READING: Dave Eggers has delivered two (out of three) great novels, and tonight he reads from last one (which is just out on paperback), What is the What. He'll be at the Strand discussing the book and he'll also give a slideshow presentation from a recent trip he took to Sudan. More info here. Friday // 7pm // Strand Bookstore [828 Broadway] // Free EVENT: We love a good pillow fight, and tonight there's a... more ›

Konichiwa - Japanese retailer Uniqlo has finally opened its flagship SoHo store at 546 Broadway, between Prince and Spring Streets (just a few stores away from Banana Republic and H&M). And it's enormous - and currently pretty crowded with shoppers eager to pick up some moderately priced fall clothing. There's also a contingent of Japanese media, no doubt reporting on the invasion of New York by one of Japan's biggest brands. more ›

Haverford graduate, Parks Department project manager, and Greenpoint resident David Langlieb is under fire for writing an essay about his neighborhood in his alumni magazine. According to the Daily News, the essay, ripe with complaints about the old-school Polish residents and self-deprecation about not being an Ivy League graduate, has incensed the Polish American Congress and Councilman David Yassky, who said, "my eyes pretty much popped out of my head when I read this." more ›

Thank you, Project Runway producers, for all the Michael in tonight's episode! Next time, we hope to see him doing more designing and not just styling or talking down crazy women from ledges. more ›

- Heidi Klum's accent is adorable. Sorry, Claudia Schiffer, Heidi is officially the German model of record in our consciousness. more ›

catchphrase for Project Runway. During last night's Project Runway Banana Republic Challenge, where designers had to pair up in teams and design an outfit that could go from day to night that would eventually be sold at select BR stores, Zulema browbeat partner Kara (thank you, Kara, for having a breakdown that required Zulema to crack that whip!) into working, saying Kara could cry, but that she would have to "cut and cry." "You're gonna cut and cry" - so awesome. more ›

There's an interesting story in the Times about Oliver Stone's September 11 movie that he's currently filming. We had noted previously that it was filming mostly in LA with some exterior work in NYC. Now, with shooting starting in LA, the production wants to pre-empt crazed blogosphere speculation by having the NY Times visit painstakingly recreated World Trade Center wreckage set, by placing photographs of the set in context. And it looks like the nightmare all over again - it's very spooky-looking. According to set designer Jan Roelfs, workers "hand-carved thousands of beams from Styrofoam, molded rubber into countless strands of stand-ins for shredded reinforcing bars, and assembled all of this inside a pit erected atop stacks of cargo containers." The set of the pit will be actual size, and part of the World Trade Center's concourse of stores was rebuilt as well ("complete with period handbags in the Coach storefront, clothing in the Banana Republic windows and shoes from Johnston & Murphy"). more ›

To be perfectly honest, during the daytime we do everything we can to not walk down Broadway, especially Broadway below Houston. We'll take the filth and cobblestones of Crosby over the SoHo shopping crowds any day of the week. But we can say that on the rare occasion that we do find ourselves walking on Broadway we're continually struck by the shear amount of litter that seems to constantly accumulate. That litter is at the center of one of the City section articles in the Times today. Since 1992 the SoHo Partnership has been paying homeless and poor men and women to sweep, shovel and generally keep SoHo clean for the tourists (uh, and the people who "live and work" there). The Partnership pays these workers from fees collected by neighborhood businesses. If all the neighborhood businesses kick in the required money (in the case of the SoHo Partnership the annual fee is a measly $750) then everyone gets clean streets. Which makes sense to us, but apparently a large number of the big-name stores that line the "shopping planet" of Broadway aren't interested in pitching in their less than one grand. more ›

What can you do about lost items from an apartment robbery if you don’t have renter's insurance? My girlfriend's apartment was broken into while she was away. They took her new laptop, messed up her room, and she is pretty shaken up. She called the store where she bought the laptop and the three-year warranty, and they said they couldn't do anything. On top of that, they informed her that since she bought it on a payment plan, she still has to pay off the remaining $800 of the purchase price. Is there anything we can do, if not to get the laptop back or replaced, then to at least ensure she doesn't have to continue paying for a non-existent laptop? I can't do anything about the files and photos she's lost, but hopefully I can help find a way to financially ease the trauma. more ›

Alexandra Bandon, Writer and editor more ›

Other ways you can get rid of holiday gifts: Selling 'em on eBay or donating to the Salvation Army or another cause of your liking. And where oh where is that special online regifting technology? more ›

An Upper West Sider told Newsday, "I wanted to see Whole Foods because I've never seen a real supermarket in New York City." For the love of God: On the upper West Side there's an Associated, that Food Emporium under the Ansonia, and Fairway. There's the Morton Williams on LaGuardia. But you don't need real supermarkets in New York City: We don't need the gas station in front, the ATM, photo developers, or the ugly strip mall trappings. You're not driving, the ATM is at every block, and so are photo developers. And if you want a real supermarket in New York City, there's Pathmark and Key Food and others in Queens, Brooklyn and the Bronx. more ›