Results tagged “christmaseve”

SKATE: Free skating at Bryant Park just got...more free! Now you can get free rental skates every Wednesday provided you are one of the first 100 people to get over to The Pond Exhibit Area.

Two hit and run drivers were arrested late this week; one through the actions of a horrified but brave bystander and the other through a successful effort by the Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad. Cops arrived at Sergey Satyr's Mill Basin home Thursday to arrest the 20-year-old for the hit-and-run death of 71-year-old Grace Smith of Sheepshead Bay. The Brooklyn Accident Investigation squad used debris from Satyr's Nissan and a partial license plate number to track the suspect down. Satyr allegedly ran down Smith December 21st on Ocean Parkway near Avenue X.

A woman was robbed in her Staten Island home by a man clad in black on Monday morning but authorities do not think it's the Ninja Burglar. A police source told the Staten Island Advance, "There are burglaries committed every day and everybody is wearing black out there."

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an industrial accident on 10th Ave. near 30th St. in Manhattan, a man down an elevator shaft at 50 West 15th St. in Manhattan, and a homicide at Neck Parkway and 42nd Ave. in Queens.
• Not only have investigators found hard drives scrubbed clean of potentially damaging e-mail messages related to Troopergate, the Spitzer administration is refusing to even identify the names of the Internet Service Providers that were used to transmit them.
• There's a new site online for "non-pretentious people who live in Flatbush," or perhaps those who are just interested in the Brooklyn neighborhood.

Television producer Matthew Weiner recently shared his holiday gift horror stories with the Times, relating a sad/funny discovery made by his brother while exchanging a Day-Glo orange sweater given to him by their parents; it turned out they spent $1.00 on the item. Which still doesn’t sound as bad as the gift Weiner got: “a crimson suede Nascar jacket covered with sewn-on patches with emblems of Skoal chewing tobacco and Drakkar Noir cologne. On the back was a huge Budweiser insignia.”

Separate incidents on Christmas Eve leading into Christmas Day across the city have resulted in five murders and six injuries.

Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani spent his Christmas Eve reading Clement Clarke Moore's A Visit from St. Nicholas to children in Harlem and explaining to reporters that's he's cancer-free. Giuliani, whose flu-like symptoms (well, according to his press people) and bad headache have raised questions about the prostate cancer survivor's health, said, "I am perfectly healthy. I don't have cancer."

ART: The Met opens its doors on a Monday for a special Christmas Eve event. They suggest stopping by for the 18th-century Neapolitan Nativity scene Christmas tree, along with some of their special exhibits -- the Age of Rembrandt, Abstract Expressionism and Other Modern Works and their fashion exhibit will stock your stuffing with eye candy.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a ceiling collapse at Franklin Ave. and Union St. in Brooklyn, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Queens Blvd. in Woodhaven, Queens, and an unusual rescue on the south bound tower of the Throgs Neck Bridge in Queens.
• An undercover cop forgot to turn off the wire he was wearing while discussing 11 bags of cocaine he seized in a Brooklyn bust that were never turned in. He was also sure to repeatedly refer to black people using the "N-word." [No link yet, but we saw the story on NY1.]
• The mother of an escaped convict is telling him through the press to keep running, and knows some day he'll be exonerated of his crime. We foresee either a one-armed man eventually brought to justice or subsequent imprisonment in a South American jail.
• Civil disobedience on 5th Avenue. We did not realize this, but the city has offered free vendor licenses to military veterans since the Civil War. Dan Rossi is protesting the curtailment of the practice by parking his hot dog cart right in front of The Metropolitan Museum.
• There's an interesting installation at the Gavin Brown Enterprise on Greenwich St. created by artist Urs Fischer, who's dug a hole in the ground. It is an absolutely enormous hole in the ground.
• Michael Douglas is the new announcer for the NBC Nightly News. Anderson Cooper responds that he would also consider a celebrity announcer, like Fran Drescher, Clint Eastwood, Paul Reubens, or Cher.
• Macy's is going to stay open 24 hours a day until Christmas Eve. Those are going to be some tired elves.
• A siamese cat named Yoda was bludgeoned to death in an Upper East Side doorman building. Sarah Favorite, the girlfriend of Yoda's owner, was arrested and is being charged with aggravated animal cruelty.

With Christmas less than two weeks away, the annual holiday light display is raging through the nights in Dyker Heights, home of TV’s Scott Baio. Every year tens of thousands of people from around the world flock to the outer-borough Brooklyn neighborhood to gawk at the private homes decked out with millions of dazzling lights.

Writer/director Robert Tinnell has sifted through his fond childhood memories of big Italian Christmas gatherings and emerged with a unique fusion of comic book and cookbook called The Feast of the Seven Fishes. Originally a popular internet comic, the humorously fictional book is inspired by the Italian Christmas Eve tradition involving big seafood dinners and lots of red wine. (The book's boisterous familial storyline will also be adapted into a feature length film of the...

Two sidewalk Christmas tree salesman are accusing the "company" they worked for last year of leaving them out in the cold on Christmas Eve, waiting for thousands of dollars in wages that never appeared. The yuletide stiffing apparently was in retribution for either 1) skimming sales revenue, or 2) talking publicly about the shadowy figure who allegedly is the kingpin of sidewalk Christmas trees. Last year, an experienced tree-seller and longtime employee of Kevin...

With the MTA's vote whether to raise subway and bus fares coming in less than three weeks, speculation is running high about what will happen. Even though Governor Spitzer said that the base subway and bus fare will remain $2, unlimited Metrocard fares - which 85% of riders use - will rise. The MTA has insisted the fare hikes are necessary, given projected deficits and upcoming capital construction, but many elected officials believe that the...

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a construction accident on 23rd Ave. in Queens, a child was struck on West Houston and Thompson St. in Manhattan, and shots fired on 29th St. in Brooklyn.
• Going along with a network-wide environmentally conscious theme at NBC this season, the Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center will be decorated with low power-consuming LEDs.
• The flat rate for a single subway fare will remain $2 until 2009. The fares will go up for all riders eventually, but not as much as previously expected. Also, only 15% of riders pay the $2 flat fare and will be spared any expected increase.
• Debbie Almontaser, the former principal of the Brooklyn dual-language school that teaches students Arabic, is suing the city. She maintains that she was forced out of her job under threat of closing the entire school.
• A man, woman, and young girl died in a Suffolk County apartment from carbon monoxide poisoning even though the building had already been condemned. We'll again stress the importance of making sure smoke and CO monitors are operable in your homes.
• If you missed the full display last year, we're sorry to say that the LED decorations around Brooklyn's Prospect Park will not be reinstalled this year. The Gowanus Lounge reports, however, that a Grand Army Plaza installation will be in place at the beginning of December.
• Despite being named Man of the Year by "the press" and making billions of dollars as a press magnate, Mayor Bloomberg finds the media annoying.
• Place those Christmas Eve carrots out for Santa instead of his reindeer, because some are saying that the plump jolly elf is a bad example for kids suffering from childhood obesity. We apparently need a Santa who's ripped and has sixpack abs.

Yesterday, federal prosecutors began their case against two mobsters for the deaths of Thomas and Rose Marie Uva. The Uvas, who were killed on Christmas Eve 1992 in Queens, were known as "Bonnie & Clyde" to mob families after they brazenly robbed mafia hangouts. The robberies were particularly embarrassing to the mob (Thomas Uva would run in with a machine gun, while Rose Marie Uva was in the getaway car), and the Bonanno and Gambino families both tried to claim they killed the couple. However, it was hard for the feds to establish how many robberies the Uvas committed, since the mob didn't report them.

Yesterday's building collapse at an under-renovation building on West 113th Street injured two workers and killed another who was planning on leaving the city on Friday to see his 2 year old son. Richard Joseph, a 33 year old Brooklyn resident, was on 2-month leave from his job as a police officer in the Barbados; he had come to the city in hopes of moving here.

Police believe that the man severely beaten on Christmas Day near the Unisphere in Flushing Meadows Park was part of a string of robberies by the same men. The victim (pictured and still unidentified) in Monday's Christmas attack had been riding his bicycle and is now in critical condition.

NYC from the ESB Looking North, by SupremeKnight1.

A childhood phobia of escalators requires us to update yesterday's story about the 2 year old whose finger was partially severed by an escalator at Macy's Herald Square. The Post reports that 2 year old Michael Grateraux "underwent surgery Sunday night at Bellevue" in an attempt to keep his thumb. Other reports said that Grateraux stuck his thumb while riding an up escalator, but his mother Sandy Lopez tells a different story. From the Post:

Michael, his mom and five siblings [all visiting from Mississippi] were descending on a crowded escalator to the fourth floor when someone fell, knocking the little boy down and causing him to snare his thumb in the moving staircase, Lopez said.

Continue reading "Doctors Try to Save 2 Year Old's Thumb"

At Christmas Mass at the Church of St. Mel in Flushing, Queens, robbers stole a money box with $20,000. The money, collected from three Christmas Eve Masses and the 7:30AM Christmas Mass and meant for church expenses and needy children, was kept in a 100 pound money box. The robbers hit around 9:20AM and witnesses saw men putting the box into an SUV with Vermont license plates. A parishioner did take the license plate number and give it to the police (the SUV belongs to a NYC resident), but it's unclear whether the money will be recovered. From the NY Times:

Continue reading "Fast Track to Hell: Stealing From a Church on Christmas"

If you ever thought that military spending was ill-advised, think again. NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command is tracking Santa with the NORAD Tracks Santa 2006 website. There's a live map of Santa's whereabouts, as well as videos at some places he stops. And how do they do this?

Detecting Santa all starts with the NORAD radar system called the North Warning System. This powerful radar system has 47 installations strung across the northern border of North America. NORAD makes a point of checking the radar closely for indications of Santa Claus leaving the North Pole on Christmas Eve.

Continue reading "Map of the Day: Norad Santa Tracking"

NYC Sunset by Sidewalk Story.

- Pirro might not keep her Senate campaign money after all...

If there was ever a call to donate money to Sumatran Rhinoceros preservation efforts, then none can be as heartbreaking as the NY Times' Christmas Eve story about Rapunzel the Bronx Zoo rhino who was euthanized earlier this week. Apparently, Rapunzel, whose estimated age was 30, about half of which was spent in the Bronx, had trouble moving and breathing this week. This telling of her life was very sweet:

In the summer, she usually stayed outdoors and swam in a pool. In the cold months, she split display time in an indoor exhibit with a pair of Malay tapirs.

Continue reading "The Saddest and Sweetest Rhino Story Ever"

Payard Pâtisserie & Bistro will be hosting a Christmas Eve lunch with a Bûche de Noël tasting. Warm Maine crab with oakwood shiitake, Kalijira rice galette and mushroom broth will begin the meal followed by roasted pheasant breast with leg confit, Hokkaido squash, baby brussel sprouts, apples, sage and black truffle jus. Then, it's on to the Bûches de Noël -- in more than one variety! You can taste the Saumur chestnut version with ginger syrup and candied chestnut cream or the Louvre yule log filled with hazelnut and chocolate mousse with hazelnut dacquoise. If neither of those rock your world, try the White Christmas log filled with white chocolate mousse and Mandarin jelly with crispy layers of white chocolate or the Beaux Art with Cassis mousse, passion fruit cream and sablé Breton. $35 per person, 12 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Call 212-717-5252 for reservations. Payard Patisserie & Bistro, 1032 Lexington Ave.

Marge Kramer, Santa's Elf

My family is going to be in NYC for Christmas, and I would like to take them to a church service on Christmas Eve, which is tradition in my family (we're Lutheran). Is it insane to try to go to St. Patricks? Any idea where I can find a schedule of Christmas Eve services?

Uri Zee and Matthew Deters were busy doling out bowls of delicious, hot soup yesterday when Gothamist stopped by their stand, . Temporarily stationed amongst the many shops at the Union Square Holiday Market, head over before the season ends and there's no soup for you.