A few years ago we dipped into the mystery of the New York City-specific expiration date on milk cartons, but what about our bread? Assuming you buy loaves at the market and not the bakery, you know the bags usually contain a sell-by date. But there's also a way of telling how long they've been sitting on the shelf. Wisebread has a breakdown of "the bread code," which is really quite simple! You know the hard plastic things that hold the bags together? The color will tell you which day of the week the loaf was baked on (and twist ties generally follow the same color code)—really, Snopes confirms! Here's what you need to remember: more ›

Last month Governor Paterson signed legislation that required illegally converted loft buildings (think 475 Kent) to get up to code. According to the Brooklyn Paper, it was "designed to protect tenants in illegally occupied manufacturing buildings from landlord harassment and rental hikes, but would not prevent evictions if the building itself has significant safety violations"—it's known as the Loft Law. more ›

On Thursday night, the FBI raided six locations in Queens and on Long Island that the agency believes supplies drugs to street gangs on Long Island. Newsday reports, "The arrests were the first phase in a long-term operation aimed at breaking up gangs, such as the Bloods and the Crips, by eventually charging members with drug offenses that carry long-term prison sentences." An FBI agent explained that the suspects would use a code—which was originally developed by the Five-Percenters (the suspects were not Five-Percenters)—that substituted numbers with words: "In the code, the number three, for example, stood for the word 'understanding' and the number six for 'equality.' So when the suspects said 'understanding' and 'equality' together, they were saying a kilo of cocaine cost $36,000," according to the agent. Four people were arrested, all pleaded not guilty to drug distribution charges and all were held without bail. more ›

Last week the NY Times' House & Garden section took a look at the mysteries planted by an architect in a ritzy Fifth Avenue apartment. This week, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety report that Paramount has purchased the rights to the article for a feature to be produced by J.J. Abrams. Writers Maya Forbes and Wally Wolodarsky have already been hired to adapt the piece into a film. more ›