The 26-year-old Yale graduate who walked around Times Square naked on Thursday spoke to the NY Post, which made him its cover boy, about his experience. Josh Drimmer denied that it was a stunt and said - from his hospital bed at Bellevue - "It was an extreme panic attack brought on by days of not sleeping...I'm all right. Tell everyone I'm OK. I had a bad day." Good to know that Drimmer is better,......

One reason for the unpredictability of a hurricane is that the storm gets big enough to perturb its surrounding environment. When that happens you get a contest of equals in the atmosphere, the tropical system can start to deform the atmospheric around it, and the outcome is uncertain. That didn't happen with relatively weak Tropical Depression Gabrielle. She briefly intensified to tropical storm status, but weakening after touching the Carolina coast she never had the......

What a wild weekend for area beaches! On Saturday, a shark washed up at Rockaway Beach. Yesterday, a bunch of medical waste and trash was swept in onto the Jersey shore, causing beach closures. The beaches were reopened this morning, but would you really want to go back after "syringes, tampon applicators, gauze and other debris" were found? NJ environmental officials aren't sure where the junk came from, but they are investigating. The NRDC recently......

Happy Labor Day! Today, government buildings and post offices, financial markets and banks are all closed. Alternate-side-of-the-street parking is suspended and there is no garbage or recycling collection. Mass transit is running on a Sunday schedule. There a number of events today (though we think that the West Indian American Day Carnival is the best bet) and it's also the last day of the year that city beaches and pools will be open. According to......

That shark that washed up on Rockaway Beach yesterday and briefly caused lifeguards to close the beach was not much of a threat. The shark, which seems to have beached itself, was pushed back into the water by a beachgoer and was seen swimming offshore for about an hour afterwards. WCBS reports that, according to an Animal Department Supervisor at the New York Aquarium, the shark was a thresher shark, not known for attacking......

If you were looking at the Gothamist Newsmap, you might have noticed this alert: "Shark Sighting | Beach 108th St X Ocean Side Queens, NY | 9/1/2007 11:41 a.m." Well, we guess the sharks wanted to make an appearance before the beaches closed for the year! Swimmers were evacuated and the Parks Department closed the beach and bay (for how long, we're not sure). WNBC says the police and Coast Guard are at the......

This Labor Day weekend is not just the unofficial last weekend of summer - it's the official last weekend to enjoy the city's beaches and pools. After Monday, the 14 miles of beaches and 52 outdoor pools (including the Floating Pool - which will be heading to the Bronx for the summer of 2008) will be closed. Parks Commissioner Adrian Benepe says, "There’s no better way for New Yorkers to wrap up the summer than......

Josh Schwartz left the sunny beaches of O.C. to bring his brand of teen drama to the gritty city. His new show, Gossip Girl, will premiere on the CW September 19th, and it's been filming all over town lately. The series, which was gabbed about in The Observer recently, is based on the young-adult books of the same name and puts the spotlight on "the struggle for social supremacy among teens from both sides of......

Looks like New York State beaches have become just as dirty as the thoughts you have while lying there sunning yourselves (and we're not just talking about hypodermic needles). A new report from the NRDC says there's been a serious rise in the number of health-related advisories and beach closings thanks to pollution. New York beaches experienced over 1200 days of closings and advisories last year (that's up from about 830 in 2005). You can......

Jill Cunniff keeps a blog (a "MamaLog") about being a mom and a musician in New York, but you probably know her best as the lead singer and bass player of early-90s band Luscious Jackson. The band broke up in 2000, but Jill is still creating and performing music - all while being a mom, a wife, and doing her part to clean up New York's beaches. This weekend she'll perform at the Mermaid Parade......

THEATER: Gertrude Stein is regarded as an avant-garde intellectual whose adventurous prose has long overshadowed her plays – despite her Broadway hit Four Saints in Three Acts. (Who could forget?) A crack team of downtown experimental theater types are now hoisting six of Stein’s one-acts out of obscurity with a production in the East Village. The evening, irresistibly dubbed Steinese Takeout, boldly embraces Stein’s radicalism and runs with it. How radical are these plays? “How......

It's a flashback to all the stories of hypodermic needles washing up on shores: Over the weekend, a 7-year-old girl was jabbed by an old needle on Staten Island's South Beach. The previous week, a woman at S.I.'s Midland Beach was jabbed by a needle when she was sitting on a sheet. Little Sayyidah Johnson told WABC 7 what happened: "I was playing with my buckets, scooping up sand and making sand castles. I put......

We hope we didn't post this too late, because there are some rules if you're heading to the beach, including some that could save your life. If you're heading to Surf City on the Jersey Shore, do not dig too vigorously, because deposited explosives there could react badly to shovels. If one's in Belmar, obscene pictures drawn in the sand are frowned upon; no word on what the legal status of frowny pictures are. And......

THEATER: A revival of Patrick Hamilton’s thriller Gaslight has just begun at Irish Rep; some may remember the award-winning 1944 film version starring Ingrid Bergman and Angela Lansbury. The chilling study in domestic domination to the max concerns a diabolical husband who, not satisfied in exploiting his wife’s savings to buy their house, plots her murder. But while he’s out the police inspector comes in to warn the poor bride that her husband is suspected......

Now we know what happened to the NYPD's 2003 pilot program to have some of its officers use Segways: The batteries (which were eventually recalled) would make the entire Segway stop when they were dead, so officers were fall off. Now, the NYPD has decided the newer models are up to snuff and will make like it's 2003 by having 10 Segways patrol various parts of the city starting today. The NYPD officers aboard Segways......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a cyclist struck on Fresh Meadow Lane and 67th Ave. in Queens, a water rescue north of the GW Bridge in Manhahattan, and someone fatally jumped from a building on West 15th St. in Manhattan. The NYPD will boost efforts to get citizens to respect their authority by mounting Big Wheels Segways at beaches and parks this summer. Satellite radio duo Opie and Anthony have been suspended for laughing......

Four months after the opening of three much mulled-over Robert Moses exhibitions, the debate over his legacy shows no signs of waning. Yesterday’s NY Times delved yet again into the morass, this time wondering whether the two perspectives are simply creatures of their cultural moments – a city embroiled in decay vs. a city experiencing a growth spurt. Here’s Power Broker author Robert Caro’s take: “I understand each age looks through its own prism,”......

There's two majorly horrific films coming out this weekend, though only some of the frights are intentional. Gaspard Ulliel seemed like such a nice boy in A Very Long Engagement, but that was before he decided to take on the psycho killer character Hannibal Lecter in the prequel, Hannibal Rising. Apparently in this installment of the series we'll find out what led the Doctor to become a creepy dilettante with a taste for fava beans,......

Gothamist doesn't make it out to Long Island very often, but last Saturday we went to Adventureland in Farmingdale to help judge Long Island's best pizza. The nominees were submitted and voted on by users of LongIsland.com with the top five vote-getters participating in the finals on Saturday. The different types of pizza that the judges sampled were regular, Sicilian, marinara, grandma, and specialty. While a marinara pizza may be self explanatory (it's all......

Today marks the seventh, and last, consecutive day of rain. It was a good run –3.31 inches fell in Central Park, but the streak itself falls well short of biblical standards. There's still enough moisture around to keep a few clouds in the sky today, but the threat of rain, and that stupid stationary front, have disappeared. Somewhat sunny and mild weather tomorrow will bring a little weather variety into our lives. Enjoy the sun......

Former Presidential royalty and all-time White House hottie JFK had his share of medical problems lurking just below the surface of that winning smile. One illness plaguing him was Addison’s Disease, a symptom of which involves the build up of a substance that darkened his skin – hence old Jack’s year-round tan and his ability to make middle-aged Dems swoon even today. In pursuit of bronzed bodies of their own, Americans have been hitting the......

Gotta love summer -- cold beer, beaches, summer flings and, of course, barbecue. Another 'cue festival is upon us -- this time it's BBQ NYC on August 26th. We're giving you some advance warning on this one because spots are going quickly. For $40, you get to hang out on Ward's Island for all you can eat BBQ, and 5 beer/wine tickets. This year's theme is "A Celebration of Texas BBQ," featuring slow smoked cow,......

Hello and welcome to New York City. Today I'd like to introduce you to one of our city's crown jewels: the subway. A glorious municipal means of transport the subway and its siblings the bus and the ferry, can take you almost everywhere in Gotham. Literally from the canyons of Wall Street to the beaches of Rockaway all for the low, low price of $2.00 - even lower if you ride enough and purchase......

This has been a rough week for your -ist pals, though you wouldn't know it from the great posts all over the network. Plagued with server problems, our tech team (led by the great Neil Epstein) toiled around the clock to solve the glitches as they arose. Seriously, we've said, typed, and thought the phrase "server problems" more in the past week than we have for the last 35 years combined. Why not say it......

It's hot, humid, and I want to go to the beach. What are my options? Well, Gateway National Recreation Area is right in our neck of the woods, extending in three New York City boroughs and into northern New Jersey. It is a good place to start your quest for the perfect patch of sand and cooling waters. Queens: Jacob Riis Park 2 to Flatbush Ave., Q35 Bus to Riis Beach Staten Island: Great Kills......

Rockaway, Queens. Just hearing its name makes us smile. Some of our happiest high school memories involve sitting on its beaches looking out at the Atlantic, content in the knowledge that we were still in the City and that Manhattan was but an A train away. But will it always be? That's the question posed by today's News in a story that might as well have been written by Chicken Little. Short answer: For......

The last weekend of spring promises to be sunny and hot. According to the Weather Service temperatures should max out around 90 tomorrow and the mid-90s on Sunday. Central Park's record high for June 19th is 98. We probably won't get that warm but we'll come close. The Weather Channel thinks we'll only get up to 90 on Sunday. Where's a good place to cool off? For natural cooling the south-facing beaches will be your......

Tropical depression Alberto is sort of affecting the weather here today. The storm itself will stay well to our south. It is over North Carolina at the moment and is expected to head out to sea later today. The high clouds overhead originated with Alberto and will keep temperatures down into the mid-70s today and tomorrow. Mix that tropical moisture with an upper-level disturbance and we're likely to see a thunderstorm or two pop up......

- Ruh roh. Several subway lines are experiencing problems because of the heavy rain. From the MTA: Due to weather conditions, E, F and R service is currently suspended in Queens. V service is suspended in both directions. 2 and 3 service has resumed with delays. 4, 5 and 6 service has resumed with delays. There is no 1 service south of Chambers Street. - The angry ex-member of a commune knew when and......

Ooh, could it be - a beach along the Hudson River? State officials and environmental groups are interested in creating a beach on the West Side, near the Meatpacking District, with the idea that people would actually swim in the Hudson. Currently, there's a sanitation depot where the trucks rae parked. One person was skeptical, telling the AP, "Haven't they found bodies out here? Who would jump in there?" Well, that's the East River, but,......