear that's what this speech was: Ostensibly to talk about Iraq, but really the first stump speech Bush is giving. And the setting alone was artful and dramatic. Forget the speech, his Bush's handlers and the Republican party seized an awesome moment: Flying onto the aircraft carrier in a jet ("helping" fly, natch), walking out the expanse of the deck on a beautiful clear day past sailors standing up tall, and giving a speech in front of cheering men and women who seemed to appreciate him. It's the best politcal propaganda Gothamist has seen in a while, and that's frightening though visually stunning. more ›