Photo credit: sniderscion Torontoist spent its week uncovering who was behind mysterious ads for a drug called "Obay" that popped up across the country (Scientology? Frank Shepard Fairey?), first tracing them to an advocacy group called Colleges Ontario and then confirming their suspicions a few days later.Phillyist learned how to put on a puppet show – it's not as easy as you might think!Shanghaiist discovers that the average starting monthly pay for fresh graduates......

On Sunday afternoon, the fourth day of the Lunar Year, the streets and restaurants of Flushing's Chinatown were packed with families celebrating the Year of the Rat. In case you're wondering, that headline – like many of the Chinese people in Flushing – is Mandarin. It translates roughly to "Congratulations and best wishes for a prosperous New Year." Even though it was already 1:30 p.m., the urge for dim sum was all-powerful, so we're......

Maybe you've received a flier to see a show at Radio City Music Hall called Chinese New Year Splendor, which is promoted as a holiday celebration of China’s diverse cultural riches. But mixed within the traditional Mongolian dancing, orchestral music and Buddhist parables are dramatizations of the Chinese government’s oppression of Falun Gong, a qigong-based spiritual practice that is banned in China. And the show’s political content is prompting audiences to walk out by......

It's time for the Lunar New Year, which starts February 7th and lasts for 14 days, and this year is the Year of the Rat, 4706. Sure, there are plenty of things to do to celebrate the holiday, but to us, it means one thing -- a new year banquet. We've found a few places that are offering banquets in honor of the Year of the Rat, including variations of traditional Chinese Lunar New Year......

A veteran of Nobu and Ruby Foo’s, Chris Cheung was hired 5 months ago to replace Patricia Yeo at Monkey Bar, the red satin and black lacquer midtown institution known primarily for its, well, monkey theme. In an effort to reemphasize the food quotient of the restaurant, the 38 year-old chef maintains an inventory of global tastes and reassembles them using the template of traditional Chinese food: The curly fries, for example, that come with......

This weekend marks the start of many pre-Lunar New Year Festivities in the city. The New Year begins on February 7 (more information here), and there will be the firecracker ceremony and cultural festival in Chatham Square on that day, plus the Lunar New Year Parade and Festival in Chinatown on February 10. There is also a Lunar New Year Parade in Flushing on February 9. Today through Monday, the Museum of Chinese in America......

It’s rare when a book causes the sudden desire to collect large quantities of AP flour, unsalted butter and sugar, but that’s what Greg Patent’s A Baker’s Odyssey might do to you. Other traditional bake-books operate within the wholly confined orbit of strudel and streusels; A Baker’s Odyssey has strudels galore but is also about forgotten or esoteric American immigrant recipes, so it also covers kulich and chin chin cookies, shoofly pie and puran poori.......

There's an amusing NY Times story about many Chinese adoptees turning 13 and having bat mitzvahs, in keeping with their Jewish families' traditions. There's video and a slideshow of Cecelia Nealon-Shapiro's preparation and bat mitzvah activities. It's an article about the melting pot that is New York and the oddness of having a variety of strong influences. Well, it's odd to everyone else, maybe. From the NY Times:Yet for Cece, as everyone calls Cecelia, and......

If you break down the numbers, the MTA pays an average of $2,000 to escort homeless people from the subways; in related news, Camp Laguardia, the biggest shelter to serve NYC, is being closed The Brooklyn Bridge Park could actually cost $300 million - not the $150 million budgeted - to develop Yesterday, a water main broke in Central Park, causing flooding to the whole 96th Street Transverse Queens is great, except when you're......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: An unusual odor in the Bronx, two pedestrians struck (one in Manhattan, a fatal one in the Bronx), and three alarm fire at a tire yard in Brooklyn The Department of Education will reinstate 17 bus routes, finally realizing that giving 5-year-olds MetroCards is a very mean lesson We're so with East Village Idiot on this one: Dear Two Girls Who Work in My Building, Why did you feel......

Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: A truck vs. building in Staten Island, a hazmat situation in Queens and a child was stuck in an elevator in Times SquareThe 50 day protest over the Sean Bell shooting ends today - his family and friends held a daily rally, one day for each bullet fired by the police copyranter dares you to put some sizzle on your wrist with a bacon wristband The down side of......

Yesterday, thousands were in Chinatown to ring in the Year 4705. The Year of the Pig is a very good year, according to the Chinese astrology, lots of prosperity and good luck. There are a bunch of great Lunar New Year photographs. AKinloch on Flickr took the photograph above of a red lion dancing. LW Lens has a nice Flickr set of yesterday's festivities, with lots of crowd shots like the one above. And......

While Chinatown's annual Chinese New Year Parade won't be until next weekend, there are still plenty of activities to celebrate the year 4705. If you're heading to Chinatown tomorrow (New Year's Day), be sure to head over to Chatham Square (the intersection of Bowery, Mott and East Broadway) for the New Year’s Day Firecracker Ceremony & Cultural Festival. For the first time since the city banned fireworks (and firecrackers), there will be real firecrackers......

It's the Lunar New Year this weekend, the first day of 4705 being this Sunday. The Year of the Pig is a very good year - pigs are fat and round, which means a prosperous and benevolent year. Some even think it's a good year to have babies, too! Chinatown will be celebrating the Year of the Pig this weekend and for the next few weeks. There's the Flower Market at Columbus Park today......

February 11: Second New Indian Dinner - A Benefit for Kids with Cameras Tabla is proud to present a multi-course dinner prepared by several of the world’s leading New Indian chefs, including: Maneet Chauhan, Vermilion, Chicago; Melissa Walnock, Pastry Chef, Tabla, New York City; Vikram Garg, IndeBleu, Washington, DC; Kirti Pant, Junnoon, Palo Alto; Hemant Oberoi, Taj Luxury Hotels; Mumbai, India; and Floyd Cardoz, Tabla, New York City. The dinner is a benefit for Kids......

We don't know about you, but it's friggin cold out there. Well, not for some of you. It seems as though places that are supposed to be cold are warm and places that are supposed to be warm are cold. Or maybe that's just us. Either way, we're freezing. Austinist said goodbye to their co-editor (sell-out) and played rumor monger ">on the SXSW lineup. And when dozens of dead birds littered downtown Austin, it's......

Ooh - the State Assembly has passed a bill doublnig the number of red-light cameras in the city. Red light cameras record who has been running red lights, and Assembly Ivan Lafayette of Queens explains, "As soon as you put a red-light camera in at an intersection, the number of collisions there will drop by 70% in a matter of months. The bill will double the current number of cameras to 100 and could generate......

You know it's summer when the Mayor, Fire Commissioner, and Police Commissioner hold a press conference to remind New Yorkers that the city has a "zero tolerance policy" when it comes to fireworks. Against a colorful display of contraband materials, the Mayor said, "If you are caught using fireworks, we can and we will arrest you. If you are caught selling fireworks, we can and will shut down your business and starting this year, if......

The Notorious MSG, Original Chinatown Bad Boys...

Of all the borough presidents to get a risque fortune cookie, of course it would be Brooklyn Beep Marty Markowitz. At a Chinese New Year feast at Ming Gee restaurant, the fortune cookies fortunes were apparently very naughty. The Daily News didn't reprint any of them, except "One good [expletive] deserves another," and though the restaurant received the special, proper-for-public-event fortunes from Dai Hing Lee earlier (with gems like "Brooklyn: In your face and in......

Yesterday's Chinese New Year Parade brought out revelers of all colors - and species. As you can see from various photographs, dogs were celebrated, this being their year and all. While Gothamist loved seeing dogs wearing traditional Chinese dress (just $25.99!), we wonder if dogs really like to wear dresses and jackets like this. If any dog owners have put a qi pao on their dog, let us know, because it seems difficult. And......

Hey, happy Chinese New Year, everyone! Time to drive out the old spirits of the past year and welcome the good spirits of the new year. The Chinese do this with explosions and fireworks; we'll do it rock-style, with extremely loud noises. Such as: The week starts out with a bang on Monday, with the magically delicious, occasionally unsettling experimental rock of Deerhoof (at left) at Bowery. Instead of traditional opening bands, the show will......

One of the best things about Chinese New Year is how there is always great food to eat. And, unlike a western New Year's Eve, you don't usually end up with a hangover the next day. Sometimes, you will get lucky with Chinese New Year, but in the form of a lucky red envelope. Over the weekend, Gothamist gathered with our family for some delicious eating. Pictured above are "lion's head" meatballs, a whole......

This Sunday will make the new lunar year, the year 4704, for many Asian cultures, and Chinatown will be hopping. And why not, as it's nice to have another new year when you can (you can start going to gym again religiously - we know you pooped out after four days!). Here are events happening in Chinatown, from Explore Chinatown:3rd Annual Lunar New Year Flower Market Friday, January 27th, Noon - 10:00 p.m. Saturday,......

According to our trusty informants at Gothamist Contribute, the maple sugar smell returned for a fourth time last night:The maple syrup smell is a Canadian conspiracy to get us to buy more maple syrup! January 27, 2006 12:31 AM i smell it on 118th street!! January 27, 2006 12:22 AM The syrup smell is very strong near La Guardia as well. This is really freaking me out. January 26, 2006 11:26 PM cpw at 88th-check......

- With friends like these: A Staten Island man did some reno work on the bathroom of a friend in Long Island - and installed a camera to watch her (ew ew ew) - Meg Ryan is adopting a Chinese baby - she's really getting into the spirit of celebrating Chinese New Year! - The NY Sun looks at Arquitectonica's addition to the Bronx Museum of the Arts - An elderly woman was killed......

Has anyone taken pictures of the festively lit-up Brooklyn Borough Hall, as featured in the NY Times? Gothamist is curious, because we have sort of mixed feelings on multi-colored displays. On one hand, they are beautiful atop the Empire State Building or in Dyker Heights. On the other hand, they remind us of what the Murray Street townhouse used for MTV's Miss Seventeen looked from the outside during filming - like a club. Brooklyn Borough......

Police busted a cock-fighting ring in the Bronx last night. A policeman was tipped off after seeing a man carry a fighting cock outside the house, and the ASPCA was called in after the policeman saw 25 roosters in the basement. Also among the evidence: Syringes, antibiotics, and vitamins, all things used to pump up roosters. And cock fighting is illegal in NYC. Gothamist has seen our share of Animal Precinct, and those roosters look......

It's Chinese (and many other kinds of) New Year, and Asians all over the world are partying like it's 4703. Gothamist urges you to do the same this Year of the Rooster - just head to Chinatown, eat a lot of food and you're pretty much covered. There will be a firecracker ceremony (to scare away the evil spirits) today at 2PM, and a parade this Sunday. On both days, you'll see lion dancers......

It's tax-free shopping week for clothing and shoes under $110! Gothamist's tax-free shopping suggestions include stocking up on winter hats, gloves and scarves; new socks (who doesn't need new socks?); and, for Chinese New Year, which is next Wednesday, February 9, new underwear and pajamas. While the degree of tradition-following varies between people (entire new outfits or just new underwear), Gothamist loves it because it means we get to eat noodles and re-start our non-Chinese......