Results tagged “ask”

Johnny Podres died last night in a hospital in upstate New York at the age of 75. He'd been suffering from serious medical problems for some time. In 1955, Podres ensured himself a place in Brooklyn and baseball history as a young left-hander who pitched the Dodgers to their only World Series Championship while in Brooklyn, and he did it against the hated Yankees.

MOVIE: The monthly "Monday Nights with Oscar" screens teenage screamfest Carrie tonight. Was anything redacted from this Brian DePalma flick? Ask him yourself, he'll be on hand to discuss the 1976 classic he directed.

After almost 15 years on the air, consumer reporter Asa Aarons was let go Friday by WNBC in the latest of the NBC 2.0 cuts. In an e-mail to TV Spy, Aarons said the parting was “amicable” and that he was told that "with NBC 2.0 budget cuts there is no longer room for a full time consumer reporter."

With the buzz about the 248 McKibbin Street MySpace page organizing comments about its bedbug infestation, we thought it would be a good time to visit the Bedbug City Map. The map relies on reported bedbug incidents, which are mapped by the intensity of the infestation as well - and 248 McKibbin is at the red "Help!" level.

Mayor Bloomberg unveiled a new campaign, Just Ask The Locals, "the City's first-ever five-borough marketing and advertising campaign to make visitors feel more welcome, thank them for visiting, and help them navigate New York City." The Mayor made the announcement at the new American Airlines terminal at JFK and said, "New Yorkers have always been welcoming and friendly, but not enough people around the world know it. So now we're going the extra mile to make visitors feel even more at home by offering a helpful piece of advice, an insider's tip, or just a friendly smile as they explore and enjoy all the wonderful attractions here in our City."

On the edge of Middle Village sits Uvarara Vineria and Ristoro, a charming family-owned wine bar that looks and feels like it should be in the middle of an Italian village instead of Queens. This is due to the efforts of the Iadicicco's who spent nine months converting what had been a tailor shop with dowdy green walls into a cozy space with exposed brick and a dining area whose four rooms each have a different ceiling. Thankfully they did not have to do much work on the exterior. The building itself has many of the architectural elements of nearby St. John's cemetery. Ask about the renovation and in short order, you'll be shown a photo album that chronicles the family's labor of love.

In their quest to take over New York, Bowery Presents is opening yet another venue! Ask just about anyone (and we have) and they'll say that the Bowery Ballroom is their favorite place to see and/or play music - so who better to open even more spaces than the creators of that one?

Ask any kid who grew up on Long Island, and they could easily rattle off their favorite Entenmann’s desserts. For us, no contest, the Devil’s Food Crumb Donuts are as good as it gets. We’d eat off all the chocolate, sugar-coated crumbs first, one by one, and then save the naked donut for our final conquest. It somehow felt like two desserts that way. Maybe it’s all those fond childhood memories of sugar highs mixed with a dash of indulgence, but when we heard that the Entenmann family owned a vineyard on the North Fork of Long Island, we threw on our elastic waist pants and headed east.

Yesterday, an out-of-control car crashed into a crowded Popeye's Fried Chicken restaurant at Frederick Douglas Boulevard and 145th Street. Police say that the driver had a leg cramp, which made he "stomp on the gas pedal."

The gang at Flatbush Farm hosts a barbecue the last weekend of every month, including this one. Feast on grilled clams, barbecued chicken legs and ribs, pulled pork sandwiches, veggie chili and more. 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. 76 Saint Marks Avenue, Brooklyn. Call 718-622-3276 for details.

Two weeks ago, our friends over at Bostonist posted a very scary map plotting more than 50 Dunkin Donuts locations within a five-mile radius of their city’s Downtown Crossing. The actual number of New York Dunkin Donuts locations, parameters widened to include Port Authority based kiosks and airport locations, is likely to be more than a baker’s dozen for any given five mile radius. So yeah, sure, it seems America runs on Dunkin and all that, spokespersonality Rachael Ray is somewhere yummo-ing™ with a Vanilla Bean Coolatta®, and the donut war is over. Resistance is futile. Your donuts will herewith be stale and taste like cake mix.

101-year-old mugging victim Rose Morat wasn't intimidated by the thug who attacked her in her building last month, so she certainly wasn't going to be intimidated by a gang of press photographers and Mayor Bloomberg. Friday afternoon, the centenarian along with 85-year-old Solange Elizee met with the mayor to discuss what was being done to combat crime against the elderly. By turns Morat was a grandmotherly confidante with the Mayor: ""What’s your next step? Whisper it to me. I’ll tell you if I approve;" a stern schoolteacher, referring to Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who was sitting across the table from her: "Ask the police commissioner whether he is listening so we are all on the same page;" but always a lady, instructing the hovering cameramen and photographers: "You better take a good picture of me." If the police ever catch the man who beat and robbed Morat and Elizee, we are sure that he will rue the day he tangled with New York's toughest 101-year-old woman.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A person was hit by a train at a Penn Station subway, a barricaded perp in the Bronx and large brush fire in Staten Island
• The Village Voice has named its latest editor - Tony Ortega. Let's see how he answers questions about minority hiring!
• Who knew that the Campbell Apartment was once a signalman's office AND a closet where the transit police stored its guns?

First off, congratulations on your refund! We are a firm believer that you should not feel guilty about treating yourself for a year of hard work. However, it's also very important to not overlook some important decisions you can make with this money.

Children living in many city buildings, hankering for a midday snack and sticking their little fingers in between loose floor boards may find a tasty treat: lead paint chips! The Daily News reports today that about 900 of the buildings used to house homeless people, through Bloomberg's Housing Stability Plus program, have been found to violate lead paint regulations. About 700 buildings tested positive for lead paint while another 200 or so were highly suspected of housing the poison. The Department of Housing Services has specifically identified the violating buildings but does not go so far as to point out which particular apartments in those buildings are afflicted.

This weekend's New York Times real estate story for the "New York City real estate is strange" folder was about the extremes that push people out of their apartments which are otherwise quite lovely. We're not talking a change of financial situation, we're talking neighbor who drops-TVs- from-ladders/ plays-very- loud-music/ stomps-around- in-platform-shoes situation.

- "People searching for bedbugs do not know to look along the seams of mattresses, under box springs, behind headboards and picture frames, and even inside alarm clocks and telephones"There are many more, but we were intrigued by the case of Peter Young, whose Ludlow Street apartment was infested. Young slept on an inflatable bed and then a metal cot while the landlord tried to get rid of the bugs to no avail. So Young did what any self-respecting, sick-of-bedbugs tenants would do: He stopped paying rent. A judge ruled in Young's favor, saying, "In this case, the bedbugs did not constitute mere annoyance, but constituted an intolerable condition, notwithstanding the landlord’s efforts to exterminate them," and Young got a rent abatement. Young, who now lives in Brooklyn, told the Times and sleeps on a futon, “Psychologically, I’m afraid of beds. I feel traumatized.”

Everyone loves a secret bar, but what happens when the bouncers might be too...bouncery? Someone who tried to take a picture of the secret bar La Esquina claims he and his girlfriend were assaulted and threatened by the bouncers. One bouncer even yelled, "I will take you around the corner and rape you!"

He said this right before coming out and slapping me several times on the sidewalk and knocking the camera from my hands that I was using to document what had just happened. He also threatened that "in the old days you would be dead!" I can only assume he meant the good old days before a bouncer at The Falls murdered someone and the city passed the Bouncer Control Act* this August.

Continue reading "Photographing a Secret Bar Means a Bruisin' "

- "Not a day goes by that I don't think of Ming. I'm still hurting, hurting everyday." So says the man, three years later, who used to keep a 400-pound-tiger in his Harlem apartment.

Ask a New Yorker what their favorite restaurant is and they're likely to rattle off a list: favorite pizza, favorite burger, favorite bagel, favorite deli. Then there is Queen's Hideaway, whose storefront sits with unassuming ease on the corner of Green & Franklin Streets in Greenpoint. A restaurant with southern hospitality, homegrown flavors, and a gourmet menu fulfills favorite garden, favorite gazpacho, and most likely to stun you with their impressive use of seasonal vegetables.

“There’s a lot of great, ambitious, smart reporters in the newsroom,” Mr. Jamieson said, “but he’s the only reporter I know who actually pitched me a story while I’ve been standing at the urinal in the men’s room.”Hear that, aspiring reporters? Bathroom pitches are a new playing field. The article also notes some issues with Chan and how the Harvard Crimson mafia rules the Metro Section (there's Chan, Jennifer 8. Lee, and Michael Luo!).

- Ask for a nude photograph, and if they wouldn't agree, he would threaten to "plaster the bikini or lingerie shots around their schools unless they complied"Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said, "Students think that because they're on a secure Web site like Facebook that they're safe from online predators. They're not." We cannot wait for Dateline to do a "To Catch a Facebook Predator" show!

Ask.MeFi has been assembling an eclectic guide to "the best alternative/weird/unusual/eye-opening places in Manhattan." Most of the suggestions are actually located in the outer boroughs, but nevermind that. We've pulled out the highlights and linked everything for your browsing pleasure:

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow.

- Deputy mayor under Giuliani says his respiratory illnesses are caused by September 11's toxic air

Real estate disputes are, almost by definition, never pretty and no matter what somebody is going to come out of them looking bad. In the case of the landmarked Starrett-Lehigh Building on 26th street and 11th Avenue the bad looking people would be the buildings owners, 601 West Associates, and one famous tenant whose name starts with "M" and ends with "artha Stewart".

Spring has definitely sprung. This weekend, we couldn't get enough of being outside -- we were yearning for a spot where we could have a few cocktails outdoors, high above the city. Ask and ye shall receive. Urban Daddy gives us a preview of 230 Fifth, billed as the city's largest rooftop bar. Sure, we're excited about the "14,000 square foot luxe terrace of palm trees, wooden benches, and, of course, 360-degree views (including a dead-on stunner of the Empire State building)," but we are much more interested in Zak Pelaccio's food, which will be served there (we learned this from Andrea Strong a few weeks back). His Malaysian street food will be served via dim-sum-style carts that will make their way around the rooftop. We can't wait.